“Hey, Your Majesty… Where did you feel like he was close?” Axel leaned down to ask. “Was it…in Twilight Town?”
King Mickey stared back at him, startled. “It sure was! But how’d you know?”
Axel and Riku exchanged a glance.
“Naminé’s in danger…isn’t she?” Axel muttered, his expression darkening.
“Your Majesty, I’ll go to Twilight Town,” said Riku. “If Ansem the Wise is there, maybe I’ll find him.”
“Riku?”
As the king looked up at him, mystified, he nodded once more and brought the darkness of the rift up about him.
“Gosh… Riku’s always running off like that.” King Mickey gave Axel a bemused look. “What’ll you do now?”
“Uh…” Axel was similarly at a loss.
“Well, I’m getting a whiff of a good friend of mine from you.” The king stepped closer, his nose twitching. “I thought it was from Riku, but it’s from you.”
“Do I smell?” Axel hurried to sniff his clothes. He couldn’t smell anything.
“I wonder where Pluto went…” The king heaved a sigh.
“Pluto? What, that dog?”
“Yup! Oh, boy, you did meet Pluto!” Overjoyed, King Mickey grabbed Axel’s hand and shook it vigorously.
“…I mean, I’ve had a shower since then…,” Axel mumbled, still confused.
“So, what are you gonna do now?”
The king’s bright, clear eyes were trained on him. Axel frowned and took a deep breath. His voice came out faint. “I want to tell Sora I’m sorry.”
“…Axel. You’re…a Nobody, right?”
He gave a tiny nod. “So I can’t destroy other Nobodies,” he said, more quietly than before.
Unless he was actually in danger, Axel couldn’t fight Nobodies. Not when he was one himself. He didn’t want to make them disappear.
But even about that, he had his doubts.
Weren’t Nobodies supposed to be destroyed?
He didn’t know what to do. He just couldn’t fight something so similar to him.
“I’m thinking I’d like to get Sora and the others off this world, and soon,” said King Mickey. “I’m not sure either whether we should be fightin’ the Nobodies or the organization.”
“What about the Heartless? Don’t you have to fight them, too?” Axel asked, back to his usual tone.
“What d’you mean?”
“Well—,” Axel began, but the king suddenly turned.
“Oh no! Here they are!” King Mickey leaned over the cliff face and shouted to him, “We’ll talk later, Axel!”
Then he leaped from the cliff. Watching him descend, Axel gazed over the edge for a while.
When Sora, Donald, and Goofy left the postern, they came across some ruins. The path that should have been there was destroyed, leaving only the sheared-off edge of a cliff. All around there were deep cracks in the earth.
And in the distance, they could see a swarm of Nobodies steadily advancing toward them.
They rushed forward to meet it.
Then a figure in a black cloak hurtled down from overhead, somersaulting through the air before landing.
“Your Majesty!” Donald called out.
It was none other than King Mickey. But with his back to them, he spread his arms to stop them. “Okay, fellas—you’ve gotta go find Riku and Kairi!”
“But Leon and the others are our friends, too!” Sora protested.
“Don’t worry,” the king told him without turning around. “There’s already lots of help here. We’ll take care of this fight.”
“I promised Leon…” Sora hung his head. Even if the king was instructing him to go, he couldn’t just run away from a promise.
I want to help Leon and everyone. I want to protect the town, Sora thought. Riku and Kairi will still be there… Please just let them wait a little longer.
“Donald, Goofy! Take Sora and get goin’!”
Hearing that, Donald and Goofy looked at each other.
“Quick!” King Mickey urged them.
They couldn’t see his face or guess what he was thinking. Still, Donald stood at attention. “Your Majesty!”
“We’ll go look for Riku and Kairi!” Goofy declared.
“Right. Be careful!” said King Mickey, his back still turned.
“You too, Your Majesty!” Donald replied.
Sora turned to him. “Wait—you guys!”
Donald and Goofy gazed back at him, stiff as soldiers.
