Isa'd left Lucky home today. The big mutt was a blessing; his unerring affection and loyalty did so much good for Isa and his newly restored heart. But there were some days when Isa didn't want to be around even him. Some days when all he could bear to do was go out and fight Heartless, and lose himself in the rhythm of battle.
He knew Lea hated when Isa deliberately went out hunting Heartless on his own. Lea always worried that Isa wasn't going to come back in one piece, perhaps didn't even intend to. And maybe Lea was justified in that worry, but Isa preferred not to approach those feelings. Not yet. They were all too new, too painful, a thousand emotions bottled for so long that Isa had forgotten how to deal with them. They assaulted him at the strangest times, brought on by the oddest things. He would get them under control, resume his comfortable numbness, and then he'd do something as simple as misplace a pen and be flooded with overwhelming, irrational frustration. He would witness a flower in bloom and be struck with the urge to weep, and just as suddenly the emotion would abandon him. The only thing that made any sense of it all was action. And no action better helped him block it all out than the familiar clarity of battle.
It was so easy, too, to find Heartless to fight. The world was crawling with them still, on the outskirts of the residential area. Sometimes the Heartless even ventured into the city streets where people lived. The Restoration Committee, at least, had quickly forgiven his connection to the Organization. He'd never encountered them in that role, and he was too efficient at keeping the monsters back. But he really didn't do the fighting for them. It was for himself.
A scuffing sound nearby startled him, and Isa tensed and looked that way. But it was only a girl; one he didn't think he'd seen before. No threat to him, then, but he would keep an eye on her as she passed, anyway. There had been Heartless down this way today, right up until Isa had cleared them out. More could pop up and attack her, and that wouldn't do. He stood where he was and watched her pass.
