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Kingdom Hearts: Dark Dawn	By : RotSeele Category: Kingdom Hearts > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 3168 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I do not make any money from this story.

Chapter List
- 10
- 11
- 12
Eleven - Beast’s Castle, Village

That morning, Kaoru and Rinally gathered their things and slipped out of the inn after nicking some fruit and blueberry muffins out of the kitchen. They headed toward Gaston’s house as they ate, having already decided to check the place out while the man and his little cohort were out. If they were in, then they were going to wait until they left, and one would stay to search the house while the other followed Gaston, with the intention of finding some answers without being caught or noticed. Kaoru found himself volunteered for that particular job, if only because he had Guardian and could easily defeat the Heartless should they make an appearance to attack him. He didn’t argue with Rinally on that point. He personally didn’t want her anywhere near Gaston, and he couldn’t really figure out a plausible explanation for that, other than Gaston was a creep.
Fortunately, Rinally agreed with him, though her choice of words was much more pungent and succinct.
They snuck up to the closest window of Gaston’s house and peered inside, trying not to attract attention as they did so. Rin shook her head slowly. “I don’t see anyone.”
“It’s early enough that only bakers and farmers would be up.”
“Yeah, but not for much longer. Should we take the chance?”
Kaoru considered the ramifications of either choice for a long time. If they broke in and found Gaston and Le Fou still sleeping, it was a big risk to hang around and try searching the place anyway. If they weren’t inside, then there was too much of a chance they could be caught by the very people they were trying to avoid. Still, they couldn’t hang around and wait all day, just loitering in alleys and hoping that maybe, just maybe, they’d be able to catch a break one way or another. They needed information, and they needed it quickly if they wanted to have even the remotest chance of reaching the castle by nightfall tonight.
“We might as well give it a shot,” Kaoru said, his voice low. “If we hear anything, though, we’re leaving. We need to get back to the castle and warn Belle and the Beast. That has to be our top priority.”
Rin agreed and began to head around to the back of the building, looking for a secluded window or even a back door, somewhere out of sight of the main street. If they were going to use Guardian as the means to get them inside, Kaoru didn’t want anyone seeing them do it. He didn’t want to explain to anyone why he had a Keyblade, who they were, and whether or not they were breaking and entering on Sora’s orders. Their search proved fruitless, however, except for a small window on the back left side of the house that was higher than either of them could reach. The flutter of curtains proved it was open.
Chewing her lip, Rin finally said, “I can cast a float spell on one of us... that person would be stuck searching the house alone, though.”
Kaoru frowned at this, disliking it. “We don’t even know what’s waiting for us in there, if anything.”
“If we want answers, it’s our only choice.”
“Who goes then?”
Rin smiled. “I’ll Row Sham Bow you for it.”
Kaoru shook his head. “If you want it so badly, go for it. It’s your magic anyway. Just... just be careful, okay, Rin?”
“Aren’t I always?”
Since silence seemed the wiser answer, Kaoru kept his mouth shut. Rinally sighed and quietly cast the float spell upon herself. It was easier said than done, though, for she had never really practiced moving around while weightless. As she rose up from the ground, she used the house itself to guide her toward that window, grasping the edges of the window to stop her ascent before she went any higher and was seen. Then she looked down at Kaoru, finding him staring up at her. He was concentrating on her face, an anxious look on his. She gave him a reassuring smile, then eased herself into the window, cutting off the float spell as she did so.
It was only after her feet lightly touched the floor inside the window that she realized she was wearing a skirt. Her cheeks flared crimson. Good thing I’m wearing leggings right now, otherwise I’d have to kill him for looking up my skirt. She crouched low, pushing all thoughts of hurting Kaoru for something that was actually her fault to the back of her mind. Rin looked around; she was in a bedroom that looked to have been left unused for a while. The bed itself didn’t look like it had been slept in, and most of the furniture - of which there was little - looked quite dusty. She shifted and rose, tiptoeing toward the bedroom’s door, trying to be as quiet as possible as she opened the door just wide enough to peer into the hall without actually poking her head out.
