Rose followed Namine to a different area of the city, an area that was still under reconstruction.

"It's not the best," she said, fretting a bit. "But it's big enough, and comfortable." She opened the door to an apartment for them.

"I'm sure it's great," Summer said, looking around as they walked. "What happened here? Is it new?"

"It is," Namine said. "The heartless took over this world for a while, so we're still working to rebuild it, to what it was before."

"It's impressive," Summer said as she looked around. "It must have been a huge mess at first."

"It was, for a while," Namine agreed. "They rebuilt large parts of the castle, and demolished part of the town. But we're all working on it." She smiled, clearly pleased.

"I'm impressed," Summer said. She grinned a bit. Then she paused and looked over at Namine. "So... I'm sorry if this is super insensitive, but if you're a nobody, does that mean your heart is just... wandering around somewhere? Or how does that work? I'm really curious."

Namine blinked, and then smiled a little. "I'm Kairi's nobody," she said. "Kairi still has her heart, but we both still exist."

"Seriously?" Rose blinked, caught off guard by that.

"What?" Summer blinked. "How does that even work? That doesn't seem like it should work at all."

"Well, you're right, it shouldn't," Namine admitted. "Normal nobodies happen when someone becomes a heartless. But Kairi was never a heartless, she gave her heart to someone else for a little while."

"Gave her heart to someone else? Like, actually literally?" Rose's eyebrows shot up her forehead.

Namine nodded.

"She gave it to someone precious to her, to protect him," she said. "I was created when he gave it back. At least, I think so. It's a bit... fuzzy."

"Huh." Rose blinked. "So a nobody can exist independently of a heart, and then continue to exist even after everything goes back to normal? Or relatively normal."

"Sort of," Namine said. "I'm not... really the best example, I'm sort of a special case. And we're not sure why Kairi and I are separated. We were whole, until recently."

"Okay." Rose was quiet for a few moments, considering that. "So normally nobodies get, like, reabsorbed or something?"

"I'm not sure," Namine admitted. "Most of the ones I knew just sort of... disappeared. But Kairi and I became whole, and so did one of the others with his somebody." She smiled. "There are actually very few nobodies who look like their somebodies. Most just turn into Dusks, which are sort of the lowest kind of nobody. Mindless, always after hearts because they have none."

"That's a little morbid," Summer said.

"It's unfortunate," Namine agreed. "But there have been far fewer nobodies, since the heartless have been mostly taken care of."

"Which makes sense," Rose agreed. "But fewer isn't none, I suppose." She paused. "Still, I would think there's not a great enough need to make two completely new keyblade bearers."

"There will always be heartless and nobodies," Namine said, shrugging a little. "For as long as there are people. But I assume the king wanted the two of you because... Well, the other two are missing. Sora, and Riku. They disappeared, and without them, the heartless might get out of control again."

"Cool. So there were other keyblade bearers before us who mysteriously went missing." Rose paused, considering that. "I can understand why he didn't tell us that right off."

"I know it must seem strange," Namine said. "But keybearers are really the only ones who can safely travel to different worlds. And Sora and Riku could be in any one of them, really. Other keybearers to look for them makes sense."

"Right." Rose sighed a bit. "Well, this is more complicated than initially hinted at, but so far not unbearably so."

"Unfortunately, I don't know much else," Namine said. "I don't know that anyone really does."

Rose nodded. "Well, then, we'll just have a learning curve," she said. "It'll be fine."

"Speaking of, we still need to learn how to properly fight with keyblades," Summer said. "I'm sort of getting the feeling that swinging it around like a baseball bat won't really be effective."

"Not for long," Rose agreed. "I think you guys mentioned someone could teach us?" She looked at Namine again.

Namine nodded. "Leon will."

"Okay," Summer said.

The next day, once they were settled and had gotten something resembling a night's sleep, the girls were out in one of the big empty courtyards with Leon, learning how to properly swing their keyblades.

"Well, you're not hopeless," he said once he'd gotten a good idea of their skills. "That's a start."

"Better than nothing," Rose agreed, rolling her shoulders, which were getting sore from the unusual activity. "But you're not exactly throwing us at heartless yet I see."