Kingdom Hearts 1. Enter Kumei: Narcissist Extraordinaire!

Prequel to When Somebody Loves a Nobody: Naturally frustrated and angry, Kumei is enraged at the thought of having to save the worlds. But when she meets a certain Leonhart, maybe she'll change her mind..?

And the first chapter. Hope you guys like it!

This is going to be my Disclaimer for the rest of the story: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I own nothing but Kumei. And her mother.

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_Water.. Water.. Water.. I hate water. _

What's this? I can walk. Wait. Is the water inside those walls?

What are these? Paintings. Pictures? Blurry. Oh well. I've never really appreciated art, anyway.

Wait.. This is a picture of me.

I wanted to spit at the ground. Ugh, a seven year old me at Destiny Islands. The prison I'm forced to call **home**. I walked through the 'hallway' (whatever it was called), looking at the walls. What else was there to look at but the pictures posted on them? Odd. Why would anybody want to make a whole Louvre _out of my memories? Useless thing I could sure live without. I squinted my eyes as a bright light appeared at the end of the hallway. I didn't know there was a door. It was open, too. If I had known that, I wouldn't have wasted my time burning my eyes looking at the crap on the walls. Anyway, that's not important now. Someone's standing in front of the bright light. Male. Tall. Weird hair. I couldn't see him clearly; the light was blinding me. I dared to look anyway. What was that.. Red hair? No, I think it was brown.. Yes. I think it's brown. Could he help me get out of this place? I walked towards him. I think he was just staring at me, since he wasn't making any motion to move. Although he was smiling. Hm? I looked to my feet. Water..? I looked to the walls. They were leaking! I looked back to the man, and in a second the water was reaching my chest. The hallway seemed to stretch itself, as the man was getting farther and farther out of reach. I tried to run towards him despite the water. He turned around, entering the room beyond. "Wait up!" I shouted, and he looked back, holding his hand out. I _tried _to 'swim', or run as fast as I could, barely able to grab his hand before my lungs burst. I heard him laugh.  
"Gotcha."_

I gasped for air, sitting up on my bed. Dream? Don't know. I looked to the clock in my room. Two in the afternoon. I cursed and got dressed, leaving my room. I went downstairs, only to be greeted by my mother. "Hakumei, Wakka came by looking for you earlier," She said, cleaning the kitchen. "He wanted to play blitzball. He was a little dismayed to find that you were still sleeping." I shrugged slightly in reply as I walked past her. "Too bad." I left the house. I think my mom was yelling something after me, but it probably wasn't important anyway. If she couldn't tell me _what_ I wanted to know, I didn't need to listen to whatever she had to say. I brushed the thoughts away as I saw the Mayor doing his daily check-if-the-town-is-still-okay round. As if anything would happen to this place. I never really put it past him thinking that anything would happen, anyway. Can you believe he thinks I'm some kind of exiled princess? Weirdo. If he couldn't tell me who my father was, he wasn't important. Hmm. I was thinking of going to Lulu's house, but she's probably busy taking care of that sick little moogle. It had the flu, I think. Not that I cared much about it. I guess I was going to the play island today.

I rowed towards the play island, realizing that the brat, the pipsqueak, the prettyboy, the freak, and the loudmouth were here as well. I was tempted to let their boats float away, but decided against it. I had better things to do. I was going to go up the treehouse, when I saw the freak, the loudmouth, and Wakka. "Hey, Kumei!" I sighed, turning around. "Hello, Tidus. What do you want?" Really, what was up with his clothes? Told you he was a little freak. "What're you afraid of?" Okay, what the hell kind of question was that? I answered anyway. "Getting old, I guess." His face scrunched up in confusion. "Getting old? Is that really so scary?" I shrugged, "Whatever." "Kumei!" I sighed again. What now? Wakka ran up to me. "I was looking for you a while ago! Wanna play blitzball?" "No, Wakka." "Aww! Well, I was just wondering, what do you want outta life?" I gave him an odd look, but said, "I want to see rare sights. To get out of here." He nodded, "To see rare sights, huh?" That's what I said. "KUMEI!" I stopped myself from covering my ears. I told you she was a loudmouth. "Yes.. Selphie?" "What's most important to you?" "Okay, what the hell is this, 20 questions?!" "Aw, come on, Kumei, just answer it!" I rolled my eyes. "Being number one, duh." She looked at me with a weird look on her face. "Is being number one such a big deal?"

I snorted at her and left, deciding not to go to the treehouse anymore because I'd probably destroy it out of annoyance for the loudmouth. I walked towards the beach facing the town island and frowned as I saw that the brat and the pipsqueak were actually there. Seems the brat just got up, as the pipsqueak was saying something about him being a bum ."No!" Sora -the brat- shook his head vigorously. "This huge black **thing** swallowed me up! I couldn't breathe, I couldn't- Ow!" He held his head. I rolled my eyes and walked past him. "Still dreaming, brat?" "Sis!" He cheerfully greeted. "Hey Kumei," Kairi -pipsqueak- greeted as well. Why did they insist on greeting me? It annoyed me even more. I sat at Sora's left, but ignored him as he asked something about only getting up now. Now, back to not wasting my time. What was that dream about? Who was that guy? I looked to my feet. Water. I didn't mind drinking or taking a bath, but swimming was an utter no-no. I pulled my feet back. It wasn't a dream. It was a nightmare. I was almost drowned! I couldn't breathe, I couldn't- Ow. I held my head. I hate sudden stings of pain.

"Sis, wanna come along?" The brat asked, snapping me out of my daze. I shot him a glare. "What?" He smiled, "I asked if you wanted to come along with me and Kairi to go to her hometown!" "Whatever, as long as its away from this place." "Yeah, and we an go to all the other worlds around it!" Sora nodded. Kairi giggled, "So what're we all waiting for?" "Hey, aren't you guys forgetting about me?" And the last of the rat pack- the prettyboy. The two turned around to greet him. I only did so to give him an annoyed look. He smirked, "I guess I'm the only one working on the raft." He tossed a log to Sora, but it hit the brat on the head instead. Idiot. The prettyboy looked to the pipsqueak. "And you're just as lazy as he is!" She giggled, "So you noticed." He then looked to me with raised eyebrows. "Wow, the great princess Kumei, actually gracing us with her ever honourable presence. Being a lazy ass now, too, huh?" I stood up, dusting the sand off. "Don't affiliate me with them," I said, walking towards him. "And you're right. You're lucky I'm actually sparing you a passing glance." He glared at me, and I shrugged. "You're wasting your time if you think that's going to affect me. Why not work on the raft?" He grinned, "I'll race you." I looked at him oddly. "You must love to lose." He chuckled, "No. I race to win." "Not against me, prettyboy." "Huh?" The brat asked with a confused look on his face. "You've got to be kidding me!" The pipsqueak exclaimed, but I shook my head, already ready to go. "Go!"

The prettyboy panted, leaning on his knees. I chuckled. "Whatever happened to _I race to win_, hm?" He glared at me. I rested my head on my hands. "No one likes a sour loser. Are we going to work on that raft or not? Not that it wouldn't sink because of your inflated ego." "I could say the same to you." "Then why don't you?" Before he could retort, Kairi started calling my name. Pipsqueak. I walked over to where she was. "What?" "So, can you gather the rest of the supplies?" She asked. "Whatever." I guess she took it as a 'yes'. "Okay, here's what you need to go find: Two logs, one piece of cloth, and one rope. Bring everything back here. If you need help, just ask." I turned to walk away. "I'm counting on you!" I stopped. "Don't. And I wouldn't ask for your help even if my life depended on it." I walked away from her, jumping up to the bridge and walking towards the mini island it connected to. Prettyboy was there, and so was the brat. Seems the latter just lost. I walked past him to Riku. "Let me show you how it's done," I told him, grabbing the pathetic little toy sword on the floor. "And take some pointers, brat. Being affiliated with you is terrible enough already, and you losing to this prettyboy doesn't help."

The prettyboy seemed to growl at this, then lunged at me from behind. I turned around and blocked it. "Tsk tsk tsk, touchy, I see. You'll have to do better than that. If this is your best, then.." "It's not!" Prettyboy interrupted, lunging at me some more. I dodged with effortless ease. I swung the toy, knocking him on his back. I leaned down to whisper, "Doesn't seem like it.." He growled again and suddenly jumped forward, kicking me against the tree. "Sis!" The brat gasped. "Don't interrupt," I hissed. "Don't treat him like that," The prettyboy said, trying stab at me with the toy while I was down. I kicked him back. "I'll do as I wish." "I used to like you, Kumei, but Sora's more important to me now. _Don't do that_." I swung the toy at him and slapped him with it, knocking him on his ass again. I set my foot on his stomach and leaned close once more. "I never cared," I told him. "But I suppose I don't mind being thanked for helping you realize your homosexuality." I stepped away. "I am not-" "Denial is futile," I interrupted, grabbed a log and left. Ruin the prettyboy's day, check. Now I just had to find that crap Kairi wanted me to find.

I handed the crap to Kairi. Well, that was easy. The other log was under the bridge, a piece of cloth was inside the treehouse, and to get the rope I just had to threaten Tidus. Kairi smiled as she took the crap from me. "Tired? Want to call it a day?" "It is a day," I told her, going back to my boat. "Same time tomorrow, okay?" She shouted after me, and I waved my hand at her. "If I feel like it." I walked towards the mini island prettyboy and I fought on, and climbed the weird tree, deciding to take a nap. I was awoken by a bunch of voices. "So, suppose you get to another world. What would you do there?" I heard the pipsqueak ask. "Well, I haven't really thought about it. It's just.. I've always wondered why we're here on this island. If there are any other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one? And suppose there are other worlds.. Then ours is just a little piece of something much greater. So we could have just as easily ended up somewhere else, right?" "I don't know," The brat replied to the prettyboy. "That's why we need to go out there and find out. Just sitting here won't change a thing. It's the same old stuff. So let's go," Prettyboy insisted. I jumped off the tree, facing him. "You've been thinking too much, prettyboy." I shook my head, feigning worry. "And that never works out well for you." He glared at me. I closed my eyes, "But I guess I can't stop you if you want to use up all the few brain cells you have left."

After pissing him off a little more, I rowed back to the island and back to my house to change clothes. The row back was hot and I was sweaty. Ick. Not that I actually sweat. I **glow**. "Hakumei, where's your little brother?" Mom asked. Oh, God. 20 questions _again_. "How should I know? On the play island with his little friends, no doubt." I replied, walking up the stairs. "Lulu called, she asked if you could come over!" "I'm going to her house once I change," I muttered, and slammed the door to my room.

"Kumei!" Lulu greeted. I nodded at her, "Hey. Did you want something?" "Well," She sighed, "Cactuar got sick, too." I invited myself inside and walked to her living room, where her moogle was sitting around with a thermometer in his mouth and her cactuar.. I burst out laughing. "Kumei, it's not funny!" I grabbed a huge pencil I saw lying around and pretend to stick it into its mouth. "Now it can sharpen pencils of any size," I said. Lulu pushed me back, making me sit beside her moogle. "Kumei, that's cruel!" I laughed, "Fine, fine, sorry." Sheesh. I took another look at the cactuar and burst out laughing again. "Kumei!" Lulu scolded, but I couldn't stop laughing. The Cac- The Cactuar was stuck in its running position with its mouth open! I covered my face with one of the pillows on the couch, muffling my laughter. She rolled her eyes and sat down on the chair in front of me. "So where were you?" "Play island with the brat." Lulu looked at me oddly. "Why do you call him that?" "Because that's what he is." "Don't you think it's mean?" "You didn't think it was mean when we dressed that prettyboy up in prom garb." "Well, Riku's annoying. Sora's a nice boy." I 'tch'ed and glared at the wall. "He's **my** brother." I stood up. "I'll treat him the way I want to!" "He doesn't deserve to be treated that way!" Lulu shouted back. "If you love him so much, then _you_ go be his sister! And you can stop talking to me, too! I can't take all your goody goody crap!" "Fine! I will!" I slammed the door in Lulu's face, leaving. "Fine!"

I walked into the other side of the play island. "Hey, idiots, what's happening?" Prettyboy glared at me, but Kairi and Sora didn't seem to notice. "Hey, Kumei!" She greeted. "Sis! You're going to help us?" "We already straightened that out yesterday." I looked to Kairi. "What do you want today?" She smiled, "Today we collect provisions for out trip! Let's see.. You're looking foro ne Seagull egg, three mushrooms, two coconuts, and three fish. And fill this up with Drinking Water. But not from the ocean!" She handed me an empty water bottle. I stared at her. "You must be really stupid to even think that **I**'d think of filling this up with saltwater." "Hey, sis, we're gonna race! You wanna come?" The brat suddenly asked, prettyboy beside him. I chuckled, "No, I don't really enjoy fixed races. We already know who's going to win, so.. I'll pass." I walked past Kairi towards the front side of the island, prettyboy's eyes burning into my back.

"Oof!" I groaned. Stupid Seagull egg. Why did it have to be so high up? I already got it, but it was still annoying, as I had fallen on my ass after doing a victory dance on top of the tree. I was tempted to smash the egg to bits, but decided against it. "Whoa, Kumei! You okay?" I opened my eyes and saw Wakka's annoying face. I stood up, "Duh." He scratched the back of his head. "So, uh.. I heard you got into a fight with Lulu, ya!" "Don't 'ya' me. What about it?" "Well, she's really bummed out.." "Not my problem," I muttered. "She shouldn't have preached if she knew it was going to piss me off." Wakka sighed, then looked at me. "What happened to you, Kumei? We all used to be the best of friends.. Well, you were still pretty mean to your brother, but you never used to take it out on us.. Ever since Zack died.." "Don't talk about Zack!" He took a step back. "I'm just say-" "Don't. Talk. About. Him." "Alright, I'm sor-" "Don't wanna hear it, Wakka. See you later. Or not. I don't really care."

Anyway, I found the fish (thankfully I didn't have to swim to get them), one mushroom behind this rock, and I got some Coconuts from hitting the trees. What was left? "Hmm.. One more mushroom." I do remember seeing mushrooms.. In the Secret Place. Well, that's what they called it. Technically though, it was the not-so-secret place because everybody (secretly) knew about it. Okay, that was weird. Just don't think about it anymore. I crawled into the Secret Place, utterly disgusted by the vines that hung around it. When I got into the cave itself, though, it was okay. Weird drawings around the walls. And the oddest thing: The door. Nobody could ever open it. Not that I tried. Oh, right, the mushroom. I grabbed it, then walked towards the door. I held the knob, turning to twist- Holy-! I was opening it! I jumped back, staring at the door. Did I want to open it? I standed there, contemplating, until I suddenly felt an unnerving presence. I turned around and a saw a hooded man. I looked at him. "Who are you?"

"I've come to see the door to this world," He replied. "What're you talking about?" "Tied to the darkness.." He muttered. To me or himself, I had no idea. Freak. "Soon to be completely eclipsed." "What? What's that supposed to mean? And where the hell did you come from?" He looked at me. "You do not know yet what lies beyond the door.. Princess." I glared at him. "Mister Mayor, is that you? This isn't funny." "Mayor? No." He looked back to the door. "There is so very much to learn.. You understand so little." "If you told me what was going on, you crazy man, maybe I'd understand a little more." He shook his head. "One who knows nothing can understand nothing." "I understand one thing: You're a lunatic and I'm bringing you to the mental hospital in town!" I walked towards him, but he grabbed my arm. "Ow.." He was gripping it hard. "Let go, jerkface." "So uncouthe for a princess.. I suppose it is my doing. I will have to undo it later." I closed my eyes in annoyance. "The only thing you're going to get to undo is-" I opened my eyes, but he was gone. I held my wrist. "Stupid jerk.. Where did he go?"

I ran out of the Secret Place and to the back of the island where Kairi was, but the hooded freak was nowhere to be found. Kairi smiled as I handed her the 'provisions'. As if one bottle of water would suffice for four people. "Thanks, Kumei! Here!" She handed me a Hi-Potion. I took it and nodded, turning to leave. "Oh! We leave tomorrow morning!" "I know," I replied. I'd better rest up, then. Tomorrow, I was going to find my father.

I poked at my food. The brat was still upstairs. Mom looked at me. "Will you call your brother?" "Will you tell me where dad is?" She didn't reply. Fine. I won't reply either. Mom sighed, "Kumei, you have to understand.. I'm doing this for your own good." I looked at her in the eye. "Then you'll have to understand, _mother_, that I don't care. I'm going to find dad, and I don't need your help." She looked down as I ate my food. She sighed again and walked towards the stairs. "Sora! It's time for dinner, come down!" No reply. Weird. My mother went up the stairs, and I looked up as lightning struck and thunder rolled. "Kumei!" My mother gasped, running down. "Your brother's not in his room!" I groaned, "Maybe he's at the prettyb- maybe he's at Riku's." "No, no, he came in at about six and said he'd stay in his room!" "What do you want me to do?" "Look for him!" "Fine," I muttered, leaving my food unfinished. "I'll have so much fun running around in the rain looking for a lost cause."

I walked to my boat. Crap. There really was a storm. I looked to the other boats, and the only ones there were Wakka's, Tidus', and Selphie's. That can't be good. I jumped into my boat and rowed to the play island. What were those three idiots thinking? Did they want to leave that badly? Did they want to _die_ that badly? I wouldn't mind fulfilling the latter! I arrived at the play island. I wasn't that surprised to see Sora's, Riku's, and Kairi's boats. Little idiots. I ran towards the mini island and saw a dark sphere floating above it. Prettyboy was on the mini-island. Figures. So was the brat. I ran towards it and grabbed the brat's arm. "Sora, you idiot! What the hell are you doing out here in a storm?!" "The raft!" "I don't care about the raft!" The brat ignored me and turned to the prettyboy. "Where's Kairi?" He asked. "I thought she was with you!" "The door has opened," Prettyboy said. He sounded fazed. Argh, why did I care? "What?" "The door has opened, Sora! Now we can go to the outside world!" "You're crazy!" I shouted, pulling the brat back. "What're you talking about?" The brat shouted at the prettyboy. "We've gotta find Kairi!"

"Kairi's coming with us! Once we step through, we might not be able to come back. We may never see our parents again. There's no turning back. But this may be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us! I'm not afraid of the darkness!" "Riku!" Sora shook his head. The prettyboy held his hand out to the brat, as dark, shadowy circles engulfed us. I gasped, trying to get away. I grabbed the brat's arm and tried to pull, but he was reaching for the prettyboy. Suddenly, I pulled away and got to grab the brat with me. _Twilight.._ A voice said. Who the hell is that? _Twilight.. Use your power.._ What power? Stupid voice, get out! Suddenly, a huge Key appeared in the brat's hands. "What the hell is that?" I grabbed it and swung it around, but another one appeared at my left hand. The huge key at my right disappeared and reappeared back with the brat, but the one at my left stayed with me. Suddenly, these little ant-like shadows starting popping up like daisies. I looked from the huge key in my hand to the ants.

"What the hell am I going to do with an oversized Key?!"

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And there it is. I think you'll agree with me when I say that Kumei used to have something crawl up her ass and die everyday.

Review if you liked it, please!


	2. Keyblade? Heartless? YOU!

Prequel to When Somebody Loves a Nobody: Naturally frustrated and angry, Kumei is enraged at the thought of having to save the worlds. But when she meets a certain Leonhart, maybe she'll change her mind..?

**fire spirit: Hello again! Yeah, sorry it's kinda weird.**

**imjackie: I don't know about a sequel for When Somebody Loves a Nobody.. What would it be about? Maybe Sephiroth, but he's not allowed to go on killing rampages again.**

Hey! I got my report card, but I'm still allowed to use the internet. Woohoo. Just watched Open Season. It was so cute.

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"**Hearts**.. **Hearts**.." I could hear. I looked to the ants again, who were looking at me. Where they the ones- "Sis!" I heard. I looked to my left and ran to him, instinctively hitting the ants with the oversized Key. I grabbed him, "You idiot! What the hell are you doing getting overtaken by a bunch of freakin' ants?! Hit them! Like this!" I stabbed through one with the Key. He looked to the one in his hand. "This is a weapon..?" "It might as well be!" I said, then turned to our boats. "Now come on, we gotta get off this island!" "But _Kairi_!" He said, pointing deeper into the island, and ran off to the Secret Place. I grit my teeth. "Little brat!" I turned to run after him, entering the Secret Place as well. "Listen, you little-" "Sora.." I looked to the door and saw a very weak looking pipsqueak. Holy crap that's damn freaky! She reached her hand out to Sora, who was about to take it, when the wind grew strong and Kairi was being blown out of the Secret Place. "Kairi!" He gasped, trying to grab for her. My eyes widened as I realized that she had gone through the both of us as if we were nothing.

"We gotta get Kairi!" The brat yelled, running out of the secret place. "Get back here!" I shouted, but he didn't listen. I'm going to kill him later. I followed him out, only to find that the Secret Place had been blown away as well. The wind howled, screaming and tugging at my hair. Everything had been blown away, and the only thing I could see from my line of sight was darkness. There was little sand to stand on. "Sis!" I heard behind me, and the brat held on to me. "This is one hell of a storm!" I shouted. "You sure picked one fine day to play, brat!" Suddenly, a huge shadow rose from the ground. He wasn't an ant; he looked more like a human. Except he had freaky yellow eyes, his hair was terribly unruly, his feet were weird, he had a hole in his chest shaped like a heart, and.. Oh, yeah. He was 30 feet tall!

"What the hell is that?!" I shrieked. "I- I don't know!" Sora said fearfully. "I think it was in my dream!" "Then what is that, a nightmare come true?" I frowned, holding the Key. "Well, now you know how **I** feel when I see you everyday. Stay here, brat!" I told him, running towards the shadow. It seemed to look at me. "**Creature of the light!**" The ground shook. Did _it_ say that? It raised its arm, then thrust its hand into the ground. I jumped back before it could hit me. Where the shadow thrust its arm, a dark hole appeared and those shadow ants started coming up out of nowhere. I started whacking at its arm. It seemed to flinch, but I couldn't really tell. I couldn't care less, either. If killing this piece of crap was going to stop this annoying storm, then so be it! It took its hand out from the hole and knelt down. What the-? He seemed to prop his chest up, and a huge ball of energy came out of it. The ball of energy came at me, and I ducked. I looked behind me- "Brat!" I ran towards him. The energy ball seemed to have hit him. I groaned, "Don't you know how to duck? Come here!" I pulled him up and threw him by the shadow's feet. "But- but sis!" "Look, brat, it probably won't attack you there. Besides, if you had this thing in your nightmare and you still woke up, you must have defeated it. And anything you can do, I can do better. Now _stay there_!" I ordered, and stood in front of the shadow. It blasted another one of those energy balls from its chest, and this time I held the Key in my hands firmly. "Pretend the ugly is Wakka!" I told myself, then as the energy ball rushed towards me, I swung the Key. Hoooooome run, baby!

I did this a few more times, and the shadow fell to the ground. "**Creature..**" It groaned. Who're you calling creature, ugly? "**Of light..**" Stupid shadow thing. Suddenly, the wind howled even louder- "The hell?! I thought it would stop!" What a waste of time! The huge sphere of darkness in the sky suddenly started sucking everything up. I've read about blackholes. I am not entering a black hole. "Sis!" The brat gasped, holding on to a piece of wood. I grabbed his foot, my own feet already in the air. "Hold on!" "What the hell do you think I'm doing?!" I shouted back, but the wind was too strong- The last thing I heard was the brat shouting something about a black sphere..

"Ugh.." I opened my eyes and looked up. Night sky. I got up and looked ahead. It was a town. Where was this? I rubbed my hand over my face and stood up, leaning by the wall. What the hell happened? There were those annoying talking shadows, then the annoying huge shadow, then.. Holy shit! So there are other worlds! What happened to my island? There was that storm.. Then.. I looked to the town, then closed my eyes again. "Oh, God.." I took a deep breath. "Destiny Islands.. It's gone." I stayed like that for a few minutes. What happened to my mom? Lulu? Wakka? Everyone at home..? Wait. If Destiny Islands was destroyed by that crazy storm.. And I was here.. "I'm free!" I ran out of the alley, down the stairs, and towards a moogle. "I'm free!" I told him. He tilted his head at me. "Free from what, kupo..?" I blinked. Who didn't want to get out of their world? I took a step away from the moogle. "Nothing.. Never mind." I ran back up the stairs and saw a huge shop in front of me. To enter, or not to enter?  
"Hey, you!"

I turned around to see a girl my age with a green top and super short shorts. She had short hair.. And a really loud voice. "Me?" She laughed, "Yeah, you. Is there anybody else here?" I shrugged. "You could be talking to yourself." She frowned, "I am **not** crazy!" "That's what they all say." "You would know, right?" I smirked. "Touche." She grinned, holding her hand out. "I'm the Great Ninja Yuffie!" I looked around the town. "You're the _only_ ninja here." "Good point. What's your name?" "Hakumei. My friends- I mean, my acquaintances call me Kumei." "Kumei it is, then!" She nodded. "Did your world get destroyed, too?" I paused, thinking. Destroyed? Gone? Same thing. "Yes." She stared at me. I narrowed my eyes at her. "What?" "Nothing!" She said. "Don't you want to talk about it?" "No." Why would I? I was finally out of the hellhole, why would I even want to think about it? She pouted, "You're just like Squall!" "I don't want to know, really." She sighed, putting her hand to her forehead. "I'm going to give up.." "You do that.." I turned around. She was fine, but kind of weird. "Hey! Where're you going?" She asked. I shrugged. "Wherever." "Don't you wanna go to Leon first?" I shook my head. She sighed again. "_Fine_, I'll take you to see him later. See you around, Kumei!"

What did she mean by **later**? I already said no. Crazy ninjas. I entered the shop I was going to enter awhile ago and saw a blonde man with a white shirt, weird pants, and a cigarette in his mouth. "Hey there," He greeted. "How can I help you?" "You tell me.." I muttered, and when I saw his raised eyebrow, I sighed, remembering something. "Well, I am actually looking for this brat- Uh, kid. About this size-" I raised my hand (palm facing the floor) to my chin. "-Brown hair like mine, really spiky, dark blue eyes like these. Oh, and he's got huge feet." The man shook his head, "Nope, sorry. Why, you lost or somethin'?" "No!" I instantly replied, then looked out the window. Damn it. "Well, sort of. What's this place, anyway?" "This is Traverse Town," He answered, narrowing his eyes at me. "Folks whose worlds get destroyed usually end up here." I looked around his shop. "Traverse Town, huh?" I looked to him. "So, old man, this really is another world?" He frowned, "Don't call me that! I ain't old; the name's Cid! Anyway.. Not sure what you're talkin' about, but this sure ain't your island." I looked at him. When did I say anything about my island? I sighed, "Whatever. I guess I better start moving.." I muttered. "Well, good luck with whatever it is you're doing. If you ever run into trouble, you come to me. I'll look out for you." I grinned. "Thanks for the offer, old man. But I think I can take care of myself." "I am _not_ old!" "Yeah, you keep dreamin'."

After getting chased out by Cid (and being given a ton of potions..?), I jumped to the higher ground by the alley and entered a door. _Second District_, I saw. Hmm. I- I gasped, taking a step back as a man fell down in front of me, a heart floating out of him. The heart floated down as the man disappeared, and it turned into one of those ants! "Ant!" I shrieked. Suddenly, the huge Key appeared in my hand again and I nodded. "Okay, just kill the ant.." I chanted to myself, and hit and stab at it a few times. It disappeared. I groaned, leaning against the door. I was going to have to get used to this. I walked down the stairs by the left side, looking at the shops I passed by. I guess this town was okay, except they had a bug infestation. I was about to enter one of the shops, when a bunch of other ugly, yellow eyed things appeared. Except now some were wearing armor, and a few were floating in the air with these weird.. erm.. dresses. The Key was in my hand again. "**A Keyblade!**" One of the armoured shadows hissed. "**We musst desstroy it!**" Another nodded. "**But..**" One of the floating ones looked to the armoured ones. "**It iss the Twilight! We cannot defeat it!**" "**Only the more reassson to take her heart!**" Another floating one said, and they turned to me. "Uh.. Hi?" They jumped me and I hacked away at them, making them disappear. I pat the Key in my hand. My new best friend. I mean, my new friend. But our moment was interrupted when the armoured shadows, the floating shadows, and the ants suddenly appeared, surrounding me. "**Twilight!**" They hissed. "**Your heart!**" "**Give usss the darknessss!**" "**The Key!**" "**Your heart!**" "**Creature of light..**" "**Your heart!**" They kept saying. I tried to fight them away, but their voices gave me a huge headache, and I couldn't take it anymore.

_I couldn't see. There was still a blinding light, but I could feel someone hold my hand. "I love you," He whispered. "I'm sorry I can't come to you right now. But I want you to wait for me.." "What?" I squinted my eyes, and I could see a few of his features. Okay, was that red hair or brown hair? I held my hand out to touch his hair, but it made no difference. I think it was brown. He held my cheek. "Don't worry. I'll find you.."_

I opened my eyes. What was that? Anyway, stupid shadow things. I lost my consciousness because of them. I looked to my surroundings. I was on something soft. Hm. A bed? Better be. I was still intact and none of the potions Cid gave me were gone. Now where was that Key of mine..? I got up slowly, when I realized that I wasn't alone in the room. There was a man with his back turned to me. He had long brown hair and a white shirt under a black shortsleeved vest. Weird pants, too. Had these X's on 'em. It was then that my eyes widened. He was holding my Key! Grr. That's _mine_. "That's mine!" I echoed my thoughts and leapt at him from the bed. I landed on his back and started hitting him on the head. "Ow! Ow! What the hell? Ow! Get off me!" He shouted, trying to shake me off. "Give it back, you huge-Key stealer!" I yelled, tugging at his hair. I heard the door open, but I didn't mind. "Hey Leon, is- Oh! I see you two have met!" It was that ninja girl Yuf- Oof! Stupid ninja girl. She distracted me and I got thrown back onto the bed. I got back up, "Give it back!" I ran towards the man and kicked him square on the shin. He dropped the Key, but before it could hit the floor, it disappeared and reappeared back in my hand. I raised it in the air triumphantly. "In your face, Key-stealer man."

Yuffie burst out laughing and pointing at the man. Leanne, I think. I couldn't really hear her very well in the midst of his stupid yelling when I was trying to get the Key back. He glared at her, then at me. "Are you insane?" I scoffed, "I should be asking you that! You.. You thief!" Yuffie laughed even harder. The man glared at me again, but didn't say anything. When the annoying ninja finally calmed down, she sighed. "Actually, Kumei, Leon's the one who saved you!" I narrowed my eyes at her. "Why would I need saving?" "Because of that!" She pointed to the Key. "You fainted and the Heartless were trying to take you, but Leon drove them away and brought you here!" I paused. "Oh." Waitaminute. "What the hell is a Heartless?" Yuffie slapped her forehead. "You don't know and you've been randomly killing them?" I shrugged. "They attacked me first." Yuffie shook her head, then started explaining what the ugly shadows were. "So, why would they want this Key?" I asked. "Well, that's kind of a different Keyblade," Yuffie told me. I raised an eyebrow. Keyblade? "Keyblade?" "That's what it's called," She nodded. "The one the Heartless want is _the_ Keyblade." "I don't get it. So this is _a_ Keyblade?" "Not just _a_ Keyblade." Leon suddenly spoke up. "It's _the_ Twilight Keyblade. I don't know how you got it, but.."

I tuned him out as I stared at the Twilight Keyblade. So this is one of the things those **Heartless** wanted.. I'd throw it away, but I needed it to find my father. "So, have you heard of someone named Ansem?" Yuffie's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. I looked to her. "The hell's that?" "He was studying the Heartless," Leon explained. I didn't know we were on speaking terms. "He recorded all of his findings in a very detailed report." "Okay.." Why did I care again? Oh, wait. I don't. "Well, you guys have fun looking for this Ansem guy." "You're leaving?" Leon asked. I looked at him. "Uh, yeah." Duh. "Why wouldn't I?" "Don't you wanna learn more about the Heartless?" Yuffie asked. I shrugged. "Why should I care? I just gotta hack and slash at them with this Twilight Keyblade, right? Then I'll find him." "Find who?" Why did they care? "My father," I answered, holding the door knob. I stopped. "Oh, yeah." I turned around. "Have you seen a boy, about this height-" I motioned to my chin again, "-brown hair and blue eyes? Really spiky hair?" Both shook their heads. Useless. "Oh, well, whatever," I muttered, and walked out.

