Kingdom Hearts; The Heartless Keeper

Chapter XXXIV; Pure Silence

Yuki sat in a chair backward. Her legs wrapped around the chairs back while her arms rested crossed across the top. Her chin rested on her arms as she watched the lively group argue about better ways to manage the Heartless in town. Her favorite by far came from Cid who had suggested building a mobile cannon. Though she wasn't fond of the idea of hurting too many Heartless she did think it would be cool to see.

This was the first time Yuki had been assigned to Hallow Bastion since her first meeting with the group. It surprised Yuki that the moment she had met her quota for the day Yuffie appeared and dragged her to meet with the other members of the group. Leon had left upon Yuki's arrival, saying he had something he wanted to go look at. The others, however, greeted Yuki kindly. Aerith even hugged Yuki, which surprised her most of all.

"What do you think Yuki?" Yuffie asked, dragging Yuki into the conversation.

"I think whatever those little cylinders are hurt a lot and if you can perfect them that should be enough," Yuki replied. Yuffie gave a nervous laugh and rubbed the back of her head. Aerith gave Yuki a soft smile while Cid looked caught between proud and ashamed. Their reactions confused Yuki momentarily, but she caught on quickly. They had forgotten she was a Heartless.

"It's easy to forget you're a Heartless kid." Cid said nervously. Yuffie nodded in agreement.

"We're sorry for bringing you into this conversation. It must have been weird listening to us talk about how to destroy your own kind." Aerith said softly. Yuki shook her head.

"It's fine. I'm supposed to kill others of my own kind anyway. Nothing unusual in this conversation." Yuki insisted. The others nodded but didn't look very convinced themselves.

Leon walked into the room, breaking the awkward moment the group had been having. Yuffie jumped up in surprise. She covered it up well by putting her hands on her hips and frowning at Leon.

"Where have you been?" She demanded. Leon rolled his eyes leaning on a wall beside where Yuki sat.

"I was doing some digging around in Ansem's lab." Leon said calmly. At the mention of the name Ansem, the room tensed up. Yuki glanced around confused.

"And? What did you find?" Yuffie asked.

"Something I think might interest Yuki." Leon said looking towards the young Heartless. Yuki looked at him in confusion.

"What?" She asked. It was the first time Leon was really acknowledging Yuki as something close to human. It was a strange occurrence.

"It appears he knew about elite Heartless like yourself. He had a note sheet dedicated to one he met." Leon replied. He reached into his pocket and handed her a piece of folded up paper. Yuki took it from him cautiously.

"Really?" She asked before even opening the paper. Leon nodded.

"She was pretty free with information, he learned a lot about their creation from her." Leon explained. Yuki unfolded the paper and skimmed over it. She found a name written in the top corner, above an orange Heartless emblem outlined in red. Zaya.

"I wonder if that's how his experiments started," Aerith said softly. Yuki looked up at her in question.

"What do you mean?" She asked, glancing back down at the paper. There was a question scrawled across the bottom. Can I repeat this act? The question sent shivers down Yuki's spine.