Axel watched as Riku flinched and then ate gingerly, as though the very act of chewing might be painful, but said nothing. If he had learned anything about Riku thus far it was that the kid had about as much dumb pride as he did, if not more.

"Whaddaya mean not talking about the same person?" Axel asked, his eyebrows arched dramatically. "How many guys named 'Xehanort' can there be?" Riku pls. Sure, some names were pretty common, but he couldn't imagine something as weird as Xehanort happened more than once or twice like... ever. He knew the apprentice one, he'd seen him a few times when he and Isa had tried to break into the castle. He'd never really known him, though. Then he scratched his head. "Wait, Master? Like Keyblade Master, like you?" He took another bite of his pancakes and then gesticulated with the fork. "If he's a Keyblader how bad can he be, right? Don't you kinda have to be cut from a special kind'a cloth to wield one'a those things?"

He nearly choked on his pancakes at Riku's next announcement though, and after pounding on his chest and setting his plate aside on the coffee table, he gave the boy an incredulous look.

"Riku I think that fever's made you delirious," he guffawed, swiping a bit of syrup from the corner of his mouth. "If all we had to do to get our hearts back was die I'm sure Xemnas would have done that ages ago."