I found myself in a hallway (I think it was like a hotel or something). I walked towards its end and left, realizing that I was once again in the Second District. I jumped down to the square and entered a narrow alley. I turned right and opened the door. Ooh. _Third District_, A sign said. I walked forward, and once I reached the middle, those **Heartless** appeared. Where's that Keyblade? Oh, here it is. I ran towards them. "**Heartsss!**" "**Keyblade..**" "Go to hell!" I shouted, and swung my Keyblade at them. Ew, some of them were grabbing my legs. I whacked those on the head, too, and once they were gone, there was munny and green stuff on the floor. I picked both up. What was this green stuff? Looked like food.. I popped one into my mouth. Hey! That tasted good. Considering it came from those disgusting Heartless.. Okay. To be disgusted, or not to be disgusted? I paused to think. I didn't get to make my mind up as a black hole suddenly opened up out of nowhere (with an annoying cleaving sound to match). A woman dressed almost entirely in black with a matching black staff and really creepy feet entered from the hole. Her hair was weird, too. Freak. She looked around, and once her eyes fell on me she gave me a weird smile, starting to walk to me. "You wield your Keyblade well, girl," She told me. I gripped it tight. "Who are you?" I spat. "Oh, how rude of me," She nodded. "I am Maleficent." Maleficent narrowed her eyes at me. "What is your name, girl?"

"Definitely not _girl_," I muttered. "It's Hakumei. Kumei. Whatever." "Ah. Pleasure to meet you then, Kumei." I stared at her. "What do you want?" "Only to help you, my dear child." I snorted. "Yeah, like you could help me." "You are looking for.. Someone, are you not?" I stopped. "Maybe.." "Yes! Of course you are. I will help you.." "Yeah? What's in it for you?" She chuckled, "My, my. You are smart. I will help you.. If you help me." "And how exactly do I do that?" "I need your.. Keyblade.. For certain purposes." "Purposes." "Yes. So, shall we both help each other?" She asked. I didn't like her.. But I needed to find my father.. So.. I frowned. "Fine." "Wonderful," She nodded. "Follow me." She walked towards the black hole. "Uh, no way, lady," I told her. "I am not stepping into that black hole." She laughed weirdly. "It is not a black hole. It's called a _portal_. We will be using this to travel around the worlds.. Now, come."

I followed her into the 'portal' and stepped into a very, very dark room. "You will be working with a partner," She told me. "He better not be annoying." "Oh, no. I'm sure you two will be like brother and sister." I rolled my eyes, and suddenly, torches around the room were lit. I saw a door across the room opening, and the silhouette of a boy walking in. Well, I didn't actually know if it was a boy, because it had long hair, but.. "Hey Maleficent, where's that partner you said I'd be working with?" The person asked. Okay, it was a boy. "She's right here," Maleficent replied. Wait, wait, wait. I knew this boy, didn't I? I could recognize that voice _anywhere_.. The boy looked to me when I looked to him. My eyes widened, and so did his. "YOU?!"

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There it is! Review if you liked it, please! (:


	3. A commoner? Me? How asinine!

Prequel to When Somebody Loves a Nobody: Naturally frustrated and angry, Kumei is enraged at the thought of having to save the worlds. But when she meets a certain Leonhart, maybe she'll change her mind..?

imjackie: I am currently thinking of an idea for the sequel. It won't actually be about Kumei- it's more of a SephirothxOC thing. What do you guys think?

fire spirit: Oh, don't worry. There won't be much Axel to interfere in this story. I think.

Z-AKA Andrea-: You really think so? Yay!

Angel Of Blacksouls: Glad you liked it. Here's the update!

I am SO sorry for taking so long to update! Please forgive me. I was trying to update a few days ago, but it wouldn't upload. But now it has, so, here!

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"What's _he_ doing here?" I raised an eyebrow at Maleficent. "**I** should be asking that!" Prettyboy said, glaring at Maleficent. Maleficent laughed, "I didn't expect the two of you to react so well to being partners." "I am not going to work with _that_!" Both of us yelled. "If you want to see the people you want to see," Maleficent shook her head. "You will work together." I bit my lip. Endure the prettyboy's idiocy and get to see my dad after this stupid job, or kick his ass and never find father? Ugh, stupid Maleficent. "Fine," I frowned. "I'll endure him for a while." Prettyboy muttered something under his breath, and I'm guessing it was a 'fine' as well, since Maleficent smiled her creepy smile. "Wonderful." She waved her hand and another one of her portals appeared. "Where's that supposed to take us?" I asked, staring into it. "A new world, where you will find a young girl about your age, Kumei. Bring her to me." She replied. "You mean _kidnap_ her from her world?" I raised an eyebrow. Maleficent chuckled. "She will be more than happy to leave that dreadful place. Now, go; she is waiting."

"Tch, no she isn't. What do you want with this girl anyway? What the hell is her name? How are we going to know if she's the girl?" Prettyboy frowned. "Her name is Cinderella, and that is all you need to know. Now, run along." I gave her a weird look. Run along? Freak. I looked to at prettyboy from the corner of my eye. "C'mon, slowpoke," I told him, and before he could retort, I had already stepped into the portal.

"What kind of backward world has this kind of road?" I commented as prettyboy fell from the sky, as I did, a few seconds ago. He stood up and dusted himself off. "Now we just gotta find this Cinderella girl." I didn't reply and walked a few steps forward. No Heartless. "Looks like this place isn't infected." "What?" Prettyboy asked. "With Heartless, I mean. Those idiot Heartless aren't roaming the place... yet." "It will be soon," Prettyboy said. "We'd better get Cinderella before then." I snorted and looked at him. "You figured that one out yourself, prettyboy?"

"Did you hear? Did you hear?" I heard a thirteen year old girl scream as she ran from some 14th century looking house to another girl who was standing in front of what looked like the bakery. Come to think of it, everything and everyone here looked like they came from the 14th century, or whatever century they thought they were in. "What?" The other girl asked. "It's five in the morning.." "Who cares? The Prince is coming home!" "Really?" The other girl asked excitedly. "Yeah! We better get ready to welcome hime back home!" The first girl nodded and they walked off to the sunset. Or the bakery, I didn't really give a damn. Oh my, the prince is coming home. Who really gave a shit?

"CINDERELLA!"

Prettyboy and I looked to each other curiously as two annoying voices pierced my ears. I looked to my right, where there was a dressmaker's shop. A shop. Open at five in the morning. Wow. I walked into the shop and the prettyboy followed. Inside, there was the dressmaker behind the counter, an old woman who seemed to look down on everyone and fanned herself, two weird looking girls who were pointing at dresses, and a pretty blonde girl my age wearing rags covered in cinder. Which one, which one, which one was Cinderella? "Y-yes, what is it?" The blonde girl asked. _There_ she was. "I want this dress," The first annoying girl with red hair said, pointing to a deep pink dress. "And I want this!" The second annoying girl with brown hair nodded, pointing to a light green dress. Damn, those dresses were ugly. This place was so out of style. "Cinderella!" The old woman fanning herself called the blonde's attention. "You are to pick these dresses up tonight, and make sure to wash them.." She continued talking, but I tuned her out because she sounded too much like Maleficent to me. "May I take the day off, stepmother?" I watched as the stepmother smiled a terribly wicked smile. "Well, Cinderella, I see no reason why you can't.. If you get all your work done."

Oh, she's cruel. Better get pointers.

"Oh, I will!" Cinderella said excitedly. This girl must be really maltreated if she's so excited about a day off. "Oh, thank you, stepmother!" Apparently, Cinderella was. The stepmother nodded. "Now go and pick Drizella's and Anastasia's shoes up at the shoemaker, and we will meet you back at the house. After that, you may take the day off." "Yes, stepmother," Cinderella nodded, and walked out the shop. "Mother, do you realize what you've just said?!" The redhead shrieked. I cringed. Stupid little- "Of course," The stepmother laughed evilly. "I said _if_." Hmm.. That she did. The three finally noticed us and the brunette raised an eyebrow at me. "What're _you_ looking at? Commoner.." Commoner?! I'll make an uncommon rainbow-colored black-eye for you if you want, you little- "A girl! Wearing trousers!" The redhead gasped. "She must be really desperate for clothing.. She can't afford dresses!" I clenched my fist. Grr, I'm going to bash your head into the wall, you- "Come, girls," The stepmother said. "We have no time to be mingling with commoners."

Oh, she didn't.

"Will you calm down?" The prettyboy grabbed my shoulders and held me down. "Let go of me, prettyboy!" I jumped out of his grasp, then turned around. "Now look what you've done! You let them get away!" "We don't need _them_," the prettyboy groaned. "We need Cinderella." "Whatever," I muttered. "But how to get her.." "We could just kidnap her from her house and get it over with." Prettyboy suggested. "That is so sick," I narrowed my eyes at him. "Have you no style? I can't go with the normal kidnap-her-from-her-window trick. Hmm.. Need a plan." "What's on your mind?" Prettyboy asked. Tch. Alot more than there is on yours, idiot. "Well," I frowned. "I'll think of something later. I'll need to find a place to stay while I'm stuck with you here." "What do you expect me to do?" "Ask around, of course," I rolled my eyes. "I'll see you back here in a few hours, got it?" Prettyboy nodded. "Good. Later."

I walked out of the boundaries of the kingdom, and found myself in a thick forest. What? I didn't feel like entering any shops (they all smelled weird), and I thought I'd get raw food out here, like I always used to when I was bored. "Ahh!" I heard men screaming as I stepped deeper into the wood. "What are these creatures?!" My eyes widened. Heartless? I ran towards the screams and found a bunch of men trying to attack the Heartless with their swords. Among one of the men was a boy. He was about a year or two older than me, and he was on a pretty white horse, swinging his sword around and trying to hit the Heartless. The Twilight Keyblade appeared in my hands and I jumped at the Heartless. "**Twiliiight!**" They shrieked again. "Stop talking to me!" I shrieked back, and got rid of them. For now. "Th-thank you," The boy said. "What were those creatures?" "Nothing you need to worry about," I replied. "Who are you?" He asked. "The (nick)name's Kumei," I said. "Who're you?" "I'm the prince," He said. Oh. "Oh," I nodded. "You're going home, right?" "Yes," The prince confirmed. "Would you care for a ride?" "Uh, I can walk, thanks," I shook my head, and he started trotting his horse towards the kingdom while I was walking beside it. "A messenger just ran past saying my father was holding a ball for me, and every maiden in the kingdom was to be invited.."

"Really. Why would your father do that?" I asked. "He wants me to get married, no doubt," The prince shrugged. "Anyway, are you coming?" "Uh, I guess," I shrugged. "Are _commoners_ allowed?" "Of course," The prince nodded. "The messenger did say it was for _all_ the maidens in the kingdom. You see, you are a strong warrior, even for a girl, and I thought you'd like to be my sister." "Your sister." "Yes," The prince nodded. "Does your dad the king allow you to go around adopting sisters?" "Not really, but I suppose he could make an exception.." Freak. I'm not ever going to be step-siblings with some 14th century weirdo. "Well, no thank you," I laughed nervously as we neared the kingdom. "I think I will go to this ball you're talking about," I nodded. "See you there, I guess! Bye!"

"Okay, I have a plan," I told prettyboy as he walked up to the dressmaker's shop. "Assuming Cinderella does indeed get to the ball, the-" "What ball?" Prettyboy asked. I glared at him. Interruptions piss me off. "Haven't you heard everyone saying something about a ball for every maiden in the kingdom or whatever?" "Oh yeah, that." "Yeah," I rolled my eyes. "Assuming what I said earlier, the prince would probably like her. I mean, look at her. She's gorgeous. And unless everyone is as pretty as her, which I doubt (I mean, look at her stepsisters), he'll fall for her. You and I are going to have to kidnap her from the ball. That way I'll ruin it for the prince, too." "That's sick," Prettyboy told me. "I don't care." "Fine," He muttered. "But how do we kidnap her from the ball? If this prince does want her, then she'll be under his protection the _whole_ time."

"I'll have to create a distraction, then," I nodded to myself. "Now, here's the funny part." "Wait, how do we get _into_ the ball? If you haven't noticed, you're a girl dressed like a man, which is equal to commoner in this world, and I'm not exactly wearing the most royal clothes either." "Just shut up and let me explain, prettyboy," I glared. I hate being interrupted, dammit! "This is what you're going to do. You're going to get a job as a.. hm.. Soldier.. in the castle." "What?! No-" "Yes you are," I interrupted, getting even with him. No, wait. I'm always higher than him. "No backing out now. If you can get a job in the castle, you can go around it and give me the entry and exit points. I'll burst into the ball with an ever-dramatic entrance, then when I cause the commotion I'm still planning to make which will separate the prince and Cinderella, you grab her, knock her out, then meet me outside. No doubt there will be guards and everyone will be searching for her, but that shouldn't be so hard for you.. Will it?" "N-no," Prettyboy said, closing his eyes. "It'll be like taking candy from a baby. I still don't know why you want to complicate things, though." "Your tiny mind wouldn't be able to comprehend," I dismissed him with my hand. "Now shut up. I have to buy clothes. You and I are anything but inconspicuous."

I walked over to the counter, where the dressmaker was busy counting money. "Hello," I banged my fist on the table. "I'm gonna buy a dress." The dressmaker stared at me. "You have money?" "Of course I have munny," I rolled my eyes. I stuffed the munny in the dressmaker's face, but said idiot wrinkled her nose. "That's not money, those are little weird balls. I meant _gold_." Ugh. "Heavy thing, you know? Shiny?" "I know what it is," I hissed. I grumbled angrily and looked to prettyboy. "Have any gold on you?" He shook his head. I raised an eyebrow and reached over, stuffing my hand in his pocket. "Hey, what the hell are you-" "Ha," I got a small pouch filled with heavy stuff. "That isn't gold," Prettyboy said. "It's-" "Doesn't matter," I slapped his mouth. "Now shut up and watch me work this." I dropped the pouch of shells onto the table. "Your gold." The woman took it. "This isn't gold." "Yes it is," I insisted. "They're golden shells, and only those who deserve gold will recieve them. So unless you don't deserve the gold, just tell me.." "I deserve it," The woman said, stuffing it in her dresspocket. "What dress do you want? And clothes for the boy?"

"Hm," I pointed to a white dress that didn't need those wires which puffed up your whole entire dress but still looked pretty. "That one, and for the prettboy.." I pointed to a nice pair of clothes I thought the noblemen or at least upper-middle class people would wear in this weird world. "Okay," The lady took them from display and handed them over to me. "Great," I grabbed them and threw prettyboy's clothes at him. "Oh my gosh, is that the prince?" I pointed towards the room where the dressmaker made, well, dresses, and she idiotically turned around. "Where? ..Hey, he isn't-"

Kuh-knock out.

I punched her in the face once she turned back to me and she fell to the floor. "How asinine," Prettyboy commented. "Shut up, prettboy." I jumped over the counter and grabbed prettyboy's shells back, then jumped back to prettyboy's side. "Aren't you going to take her gold, too?" I raised an eyebrow. "Why would I? All we need to do is trick everyone else like we did this woman. Besides, that'd be asinine."

"Well?" I asked, standing by the gate of the castle. I'd been standing here for hours! Not really. After the first half hour, I went to eat, knocking most of the people who made me pay out (with my hair up and my pants), then changed into my dress and untied my pigtails, so no one would ever suspect an innocent girl like _me_. I guess it'd been an hour. Heh. "I'm in," Prettyboy said. "But it might take a while for me to memorize the castle layout." "Well, don't hurt yourself trying to think," I muttered. "On second thought, do whatever you want. Gain everyone's trust there, and no one will be suspicious about why you're running around the castle. It should be easy. You're probably the youngest soldier, right?" He nodded. "Good. That way, you'll be more endeared to them. Make sure to make good friends with the prince, too. Pretend he's your.. hmm.. idol or something. That'll give you a bigger chance of going by inconspicuously. Got it, prettyboy?" "Yeah," He nodded. "You better have. Listen, I'll meet you outside the gate later. I've got my own errands to do." "Which are..?" "Nothing you should be concerned about. Just do your own job and I'll do my part to help with this." He frowned, but I left before he started yelling my name too loudly.

"_You_? What do _you_ want?" The redhead answered the door. "We're preparing for the _ball_!" I coughed and tried my most innocent voice. "I.. I was looking to work for you, ma'am.." "Hmph!" The redhead was about to slam the door on me, when I heard the old woman yell, "Anastasia! Who is it?" "That girl from the dressmaker's shop!" In an instant, the old woman was at the door. "What is your business here, girl? Quickly." She said. "I was wondering if I could work here, ma'am," I said again. "How much do you expect for your pay?" The old woman asked. "None, ma'am, just lodging." The old woman seemed to contemplate. "All right, then. You'll share a room with Cinderella.. CINDERELLA!" She yelled, and Cinderella popped out of nowhere, also at the door. "Yes, stepmother?" "This is.." She turned to me. "What is your name, girl?" "Kumei, ma'am." Ugh, I was going to have to wash my tongue over and over again later. "This is Kumei. She will be sharing your room with you and she will work as a servant here as well. Show her the way around." "Yes, stepmother," Cinderella said. "Come on, Kumei," She smiled at me, and I nodded, following her inside. Step one for my job, sorta complete.

"So, where's your room?" I asked after Cinderella showed me the kitchen. "In the tower," She replied. "You can have the bed if you like.." "Uh, nah," I shook my head. What was she, some kind of Rapunzel girl? "You can have it. I usually sleep.. on the floor.. anyway." What did I just say? What did I just get myself into? "Well, alright.." Oh, no. A thousand nights of backaches, that's what. "Meow!" Something scratched at my leg. "Ow! Damn it!" I looked down and saw a black cat scratching at me. I picked it up from where its neck supposedly was. "Whose idea was it to bring this idiot cat inside?" The cat was trying to scratch at me, but I held it far away from me. "Stepmother's.. His name is Lucifer. You use such.. Well.." "Foul words? Sorry, Cinderella. I'm used to it." She smiled, "It's okay." "Anyway, what's this ball about? Why does everyone want to go?" I asked, feigning ignorance. I wonder what she thought of the ball. "You don't know?" She gasped, as if it were the biggest news in this world to her. Guess it was. Simple minded fools. "I don't," I replied. "Well, the prince is having a ball because the king wants him to choose a wife already. That's why everyone is going to the ball. That's why stepmother wants Anastasia and Drizella to go to the ball." I burst out laughing. "She actually thinks Anastasia and Drizella have a chance with a prince? Who stuck a crayon up _her_ nose?" "What is a crayon?" Cinderella asked. I blinked. "Never.. Never mind, Cinderella. Never mind."

"So, what've you got?" I asked between the laughs and points at prettyboy's outfit. What a horrible soldier costume. "Stop laughing," Prettyboy said, red all over. Hehe, get it? ...Never mind. "Well, tonight, the gates will be open to any maiden in the kingdom, so you can enter through there. The windows will all be closed, but if you can cause enough commotion to have everyone running through the castle in a frenzy, I can grab Cinderella, because the king and the Grand Duke will be way above where we'll be, the prince will probably be too confused, and even if they _do_ see us, we'll probably be out of this world by then." I nodded, taking the information in. "Good. But the only thing that can cause such a huge commotion as you're expecting is a Heartless.. You don't happen to have Maleficent's cellphone number, do you?" Prettyboy raised an eyebrow. "Is that a joke?" I frowned. "No. Shut up. I'm thinking. I _could_ pretend to to be raving mad." "You could. Oh, I know. You could try to grab a dance with the prince, then hold him hostage or something. Once I get Cinderella, you make a run for it and I'll meet you outside the castle." I narrowed my eyes at prettyboy. "That might work, but how do I know you're not going to ditch me?" Prettyboy snorted. "Please. I'm not like you." I laughed, "Oh, that's right. You're a complete weakling." Prettyboy growled. "Well, whatever. See you in the ball, prettyboy."

"Hey Cinderella," I called. She looked up from the bed. "What is it?" "Well, I'm going to meet up with a friend of mine tonight, it's very important. I was wondering if.." "It's alright," Cinderella smiled, although a small sigh escaped her lips. "I can take your workload." "Seriously?" I asked. "Yes," She nodded. "It really is." I smiled. "Great, thanks." No one had said yes to doing me a favor that fast before. Usually I had to beat them up a little first. Of course, the brat would do favors for me even without me beating him up, but that's because he's weird. I don't know why, but Cinderella is special. "Is your friend medium length brown-haired with odd clothes and a scar on his nose?" Cinderella asked. "Um," I shook my head. "No. But I do know someone like that. Why?" "Ah!" Cinderella nodded to herself. "When you were washing the dishes, a young man of about twenty-five with that description came in asking for you. I told him you weren't here because I didn't know if you knew him! He had such odd clothes that, well, he seemed quite suspicious." I smiled. "You did the right thing. That guy is a freak." What was his name again? Len? Leroy? Le.. something.. "Oh," Cinderella nodded. "Good, then!"

"Hey, leaving," I told Cinderella. The ball was about to start. "I'll see you at the ball, okay?" "But.. But I don't have a dress," Cinderella sighed. "Oh," I chuckled. "Check your closet, why don't you? You never know.." "But-" "Just trust me on this, Cinderella." "Alright," She nodded. "I'll see you at the ball!" "Great." I grinned, and ran from the chateau, to the town, to the castle. Damn! Not only was I tired from keeping Lucifer away from the mice so they could work on Cinderella's dress, Cinderella's chateau sure was far from the castle! And I was dead tired. I walked past the gates and into the castle, having changed into my dress (and heels, which I had 'bought' in one of those shops in the kingdom). "There you are," Someone grabbed me and pulled me up the stairs, where some people who came in early were waiting. "What took you so long?" "What do you mean, idiot?" I raised an eyebrow. "The ball hasn't started yet." "Yeah, but I thought you'd come earlier so we could plan and stuff." "I already planned," I rolled my eyes. "Now go do your job or something, and I'll do my part once the time is right." "And if that time doesn't come?" "Heh," I closed my eyes, walking towards the buffet tables. Haha, idiot prettyboy had to stand by the walls. "It will."

Oh my gosh. I love the dessert table. I think I've fallen in- "There you are." -love. I looked up. "Oh, it's.. you. What're you doing here, anyway?" I asked, seeing that Le- guy. "What's your name again?" "It's Leon," He said. "Oh, right," I nodded. "Leon. What're you doing here?" "We found traces of Heartless here. Have you seen any?" I took a step away from him as people started staring at us. What? His clothes didn't fit in. Not mine. "Yeah," I told him. "When I first met the prince outside the kingdom, he was surrounded by Heartless. Killed them, I did. Why?" "Nothing.." He frowned, looking around. "They were just Shadow Heartless," I told Leon. "They were Heartless all the same, and the fact that they're here in the first place isn't good news at all." Leon said with much finality. "Alright," I held my hands in front of me, taking a step away from him. "Tell me if you see any more," Leon said, then turned to leave. "Uh, wait up," I called. He turned around. "What?" "Uh.." I looked around, scratching the back of my neck. "You wanna dance?" I did love the dessert table, but I had already eaten enough while Leon was blabbering his mouth off, and I knew that if he left, I'd be bored as hell. I'd rather talk to him than the _prettyboy_. He stared at me. "...I can't dance."

I started to laugh. "That's a lousy reason." I pointed to the dance floor, where people were dancing. It wasn't time for the announcing of maidens or something prettyboy told me yet. "C'mon, you can't ditch me with these 14th century freakshows!" His eyebrows creased, and he seemed to be contemplating this. "...Al..right." "Cool," I nodded, and he followed me towards the dance floor. I looked at everyone who was dancing. "Okay, your hand to my waist and my hand to your shoulder. Unless you want it the other way around.." He raised an eyebrow, but held my waist with his hand. I placed my hand on his shoulder, and we held each other's hands (with our free hands, heh). Awkward. The last time I danced was with Zack. "Then we turn, and we.." I continued telling him what to do as I watched the others dance. "Ow," I cringed as he stepped on my feet. "Sorry," He apologized. I had to admit. For a weird Keyblade-stealer guy, he really sucked at dancing.

But... I guess he was a little cute. A little.

"It's okay," I laughed nervously. He was killing my toenails. "You're doing fine.." Why the hell was I complimenting him?! He stepped on my feet again, and even lost his footing a few seconds after that. "Just.. um.. stop trying to dance and just.. dance!" I told him. "What do you mean?" He asked. "Just forget about looking stupid in front of everyone you don't know, I mean. You're dancing because it's fun, not because you care about what people think of your dancing skills." He paused. "You think I dance funny." I bit my lip. "W..ell, yeah, sort of.. But it's fine! Really," I giggled. He looked down and chuckled a small bit. Funny, never heard him laugh before. "So, uh.." He cleared his throat. "You have a really nice.. dress." "Uh, thanks," I muttered. He compliments people? Looks like I judged too soon. "And, er. Your hair looks nice that way. Even if you just tie it in a normal ponytail, you'll look more mature." "You really think so?" I asked. He nodded. "Well," I looked at him. There was really nothing to compliment. Same clothes, same hair, same face. Well, the face, I guess there was something diff- "Are you _smiling_?"

"No."

His face reverted to a frown. I shrugged; weirdo. He must have smiling issues or something. Well, whatever. I yawned, and the music took on a slower tune. I leaned closer and lay my head on Leon's chest, straining my shoulder. I just realized- I haven't slept in days. Well, hours, really, but I was tired. And sleepy. I continued yawning for a while, and only woke up a bit when Leon let go of my hand and wrapped his arms around my waist. Okay, this was weird. I'd never danced like this with anyone before, but I wrapped my arms around his neck like I saw the other girls do it on TV. "So," I yawned again. "Have you seen the kid I was asking you about?" "I haven't," Leon whispered. "Sorry." "S'okay, I guess," I sighed. I don't even know why I keep asking. I shouldn't care where the brat is. This felt weird. My hands were tingly and I grit my teeth, because they were creepily tingly, too. We were just swaying now, and I closed my eyes. I think the music stopped, but I could still hear something. It sounded so beautiful, and it felt so real. It was-

"Kumei!" My eyes burst open and I looked to my left. I pulled away from Leon as I saw the funny grin on the prince's face. "I've been looking for you! The introductions are about to start and they're probably going to be boring, so I wanted you to meet my father and maybe we could talk about some fighting tactics.. Who's your friend?" He looked to Leon. "Oh, him," I nodded. "This is Leon. Leon, the prince. Prince, Leon." The prince shook Leon's hand. "Nice to meet you." "And you," Leon replied, then looked down. "I should get going." "Uh.. yeah.. Mmmwhere?" I asked. "To Traverse Town," Leon said. "I'll, mm.. see you later." I nodded. "Okay." He nodded, and disappeared behind the crowd of adults. "Dancing with a man older than you and me? You set your standards high, I see," The prince chuckled. "Very funny," I rolled my eyes. "Haha, I know. My father-" He looked up and pointed towards a fat man and a thin man on the balcony. "The one in blue is the Grand Duke. The one in white is my father. Father!" The prince yelled. "This is my friend!" "Hello!" The king yelled. "Are you my future daughter-in-law?" "No, sorry!" I yelled back. Ew. The prince was okay, but.. ick. Not my type.

"Do you know a boy.. A soldier.. named Riku?" The prince asked. "Hm? Why do you ask?" "Uh, nothing. He said you were his sister." Sister?! Like I'd ever be related to _him_. "Hahaha, yes, he is my little brother. Isn't he cute?" I put on the biggest smile I could muster. "Yes, he makes a very good soldier. He fights well, like you. Who is your father?" I froze. Even I didn't know the answer to that. "My.. I mean, our father.. died when we were young." "Really? Who taught you how to fight, then? Oh, yes, tutors, of course." "Um, not really, we just-" "Ladies," I heard the announcer guy call. "When your name is called, please come forward and meet the prince, and his.." "Sister, Kumei," The prince told the announcer guy. "His sister, Kumei!" He announced. Everyone clapped, and I watched as the girls all lined up and came up when they were called. A bunch of girls were called, and in the crowds, I saw Drizella and Anastasia. Where the hell was Cinderella? Ack, Drizella and Anastasia saw me. They started pointing at me and screaming some incoherent stuff. "Do you know them?" The prince asked. "No," I shrugged. "Listen, I have to go.." What's that thing they said in The Black Knight again? Oh, yeah. "To the loo. Do you mind?" The prince laughed, "Of course not. It's to the right from here."

I ran to the right, looking around for prettyboy. Where the hell was that- "Ow!" I was grabbed to the side by my arm. I glared at Riku. "Why'd you have to do that, you stupid prettyboy?!" "Well, if you would stop dancing with random people for a moment.. Why didn't you tell me you knew the prince?" "I didn't think it was that important," I muttered. "Besides, you did your job, right? Now I just gotta look for Cinderella." "How do you expect to do that?" He gave me an incredulous look. I resisted the urge to kick him. "There are about a thousand girls here." "Quiet, idiot," I told him. "I'll know it's her when I see her. Here's how it's going to work, you see." "Look, it's those ugly girls from the dressmaker's shop." I looked to where the prince was and saw Drizella and Anastasia fumbling around like idiots towards the prince. I stifled a chuckle as the prince cringed.

"Anyway," I looked back to Riku as I spoke, and he watched the prince as he listened. Well, he better have been listening, or I'm gonna kick his ass. "Here's how I know it's going to go. The young prince bowing to the assembly. Suddenly, he stops. He looks up. For, lo, there she stands. The girl of his dreams. Who she is or whence she came, he knows not, nor does he care.." I smiled. "For his heart tells him that here, here is the maid that is predestined to be his bride." I held my cheek. It felt fuzzy. I shook my head vigorously and shook the thoughts out of my head while doing so. "No, no.. A pretty plot for fairy tales. But in real life.. oh.. No, it's foredoomed to failure." "Shut up and look," The prettyboy said, grabbing me by the wrist and dragging me to the back of the hall. The hell? How dare he tell me to shut up! I was about to yell at him, when he covered my mouth and pointed towards the prince.. and Cinderella! Wait, that wasn't her ball gown. But that was definitely her. I wonder what happened? "When do we grab her?" "When I cause the commotion.. later. C'mon." I followed them behind the curtains before the Grand Duke popped out of nowhere and closed them, prettyboy following suit. I heard the old woman's voice, but she was unimportant now.

The two continued dancing, even without the music. How cute. Not really. Maybe they heard music in their own heads and they were dancing to it. Which would be really freaky. _DING_! I heard the clocktower boom. _DONG_! "It's midnight," She suddenly said, standing up from their sitting by the stairs.. Or the fountain. I couldn't really see from my hiding spot. "Yes," the prince smiled. "So it is." "Goodbye," She turned away. What the frickin'- "Goodbye? But you can't go now." "What the hell is going on?" Prettyboy asked. I shrugged, "Like hell I'd know. Cinderella just started acting up." "Oh, I must, please," Cinderella pulled her arm from the prince. "But why?" He asked. "Uh, well, uh... the Prince. I haven't met the Prince." I think I just choked on my own saliva. How could she not know that that was the prince?! "The Prince?... but didn't you know.." "I must go," Cinderella interrupted. "I'm sorry!" She ran off. "Wait! I don't even know your name! How will I find you?" He chased after her, running past me and the prettyboy (was I invisible now?). "After them!" I told Riku. "You go meet Cinderella by the entrance. Grab her then! I'll distract the prince."

Prettyboy nodded and I ran after the prince. I ran past him, and almost caught up to Cinderella. Holy crap, the Grand Duke was after her, too. "Run, Cinderella!" I shrieked. "Kumei?" She looked back, and one of her glass slippers came off. She tried to go back for it. "Forget about that! Just go!" I shouted. She nodded, then ran down the stairs. I turned to the prince. The Grand Duke had gone after Cinderella, but I'm sure she could outrun that old man. "Kumei? Why did you-" "Sorry, bro," I put my left hand on his shoulder, then socked him. "No hard feelings, okay?" I grabbed him by the arms and dragged his unconscious body up the stairs. What am I going to do with this guy? I heard the sound of running behind me, and panicked. Just run! I ran down the stairs. "Kumei!" I heard to my left, and saw prettyboy standing over an unconscious Cinderella. I ran to him. "Where's the Grand Duke?" "He ran past," Prettyboy replied, catching his breath. I nodded, and picked Cinderella up. "I can-" "Do it myself," I interrupted. As if on cue, a portal whooooshed itself in front of us, and prettyboy looked to me. "Ready to go?"

"Duh," I rolled my eyes. I moved to step into the portal, and saw prettyboy looking back. "What's that look for?" "What look?" He asked. "That stupid thing on your face, idiot." He glared at me, but I ignored it. "This world.." He spoke. "It's about to.." "About to what?" "Be overtaken." My eyes widened as those ants- those Shadow Heartless suddenly started appearing from the kingdom, entering the castle gates. "Go!" I pushed prettyboy into the portal, and ran into it myself. Ugh. I shivered as we were back in Maleficent's crib. Everytime I went through Maleficent's portals, it was cold and I had a terribly empty feeling. "Oh, I see you _found_ her." Maleficent chuckled. "Yeah," I muttered, setting Cinderella on the table in front of me. What? She was my age. She was _damn_ heavy. "Good," Maleficent nodded. "Now, for your next world-" "Next world?" I raised an eyebrow. "What about my payment?" "Oh, you'll get it," Maleficent pat me on the shoulder. I moved away from her. Don't touch me, old lady who sounds like old woman from Cinderella's world. "But you'll have to earn it. For the world I'm going to send you into next, there is a girl named Aurora. Capture her."

"I'm guessing that's _your_ world?" I raised an eyebrow. "Why and how would you come to that inference?" Maleficent replied. "Because you're not all 'bring her to me because I wanna help her'' and stuff. Plus you've got your weird angry look on... Well, whatever. Portal." Maleficent seemed to stiffen, but held her staff up, and a portal appeared. "C'mon, prettyboy." I called. I want to see my father already.

