Keru: Heeeeeeey guys. Yeah. It's been a while. So I'm going through this story and Tweaking it a bit. I'll be doing it all at once ( if ff will let me) so everything will be a bit different if you guys have already read this story once before. Not super different! Just little details and random stuff added to make it better. I'll also be attempting to actually UPDATE this story! Amazing right? Well, we'll see how long it lasts this time. I'm pretty horrible at staying motivated so only time will tell how long this bout of inspiration lasts.

WARNING!: This is a yaoi/shounen-ai.

DISCLAIMER!: I definitely do not own Kingdom Hearts, no matter how much I wish I did.

Pairings: Akuroku, RikuSora, Zemyx, Cleon, possibly MarluxiaNamine. Still debating.

Chapter One

"WHAAAT?!"

Oh you have got to be kidding me! He did not just say what I think he just said.

"You heard me," my father, ruler of the Underworld, said from his onyx thrown. "I'm sending you to the mortal world as punishment for your wrong-doings."

He can't be serious. Please let him not be serious!

I gaped. "Wait-! But-oh come on! What I did wasn't that bad!" I protested. I mean I've definitely done much worse in the past.

"Setting the fields of Asphodel on fire wasn't 'that bad', little brother?" My older brother Reno laughed turning his head slightly toward me as he stopped harassing one of the skeleton guards. Like he's so friggen innocent all the damn time. Prick.

I glared at him. "It's not like it looks any different! The grass is still black!" I paused, crossing my arms across my chest and mumbled, "Jeez, you act as if it was alive before then."

My father sighed, pushing his shoulder length hair out of his face and readjusting his bone fused crown on top of his head, a habit he does when he's done with someones shit. Welp. "That's not the point, Axel. The point is, is that this isn't the first, or second, or third time you have pulled a prank or caused some kind of mischief." I could tell he was loosing his temper. "It is time you learn your place and are punished for disobeying the rules!"

"But-"

"AKUSERU!" my father boomed calling me by my real name and causing the room to shake as I winced. And there goes his temper. His glowing green eyes bore into mine. "You will do as I tell you without further argument!"

I bow my head in defeat. "Yes, father."

Seeming satisfied with himself, my father nods. "Your duty in the mortal world will be to purify the Heartless and Nobodies so they may come here."

I resist the urge to let my jaw drop and I hear Reno snickering in the background. I swear I'm going to punch him in the face before I leave. "Yes, father." I grit out as I glare at the deep black onyx floor.

"Good. You will be leaving as soon as you're packed. The boat to take you across the Styx River will be there waiting for you. You are dismissed."

Well goodbye to you too, pops.

I turn and storm out, pushing the insanely tall bone-fused door roughly, and let it slam behind me, making a few of the more loose bones fall off and rattle to the ground.

I get to my room soon after and begin packing my things together in a tornado of anger. I can't believe he's sending me up to that hell hole! . . . Oh wait. I'm already in a hell hole.

"Gah! But I can't believe he's making me be a hunter too!" I groan out loud, frustrated as I ran my hand through my hair. I try and calm myself down before I accidentally set some of my clothes on fire. Wouldn't want that to happen again. I had to wear the same outfit for a week as punishment before he let me go buy some new clothes.

I hear scuffling near my doorway and turn to see my four year old sister, Kairi, leaning her head into my room curiously. She smiles brightly when she sees me and runs in. "Axy!"

I smile and pat her head as she hugs my legs. "Hey squirt."

She peers up at me with sad, blue eyes. "Daddy says you're goin' away!"

"Yeah, he's sending me up to where the humans live to be a hunter." I tell her as I sit on my bed and pull her onto my lap.

She looks at me curiously. "Hunter? Whatsdat?"

I sigh. Might as well try and explain it to her. "A hunter is a person who purifies-"

"Perifies?" she pronounces incorrectly.

"Cleans." She nods, understanding, and I continue. "They clean the Heartless and Nobodies of their- . . . badness and make them good again so they can come here."

She frowns slightly. "What's a Heartless and a Nobody?"

