Kingdom Hearts; The Heartless Keeper

Chapter XXXII; Thinking Like Me

Yuki looked up at the strange castle before her. She couldn't understand why the castle was so strange. What purpose anyone would have for such a strange structure was beyond her understanding. It looked like most of the castle was inaccessible. Parts of the castle were sideways for the love of Kingdom Hearts!

Yuki sighed walking up to the front doors of Castle Oblivion. She pushed the doors open taking a deep breath before walking into the pure white halls Yuki hadn't seen for months.

Castle Oblivion was usually left unattended when the Heartless and Nobodies weren't using it. The castle was confusing enough that any intruder wouldn't be able to find anything useful. Not to mention the location of the world that was nearing impossible to just stumble across. Sometimes a Heartless or Nobody would be sent to look over the castle, look for anything important, then head straight back to their own castle. It wasn't a common set of orders, usually, it came with the order of finding some report. But today Yuki was given the order to go to Castle Oblivion. Go to the castle and find the organization 13 imposter who had been sighted wandering the halls.

Yuki wandered through the halls, looking into rooms as she passed. The place was surprisingly empty. Not even a Dusk or a Shadow was seen. Perhaps the imposter had killed them all. That would explain where they had vanished to. But it wouldn't help in finding the imposter in the huge castle.

On the top floor, Yuki stopped to rest. She was in the room the Nobodies had used as their base. The room Marluxia had shown Yuki the intruders from. The crystal orb they had used to watch the intruders sat in the middle of the room, now filled with a dark smoke. Everything else in the room looked just like the rest of the castle. Pure white. It wasn't very impressive. It was everything Yuki was used to but at the same time, it felt foreign, like Yuki didn't belong there.

Yuki frowned looking around the room. It would take too long for her to search the rest of the castle. There was still the twelve lower floors to search and all of the side rooms that Yuki wasn't even sure she'd be able to find. There was also the chance that she had already missed the imposter. This castle had endless escape routes. The imposter could have easily already left. It wasn't as if Yuki had a way to see where he was in the castle without seeing him face to face.

As soon as the thought came to mind Yuki turned to look at the orb. Maybe she did. Yuki stood and made her way to the orb. She placed her hand against it. The glass was cool to the touch like it had been left out in the cold rather than in the castle. The smoke inside the castle immediately began shifting around. Yuki smiled softly looking at the orb. She closed her eyes and brought to mind an image of the imposter. His silver hair and the blindfold he wore. It was easy to bring an image to mind though she had only seen him once.

Yuki opened her eyes and looked at the orb. The smoke had formed an image now. The imposter was clearly seen. He was sitting on the steps to one of the floors with his hood up. Even so, Yuki had no doubt in her mind it was him. He was talking to someone, but who that someone was Yuki had no idea. She couldn't hear anything either.

Yuki frowned. Though she knew he was still in the castle she had no idea what floor. All the floors looked the same. By the time she found which floor he was on, he could have very well moved again. It would take a lot of effort to discover his location.

"What floor?" Yuki whispered in question, pulling her hand away. She turned her back on the orb and began to pace. Her mind came up with idea after idea, each one getting more pointless than the one before. It was turning out to be far more difficult than Yuki originally thought.