Quiet.
Almost too quiet. Rin smirked at her own little joke, then eased the door open wider so she could slip out into the hall. There was no sound, so Rin walked on the balls of her feet to minimize her own noise as she left the bedroom and went on her exploratory mission. Despite being a two-story house, it was actually quite small. Of course, that could be because all the walls are covered with dead animal heads. Rin dryly observed as she almost came nose to nose with a moose head jutting outward from the wall she was sneaking by. Besides the room she had come out of, there were three more doors on the second floor. Pressing her ear to each, Rin listened for any noise before she entered the rooms, exploring them. She found more stuffed animal heads on walls or stuffed statues of animals on dressers and bureaus. She stuck out her tongue in disgust, but figured it fit the man whose house this was.
She didn’t find anything upstairs, not even in the bedroom that obviously belonged to Gaston. At least, she assumed it belonged to him, because there was a great big portrait on one wall of the man shirtless, muscles rippling, luxurious black hair flowing in the wind, as he stood upon on a rock ledge holding a rifle with a woman who looked suspiciously like Belle clinging to his leg.
“Yep,” Rin whispered to herself, “definitely an A-class narcissistic dick-weed.”
She left the room exactly as she found it, and headed toward the stairs, still moving quietly. She tiptoed down the stairs, often taking them one at a time to minimize her sounds further. When she reached the downstairs hall, she crouched at the bottom of the stairs and used the banister like it would shield her from sight. She glanced down the hall, left and right, noting two openings that led into wider rooms and an opening further down that probably led to the kitchen. She waited, listening, but heard nothing. She wished she could alert Kaoru, to tell him that it was definitely likely she was completely alone within the house, but there was no need to take risks. Even if she couldn’t hear anything but her own heartbeat in her ears, it didn’t mean that she was, truly, alone.
Rin rose and headed toward the first of the two large openings, the one on the left side just before the stairs started. This room was a giant trophy room, displaying more animals killed for Gaston’s entertainment. She noted a distinct lack of books and more than what was necessary for firearms. She picked lightly through what cabinets and drawers there were, but she found no papers detailing an evil mastermind’s plan or even the cage the Heartless Shadow had been in. Before she left this room for the next, she made sure to put everything back the way she had found it. The next room she came to was furnished for entertaining, with long couches and cushioned chairs and card tables that held, what else, more stuffed trophies and a few paintings of Gaston in various heroic stances. She stuck out her tongue to display her disgust and quietly entered the room.
She froze about two steps in, staring wide-eyed at the lump of Le Fou on the floor and the even bigger lump of bare-chested Gaston sprawled on one of the couches. Both were snoring heavily enough she probably could’ve come in with a brass band and they wouldn’t have so much as twitched. She was about to retreat when she saw the Heartless’s cage sitting on a coffee table just on the other side of Le Fou, along with three tiny black rods.
She knew that she should run, that she should get out and back to Kaoru so they could return to the castle. She knew that the lay of the room was too good to be true - the cage and the rods were placed so that they would be a tempting target to take. Le Fou was positioned just enough that the would-be thief would have to step over him in order to get to the prize. This meant he was either pretending to be asleep, waiting for someone to try and be cute and steal their “leverage”, or the table itself was booby-trapped to wake them both and catch the thief red-handed. Mulling over her options, neither of which were really any good, Rinally studied the cage and rods for a long time, trying to figure out different ways she could reach them without risking herself.
If I leave them here, then these two morons have all the ammunition they need to incite a mob to attack the castle. If I take them, then they might just lead us to their mysterious benefactors to try and get new tools. But also if I take them, Kaoru and I could inadvertently invite Them into the castle if we keep them. Rin inhaled and exhaled as quietly as she could. What to do? What should she do? She kept turning the question over and over in her mind. Then a loud crash sounded, making her jump. So did Gaston and Le Fou, jerking awake and sitting up so abruptly that Le Fou actually cracked his forehead on the table he was sleeping beside. Rin squeaked in surprise and ducked behind the couch closest to her, huddling as close to it as possible in as small a ball as possible to keep from being seen.