“Hurry up, Sora!”
“You’re comin’ with us whether you like it or not!”
But despite their words, they didn’t move.
“C’mon, do as you’re told!” Donald said with a wink.
A smile came to Sora’s face, and he nodded. “Okay, okay.”
“Well then, skedaddle!” said Goofy.
Sora mouthed his reply.
Thank you.
“Let’s go!” Donald prompted, and Sora sprinted away as hard as he could—past King Mickey—leaping down the stairs.
“Sora! Wait!” The king started after them.
“Sorry, Your Majesty!” Sora shouted his apology and kept going.
“Hope you can forgive us!” added Goofy.
“Quack!” Donald agreed.
“…Fiddlesticks,” King Mickey said under his breath.
“Kind of a handful, aren’t they?” Axel was there behind him. “And somebody from the organization’s about to make an appearance, too.”
“What…?!” King Mickey was about to resume chasing them when Axel grabbed his shoulder and stopped him.
“Look, I know the guy. Those three can handle him.”
The king anxiously looked down the stairs after them.
The door to the computer lab suddenly opened, and Naminé whirled around.
“Naminé!” the visitor exclaimed.
She said his name, sea-salt ice cream in hand. “…Riku?”
“Is DiZ here?” he asked, a little out of breath.
Naminé shook her head. “He left. But how did you know he would be here?”
“The computers.” Riku crossed the room to DiZ’s computer and tried typing, but all he got was an error message and an automated reply:
“Please enter the password.”
“What about the computers?” said Naminé.
“The system on this one and the system on the computer in Hollow Bastion are almost exactly the same. That means there’s a good chance the same person designed them.” Riku tried typing in the words that came to mind, but every time, he got the error message. As he uneasily pecked at the keyboard, he went on explaining. “Sora restored the system in Hollow Bastion. If something went wrong with it there, I thought DiZ would come back here.”
“…So DiZ made the computer system in Hollow Bastion?” Naminé asked.
Riku turned to face her. “No—Ansem the Wise made the one here.”
“But that means…”
“Right. I think DiZ is Ansem the Wise.”
Naminé’s breath caught, and uncertainty clouded her expression. “But why…why would someone like that…?”
“—DiZ didn’t tell you anything?”
“No. Nothing. He just gave me this ice cream and a picture.” She showed Riku her treat, minus a single bite, and the photograph.
“Sea-salt ice cream…?” Riku turned back to the computer as if something had occurred to him and typed in a few words. “There. I’m in.”
“The ice cream was the password?” said Naminé. “Then does this picture mean something…?”
Riku peered at the photo of Roxas and his friends. “It was taken in front of the mansion. Maybe…”
He fell silent, glaring at the monitor.
“When DiZ looked at me this time, he didn’t seem as cold as before. I wonder why…?” Naminé murmured. “Oh, the ice cream. He said I could share it if anyone comes by.”
She knelt down and opened the little door beside her feet, releasing a
gust of cold air. The inside was stacked with sea-salt ice cream pops.
“Want one, Riku?” She held one out to him.
He accepted and took a bite. “…It’s salty…but kind of sweet…?”
“It’s good, though, isn’t it? It was Roxas’s favorite.” Sorrow crossed Naminé’s face.
“Sea-salt ice cream and a photo…” With the ice pop in his hand, Riku eyed the transporter device in the center of the room. “Is he saying to give it to Sora…? As a hint pointing to this place?”
Naminé nodded. “That might be it. I think DiZ—I mean, Ansem the Wise—has some kind of plan.”
“Hey, Naminé… Is there something you haven’t told me—well, haven’t told us?”
She looked at the floor. “…I’m not sure of it yet. The secrets of the heart…aren’t something I can talk about, not yet,” she told him in a tiny voice and took another bite of ice cream.
The trio hurled themselves straight into the mass of Nobodies.
Or they were about to—but someone stood in their way.
“Wak!” Unable to stop in time, Donald crashed into the man at full speed. “Get outta the way!”
