Such a curious concept really. If Heartless expelled hearts when defeated, then were they really 'Heartless?' Not really no. That thought cut through some of the confusion for me. It made me realize there was more to this world then what I could think of, and maybe something without a soul didn't actually exist. Maybe the equivalent power source of a soul existed in heartless too in a different form. So maybe when the heart is awakened at a minute level a heartless is born. You see the shadows of their desire.
Nobodies on the other hand evolve that energy source to simulate a soul on a deeper level. This explained the relationship between Nobodies and Heartless. They are creatures cut from the same cloth. This explains why the heartless obey Nobodies as they detect them as a higher life form. But I was different somehow. A mix in between these two states, evolved on a unique path. Still this situation reminds me of the world of bleach. Since hollows, Shinigami, and humans existed in various forms in that world as well. Would I find that world connected to my own later on?Zanpakutos and Keyblades released and channeled the energy of a 'soul' to free other energy sources allowing them to travel to their next lives. Hollows also then made sense in the aspects that they were actually Heartless. Likely even at the half step of becoming a Nobody similar in existence to myself.
Truly it was all fascinating to think about. Still, this made me ponder. As a being able to make heartless could I eventually make Nobodies? The answer I came to eventually was yes with some though. So began a grind. I spent the next few days becoming increasingly familiar with my skills. I experimented with each and every one of my skills. I had nothing I could really do. I was stuck in a dark void and so slowly I learnt. Nobodies' dark energy clusters as I would refer to it from this moment on became theorized in creation with my heartless skill and mapping out my own physiology. Eventually I moved on to my bond-based skill without a proper title. I wasn't sure where the power came from, or where it acted upon with my current body. Unlike most of my skills this one wasn't as easy to work with. But eventually I found a breakthrough in memory. It seems that memory itself held a power, and this skill linked itself to that. It was then that my skill gained a name. The only reason it had remained unnamed before, was my reluctance to agree to that knowledge.
Oblivion Lv.1- Memories sets you apart. For knowledge led to ignorance. Ignorance leads eventually to knowledge. What you forget strengthens your learning ability, and what you learn waits to eventually be forgotten. Light exists within our memories, but these may fade in time. Even with this, new memories can be gained as you live. Grants access to 'Bonds' regardless of race.
Using the mechanic, I found my old Identity as Michael and my family. The name seemed to physically pain me somehow, so I gave up using it for now but the connection to people was valuable. It was thanks to that connection that I realized I could connect with more people through that one. Bonds connected people from all over together and so when I tugged on that connection, I was able to form a new one with any previous connection stream I came across. Truly my skill was a real of example of I knew a guy that knew a cat that knew a dog that knew a lady that's friends with the fireman that I actually wanted to learn about.
From that connection I found I could send Shadows across, but I didn't exactly feel like killing them if that made any sense. I didn't feel an aversion to death, but I felt this weird feeling like everyone had a time they were supposed to go. Still, I did find loads of entertainment in creating scares. People waking up thinking they saw ghosts of 'evil spirits.' Honestly it was worth recording into a movie if I had a way of doing it.
I was already about halfway to level 2 from what I could tell. That's however when things went downhill. I was scaring a couple that was way too young to being anything to intimate only to be stopped by some weird man dressed up like an 80s Funky Afro wearing hero. The man pulled out a key blade out of quite literally nowhere and slashed a couple Shadows I had hidden in the bushes. When the act was done, I felt an anger I hadn't felt towards anything else. I felt the 'Man' and felt the wrongness of him. He was too bright. It was unnatural. Like the man had all his desired replaced only with the ability to feel joy. The man was basically a puppet, and the Darkness. No, we didn't like a space with only light. For a shadow could only grow from where light could not reach, but if no area was left for darkness where then could darkness grow? How then could balance be achieved.
The encounter told me something special. The reasons Heartless attacked people weren't because they wanted to. They attacked for fear of being erased and forgotten. Nobody wants to disappear even if it's just their memory. And maybe just maybe that same desire, that deep dark desire was where Nobodies came from.