The door to the guest room opened and a young, handsome goose wearing the uniform of a castle guard entered.
"Your Majesty," he saluted. "Most of the guests have left by now. They all understand that this interruption of the festivities is hardly your fault and they want to thank you for the generous welcome and the splendid festival. Everyone that has decided to stay for the night has been directed to the guest rooms in the east wing."
"Thank you, Gladstone," the king nodded. "Are the guests from Radiant Garden still there?"
"Yes, Your Majesty!" Gladstone nodded. "They expressed their desire to join the meeting."
"Very well. Tell them to come to the next room, please."
The goose saluted again. "As you wish, sir!" And he turned around and left.
Kari shook her head. That was quite some strange world, where mice and geese wore human clothes and acted just like humans would... Then again, she had seen many Digimon that looked similarly to those fellows.
"I apologize for the rush, but would you please join me and my friends for a little talk?" Mickey asked her. "I suppose you might have many questions... as we have too. Perhaps, if we sit together and talk, we might find out more about this whole situation."
"That wouldn't be such a bad idea, Kari," Gatomon spoke up. "We don't know where we are, we need help in finding the others, and perhaps someone around here even knows more about the origins of Heartmon and your little chain. I mean, I have the feeling that His Majesty is trustful. Or..." She tilted her head in concern. "Are you feeling too tired?"
"No, that's not it," Kari quickly said. "It's just that... well, all of this has been a little bit overwhelming."
"We can always adjourn the meeting to tomorrow, if you prefer," the king offered.
"No, that's fine, Your Majesty," Kari replied. "I'm pretty curious about everything as well, so I'm all for this meeting."
"Then it's decided," the bipedal mouse nodded. "Come, they're all waiting for us in the next room... your little friend Heartmon as well."
They left the chamber and entered a very long hallway with a marble floor and many doors that looked all the same. Through high windows, bright rays of sunlight shone inside the corridor.
Mickey led Kari and Gatomon to the next door, knocked and entered.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, everyone! May I all introduce you to... Kari and her partner, Gatomon."
Kari looked around the room. She saw three other anthropomorphic animals, similar to the king: A female mouse wearing a crown (she assumed that this would be the queen), a duck wearing blue clothes with a cap, and a dog wearing a black vest over a green shirt, with yellow pants.
The other three occupants of the room were humans... teenagers that looked to be around her age: A boy with spiky, brown hair, a nice-looking girl with red hair and a mature-looking boy with white hair. He seemed to have a serious look on his face all the time.
She also noticed how not only the king's outfit was similar to her own, but also that of the brown-haired boy, and, to a lesser extent, also the clothes of the other two teenagers.
Heartmon was sitting on the table in-between the others. He smiled happily when he saw Kari and waved.
"Ka... ri?" the brown-haired boy just asked. His gaze wandered around Kari and the other girl in confusion.
The red-haired girl looked at Kari with a concerned expression. "She... she is not something like a Nobody, is she?"
"No, I don't think so," the king explained. "She told me that she and her friends came from a different world, so I think it's just a coincidence that you look so similar, Kairi."
'Kairi?' Kari wondered. Odd, how that name sounded so similar to her own. Also, the red-haired girl looked kinda like her. True, she had longer hair, and it was red instead of brown. Also, her eyes were blue, unlike her brown ones. But still... Regarding their faces, they could very well pass off as sisters.
"Kari, I'd like you to meet my friends. First, this is my wife, the beautiful queen of this castle: Queen Minnie."
"Ah, you old charmer," the queen said bashfully.
"I only tell the truth," Mickey grinned, then he coughed and continued. "Next, we have my two closest confidants: Royal Court Magician, Donald Duck, and the captain of the guard, Goofy."
"Hello," the duck said in a quackish voice.
"Very nice to meet you," Goofy added in a voice that fitted his name.
"And last but not least we have our guests from the Destiny Islands: Sora, Riku and Kairi." He gestured at the three teenagers while calling out their name.
"Hey there," Sora grinned and raised a hand in greeting. Riku just nodded with the hint of a smile.
Now Kairi, on the other hand... The red-headed girl seemed to be taken aback slightly, as her nervous stance suggested. However, she seemed to ignore that uneasiness for now and smiled nervously as she extended her hand. "Kari... nice to meet you! I'm Kairi... well, you know that already. Umm, I mean... wanna be friends?"
Something about her behavior was odd. Well, Kari guessed it was because the two of them looked so much alike, but still... Kairi acted as if something similar had happened to her before.
Ignoring those thoughts for now, Kari accepted the handshake and nodded. "Sure, I'd like that, Kairi."
----
Some time later, they were all sitting on chairs around the table and talked about the events. Heartmon was sitting on an armchair in one corner of the room and ate out of a bowl of fruit the queen had offered him.
"So... I just appeared in a flash of light inside your audience chamber?" Kari asked. "In the middle of your festival?"
"That's right," Goofy nodded. "We could kinda tell that it had to be a passageway to another world... We have travelled between worlds quite often by now, you know?"
"Well, I can't say the same thing for me," Kari admitted. "Although I have visited the Digital World regularly."
"This... 'Digital World'..." the king said in a thoughtful tone of voice. "Tell me more about it."
"Well, it is the place where I was born," Gatomon explained. "Almost everyone living there is a Digimon... that's short for 'Digital Monster'."
"A friend of ours has once discovered that the Digimon and their world are made of digital data," Kari said. "Although they are very much alive like you and me."
"I figured as much," Riku smirked. "From what we've seen of Gatomon by now, you wouldn't want to believe that she's just some digital program."
"It's still amazing," Queen Minnie spoke up. "A living being, made of data, and still living outside of a computer system?"
"Well, we have been turned into data once," Sora said, gesturing towards Donald and Goofy. "And inside of that computer, we found a whole world made of data... and we also met a computer program named Tron. He's one of our best friends." He scratched his head. "Um, of course I don't know much about this stuff, but... I'd say that Tron is as much alive as we all are."
"I hate to say it, but I think Sora's right this time," Riku grinned.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Sora snapped.
"You seem to be in thought, Your Majesty," Gatomon addressed the king. "Is there something else we should know?"
"I don't know..." Mickey murmured. "I believe I've heard about something similar before... and I don't mean Tron and his world." He tapped his index finger against his black nose.
Goofy did the same. Then he tilted his head. "Gawrsh," he exclaimed. "Didn't Ansem the Wise try to convert the artificial Kingdom Hearts the Organization created, into data?"
Everyone else in the room gasped in surprise and realization, while Kari and Gatomon could only blink in confusion. Kingdom Hearts? Ansem the Wise? Which Organization were they talking about?
"That's right!" Mickey shouted. "How could I have forgotten? Ansem the Wise and his apprentices have tried to create artificial hearts for a long time, remember? Before Xehanort had betrayed him and turned into a Heartless! From what he told me on one of my visits, those hearts would be made of digital data."
"But... but I thought..." Kairi stuttered. "I thought they weren't successful, and the only things that have been created by Xehanort were artificial Heartless."
"That's mostly correct," Mickey nodded. "But... I know I've seen this little fella's face before," he said and gestured over to where Heartmon was munching on an apple. "And I'm sure it was during my stay at Radiant Garden."
Everyone needed a few moments to realize what that meant.
"You... do you mean that Heartmon is, in fact...?" Riku mumbled.
Mickey nodded sharply. "Yes, I'm sure of it. Heartmon... is nothing else than an artificial heart, created by Ansem the Wise... The only successfully created heart!"
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(Posted Tue, 16 Jan 2007 12:30)
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