"It's kinda complicated, Kai. I don't think you'll understand."

She puffs out her cheeks in protest. "Uh uh! Imma big girl! I can understand!"

I smirk and ruffle her chin length red hair. "Okay, Kai." Now, how to make this simple. "There are four types of spirits." I hold up one finger. "There's the good ghosts, which are the ones like you see around here and you make friends with." She nods and I lift a second finger. "There are the bad ghosts, which is basically all the spirits which were bad in their human life."

"You mean the people who have to be punished forever?" Kairi asks, tilting her head to the side slightly.

I nod. "Yeah, all those who have eternal punishment." She nods and I lift up a third finger. "Then there are the Heartless. They are basically ghosts-good or bad-who have had there hearts taken from them by either other Heartless or a Nobody." I pause, seeing if she was following along so far. She was. Damn smart kid. "So because they have no heart, they attack people and ghosts who do have hearts."

"Thassalot of people." Kairi said.

I smile. "Yeah," I hold up a fourth finger. "The last type is the Nobodies. They are basically . . . ghosts who have lost their way."

She looks at me confused.

"Insane?" I try.

No change.

"Okay, they're . . . not right in the head." I tell her tapping my temple with my finger.

She nods now. "They're crazy."

I smirk. "Right, so they go around and steal hearts and eat them." . . . and sometimes the host of the body too-but I'm not about to tell a four year old that. I don't want to give dad one more reason for him to be mad at me. "They're usually Heartless before they're Nobodies."

Kairi frowned again. "Wait, so what's the difference between a Heartless and a Nobody?"

"There are two main differences between them. One, Heartless look exactly like they did when they were a regular spirit. The only difference is their eyes. They're pure white besides the black pupil that's shaped like the Heartless sign. Dad showed you what that looks like, right?"

She nodded. "Yup, he showed me the Nobody sign too, but he didn't tell me what they were."

"Good, so then Nobodies are monsters, literally. They are the most dangerous too because they can take the form of a live human and then change back into their true monster form whenever they want." Those tricky bastards are the most difficult to find if they don't want to be because there's really no was to tell them apart from a normal, live human when they're in that disguise. Kairi's eyes widened. "The second thing is that Heartless have their memories from before they became Heartless. So basically they're really mentally unstable. Nobodies, on the other hand, have no memories what-so-ever of before they were Nobodies. All they have in their minds is the drive to kill and steal hearts."

She looks down for a moment contemplating something I imagine, and then back up at me. "So, what happens when you attack them?"

"Our weapons 'purify' the soul of the Heartless or Nobody and they come back here to be judged. You know, whether or not they get to go back for a second life, stay here and party, or are punished for the things they did in their human life."

"It doesn't sound like you purify the soul, Axy." Kairi said pouting.

I smile sheepishly. "Mm-yeah. It's more like we just extract the human soul inside them."

"Does the soul do anything special before it leaves to come here?"

I shrug. "I don't know, Kairi. I've never hunted a Nobody or Heartless before." And honestly I wasn't planning on ever having to until dad decided to send me away. Damn it.

At that, Kairi looked a bit disappointed.

"Hey, I'll tell you what. I'll send you a letter telling you exactly what happens when I hunt my first ghost, okay?"

She smiles. "Okay!"

"Alright then," I stand up and set her on the ground. "I've got to finish packing now. The boat wont wait forever." Sadly.

Kairi flung her arms around me, squeezing me harder than a tiny 4 year old girl should be physically able to. "I'll miss you Axy." she sniffled.

"Aw, don't cry, Kai. I'll be back." I tell her. I don't know when though.

"When?" Oh, of course.

"Soon." I tell her, hoping it's true myself. Kairi gives my legs one last squeeze and then runs out of my room.

Soon after I finished packing, I decided I would pay one last visit to our dog, Cerberus. In case you didn't know, he's about as tall as a three story building and has three heads. He does a very good job of guarding the Underworld from unwanted people too, though if you get to know him, or are party of the royal family then he's just like a giant, three headed teddy bear who wants you to bathe in his saliva.

