Chapter Text
The World Of Possibility
A world once without the touch of sentient life. Tree's and birds had ruled these lands long ago. An oasis of potential. A world of possibility. Those that knew of far off lands, other worlds and powerful magics, were the ones who had taken hold in this world. Stumbling across the free landscapes teeming with life. People began to set up in this new world, settling in and making it a home. A place to start a new life.
It didn't take long for the people who settled in this world to build it up. Cities and towns popped up all over, with some world travelers coming and going while others settled in to make their lives a permanent part of this world.
Lili was a descendant of the those who had traveled to this land. After generations and generations the wisdom of other worlds remained, in fact it wasn't uncommon for visitors from other worlds to come by. Lili knew of worlds and of darkness and light. Of keyblades and ancient wars fought among their users. She knew a great many things. But she didn't know she was one of the Princess' of Heart.
He did.
Sweat dripped from a young blonde woman's forehead as she pushed a cart of cleaning supplies into the back closet of the first floor. The building was incredibly tall, rooms were rented out to different business' and companies. The bottom floor as a whole belonged entirely to the building's owner, who stepped out of his office a few doors down from the girl.
“Ahh! Lili, you're still here?” The older man asked.
Lili turned to the man with a warm smile, “Yup! I just finished wiping down the windows by the entrance.”
The man let out an amused sigh, “Every time the temp agency sends you over you end up working much later than you're supposed to ya know?”
Lili removed the rubber gloves from her hands and tossed them into a nearby trash can, “Sorry about that, it doesn't feel right to leave the job half done though.”
“I don't mind at all,” The man replied, “Makes me wish you would seriously consider my offer to be a permanent employee.”
Lili forced a small chuckle, “I'm sorry sir, I-”
“I know.” He chuckled, “You're just trying to build up your funds until you can leave.”
Lilie smiled sheepishly, taking her waist length hair out of the pony tail she used to keep it out of her way while working.
“Either way, here, for your savings.” The man nodded, handing Lili a small stack of Munny.
Lili held her hands up, “No, no! That's alright, really, you're already paying me through the temp agency. This really isn't necessary.”
The man took one of Lili's hands and placed the Munny in her palm, “Consider it a bonus, for the overtime.”
Lili chewed on the side of her cheek as she looked at the small pile in her hand, “Well... I guess... If you're sure. You know it's not like I'm hurting for cash right, I'm only working so I can-”
“Hey now, I'm not hurting either, just take it. No need to feel so guilty about it.” The man reassured her with a warm expression.
A sigh escaped Lili, “Alright...”
“Good.” The man nodded triumphantly, “Now get home, I hear there have been heartless seen out at night so make sure you're careful.”
“I will be!” Lili nodded as she headed for the exit, “Thank you!”
Dusk was setting as Lili stepped out of the building and began her walk through Hope's City. She was idly looking through her wallet, counting up the money in her head from the payment she would receive from the agency for her work and the bonus her boss for the day gave her. Adding that along with the fund she had already stored away from her previous work.
“It's still not enough...” Lili sighed.
It was deflating but not all too shocking. She'd been saving up her Munny in the hopes of one day buying a ship. All her life she'd heard stories of far off worlds. Her mind sparked and she longed to visit the places she'd heard in those tales. Worlds with mermaids, monsters, royalties, even talking animals! Worlds with castles tall enough to touch the sky and towns with hidden charms and mysteries. It was nerve-racking and quite overwhelming, but gosh if it wasn't exciting! Her chest whirled at the idea of visiting these other worlds, the adventures that would lie in wait.
I'll get there one day. She assured herself. It was a hard grind to get the Munny needed but it would be worth it once she was able to head off an explore foreign worlds, see and experience her own stories first hand.
Lili took a turn down a lesser walked alley. One practically untouched which lead to the city's abandoned district. Given how bustling and lively the city itself was, this area was a stark contrast of emptiness. What happened to cause this area to be abandoned was a bit of a mystery. Officially, the city said the area was unstable... whatever that was supposed to mean. Rumors about why it was left to rot were widespread and many. From theories of a possibly devastating battle, or maybe intrusions from Darkness.
However, Lili had been walking these paths of the otherwise lifeless section of the city for years. Never having encountered any issues herself. Whatever caused the abandonment all those years ago when she was just a child, she had no concern for that now. It was a much faster route out of the city, her home being a somewhat rural town, especially compared to this bustling city just several miles away. The town of Woodburrow. It was small, with several clustered homes surrounded by forest.
After all day in the concrete jungle of Hope's City, Lili was looking forward to the comforting scents of the forest. First though, the journey through the dreary and desolate city district. It wasn't that bad really. Very quiet but very familiar by this point.
The same old path. The narrow alleyway, leading into the cracked paths of pavement and concrete, chips and cracks in the walls. All seemed to point to this area being left for far longer than it was. Unless of course, something really did happen to damage it.
Lili pushed those thoughts aside. There was nothing to worry about. The path she took was the same as always. Familiar, predictable, and unchanging with nothing out of the ordinary. Except that Heartless over there. Yeah that's certainly new.
Nope.
Lili spun around on her heel in an attempt slip away without being noticed. Too late for that though. Several more Heartless were creeping out from behind a stack of rotten wooden boards that were lied in the direction she turned. On both sides Shadow Heartless were inching closer to the blonde girl.
Shit.
Lili's back pressed against one of the deprecate walls of the alley. With a deep breath Lili raised her hand, a silver and blue wand forming in her grip from a brief flash of light. With the weapon materialized Lili held her arm out. Hand trembling slightly with nerves.
“S...stay back! Don't make me use this!” She yelled at the dark creatures.