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There's the update! Review if you liked it, please! (: Sorry again that it took so long for me to update!!


	4. For the good of mankind, huh?

Prequel to When Somebody Loves a Nobody: Naturally frustrated and angry, Kumei is enraged at the thought of having to save the worlds. But when she meets a certain Leonhart, maybe she'll change her mind..?

fire spirit: Hehe, yeah, sorta..

Angel Of Blacksouls: He (Leon) took a gummi ship to Cinderella's world when they found that there some Heartless there.

Once upon a dream is stuck in my head. Blaaaaargh. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this!

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"Just a moment," Maleficent called. I rolled my eyes outwardly and turned around. "What _now_?" "Bring this," She handed me a spinning wheel. I gave her an incredulous look. "What the hell do you want me to do with this? Prick her finger on her sixteenth birthday?" "Exactly," Maleficent grinned. I sighed, "Whatever." "Oh, this, too," She handed me a five glowing green balls. "And what the hell is that?" I raised an eyebrow. "It's magic. You may use it as you will. The effects will astound you." "I'm sure they'll be grand," I muttered, grabbing the balls (that sounds wrong) as well. The spinning wheel suddenly shrunk and jumped into my pocket. "The he-" "It'll return to its normal size when the time comes," Maleficent laughed. "Riiiight," I motioned for Riku to follow me before Maleficent could blab anything else, and we were right in front of a kingdom. Behind us was a forest. "Jeez, castles again?" I complained. "The fun never ends," Riku smirked, standing up and offering a hand. I slapped it away as I stood up myself. "Hmm... I better get to it, then." I walked towards the kingdom, and Riku followed suit. "You mean we." I turned around, giving him a smirk of my own.

"There is no _we_."

The town was bustling. Seriously. After prettyboy and I changed into our medieval clothes(as in the clothes I bought for the two of us in Cinderella's world), we entered the town. Everyone was running around, preparing food and wrapping gifts. "What's up?" Riku asked one of the girls about Sora's age running around. "Oh," The girl paused, turning red. "Oh." Riku and I looked at each other oddly, then to the girl. "Um, hello?" Riku waved his hand in front of her face. "Oh! Sorry.." The girl looked down shyly. Damn. Did she actually like the prettyboy? "Uh, what's up?" Riku asked again. The girl looked up. "Um.. The sky? It is rather cloudy today..." I stopped myself from laughing and started walking away. "Way to go, prettyboy.."

I cleared my throat. "Um, hello," I said to the woman in the bakery. "What are all these.." I looked at all the food she was baking. "...Preparations for?" "Oh!" The woman giggled. "You don't know? They're for the princess Aurora!" Oh, a princess. Of course. I stared at the woman in curiosity. "Princess Aurora, huh? Well, where is she now?" "Nobody knows," The woman told me. "When she was still a baby, an evil witch..." She now turned the volume of her voice to negative 99999999, "An evil witch, Maleficent, cursed her because she wasn't invited to the princess' birthday celebration. The princess would die before the sunset of her sixteenth birthday by pricking her finger on the needle of a spinning wheel. Fauna and Flora, the green and the red fairies, had already given their gifts so they could not give any more. And Merryweather, the blue fairy, couldn't undo the curse, but she said that the princess would not die. She would just fall asleep, until true love's kiss awoke her. But just in case, King Stefan had all the spinning wheels in the kingdom destroyed, and the princess was taken away, until her sixteenth birthday." Hmm. Maleficent _was_ a bitch- do pardon my french. "I see. Thank you," I smiled, then left the bakery. That was weird.

"So, did you find anything out?" Riku asked as I sat on one of the chairs in front of an inn in front of him. "Of course. I have a use, unlike you," I laughed, earning another glare from the prettyboy. "Anyway, Aurora's... somewhere.." "Yeah, that's real useful," Riku chuckled. "Shut up and let me finish, idiot," I stepped on his foot. "Aurora's outside the kingdom, maybe the forest. I'll go look for her tomorrow. What did you find out?" "Well, the prince from the neighboring kingdom and his father are here. Prince Phillip and King Hubert. He's arranged to marry Aurora." "Uh huh.." I nodded, then lit up. "I have a plan!" "Please don't let it be the whole 'make the prince your friend' act." "You read my mind." I grinned, then gasped. "You can read!" He rolled his eyes, then stood up. "Fine." "Great!" I stood up. "Now, run along, you idiotic little prettyboy. I'll look for a place to sleep tonight, and start looking for Aurora tomorrow." "Why not now?" "Because it's her birthday tomorrow and I'm too lazy to look now. Now go away." He snorted, and stomped off to the castle, where that Prince Phillip most likely was. Oh well. At least this prince had a name.

A few minutes after Riku ran off towards the castle, a beautiful woman with nice clothing (considering everyone else had horrible clothes because of that whole no-more-spinning-wheels thing) surrounded by ladies-in-waiting entered the scene. Everyone greeted her or ran up to her and bowed or curtsied. So she's the queen. I guess I'm going to have to look for a girl turning my age that looks like her. "Hello," Someone greeted. I looked up- "Um, hello," I stood up and curtsied. "Your Majesty." The Queen smiled. "Where did you get such beautiful clothing?" I looked to my dress. Oh crap, they looked nice. On me, anyway. "Oh, this old thing?" I laughed nervously. "It's been in our family for.. well.. _ages_! I just wash it really good. Wanna see me wash stuff?" The Queen laughed, "I suppose. How would you like to serve in my castle.. washing clothes? I'll pay you much." "That.. er.." People from all around stared at me. Stop staring or I'll poke your eyes out. "That would be an honor!" I curstied again. The Queen clapped her hands. "Wonderful! Come!"

Hey... What did I just get myself into?

"You know, it's really an honor, being asked by the Queen herself to wash clothes," one of the servants in the castle told me as she watched me wash the curtains. "...Of course," I muttered, washing as fast as I could. Five million years of washing cloth was what I got myself into. "Well, I better help the master chef with the food. I'll see you later!" The girl ran off, and I just waved a hand at her. Whatever. I rubbed my hand on my face in annoyance. Oh well... at least I have somewhere to sleep now. I wonder if prettyboy found any place to stay? Not that I cared. "We're getting typecasted, your Majesty. Why am I always the soldier, and why are you always the maid?" I looked up and flipped Riku the bird. "Quiet, soldier. Find a place to stay? Meet the prince?" He nodded. "Yep. Well, I'm not exactly a soldier.. I'm the youngest soldier _again_, next to the prince, who isn't technically a soldier, so I'm like his protege or something of a whatever. I'm going to the forest with him tomorrow, he wants to go exploring or something." "Right. Don't care." "RIKU!" I heard someone's voice echoing across the dark hallways. "Oh, that's him," Riku pointed to the door. "That's nice. I'll see you tomorrow," I finished the conversation, and Riku ran off.

"Kumei, you make me think.. of how my daughter would be like if she were here now." The Queen said, brushing my hair. Don't ask. She just suddenly called me to their chambers and told me to sit down. She took my pigtails down and started brushing my hair, just like that. I'm tellin' ya, the people here are _weirdo_s. "H-haha, really? Well, I.. You.. You remind me of how.. maybe.. my mother should have been." "Oh.. Where is your mother? How was she like?" "She kept secrets from me all the time. I never felt loved around her. She's gone now. I don't know where she is.. After my father left us, I've.. Well.. I suppose I've felt all alone this whole time." "I see.. You and your brother must have had it very hard." "Oh yes, it- My brother? How.. how do you know about him?" I asked, turning around. The Queen smiled. "Prince Phillip asked about it earlier! He has this new friend, you see- his name is Riku. He's your brother, isn't he? You have the same attitude.." What?! That little **freak** said we were siblings _again_?!

I am so going to kick his ass. "Yes," I forced a smile. "We look sort of alike, don't we?" The Queen nodded. "Yes... I don't know if it is my place, but... You both have the same sad, longing smile.." I stopped. Prettyboy and me? Something in common? Sad... longing... smile? "Oh," I nodded. "It's.. all right.. I suppose." The Queen smiled again, "Oh! And the chamberlain said that this oddly dressed man with long brown hair, almost as long as your brother's came by this morning, was looking for you! He kept asking around the town for you, one of my ladies-in-waiting told me. He was in quite a panic." "Really?" I asked. "I don't know anyone like that..." You're blowing our cover, Leron! Or.. something. Why couldn't I remember his name?! "Maybe," the Queen giggled. "He's admiring you from afar." "Haha, no," I laughed. "Nobody would admire _me_ for anything.." "Oh, don't say that, I-" "Darling," King Stefan called. "Are you coming to bed?" "Oh, yes, of course, dear." The Queen turned to me. "Time flies, doesn't it? It does feel quite embarrassing, just dismissing you and-" "It's okay, your Majesty," I curtsied out of their huge room. "It's.. perfectly fine."

I entered the room assigned to me and found two beds. Hm, I think I'll take the one by the wind- Grr. Who is this, sleeping on _my_ bed?! I stomped over to the bed-stealer, and- Ugh. It's the prettyboy. Oh well, I wouldn't put bed-stealing past him, anyway. I'm too lazy to make him get up and move now. I guess.. I'll take a rest, too. _"Come on," He laughed, holding my hand. Who was _he_? Whoever he was, he pulled me towards a meadow. There was nothing really special about it. "So..." He took me to sit down on a patch of the meadow where there weren't any flowers. Still, he picked one- an iris, my favorite flower, and placed it on my right ear. "How have you been? No one has been hurting you, right? Because if they do, they better get ready." I looked to his face. Well, I tried, anyway. It was too bright. "Who... are you?" I know he looked at me as he stroked my cheek. "You don't remember me? But you said... You'd remember my name. Who I was." "I- I- of course I remember," I took his hand before he could take it away from my cheek. "I.. will, anyway. Don't leave.." He stood from his seat and walked over to me. He embraced me from behind. "I won't.." He whispered into my ear. "I'll never leave you. But for now, I want you to.." "To what?" "I want you to.. wake up."_

"Wake up, hey," Someone was shaking me by the feet. I kicked the person. Thanks for ruining my dream, dumbass. "Ow!" I lazily opened my eyes and saw Riku. Oh, it's just him. I sat up, looking around. Oh yeah, I was in Maleficent's world. Her homeworld, I mean. Not in her crazy little world (meaning her messed up **head**)where she rules everything or something like that. "Quiet," I threw a pillow at Riku's face. He was ranting about me abusing him or something. I stood from my bed and changed into my dress (I had changed into my normal clothing for the night), walking out of the room. "Where're you going? Working already?" Riku asked, grabbing my arm. "You can look, but you can't touch," I pulled my arm back. "I'm going to the forest to look for our beloved princess Aurora. If they ask you where I am, well, you have no idea. Got it?" "Yeah," Riku muttered, changing into his medieval clothing. "See you later."

What was I looking for again? Oh yeah, a pretty girl who looked like the Queen. I saw Prince Phillip a while ago. His lips are freakay. I walked around aimlessly (I don't know if I've been going around in circles...) for about half an hour until I heard someone speaking the human language. "Oh dear, why do they still treat me like a child?" I ran towards the voice, and saw a pretty blonde girl (why were they all blonde, or at least, near it?) sitting by the trunk of a tree wearing peasant clothes (whaaat?), holding a basket of berries. Animals crowded round her. "Who?" I asked, and an owl did as well. Aurora looked up and saw me. "Oh!" I smiled, "Hello." She looked at me. "Who- who are you?" "My name is Hakumei." "Hakumei? That is an odd name.. I'm Briar Rose." Oh, and she says **my** name is weird. "Well, of course it's odd," I laughed. "I'm.. er.. a wood sprite!" And wait. Briar Rose? Wasn't her name Aurora? "A wood sprite?" Aurora asked, standing up and looking at me. "Well, you are awfully tall.. And you have such a beautiful dress.. And you have leaves stuck in your hair..." What!? Leaves?! I quickly tried to brush the leaves away. "Haha, of course... Wood sprite, that's me! Now, what was your problem?"

"Oh," Aurora -or Briar Rose, whatever, I'm sure this was her- sighed. "Aunt Flora, Aunt Fauna, and Aunt Merryweather never want me to meet anyone." I nodded, "I see.. They never want you to know anything, right? They'd rather be.. in control.. of what you know." "Yes!" Aurora nodded. "Yes, that's exactly what I meant!" I smiled, "Yeah, I know how you feel." "But." Aurora suddenly said. I raised an eyebrow. "But what?" "I fooled them!" "Really. How?" "Oh, I met a prince," Aurora sighed dreamily. Did she meet Prince Phillip already? I nodded to show that I was listening. "What was he like?" "Well, he's tall and handsome and... and so romantic. Oh! We walked together, and talked together, and just before we say goodbye, he takes me in his arms, and then... I wake up." "Oh. It was a dream... I know how that feels, too." "Yes," Aurora shook her head. "It was only in my dreams. But they say if you dream a thing more than once, it's sure to come true. And I've seen him so many times!"

I watched in amusement as the animals behind Aurora flew off, then came back with a feathered cap, a cape, and a pair of boots. This should be amusing... Aurora seemed to have seen me, as she looked behind her. "What're you looking a- oh!" She and I started to laugh. "Oh! It's my dream prince!" I chuckled and found myself able to jump and sit on a branch of the tree Aurora was sitting by. "Your highness! No, I'm really not supposed to talk to strangers... But we've met before!" Oh, yes. This girl was crazy. The animals in the clothing bowed, and Aurora curtsied. I hung onto a nearby branch, bursting into laughter and clapping merrily as they started dancing. "I know you, I've walked with you once upon a dream! I know you, the gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam..." "And I know it's true," I continued. "That visions are seldom all they seem! But if I know you, I know what you'll do! You'll love me at once, they way you did once upon a dream..." I stopped as I saw Prince Phillip grabbing the animals, setting them aside, and dancing with Aurora herself. "But if I know you," Aurora thought that I stopped because it was her turn, "I know what you'll do! You'll love me at once, the way you did-" "Once upon a dream." The prince finished. Way to go, Prince Phillip.

"Oh?" Aurora turned around and saw him. "Oh!" Aurora tried to run off, but Prince Phillip grabbed her arm. Was that some kind of prince-thing which every prince did in every world? "I'm awfully sorry," Prince Phillip apologized. "I didn't mean to frighten you." "Oh, it wasn't that," Aurora shook her head. She was totally smitten. "It's just that you're a.." "A stranger?" I slapped my forehead. "Nice move," I muttered. "Yeah, he's a real smooth operator," Someone said from beside me. "Holy-!" I glared at Riku as he held me up on the branch. "What're _you_ doing here?" I asked, fixing my seat on the branch. "I'm supposedly going around with the Prince, remember? He ditched me with his horse, Samson. I ditched Samson." "Nice," I nodded, then turned to look at the couple. "But don't you remember? We've met before!" Phillip said. "We... We have?" Aurora looked up. "Of course, you said it yourself. Once upon a dream!" "That was pathetic," I commented. "It's romantic to them," Riku said, pointing to Aurora, as she stared at Phillip dreamily. "I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream!" The prince started singing. Oh, no.

The two ended up with Phillip's arm around Aurora, as they stared off into the wild yonder... Or somewhere. I couldn't really see. Or hear. Stupid prettyboy. "So, how do we grab her?" I groaned. "Will you stop saying that? You're making it sound as if we're some kind of kidnappers!" He stared at me like this TT. "Technically, we _are_ kidnappers." "Working for a good cause!" I exclaimed. "Wait. Not _you_." "I'm doing it for Sora, Kumei. How can it not be a good cause?" "Because he's a brat," I shrugged. "Ugh," Riku rolled his eyes. "You're such a girly girl." I teased. Suddenly, Aurora started running off, and Phillip, being like Cinderella's prince, just had to go after her. She said something about meeting in the cottage, then ran off. "You better get leavin', too," I told Riku. "Before our dear Prince Phillip finds out you ditched his horse in the lake."

After Riku left, I walked in the direction Aurora ran off to, and later on found myself at a cottage. In a glen. I heard someone crying- I slowly crept to the window, and saw Aurora crying and running to her room. What now? "And we thought she'd be so happy," This short woman in a blue dress said. I muttered in annoyance and climbed the tree near Aurora's bedroom window, then crawled on the branch until I finally fell into it. Ugh. Humans were not evolved from gorillas so they could climb trees. If I ever meet a freak who can climb trees as good as gorillas, if not better, I'll congratulate him tons. "Oh? How did you get here?" Aurora asked, stopping her crying a bit. "I'm.." I groaned and sat up. "A wood sprite, remember? Though it does hurt when I crash into rooms through windows.. Anyway, what's wrong?" "My aunts.. I just found out I'm betrothed, to a prince!" "I thought you _wanted_ a prince." "Oh no, not anymore. I just want to see him. That stranger in the forest... A-anyway, they're taking me to the castle this afternoon, so I can see my parents again.. But I- I'll have to get married to the prince!" She started bawling once more. I rubbed her back, "There, there... I know!" She looked up, still sniffing. "What is it?" "I'll find your stranger. And later... When they take you to the castle to prepare, I'll take him there, too!" She gasped. "You would do that?" "Of course!" I smiled. "I'm a wood sprite. Everything I do is for the good of mankind."

"Okay, I convinced her that her 'stranger' would be coming to the palace, so you gotta get Phillip there!" I said, running towards the Queen and the King's chamber. "Your Majesty, here's the one you wanted..!" King Stefan stared at it. "Oh, but this one will make me look fat! I want the yellow one." "Stefan! You've been choosing since she got back!" "Well I'm paying her, aren't I?" Stefan asked. "I can't!" Riku said, bowing to the King and Queen and catching up with me. "Phillip ran off!" I stopped rummaging through the King's clothing and turned around to stare at Riku. "What?!" "He said he wanted to marry the 'peasant girl', and I couldn't tell him that it was Aurora!" "And why not?" "Because he'd suspect _why_ I knew." "Good point," I muttered, grabbing the 'yellow one' the King wanted. I ran towards their chamber again and gave it to the King. "Yes!" He cheered. "Thank you, child. You may take a break." I curtsied and ran out of their room. "...What do we do?" Riku asked. I sighed, scratching my head. "I can still get Aurora to follow me, and then I can get her to prick her finger on the spinning wheel somehow." "How?" "Just leave it to me, okay? **You** concentrate on getting Phillip back. He'll probably be in the cottage later- tie him up there, then come back to the castle. I'll be waiting with our Sleeping Beauty."

Damn it, this was hard, but for some reason, I was able to jump up the castle walls quickly that afternoon. Must be a perk with this Twilight Keyblade thing. I crashed into Aurora's window again. She looked beautiful in her blue dress (one which was completely unlike Cinderella's), but her features held a weary look. "Oh! You're here," Aurora stood, watching me as I got up. I dusted myself off, and gave her a thumbs up. "...Follow me," I told her, and I walked over to the fireplace. I took one of the glowing green balls and held it in my hand. "What's that?" Aurora asked. I looked to her. "Oh, this... It's magic." "I've never seen magic before..." Aurora whispered, mesmerized by the sphere. "Now you have," I replied, and the green sphere floated in my hand, and got rid of the fireplace, instead creating a path into a tower I imagined in my sick, sick head. "Where does this lead?" "To a certain room," I answered. "Rose, Rose! Where are you, Rose?" I heard the fairies shouting. "Hurry," I grabbed Aurora by the wrist and pulled her up the stairs. "Were those-" "Your _aunts_..." I frowned. "They know I'm taking you to that man. They must've heard me! They're trying to force you to marry that prince, Aurora..." "I won't let them," Aurora clenched her fist, and even dragged me up the stairs. She looked around. "Where is he?" "You have to activate my magic. Only true love will," I convinced her, taking the spinning wheel out. It went back to its original size, and I laid it in front of her. "To activate it, you must touch the spindle." "But... why?" I shrugged. "It's what I was taught." She nodded. "I'm going to see him again..."

"Rose! Don't touch anything!" The fairies shrieked, arriving at the top of the stairs.

A bright green light engulfed the room, and once it faded, I looked to the fairies. "Too late, _dears_." I caught Aurora as she fell asleep, and laid her on the floor. "Y-you!" Merryweather pointed her wand at me. "Maleficent?! Why do you have.. Why do you have a different form?" I raised an eyebrow. "I'm not Maleficent." "Then who **are** you?" Fauna asked, stepping forward. I bowed, backing away to the window. "The name's Hakumei, your excellencies... Be seein' ya!" I grabbed a green sphere, gripped it, and was transported to the forest. I was in front of the cottage. I entered it and found Phillip tied up while Riku sat on a chair near him, munching on an apple.

He turned around and saw me. "Finally!" Riku stood. "He won't stop talking." "What do you expect?" I rolled my eyes. "Wouldn't you want to be set free, too?" Riku raised an eyebrow. "What? Don't tell me you're going to let him go. It took me about ten whacks just to get him to stay still." "Of course not," I waved my hand at him. "I have Aurora. No doubt the fairies will set this one free soon. We'll wait by the castle." "For what?" Prettyboy asked. "Him, of course," I pointed to Phillip, who was saying something about us 'never getting away with it'. "Why?" I laughed. "You know why." I used another green sphere to transport me and the prettyboy to the highest room in the tallest tower of the castle. "What're we doing here?" He asked. I pointed to Aurora, who held a rose as she slept. Where were the fairies? Ah, no matter. "Now, we wait." "...Why?" "Because we're going to prove that you can't always get happy endings."

"Riku, Kumei! Come out! Traitors!" The prince said, his voice echoing all around. Apparently, everyone had also fallen asleep. Don't ask me why. "Go," I told Riku. He looked at me. "What?" "I know you've been itching to fight me since Maleficent partnered us up. I won't you because I'm feeling kind right now, so there. Take your anger out on me there." Riku grit his teeth, nodded, and ran down the stairs, through the castle. I saw him face Phillip. It was a horrible fight, really. According to Hiei (some freaky guy from this show I was watching back at Destiny Islands), they were swinging their swords around with the grace of a fly swatter. I shook my head as Phillip struck Riku down. I took Aurora from her bed and jumped from the window down to the two. "That's enough," I stood in front of Riku, who was breathing heavily. I looked to Riku and sighed. "Oh, prettyboy. Don't you know true love conquers all?" Prince Phillip glared at me, but saw Aurora. He stared at her in surprise. I smiled wryly. "Here she is- Princess Aurora. But can you see the gracious whim of fate, Prince Phillip? Why, it's the self same peasant maid, who won the heart of our noble prince but yesterday. She is indeed most wondrous fair. Gold of sunshine in her hair, lips that shame the red, red rose. In ageless sleep she finds repose.."

Phillip slowly walked towards me- rather, to Aurora, but my Twilight Keyblade appeared in my hand and stopped him. "Oh, Prince," I shook my head, feigning disappointment. "Don't you know we're doing this for your own good?" I paused, then laughed. "Haha, I mean, **my** own good." He cleaved his sword down at me, but I dodged and made sure the idiot didn't hit Aurora in the process. "Fool. Don't you know that there's no such thing as happy endings? There's no such thing as _true love_." "You traitor!" He swung his sword, but I held my Keyblade against him, and pushed him back hard, and he fell to the ground. Not much of a battle. "Self-righteous prince. How's your ego _now_?" My Keyblade disappeared, and I turned once more to the prettyboy, throwing him a potion. "Let's go." Another one of Maleficent's portals appeared, and I looked to the forest, hearing odd but familiar sounds. Oh no. Heartless. I grabbed Riku by the hand and dragged him towards the portal. "Come on, idiot!"

I panted as the portal closed just in time before the Heartless could reach us. "Princess Aurora," Maleficent said bitterly, as I set her on the same platform I did Cinderella. "Get over it, lady," I dismissed her with my hand, and prettyboy stood up. "Just tell me the next job so I can get it over with and see my dad." Maleficent finally calmed down and nodded. "Her name is Belle." "Lemme guess," I sighed, knowing this all too well. "Princess or soon-to-be, right?"

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Here's the update! Sorry I keep switching from 'prettyboy' to 'Riku'. Earlier on, I kept typing prettyboy so much that I forgot who I was talking about! Anyway, I hope you liked it. :) Review if you did, please! Or just review. I like feedback.


	5. Bonjour, Tentatots!

Prequel to When Somebody Loves a Nobody: Naturally frustrated and angry, Kumei is enraged at the thought of having to save the worlds. But when she meets a certain Leonhart, maybe she'll change her mind..?

**fire spirit**: Haha, here it is.

**Angel of Blacksouls:** I dunno if I answered this question in the last chapter, but I'll answer it again just in case. He uses a gummi ship, of course! He doesn't care about the 'world border', in Goofy's words when looking for someone who holds a Keyblade and is probably going to get killed by Heartless. Still he decides to bum around while Sora and co. do all the work.

**Kalandrya**: Thank you, that means a lot. (: Here's another read! It probably won't match the others, though, because my the muscles in my eyes were sorta immobilized or something like that when I was typing this, so I was practically kissing the screen. Plus it was so hot that I kept complaining, which explains why Kumei is equally angry in this update.

I'll stop talking now. Review if you like it, please! Or if you want to. Also, thank you for those who read my Legend of Zelda story! Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I haven't even updated our YYH story in quizilla or helped my friend do her Naruto one. Sorry who read those, too. I've been pretty lazy (like Leon, Squall, whatever) and when I'm not I'm kissing the screen with Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii).

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Maleficent laughed. "You learn fast. As of now, she might as well be a peasant. She is poor, but a Princess of the Heart. Do whatever it is you do and bring her here immediately." Maleficent opened a portal, and I scoffed, mocking a curtsey. "Yes, madame. Yeesh." I pushed Riku out of my way just as he was about to enter the portal. He rubbed his neck and glared at me. "See you there," I smirked, and hopped in. Once again, portals are annoying. I'm never ever going to use one even if I could. Ugh. Now, where the hell am I? I looked around and saw this girl whose brown hair was tied with a blue lace, carrying a basket. She didn't seem to notice me. Hmm, didn't look like much of a peasant. Just normal. Well, I'll follow her and see if she can bring me to this Belle. A sigh escaped her lips. "Little town.. It's a quiet village. Every day, like the one before.." Why did everybody have to break into song, making **me** break into song? "Little town, full of little people. Waking up to say.."

"Bonjour!"

Ack!

"Bonjour!"

Ack!

"Bonjour!"

Okay..

"Bonjour!"

"Bonjour!"

Just stop it.. "There goes the baker with his tray like always! The same old bread and rolls to sell.. Every morning just the same, since the morning that we came, to this poor provincial town.." "Good morning, Belle!" Belle!? I looked at the baker-looking man, bug-eyed. Where? "Morning, monsieur!" The girl I was following replied. Crap! That was Belle? And where the hell was the prettyboy? Stupid Riku.. "Where are you off to?" "The bookshop!" Belle said with much enthusiasm. "I just finished the most wonderful story, about a beanstalk, and and ogre, and.." Hey, I've heard that story before.. "Uh.. That's nice. Marie!" He yelled towards the bakery. "The baguettes! Hurry up!" Poor Belle. I hate it when people interrupt me. Belle sighed and walked off, and someone tapped me from behind. "Look, there she goes that girl is strange no question, dazed and distracted can't you tell?" A bunch of people asked me. "What the-?" I gave them all weird looks and followed Belle. "Never part of any crowd!" Some lady whispered to me. "'Cause her head's up on some cloud.." A man nodded in agreement. "No denying she's a funny girl, that Belle!" Those group of people said again. Sheesh, now I know how it feels to have everyone around you break into song.

Belle hopped onto the back of a wagon which went around town, and I was forced to follow. A bunch of people were yelling at each other, and one lady even grabbed me by the shoulders, shrieking, "I need.. six eggs!" I looked at her with a seriously o.O'd look and pushed her off me. "There must be more than this provincial life!" Belle sang to herself. Stupid feet.. Go faster! She hopped off the wagon and entered the bookshop. I didn't follow her inside, because the bookseller might notice me. Plus, he and Belle were actually having a normal conversation. I think. I saw three guys peering at Belle through the window. Pervs. I'm gonna- Ack! She's leaving! "Look there she goes, that girl is so peculiar! I wonder if she's feeling well.." "Pervs!" I kicked one of them and followed Belle. "With a dreamy far off look!" Some women added. "And her nose stuck in a book!" "What a puzzle to the rest of us is Belle.." Yeah, 'cause you're all stupid.. And can't read, probably. Belle walked over to a fountain, showing the book to some sheep. Hehe, they ate some pages.. "Ohh.. Isn't this amazing? It's my favorite part because you see.." She lifted the book a little and I saw the cov- Hey! Hey! I know that book!

"Here's where she meets Prince Charming.." "But she won't discover that it's him 'till chapter three!" I covered my mouth as Belle looked at me with widened eyes. "...Um.. Right?" Belle stood up and smiled, "Who are you? My name is Belle. I've never met anyone- well, any girl, anyway, who likes reading books, too." "Hakumei's the name, kidnappi- um, well, I don't play too many games." Belle laughed and we started walking somewhere (I wouldn't know, she was leading). Random people were still singing. Weirdos. "So.. Do people always sing in your town everyday?" Belle sighed. "Yes.. They think I can't hear them, but I just try to ignore them, really.." I nodded, "Oh. Some of them were grabbing me out of nowhere and shrieking or singing in my face." Belle started laughing. "Really? Well, the more they think you notice them, or the more you notice them, the more they'll do that to you. Such is this provincial town.." "Ah.. Well, what do you propose I do?" "Ignore them, naturally," Belle chuckled. "Hmm, good idea," I nodded and grinned. I wonder if she was going to be easy. There was this guy not too far behind us singing about loving Belle.. Seemed like an all brawn and no brains kind of guy. "Hey, go ahead."

She looked at me weirdly, but nodded. I saw these three girls who looked the same, just with different colored dresses. "Look, there! He goes! Isn't he dreamy?" They sang to me, sighing and staring at the guy I was talking about earlier. "Monsieur Gaston! Oh, he's so cute!" Oh, so that's his name.. "Be still! My heart! I'm hardly breathing!" Frickin' drama queens.. I covered two girls' mouths, and the last one just stared at me wide-eyed. "He's such an ugly, over-bulky brute!" I burst out laughing and ran away from them as they "Ugh!"ed and tried throwing water at me. I grabbed the ledge of a roof and jumped on it (whoa, since when could I do that?), hopping off houses to reach Belle. Ack! Stop singing, people! I finally reached Belle's level, jumping off the house and landing in front of her. I grabbed her by the wrist, because Gaston was coming closer. "There's something more than this provincial life!" "Just watch, I'm going to make Belle my wife!" Gaston roared. "Look, there she goes that girl who's strange but special.." "And an even weirder mademoiselle!" A woman pointed out. What!? Weird**er**!? I'm gonna kick yer-

"It's a pity and a sin, that she, too, won't fit in!" "'Cause she made friends with that funny girl.." "A beauty _but_ funny girl, she really is a funny girl.. That.. Beeeeeeeeelle!" The town shrieked, then stopped. "Okay.." My eye twitched. "That was weird." Belle laughed, then looked to me. "Did you really mean it? There's something.. somewhere.. Better than this?" I nodded, "Yeah! There are other wor-" "Hello, Belle." I glared at the man who interrupted me- I mean, brute. Le faggot- Gaston. "Bonjour, Gaston." Belle replied, then frowned as Gaston grabbed her book. "Gaston, may I have my book back, please?" Wow, she was nice. If somebody took my book or any of my things like that, they'd be on the ground and twitching like a fish out of water. A bloody fish out of water. Organs spilling and all. The idiot finally noticed me. "Who are you, little girl?" If my ears could blow steam, they just did. "Little!? You little-!! I'm almost sixteen, you jerk! You're more or less four years older than me! I'll show you little-" "Hakumei, calm down," Belle pat me on the shoulders. I looked at her, nostrils flared, but did as she said. This bastard was lucky she was here, or I'd whack him with that Key I had.

Gaston looked at me weirdly. "Odd girl.. And how can you read this? There's no pictures!" I gave Gaston a weird look this time. Positively primeval. "Well, some people use their imaginations," Belle explained. Why did she bother? "Belle, it's about time you got your head out of those books.." He tossed the book into the mud. That- "-and paid attention to more important things.. Like me! The whole town's talking about it. It's not right for a woman to read-- soon she starts getting ideas.. And thinking. Like this little girl who suddenly appeared out of nowhere." He pointed to me. "Not a good example. You should stay away from her." Well, he was right there, heh. Belle frowned at Gaston, picking her book up. "Gaston, you are positively primeval." Told you. "Why thank you, Belle," Gaston chuckled. Uh.. Right. "Hakumei, would you like to come over and meet my father?" "Sure," I grinned. Gaston leaned on Belle and grinned, too. "Hey, whaddya say you and me take a walk over to the tavern and have a look at my hunting trophies?"

