Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ Kingdom Hearts: A New Threat ❯ Aku Usagi ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter 4:

The four turned to see Goofy sheepishly peeking around the large ornate door.

“Sorry to interrupt, but King Mickey wants to see the four of you right away.”

“Consider us there,” Sora said, getting off Iona's extremely comfortable bed. “Come on, guys.”

Without another word, Sora, Kairi, Riku and Iona walked out the door and followed Goofy down to the Castle's library. There they found the King and Queen, Daisy, and Donald. Four seats were situated in front of the King's desk, and the four outsiders sat down. Iona's hand accidentally brushed against Riku's, making her blush furiously and him immediately look…well, anywhere else.

“Thanks for coming so fast, guys,” the King said, his usually cheerful voice laced with sadness.

“What's up…er, Your Majesty?” Sora stuttered, temporarily forgetting his manners.

“I have more information on the source of the Duplicates…and a possible way of destroying them.”

“Tell us…er, please, Your Majesty?” Iona spoke up strongly, surprising everyone.

“I believe that Maleficent is once again behind this. We left her at the Castle that Never Was, where she fended off the Heartless while we chased after Xemnas. After we left, and she affectively got rid off all the Heartless, she set a new plan into action. She found a library in the old castle that belonged to Organization XIII and began researching old forms of Heartless and Nobodies…actually, Pete researched. Anyway, he came across these old creatures called Duplicates.

“Apparently, hundreds of years ago, before Nobodies and Heartless and Kingdom Hearts, before Maleficent and the Organization and Xehanort, when the Worlds were blissfully unaware of each other, everyone lived in peace. Darkness did exist, as it always has, but it wasn't so strong as to devour entire Worlds. But one man loved the feeling of the Darkness, more than Xehanort and Xemnas combined; his name was Yukio.

“He began exploring his world, called Toshi, for a way to be submerged into the Darkness, including a forbidden, uncharted forest. There, he encountered strange creatures, several of which tried to kill him. One creature he found was no higher than his knee, as he described later, and looked like a dragon crossed with a rabbit. He thought it was, at first, harmless, until he watched from a distance as it pounced on one of its enemies, clawed out what looked to be a silver orb, then devoured it. The enemy then turned into a creature identical to the first, creatures which Yukio would later name Aku Usagi, and the two fought to the death. Yukio found the event fascinating, and was determined to harness the power of the Aku Usagi.

“After months of failed attempts, he finally managed to capture one and bring it back to his home to study. He'd introduce small creatures into the Aku Usagi's cage, and he'd study the event that would take place with pure delight. After quite some time, he realized what the creatures were taking out were the other creatures' souls, or their purity and kindness, leaving only their evilness. Yukio decided he wanted to harness this power for himself. He theorized that by setting an Aku Usagi on a human being, the human would remain just that--human--but they would lose their souls.

“He tested the theory on a young child who wandered too far from his home. The boy was frightened, even more so when Yukio put him in a room with the Aku Usagi. Yukio watched through a window as the creature attacked the boy. The boy fell to the ground, and the Aku Usagi clawed out its soul, much like it would to any other creature. At first, the boy didn't move, and Yukio thought his experiment had failed. Then the boy's eyes opened. He sat up, turned to where Yukio was watching quietly, and smiled at him. Yukio was terrified of the smile on the boy's face and fled from the house. He realized he made a terrible mistake, and the boy and every Aku Usagi had to be destroyed. But the boy escaped from the house, chased Yukio, and took his soul, devouring it. Together, they quickly took the souls of all the other inhabitants of Toshi.

“Before the last villager, a wise man named Xhaiden, was captured and transformed, he found all Yukio's research notes, copied them down, added to them, and hid them. He called those who were changed `Duplicates`, saying it was because, on the outside, they were perfect duplicates of the people they once were; on the inside, however, they were totally different. Shortly after he documented his thoughts, he too was transformed.

“Eventually, the Duplicates destroyed each other until one survived--it was believed that it died shortly after. Hundreds of years later, someone discovered the abandoned World and investigated. They found what Xhaiden wrote and hid all those years ago and took it with them. It was Xemnas who found it and he took it back to the Castle. He was studying it, thinking of using the information as another way to build up Kingdom Hearts, but he was destroyed before he could make any significant steps in the right direction. That's where Maleficent and Pete took over.

“They--well, Pete--went back to Toshi to see if any Aku Usagi remained. He found one hidden deep within the forest, captured it, and brought it back to the Castle. After exposing it to small creatures they found in Deep Jungle, they had enough Aku Usagi to destroy a hundred worlds or more. Then, Maleficent--using a book full of maps of the Universe showing every charted World --picked the most innocent planet to send the first Aku Usagi to.”

“Amethyst Valley,” Iona said.

The King nodded, “Yes, Iona. Pete traveled with the creature to Amethyst Valley eight days ago and released it into the woods. Shortly after, it would attack anyone and anything that came too close to the forest. Pete returned to the Castle and told Maleficent that it was working perfectly, and soon she sent Heartless to the World to devour it.”

“But, if there were two different forces coming after Iona, how did she escape?” Riku asked.

“Her heart was pure; just as pure as yours and Sora's and Kairi's. It's the same reason why you three were able to escape the Darkness,” the King explained.

“Although it took longer for some,” Riku said bitterly.

“It wasn't your fault,” Iona said quietly, “Ansem--Xehanort--whoever it was that had control over you was too powerful. You just needed to be shown the way back to the Light.”

“Right you are, Iona,” the King said with a smile.

“So how do we destroy these things?” Sora asked, pointedly ignoring the way Iona was blushing and the way Riku was staring at her.

“And is there a way to restore the lost Worlds?” Kairi added, getting Iona's attention.

“I am not sure how to restore the Worlds, or if there is in fact a way,” the King started, making Iona sigh sadly, “but I know how to destroy them.”

The King stood and walked to one of the many bookshelves behind him. He pulled out a large book and brought it back to his desk. He dropped it on the surface, making dust cloud up into the faces of the four. They all started to cough, Iona a bit more than the others; she was still weak from her encounter a week ago. The King laughed awkwardly.

“Heh heh, sorry about that, folks. Well, this book has an explanation, albeit a vague one.”

He opened the book, and flipped through the pages before stopping at one with four pictures on it; each one a different Keyblade.

“FOUR Keyblades?! Is that possible?” Sora exclaimed.

“It seems so, Sora,” the King said, then started scanning the words below the picture. “This book is very, very old; almost as old as the one written by Xhaiden. All it says is that four Keyblade Wielders will finally be the ones to rid the Universe of overwhelming Darkness. Each Wielder would represent a different magic element; Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. I believe that, Sora, you are water; Kairi, you are Fire; and Riku, you are Air.”

“But what about Earth? There isn't any Earth magic…is there?” Sora inquired.

“The only Earth magic used anymore is `cure'. There used to be more but it hasn't been seen in years. The spells were hidden away after it was discovered that Toshi was destroyed by creatures that used a form of Earth magic.”

“So then…how are we supposed to find someone who can perform Earth magic?” Sora asked dejectedly.

“We already have, Sora,” the King said, smiling at Iona.