I walk up to Cerberus and pat his middle head. "Hey buddy."

He began to wag his tail as the other two heads licked me. Point proven. "Ew! Gross!" I laughed.

After refilling his pool-sized water bowl and adding more food to his food-dish, I tossed him three big red bouncy balls. "There, that'll give you something to do for a while while I'm gone." And when I say a while I mean like five minutes.

I pat each one of his heads, grab my bag, and head off towards the river.

Just like dad said, the boat was sitting there at the edge of the shore, waiting for me. I turn around and look back at my soon-to-be-old home. "Well, I guess I'll see you later." I mumble to myself, as if someone was listening.

I turn around and jump, startled, to find my father standing in front of me. "D-dad!"

"I just came to see you off and to tell you that I'm sending you to a school where a couple of other hunters go. You will have to find them on your own, but that really shouldn't be too hard." He tells me indifferently.

'Shouldn't be too hard'?! Right. I'm going to be going to a school with over a thousand kids and finding a hunter or two isn't going to be hard. Pfft, whatever.

It's always just business with my father. "Uh, thanks." I say, not knowing what else to do. I get on the boat and it floats silently away from the shore.

After just arriving here, I have decided that the human world is AWESOME!

There's just so much going on everywhere! The bugs flying around, people passing by, and the colors! All the purples and blues and greens and oranges! I almost cant take it all in! This world is so bright compared to the Underworld. I mean, the only colors we really had around were dull grays, blacks, reds, and browns. Aside from that, there really was no other colors. This place is just . . . stunningly beautiful. I love the sky, it's so blue. And the grass is green here! I almost want to roll around in it for hours.

Luckily the portal I got thrown into dropped me off right in the middle of my apartment living room. The apartment wasn't nearly as furnished as I was hoping, with only a two-seater couch and a small coffee table in front of a decently sized TV for the living room. I haven't went to check out the rest of the place just yet but I figured it can wait till I get back from school. Bluh, he used such boring colors compared to what's outside! I'm definitely gonna have to liven up this place a bit. It's as dead looking as the underworld in here right now!

Though, okay, I must admit, the red and black motorcycle my dad left for me is fucking awesome. Props to you for this one, dad. I can't wait to hop on that baby and speed down the freeway. I look up at the brightening sky and see it is dawn. School's going to be starting soon.

After slipping on my shoes, I pick up the black backpack my dad also left for me by the front door and sling it over my shoulder. Locking my apartment door behind me, I slip on my helmet and get on my motorcycle. I start it up and speed off.

Good thing I got directions from the guy who watches the front entrance/exit of the Underworld on how to get to my school before he pushed me through that portal or I'd be screwed right about now.

After weaving through traffic and enjoying this new rush from speeding down empty streets I arrive at the high school. This was so much better than hopping on the back of a harpy (1) and trying to get it to fly around without crashing into anything fiery.

'Hollow Bastion High: Home of the Falcons!' the billboard at the front told me.

Teenagers were everywhere. Driving up in cars, riding bicycles, walking with a group of friends. I had to slow down and weave through them all so I could get a good parking spot. Everyone seems to be staring at me too.

And that's when I noticed it.

This school is full of preppy rich shits! Polo shirts, slacks, and sweater vests galore. What the hell is wrong with these people?! Have they got no style?! There's no dress code that says 'you must dress like an old person with a glass of chardonnay in their hand and a stick up their ass!' Ugh, just looking at them makes me want to hurl-or throw paint buckets full of neon colors at them.

My guess is they're either staring at me because I'm wearing a black and red horizontally striped long sleeved shirt and black skinny jeans with chains on the side, or because of my super sexy motorcycle.

I'm guessing both at this point.

Eventually I find a decent enough parking spot that's close to the administration and get off, locking my baby up and putting the alarm on so that if any bastard tries to steal her, I'll come and kick their ass. They'll be literally dealing with the flames of hell if they try that shit with me.