"Haha, maybe some other time," I pushed Gaston away from Belle and grabbed her hand. I started dragging her in the direction we were going a while ago, but Gaston grabs her, too. "Oh, come on, Belle! Are you really going to follow that crazy girl or me?" Crazy? CRAZY!? Belle held me back again. "I can't," she said. "I have to get home and help my father." "Ha ha ha, that crazy old loon? He'll need all the help he can get!" A short man with buckteeth burst into laughter. Gaston joins in, and Belle frowns. "Don't you talk about my father that way!" Gaston then stops and conks the short guy on the head. "Yeah, don't you talk about her father that way!" "My father's not crazy! He's a genius!" Belle insisted, and suddenly, there were some explosions heard in the background. What the-? I turned around and saw the house- probably Belle's house- and smoke excessively coming through the roof. Gaston and the buckteeth guy start laughing again, and Belle gasps. "Papa!"

"Bastards," I curse at them, and step on their feet. Well, Gaston's feet. I kick the buckteeth guy in the stomach and run after Belle. She almost glides down the stairs into the basement. "Papa?"

"How on earth did that happen? Dog gonnit!" An old, white haired man grumbled. He was kinda like the prince's dad, except I think this old man had a little more self control. Just a bit. "Are you all right, Papa?" Belle asked, checking her father for any wounds. "I'm about ready to give up on this hunk of junk!" Her father complained, kicking the odd contraption in front of us. It was then that he noticed me. "Who is this, Belle?" He asked with a smile. "A new friend?" Belle looked to me, "Oh, yes. Hakumei, meet my father. Papa, meet Hakumei." "Honor to meet you, sir," I offered my hand, and he smiled and shook it. Nice guy. Too bad he's going to lose his daughter once I find that idiot prettyboy. "And it's a pleasure to meet you too, Haku- Oh! Hakumei!" Belle and I looked to each other. "Uh.. Yes?"

"A handsome, nice young boy came over just a few minutes ago! He was looking for you. Very frantic.." Belle's dad nodded to himself. "...Silver haired? Green eyes?" I asked. "No, no.." He laughed. "Didn't you see him as you entered? Oh, well. I'll call him." He huffed, and he puffed, and he... "LEON!"..Crap. I heard a clanging of pots and pans above us, and footsteps down to the basement. I fearfully turned around and saw _that_ Leon. Except..

"Hehehe.."

Everyone looked at me weirdly.

"Heehee.. HAHAHAHAHAHA!" I burst into laughter and pointed at Leon. After a few minutes, I finally calmed myself down. "Sorry, sorry," I apologized to Belle and her father. "I'm just not used to seeing him in.. that.." Belle looked to Leon and raised an eyebrow. "Are those my cooking apron and my potholder?"

I resisted from laughing one more time and stared at Leon. "What're you doing here?"

"Looking for you," He replied, looking away in annoyance. What? He was biting his lip and everything. "If you'll excuse us, Maurice," He said to Belle's dad. "Oh, of course not, Leon. It was wonderful meeting you, Hakumei!" "You will come back, won't you?" Belle asked, tapping me on the shoulder.

"'Course I will," I laughed. "I'll make sure of it.." Leon then made me follow him out of Belle's house and stopped me once we got to the forests. "What do you want, Leon?"

"To know how you've been going around the worlds and why every world you leave suddenly gets overtaken by the Heartless." I glared at Leon. "You think _I'm_ the cause of all this crap happening? In case you've forgotten, **my** world got destroyed too! Doesn't mean I caused it! I'm the wielder of the freakin' Twilight Keyblade. Why would I side with the shitfaces that are trying to kill me!?"

Leon narrowed his eyes at me. "You have a point.. How have you been going around the worlds?" I snorted at this. Shinnyfinny. How am I going to explain that one? "Well.." I sighed. "I was walking around Traverse Town one day, and I saw this black hole. I entered it and poof, I was in that Cinderella world. Sometime later, another black hole appeared, so I entered it again. I was back in Traverse Town. An hour later, new black hole. New world. More black holes. Traverse Town again. Newest black hole, this world."

Leon frowned. "What? You've been using _portals of the darkness_ to go around?" I shrugged, "How should I know?" "Why didn't you tell me sooner, Hakumei?" He asked angrily, shaking my shoulders. I squeezed his hands tight, trying to crush them, and forced him to get them off me. "Sorry, I didn't know you were my mother!" I rolled my eyes. "Look, I didn't know, okay? So get the hell off my back! ..Ow! Hey! Leggo of me!" The jerkface was dragging me towards this huge toybox! "What the heck is that?"

"It's called a gummi ship."

"What the hell kinda name is a 'gummi ship'?"

"Don't know, didn't make it," Leon answered, Suddenly, the toyb- er, the 'gummi ship' opened up and he dragged me into it, too. "Where the hell-"

"You really need to stop dirtying that mouth of yours with all those words." "Yes mother," I groaned, covering my ears as he continued to talk. "Just tell me when we get wherever the hell we are..."

A few minutes (or hours, it sure felt like that) later, I found myself very warm and very.. comfortable.. My arms were wrapped around someone's neck, and whoever this someone was, he was carrying me. I took a deep breath, and was appalled to inhale smoke. My eyes cracked open.. EEK.

"OLD MAN! UGH! YOU SLEAZY WEIRDO!" I jumped out of Cid's arms and **accidentally** kicked him in the face. "Ow! Dammit, Kumei!" He cupped his face in his hands after spitting his cigarette out of his mouth. My eye twitched at Cid. "Why.. The hell.. Were you touching me??" "Don't blame me, jeez," Cid rolled his eyes. "Leon didn't wanna wake you up when you got here, so he asked me to take care of you a bit. **You** were the one who was cold enough to touch **me**." Grrr...

"You're still an old, sleazy geezer. Though geezer speaks for itself. And how long have I been out?"

"A day, and I am not old!" He insisted.

"That's what old people say."

"For the last time, I am NOT OLD."

"Why the last time? Scared you might die of old age already? Don't be so hard on yourself, Cid."

"You are such-"

"Hey, Kumei's awake again!" An annoying but less annoying than Kairi's and Selphie's voices voice says. Oh, it's Poofy. I mean Yuffie.. Heh, Poofy. I like that name. "What, Poofy?" "It's YOOFEE," She pronounced, dropping a bunch of stuff on the table. "What's all that stuff for?" I asked. Yuffie looked to the stuff, then back to me. "Nothin'! Just collecting stuff. Wanna join me?" "I guess.." When I'm bored enough to need a life like you. "Great! I'll go tell Leon you're awake." Cid was still growling, and Yuffie stopped. "Then again, I probably shouldn't leave you alone in a room with anyone, since you might end up killing them of high blood pressure.. Why don't you just go tell Leon you're awake? He's by the first district." "How about..." I backed away, towards the door leading _some_where, and opened it. "..Not?" It was a terrace kind of thing, and I hopped off it. "No, Kumei, come back!" Yuffie yelled, running to the terrace. "There're Heartless there.."

Haha, don't care. I turned right and took another one, entered the door I saw there, and found myself back in the second district. Where'd I first see that old hag again? ...Right, right. Third district. I entered the same door I did yesterday and I was once again in the third district. Hmm.. How could I contact the old hag? I felt something in my pockets. Oh, yeah! The two green spheres I had left. I took one out and commanded it to create a portal to Maleficent for me. It did just that, and I was warped into a barely-lit room. How Maleficent-y.. Where the hell is she, though? I heard something close and turned to my right. A tall shadow closed the door, and I realized it was Maleficent leaving the room. Argh. I looked around and realized that the things that barely lit the place were tubes.. Three were empty while four others had something in them... Waitaminute. Some**one**! Well, somefours, but whatever. I walked towards the tubes to take a closer look.. I almost felt guilty. In the four tubes were Cinderella, Aurora, Belle... And some girl that looked at least thirteen years old. When the hell..?

"Took you long enough," A prettyboy's voice surprised me from behind. "Turns out I work better when I'm alone." I turned around and raised an eyebrow at Riku. "You got that last kid on your own? And why so young? Going homosexual _and_ pedophilic?" "No," Riku frowned. "Maleficent's orders." "Lapdog.." I muttered. "I heard that," He said, but nobody cares, right? "How'd you get Belle and this kid?" I pointed to the two I was referring to. "The kid's name is Snow White. Actually, once I couldn't find you I decided to ditch that world first. Maleficent told me to get this kid first, and she was way easier because some bitch, the Queen of that land, wanted her dead anyway. Found her in this small hut with seven little guys. Got her when they were all sleeping. After that, I went to Belle's world to see if you were back, but you weren't. I decided to get Belle then, but she wasn't in town. She was in this stupid castle place with some beast. No idea how she got there quickly, but Maleficent said that sometimes worlds had different times with us, and sometimes they were the same. Guess time passed alot there, because she looked pretty okay with that ugly thing."

"So modest," I shook my head. "Ugly thing? Is that the best you could come up with? I could think of better names for you." "Is this what you came here for? To insult me?" He asked, resting his hands on his hips. Weirdo. "Actually, I came here because I want my pay. NOW." "Maleficent told me that if I ever saw you again, I should tell you that we have another mission." "Mission? Never thought of you as a Bond fan. Anyway, what the hell is it now?" Riku looked annoyed, too. Not that I cared. "Another girl to put in these tubes. Her name's Alice, and the world is called Wonderland." "Your body is a wonderland.." "Not that kind of wonderland, Kumei," Riku rolled his eyes. "Duh, I wasn't referring to you," I rolled mine back. That sounds weird. "I better get my reward after this," I grumbled. "Anyway, I'll meet you back here. I'm going to have a word with Maleficent." I walked towards the door. "Do you even know the where she is? More importantly, do you even know your way around here?"

"No, but I'll find my way somehow," I answered, and walked out the door. There was this thing that looked like a cage (but wasn't) with a wire attached to its top. This was their mode of transportation? ...Awesome. I should get one for my house. That way mom'd be so confused she wouldn't bother looking for me around the house. Then again, I myself'd be so confused I wouldn't bother sulking in my room.. Anyway, I stepped onto the lift and it started moving (obviously..). After ten or so more minutes (what? It was freakin' slow!), it brought me to the front of two big doors. I checked for locks and saw that it was open- ooh. I slowly closed the doors behind me as I heard a bunch of voices. I walked forward and saw six silhouettes surrounding something bright. I couldn't see, they were too big. I could hear their voices, though. "That little squirt took down that Heartless! Who'd have thought it?" The first voice exclaimed. It was coming from the silhouette whose head seemed to be on fire. I never know with Maleficent.

"Such is the power of the Keyblade. The child's strength is not his own." Another old guy voice replied the first one. Wait, Keyblade? Child? Holy crap! That was the brat! He had an oversized Key, too! **He**'s the one with the Keyblade! "Why don't we turn him into a Heartless? That'll settle things quick enough." It was a woman who suggested this, and I believe it's the fat one with those.. Things.. Never mind. "And the brat's friends are the king's lackeys. They're all bilge rats by the look of them." I told you that brat was a brat. Even this guy who sounds like he's gargling agrees with me. "You're no prize yourself," A rather slurred voice laughed. "Shut up!" The gargley man shouts. "Enough. The Keyblade has chosen him. Will it be he who conquers the darkness? Or will the darkness swallow him? Either way, he could be quite useful..." There's Maleficent. Always in control. "Almost as useful as another Keyblade wielder.. I do not know how she acquired this Keyblade, but she has one and that is what matters."

Heh heh. This is my cue, then, isn't it? "You talkin' about me behind my back, Fissy?" The bright thing they were looking at was gone, the lights were on, and everyone turned to me. Let's see.. Processing.. Giving nicknames.. Loading complete. The first voice belonged to the guy whose hair was on fire. It turns out blue fire was his hair, and I now dub him Baldy. Because without that freakshow fire, he'd be pretty damn bald. Next. Some old dude with an evil looking goatee and a staff with the head of a snake. You know those evil Prime Ministers in those movies who always plot against their leader figures? Yeah. He looked like one of 'em. Goatee Guy. Next. Those 'things' were apparently tentacles. It was like her tube top reached down to her tentacles. I didn't even want to know. She had a huge mole by her nose and her hair was messed up. Tenta-tots. Don't ask. It's just funny. Fourth, gargle guy. He looked like a pirate (I think he **was** one), having that hook on one of his hands and everything. Plus he had that ruffly thing on himself and a hat with a feather on it. I dub thee Hooky. Next, UGH. What the hell was he? Was it even a he? A she? An it? Judging by its voice it was a man, but.. Dis-gus-ting. He looked like he was wearing a potato sack over himself, except.. Okay, that's sick. Bugs were falling out of the holes on the potato sack's side. Sackhead. Lastly.. Maleficent. Control-freak, weirdo, would be pretty except she's green and has that weird hat thing.

And to think that I only thought of this in about five seconds, because...

"Kumei!" Maleficent's eyes widened. Whatever. "Who's the kid?" Baldy asked. "She looks like that child.." Goatee Guy mumbled to himself. "Is she lost?" Tenta-tots looked to the others for an answer. "A poor, unfortunate soul who has stumbled here? I wonder how she will be as a Heartless.." "Swoggle me eyes, she looks like the girl version of the brat!" How dare Hooky compare us. Sackhead laughed, "My, my, my! What is a little girl like her doin' here?" I rolled my eyes and spoke before Maleficent could. "Baldy," I pointed to every one of them as I answered them. "The name's Kumei, in case your bald _and_ deaf. Goatee Guy, you might be right. Tenta-tots, I'm _never_ going to turn into a Heartless. Hooky, Goatee Guy already made the comparison. Shut up. And Sackhead, you're just plain disgusting."

"What did you call me?" They all frowned in unison.

Ha ha, that was awesome. "Silence," Maleficent frowned. "This is Kumei, another Keyblade wielder. Summon your Keyblade, child." I glared at Maleficent. "What do you mean summon my Keyblade?" "You can do it at will.. Can you not?" I willed for my Keyblade to appear in my- awesome, it was in my hands! "Yeah.. But I'm not your lackey, unlike these freaks." "Insolent child!" Goatee Guy roared. I ignored him and Baldy suddenly said, "Did she just call me bald!?" "A little slow, aren't we?" Sackhead teased. "Shut up," Hooky said to him again. "Don't tell me what to do, pirate boy!" Sackhead's eyebrows creased at Hooky. Well, not eyebrows. His eyes. "Such an arrogant, overbearing child," Tenta-tots shook her head. Uh, arrogant? Overbearing? Same thing, Tenta-tots.

"SILENCE!"

And there goes the control freak. "Fissy, I heard about the next princess from the prettyboy.." "Do not call me that." "You call me child, I call you Fissy." "..." She just glared at me. "Thought so," I grinned. "Anyway, I just wanted to see what all the lowlives were doing in this part of the world. Be seein' ya! Where the hell is that prettyboy? Ugh, probably still in that room.. A portal, _Maleficent_?" Maleficent was still frowning as she opened a portal up for me. "Ooh," Sackhead almost giggled. "Quiet, Sackhead," Maleficent spat, and he did. "Thanks, Fissy," I smiled, and entered the portal. "Where've you been?" Riku asked. "Pissing everyone off." "Oh, I should've known." "Yes, but the fact is, you don't know anything. It's okay, prettyboy. I understand." "Grr..." "Look, portal! Let's go." I grabbed him before he could start PMSing and entered the wonderful world of.. Well, Wonderland.

Is that doorknob _snoring_?

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Hope you liked that one. I know there wasn't much of anything here, but they're going to Wonderland next! Because I totally need closure on who took Alice. Thanks for reading, and hold on for the next update! (:


	6. Ancients and Cheshire Cat Complexes

Prequel to When Somebody Loves a Nobody: Naturally frustrated and angry, Kumei is enraged at the thought of having to save the worlds. But when she meets a certain Leonhart, maybe she'll change her mind..?

fire spirit: Haha, no problem! If I'd known that it was your birthday, I would've updated tons more than I did!

imjackie: Hahaha, so did my other friends. Some of them actually made it up.

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Wow, I hate this world already. What the hell kind of room is this? Hmm.. Where's the prettyboy? Absent again. I looked around the room. Stupid bed. Where is that stupid prettyboy? I kicked the bed, and- Ooh. A path! Anyway. There are two bottles on this table in front of me, although the chairs are less than likeable. I grabbed it and drank it. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. The hell? I'm as small as that stupid doorknob! I'm tempted to enter the hole the bed revealed, but I'm going to check this doorknob out, first. I walked over to the doorknob and tapped its nose. Heheh, it sneezed a little and wrinkled its nose.

Still, how the hell do I get out of here?

"I didn't know they made these," A familiar voice boomed. "After all, who'd make toys of a horrible, evil monster?" Ack! What the-? "Put me down, prettyboy!" I coughed. He was holding my by the neck with his stubby fingers! "Sheesh, _some_one forgot their stresstabs today," He muttered, then placed me on his shoulder. I glared at him, although he couldn't see me. Ha! You've left yourself wide open, prettyboy. I crawled over to his neck and started kicking it.

"Ow! Ow! Stop that, will you?!" He shrieked, holding me by the neck again. I stuck my tongue out at him, crossed my arms, and looked away. He sighed exasperatedly and just held me like a little girl would hold her Barbie doll. Except I ain't no doll!

I bit his his hand, and he let go of me. I fell, and I can only thank my ass for cushioning my fall. "What did I do **now**?" He glared, shaking his hand in the air. "Your finger grazed my boob, you jerk!" I stomped over to him and started climbing his pants. I placed myself inbetween the strap of his belt and his shirt. Like a seatbelt. "This is better. Jerk." Riku clenched his fists tight, but didn't say anything. He stomped his feet as he walked over to the bed in the room. "Damn it!" He kicked at it angrily. Sigh, I do that to people sometimes.

"Nice job," I rolled my eyes. "You killed the bed." You see, when Riku kicked the bed, it suddenly disappeared! And there was a hole in the wall. I jumped out of the safety zone in Riku's outfit and climbed the strap. Once I was on his shoulder, I tugged at his hair. "What, what?" He frowned. "Ugh, don't face me, it's hard to talk when a huge bunch of ugly is staring at you," I poked his cheek, and he turned his face away from me, his eye twitching.  
Suck it up, princess.

"Anyway," I continued. "We can enter that hole you made in the wall. I think. Just use that bottle to get smaller like me." "Why would I want to get smaller, like you?" I kicked his neck again. "Ow!" "Because." I placed my hands on my hips. "Fine," He rubbed his neck, making me fall -well, almost- off him. I hung by his strap and kicked him on the chest. "Idiot!" I climbed the strap again as the prettyboy held his chest. "Hey, hey," I pounded my fist on his shoulder. "Stop rubbing your nipple and drink from the damned bottle already!"

"I still don't know who'd make a toy out of you, prettyboy," I laughed as he was finally my size. "Urgh," He groaned. "Just get off me. God, you're heavy." "Hey!" I got up and kicked his foot. "Was that supposed to hurt?" He raised an eyebrow, getting up. "It wasn't supposed to, but do you want the next one to?" He didn't reply and just grabbed my wrist. "Come on."

"Changing the subject," I sang, the prettyboy still holding onto my wrist. I was talking about his eternal, unconditional love for my idiot brother (I still don't know _why_ and _how_ we're related) and he kept telling me that we had to find this Alice. Just so you know, when we entered the hole, it was all forest. Very annoying, really. "Fine then," Riku stopped, letting go of me. He faced me and frowned. "Let's talk about Sora. If you hate him so much, then why do you wear contacts?" I stepped back. "What're you talking about?" "Everyone knows you wear contacts to fit in with Sora."

"Puh-leeze. He has that eye color to fit in with me." "No," Riku shook his head. "Your mom and Sora have the same eye color, but you.." I looked away. I didn't like this topic anymore. When I looked to the prettyboy, he was staring at me pitifully. I growled. "But I what?!" "It's nothing, never mind." He shook his head and gripped my wrist again. I didn't say anything, and once again he dragged me around the forest. "Where are we going, anyway?"

Prettyboy shrugged. "Maybe we'll bump into Alice or something. You're good at doing that." "Doing _what_?" "Hmm," he looked up to think. "Accidentally bumping into people, making friends with them, kidnapping them.. The usual." "You make it sound as if that's bad." He gave me a look. "What? I'm doing this for me, and you also profit from it! So shut your mouth, okay?"

"I didn't say anything.."

I was about to punch him when two chubby little boys popped out of nowhere. They looked somewhat like my English teacher.. Prettyboy looked at them weirdly. "I'm tempted to poke them inbetween their eyes.." He whispered to me. "Well, don't resist on my account." "If you think we're wax-works, you ought to pay, you know!" One of them said. I'll call him.. W.(eirdo)N.(umber)1! Not that I can tell the difference. "Contrariwise, if you think we're alive you ought to speak to us!" And there's WN2. "That's logic!" The two of them said. Prettyboy just stared at them oddly, his mouth open. "Well, okay, nice meeting you kids. Bye!" I grabbed one of prettyboy's straps and pulled him away, but when I turned around, the Weirdos were there again. Grr...

"You're beginning backwards!" WN1 shook his head. Hey! I _can_ tell them apart! Go Kumei. "Aye, the first thing in a visit is to say," WN2 cleared his throat. 'How do you do' and shake hands, shake hands, shake hands. 'How do you do' and shake hands and state your name and business." "That's manners!" They both said. I closed my eyes in annoyance and bit my lip. Crazy weirdos. "The name's Kumei. My business is none of yours, so get the hell out of my way!"

"That isn't the right way!" WN2 shook his head. "And you can't go yet!" WN1 said. "No," WN2 agreed. "The visit's just started!" I stared at them expectantly. I know _I_'m starting to get pissed. "Do you like to play hide-and-seek?" WN2 nodded, "Or button-button, who's got the button?" Who's got the button..? WHO'S GOT THE BUTTON?! "Gaah!" I tugged at my hair and turned my back on the Weirdos. "Prettyboy, distract them. I'm looking for Alice."

"What? Why-"

"Later!" I ran away from them before they could catch up. Thank God! They were gone. "'_Twas brillig, and the slithy toves, did gyre and gimble in the wabe. All mimsy were the borogoves, and the momeraths outgrabe._" "Who's there?" I looked around. "Lose something?" I turned around. Still, no one was there. "No," I replied anyway. "It's just that.." "One moment, please.. Second chorus. _Twas brilllig, and the slithy toves, did gyre and gimble in the wabe..._" Suddenly, something appeared in front of me. "A cat!"

"A Cheshire Cat," he stated. "_All mimsy were the borogoves.._" He started to disappear. "Hey, hey! Don't ditch me now!" "Very well, then. Third chorus..." "Wait, wait!" I frowned. "I was just going to ask you for directions, jeez.." "That depends on where you want to go," he replied. "It doesn't really matter, as long as I find.."

"Then it really doesn't matter which way you go! Ah-hmm... _and the momeraths outgrabe..._ Oh, by the way, if you'd really like to know, she went that way." He pointed to the right.

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Who did?"

"Alice."

"She did?"

"She did what?"

"Go that way." I pointed to the right. My right, I mean. "Who did?" "Alice, the girl!" "What girl?" "But you just said-!! Urgh, never the mind!" I rolled my eyes and walked in the direction the cat pointed to earlier. I normally wouldn't think it was very reliable (I mean, forgetting what it said every 2 seconds), but I'm desperate here. I came into a clearing, and found a fat lady screaming at the top of her lungs (her face was red and everything, haha!). Other than that, cards were screaming too. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I mean, the cards had heads and arms and feet and everything.

"Agghh! Destroy the tower!" A familiar voice yelled.

"We know, we know!" A voice I could barely understand quacked back.

"Gawrsh, you guys don't have to scream.." A last voice sighed.

Only these three voices stood out from all the other cards and the fat lady. I looked for the owners of these voices. Maybe they were sane! Though they didn't sound that much like it. I looked around and saw a duck with a big.. stick thing.. He raised the stick in the air, and lightning came down on the cards. Awesome. I saw this dog looking thing with a shield. He used his shield to hit the cards. He turned around and looked to something behind the tower. "Sora, now!"

...Sora?

"Right!" Holy crap! It was the brat! "Kick those cards!" I heard a girl shout, and saw a blonde girl in a weird outfit stuck in a cage. Alice, perhaps? I'll take my chances. I dashed to her cage and opened it with that Keyblade I had, while those two and the brat were fighting the cards. I grabbed her hand and rushed her out of the 'battlefield'. I had to use another entrance because the cards were piling up on the way I had entered through. We got out, thankfully, and we were back in the room where I became small.

I regained my composure, and so did Alice. "You're Alice, right?" I made sure. "Y-yes.. Who are you?" She asked. "Hakumei. Call me Kumei if you like," I shrugged. "Thank you for saving me from that horrid place," She hugged me. "No problem," I pushed her away **gently**. I don't like hugging, but I gotta make her my 'friend'. "Wait, why were those two.. And that kid fighting those cards?"

"Oh," Alice shook her head, as if she didn't want to remember. "The Queen -the woman screaming her lungs out, I mean- of Hearts accused me of attempting to steal her heart! And I would never do such a thing, it's preposterous to even think about, really! So those three.. Sora, Donald, and Goofy, I believe.. They looked for evidence that it wasn't really me. And they found out that it was actually this.. Animal that looked like a bigger version of an ant.. Well, it did to me, anyway.. Was actually the one who tried to steal the queen's heart!"

"And they were fighting because..?" "Because the queen wanted me to be guilty, and she says her word is law. Hmph!" Alice frowned. "Ah," I nodded. "So that's what happened." "But we should really get back. At least try to see if the three of them are all right.." "No," I held her arm as she tried to leave. "They fought to save you. If you go back, you'll waste everything they fought for. Understand?" "Yes.. I sup- ohh..." She fainted. "Alice!" I caught her before she hit her head on the ground.

"_There_ you are. Don't tell me you're actually worried about this girl?" It was the prettyboy. He knocked her out. "I'm not," I frowned at him, carrying Alice in my arms. "I just don't want her dead. Fissy better give me what I want after this, or I'm seriously quitting." "If you say so," Riku shrugged. "Here." He gave me a plastic bag with water in it. "The hell's this?"

"It's the potion to make you bigger." "Oh," I took it and drank from it, making Alice drink it too. I dropped it once I was huge again, and the prettyboy caught it and drank it. "Finally, normal size again," Prettyboy sighed. "Why, did anything else get smaller after you drank that potion?" I laughed. "I mean, it's not like _that_ could get any smaller.." "Hey!" Riku frowned, but his blushing betrayed his feelings.

"Ugh.." Alice was coming to. She slowly opened her eyes. "Where am I?" "Shh, shh," I hushed as we walked to where we entered. "Go to sleep now, Alice.." "A song, a song.." Alice muttered as she closed her eyes. "Alright," I glared at prettyboy as he snickered.

_"Alice in Wonderland, how do you get to Wonderland? _

Over the hill or underland, or just behind the tree?

When clouds go rolling by, they roll away and leave the sky.

Where is the land beyond the eye, the people can not see, where can it be?

Where do stars go, where is the grass that's blue? They must be somewhere in the sunny afternoon.

Alice in Wonderland, where is the path to Wonderland?

Over the hill or here or there, I wonder where.."

"We mustn't get attached, Kumei," I heard from behind me as I set Alice down. Prettyboy ran off, by the way. We were back to where all those girls were. I mean the ones we kidnapped. Not the weirdos I gave nicknames to. Hehe. But they could be considered girls, too, I guess.. I turned around. "Maleficent." "Yes.. Your-" "Next job? I don't think so. How many girls have I kidnapped, Maleficent? I want my pay. _Now_." "I'm afraid that's not possible," Maleficent shook her head. "There are still a few princesses.." "I don't care!" I stomped my foot. "It's your turn to do something for **me**! Now find me my father!"

"No," Maleficent lowered her eyes at me as she opened a portal for herself. "You will find one more." "Whatever! I quit!" I pushed her out of the way and ran into the portal she created. I landed back to that alley in Traverse Town, and the portal closed behind me. Ugh.. I stood up. I should probably go to Cid's... "Kumei! Kumei!" An excited voice tackled me. I mean, the owner of the voice tackled me. "Ugh, Yuffie, get off me." I pushed her off and dusted myself. "What do you want? Did Leron give you sugar or something?" "It's LEEYON," Yuffie scoffed. "And no. It was Aerith who gave me sugar." "Aerith?" I raised an eyebrow. "Who's that, your imaginary friend?"

"No!" Yuffie pouted. "How could you make- Oh yeah! You haven't met her yet, have you? Come on, I'll introduce you!" She grabbed my pinky finger and yanked me to Cid's shop. "Hey, Cid! Hey, Aerith!" Yuffie greeted (meaning shrieked). I saw Cid, but there was this woman with her back turned to me. She had this big pink bow on her head, and her long hair was braided. She turned around, "Oh, hello, Yuffie." I like her. Well, she was better than Yuffie, anyway. "Oh, who's this with you?" "This is Kumei!" "Oh," Aerith smiled. "The girl Leon is always looking for?"

"Shh!" Ugh, a fountain of Yuffie's saliva just splashed on my face. I grabbed Cid's shirt and wiped the saliva off with it. "Hey!" He yelled, but then I covered his mouth. "Leon doesn't like you saying it that way. Anyway, Aerith meet Hakumei, Hakumei meet Aerith! I call her Kumei though. Because we're _friends_." "Who said **that**?" I put my hands to my hips again. "Me. I know it annoys you." "It's nice to meet someone who's close enough to Yuffie to argue," Aerith continued to smile, and she shook my hand. "We're not close,"I nodded, my eye twitching. "But yeah, you too." I turned to Yuffie. "Now why did you keep screaming awhile ago and almost kill me?" "Oh yeah!" Yuffie nodded. "I was gonna tell you that we saw that kid you were talking about!"

You did?

"Yeah! Y'know, the one that looked kinda like you!" "Who did?" I raised an eyebrow. "The kid!" "What kid?!" I frowned. "What was his name? Oh yeah, Sora! He's the one you were looking for when you first got here, right?" Oh, _that_ kid. I mean, brat. "Yeah," I nodded. "Yeah.." Yuffie repeated. "Anyway, he was looking for you too when we found him, but then he ran off with Donald and Goofy to look for you and your friends. He even mistook me for some Kairi girl, can you believe that? Anyway, I think they'll come back later." "Oh." That's right, the brat was hanging out with those two, uh, Donald and Goofy, wasn't he? "You should wait here," Cid entered the conversation. "Yes," Aerith agreed. "Or Leon will-" "Shh!" Yuffie covered her mouth. "You guys are so inconspicuous," I rolled my eyes. Kairi and Riku are _not_ my friends. Those aren't even their names. They're pipsqueak and prettyboy.

"Anyway," Cid glared at Aerith and Yuffie, who were covering each other's mouths. Actually, it was just Yuffie doing that to Aerith, but Aerith couldn't breathe since her nose was being covered too, so she licked Yuffie's hand. Haha, I should do that when the time comes. After that Yuffie was so grossed out that she tried to give Aerith a wet willy. "ANYWAY," Cid cleared his throat. I turned to him. "Right, sorry. What is it, old man?" "I'm not old!" I'm going to keep quiet this one time, just because I feel like watching Yuffie and Aerith more. "Anyway," Cid groaned. "Sora, Donald, and Goofy hung out here a bit before leaving to fight over which world to travel to. So they might be back later."

"Mm.. Fine," I crossed my arms and sat on the fireplace. I closed my eyes and tried to think of how I would look for dad now that that idiot Maleficent was completely useless. I couldn't concentrate, though, because now Yuffie and Cid were fighting, and Aerith was trying to calm them down. Not only that, but people were yelling outside. "It is not!" "It is too!" "It is NOT!" "It is TOO!" The doors burst open.

"Cid! Will you tell Donald that it is not a waste of time to come back here for supplies?"

"Hey, just in time!" Cid said, now ignoring Yuffie, who was fuming. "Don't turn your back on me, I won't be ignored!" She stomped her feet and pounded at Cid's arm. She was ignored. I sighed. They're both idiots. Aerith just stared, shaking her head. "Just in time for what?" The brat then looked to his right and gasped. "Sis!"

---------------------------------

Hey! It's been so long and I'm sorry. As usual, been doing a lot of stuff. But when I opened the file of First Love so I could type an update up, it was all -poof-! I had my groove back! And I just realized that writing about Kingdom Hearts makes me really happy. So I played both games again and I got even happier! You know what'd make me the happiest? Reviews! I'm kidding. Those'd be appreciated though. Anyway, I think receiving Reno as a birthday present would make me the happiest, hehe. :D Dream on, right?


	7. My big brother

Prequel to When Somebody Loves a Nobody: Naturally frustrated and angry, Kumei is enraged at the thought of having to save the worlds. But when she meets a certain Leonhart, maybe she'll change her mind..?

**fire spirit: Haha, yeah, almost. Sorry about the confusion! I'll try not to make it so confuzzling anymore. **

Nameless-Sinner: Thanks for saying that, I'm very glad I have one. :D And no problem! Sorry the next update took so freakin' long.

AAAGHH I've been so obsessed with tennis lately. Tennis is beautiful. Like SoraxRiku fanfics and fanart.

...You heard nothing!!

