Kingdom Hearts; The Dark's Keeper

Chapter XXIII; Who They Are

Yuki looked around the city, Naminé close to her side as she walked. It was surprisingly warm here, the bricks a yellowish color and shadowed grays. It reminded Yuki of twilight when the sun was dying out and the night was taking over. But something felt off about this place as well. She wasn't sure what, it had seemed safe enough when she had first come here. But maybe it was too safe.

"Why are we here?" Naminé asked sticking close to Yuki's side as she looked around the city. The way her blue eyes looked, Yuki was almost certain she was taking in every detail so she could draw it later.

"Well, I know you really don't like Castle Oblivion. So, I was kinda looking for another world we could stay in. And this world seemed pretty safe," Yuki said with a shrug. She had given up on finding the perfect world. That just wasn't possible, so she would have to settle.

"Are you sure?" Naminé asked.

"Nope, not really," Yuki admitted. Naminé sighed heavily.

"Yuki," Naminé began.

"Don't worry about it," Yuki said quickly before she could argue too much. "There wasn't much going on in town last I checked. There weren't even that many people. Come on, let's just take a quick look around. I promise if you don't like it we can leave." She waited nervously for Naminé's reply. The blonde Nobody sighed heavily.

"Ok, we'll look," she agreed. Yuki smiled brightly.

"Let me know if you get too scared. Alright?" Yuki said.

"Alright," Naminé agreed.

Walking around town they found it surprisingly empty. There was no sign of anyone, even less than the last time Yuki had been here. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. They had the freedom to look around, but there had to be a reason no one was around. But the town was beautiful. The buildings were clean and charming. It looked like a safe place for anyone. Yuki smiled looking up at a tower that seemed to be the center of town. She stopped, gasping and grabbing onto Naminé's arm.

"Nami, look at those windows! That's the Nobody emblem," Yuki said excitedly.

"There's a Heartless emblem on the other side," Naminé said, moving so she could see the other side. Yuki nodded, following her around. They were close enough to the building it didn't take much to walk around it.

"I wonder what the two in between are," Yuki said, stopping and staring at one of the hearts.

"They're dream eaters. One spirit, one nightmare."

Yuki and Naminé both jumped, turning to see who had spoken to them. It was a young man with messy black hair and blue eyes. He wore mostly white, with green accents on his outfit here and there. Yuki stepped slightly in front of Naminé, her eyes narrowing at the man. Something was off about him.

"Sorry, pretty rude of me," he said with an easy smile. "My name's Kiran, I'm a native of this world, and you two are world travelers." It wasn't a question, but a statement. Yuki wasn't sure how she felt about that.

"Yeah, those pretty common around here? Not many places I've seen that can call it so quickly," Yuki asked. Kiran chuckled and shook his head.

"Actually, it's been a long time since we've had any. It's just common lore around here. So what are your names, and where are you from?" he asked, easily moving past the subject. Yuki frowned and glanced over her shoulder at Naminé who nodded.

"I'm Yuki, this is Naminé. We're from Twilight Town," Yuki said looking back to Kiran.

"Never heard of that world, it far away?" Kiran asked curiously. Yuki did her best not to cower under his gaze. The way his eyes focused on her was unnerving.