Holding his bruised bill, Donald glared up at him—then noticed that the man wore a black cloak and jumped back.
“You guys sure are looking lively,” the man remarked.
Sora recognized the face and the voice. “Hey, didn’t we catch you messing around in the Underworld? How’d a wimp like you get into Organization XIII?”
Demyx backed away, pretending to be cowed.
“Can you even fight?” Sora taunted, folding his arms.
“We won’t hold back!” Donald added.
“It’s wrong to judge people by appearances,” Demyx told them with a self-confidence completely opposed to his earlier attitude.
“You sure about that?” Sora held the Keyblade ready.
“…I told them they were sending the wrong guy.” Demyx’s expression fell again, and he scratched his head in frustration, confidence gone.
“…What’s up with him?” Sora muttered, baffled at his constantly changing mood.
“Remember, Sora?” said Goofy. “The organization’s made up of Nobodies.”
“Oh, right! No hearts!” Sora nodded and fixed a glare on Demyx.
“Aw, we do too have hearts. Please don’t be mad!” Now he looked apologetic.
“You can’t fool us!” shouted Donald, waving his wand.
“Silence, traitor.” Pointing at Sora, Demyx had transformed again, grimly furious. He dashed at the trio and brandished his weapon, which resembled a huge stringed instrument—a sitar.
“Who’s this traitor?!” Sora demanded, blocking the attack.
“Traitors are traitors!” Demyx sprang into the air, and a wave of water gushed out of the ground.
“Whoa!”
The ferocious wave knocked them back, and the spray took on shapes—watery copies of Demyx surrounding them.
“Ack!”
“Fire! Blizzard!” Donald shot off spells at the copies, which splashed into nothing with one hit.
The trio made quick work of the rest of the clones and then began to chase down Demyx. But jets of water spouted up from near his feet, and they couldn’t get close.
“That’s cheatin’!” Goofy complained.
“I don’t see how!” Demyx retorted and fired more water at them.
“Thunder!” Donald managed to stop one of the jets with a spell.
“Nice work, Donald!” Sora saw the opening and rushed at Demyx.
“Quick, take him down!” Donald called.
“You got it!” Sora leaped up to attack—and so did Demyx, sitar poised.
“Having fun yet?”
“Not really!” Sora brought down the Keyblade.
“Gah!” Demyx yelped. That was all it took to send him crashing into the ground. He let out a pitiful whine as his sitar dissolved into water trickling between his fingers. “Aw, c’mon, no way!”
“Yes way.” Sora stared down at him.
Before his eyes, a dark mist enveloped Demyx, and then he was gone.
“Anyone from the organization who wants to be next?” Sora shouted at the empty square.
“Hey, Sora…” Donald tugged at his hand, then stood up to scold with his arms folded. “Don’t antagonize them!”
“Yeah, we gotta go help out our friends first,” Goofy said cheerfully, running over to join them.
“Oh, right. Sorry.” Sora rubbed his head sheepishly.
“Then let’s go!” said Donald.
Sora nodded, but that moment, the king’s piping voice rang out. “Aha! There you are!”
Donald and Goofy stopped in their tracks just before they could run ahead. They turned to find a very unhappy-looking King Mickey.
He glared at the trio for a few tense moments—then broke into a grin. “You sure do have a lot of friends to help.”
All three of them exhaled in relief.
“All right,” said King Mickey, “we’d better pull together and finish this battle for good!”
“Yes, Your Majesty!” the trio replied in unison and then smiled at one another.
But before they could set off, there was an explosion above. Boulders came tumbling down.
“Look out!” cried Goofy, but there was no time. He darted forward, knocking the king aside—and a falling stone struck him.
“Goofy?!”
The others rushed to where he was sprawled on the ground.
His eyes didn’t open.
“Hey! You’re the king’s captain! Get yourself together!” Donald desperately shook him by the shoulders.
Goofy stayed limp and motionless.