Anyway, I'm planning to post some art of some of the scenes from When Somebody Loves a Nobody and First Love on deviantart. It's http // dmc87 . deviantart . com/ Just connect the dots and the slashes with the words! Also, there's a colon in the middle of 'http' and the '//' . (: Come visit sometime! I'll let you read now, and review if you like! And yes, the title is opposite the one from When Somebody Loves a Nobody, which was entitled 'My big sister'.

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"Ugh, get off me, brat," I pushed him as he hugged me tight. I could barely breathe!

"Sis! I'm so glad you're okay!" He smiled. "I was so worried."

"You didn't need to be worried," I rolled my eyes inwardly. "I can take care of myself."

"Aw, don't be so mean, Kumei! He was only **really** worried!" Yuffie laughed, patting my arm. I shot her a look. "And I said he didn't need to be worried."

"_Some_one forgot to take their stresstabs today," Cid muttered. "And **enough** with the stresstabs crack!" I yelled, then stomped out of Cid's shop, pushing the brat's friends out of the way. "Hey!" The duck frowned, but I ignored him. I'm going to the second district and kicking some Heartless ass!

"**Twilight**!" They hissed again. "**Your heart**!" I hate it when they talk! "Shut up, you little weirdos!" I stabbed at them, and as they disappeared, hearts floated into the air. I smirked triumphantly, my Keyblade disappearing. "Besides, none of you are ever going to get _my_ heart!"

"Who're you talking to?"

Ack! I turned around and saw that guy. That guy.. "Leon," he said, looking at me oddly. "I knew that," I shrugged, then looked at him. "What're you doing here, anyway?"

"I asked you a question first."

"Fine, be that way," I rolled my eyes, then sighed. "How can I talk to anybody when there's nobody worth talking to?"

He just stared.

"What?" I cocked my head to the side.

"I was expecting you to say 'Present company excluded', but I guess I can't expect anything of you."

I frowned. "What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

Leon sighed. "If you want to have someone worth talking to, then you should be worth it as well. How can I ever find someone like that when you can't even understand what I'm talking about?"

"Ugh!" I scoffed. He smirked at me, I glared at him.

"Hahahahahaha!" We burst into laughter. "That was so random!" I clutched my stomach.

"That's the first time I heard you laugh," Leon smiled. "You should do it more often." I looked down. "Y'think so?" "Yeah. It doesn't always hurt to smile a bit." "Like now?" I raised an eyebrow, looking at the smile he was giving me. It turned into a frown. "No," he huffed.

"Suure," I laughed again, and walked to the way to the 1st district. "Where're you going?" Leon called. "Changing the subject, but okay. I don't know where I'm going. I'm looking for someone. Maleficent promised to help. I tried to exploit her resources, but she ended up exploiting me."

"You were working with **Maleficent**?!" Leon's eyes widened.

"For a while," I looked away. "She said she'd help, and I believed her. I never thought... She was only using my Keyblade." I looked to Leon for his reaction, but he wouldn't look at me.

"So... You lied to me."

"What?"

"When you told me that black portals were popping up out of nowhere... It was Maleficent supplying you with those portals, weren't you?"

"I..."

"**You** were the one destroying the worlds, weren't you? My god, Kumei!"

"Look, I didn't mean to!"

"No!" Leon frowned. "The first time you did it, you didn't mean to. But how many worlds have you gone to since then? How many worlds have you destroyed?!"

"I don't know!"

"See? You don't even know what you're doing! And all for this stupid dad of yours! Damn it, Kumei! If he wanted to stay with you, he would've stayed with you! He left for a reason! Stop looking for-"

I slapped him. "How dare you," I stopped myself from punching him in the stomach. "You have no right to talk to me that way! You have no right to even speak of my father! I thought it was all right to trust you enough to tell you who I was looking for. If I'd known you'd talk shit about him I wouldn't have done it!"

"I'm sorry," Leon held his cheek. "Kumei, I just.."

"Just what? Hated my guts?"

"No. I was just... thinking about what might have happened to you, and when I found out that you worked for Maleficent... I overreacted. Forgive me."

I stared at Leon for a long time. Not that I was enjoying it, you know. "Fine," I muttered. "I accept your apology. Just don't speak of my father again."

I turned around and returned to the first district, where I was ambushed. "Sis!" I heard the brat. Oh, no. Suddenly, the three 'bilge rats' came running up to me. "Sis, I thought you disappeared again. Please don't leave! You have to travel with us!"

"What?" The duck frowned. "No way!"

"It's fine," I stepped away from Sora, who kept shaking my arm. "I know when I'm not wanted."

"But I do want you to stay with us, please!" Sora hugged my arm. "Don't leave again, sis!" He turned to the duck. "Come on, Donald, please? Please?"

Donald huffed, but the dog whispered something in his ear. Donald's frown deepened and he sighed. "Fine, fine, she can come!"

I raised an eyebrow at the brat. "Who says I _want_ to come?"

"Oh, come on, sis... We're looking for Kairi and Riku!"

"I don't care. I'm looking for father."

"We'll look for him, too! Just-"

"Don't speak of father as if he's just a secondary objective! He's my primary objective, and if he isn't yours, then... Then.."

"Okay, okay!" Sora shook his head. "I'm sorry. Will you come with us, sis? Please.."

Ugh. I hate to say this, but now that Fissy is useless to me, I have no way of going around the worlds anymore. Except... them.

"Fine," I rubbed my temples. "I'll go with you." Until I find a less annoying band of travellers to run off with.

"Yes!" The brat cheered, and Donald grumbled. "Fine," he quacked. "But she has to remember something, too!"

"And what is that?" I frowned.

"This boat runs on happy faces!" Sora exclaimed, and he and Donald and the dog thing started making weird faces. I resisted the urge to look at them as if they were weirdos.

"Well, don't look a us if we were weirdos!" Donald frowned. Oops. I guess their faces were that bad. "Hee," I tried to laugh, but all I could produce was a fake smile.

"I guess that's good enough.. For now!" Donald said, walking off. "Yeah, you'll learn to smile better soon!" The dog nodded.

"Anyway, sis, this is Donald and Goofy," Sora introduced us. I _smiled_ at them, then looked around. "Where's our mode of transportation?"

"Oh, it's outside," the brat told me. "Where're we going next, guys?"

"We're not going anywhere until we teach her how to drive the gummi ship!" Donald answered. Ugh, the toy box?

"Aww, oh well." Sora shrugged, then turned to me. "You're about to get a crash course in driving, sis!"

"When Sora said crash course, he didn't actually mean that you had to crash!" Donald yelled at me. "Hey, shut up, quacker!" I glared at him. "It's not my fault you're such a horrible teacher!" Donald gasped, "Why you-!"

"Guys!" Goofy pushed me and that quacker apart. "We're here already, shouldn't we check it out?"

I glared at Donald before dusting myself. "You're the only one keeping me here, Goofy," I muttered and stepped out of the gummi ship. "You don't have to be here if you want to!" Donald yelled from the door. "Maybe not, but you'll lose your precious Keyblade Master!"

"Grr... You're a horrible person!" Donald shrieked. I lifted an eyebrow. "If that's how you feel..." I walked towards what looked like one of those old greek buidings. There were statues of what seemed to be gladiators at each side, and banners and torches, too. "Sis! Come back!" I ignored him and entered the building. Unfortunately, Donald and the brat followed. Goofy didn't exactly have a choice.

I ignored the three as they stood around. There was this little goat man fixing a sign in the small room. Damn, it was cramped here. "Um..." The brat started, but the goat man didn't let him finish. Without turning around, he motioned to a pedestal to the right of the room. "Good timing. Give me a hand, will ya? Move that pedestal over there for me. I gotta spruce this place up for the games."

I stifled my laughter and kept my visage apathetic as the brat, the quacker, and Goofy tried to push the pedestal with no luck. "It's way too heavy!" The brat complained. The little goat man turned around with an annoyed look on his face. "What? Too heavy? Since when have you been such a little-" He stopped as he saw us. "Oh. Wrong guys.. and girl. What're you doing here? This here's the world-famous Coliseum- heroes only!" Well it certainly isn't world_s_-famous. The goat man frowned. "And I got my hands full preparing for the games. So run along, pip-squeaks. Look, it's like this. Heroes are coming from all over to fight ferocious monsters right here in the Coliseum." Pipsqueaks?

"You got heroes standing right in front of you." Donald said. That goat man is lucky that the quacker said something before I got my hands on him.

"Yup. These're real heroes chosen by the Keyblade! Er, Keyblades!" Goofy nodded, pointing to me and the brat. "And we're heroes, too," Donald motioned to himself and Goofy. "Hero?" The goat man looked to Sora. "That runt?" He then turned to me. "And that _girl_?" He laughed. "What's so funny?" The brat frowned. "I've fought a bunch of monsters!"

"Hey, if you can't even move this..." He pushed the pedestal. "You can't call yourself..." Well, he tried. Didn't work. "A hero!"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," I shook my head. "They really lowered the bar for heroes these days, huh?"

The goat man glared at me and huffed, "Okay, so it takes more than brawn. Well, well, let's see what you can do. This trial is tough. You got what it takes? You guys ready?"

"I'm ready!" Sora nodded.

"Okay," the goat man nodded. "One at a time. You go first," He told Sora, and the brat got into the battle arena. "Let's see what you got."

I preferred not to watch the brat make a fool of himself as it was a waste of time. Also, I practiced willing the Twilight Keyblade to appear and to disappear. I had the hang of it now. The brat, the quacker, and Goofy returned from the battle arena with the goat man. The goat man turned to me, "Your turn."

"Finally, I'm old enough to be compared to you!" I snorted, and the goat man almost charged at me if not for Goofy. I entered the battle arena and was surprised to find a bunch of barrels standing in different places. "What the hell is this?" I turned to the goat man with an eyebrow raised.

"You gotta smash all the barrels before time runs out. Got it?"

"Ugh, that's training? That's the trial? Pathetic!" I complained.

"GO!"

"Fine," I muttered. I went forward and jumped at the barrels while smashing at them. At the last one, though, I had to risk jumping a long way to destroy it as it was on top of a floating block. The goat man made me do two stupid barrel smashing trials, and when I was done, we went back to the lobby. "Waste of time," I muttered.

"I hate to say it," the goat man said, glaring at me. "But you guys and girl are pretty good."

"Looks like we're headed for the games!" The brat grinned. What was so important about these stupid games, anyway? Oh, yes. Nothing.

"Afraid not," The goat man shook his head.

"Why not?" Sora pouted. Ugh.

"Two words: You guys ain't heroes." He replied, and Goofy started trying to count the words. I rolled my eyes at him. "First of all, those were four words. And-"

"Come on!" Sora frowned. "We did all your trials!" Stupid little brat who interrupted me..!

"Wanna become a real hero? Start by mastering this spell." He held his hand out in front of all of us, and I felt as if an electric current just ran through me. "What was that?" I asked.

"It's a thunder spell. Now run along, pipsqueaks, I gotta prepare for the games." Sora, Donald, and Goofy sighed, leaving the Lobby. Pipsqueak? Me?

PIPSQUEAK?!

I walked toward the goat man and lifted him by the goatee. "Listen up, goat-imp thing. I wasn't going to push through the whole 'getting into the games and proving I'm a hero' thing, but since you keep insisting that I do with your negatively provocative words, I will do so. Let me in, or I'll squash you right here, right now! And you know what this Keyblade can do."

"I don't think so, girlie," He frowned at me, then even tried to kick me, but I blocked with my Keyblade. With one swing, the goat man was on the floor. "Let me in and I'll show you just what a girlie I am, goat-imp thing."

"Grr," the goat man got up. "Fine! But first of all, it's Philoctetes. Phil. Whatever. Here," he got this card out of nowhere. "It's an Entry Pass to get you into the games. They start later, so you and your friends-"

"They're not my friends. I'm not with them. I fight alone."

"Fine, Miss I-stand-alone," Phil rolled his eyes. "You can stay in one of the rooms behind the battle arena. It's through the door at the right side of the arena if you just entered it through the lobby. The games start in a few hours! I'll call you when it's your turn."

I took the Entry Pass and gave Phil an I've-won-and-you-better-accept-it look. "Thank you, Phil. Remember, those're three words. Not four, not five. Three. Later!"

I laughed and ran into the battle arena, then ran halfway across it to get to the rooms Phil was talking about. Wow. I was expecting a slum, but this place looked like a hotel. "Awesome," I said out loud, and looked around for a room to stay in. After I chose one, I followed the sign which said 'lounge'. Nobody there. It still looked awesome, though. Like those old Greek buildings. I don't even know what 'Greek' means!

I took a seat on one of the sofas and took a deep breath. "Gotta practice that magic spell Phil taught me." I closed my eyes and concentrated on the little sure of energy I felt earlier. Come on.. Come on.. "Thunder." I opened my eyes and saw a little spark appear in my hand. Not bad, but I was expecting something better. And why is it called 'thunder' when it's lightning, supposedly?

I tried again. "Thunder," I muttered again, concentrating on the energy harder. Just the same spark. Maybe I should approach this differently? I willed for the energy to grow. In a few seconds, a huge sphere of lightning erupted within me. "Thunder!" I shouted, and I stood in surprise as the spell spread all throughout the lounge.

"AAAGHH!"

"Whoo!" I cheered, "Got it!" I stopped as I realized that someone screamed. "Who's there?" I warily walked further into the lobby and stopped as a man, about Leon's age, fell from what seemed to be his hiding place behind the wall. He had spiky blonde hair and _really_ weird clothes. From the left side of his back was a black wing. He had the whole red cape thing going on, and it looked like he had some sort of belt fetish. What? They were **all over** his outfit. He was wearing a glove on his left hand which had these metal claws.. Or something.. Not to mention his weird sword, which had crap wrapped all around it.

The man twitched on the floor. I could still see sparks on his hair. "I am so sorry," I knelt down and helped him up. "I didn't know you were there. What are you, a stalker or something?"

"No," He muttered, and as I helped him up he twitched and I could feel the static run through his body. Poor guy. I handed him his sword and held my hand out. "Hakumei. You can call me Kumei." Whoever this man was, I felt as if I knew him. At least, I felt that we had a mutual acquaintance. "Cloud," he muttered again. It's like he didn't know how to talk normally. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise," I smiled. I felt compelled to be nice to this man. Even if he was creepy and probably a stalking killer kind of person. I then noticed him scrutinizing me. "What?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Have we met?" He mumbled. I wanted to slap him and tell him to speak properly, but I couldn't. "Uh, no," I tried to remember if I'd ever seen anybody like him. "I don't think so."

"Oh." He nodded. "Bye, then."

Well, that was rude of him. "Bye," I shrugged anyway, and turned to leave. I summoned my Keyblade just for kicks, and it got me wondering. My Keyblade against his huge sword. Which one would win? "Waahh!" I nearly quacked as the Keyblade dragged me over to a chest. I tapped the chest (well, the Keyblade tapped itself onto the chest) and it suddenly opened. Wow. I didn't know I could do that. A universal Keyblade! Very useful.. If you can't tell, I have a very evil grin on my face right now.

I felt someone tap my shoulder. I turned around. It was Cloud. "Uh, yeah?"

"Do you want to get a snack outside the Coliseum?" I blinked. Did he just ask me out to eat?

"Yeah, sure.." I willed for the Keyblade to disappear and looked back to Cloud. "Where do you want to go?"

"Follow me." He grabbed my wrist and pulled me to the exit. The way he held onto me reminded me of how Zack, an old friend of mine, used to hold me. He was sort of like an older brother to me, but sometimes...

"Huh," I looked up to Cloud and realized we were already outside the lobby of the Coliseum. He passed through a different exit..? His head was turned to the left. I looked at what he was staring at. It was the brat, the quack, Goofy, and Phil. Phil watched Cloud warily and said something to Sora, who nodded. The four noticed me (well, Goofy noticed me first, then the three) and their eyes widened. They started waving at me, and I turned my head away. "Do you know them?" Cloud asked me as we exited the Coliseum gates. Funny, I never thought there was anything beyond this place.

"Er..." I laughed nervously. "Sort of."

There were a lot of people outside, but Cloud pushed through the crowd and we entered a restaurant. Not much prestige, he told me, but he liked the food. "Okay.." I looked around. Weirdos everywhere. "I'll have whatever you're having." He nodded and ordered something that had to do with fish. Zack liked fish, too. I think. My mom always made fish dishes for him, though. Maybe she liked fish. Never mind.

"So," I cleared my throat. "Are you here for the games, too?"

"Are you?" He looked to me.

"Not really," I shrugged. "But since that annoying Phil guy kept degrading me, I decided to prove him wrong."

"Ah," I barely noticed Cloud's (very) slight nod as our orders came. "Well, do whatever you want." Zack used to understand, too. He was the only one who did..

"Hey, sweetheart," I cringed as the stench of a swamp reached my nose. I turned to my right and saw a big-nosed blue centaur (how do I know what a centaur is?) standing before our table. Waitaminute. Did he just call **me** sweetheart?

"Who are you and what do you want?" Cloud beat me to answering. "Not you," the centaur snorted. "Nessus," he said, turning to me.

Cloud stood from his seat and blocked Nessus' way to me. "She doesn't wanna hear it." I could imagine him glaring at Nessus.

"Step aside, two legs," Nessus stared him down. Tried. Didn't work. Nessus growled. He raised his arm to punch Cloud, but Cloud instantly drew his sword and blocked it. The surrounding people started screaming, and Cloud and Nessus started fighting. Cloud.. was fighting to protect me?

_"You get the hell away from her, Guado," Zack growled and stepped inbetween me and Seymour. Seymour snorted. "You can't choose who she sees." _

"Wait, I never saw you!" I frowned, although I was still hiding behind Zack. Seymour ignored me. "You're just jealous," he said to Zack. "You've always been jealous." He clenched his fist. "Maybe it's time to settle things."

"Hahah," Lulu laughed nervously and held Seymour's arm back. "Maybe you shouldn't."

"Lulu's right, man," Wakka told Zack. "You could get into trouble with this, ya?"

"Shut up," Seymour pushed Lulu to the ground. "Lulu!" I ran over to her and helped her up. "Are you okay?" Lulu rubbed her arm. "Yeah.."

"You bastard!" Wakka yelled, and wihout a thought (though I suppose that needn't be said, as that goes for all his actions), punched Seymour.

Seymour smirked. "Wrong move," he punched Wakka hard, making him fly across the hallway. Lulu gasped. "Wakka!" I let go of her as she ran to her beloved, who was developing a very black eye now. I helped her help Wakka up, but then turned to Zack and Seymour.

"You had to do that?" Zack raised an eyebrow, then sighed. "I wasn't going to do this, you know, but you just don't know how to listen." He grabbed Seymour's head and punched him in the face. Seymour returned this with an uppercut. I pulled Zack up and stopped him by the hand. "Let me do this," I told him. "I can kick him."

"No," Zack smiled at me, blood slowly creeping from his lips. He held my wrist protectively. "Your mom asked me to take care of you, and I want to take care of you. I will do that, no matter what it takes."

"Watch out!" I shouted as Seymour was about to bash Zack in the head. He missed as Zack pushed us both out of the way. He readied his fist and-

"Kumei?"

I shook my head and looked up. Cloud. "Cloud?"

"Let's get out of here," He took me by the wrist again and dragged me out, but not before I saw the centaur's body cut in half. "What happened?" I asked.

"You didn't see?" Cloud raised an eyebrow. "Long story short, the centaur was a little nuisance."

"Little?" I asked. Cloud smirked, "It's a state of mine, Kumei."

"Right.." I looked ahead. "We're going back to the Coliseum, right?"

Cloud just nodded. We returned to the Coliseum, but before we parted ways, I stopped him by the hand. "Wait." He turned around. "What is it?"

"Can I call you.. Big brother?"

It was Cloud's turn to blink this time. "Yeah.." He nodded, and I think he actually smiled. It was gone when I myself blinked, though. "Yeah. You can call me that."

He left after that, and I ran into the Coliseum Lobby. "You're late!" Phil yelled at me. "I was about to announce your forfeiture!"

"Sorry, Phil," I grinned, patting him on the head. "Now, watch me!" I ran into the arena. Whoa. There were tons of people in the stands! I summoned my Keyblade and blew kisses at the people just for fun. "GO SIS!" I felt my eye twitch as I turned to the left. Sora, Donald, and Goofy were in the stands, too. Their clothes were a bit ripped, I just noticed now. Were they in the games, too?

Okay, focus on the opponent. I turned to my supposed opponent, only to find a bunch of Heartless. _They_ were my opponents? That's stupid! I went into a fighting stance, gripping my Keyblade. Why weren't they attacking the people?

"Get ready, you little Heartless freaks!" I ran at them, but after a few seconds I realized that it was a bad move. The Heartless had surrounded me. "**Twilight!**"

"**Let uss take her heart now!**" I saw a Blue Rhapsody telling a Soldier Heartless. "Like I'll let-" The Soldier suddenly dashed at me and went through me. "Aaggh!" I screamed. I felt as if something gripped my chest and started stretching it around like rubber. I fell to the ground and felt blood fall from my lips. The people started cheering, and I frowned. Nobody cheers against me. "Get up!" I heard Donald yell.

What do you think I'm trying to do?! I groaned and held my chest, which still hurt. I glared at the Heartless around me. "You can't take my heart! I won't let you!" I hacked at one of them, but it just moved out of the way. "**We cannot**!" A Soldier Heartless shook its head. It's the one that went through me! "She hass no heart!"

I frowned, "That's not funny." I thrust my Keyblade at it, and this time I didn't miss. "One of usss?" A Blue Rhapsody Heartless turned to another. "The Twilight?"

"It cannot be!" A Soldier Heartless ran towards me and tried to swipe at me. I was more alert now. I cleaved my Keyblade down at it. "She iss from the light!" A Blue Rhapsody cried as I destroyed it. Four more Heartless to go. "Ssstill!" A Soldier turned to a Blue Rhapsody. I slashed. "Oops," I grinned at the Soldier. "Were you talking to him?" The Soldier jumped me, but after a bit of struggle I threw him off. I wiped the Heartless germs off my face.

I held my Keyblade in front of them. "This ain't what you want!"

"Princcce Higure will be pleasssed if we bring her back! Even if she hass no heart!" The last two Heartless spoke to each other. "All talk and no play makes for a _**very**_ pisssed of Kumei," I swung my Keyblade at them, and in a few seconds the crowd cheered. I grinned as I watched Hearts float into the air, free from the Heartless. That's odd. "Well, whatever." I shrugged to myself. "So you tell your Prince Higure, whoever that bastard is, to please himself!"

...Okay, so that wasn't such a good comeback. Shut up.

"Who are you talking to?" Phil raised an eyebrow at me as he grabbed my arm and dragged me back to where the rooms or the lounge was. "You're one weird kid... But not bad! You're actually pretty good." Phil sighed. "Wish he were here to see this."

"Who?" I asked, making Phil let go of me.

"Hercules. He's off looking for a way to rejoin his father, and probably saving damsels in distress on the way."

I raised the eyebrow now. "To rejoin his father?"

"It's a long story," Phil sighed. Hmm... Who was this Hercules? And rejoin his father...? I wonder if we would get along. After all, I'm looking to rejoin my father as well. "Anyway," Phil looked to the direction we came from. "You're up in a few more minutes. I like the way you get the crowd get all riled up, but don't overdo it, okay?" He actually looked concerned.

"Yeah, yeah," I pushed him, not wanting to see the concerned look on his face. It was those kinds of faces from these kinds of people that distracted me from my true goal. I had a few more fights, and all of them were fights with the Heartless. How did they get to enter? I thought only people with entry passes could enter? Maybe Maleficent...? Hmm, I should go to my room first.

Round 8 is in a few minutes.. I wonder who my opponent will be? I got up from the bed in the room I picked and walked towards the lounge. "Geez! Stiffer than the stiffs back home. Still, suckers like him are hard to come by.." I heard a familiar voice from the lounge. I entered it and shuddered.

I regained my composure and faked a grin. "Baldy!" I clapped my hands together merrily. He turned his head to me, and his eyes widened. "There you are!"

"Hey Baldy," I greeted again. "Who're you talking to?"

"Does it really matter to you, kid?" Hades rolled his eyes. "Maleficent's been lookin' for you, you know."

"I already quit," I frowned. "She can go get herself another sucker to be Riku's partner. Hmph! The prettyboy, another sucker. Who did you trick for yourself, Baldy?"

"Maleficent doesn't want a new sucker, you were too useful," Hades shook his head.

I took a step back. "And? You're here to bring me back?"

"Hmm.." Hades grinned. "How about a deal?"

"I know how your kind works," I glared up at him.

"You should," Hades laughed. "You're one of us."

"No, I'm not," I huffed. "Now what is this deal of yours, Baldy?"

"Stop calling me that. Do you really think we don't know about your relationship with the other Keyblade wielder? Hah! Anyway, I've sent one of my own suckers to compete. If he beats your beloved little brother, you'll fight him. If he wins, you work for me. If you win, you're free. But if by any chance that your brother can actually defeat _**my**_ player, you'll have to go against your brother. And beat him."

I snorted. "Looks like a lose-lose situation for me, since I end up seeming to work for you anyway, baldy... And how would my brother even fight?"

Hades smirked. "I heard a handsome, not-bald Lord of the Underworld gave him an entry pass... And oops, forgot to tell ya. He's fighting my sucker now."

My eyes widened. I ran out to the stands (just enough that the people in front of me wouldn't notice), and I think my eyeballs fell out of their sockets. I watched as Sora and his friends fought a losing battle. "Big brother..?"

"That's right," Hades laughed. "Now.. Is that a deal?" He held his hand out to me. I took it angrily. Big brother betrayed me?

Obviously, the brat, the quacker, and Goofy were single-handedly beaten by Cloud. I ran down the stands as Phil announced my name. I stepped onto the arena and faced Cloud. "I can't believe I actually wanted you to be part of the family I wished could exist," I said to him agnrily, "How could you betray me like that?"

I ran towards him and tried to attack him, but even as he carried that huge sword, he dodged me quickly. "What are you talking about?" His eyebrows creased.

"Don't play dumb with me," I growled. "I know you only made friends with me so that Hades can get what he wants, whatever that is!"

"What?" Cloud threw me back as he defended himself from my attack. "No!"

"I told you to stop pretending!" I yelled. I successfully stepped on him and hit him on the head.

"No," Cloud rushed at me. I tried to dodge, but he grabbed me and pushed me against one of the pillars of the arena. "You stop. Listen to me. I didn't make friends with you so that Hades could get what he wanted. I did it of my own volition."

"Liar!" I pushed him off and raised my arms in the air. I wanted to scream and hit something. The anger within me wanted to burst. "THUNDAGA!" Bolts and bolts of lightning fell from the sky, all entering Cloud.

"AAAAGGGHH!"

Cloud shrieked, and he fell to the ground, limp. I took his sword. It was really heavy, but I managed to drag it to his neck. "Nobody makes a fool of me and gets away with it!" Before I could thrust it into him, a roar came from the other end of the arena and the people in the stands started screaming. I stopped and looked up to see a three-headed black dog roaring and biting at them.

Holy freakin' crapeole.

"Like surprises, kid?" Hades' voice snapped me out of my own confusion. He smirked and looked down to Cloud, whose eyes were empty. "Heh!" He turned to me. "And just so you know... He was telling the truth. I guess there was another rule that goat forgot to embed in your head: accidents happen!" With that, he disappeared.

I gasped and knelt before Cloud's motionless body. "You were telling the truth?" I shook big brother and made him look at me. "You really did want to be friends with me?"

His eyes turned to look at me, but nothing else moved. His body twitched, but that was it.

"SIS! COME ON!" Someone grabbed me by the shirt, and two more grabbed me by the arms. "Come on! We gotta get out of here!"

"Big brother!" I screamed, trying to get away from whoever was dragging me. I looked behind me. Those three!

A guy, about 21 years old or so, suddenly jumped onto the scene. He was muscular, dressed in weird gladiator-like clothing, and he was a curly carrot top. "Phil, get them out of here!" He yelled. Phil suddenly appeared out of nowhere and carried my feet, running with the brat, the quacker, and Goofy. "Let me go!" I struggled, trying to wiggle myself out of their grasp.

"What're you doing, sis?" Sora shouted from the screams of the people running, too.

"Do you wanna die?!" Donald shrieked.

"Shut up!" I reached out, but just to the air. "Big brother...!"

"Damn you!" I growled at Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Phil at the Lobby. All the other people made such a mess in their stampede to get out. We were the only ones left. And big brother was... "Let me go!" I stopped struggling, realizing that I couldn't get out of this bind. Literally. They had tied me to a post. I sighed.

"Are you crazy?" Phil yelled at me. "This isn't just an arena match! This is the real thing!"

"I don't care about that!" I barked back at him. "Big brother is still in there! I can't just let him die!"

"Who're you talkin' about?!" Phil groaned. I lowered my head. "I'm talking about Cloud.."

"Wh-why..." I looked up to see the brat's head lowered as well. "Why do you call him big brother?"

"Because that's what he is to me, you brat," I hissed. "Now let me out so I can save him!"

The brat looked away, then turned to Goofy and Donald. "Let her go."

"But Sora-"

"Just do it."

Goofy untied me, and I stood up. "I've got to save big brother.."

"Careful, kid," Phil told me. I nodded.

"Wait," the brat called. "We're coming with you."

"You shouldn't," I turned around to tell him that. "It's my business."

The brat's face turned red, and he opened his mouth. "IT IS MY-"

"Big brother!" I gasped as I heard more roaring from the arena. I ran back to the arena and saw the three-headed dog and the curly carrot top.. with big brother on his back. I sighed with such relief. "He's all right.."

The curly carrot top ran towards me as he carried big brother. "Here to help? Good luck with Cerberus!"

"Cerberus?"

"The dog!" He said, and ran past me. I cringed as I saw his bloody face. "Kumei, we're here!" I heard Goofy shout. I turned to see him, the brat, and the quacker enter the arena. So did Phil. "Kid, I got two words of advice for you: Attack!" He yelled.

Cerberus faced us now, his saliva dripping and creating a pool of darkness. He snarled at me. "...Crapfeeeeeeeeeest!" I screamed and started running around the arena. "Down, doggy! Down!" I yelled from the stands. He barked and ran towards me. He opened his mouth and spewed huge fireballs out. Oh, crap.

"Kumei, move it!" I took a step back in surprise as Donald jumped in my way and hit the fireballs back with his staff.

"W-wow.." I watched Donald as he fired even bigger fireballs at Cerberus. "Donald, that is awesome!"

"Just run!" He quacked, and suddenly Sora was dragging me back down to the arena. "We can't hold him off with just that! We gotta think of something," He told me. I stopped and watched him formulate a plan. I panicked.. But he didn't. This couldn't be. He was better than me?

"Keep moving, brat," I grabbed his hand and pulled him from his spot. Little black spots started to appear from the ground. Instinctively, I pulled at his arm and threw him up. "Whoaaa!" He gasped, and landed on Cerberus' back. Great idea! From me, of course. As Cerberus bit and attacked Donald and Goofy, I ran up to the stands behind him. "Hah!" I jumped at his tail.

I grabbed hold and hung from it. "Oh, man, that is something I did not want to see," I closed my eyes in disgust as I saw Cerberus'... thing. I never want to look at a dog again. Except Goofy, of course.. He is a dog, isn't he?

I looked up to find that Sora had already pulled me up onto Cerberus. "Don't worry guys, we'll get him!" He yelled to Donald and Goofy. Goofy's shield was nearly destroyed. I ran towards the heads and stabbed at the middle one. Cerberus roared, and (maybe) in his pain entered an aggressive stance. "Gahk!" I tried to hold onto one of his ears, but it was just so slimy that I had to let go. I fell onto the stands with a thud and found the brat lying down beside me. "Great job, Kumei!" Donald sarcastically yelled from across the arena.

"I'm thinkin', I'm thinkin'!" I shouted. Stupid three headed dog! I wish I had two guns named Ebony and Ivory to blow his heads off with... What a weird idea. Where did I get that?

Speaking of weird ideas.. "I have an idea!" I shouted, running over to where Donald and Goofy were. Well, not really. I stayed a good twenty meters away from them. "What is it?" Donald asked. "I'll take anything?"

"WHAT?" Donald's face turned red as I explained his part in Cerberus' downfall. "No!"

"Do it or we'll never beat this freak."

"Grr.." Donald grumbled. I felt someone tug at my sleeve. I turned around. "Sis, what do you want me to do?"

I turned back around to face Donald and Goofy. "Nothing," I answered. "Okay. Donald, Goofy, now!"

"Fine!" Donald covered his eyes.

"All right, Hakumei!" Goofy nodded.

"Woohoo!" I cheered as Donald fried Cerberus' balls (...) and Goofy threw his shield to cut Cerberus' tail off. Cerberus roared and writhed on the ground until a black portal appeared from under him and sucked him in. I grinned. "That's the last we're gonna see of that mutt.. Let's go." I started walking back to the lobby when someone stated walking beside me and holding my hand. I looked to my left and stopped, giving Sora a disgusted look. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I.. Sis.." I rolled my eyes and pulled my hand back. "Don't do that again, brat." Walking back to the lobby, I saw Phil, big brother Cloud, and the curly carrot top. "Big brother.." I knelt beside him again, but looked up to Phil and the carrot top. "How is he?"