Her threat did nothing to slow them. If anything it agitated the creatures further. The group of Heartless began rushing towards Lili at a much faster pace. Shooting her arm out in the direction of one of the creatures a blast of light shot out from the end of her wand. The light struck one of the creatures square in it's chest, the well aimed hit taking the creature down. It's body disintegrating in the blink of an eye.
If those Heartless weren't agitated before they sure were now. They launched themselves at Lili, who could only let out a startled squeak as she attempted to both dodge and blast the attacking creatures. A much easier said then done task. Her legs and arms were battered and scratched by the onslaught of Shadows. She did manage to strike a few here and there, but her blasts were not powerful enough to destroy their bodies without a well aimed blow. Something she couldn't achieve while under siege by them.
With some amount of luck however Lili managed to blast enough of them away for just long enough to run off. Running deeper into the city's abandoned district. More Heartless crept out of the ground. Popping up like black daisy's, all joining in on the pursuit of Lili. Realizing her absolutely no win situation Lili dashed for one of the doors of an abandoned building.
The door was jammed shut though. She tackled her body against it as hard as she could, her shoulder protesting the action. It refused to budge however. Lili turned around, sending out one last wild and directionless blast of energy from her wand. She didn't manage to hit any of the encroaching creatures in her frantic panic. Her body froze, arms raised up to try and cover her face as her eyes squeezed shut to at least somewhat brace herself for the oncoming attack.
The attack never came though. A gust of wind was all that buffeted Lili. The sounds of metal clashing and thumping of something being thrown or knocked around filled the air, followed by the disintegration sounds of destroyed Heartless. Lili barely processed any of this, stuck in her own head panicking about the oncoming threat.
Instead of being slashed and beaten however, a male voice spoke, “My, my, you're quite the careless one aren't you, princess?”
Lili lowered her arms slowly, unsure. She peeked out from her arms to spot a figure in a dark coat. The voice she heard was clearly a male's but she couldn't tell much more about the stranger, his head obscured by a black helmet with a silver trim. She stared at the figure wide eyed, her wand fading from her hands as she lowered them.
“Who are-” She paused. Something was missing from this situation. OH YEAH. THE ARMY OF HEARTLESS.
She looked around frantically, “You beat them all!?”
The figure scoffed, “Of course, I'm not a weakling like you.”
Well he was rude. Not wrong, but still rude. Not to mention snarky. But he did save her life, she should at least try to be grateful, even if his attitude seemed to need work.
Lili forced an awkward chuckle, “Well, thank you for saving me. I'm Lili.”
“Whatever.” Well he sure was one friendly son-of-a-gun.
Lili gave a small but awkward smile. She really felt the need to give him a what for with his attitude, but it didn't exactly feel right since she'd be toast right now without him. Silence hung in the air around the two for quite a while. Lili struggled to find any words to use to break the quiet tension when she finally took notice of something. A suspiciously key shaped blade made of what looked to be gears in his hand.
OH MY GOSH! IS THAT A KEYBALDE? A REAL ACTUAL KEYBLADE? THIS GUY IS A KEYBLADE WIELDER!?
A small gasp escaped Lili's lips. Sputtering several incoherent sounds as her brain tried to catch up with her mouth. Vanitas turned his head in her direction at the strange sounds coming from the girl.
Finally she managed to sputter out a somewhat coherent sentence, “Y-you, th-that-! That's a keyblade!”
The dark figure tilted his head to the side before slowly raising the blade to his mask covered face, looking to examine the weapon himself, “Wow, I had no idea.”
Sass and snark. Sasnark. Snarkass? Yeah Snarkass seemed to fit him. Man this dude had a lot of attitude. Savior or not he was downright patronizing at this point. Lili narrowed her eyes at him.
She let out frustrated huff, “Can you turn the snark off for one second?”
“Can you turn the annoying off for one second?” he retorted, one hand resting on his hip.
OH OK WE'RE DOING THIS HUH?
“Listen here you-!” No wait more importantly, “Ah-! Keyblade-! You-! Other worlds-! Tell me!”
Nailed it.
He looked at Lili. Or so she assumed, not particularly easy to tell since his face was covered by that mask, for a long while as she stared at him with wide eyes filled to the brim with wonder. An actual keyblade wielder was standing before her. She'd heard tales and legends of those able to use such powerful weapons. Weapons that could effect hearts themselves.
“You're even more annoying now.” He finally replied after a long stretch of silence.
Lili's cheeks puffed out in irritation as she set her hands on her hips, “And you're incredibly rude- ah... ah... I didn't catch your name...”
“None of your concern.” He spat back.
Alright. Time for her to change tactics. All that was happening now was that Lili managed to piss this guy off further than he already seemed to be naturally. Calming herself Lili approached more calm.
“I'm sorry.” She sighed, “I just... I've never met a keyblade wielder before, I just have so many questions!””
He angled his head towards Lili. Even without seeing his expression a strong amount of 'fuck off' energy radiated off of him. He certainly must have been wearing an expression that was just indicative of how absolutely done with her he was behind that tinted visor.
“...Don't go throwing yourself at the heartless again, unless you decide to get strong enough to actually keep yourself alive.” He said, turning his back on her.
Wow, he was totally blowing her off. Cool... Why'd he even bother going through the effort of saving her? He seemed to dislike Lili from the second they met.
She watched him walk away with a conflicted pang in her chest. One part of her was pushing to race after him and urge him to stay. However the winning side of her heart was the nervousness she felt. This one guy was able to completely destroy an entire squad of Heartless by himself. She didn't want to take the risk of pissing him off further and having that power turned her direction. Instead she just watched as he vanished from sight with a heavy sigh.
Maybe with any luck she would find him around town or in the city sometime? If he didn't already leave the area completely that is.