“C’mon, wake up!” Sora was shouting, too.
“Goofy, it’s time for dinner!” Donald tried. But Goofy didn’t respond even to that.
At a slight distance from the others, King Mickey edged away.
“Goofy…?” Donald thumped on Goofy’s chest, and his voice came out half-sobbing. “G-Goofy…”
“This isn’t happening… It can’t be happening…” Sora peered at Goofy’s face. “You’ve gotta be kidding…right?”
“They’ll pay for this…!” King Mickey flung off his cloak and stared furiously ahead, his fist clenched around his Keyblade.
And then he dashed toward the writhing Nobodies.
“Waaaaak!” With his own battle cry, Donald followed.
Sora reached out for Donald and grabbed his hand, turning back for one more look at their fallen friend.
Then he ran, as if to escape his own emotions.
CHAPTER 2
UNDER THE WORLD
THE MAN’S BLACK CLOAK FLUTTERED BEHIND HIM as he marched forward.
The present, the past, the future.
Human, Heartless, Nobody.
Xehanort, Ansem, Xemnas.
His plans had already advanced past the point of no return.
With Demyx’s demise, the group calling itself Organization XIII had lost more than half of its members.
Vexen, Lexaeus, Zexion, Marluxia, Larxene, Demyx. And Roxas.
All the fallen ones—do they bear a grudge against me?
But they were Nobodies. They had no hearts with which to hold any ill will. They couldn’t even understand what the heart is.
Now, then… I wonder if that little king remembers me?
Xemnas gazed up at the enormous moon in the night sky.
Sora carved a path through the untold thousands of Heartless.
“Leon!”
The members of the Restoration Committee all fought with everything they had to protect their town.
Sora and his Keyblade fought their way toward them. He couldn’t see Donald or King Mickey anymore. Where did they get to…?
Or Goofy.
Who would never wake up again.
That can’t be real. Can it?
The people of Radiant Garden had lived in peace, with Ansem the Wise maintaining the balance of their
world.
In the center of the town was a small research facility where Ansem and his apprentices carried out their many experiments.
His apprentices numbered six—Xehanort, Even, Ienzo, Braig, Dilan, and Aeleus—and each was brilliant in his own way.
Ansem, however, had only one objective: to uncover the secrets of the darkness in the heart.
With Even’s assistance, Ansem performed a little experiment on Xehanort. It was meant to awaken the memories sleeping in Xehanort’s heart.
Ansem no longer understood what had precipitated it. But at some point, the research slipped from his control, and his apprentices found experimental subjects on their own. They continued the studies in an enormous laboratory built under Ienzo’s direction.
And then the night when they opened the Door to Darkness, meteors rained down on their world.
That meteor shower was the reason his apprentices’ unusual activities even came to Ansem’s attention.
“You’re conducting experiments without my supervision?!” he bellowed at his apprentices, all gathered in his study.
“But Master Ansem—,” Xehanort began.
“I don’t want to hear it. Shut it down immediately!” Ansem snapped. “I won’t have anyone opening the Door to Darkness.”
Xehanort, the young man who had once lost his memory, desperately persisted. “But the truth of the worlds is there.”
“I will not allow it! Out. I’m sealing off the entire laboratory.”
At that, the apprentices all gloomily hung their heads and left the lab. Ansem made sure the door was closed and locked behind them before he sank into a chair and let out a bone-deep sigh.
Could those six have hit upon anything about the darkness in the heart?
Had they grown entangled in that darkness themselves while pursuing its mysteries?
There was no doubt Ansem himself had led to all this as the one who’d begun these experiments. He tried to think what he could do to correct this grave mistake—
And that was when it happened.
Axel looked down at Goofy where he lay sprawled on the ground and uncertainly scratched his own head. “Uh…hello?” he tried, not too loud, and then he prodded at Goofy’s cheek. “C’mon, get up already.”
“A-hyuck?” Goofy didn’t open his eyes, but he managed to slightly move his head, which had a sizable bump.
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