"He hasn't moved an inch," the carrot top answered.

"Who are you?" the brat asked him. The carrot top smiled and held his hand out, "Hercules." The brat took it and said, "I'm Sora. These are Donald and Goofy, and this is my sister Kumei."

"Great to meet you all," Hercules smiled. So this was _**the**_ Hercules. I smiled at him, but turned to big brother. "Wake up.."

His eyes were still empty. "He'll come to in a few, I'm sure of it," Hercules pat me on the back. I stood up and looked at him. "How do you know?"

Hercules sighed. "Just trust me."

Donald pulled me beside him, and before I could react, Phil said- "Thus, I do hereby dub thee junior heroes, and confer upon thee full rights and privileges to participate in the games. Further-"

"Hey!" Donald frowned. "What do you mean _junior heroes_?"

"You rookies still don't understand what it takes to be a true hero." Phil shook his head. I looked to big brother. I really don't know what it takes to be a true hero. Even if I had what it took, I don't think I could ever be a hero. Hades was right, I am one of them. Look what I did to you, big brother...

"So, what does it take?" Goofy asked.

"Well, that's just something you'll have to find out for yourselves," Hercules smiled. "I still have to too, you know."

"Well, no problem!" the brat grinned. "We'll start by proving ourselves in the games!"

"There ain't gonna be any games for a while," Phil shook his head. "Gotta clean up the mess for that last battle first."

"Okay, we'll be back," Sora smiled, and he turned to Donald and Goofy. "Let's go, guys!" He looked at me. "Come on, sis.."

"Go ahead," I said, turning to Cloud. "I'll see you outside." I guess I'm coming with them again. Maybe... If I meet more people like big brother, they can lead me to my father. "I'm sorry, big brother," I shook Cloud's body as the three left. I didn't care that Phil and Hercules saw me. "I'm sorry I hurt you. Hades tricked me. Big brother.." I closed my eyes and embraced him. "Please get better soon."

My eyes snapped open as big brother's arms wrapped themselves around me. "Big brother!"

"Hey," He weakly smiled. It was gone in a second again, but I guess I'd have to get used to that. I helped him stand, and so did Hercules. Big brother tried to stand on his own, but he nearly fell. Hercules caught him and Cloud leaned on the two of us again. "See ya later, Phil," I waved, and Hercules let go of Cloud once we stepped out of the lobby. "Later, Hercules."

"Sis!" Sora ran up to us, and I set Cloud down on the steps of the doors across the lobby. The brat looked to big brother. "Hey, are you all right?"

Cloud nodded slowly, "Yeah."

"So.." Sora sat down beside big brother. "Why did you go along with him, anyway?"

Big brother looked away. "I'm looking for someone. Hades promised to help. I tried to exploit the power of darkness, but it backfired." He stood up, and this time he had enough strength not to fall. "I fell into darkness, and couldn't find the light." My eyes widened as he said this, and the brat smiled at Cloud. "You'll find it. I'm searching, too."

Big brother raised an eyebrow at him. "For your light? Don't lose sight of it."

The brat nodded, and I looked to big brother. "Well.. I'll go first," Sora seemed to sigh, then left us.

"Kumei," Cloud said. He stiffened in surprise as I hugged him. "I hope you do find your light. I'm still looking for mine, too.."

Big brother looked to the direction of the gummi ship, and I released him from my selfish embrace. "You might already have.." He looked back to me. "Then again, I might have, too. I'll keep searching, but for now.." He took my hand and placed a keychain into it. "You'll be my light."

A smile instantly appeared on my face. "Th-thanks!" Once I opened my hand, the keychain attached itself to my Keyblade (which suddenly appeared). My Keyblade took on a new form. It looked awesome compared to its normal state! Big brother turned to walk away, but I grabbed his cape. "Hey." He stopped and turned around. "Yeah?"

"Come with us. We're all searching for something... Once you find whatever it is you want, you can go."

Big brother opened his mouth, probably to refuse, but I covered it. "I need someone to keep me sane aside from Goofy, anyway."

"Well.." Cloud looked away. "I guess I can come."

"Yes!" I cheered, grabbed his arm, and took him to the gummi ship.

"What is **he** doing here?" Donald lifted an eyebrow at me. "He's coming with us for a while," I grinned. Donald sighed and was about to yell (I just knew it), but Goofy gave him a look. "Oh, all right!" Donald grumbled. "There's an extra room in the back.."

"Great," I turned to grab big brother again. "Sis-" The brat called, but I interrupted him. "Not now." I brought Cloud to the extra room. "Here it is. Make yourself at home for now.. Before Donald starts giving you chores and makes you drive this horrible thing."

"CLOUD!" I covered my ears as I heard Donald's voice over the PA. I didn't even know this thing had a PA! "YOU GOTTA LEARN TO DRIVE THE GUMMI SHIP! COME TO THE CONTROL ROOM. NOW!"

"Told ya," I shook my head with a sigh. Cloud just stood from his bed and placed his hand on my shoulder before he left through the door. "Thanks.. Little sister."

------------------

I felt so bad for Sora when I was making this chapter. Oh, well. Kumei, indeedy-weedy, is a bitch. And GASP GUESS WHAT?! I had an idea for the sequel of When Somebody Loves a Nobody! Of course, I'll do it AFTER I finish First Love. Kumei won't be the main character anymore (as sad as I am to do that, I must), but it mostly involves Sephiroth 12 years after When Somebody Loves a Nobody. :D Comments, anyone? Oh, and if anyone was wondering, Seymour Guado is fully human in the story. Guado is just his surname.


	8. GORILLA!

Prequel to When Somebody Loves a Nobody: Naturally frustrated and angry, Kumei is enraged at the thought of having to save the worlds. But when she meets a certain Leonhart, maybe she'll change her mind..?

Nameless-Sinner: Really? Aww. I did feel a bit bad making Kumei so mean to Sora.

fire spirit: Hehe, I love making flashback parts. XD

Angel Of Blacksouls: Yay! Saw it already, of course!

Speaking of fanart, Angel of Blacksouls was awesome enough to make a fanart of Kumei! See her work here (http :// blacksoulandy . deviantart . com/ ). Just connect all the letters and symbols, excluding the parentheses, of course. Here's the link to her fanart (http :// www . deviantart . com / deviation / 55622611 / ), do the same thing as the first!

Oh, and since I told you guys I had an idea for the sequel already, there's a sneak peek in my deviant art account (http :// dmc87 . deviantart . com/ ). Wel, it's not actually in my account, it's in my gallery. Here's the link! (http :// www . deviantart . com / deviation / 55804397 / ) You know what to do! (:

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_"Had enough yet, darling?" He smirked, watching me as I staggered forward. I held my profusely bleeding arm close; I didn't want him slashing at it any more. "I guess not, huh?" _

"Higure, you bastard! Give me back.." I caught myself with my hands as I fell to the ground. I winced in pain- my arm felt horrible and it took a lot of energy not to scream. "Give me back my brother.."

"Ohh," he pretended to nod in understanding, then faced his left palm to his right to open a portal. He stuck his hand into it, then pulled a little boy from the portal. "You mean this?"

"Yuuki..."

"Onee-chan!" He cried, holding his small hand out to me, but _**he**__ held him back by the collar. _

"No, no, no.." He laughed. "Little Bravery can't go back home, darling.. Not unless you give me something in return."

I glared at him, and all he did was push me back with his sword. I struggled to rise from my own pool of blood. Once I could, I looked to him. "What do you want..?"

All of a sudden, he appeared next to me and cupped my face in his hand. "Good question, darling.." I cringed in disgust. Creatures of the darkness.. I despised being touched by them. Especially by _**him**__. He laughed again, but then looked sternly into my eyes. "I want you."_

"Ahh! Get away, get away, get away!"

"Sis! Wake up! You're just dreaming!" I felt something shake me by my side. I groaned and sat up.

"What the.. Oh." I realized it was the brat. "What do **you** want?"

"Nothing, sis, I just heard you screaming from the control room.. Are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be okay?" I rolled my eyes at him and got up from bed. "Now, where are we? It's been two days since we left the Olympus Coliseum, and I'm getting sick of Donald's cooking."

"Hmm.. Lemme check." He ran out of the room. Bah, I don't trust him to give me the right information. I'll check myself.. I walked to the control room and saw the brat, the quacker, Goofy, and big brother Cloud(who was steering) arguing. Well, it was more of the two brats yelling gibberish at each other while Cloud and Goofy watched them.

"What's happening now?" I asked Goofy and big brother.

"Well, Sora wants to land in this next world," Cloud explained.

"But Donald thinks it's a waste of time," Goofy continued.

"I see," I nodded in understanding, then turned to the two idiots.

"Just land!" the brat yelled.

"No!" the quacker replied in the same manner.

"Come on!"

"Aw, phooey!"

"Will you two idiots just decide on something?!" I shrieked. God, these two were going to be the end of me..

"We're landing!" Sora resolved, and turned to press a random button in the controls.

"Don't touch that! Nooooo!" Donald screamed, but it was too late. The world big brother Cloud and Goofy were talking about kept getting closer, and soon the gummi ship was spiraling down into it.

"Sis!" the brat screamed from my left as we fell against the sides of the gummi ship. He held his hand out to me. I was just trying to hold my ground. And failing.

"Kumei, take my hand!" Cloud yelled from my right. He held his hand out to me, too. I took it immediately before bumping my head against the wheel...

"Kumei!" I groaned and sat up. Well, tried. Everything was a bit blurry at first, but blinking, I cleared my vision. "Are you okay?" I looked up. I was leaning on big brother Cloud.

"Hmm," Cloud shook his head. "What a fall."

"I'd say it's more of summer here," I looked around, and noticed big brother giving me a look.

"Hehe," I grinned sheepishly. "Kidding, big brother. Where are we?"

"How should I know?" Cloud shrugged, standing up. "Can you walk?"

"Hmm.. I don't think.. My legs hurt.."

Big brother sighed and knelt down, his back facing mine. "Get on."

I gasped, "Really, big brother?"

"Yes, Kumei," he answered nonchalantly.

"Awesome!" I cheered. Heheh, I am such a good actress. I got onto big brother's back and he carried me. He started pushing through the trees, and after so many houirs, we stumbled- well, he did, actually- upon a camp.

"Oh! Civilization!" I screamed, jumping off big brother and running to hug a bunch of boxes. "Water! We've been out for hours! We're saved!"

I turned to Cloud, who raised an eyebrow at me. "I thought your legs hurt.. And we've only been walking around for fifteen minutes, Kumei."

"Oh!" I smiled innocently. "Well, then.." I looked around for an escape route. Ooh! There was a tent bigger than all the others. That must be it! I ran into the tent, only to find a woman changing her clothes. She screamed.

"Ahh, sorry!" I screamed, turning around and covering my eyes. "Are you done yet?"

"Yes."

I turned around. The woman was smaller than me, but she was definitely older. She had long brown hair and.. Well, her voice freaked me out. "Who are you?" She asked, inspecting me.

"The name's Hakumei," I introduced myself. I, of course, feel no remorse for running into her camp without asking permission. "My big brother's.. Wait here."

I ran out and dragged big brother into the tent. He stared at the woman uninterestedly. "Cloud."

"Yeah.. So what're your name?" I raised an eyebrow at her. "Jungle girl or something?"

"No!" She huffed. "I'm Jane Porter. My father is.. Hmm.. Where is my father? Well, you speak English, so you're obviously not related to Tarzan.."

"Tarzan?" I asked, and big brother Cloud just shrugged. "Are you here to study the gorillas?"

"No..." I shook my head. Although I suppose Riku and Kairi could be counted as gorillas (I mean, have you seen their hands and their feet? Huh-yoo-juh).. Or underdeveloped humans. Take your pick, I'm fine with both. "We're actually-"

"Jane!" A rather gruff voice came from the entrance of the tent. I turned to look, and my eyes widened.

"Tarzan!" Jane gasped. Oh, so that was Tarzan. But- "Oh, who's this?"

"Hi, my name is-" he gasped. "Sis!" He ran to me and hugged me. I pushed him off.

"Oh, you three are siblings?" Jane asked, looking at me, big brother Cloud, and the brat.

"Uh.." I rolled my eyes. "I guess."

"I suppose you're not here to study gorillas, either?" Jane said to the brat.

"Highly doubtful," Another man's voice came from the entrance, and a big man in a yellow suit (no yellow hat though) carrying a rifle entered.. With the quacker and Goofy!

"Sora!" Goofy gasped.

"Goofy! Donald!" The brat returned the gasp, and he and Donald ran to each other and held each other's hands. I sighed. Freaks.

The two realized what they were doing, I think, as they turned around and crossed their arms at each other. "Hmph!"

"You're both idiots," I scolded them. "If you hadn't been fighting, we could've landed here safely."

The quacker was about to retort when the big man they came in with spoke up. "A circus of clowns. Not much use for hunting gorillas."

"Mr. Clayon, we're studying them, not hunting them. This is research."

Clayton didn't say anything and instead left the tent. "Someone has issues," I commented.

"You?" Donald asked.

"Shut your quacker," I hissed.

"Why you-"

"Well," Jane interrupted. "The more the merrier. Do make yourselves at home!"

The brat and the quacker started arguing again, while Goofy walked up to me. "Hakumei, look what we found." He showed me a block. I lifted an eyebrow. "What is that?"

"It's a gummi block," he explained. "It's the same stuff used to build our ship."

My eyes widened. "That means.."

"The King could be here!" Goofy nodded. I shrugged, "Uh, yeah. Yeah, sure he could." And so could my father! I didn't like imposing myself on Goofy; he was one of the saner people. Dogs. Shut up.

I turned to Jane. "So I'm guessing Tarzan isn't with you guys in this whole gorilla research." I stared at the long-haired man wearing a loin cloth 'speaking' with Cloud and resisted the urge to laugh.

"Oh, no." Jane shook her head. "Apparently, Tarzan was raised in the jungle by the gorillas. Communicating with him still isn't easy, but he's learning."

"So he was speaking in 'gorilla' back there.." The brat butt in.

"Ah, that's right. You're looking for your friends?" Jane asked us.

"His friends, my father." I answered.

"You two aren't siblings?" Jane asked.

"We are! She's my big sister!" Sora smiled, taking my arm. I pulled it back from him.

"Somehow," I muttered.

"Anyway," The brat spoke again. "He said Riku and Kairi are here. And one word I couldn't understand..."

"Well, I want to help you," Jane smiled. "So why don't we try this? We'll show Tarzan some slides and see if any of them match that word." Jane went to get this old-looking camera. She checked for something inside, then frowned. "Oh, what happened to those six slides?"

"Lost them?" I asked. Jane turned to me and nodded.

"We gotta work together to look for them so we can find the King!" Donald suddenly chirped- uh, quacked in. "For now."

"Fine!" Sora huffed. "I'll let you tag along so we can find Riku and Kairi. For now."

"Haha, no," I corrected them. "_**I**_'ll let you tag along for now so we can find my father. Now, get looking!"

"Sure thing, Hakumei!" Goofy saluted me and got the brat and the quacker out of the tent. I sighed and shook my head, then turned to Jane, who was still looking around the tent for the slides. "Don't worry, Jane, we'll-" I stopped as I saw something from the corner of my eye. "Just _what_ are you two doing?"

Tarzan was reaching for big brother's sword (DON'T even think about that!), and Cloud was holding it was high as he could so Tarzan wouldn't reach it. He created a hole in the tent. Tarzan stopped, and big brother lowered his sword. Why does every sentence I make sound like there's innuendo? Because there _isn't_, okay?!

"Sorry, Jane," I apologized. "Look, I'll make it up to you later. Right now I'm off to look for those slides." Goofy could probably find them, but since he has to take care of those two, I doubt he'll be successful. "Big brother, are you coming?" I asked him, but he didn't reply. He was having a staring contest with Tarzan. Great, is everyone becoming an idiot except me? I rolled my eyes and left the tent.

Goofy was holding two slides, the quacker was holding one, and the brat, two. They haven't found all six yet? Pathetic. "We can't find the last one, sis!" The brat ran over to me. "What do we do?"

"...Quiet," I answered, and looked around. I groaned at their idiocy as I saw the last slide. I climbed a bunch of crates and held the slide up, glaring at the three from above. I threw it at them. They all moved to catch it, but ended up piling on top of each other. I sighed again and jumped down the crates, taking the slide as it slowly landed on the quacker, who was on top of the brat, who was on top of Goofy. I took the rest of the slides from their hands and walked back to the tent. "Hurry and get up, or I'm watching these slides without you."

I entered the tent again and handed Jane the slides. "You found them!" She exclaimed. "Wonderful." She placed the slides inside.

Jane played the first slide- A castle. She played the second slide. A man kneeling in front of a woman. "Wait, wait," I shook my head. "Can you play the first slide again?"

"Of course," Jane nodded, and did as I asked. I stared at the castle. "That castle.."

"Is something wrong?" Jane asked.

"It just looks so familiar," I answered. "I know what you mean, sis!" The brat nodded. "But how? We've never been off the islands."

"Tch, how should I know?" I shrugged, looking away. I found my eyes on big brother Cloud, whose arms were crossed. He frowned at the picture in front of us. I wonder if he knew anything about that castle- it was too late to ask when Jane changed the slide, though. I couldn't pay attention to the rest, as the caslte wouldn't uproot itself from my mind.

"Well, Tarzan?" Jane asked the missing link. I have no idea why I just thought that. "Do you know where the people they're looking for are?"

"Yeah," The brat asked, too. "Where are my friends, Riku and Kairi?" I glared at him, although he didn't notice. Are those two all he cares about? He didn't even ask about our father!

Tarzan just shook his head. I smirked. Serves you right, you little brat. "Hey," the brat frowned. "I thought-"

"That leaves just one place," Clayton said as he entered the tent. That mustache of his was really getting to me.

"Young men," Clayton looked from the brat, to the quacker, to Goofy, and to Cloud. The nhe looked at me. "And, uh, girl, we've been in this jungle for some time now. But we have yet to encounter these friends of yours. I'd wager they're with the gorillas. But Tarzan refuses to take us to them."

Jane frowned. "Really, Mr. Clayton. Tarzan wouldn't hide-"

"Then take us there! Take us to the gorillas. Go-ril-las." Clayon insisted. I saw the look on Jane's face and frowned, too. I hate it when men belittle the woman's opinion. I hate male chauvinists! "I highly doubt humans would be living with a bunch of gorillas, Clayton," I frowned. "That's a _stupid_ idea."

"What do you call Tarzan then, my dear girl?" Clayton raised an eyebrow at me.

"Tarzan was raised by gorillas, and no offense Tarzan, but he can barely speak a sentence in english. The person I'm looking for is from the same civilization we all come from."

"She has a point," Jane nodded in agreement.

"Your friends could be there," Clayton told the brat. The brat's eyes lit up. "They could? Then.. But.."

Tarzan looked to Sora and nodded his head. Was he actually agreeing to this? "Tarzan.." Jane looked at him worriedly. "Are you sure?"

Tarzan nodded again. "Tarzan go see Kerchak."

"Kerchak?" Cloud repeated.

"He must be the leader," Clayton said. "Perfect. I'll go along as an escort. After all, the jungle is a dangerous place." Yeah, only when there are people like you in it.

"The boys and I are coming," I suddenly said. The boys and I? What the hell?

Hmm...

I like it.

"I think that's a great idea," Jane smiled, and I winked at her with a nod. "Don't you think so, Mr. Clayton."

I saw Mr. Clayton glare at me before it turned into a pretend smile to Jane. "A great idea, Mr. Porter, but unnecessary. I can handle things with Tarzan myself."

"Do you have something against me, Clayton?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

Clayton raised an eyebrow back at me. "Of course not. Why ever would you think that?"

"Because you don't want me or my escorts coming along," I shrugged.

"Escorts?!" The quacker shrieked.

"Quiet, Donald," I muttered, and Goofy and the brat calmed him down. Tried. Don't care.

"Well.." Clayton looked away. "I just thought it would be dangerous for you and your escorts to come along."

"Well, there's not going to be any danger, is there, Clayton?" I laughed, patting him on the shoulder as if he were joking. "I mean, we're just going to go protect Tarzan on the way to the gorillas, and then we'll come back if the person I'm looking for isn't there. Right?"

Clayton subtly grit his teeth. "..Right."

"It's settled then, we're coming along," I told the three behind me, and turned to Cloud, who was looking at a slide in his hand. "Are you coming, big brother?"

"Y-yeah," He quickly put the slide back in the camera. "Yeah, I am."

"Great," I smiled. Was he looking at the castle slide? I shook my head inwardly and turned to the rest of the people. "Well? Let's go!"

We exited the tent. "Where to first, Tarzan?" The brat asked the hairless wonder. Where do I keep getting these names?! Tarzan pointed to a Bamboo Thicket, and we nodded. We started to enter the thicket when we heard screaming coming from the thickets. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh- oof!" Running into the scene, an old man bumped into Tarzan. "Who's the old guy?" Big brother asked me. I shrugged. "I don't know; Jane's dad? She was looking for him a while ago."

"Him again?" The brat and big brother frowned in unison.

I turned to them. "You know this cat?"

"Yeah, when Tarzan found us, we-"

"I fought him off when we first landed here," Big brother answered.

"Really, Cloud? Maybe that's when he came to the Treehouse.. Anyway, when-"

"Let's get him!" I pointed towards the leopard and jumped it. Oof! It jumped away. The brat shot a Fire attack at it, Clayton shot at it and missed, Goofy threw his shield at it but it jumped away, Tarzan threw a spear at it and almost hit it, the quacker did a Thunder spell, and big brother charged at it with his sword. Seeing big brother's sword (again with the innuendo), the leopard growled and jumped off into another direction.

Tarzan glared after the leopard. "Sabor.." He muttered. "Is that the name of the leopard?" I asked, and he nodded.

Sabor... Stupid name for a stupid cat.

"Okay, move along, everybody," I started pushing everyone into the Bamboo Thickets. "We're wasting time standing around here." I turned to the old man, supposedly Jane's dad. "Mr. Porter, if that's your name, go back to camp. Jane's looking for you."

"Oh! She is? You youngsters be careful, now!" He smiled, then ran off. We walked a few more lengths, then arrived at a place with lots of trees and vines.

Okay, so maybe that isn't really specifying the place. Let's just say it was on top of most trees and that you could swing using the vines from this angle. There, two gorillas sat and stared at us as we came closer. The bigger one, colored gray and black, seemed fierce, and even a bit angered. The smaller one, colored brown and.. uh.. light brown, looked upon Tarzan with kind eyes. Maybe those were his parents?

Tarzan started speaking 'gorilla' to the bigger gorilla- oh! Maybe he was Kerchak. Let's just call him that for now. He started speaking with Kerchak in 'gorilla', but Kerchak just stared back at him. More of glared, actually.

I'm guessing the parents don't approve.

"Did you get that?" Big brother asked me. I shook my head. "I speak a lot of things, but I don't speak gorilla." I can totally speak pirate. Yarr. Not pirates like Hooky, though, because he's just plain weird.

Tarzan looked at Kerchak pleadingly and 'ooh ooh ahh ahh'ed something again, but all Kerchak did was look up, stand up (in a gorilla kind of way), turn around, and walk away. Tarzan's mother (she seemed to be, and she did look like a she) sighed. The look of kindness on her face turned into a look of disappointment. After a few seconds, she left with Kerchak, too. Tarzan looked down sadly.

"He seemed kinda distracted by something," Goofy said.

"Was he looking toward the treehouse?" Donald asked, pointing to something above.

"Maybe," I said. I walked over to the spot Kerchak was on a while ago and followed Donald's fingers (I just realized he had fingers). Yep, a treehouse. "We should go there."

"To the camp?" Clayton asked.

"No," I shook my head. "To the treehouse. You can go back if you want to, though, Clayton. The jungle, after all, is a dangerous place." I smirked. He just glared at me. I smirked a little more before turning to the brat. "Weren't you saying something about a treehouse earlier? Is that the one? Lead us there, now."

"All right, sis."

The brat lead us to the treehouse since Tarzan was still dejected by his parents' obvious disapproval. "Wow," I whispered as I saw the treehouse. "Whoever built this must have been really desperate, or really determined. Or both. Really."

We climbed up the tree trunk and reached the front of the treehouse. Huge entrance. I raised an eyebrow as something moved around in the treehouse. I entered it and saw a smaller gorilla playing with a globe. "Terk," Tarzan said, mostly to himself. Name of the gorilla? Probably. Assumptions are all I can make here. Next thing I knew, Clayton was pointing his gun at Terk. "Hey, what're you-!"

"Waboogamyah!" Donald shrieked and jumped Clayton, making him narrowly miss Terk. I didn't know whether I should laugh or be surprised at the sound Donald made, but that didn't really matter right now. "Shit!" I screamed at him. "Why are you so freakin' trigger happy?!" I can also make nicknames. "Yeah!" Donald yelled at Trigger Happy. "What's the big idea?!"

Tarzan started speaking gorilla, and it was then that we all noticed Kerchak. Terk ran to Kerchak, and the two left. "You don't understand," Trigger Happy shook his head. "I was only trying to..." He stopped to think. "Ah. A snake slithered by, you see. I saved that poor gorilla's life." Everyone glared at him, and I rolled my eyes. "If you're going to lie, at least be good at it." I turned back to everyone. "Let's go back to camp before Trigger Happy here decides we're target practice."

We went back the way we came, and passing by the cliff, the leopard reappeared. "Not you again," I rolled my eyes at Sabor. "Do you want to take this one, Trigger Happy?" I asked him, and he just glared at me. Sabor did the same. "Fine," I muttered. "Brat! Quacker! Goofy! Attack!" I shouted.

"Hey!" Donald yelled, but big brother pushed him forward to fight. "That's for forcing me to drive the gummi ship," he muttered. I laughed, and the brat attacked Sabor with his Keyblade. Goofy charged at Sabor with his shield, and the quacker cast a spell. Sabor ran off after a few hits from them, and I sighed. "It's good to have your own team."

"You mean servants!" The quacker huffed.

"That's what I said," I chuckled. "Team of servants."

No one said anything after that (although Donald did try to kill me once) and we returned to camp. Mr. Porter was already with Jane. After we explained what happened with Kerchak, Terk, and Trigger Happy, Jane and her dad gasped. "How could you do such a thing?!"

"Now, Miss Porter, as I told you and these.." He glared at us. Mostly me. "...People, I was not aiming at the gorilla."

"You are not to go near the gorillas again!" Jane said angrily.

"All because of one mishap?" Trigger Happy shook his head. "Come, now.."

"Just give it up, Clayton." I shook my head. He turned to me, his face becoming red with anger. He said nothing as he stormed out of the tent. "Do you think he'll look for the gorillas?" The brat asked. I shrugged. "I know he won't not look for them." Goofy looked at me. "So does that mean he's going to-"

_BANG!_

Everyone's eyes widened as a gunshot was heard outside. Everybody ran out of the tent to see what the commotion was about. "Heartless!" The brat shouted, and for once, he was right.

"**Twilight!**" The Heartless were in the form of monkeys, but I could still hear them loud and clear. They're here... Did Maleficent send them after me?

"Get them!" I shouted. "Jane, you and your dad stay inside the main tent where it's safe!"

She nodded, grabbed her father, and ran into their tent as the rest of us (me, big brother Cloud, Tarzan, Goofy, the quacker, the brat) fought the Heartless off. "I hate them," I groaned. "I hate them so much."

"I know!" The brat suddenly ran beside me and got rid of the Powerwild Heartless I was aming for. Whoa. How did I know what it was called? "They took over the islands, and mom, and Riku, and Kairi, too!"

Why was he talking to me? "Sure," I inched away from him as I destroyed another Heartless. "**Ahhh!**" I heard squeaky voices screaming. "**It'sss the Twilight! Get her!**" I looked up and saw a bunch of monkeys with bows on their heads. "Bouncywild Heartleeeeeess!" I shrieked, and covered my mouth as I dodged and rolled out of the way. This was creepy.

"Over there!" Goofy pointed to my left. I turned and saw more Bouncywild Heartless running towards me. "I don't think so!" I ran toward them, but I slipped on something and fell right in front of them. I looked to my feet. I slipped on a banana?! The Bouncywilds started laughing, and I glared at them. "You should've tried to take my heart while I was down, because now you're going to die!" I slashed at them, and when they disappeared, munny was scattered all over the place. "Whoa! Munny! Oh, yes!" I picked up all the munny I could collect while hacking and slashing at the Heartless. I realized that they were actually pretty easy to beat.

I turned around once there were no more, and saw Tarzan speaking to a gorilla. The rest of us walked over to Tarzan. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"They-" Tarzan pointed to where the Heartless first appeared. "-attacked.." He pointed to the gorilla who was running off. "The Heartless are after the gorillas?" Tarzan nodded.

"That can't be good." It was Jane. She walked up to us. "You must protect the gorillas. Please."

"We should," The brat nodded, and so did the quacker and Goofy. I turned to Cloud, who just shrugged, and sighed. "Whatever. Tarzan, what do you want to do?" Tarzan pointed to the brat, and it was decided. "Fine," I rolled my eyes. "We'll save the gorillas from the Heartless. But Jane, you and your dad really need to stay in the tent."

"All right," Jane nodded. "And thank you, Kumei."

"Okay," I looked around as we trudged in the Bamboo Thicket again. "Why would the Heartless want those gorillas?" I asked big brother Cloud. He shook his head, "I don't know.. Gorillas have hearts too..?"

I should've known better than to ask him, I guess.

Still, his answer led me to thinking, who wants the gorillas, too?

Trigger Happy.

I mean, Clayton.

It was then that I remembered _them_. Baldy. Goatee Guy. Tenta-tots. Hooky. Sackhead. Fissy. Plus last and probably the least... Prettyboy.

Fissy could control Heartless, couldn't she? She could command them, at least.. Could Trigger Happy command them as well?

"Kumei, are you going to help out at all?" I snapped back to reality as I heard the quacker's voice.

"What, you didn't save any Heartless for me?" I frowned. They had already saved a gorilla here. And without me, too!

"You were daydreaming," Cloud told me. "We didn't want to bother you."

"I'm touched," I answered, and shrugged. "Well, let's move on."

Nothing really interesting happened on the way to the Treehouse. We saved one gorilla at the cliffs, and when we passed by the place where Kerchak and Tarzan's mom were earlier, we found a chest. Here's how it went:

"Treasure chest!" The quacker exclaimed. We followed him to wherever he ran off to and saw what was, indeed, a treasure chest. Donald tried to kick it open, but that didn't work. "Outta the way, amateur," I teased. As usual, he yelled at me, but I didn't mind him. I tapped the chest with my Keyblade just as I had in the Coliseum, and it opened. "Gol-wha..?"

The quacker frowned as three Dalmatians jumped out of the chest. "Ahh!" He shouted. "Not you dogs again!" He took one and was about to throw it off into the jungle, but I grabbed it from him before he could. "Jeez, Donald, you of all people should know about animal rights and crap! Throwing this puppy away is like throwing Goofy away!" I sighed disappointedly at him and took the two other puppies. "And what the hell do you mean, 'you dogs again'?"

"We've been seeing Dalmatians since we went to Wonderland," the brat explained. "By the way, Wonderland is a place with this-"

"I know what Wonderland is, brat." I dismissed him with my hand. "So did you throw those puppies away, too?"

"No!" The quacker rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "They're in the storage room in the gummi ship."

"And why wasn't I told about this?" I raised an eyebrow. "I didn't even hear them barking!"

"That's because Donald placed a casting spell on them, Hakumei," Goofy told me.

"Oh," I nodded. "Sleeping dogs really do lie then, hmm?"

Donald rolled his eyes again. "Whatever," I shrugged.

End flashback. Sorry, I can't narrate right now. We finally arrived at the Treehouse, and again, there were Heartless everywhere. "Gorilla!" I shrieked. The gorilla yelped as a Powerwild tried to swipe at it. Luckily, it jumped out of the way.

"**Grr,**" the Powerwild glared at me. I raised an eyebrow and pointed my Keyblade at it. "Whatcha gonna do, monkey boy? Go eat a banana or something!"

"**I'll kill you, Twilight!**" The Powerwild hissed.

"**No!**" A Bouncywild jumped the Powerwild before it could jump me. "**If Princcce Higure findsss out that you tried to kill the Twilight, he'll be outraged!** "

"**Princcce Higure isss dead! The new one isss just an impossstor! He'sss just one of-**"

"**Shh!**" The Bouncywild shook its head. "**If anyone hearsss you sssay that, you-**"

"No, big brother, wait!" I gasped, but it was too late. He had already destroyed the Powerwild and the Bouncywild. They were talking about this Prince Higure.. I remembered that a few Heartless before also mentioned a Prince Higure. And in my nightmare earlier this morning...

"What's wrong?" Cloud asked, walking up to me. "Whoa!" He ran past me, holding his sword out. I turned around and saw him holding the three puppies and destroying a few Heartless. He frowned and gave me the puppies. "Take care of those."