The crash sounded again, and she realized someone was knocking at the door. It was polite, if forceful, but the longer it went unanswered the more forceful and less polite it became.
“What are you waiting for?” growled Gaston. “Go answer it!”
Muttering under his breath, Le Fou rolled to his feet and bumbled past the couch. Rin scooted toward the opposite side, but he was too busy yawning widely to see her. Gaston stretched and made inappropriate noises as he got to his feet. Rin saw him pulling on his plaid red shirt as he inspected the cage, poking his finger into the stuff the Heartless Shadow was made of as if to make sure it was still alive. He straightened as two sets of footsteps echoed toward them, and as he moved around to greet the stranger, Rinally quickly crawled on her hands and knees toward another couch, slipping behind it just before the footsteps reached a crescendo.
“What’s taking so long?”
Rin pressed the palm of her right hand to her mouth and overlapped it with the left. She scrunched up as tightly as she could, trying to remain as still as possible. The voice was gruff, male. There was a slight accent to it as well, an accent that made the ‘what’ sound like ‘wahss’.
Gaston snorted. “What’s taking so long is that the villagers aren’t convinced yet that the Beast is truly a threat.”
“You’re working on changing that, yes?” asked the male. “I believe you made us a promise, in return for us getting you what you want.”
“Which you haven’t delivered on.”
“Don’t test us, boy. This is a two-way road. You get us what we want, you get what you want. You want this woman, you get us into the castle. Until that happens, we’re just as powerless as you.”
Rinally heard Gaston move and a minute later, she heard him pick up the cage and rattle it around. She could only assume he was shaking it at the visitor.
“This thing, this Heartless as you call it,” Gaston said snidely, “isn’t as impressive when its in a cage. No one’s seen these things in action. With each telling of the tale I get a few more to my side, but it’s not enough.”
“So use the tools we’ve given you. I’ve shown you how. What you want isn’t simply going to fall into your lap. You have to work for it. I’m sure you’re familiar with the term.”
Whatever Gaston said in reply was lost beneath the growl that came from him. Clearly he wasn’t used to being talked down to or treated like he was an inept child.
“We are very patient,” said the mysterious man, “but even we have limits. If you cannot help us, then we’ll move on to someone who can. I didn’t think our arrangement with you was a difficult one to carry out.”
“Don’t speak to me as if I’m a fool!” snapped Gaston. Rin heard him stomp toward the coffee table and swipe something up. It had to have been one of the rods, because she heard the soft thump-thump of objects hitting the bear-skin carpet on the floor. “I will get you what you want. Then Belle is mine, and you can do whatever you want to with that monster.”
“See to it, then.”
Three pairs of footsteps suddenly began to move, stalking down the hall toward the front door. Rinally held her breath as she heard the door open and then slam. She heard nothing after that. Yet she didn’t dare move for fear someone was waiting for her to do just that. She counted to ten three times before she uncurled her body and started to slowly rise. She was alone in the room, and like she’d expected, the cage was gone. Two of the three black rods were lying on the floor, but the third was missing. He must’ve grabbed that one and knocked the rest to the ground. Why wouldn’t he pick them up?
Rin tiptoed around the couch and moved toward the two black rods, moving as quickly as she dared. She crouched, hand hovering over the black rods. She could feel the malevolent energy rolling off them in waves; she swallowed hard and reached down, picking them each up quickly and holding them in a tight fist. Then she hurried out of the room, pausing at the threshold to look toward the front door. She quickly hurried up the stairs, struggling to keep quiet as she did so, then hurried back to the room she had originally entered from.
“Kaoru!” Rinally stuck her head out the window. “Kaoru, I’m coming down!”
He looked up at her and nodded. He took a few steps backwards to give her a clear space. Rin didn’t bother to cast a float spell on herself this time. She got up on the windowsill and had one leg out the window before a hand lashed out to grab her hair, yanking her head back hard.
“Rinally!” Kaoru yelled.
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- 12
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Kingdom Hearts: Dark Dawn