Takeo stiffened with fear. Was that voice talking to him? The hairs on the back of his neck and his arms stood up, and a chill ran down his spine. Why would someone be yelling at him? He has done nothing wrong.
Takeo slowly turned around to see who the man was talking to. Before he could make it halfway around, the man spoke again. "Kid, you need to come with me." the man said, walking towards Takeo.
With what confidence Takeo had left in him after everything that had already transpired, he mustered a few words for the stranger. "W-why should I?"
"Because you have no idea what you're doing." said the stranger. He finally made it to Takeo, and Takeo was finally able to see who it was he was talking to. The man was taller than Takeo, with longer brown hair that went to his shoulders. He wore a jacket that went to about the center of his torso before cutting off, and the collar was lined with white fur. He wore a white undershirt, and had three belts on his pants, two bring red. Strange, who needs three belts? He also wore three bands on his left arm, which were there seemingly for looks rather than a practical use. "Just come with me, and I'll explain everything." The man held out his hand towards Takeo.
"No way am I trusting a stranger." Takeo said as he slapped the mans hand away. He dashed away, ducking into a nearby alleyway. Who was this guy, and what does he want with Takeo? He heard footsteps nearing the alleyway, so Takeo scuffled up the wall and onto the roof of the building. He began running across it when he heard a thud behind him. He looked behind him and saw that the man had managed to make it up to the roof in one clean jump! "What is up with this guy?" Takeo thought to himself.
While Takeo was holding his attention elsewhere, he failed to realize that he was running out of rooftops. "Look out!" the man shouted, pointing in front of Takeo. He turned his head and let out a gasp before falling off of the roof and flipping through the air before hitting the ground.
"Well, that could have been worse." Takeo said, groaning while sitting up. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a dark black mist form and disappear, leaving behind three medium sized black blobs.
They were the shadow creatures that he saw in his dream! They weren't armored or giant like the other ones, but they were the ones that almost resembled bugs! "No... they are real..." Takeo said while slowly scooting backwards.
All at once, the shadow creatures jumped at him, and Takeo knew what was coming next. He shouted, but felt nothing but a rush of wind, then a strange sound. He uncovered his face and saw nothing but a black mist where the shadow creatures had once been in the air. To the left, the man that had been chasing him had out a rather large sword, and was panting. He gathered himself, stood up straight, and his sword vanished out of his hands. He turned and looked at Takeo, who was frozen by what he had just witnessed.
"Are you okay kid?" asked the man, brushing the hair out of his eyes. Takeo jumped up and started to shout.
"What were those things? Where did they come from? Who are You? Why is your sword so oversized? Why am I yelling so loudly?" Takeo finally ran out of breath, and collapsed back to a sitting position.
"His name is Leon. He's the one who just saved you from them there shadows." said a voice from behind Takeo. Both Leon and Takeo looked back and saw that Cid had made his way to them.
"Cid? I thought you had your shop to worry about right now." said Leon.
Cid shook his head, "Well, I did, but then I looked outta my window and saw you take off after Tak here, so I left those dang Moogles in charge while I came here to make sure you two didn't try to kill each other."
"Wait, Cid, you know this kid?" Leon asked while pointing to Takeo.
"Hey! I'm sitting right here!" Takeo said, waving his arms around.
"Yes, this here is little Takeo. Tak, this here is Leon, my friend I told you I was going to have you meet." explained Cid.
"Well you could've given me a heads up that he was coming early to get me!" Takeo shouted, picking himself up off of the ground.
"To be fair, I didn't even know that he was coming. What were you doing, anyways?" Cid asked, turning to Leon.
"Well I WAS coming down to the shop to pick up some potions, but then I saw him holding his hand out as if he were trying to summon something. I just wanted to ask him what he was doing." Leon explained. Cid looked down out the floor, and shook his head.
"Come on Tak, Leon and I jave some stuff that we want to explain to you." Cid and Leon led Takeo to Leon's apartment in the second district of Traverse Town. Once inside, Leon had Takeo sit down in a chair that was in the corner of the room next to a table.
"What's all of this about? You guys know what is going on, don't you?" Takeo asked. Leon and Cid both looked at each other with a worried look on their faces. Leon turned to Takeo and began to speak.
"Well, you see Takeo, those creatures you saw, those weren't the only ones. They weren't the first ones either. I've managed to keep them at bay, but i can't do anything permanent with just my sword." said Leon, eyeing his sword up and down.
Takeo had a confused and worried look on his face. Well, what WERE those things anyways? I've never seen anything like them before." Takeo said, looking out the window, into the night sky. Were there less stars than last night?
"Those were Heartless. Specifically, Purebloods. They are born from the darkness that is inside people's hearts when that person's heart is either consumed by darkness, or stolen by the Heartless." Leon said, pacing the room.
Takeo shook his head, "Heartless? Darkness? Purebloods? So these things want to steal everyone's hearts that they can get? Why?"
Cid looked over to Leon, and began to speak, "We're... not so sure on that either..."
"Well, in my dream, I saw different types of heartless. I saw some wearing armor, and some that were huge and round! Are they Purebloods as well?" Takeo asked.
"No. Those ones are emblem Heartless. We're not really sure where those ones came from. All we know is that they have the same goal as the Purebloods. To gather hearts." Leon said, putting his hand over his heart.
"Oh... and you said there is no way to permanently stop them? You said your sword can't do it." Takeo said with a worried look on his face.
"Correct. My sword only delays the Heartless. But there is a weapon that extracts hearts from them, and that's the Keyblade." Leon said.
"A Keyblade? What's that?" Takeo asked.
"It's what appeared to you in your dream. That thing that appeared in your hand? That's a Keyblade. It extracts hearts and sends them to Kingdom Hearts." explained Leon.
"Oh..." said Takeo. He held his hand out, and he felt the energy start to form in his hand once again. This time, something materialized in his hands, and it was heavy. Takeo looked up, and it was a black Keyblade. It's handle was pointed on numerous different ends, and it had a long blade part to it, leading up to the head of the Key. At the top, two pointed spikes shot out, forming the key resemblance. "Whoa..."
"Well... that's a more violent looking Keyblade than we're used to seeing..." Cid said, his mouth hanging open.
"Come on, we'll show you how to use it. Let's head down to the third district for some practice." Said Leon, leading Takeo out of the room.