"Sorry," I said to him, taking the puppies off his hands. "I was thinking.."

"You can think when we destroy all of these- okay, you can think now," Donald said, destroying the last Heartless. The gorilla ran off, and I shook my head. "That was odd." I turned to Tarzan. He was the one leading us all in this. "Any more gorillas that need saving?"

Tarzan blinked. I think he was thinking... "Jane."

"Oh-kay.." I nodded. "Back to camp, then."

"The gorillas are saved," I told Jane and Mr. Porter as we entered the camp. "Well, four of the gorillas. Still... Where's Trigger Happy? His gunshot was the reason I ran off to save the gorillas in the first place."

"He hasn't come back," Jane shook her head. "I do hope Mr. Clayton is safe..."

I sighed. "Do you want us to go look for him?"

Jane looked up. "You would do that, Kumei? Oh, what cute puppies!" She noticed the Dalmatians.

I rolled my eyes inwardly, "I am now. Come on, people." I walked out of the tent. I then noticed another treasure chest by a stack of crates. If we're lucky, it'll be gold this time. I knelt down in front of the chest and clicked it open.

"Puppies!" I exclaimed as three more jumped out of the chest. The three puppies I was holding jumped out of my arms and started licking the other ones, running around me in a circle. "Okay, everybody, calm down. You guys should stay with Jane." I led them back to the tent, where everyone was. "Jane, can you take care of these puppies first?"

"Three more?!" Donald shrieked."

"Oh, of course!" Jane smiled, taking the puppies. "I'll keep them safe here, Kumei."

"Thanks." I then turned to big brother, Tarzan, Goofy, the quacker, and the brat. "Didn't you guys hear me a while ago? LET'S GO!"

_BANG!_

Again. I looked to Tarzan. "Trigger Happy?"

He nodded. "Clayton." "It came from over the thickets, sis!" The brat said. "I know that," I replied, and we entered the Bamboo Thicket. "Look!" Goofy shouted. He picked something up from the ground and showed it to me. "A pipe."

"Clayton!" Tarzan said. "This belonged to Clayton," Big brother nodded. "I saw him taking it out earlier."

A roar was suddenly heard, and I summoned my Keyblade. "Sabor's come back to play.." Whoa, am I psychic or what? Sabor jumped out from the thickets and glared at me. Why did everyone have a problem with me? It couldn't be the face. I'm gorgeous! It could't be the hair, it was completely manageable. And it certainly couldn't be _me_. I was perfect as I could be! If only father could see me now. Nevertheless...

"Attack!"

I jumped Sabor and hit him this time. We rolled on the ground. Uh-oh. I don't like being a tthe bottom. He raised his paw to swipe my face, but a spear was suddenly caught inbetween it. Sabor howled in pain before running back into the thickets. Do cats even howl? I stood up with a groan. "Thanks, Tarzan. You're helpful, unlike some people I know..." I narrowed my eyes at the brat, the quacker, Goofy, and big brother. The first three looked down, but big brother frowned and looked around. "He's still here."

"What? No, he ran off, like always."

"RWAH!" I heard, and next thing I knew, the leopard was on the brat. Man, these cats make the weirdest sounds. "Sis! Help!"

"Brat!" I frowned. I threw my Keyblade at Sabor, and he jumped off the brat. He snarled at me again. "Everybody hates Kumei," I sighed. "And I still can't understand why! I'm-"

"I understand why!" Donald raised his hand.

"You're not allowed to talk, quacker." I sneered at him.

"Why you-!"

"Donald, look out," Tarzan half said and half gasped before pushing the quacker out of the way and cutting Sabor's head off. My eyes widened. Did he just cut Sabor's head off with big brother's sword?

"Wow, violent," I commented, walking up to Sabor's now dead body. At least Tarzan's parents are avenged. I didn't say anything, but I saw dry blood in the Treehouse earlier, along with two skeletons covered in cloth. I assumed those were Tarzan's real parents, but... "Hey, how did you get his sword?" I asked Tarzan.

"He just took it," Big brother answered, and took the sword back from Tarzan, who shrugged.

"Well, nothing here," I shrugged. "Let's go back to camp. Again."

We did just that, and the brat entered the tent. The rest of us did, too, and the brat looked around. "Hey, where's Jane?"

"Not here, obviously..." I rolled my eyes. "Where are the puppies?"

"Not here, obviously," Donald retorted. "Where's Jane's dad?"

"Not-"

"What's wrong, Tarzan?" Goofy asked, interrupting big brother.

"Something coming," Tarzan frowned worriedly. "Jane, danger. Jane near... Treehouse."

"Sounds like trouble," Donald looked to us. "Let's go."

"That's my line, you know," I glared at Donald, who just 'hmph'ed. "Anyway, Tarzan, can you bring us to the Treehouse?" Tarzan nodded and lead us toward the Treehouse. We stopped in a cave-like structure made of trees. We always passed by here when we went to the Treehouse, but once we entered it, all exits were barred.

"Tarzan!" I heard.

"Jane," Tarzan whispered. I looked up and saw Jane hugging Terk (who was shaking), and Mr. Porter, who was surrounded by the puppies.

Heartless reappeared. "**Twilight!**"

"Jeez, is that your entrance song or something?!" I shrieked. "I'm sick of hearing you freaks saying that!" I ran towards them and started killing them off.

"Gawrsh, who's Hakumei talking to?" Goofy asked.

"Who knows?" The quacker shrugged, and I glared at him. Didn't he hear those damn Heartless, too?! "See the big fruit?" Donald asked the brat. "It's full of darkness, like those Heartless! We gotta destroy it."

"All right!" The brat nodded. "For sis!"

I shook my head, turning away from their conversation and back to the Heartless. Tarzan was trying to free Jane, Mr. Porter, Terk, and the puppies, but nothing was working. Maybe the quacker was right. Still, we had to hold off these stupid Heartless for now. "Let's go, big brother!" Cloud just nodded, and we got rid of the Heartless.

It wasn't really that easy, of course, but it included banana peels and a bunch of 'ooh ooh ahh ahh's, so let's skip it. When we were done with the Heartless, the boys still weren't done with the big fruit. "It sure is taking you guys a while," I said, looking around for any Heartless. What? Sometimes they snuck up on me like the heartless Heartless they were.

"Let me help," big brother said, and he raised his sword. Wow... When the sunlight peeped through the trees and shone on big brother, he looked really awesome...

Then he stabbed the fruit, and the fruit died.

I blinked. "That was anti-climactic, but okay.." I looked to Tarzan. Everyone was finally freed, and Jane was hugging Tarzan. We ran to where they were, and I took the puppies. "What happened?"

"Clayton came to the tent, and.." Jane held her temples. "That's the last thing I remember. Right, daddy?"

Mr. Porter nodded. "Yes, that's it.." Jane sure is lucky she has a father.

"Clayton?" the brat frowned.

"Gorillas trapped," Tarzan suddenly told me. "Terk ran."

"Trapped by what?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Heartless." _That_ can't be good.

"We must help the gorillas," Jane told me. I nodded, "Way ahead of you. Terk," I turned to the gorilla who stared fearfully up at me. "Lead the way!"

We went back to the camp (we dropped Jane, her dad, Terk, and the puppies there), then to the Bamboo Thickets, and proceeded all the way to the Cliff. Silence surrounded the Cliff, while Heartless surrounded the goriillas. Kerchak stood in front, as if to protect the others. Nobody moved, except Clayton, who stood in front of Kerchak. He raised his rifle and pointed at Kerchak. I knew Trigger Happy was the perfect name for this crazy.

"NO!" The brat screamed. Everyone looked to him, including Trigger Happy, who had an odd look on his face.

"What is wrong with you?!" I took it as my turn to shout.

"Not Clayton!" Tarzan shook his head at me, and said something in 'gorilla'. "Not Clayton!"

"Well, whatever he is, whoever he is, he's going dow- Ow!" I flew back against big brother.

"Sis!" Sora gasped.

"Kumei!" Donald's eyes widened.

"Hakumei!" Goofy shook his head.

"Kumei, are you all right?" Cloud shook me as I held my left shoulder. It throbbed like hell! "Do I.." I groaned and sat up. "Urk.. Do I look like I'm all right?" I glared at Clayton, who's rifle was still pointed at me.

"I have to take you back to the camp," Big brother told me, starting to carry me.

"But Trigger Happy..."

"We can take care of this, sis!" Sora said. "Cloud, you can take her to Jane, right?" Big brother nodded and stood up. He carried me back to camp, the others serving as a distraction so we could leave.

I groaned as big brother set me down on the cot. "Mr. Clayton did this? I can't believe it!" Jane said, lifting my sleeve. I winced as Cloud allowed me to squeeze his hand.

"Tarzan did say it wasn't him," Cloud told her.

"It couldn't have been. Mr. Clayton can do a lot of things, but.." She looked to the bullet embedded in my shoulder. "I don't think he could've done such a horrible thing such as this."

"Oh yes, pinch me, I must be dreaming," I muttered.

"Sarcasm only makes it worse, Kumei my dear," Mr. Porter said, fanning me as Jane cleaned the area around the bullet.

I sighed and cringed as Jane finally took the bullet out. "Damn that Trigger Happy, or whoever it is.." I groaned. "Lie down first, Kumei," Cloud told me. "Rest."

"No," I jerked up. "I'm right-handed anyway. I can use my Keyblade. I can fight!"

"Kumei," Jane, Cloud, and Mr. Porter shook their heads.

"Come on! I can do it! Watch me." I jumped out of the cot and summoned my Keyblade. I swung it at big brother, who raised his sword in defense. I grinned. "See? I can hack. I can slash. Just not move my left arm very well."

"What if you need to block an attack? What will you do with that left arm?" Big brother raised an eyebrow. I groaned. "I'll manage, okay? Now let's go!" I pulled Cloud with my right hand. "Thanks again, Jane, Mr. Porter." Before they could say anything, I ran off with big brother following me.

When we arrived at the cliff, Goofy had gathered all the gorillas in one corner while he, Tarzan, the quacker, and the brat fought with the Heartless. Actually, there were no longer any Heartless. Clayton was no longer just standing, either- he was on some invisible thing, and he looked like he was floating in the air! Also, it was like there was an explosion on the cliff. "Sis!" The brat gasped. "Why did you come back? You have to heal!"

"I've healed enough, brat," I replied, summoning my Keyblade. "It's ass-kickin' time!"

"Wait, sis!" The brat yelled after me as I jumped to attack Clayton. I was pushed back against big brother again. Okay, so that was a bad idea. "What the hell was that?" I got up. "It pushed me back!"

"It's a lizard," Donald replied. "When you hit it enough it becomes visible, but right now it's cranky."

"Cranky?!" I glared at the invisible lizard. "I'll show you cranky!" I ran towards it with my Keyblade facing it and jumped. I hit the jackpot when I heard its shrill scream of pain. When I landed on the ground, it was finally visible. "Okay, Donald, that's not a lizard. That's a chameleon. Well, I guess it's sort of a lizard, but you gotta be more specific..."

"Whatever!" Donald yelled.

I shrugged, "Fine, reject my knowledge." I smirked as the Stealth Sneak held its eye in pain. Stealth Sneak? ...Not again. Anyway, I stabbed it in the eye so now it was screaming in pain and I was happy. "Big brother, Goofy, you guys get the chameleon. Tarzan, the quacker and I will get Clayton!"

"What about me, sis?" The brat asked.

"Whatever," I shrugged. "Come on, let's hurry it up!" I ran towards Clayton, who pointed his rifle at me again. "I'm getting sick of getting shot," I hissed at him. He fired at me, but Tarzan threw a spear and it hit that instead. It bounced off the spear, off the cliff, and fell to the ground instead. "Wrong move, Trigger Happy!" I shouted. "Donald, thunderbolt attack, now!"

"I'm not a Po-"

"Shh!" I yelled. Jeez, you wanna be sued for copyright infringement? Some people... "Just do it, quacker!"

"Grr, fine!" Donald raised his magic wand, chanted a spell, and casted thunder at Clayton. The thunder attack hit the Stealth Sneak as well, and the two fell to the ground. The Stealth Sneak disappeared, and its heart floated into the air. I wonder where it's going... Home, maybe? Haha, that's a funny concept.

Suddenly, my left arm felt so much better. I looked to my arm. It was completely healed! I turned to Tarzan, who was mildly hurt. I held my hand over his wound. "Cure!" The word escaped my mouth, and his wound was gone. "Awesome," I nodded to myself. Totally useful.

"Tarzan!" I heard.

"Jane," Tarzan turned to the direction of the Bamboo Thicket. Running towards us were Jane, Mr. Porter, Terk, and the puppies. "I was so worried about all of you," Jane told us.

"Well, thanks," I shrugged. "But... now what?"

Tarzan took Jane's hand and stood in front of the gorillas- more importantly, in front of Kerchak. Kerchak closed his eyes and nodded... In approval.

"WHOO!" I cheered. "When's the wed- aaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!" I shrieked as Kerchak picked me up off the ground and threw me at the top of the cliff. I rubbed my butt after I stood up and looked down to them. "Thanks a lot... What was that for?"

Kerchak didn't reply (not that I'd understand if he spoke to me anyway) and threw the brat, the quacker, and Goofy up the cliff, too. He was about to pick big brother up as well, but big Cloud shook his head. "No thank you, I can climb up myself." Kerchak nodded and Cloud jumped up the cliff.

Tarzan followed suit, handing me the six Dalmatian puppies. "Tarzan, home," He explained.

I had no idea what he was talking about, but whatever. We followed him to a Waterfall Cavern, which we climbed. When we arrived at the top, Tarzan lead us to this leafy area with a shining blue light. Jane and Terk had also followed us here. Tarzan then started speaking in gorilla. "Tarzan," I sighed. "I know we had a life-threatening adventure together which created a strong bond of friendship between us, but I want you to know that I still don't understand whatever the hell it is you're saying."

Tarzan sighed exasperatedly. "Wait, I think I get him," the brat said. I rolled my eyes inwardly. "This is your home, Tarzan? But that means..."

"The waterfalls..." Jane looked around. "They're echoing all the way here.."

Tarzan said something in gorilla, then said, "Friends there. See friends."

"Oh, now I've got it!" Jane told me. "What Tarzan said means heart. Friends in our hearts..."

Tarzan nodded and repeated, "Heart..."

"Oh, so that's what it meant," the brat nodded in understanding.

"Friends, same heart. Clayton, lose heart. No heart, no see friends." Tarzan explained. If you don't have a heart, then you won't know your friends? Hah, tough luck for those who don't have hearts, then. Friends... Define that word.

"Sorry about what I said," Sora told Donald.

"I'm sorry, too," Donald nodded. Suddenly, Goofy took the brat's shoulder and mine, pushing us all together (Donald was inbetween me and the brat). "All for one, huh?"

"Hah, sure," I pulled away from them. All for _what_?

Suddenly, a keyhole appeared from within the light. Our Keyblades appeared in our hands for some reason. The brat raised his Keyblade, and it emitted a light which entered the Keyhole. Big brother nudged me, and I raised my Keyblade, too. It also emitted a light, but it was so bright that my vision temporarily failed. What was happening?

When I regained my vision, the keyhole was gone, and so was the light. It was just us and the leaves, and... "A gummi!" The quacker.. uh.. squealed?

Goofy took it from Donald's hands and stared at it. "It's sure not the king's..." My eyes widened. Could it be..?

Suddenly, Terk started getting close to Donald. "No, no, no, no! Daisy will kill me!" Donald shrieked, and everyone burst into laughter (except Tarzan and big brother, probably for different reasons). I raised an eyebrow and nudged the quacker. "Who's this Daisy girl, eh?"

After a while, everyone returned to camp. Six more puppies appeared out of nowhere, and the brat said those were the puppies he had set free earlier when he first met Tarzan. So now we had twelve puppies, and the quacker wasn't very happy. "Well, guess we better get going," the brat said.

"Oh," Jane sighed. "Well, where is your ship, anyway?"

"Uh, not too far off," I answered, looking away shiftily.

"Kumei, Sora, Donald, Goofy, Cloud, friends." Tarzan suddenly said to us. He handed something to the brat, and the brat's Keyblade suddenly took on a new form. Just like my own Keyblade had when big brother gave me a keychain.

"Well, be sure to return soon, all right?" Jane said to me.

I chuckled, "Well, I'll try. What with our busy schedule looking for people and saving things..."

Seriously, I didn't like it.

"Okay, then," Jane laughed. "It's just good not to be the only girl around. Will we see you again?"

"Definitely! We'll be back."

"The gummi block that came out of that glowing hole... It's not like the others. Wonder what it's used for." The brat said.

"Dunno, don't care," I muttered, lying down on the couch as soon as we entered the gummi ship. "I just wanna know who owns it."

"I dunno either," the quacker shrugged.

"Maybe Leon'll know," Goofy suggested.

"Ugh!" I shuddered at the thought. "Leon doesn't know _anything_."

"Who's Leon?" Big brother asked, sitting on the couch and placing my feet on his lap. "Is he your boyfriend?"

"Hah!" I scoffed. "I could not care less about that guy. I would have to like the brat way before I'd ever take **Leon** or _Squall_ or whatever as a boyfriend."

"If you say so," big brother shrugged. "It's settled then," he said to the boys. "We're going to wherever this Leon guy is."

"What? I never said-"

"Back to Traverse Town, got it!" The quacker nodded.

"I wanna be pilot!" The brat suddenly yelled.

"Hey, stop it!" The quacker quacked, pulling him away from the control room.

"Oh, come on!" The brat pouted. "I'm the Keyblade master!"

"Hey, I'm a Keyblade master too, how about **I** drive?" I teased the quacker.

"I don't care who you both are! No!" The quacker shrieked.

"Good, 'cause there was no way I was going through with that joke."

Cloud and Goofy just sighed, "Here we go again..."

--------------------------------

And there's the update. Sorry it's short, I was in a bit of a hurry. I just got .Hack//G.U. Volume 2! It's awesome. Anyway, review if you want, thank you!


	9. It's a sitar, for Dalmatians' sake!

Prequel to When Somebody Loves a Nobody: Naturally frustrated and angry, Kumei is enraged at the thought of having to save the worlds. But when she meets a certain Leonhart, maybe she'll change her mind..?

**fire spirit: Hmm... evilly hot XD I like that.**

**Angel of Blacksouls: Aaaand the next one! XD Hope you enjoy reading it, even just a bit.**

**Nameless-Sinner: Hahaha! well, thank you for mentioning it, we certainly appreciate that.**

**Masked Ai: I like Cloud a whole lot more too as a character and as a guy XD But Aerith is in KH, therefore AerithxCloud is here, too. XP**

Hey, guys. Sorry this is still half-assed. I have no excuses. We just don't have any more inspiration these days. Advanced happy halloween, everyone.

* * *

_"You're disgusting!" I closed my eyes and turned away from him, but he jerked my face towards his and laughed. _

"You're the one who's thinking that_, darling." He let go of my chin and slapped me so hard that I fell to the floor. "Why would I ever want a creature of the light such as you except to torture and destroy you?" _

I seethed and grasped my arm. "I hate you..."

"Now, now," he grabbed me by the neck and lifted me in the air. I tried to make him let go of me, but I was too tired now. "Hate is something only we creatures of the darkness may have."

"Big sister!" Yuuki cried.

"Shut up!" Higure snarled at him. He let go of me and I fell to my knees, wheezing and spitting blood. "Get your own emotions, you spoiled little Light princess." He turned and walked away, still holding my brother captive.

"Speak for yourself... Higure." I hissed, trying to lick the blood back into my mouth. "The only reason... you're in such a good position in the army of Darkness.. Is because you're her son! N-no, let me correct that... It's because you're her d-daughter!"

"How dare you!" he ran towards me, but before he could slash at me, a bright light emanated from behind me.

"_How dare **YOU** touch my daughter and my son.__" _

Father!

Higure looked up, and his eyes widened. He muttered a curse under his lips, and in a nanosecond, he disappeared into his portal. I breathed a sigh of relief as he didn't bring Yuuki along. "Yuuki," I called to him.

"Big sister!" He cried, and ran over to me. He embraced me, making sure not to reopen my wounds... that much.

"Daughter."

I turned around and faced a man with long blond hair and amber-colored eyes. "Thank you, father. I'm... sorry I failed you."

"You did not fail me," father smiled. "You tried your best. I am proud to be your father." 

"Father.. father..."

"Kumei, we're in your boyfriend's world. Did you doze off again?"

I opened my eyes and saw blond hair. "...Father?"

I saw the blond man's face scrunch up. "I hope not. Kumei, are you still dreaming?"

I blinked and realized that it wasn't the man in my dream. "Oh, hey big brother," I smiled as Cloud pulled me up from my slouched position. He nodded at me and said, "We're in your boyfriend's world. Let's go."

I scoffed and hurled his arms back at him. "Leon is not my boyfriend!"

"Who said I was talking about Leon?" Cloud gave me a raised eyebrow. "Unless..."

"You did that on purpose," I narrowed my eyes at him, stood up, and left my room. Big brother followed me out of the gummi ship, and I found my little broth- I mean, the brat, the quacker, and Goofy standing near the World Exit, looking like complete idiots.

"Let's move it, people," I clapped my hands impatiently. "The faster we get to Leon's and get what we want, the faster I can find my father."

"We're not doing this mostly for you, you know," Donald snapped as he squinted his eyes at me.

I turned to him and smirked. "I know that. You're doing this _entirely_ for me."

"Grr! Why you-!"

"Donald, calm down!" Goofy and the brat held him back. I sighed.

"This won't do. You guys should go ahead to Leon; I need to get us some supplies anyway. Where's big brother?"

"Come back." I heard Cloud's calm yet troubled voice from behind me. I fell to the ground on my butt before I could turn to ask what the problem was, and (surprisingly) I wasn't that annoyed to find that the twelve puppies we found were now running around me.

"Okay, you guys, get off my sis," the brat laughed, picking some of the puppies up and shooing the others away. I stood up and dusted myself off, ignoring Sora as he asked me what we would do next.

"Donald, Goofy, _you_, and big brother, go ahead and ask Leon for that information you needed. I'll try and get a place for the Dalmatians to stay."

"Why don't you just ask Leon to take them in, sis?" the brat asked, taking a few more puppies in his arms. Damn it. I didn't think he'd use that.

"Because.. Leon has enough on his hands."

"Oh, you're worried?" Cloud smirked.

"Shut up," I shot him a look, then whistled for the Dalmatians. Wow, they actually stopped. "Let's go, guys. I'm going to find you a home."

"Wait," Cloud called. "Where will we meet?"

I bit my lip. "Er... Leon's place, I guess. It's a small world. Trust me, I'll find you. Oh, and buy our supplies while you're at it!"

I contradict myself a lot, don't I?

We went our separate ways, and the first person I thought of... was the moogle I spoke with when I first arrived in Traverse Town. There he is! I walked over to him, and the Dalmatians followed. "Hey, kupo! You're back!"

Okay, he states the obvious way too much. Still, I replied, "That I am. Listen, would you know of any-"

"_We've been apart for so long that I've forgotten how you feel. But what we have is so strong, maybe I'll remember what is real._" A wonderfully annoying sound reached my senses. The singer's voice was weasel-like, yet inviting. Either way, those have got to be the two most contradictory lines I've ever heard in a song- still, the instrument was played beautifully.

"Who... is that?" I asked the moogle in front of me.

"Oh," The moogle pointed to the tavern behind him. "It's a musician... He's new here, kupo. He hasn't said what world he came from, and he doesn't seem to want to talk about it. He plays the best songs, though, kupo."

"Ah," I nodded in understanding. "Thanks... Later." I needed to see this guy. He was better than a summoner, and I didn't even know what that was! I hurried to the seemingly empty tavern, but once I was at the very back, I saw the musician. He looked as old as I was, had dirty blonde, average length hair (for girls though, not for guys) and calming, teal-colored eyes. He seemed nice, playing his sitar like that. He also seemed to like animals, as he was playing with four Dalmatians and-

Dalmatians?

"Whoa! Dalmatians!" I suddenly realized. I came closer to the musician and stood before him, the rest of the dalmatians playing with him already. He noticed my looming over him and looked up.

"Hi," he smiled. "Are they yours?" Like I said- inviting and almost cute weasel-like voice.

"Uh, yeah... not really." I laughed. "I found them, and now I'm looking for a place where they can stay."

"Oh," the musician nodded, tickling one of the Dalmatians. "I know a couple who would be more than willing to take them in."

"Really?" I looked from his hands to his eyes. "Uh, that's wonderful! Could you take me to them?"

"No problem," he smiled, setting his sitar down. "Come on, I'll help you with those puppies." He whistled louder than I ever could, and all the puppies suddenly stood at attention. Wow. He then snapped his fingers in the direction of his sitar, and it disappeared.

"Is that your weapon?" I asked.

"Weapon?" At this, I think the musician chuckled. I didn't find anything funny. "Well, I guess you could say that. I've succeeded in calming the Heartless down with the music, but that's it. They attack a few seconds later, so I've had to run away.. But that works for me."

"I see." This was interesting. Playing music so you'd have enough time to run away? Very smart. "So," I stole a glance at the musician, realizing that we had gone past Cid's shop. "Where is this couple?"

"They're in the Second District," the musician answered. "They'll be more than happy to get these Dalmatians."

"I hope so." I agreed. Sort of. "Anyway, where'd you learn to play like that? I've heard that sitars aren't easy to master."

"It's not a sitar," the musician sounded a bit annoyed at my mistake. Oh, well. "It's a guitar."

"No, it's not," I hate to argue with someone who probably knows his arts better than me, but hey. That's why I'm me. "It's a sitar. It's too small to be a guitar."

"It's a guitar, I should know, I play it," the musician frowned. I rolled my eyes. Fine, guitar. Yeesh. Oh, hey, we just passed that hotel which Leon usually stays in... Big brother Cloud and the others must have met up with him already.

"We're almost there." he said. Whatever you say.

"We're here!"

That was fast. No Heartless?

We stood in front of two large, pink doors which seriously stood out from the rest of the Second District's features. The musician opened the door for me, and as we entered, the musician suddenly lost control of the puppies. They started barking and jumping around. I tried calming them down for a few minutes before realizing that it was futile. I felt someone tap my shoulder. I looked behind my person and saw the musician pointing to something.. someone.. sometwos! My eyes widened. Whoa.

"These Dalmatians.. are their children?"

The musician smiled as I turned around to face them. "Yeah. I don't know how they got this house, but this is where I landed when I first got here. These two were so sad. Guess I know why now."

The two older dalmatians (one with a blue collar and another with a red one) standing in front of me gave me a grateful look. I'm not sure if those were smiles they were giving me, but they sure seemed like it. The dog in the blue collar- presumably the female- nuzzled my palm. I looked to the musician in uncertainty, but he gave me a reassuring look.

"She likes you."

Ah, I didn't figure that out by myself. The weird thing was, there was some solid thing in my hand. I fearfully opened my palm. Hmm? What's this? I shook my head and smiled at the mother dalmatian before stuffing her 'gift' into my pocket.

"We should go," I told the musician. "I have to meet up with my.." I cleared my throat. "Companions."

"Oh!" the musician nodded. "Oh, yeah. We should." He turned to the dalmatians. "We'll see you all later, all right?" They barked and licked our legs before allowing us to leave.

I've never been this sticky before. I mean, I know I attract people, but.. well, I guess it's their way of showing affection.

"So where are your companions?" The musician asked me as we strolled out of the Dalmatians' house. Where _are_ they? I hope they're done with the groceries already. I looked up and around.

"I'm not sure. We were supposed to meet somewhere here, but I guess they're not done with what they were supposed to do yet."

"Oh, okay... Well, I was thinking, maybe we could-"

"**Twiliiiiiiiiight!**"

"They're playing my song," I feigned an emotional sigh, turning away from the musician as I summoned my Keyblade. A Large Body Heartless narrowed its glowing yellow eyes at me, while I gave him a big smile just to tick him off. If he could get ticked off... "Bring it on!"

"Uh.. Oops, I haven't gotten your name yet, have I? Well, miss, I think-"

"Out of the way!" I pushed the musician aside as the Large Body Heartless rushed at him. The Heartless swung an arm at me, and I used that to jump up and behind him. I thrust my Keyblade into his back, and he made this horrible creaking/squeaking/screeching noise.

"Wh-whoa!" The musician gasped, backing away from the Heartless. "Miss, stop it!"

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you want to die?"

"No, it's just that-" the musician sighed. "-I hate violence. I don't like fighting."

Well, that's something we definitely don't have in common.

"Then what do you propose we do?" I wanted to keep rolling my eyes at him, but he seemed like such a weakling that I thought one roll would crush his spirits.

The musician took a deep breath before holding his hand out in front of him. I whacked the Heartless just in case, but it didn't disappear. It was still crying out in pain. I knew it! Big guys are always the most sensitive.

Anyway, the musician's sitar (NOT guitar, psh) reappeared. He held the instrument close to him, and then started to play this oddly calming song. "_Hold on to your steadfast dream, unyielding warrior, for soon you will behold- the defeaning silence after and of the violent war you wage could unfold._"

Okay, now his lyrics are starting to creep me out.

It still worked for me though, since the musician's weird song was able to lull the Heartless to sleep. I wanted to destroy it then and there, but the musician asked me not to. I argued that it would be able to steal another's Heart, but then he started begging for me to kill it some other day.

"Fine," I muttered. Was he a coward, or was he righteous? I couldn't tell.

"Yes, let's leave while we can," the musician nodded. His sitar disappeared once more as he started running off to the First District. "Run," he laughed. "Run away!" What a weirdo! But he was interesting to me; a refreshing character compared to everyone else's monotonous personalities. I followed him, and by that time I saw big brother Cloud and Donald walking out of a store beside the tavern. I didn't want them to meet my musician, so I turned to him.

"I really need to go. I'll see you the next time I'm here, so don't leave, okay?" I nearly pleaded.

"Yep!" he smiled and nodded. "I don't have anywhere else to go, anyway. If I'm not at the tavern, I'll be at the Dalmatians'... If I'm not there, I'm probably with the moogles. They're building this store above Cid's, y'know? I'll be working for them." I took all this information in. Okay, uploaded.

"All right, then. I'll see you later, um.."

"Oh yeah, our names," the musician laughed, running his hands through his hair. "Sorry. What's your name?"

I asked you first! But fine. "It's Hakumei.. You can call me Kumei." I held my hand out to him.

The musician grinned, shaking my hand vigorously. "Kumei... Pretty name for a pretty girl." Should I slap him or say thanks? Either way, I gave him an expectant look. "Oh!" he understood it. "My name. Yeah. It's really stupid.."

"As if mine isn't. Just tell me already!"

"Oh, all right, just don't laugh," the musician rolled his eyes at himself. "It's Myde."

Myde. Pretty interesting name.

After Myde and I parted ways, Cloud and Donald spotted me.

"Kumei!" Donald yelled, dropping our items and flailing his arms over his head violently to get my attention. I snorted in an attempt to resist the urge to laugh, but I ended up laughing anyway. I waved back, and the two walked towards me.

"Hey, I found the Dalmatians a place to stay.. Where are the brat and Goofy?"

Cloud's face lightly scrunched up as I said 'brat', but I didn't mind as long as he didn't speak out against me. "Sora and Goofy went to look ahead for your boyfriend."

"He is _not_ my boy-"

"Sora is not a brat!" Donald, on the other hand, reacted quite violently. "Well, he can be annoying sometimes, but he still isn't a-"

"Sis! Donald! Cloud!"

Ah, speaking of. The brat and Goofy ran over to us from the Second District entrance. "We've found Leon!" they exclaimed, "But we didn't want to talk to him without you guys!"

"Oh, that's so sweet," I rolled my eyes. "Let's go, everyone."

"Actually," Cloud objected. "Donald and I should return all the items we bought back to the gummi ship."

"All right then," I muttered. "_We_'ll go ahead. Goofy, where is Leon?"

"We found him in this Secret Waterway, Hakumei!" Goofy answered, making huge gestures in front of me. The brat did the same in agreement. "It's through the sewers."

"Oh, that's great," I groaned. The sewers. Great idea, Leon. "Donald, you know where that is, don't you? You do. Okay. We'll see you there." Once Cloud and Donald left for the gummi ship, Goofy and the brat led me to the "Secret Waterway". It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. In fact, it was a bit.. pleasing to the eye.

At the far end of the waterway were Aerith and Leon. Leon (who is not my boyfriend) was drilling a few sequences with an odd weapon- a blade mixed with a gun- while Aerith instructed him and judged his efforts. "Not bad for a Keyblade thief, Leon, not bad."

"Kumei, Sora, Goofy!" Aerith clapped her hands joyously. "How was your trip? Did you have fun?"

"No! I wasn't stealing your Keyblade, I was examining it for research-advancing... purposes, and not for my own enjoyment!" said Leon with an exasperated look. "Do you think I had fun being kicked in random places?"

"Lots of fun!" Sora and Goofy answered Aerith. "We met alot of people, and there were these dogs stuck in treasure chests!"

"Riiight. Whatever you say," I gave Leon a knowing grin, summoned my Keyblade, and waved it around as I danced triumphantly. "I know what you want!"