I pull off my helmet at suddenly realize how weird my hair feels. I bend down in front of one of my side mirrors and see that I have helmet hair. I frown slightly and ruffle my hair with my hand as I shake my head and my hair poofs back up to it's usual style. Smirking, I stand and tuck my helmet under my arm and begin to walk towards the front office.

There was a lot of whispering and stares going around as I walked by. I don't think they knew what to think of me, them with their pastels and me with my blacks and reds. This is going to be fun.

I sauntered-yes, sauntered-up to the front desk and told the chubby lady behind the counter my name and that I needed my schedule cause I was new.

She hands me a piece of paper with a dull look on her face. Jeez lady, you aren't in hell yet. I look down at the paper and see it has my six classes on it. Ugh, math. Maybe we are in hell. "We've assigned a student to show you around the school and help you out with anything you need. He's one of the top six students in his class so I would think you wouldn't be disappointed." I was about to interrupt her to say thank you but she just droned on. "He also has four of your classes and brunch and lunch with you so-oh look, here he comes now." I could hear the underlying 'thank god' from the tone of her voice. Touche, lady.

I turn, silently thanking the brunet that was walking up to me. I noticed right away that he looked nothing like the other students I saw walking to the school when I got here. First off, he had messy brown hair with big spikes sticking in almost every direction and big blue eyes. He was wearing dark blue jeans with two rainbow checkered belts that crossed in the back and had on a baby blue tee shirt that had a rainbow across the chest with four little stick figures underneath: two boys and two girls who were all holding hands. Underneath the little people, in hot pink capital letters, it said, 'GAY PRIDE'. His wrist was clad with a rainbow wristband.

Well, isn't he a flaming princess.

The brunette smiled and waved. "Hi! I'm Sora!"

I smirked. This is very amusing. I wonder if there are others like him. "Axel. A-X-E-L. Got it memorized?"

Sora's smile widened and he nodded vigorously. I can tell he's gonna be a ball of continuous energy. "Yup! I'm really good with names!"

My smirk grew to a smile. "Good. So, where to first oh-wise-one?"

Sora paused, as he put his finger to his cheek. "Humm . . . oh! First I need to show you to your locker!"

"Lead the way."

Sora beamed and began skipping out of the office and towards the quad. I tucked my hands into my jean pockets and walked calmly after him. He turned around and began walking backwards as he showed me around. "Each building has a number. There's the 100, 200, 300, 400, 700, 800, 900, 1100, and 1200 buildings. I think the people who built this school were retarded or something because they totally skipped 500, 600, and 1000." I chuckled at this as he continued. "Anyway, each building is for each certain department. 100 is English, 200 is Science, 300 is Special Ed, 400 is Math, 700 is Spanish, 800 is French and German, 900 is History, and then 1100 and 1200 are electives like welding and ceramics and Home Ec. You following?"

I nodded. For an air head, he seems pretty smart.

"Alright! So, let me see your schedule." I hand it over to him and he looks at it for a minute. "Okay, so your locker is on the 400 building! It's right near mine and Roxas's actually."

I frown slightly. "Roxas?"

Sora perked up, smiling brightly. "Yup! He's my twin! I'm older though. He's with my other friends right now. If we have time, I'll introduce you to them."

I nodded. "Cool."

Sora smiled and we went over to my locker. He showed me how to open it and make sure it locked properly before showing me his and his brother's locker. "Oh sweet, you guys are only 3 down from mine." Sora showed me that his locker was below his brothers.

"Yup!" He pulled out his cell phone and looked at the time. "Great! School doesn't start for another 15 minutes! Let's go!" He skipped ahead towards a grassy area in the middle of all the buildings that had benches and some teens who were sprawled out on the grass.

One group stood out from the others though. There were four of them, as far as I could tell. Three boys and a girl. The first one I noticed was a guy with shoulder length silver hair. He was pale and had on a black button up long sleeved dress shirt. He made it look casual by adding dark washed jeans to the mix. He had on an identical wrist band as Sora and was the only one standing.

