**"The heck is a Heartless?"**

Turning her head and eyeing the shadows, Ruko's eyes widened somewhat. She'd had nightmares about monsters before, and considered this to be a sort of disappointment. "They look like little blobs of ink, how am I supposed to be scared of something stupid like that...?" She seemed disappointed, considering this dream to be a dud. At least until she saw one of the people around her, a woman, charge at one planning to strike it down with some cool-looking gauntlet. She considered this to be interesting, and blinked as the woman was stopped by a man that had seemingly came from nowhere.

He spouted off some nonsense about being Whole again, and these 'Heartless' possibly having her heart. Which, in her mind, made absolutely no sense whatsoever. As she tilted her head to the left out of confusion, the woman was thrown back with ease, not landing far away from where the girl was standing. Too much to the right and it might have been a bit dangerous. Though that wasn't on Ruko's biggest list of concerns, as the man seemingly disappeared and then commented on them being careful and not dying... After he just tossed one of them. Jerk.

She didn't have time to get too irritated about it, though. As the little ink-blobs were getting closer, and seemed to not be friendly. She was momentarily distracted by the woman who punched one, but soon had her own issues as one of them was, in fact, coming strait at her. As she glanced up she let out a gasp of shock as she had nothing to defend herself with; She ended up tripping and falling onto her backside, quickly holding her arms up and clenching her eyes shut.

After a second or two of not being dead, she heard a sound. As if it had clawed something, that wasn't her flesh. She opened her eyes and noticed the bat in her hand, and the shadow that had scratched against it before landing on the ground. There was, of course, no time to feel any relief; She quickly stood, gripping the bat tightly in one hand as the shadow approached. 

_'F-Fair enough, dream. You scared me.'_ She thought to herself, not planning on letting it get away with such a crime. She was quick to take a swing at the shadow, though stumbled as it sank into the ground and went under her, appearing from behind. It lunged at her just as she caught her footing, Ruko glancing back as she put her other hand on the bat before turning on her heel and swinging the bat around, connecting it with the shadow in mid-air. She felt somewhat victorious as it was knocked a fair distance away, but it was short lived as it got back up.

"Y'want some more, huh?! C'mere!" She ran after that one individual shadow, angry with it after it managed to scare her. She kept a firm grip on her bat, as she closed the distance between her and the stupid-looking monster. There were more behind her with the other folk, but this one was important to her. She'd ensure it regretted trying to pick a fight with her.