"...Really?" Aerith laughed softly. "Well, I'm sure you were able to save them, right, Sora? What else happened? Did you find your friends?"

"I don't think so," Leon chuckled, giving me an incredulous look. "Especially not with that immature dance."

"Aww," the brat realized his failure to find his friends and at the back of my mind, I realized my own failure to find my father. But was it really a failure not to find someone who wasn't there? Maybe father was just in another world. The ones we went to couldn't have been the only worlds around. "No, we couldn't find them.. But we did find someone else! We brought him with us! He's-"

"Shut up!" I crossed my arms and narrowed my eyes at Leon. "The fact of the matter is, you don't know anything about this Keyblade-" I swung my Keyblade in his direction, and the swing ended right at the tip of his nose. "-and you won't know anything about it until I say you can!"

"Did your Keyblade change its form?" Leon _rudely_ grabbed the tip of my Keyblade and examined it closely, trailing his gloves along the Keyblade's shaft in a straight line.

"You have the attention span of a gnat!" I took his hands off my Keyblade and wiped it with my shirt in disgust. "You know what? I don't even understand the relevance of this conversation in this entire story!"

Leon blinked. "What?"

"So this is your boyfriend; I see. You already act like a married couple."

My eyes popped out of their sockets as I turned around to face Cloud and Donald, who was snickering at me. I glared at him lightly before focusing my attention on big brother. "We do not, and he isn't my boyf-!"

I stopped as I realized that Cloud was no longer paying attention to me. Instead, he had his eyes glued on something behind me.. Something.. Aerith? The two twenty-something year olds in front of me (not Leon, he isn't counted) stared at each other in disbelief. As they neared each other, Aerith held her hand out to touch big brother's face.

"You're here."

Cloud held her hand against his skin so endearingly that you'd think they hadn't seen each other in a million years!

"Is it... really you?"

Wow. A girl causing Cloud to actually show his emotions; I really like her now. Of course, I was a bit envious, knowing that big brother wouldn't give me all his attention to me, but I don't know... The look in his eyes made me pity him terribly; and pity wasn't something I felt every day. I would never be able to give him the kind of 'love' he and Aerith appeared to share and vice versa.

"Yes, Cloud," said Aerith, removing her hand from his face. He seemed to be disappointed with this, but Aerith's sudden embrace definitely changed his mood. He hugged her back, clutching her body as if he would never be able to again.

"Well," I cleared my throat. The two ignored me, as expected. "They're enjoying the moment, good for them. But I..." I turned to look at Leon. "Have no time to enjoy anything right now; not until I find my father. The boys want to talk to you about something and they won't continue looking for my father until they talk to you about it."

"Oh?" Leon broke off eye-contact and faced the brat, whom Donald just recently shook out of his 'ew, hugging is mushy but I'll watch anyway' trance. "What did you guys want to talk to me about?" The brat opened his mouth to speak, but Leon held his hand up.

"Wait," Leon eerily narrowed his eyes at Cloud and Aerith. "We should talk somewhere else." The four of us quickly nodded in agreement, and Leon led us to the "hotel".

"So," said Leon as he took a seat in the chair in front of the bed, as the brat, Donald, and Goofy threw themselves on the bed (well, only the brat did that), and as I leaned against the wall with a look of pure annoyance plastered on my face. The bed was _my_ seat.

But then that Leon might think it immature to take what's mine!

"What was it?"

"Oh yeah, that!" The brat jumped on his feet and started to make these huge gestures as he spoke. "So we were in Tarzan's world with Cloud, right? A lot of weird stuff happened, especially to my sis, but this one guy named Clayton was especially weird! It turns out his heart was overtaken by the Heartless and the darkness! So we had to defeat him, and when we did, the gorilla leader called Kerchak threw us up a cliff! We found this weird leafy place above the waterfalls where there was this bright light coming from a Keyhole! Our Keyblades emitted even brighter lights when they were held up in front of that Keyhole, but then it disappeared! The Keyhole, I mean. But I guess that's okay, since we learned about friendship and we even got this gummi block that's totally different from other gummi blocks!" Sora took a deep breath.

"So can you tell us what it is?"

Leon blinked again. "What?"

I groaned and rolled my eyes. "Even I understood that, except the bit with the learning about friendship or whatever. Look, we found a stupid Keyhole and a gummi block fell out of it. Understand? I guess you can't, since you weren't there with us. Which brings me to the question: Why _don't_ you come with us? Not that I want you to; I'm just wondering if you're too chicken to leave this refugee-center-world."

"I understand now," said Leon, giving me an I-understand-now look. "Now you need to understand that I have to protect this world from being completely overtaken by the Heartless."

"Why not let the people deal with it?"

"They can't handle it; even the Shadow Heartless are too hard for them to destroy," replied Leon. Tch, why was he making it his problem? "Anyway, you found a Keyhole.. and sealed it. That's good."

"Why?" I asked, "Why would we need to seal it?" As if sealing Keyblades would help me find my father!

"Look," Leon shook his head and motioned for us to listen. "Every world among the stars has a Keyhole, and each one leads to the heart of that world. There must be one in this world as well."

"So?" I gave him a you're-making-no-sense-again look. "Where did you even get that information?"

"It was in Ansem's report."

"The Heartless guy?"

"No, he studied the Heartless," Leon explained, and patiently, I must admit. "Anyway, the Heartless enter through the Keyhole and do something to the world's core. In the end... It disappears."

"What?!" The boys gasped. "That's horrible!"

Leon nodded in agreement. "That's why your Keys are so important. You're the only ones who can lock the Keyholes."

The brat bit his lip. "I don't know..." For once, I agree. A bit. Letting those Heartless destroy the worlds meant destroying Belle's home world, didn't it? Well, her world was already gone, judging by the fact that she was stuck in that tube thing located in Fissy's hideout. Still, locking the Keyholes had nothing to do with finding my father! It would only hinder me, wouldn't it?

"And," continued Leon: I could hear the desperation in his voice. "Seeing other worlds would probably serve you well. Weren't you looking for the people important to you? You could accomplish that while locking the Keyholes. Oh, and about that gummi block, you better ask Cid. He's the authority on that matter here."

"Oh, yeah!" Donald nodded. "We gotta find your friends! And King Mickey! Oh.." Donald looked to me for a second before looking away. "And your dad, too." Oh, sure. My dad and I are always the afterthoughts.

"So you're going?"

"I suppose," I grumbled. "Don't get your hopes up, though. I could change my mind."

"Haha, she's just kidding, right, sis? Such a joker.." the brat laughed, opening the door leading to the Hallway, which led to the Second District.

No, I'm not.

"Well, we'll see ya when we see ya, Leon, we're off to Cid's!" The brat slammed the door behind Donald, Goofy, and himself. They'll come back for me later; like I said, I'm an afterthought. Don't tell me you still can't understand my annoyance.

"Kumei."

I looked to Leon, who frowned slightly. "What?"

"I know you think that locking the Keyholes will only slow you down in your quest to find your father... But you owe it to those worlds."

"Me?" I scoffed at him. "Owe it to those worlds? What're you talking about?"

"You know what I'm talking about. You helped Maleficent destroy those worlds; you can't allow her to destroy any more. That's the only way you can make up for it."

"And who says I want to make up for it?"

Leon gripped my wrist. "You have to... Please."

"I'd almost pity you..." I gripped _his_ wrist and forced him to let me go. "If you weren't cutting off my blood flow! I'm not doing it, and you can't force me."

There was a moment of silence, and in that moment, I noticed Leon clenching his fists to the point that they were shaking. "You're impossible!"

"Thanks." I looked to the door. I still wasn't going to do what he wanted of me, but his usually controlled but now evident anger unnerved me... Just a bit, of course. "I try." Leon didn't seem to have anything more to say, so I left the hotel room hastily before he could find something to say.

"Kuuuuuuumei!"

Uh-oh. Come on, come on, walk faster, Kumei! Enter Cid's place before the crazy ninja girl catches you- "Gotcha!" Aww, man.

"What do you want, Poofy?" I turned around to face her, but took a step back immediately. "Whoa! What the-?"

I saw part of Yuffie's head make a nod before she dropped all the items and equipment she was carrying. I crouched down in front of the stash and started picking out a few fire-resistant bangles and some potions. "Where'd you get all this?"

"I found them!" proclaimed Yuffie, standing up and pointing to the sky dramatically.

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you sure? This equipment looks pretty familiar..."

"No, I didn't take them from Donald's gummi ship!" Yuffie blurted out. I rolled my eyes. "You took these from my gummi ship?"

"_Your_ gummi?"

"Yes, _my_ gummi."

"Oh, no. I took them from Cid's. Honest! And I found a few lying on the ground in town."

"Uh-huh... Why'd you take from the old man's ship?"

"So he'll get annoyed," said Yuffie with a huge grin on her face. "And he isn't that old! Anyway, I can see his reaction now..." she sighed happily. "Oh well! You can have the stuff you got from the stash; I'm hiding this in the hotel! Next time, you should come with me to go treasure hunting!"

"If I have time, I already told you."

"No, you didn't. Oh! I heard Cloud was in town! ...Oh yeah, you don't know Cloud."

"Actually, I do. Big brother's over at the Secret Waterway with Aerith."

Yuffie gasped at this before she started clapping her hands and squealing. "Yay! That was fast! I thought it would take until the Heartless were gone before they'd see each other again. And big brother? Is that your nickname for him? He's okay with it?"

"Yep," I answered curtly. I didn't know she knew Cloud. Was I the only one who didn't know him before?

"Woah!" Yuffie's and my eyes widened as we felt the ground shake; some bell in Traverse Town was ringing. What was that?

"Ooh..." Yuffie looked around once the shaking and the ringing stopped. "Cool! Anyway, I'm off. See ya when I see ya!" She waved at me, picked her stash up again, then ran off to the Second District. Huh. Not if I see you first, Poofy.

"Sis!" I looked back to Cid's shop as the brat, Donald, and Goofy walked out of it. Oh, they're done.

"So what did the old man say?"

"He said he'd install the gummi block for us," the brat answered. "But we gotta deliver this book to some guy first!"

"Some guy?" I repeated and frowned. "Some guy? Do you even know where 'some guy' is?"

"Yup! Third District, by the big Fire sign!" replied Goofy, who led the way. There were a few Heartless, but surprisingly, not as much as there usually was. Something's gotta be up. Probably Maleficent.

When we arrived at the Third District, I expected one of Maleficent's dark portals to be around. Nothing. Guess I'm never really going back to her place. Not that I want to; I'm just wondering what those girls in those tubes are supposed to be for. Donald saw the Fire sign and Fire'd our way into a cave-like area. It was all mostly water: there was this one island that had a small house sitting on top of it, and five or so moving stones we had to hop on to get across. Oh, how challenging.

"Faster, people," I ordered the three. "Do we really need to take- AAHH!"

I clutched my throat as the water pulled me down. I tried kicking, but that didn't work. I looked up, tears being forced out of my eyes as the rock I slipped off started fading from view. Blotches of black and purple crept in from my peripheral vision. Was this it? I thought my father would save me. Just like her father saved _her_...

_Now, now. Didn't I tell you to get your own emotions? Hopelessness isn't something you should feel. The poison Apathy forced into me took my heart away again; I was fine until I was turned into one of them. I can no longer control my actions- I won't be myself if you see me. I hate myself for saying this, but while I am gone... Apathy will take care of you. Just don't..._

"Kumei! Kumei, are you all right?" I coughed the water out of my system as someone helped me sit up. I grabbed the hand of whoever it was that helped me. "I'm here, I'm here.. Answer me, are you all right?" I looked to my savior.

"Leon?"

_Just don't forget about me._

Leon's eyes widened as my own eyes caught them. Letting me carry my own weight, he stood up and looked to the boys. "She should be all right now. Be more careful next time," said Leon, leaving for the Third District quickly. So he wasn't over our conversation in the hotel. Speaking of which...

"Where did he come from? And _why_ did you need his help to pull me out of the water?" The water, in which I heard that familiarly strange and strangely familiar voice?

"You think we didn't try?" Donald crossed his arms, giving me a sour look. "We couldn't touch you!"

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?" I shot him a more appalled look.

"It means we literally couldn't touch you, sis!" the brat answered for the duck. "I mean, our hands went through you!"

"And Leon's didn't?" I raised an eyebrow at him disbelievingly.

"Yeah! You gotta believe us, sis!"

"Gawrsh, Hakumei, Sora's really telling the truth." Goofy backed him up. "Good thing Leon suddenly appeared from that house over there and saved you!"

"Saved me... Why would he save me?"

The brat started to laugh. "Why wouldn't he save you, sis? You're friends, right?"

"Right..." I muttered in reply as Goofy pulled me to my feet. "Whatever. Let's just go." Ugh, I'm drenched. I carefully jumped from rock to rock, and this time, I didn't slip, fall, or nearly drown. We entered the house on the little island. I didn't see any old man. Instead, I saw a deserted, crappy little house with a circular platform in its center.

We searched the place anyway, and for a moment, Sora spaced out. "Kairi?" he asked no one in particular.

Donald, Goofy and I looked to each other. "No idea," said Donald. I nodded in silent agreement, while Goofy decided to take action. "Sora?" he called, waving his hand in the brat's face.

The brat suddenly snapped out of it. "Huh?"

"Well, well. You've arrived sooner than I expected."

I jumped in surprise and quickly summoned my Keyblade. I pointed it at the man who owned the voice. I mean, the old man in blue pajamas carrying a bag. What? They looked like pajamas. What with the robe and the hat... "You a Heartless, popping out of nowhere like that?"

"He doesn't look like one," said Donald, shaking his head. Still, he gripped his wand tight. Goofy and the brat summoned their weapons as well.

"Oh, my. No." the old man waved his hands in front of me restlessly. "My name is Merlin. As you can see, I am a sorcerer. I spend much of my time traveling. It's good to be home. Your king has requested my help." Well, I guess he isn't a Heartless, seeing as he doesn't hiss.

"King Mickey?" Goofy's eyes lit up.

"Yes, indeed." Merlin smiled at the two animals beside me. "Donald, Goofy. And who might you be, young ones?"

"I'm Sora, and this is my big sister, Kumei!"

"Ah, so you have found the Key," Merlin looked from the brat's Keyblade to mine. "And... another one. That is interesting."

"Anyway," I dismissed my Keyblade. "What did their King want you to do?"

"Just a moment," Merlin grinned. He stepped up on the circular platform in the middle of the house. "Presto!" He opened his bag, and all of a sudden, random objects were flying out of it.

"WHOA." I looked around, forgetting to hide my surprise. There was a bed in one area of the house now, and a lot of books and bookshelves occupied the house. On the circular platform was small round table with a few chairs surrounding it. There was a small sidetable drawer at the foot of the bed, and this really tiny... coach-like thing at the entrance of the Magician's Study. What? That's what I called it now.

"There, now." Merlin nodded to himself. "Ahem. Your king asked me to train you in the art of magic. We can start anytime you like. Let me know when you're ready to begin the training."

"The art of magic, huh? Hmm..." That coach-like object wouldn't leave my mind. "I don't feel like it today. Brat, why don't you give him the book the old man sent you to deliver? If he is the guy Cid was talking about."

"Oh, right! Here!" Sora took the book from inside his shirt (???) and handed it to Merlin while I stalked over to the coach-like thing. "Oh, that book... So, Cid asked you to bring this. Thank you. You wish to know what kind of book it is? I don't even know, myself. In fact, it's not mine. Somehow it found its way into my bag one day. It was such a curious book, I asked Cid to repair it for me."

I poked at the coach-like object curiously. It was soft.

"Well, I guess I'll put it here somewhere, for now." Merlin continued, placing the old book on the small sidetable drawer at the foot of the bed. "This book holds a great secret. The missing pages will unlock it. I'll leave the book over there. Do look at it whenever you like. My best regards to Cid for repairing it for me."

"Ack!" I jumped (again, grr) as the coach-like thing started going all glittery- then turned into this plump lady in periwinkle robes. I fell on my butt again.

"Hello," said the woman, smiling and looking down to me. I'm the Fairy Godmother. Your king asked me to help, too. I will assist throughout your journey."

I stared at the Fairy Godmother. She didn't have a name? "When did you get to speak with the King?" I asked. If she saw him recently, then we wouldn't be far off the mark, right? Well, Goofy and Donald wouldn't be. I've got no leads... No clues. All I have are my eyes, which I can't even show to the world. Worlds.

"Oh," the Fairy Godmother had a sorrowful look on her face. "He saved me when my world was about to be destroyed by the Heartless." She wiped a tear from her right eye before it could fall. "I couldn't even find dear Cinderella..."

Cinderella...

CINDERELLA.

"H-how were you related to Cinderella?" I narrowed my eyes at her. I don't ever remember seeing her in that world.

"I'm- I was... her Fairy Godmother. I helped her get to the ball after her stepsisters had ripped her dress to shreds," answered the Fairy Godmother. So those... Those hags were the reason why Cinderella didn't wear the dress those animals made for her. "Why do you ask? Did you know Cinderella?"

"Uh, n-no," I shook my head. "I was just wondering. You seem really close to her- whoever she is."

"Fairy Godmother?" The Fairy Godmother's and my attention were caught by the brat's voice. "Can you tell us what this is?" He placed a small stone in the Fairy Godmother's hand.

"Oh, the poor thing!" the Fairy Godmother suddenly gasped. "He has turned into a summon gem. This little creature lived in a world that was consumed by darkness. When a world vanishes, so do its inhabitants. But this one had such a strong heart, he became a gem instead of vanishing with his world."

"That can happen?" I questioned. "But what about me and.." I pointed to the brat. "Him? Our world was consumed by the darkness- I was conscious when it happened, and I vividly remember the Heartless trying to take us with them. Why didn't we turn into gems?"

"Well.." the Fairy Godmother paused. "Well, you must have had something that took you out of your world before it was completely destroyed. Were there any portals? Gummi ships?"

_"The hell?!" I shrieked. "I thought it would stop!" What a waste of time! The huge sphere of darkness in the sky suddenly started sucking everything up. I've read about black holes. I am not entering a black hole._

"The black hole!" I pumped my fist in triumph as I remembered. "The black hole sucked me into it. When I woke up, I was here in Traverse Town."

"That must've been it, then," the Fairy Godmother smiled. The brat raised his hand, and the Fairy Godmother turned her attention to him. "Yes?"

"Can he- the guy in the summon gem- regain himself?"

"Yes," the Fairy Godmother confirmed, drawing a small line in the air. From that line appeared a magic wand. "But only his spirit. Now, watch! Bibbity Bobbity Boo!" She twirled her wand around a few times and tapped the summon gem. I thought the summon gem would turn into some ghost-like thing, but instead it split into four twinkling "stars": each one of us had a "star" enter our bodies. I think that's what happened.

"What did you do?" I asked, clutching random parts of my body as a warm feeling was sent through my veins.

"It wasn't me," said the Fairy Godmother. "The spirit gem- it chose to live in your hearts. He or she will appear, I believe, when you need help. Or when you call... Whichever is more convenient for you."

"Well, that's just dandy. I wish we got him before I nearly drowned," I muttered.

The Fairy Godmother chuckled. What did she find so funny? "If you find any more of these summon gems, bring them to me. Don't worry, when their worlds are restored they will return there, so... Please help save them."

"We will, we will," I 'reassured' the Fairy Godmother. "Thanks for your... help. We'll be back if we need or find anything." I forced the boys out of the Magician's Study, and we were back in the Third District. "So," I turned to Goofy. "What do you think about this Merlin charac-"

"HEARTLESS!" Donald quacked. Two Shadow Heartless rose from the ground, and I sneered at them as they spoke. "**Princcce Higure getsss more frussstrated by the minute! Are you sure he wantsss usss to take the Twilight?**" What're they talking about _now_? All I can infer is that the Higure they keep talking about is the same Higure that keeps terrorizing the girl and her brother from my dreams. Not that my dreams have ever had any meaning.

"**I'm not sure, all he ever doesss isss tell usss to get lossst! Sssome princcce he isss. He isssn't the same-**" The Heartless' head was cut in half. I watched in annoyance and irritation as a Heart rose into the sky, floating over to some place I probably didn't and would never care about.

"_There_ you are." I don't like that voice. "What's going on?"

"Riku!" The brat gasped happily. If I knew him, which I wish I didn't, he had an orgasm just seeing the prettyboy. Ugh.

The brat ran over to where Riku was standing and tried widening Riku's mouth with his Heartless-bloodstained fingers. Not that Heartless had any blood, but you _should_ get what I mean. "Hey, hey, cut it out," prettyboy frowned, slapping the brat's hand away. **Whatever**. I bet he's wanted to get that close to the brat since, I don't know, he realized that he was in love with the brat instead of with me.

Despite the gesture, the brat smiled at the prettyboy happily. Happily, not romantically. Ha ha, Riku. Ha ha. "I'm not dreaming this time, right?" asked the brat.

"I hope not," the prettyboy chuckled. He wasn't making eye-contact with me. "Took forever to find you." Ah. _Now_ he was making eye-contact with me. Was that... an arrogant look? Made towards me? Impossible!

"Riku!" the brat cheered again. God, what an idiot. "Wait a second, where's Kairi?"

Only I noticed Riku's face losing a little bit of its color. Props to him for being a good enough actor to fool the brat. Then again, anything can fool Sora. "Isn't she with you?" continued the prettyboy. "Well, don't worry. I'm sure she made it off the island, too. We're finally free. Hey, she might even be looking for us now. We'll all be together again soon. Don't worry. Just leave everything to me. I know this person who can help us, as long as we're patient-"

"**There she isss, get her!**" Not again.

"Riku, watch out!" Sora quickly summoned his Keyblade and got rid of the Heartless yelling at me from behind Riku. Damn. "Leave it to who?" The brat grinned and struck a pose as Riku stared at him in awe. I guess it's the first time he actually noticed the prettyboy watching him like that.

"Sora, what did you-"

"I've been looking for you and Kairi, too, with their help." The brat pointed to Donald and Goofy before motioning to me. "And sis, too! We found her here."

"I can see that," the prettyboy smirked as he saw me, but it was wiped off his face as soon as he saw Donald and Goofy. "Who are they?"

Donald puffed his chest up and cleared his throat. Haha, silly duck. "Ahem! My name is-"

"We visited so many places and worlds, looking for you. Right, sis?"

"Well, I wouldn't say we were looking for _you_," I returned the prettyboy's previous smirk. "You were more of an... afterthought, I'd say."

"Really?" He gave me a look that said 'I'm not rolling my eyes because Sora's here'. "Well, what do you know? I never would have guessed."

"I agree, you never would have thought of- wait, let's stop there. You never would have thought." I chuckled.

Riku glared at me, but all this was ignored by our level-headed Goofy, who said, "Oh, and guess what? Sora's the Keyblade master. Who woulda thought it?" I burst into laughter at his last statement, and the brat pouted.

"What's that mean?"

The prettyboy suddenly grabbed Sora's Keyblade. "So this is called a Keyblade?" I frowned. Didn't he see _my_ Keyblade in Maleficent's world?

Oh, yeah. He was nearly unconscious because of the beating Prince Phillip gave him. So funny.

"Huh?" The idio- I mean, the brat finally noticed that his Keyblade wasn't in his hands. "Hey, give it back." He tried to grab it, but Riku raised it in the air as a joke.

"Catch!" he laughed, and threw the Keyblade at the brat.

The brat complied before asking (like the pathetic puppy that he was), "Okay, so, you're coming with us, right? We've got this awesome rocket. Wait 'til you see it!" Rocket?

"No, he can't come!" Donald frowned. I agree! The brat turned to Donald to disagree, and with him distracted, I took my chance to confront the prettyboy. I walked up to him in annoyance.

"_As long as we're patient?_ Whatever, prettyboy! I found the brat first, you saw it yourself. And I achieved your oh-so-important goal without that witch's help!" Leon's words rang in my head. "Getting help from her isn't right."

Riku snorted. "Are _you_ lecturing me about doing what's right? Are you actually... concerned?"

"N-no. Of course not!" I spat. "What a despicable thought. It's just that using that freak isn't going to help you achieve anything. Haven't you heard her real plans? They're looking for the bra-"

"He's my friend!" the brat yelled.

"I don't-"

"Will you two shut up?" I snapped, turning around to face the bickering brats. Well, Donald sure was acting like one. The brat stopped, but Donald's frown deepened. "Like I was saying, I don't care!"

"He's gone." Goofy stated monotonously. That's a surprise.

"Riku?" Sora called, looking around hopefully. Nope, the prettyboy was gone- probably used a portal made by Maleficent. And right under my nose, too! "Nice going. Oh, well. At least he's okay. And who knows? Maybe we'll run into Kairi soon, too." I highly doubt that.

"Anyway, come on, let's meet Cid at that Small House over there!" the brat pointed to a small 'house' (it was more of a room, actually) near the entrance to the Third District. I hadn't noticed it before now.

I reluctantly _led_ them to the Small House and warily entered.

"You guys ever hear of Maleficent? I hear she's in town..."

"Bwah!" Donald and I shrieked. We slowly turned our heads to our left. A man's head was floating above a flashlight... Cid?

"BWAHAHAHAHAHA!" Cid and Yuffie burst into laughter before the lights were flicked on. Donald and I growled at them angrily.

"I'm sorry, guys," Aerith's voice said from the entrance. She was the one who turned the lights on. I sighed. I guess if it was Aerith...

"Anyway," the brat interrupted my thoughts. "Who's Maleficent?"

Cid rolled his eyes as if Sora lost his common sense. Sorry, Cid, he never had any in the first place! "A witch, man, she's a witch!"

"She's been using the Heartless for years, and she's the reason why this town is full of Heartless," added Aerith sadly. I almost feel bad for... destroying all those worlds.

"A great world was lost because of her," Cid shook his head regretfully. "Ruling it was a wise man named Ansem. He dedicated his life to studying the Heartless."

"And nothing came out of it?" I asked. "He had no solution to stop the mass production of Heartless?"

"We don't know yet," Aerith shook her head. "That's why we're trying to gather his reports."

"I'm sure Maleficent's got most of the pages."

"Highly likely. She seems to know what she's doing."

Everyone turned to me. Ugh, bad move, Kumei.

"You know Maleficent?"

"Let's just say I've seen her around..." I muttered. I was perfectly fine with lying, but that Leon came to mind. I hate how he's holding me back. "It ain't pretty."

"Couldn't have said it better m'self," Cid agreed. The old man then turned to the brat. This was getting really old... Pun not intended, but now that I'm aware of it, let's stick with that. "So, you delivered that book? That navigation gummi's installed and ready to go. You find another one, you bring it to me. I threw in a warp gummi for the heck of it."

"Aww! That's sweet, old man. But what the hell is it supposed to do?"

"I am not old!" Cid squinted his eyes at me. "And I was just getting to that, damn it. It lets you jump to worlds you've been to before. Well, better get back to my real job. What's my real job? You'll-"

"None, because real jobs require having real lives?"

"Kumei..." Aerith shook her head. Hey, where was Cloud?

"All right, all right, I'll shut up."

For now.

"See me at the First District if you want to know my real job," said Cid to us. Jeez, what a drama queen. Why couldn't he just tell us now? Oops, he left. Old man.

"Hey Poofy, you've been quiet this whole time. Something actually on your mind?"

"I'll ignore that for now..." I applaud Yuffie for finding it possible not to glare at me. I didn't mean to insult her... It just comes out naturally. I don't know how to stop it. "Because there is something: I've been thinking about the bell in the Second District."

"The one that knocked us off our feet a while ago when we were together?" I asked, and she confirmed with a nod.

"Let's check it out! Can we check it out, sis?" Sora _begged_.

"But it's all boarded up. Nobody can get in there," Aerith stopped his pleading.

"Heck, go check it out," Cid waved his hands at us dismissively, garnering an annoyed look from Aerith. Ooh. "Ring it three times to see if anything happens."

He must mean 'ring it three times to see what horrible thing happens'. Why else would he suggest for us to ring it? It didn't matter, the three idiots had already run off to the Second District.

"Wait for me! ...idiots."

I followed them to the Gizmo shop, out of it, up the ladder, and to the bell, all the while chasing Heartless off. Now that Myde wasn't here, I could freely destroy as much Heartless as I wanted!

"One, two, three... Go!" I pushed Goofy, who was behind Donald, who was behind the brat. _Slam!_ the wood boarding the bell up was destroyed.

"Are you okay, Sora?" Donald and Goofy asked, stumbling to help him up. Heh, it isn't the first time he's hit his head against something hard. I would've thought it was obvious. Feh, whatever.

I stepped over the boys as I made my way to the bell. I pulled at the rope thrice- my ears! Too... close... to bell... Throwing my hands over my ears, I ran out of the previously boarded area. When it finally stopped, the brat pulled me up.

"Look, sis!" he pointed his finger to the fountain across and below us. "A keyhole!" He was actually right. The shimmering outline of a keyhole was positioned right there, on the fountain wall. Is this what Leon was getting all worked up about?

This'll be _easy_.

We jumped down to the fountain and ran to the keyhole. Almost there!

_THUD._

All of us slowly turned around. This couldn't be good...

A glint of yellow eyes glared us down for a second before I was suddenly pushed out of the way. _Thud!_ Man, this Heartless has issues! Probably because its body parts are connected- which gives me another great idea.

"Goofy, you and I will handle the feet," I order, then turn to Donald and the brat. "You guys tackle the hands. That's simple enough for you, isn't it? After that we all take on the torso."

"Right!"

We began the battle. Goofy charged at the right foot while I hacked at the left. Damn! Metal against... against whatever my Keyblade was made of was going to be hard. At least Goofy's shield could dent the foot! The only way I could destroy this was if...

"Goofy, over here!" I waved. Goofy looked up from charging the right foot and quickly ran over, asking what I needed. "Help me keep the left foot down. When the right foot comes to kill us, we run away!"

"A-are you sure, Hakumei?" Goofy blinked. I shot him a 'duh' look.

"Just trust me, come on!" We held the struggling foot down. The other one seemed to notice us, as it jumped high in the air, and-

"Now!"

We threw ourselves out of the way and the right foot crushed its partner. Goofy and I high-fived. "All right! Now we take on the torso!" I turned to the two brats, who had already defeated one hand. "You guys can help out when you're done there."

"No, sis," the brat called as Goofy and I readied ourselves for the main armor. "The torso, it-!"

"Whaa!" I was thrown against the fountain as the torso suddenly spun around rapidly. Drenched _again_? I wasn't even fully dry yet!

"This time we'll help out!" Oh, so the two were done with the other hand. Goofy (who had also fallen into the fountain) helped me up. "Do you have a plan, Hakumei?"

"Hack and slash is all I have," I shook my head. Man, this fountain really is made of stone...

"That'll have to do then!" Goofy said, then grabbed me and hurled me at the Heartless. Great idea, for Goofy. I braced my Keyblade, but I ended up hugging the armor. Crap.

"I'm going to cast Thunder on it! Get _off_, Kumei!" Donald yelled. I glared at him from above.

"At this height?! No way!"

So much for easy.

"Oh no, sis, looks like it's going to do just that for you!" Sora gasped. I clutched at the torso, but it began to spin. Oh crap, oh crap! It sent me flying above the-

"You really should be more careful. First you get shot, and now you're flying..."

I looked up to the man who caught me. "Big brother! Where have you been?"

"Your boyfriend grabbed me for a chat..."

"You spoke with Leon?"

"You admit he's your boyfriend?"

"Of course not! You- you-"

"I'm saving your life again," Cloud muttered, his eyes widening as he pulled me down. The torso flew above our heads and crashed into the doors of the Second District. We ran down to the boys.

"We did it!" Goofy cheered. "Are you okay, Hakumei?"

I blinked. "No... It's still alive!" the torso got up, and so did the rest of its body parts. They all started spinning... they formed a different Heartless, one more distorted-looking and ugly. Definitely uglier.

"This'll be easy," Cloud smirked. Oh man, he's jinxing it! Or maybe it only works with me, because as soon as the Heartless approached us, big brother's sword separated into a few more swords than spun around it. Soon, all the swords hurled themselves at the Heartless.

It was dead! Just like _that_! Huzzah! I cheered that out loud. "You did it, Cloud!" the boys cheered. Cloud just nodded, and his sword, whole again, returned to him. Meanwhile, a large heart rose from the Heartless and floated into the sky. Wonder where it's going...

Whoa. I felt the air surround us. "What's happening?"

"It's magic!" Donald said to us, his beak wide. "You guys are... learning wind magic!"

"Tell me about it," I grinned and pointed my Keyblade at the duck. "_Aero._" A blast of wind surrounded him for a few minutes before disappearing. Watching him blubber around idiotically was fun.

"Now that that's out of my system," I laughed and turned to the fountain. "It's time to close this stupid keyhole." The brat smiled at me in agreement. I ignored him. "Let's do it!" The bright light thing that happened in Tarzan's world also occurred here, and as quickly as it came, the keyhole disappeared. That means we sealed it... right?

Of course. I'm always right.


End file.

Kingdom Hearts, Adventure, Romance