To the left of him sat a smaller boy with a black hoody on. I couldn't see his face. I could, however, see the dirty blond haired boy sitting on his lap. His hair was styled in a mullet-Mohawk sort of thing and he was wearing a tight ice blue tee shirt and grey skinny jeans with colorful belts around his waist.

Then there was a small, petite, little girl. She had straight, platinum blond hair and a white blouse on along with a pale yellow skirt. She was drawing in what looked like an art pad.

The silver haired teen, along with everyone else over there looked over at us at the exact same time.

Creepy.

"Hiya Riku!" Sora greeted cheerfully, hugging the silver haired teen. "Hi guys!"

They all greeted him and then turned to me with a hostile air about them.

My eyebrow rose. Woah there, overly cautious much?

"Guys, this is Axel! It's his first day here! Axel, meet my sister Namine," The small girl nodded towards me, smirking, and looking at me with a mischievous glint in her eye. It seems she may not be as innocent as she looks. "My cousin and best friend Demyx and Zexion," He gestured toward the blond haired mullet boy and his hooded friend. "and my boyfriend, Riku!" Riku nodded towards me.

"Nice to meet you all." I tell them, smirking. I think I'm going to like this little group here.

They all turn towards Namine, as if waiting for her to say something holy. Not looking up from her sketch pad, she spoke. "His father is ruler of the Underworld."

. . . Okay wait, what?! How the hell did she know that?!

Sora turned towards me gaping. "I work for your dad?!"

I frown. "You're a hunter?"

Sora nods. "Yeah, me and Rox are." Well shit, finding them was easier than I thought.

"Huh. Well, this certainly is interesting."

Sora smiled. "Hell yeah! Now I don't have to keep secrets from you!"

I smiled for a moment, then frowned in confusion. "Wait, so are you four hunters too?"

Demyx shook his head. "Nope! Riku's a werewolf, Zexy's a vampire, Namine's a witch, and I'm a merman!"

A merman? I resisted the urge to burst out laughing. "Really? Cool." This year is definitely not going to be boring, that's for sure.

Sora laughed. "Eee! I'm so happy! I cant wait to tell Rox-" he broke off, his face going serious. "Oh no." he breathed. He ran off.

We all looked after him. They all then turned to Namine. She answered their gaze. "Roxas is being attacked."

Riku frowned. "Is it a Nobody?"

Namine shook her head. "Three Heartless. Strong ones."

"Should I go and help?" Riku asked.

"If you don't, Roxas will be seriously injured." Namine said seriously.

Riku ran off.

I frowned. "You guys get attacks like this often?"

Demyx nodded and Zexion answered. "Nobodies and Heartless tend to migrate towards large populations, cities like ours. The more people, the more hearts, the more Nobodies and Heartless are bound to be around."

I nodded. "That makes sense. So, what exactly do you guys do?"

"After school, Roxas and Sora, sometimes accompanied by Riku, Zexion, and Demyx, would go and walk around the city searching for them. They attract Heartless and Nobodies a lot more than regular hunters or humans because their hearts are so pure. They don't know it, or notice it, but we do." Namine said.

"We try to have it so at least one of us is with them when they go so they're more protected when things like this happen." Demyx said.

"Sora's a good fighter and defender and Roxas is even more so . . . He gets sick though, like now. Not only that but he finds it hard to fight them after . . ." Namine bit her lip and looked down at her notebook guiltily like she's already said too much, and left me to wonder what the hell she was going to say.

Demyx hummed to himself just as the bell rang, signaling that class was going to start in five minutes. "What's your first class Axel?" Demyx asked standing and pulling Zexion up after him.

I looked down at my schedule. " . . . English." Thank god that's one of my best subjects or I might not survive. "With Ms. Rio."

Demyx beamed. "Really?! Me and Zexy too!"

"Cool."

Namine smiled at us and waved. "Bye guys, I'll see you at brunch."

Demyx waved back as Zexion and I nodded and we began towards the 100 building.

For some reason I kept thinking about what Namine had said earlier. I wonder when I'll meet this brother of Sora's?