CHAPTER 1

TRAVERSE TOWN

“ARE YOU SURE IT WASN’T A DREAM?” SAID DONALD, rubbing his eyes, after Sora poked him awake with the sunrise.

“No, it wasn’t! And he said there’s something on the road ahead!”

“Who did?”

“…The man did…,” Sora replied, losing his confidence a bit.

Maybe it had been a dream after all.

Goofy looked at Donald, then asked Sora, “What sort of fella was he?”

“A man in a black cloak with a hood. He looked a lot like that guy we saw in Hollow Bastion, but…I don’t know if it was the same person.”

Sora hadn’t realized it at the time, but whomever he had met last night really did have a lot in common with that man who had said such strange things to them in Hollow Bastion.

He dashed toward the crossroads—or meant to.

Last night there had definitely been an intersection. But now there was only one long path.

Goofy followed him. “Gawrsh…weren’t there two paths meeting here?” he said, staring down the path.

Donald frowned. “Is it some kinda trap?”

“Well, what do you think we should do about it?” said Sora.

Donald folded his arms. “Well, if your dream wasn’t a dream after all…”

“It wasn’t!”

Sora was only getting more uncertain whether he’d really seen that man or dreamed it…but the man had said that something he needed was ahead.

“Okay, then let’s go!” Donald started moving.

“That’s what I think, too!”

Donald broke into a run, as if to give Sora a chase.

“H-hey! Wait up, Donald!”

The three each had the same feeling—a premonition that something was about to begin.

Far, far through the green grass, the path came to an end at a towering castle. The sky had been clear and blue all this time, but here, it surrounded the castle with an unbelievably ominous color.

“Gawrsh!” Goofy stared up at the castle.

“That’s a pretty big castle…,” said Donald.

“It’s even bigger than Hollow Bastion!” said Sora, naming the other towering castle they’d been to not very long ago.

“Hollow Bastion was big, but…it looks like we’d get lost in here,” Goofy remarked.

Beside him, Sora took a step closer, looking up.

It really was an enormous castle. Its green spires stuck out horizontally as well as vertically.

And it gave him such a strange feeling. What could it mean…?

“Sora, is something wrong?” asked Donald, after Sora had been staring a while.

“Nothing! C’mon, let’s go check it out!”

They opened the huge gate and walked inside.

“Wow!” Goofy exclaimed. “This place sure is something!”

They were in a room like a spacious hall with walls of white marble gleaming so bright it was dazzling. Flowers carved of the same white marble were set here and there.

“There’s nobody here,” said Donald, glancing all around. There was no sign of anyone in the hall. Not a trace of life anywhere—the place was so empty it felt cold, inorganic. At the end of the hall there was a flight of stairs and a door.

“D’ya think it’s okay to barge in?” Goofy worried.

“But we gotta,” Donald murmured, “if we’re gonna find the king…”

“The king… King Mickey’s here?”

Sora turned.

“Well, I don’t know for sure,” said Donald. “Something just told me he’d be here, okay?”

“Aw, shucks…” Goofy’s shoulders drooped. “But now that ya mention it, I was kinda thinkin’ the same thing!”

“You too, Goofy?” said Sora. “So was I!”

The strange feeling he’d had before they walked into the castle…it was a hunch that he might meet someone here.

“One look at this castle and I just knew. Our very best friends…they’re here.” Sora stared up at the door atop the stairs.

Maybe—no, definitely. They’d find their friends. He was sure of it.

“A-hyuck! Great minds think alike, huh?” Goofy said cheerfully.

Jiminy Cricket jumped out of Sora’s pocket. “Wait—hold on! It can’t just be a coincidence!”

“Oh no, Jiminy…” Donald waddled closer. “You don’t mean…”

“Yep! I had the exact same feeling.”

Sora and Donald both looked at Jiminy.

“Gawrsh, maybe it’s contagious,” said Goofy.

“Wak!” Donald jumped and folded his arms, looking serious. “Something’s screwy! We gotta go take a look.”

“I think you’re right.” Jiminy returned to Sora’s pocket.

All four of them having the same feeling… Even if it was just a hunch, what could it mean that they all felt the same hunch?

“Okay, let’s go,” Sora decided and started walking toward the door.

“Huh?!” Donald ran after him as if he might stop him. “Where are you going?!”

“That way. To the door. Are you scared?”

“Aw, don’t be ridiculous!” Donald retorted and dashed ahead of him, then stood in front of the door, looking back at the other two. “C’mon, Goofy!”

Goofy looked at Donald standing at the top of the stairs, eagerly waving his wand, and then headed back toward the castle entrance. “Well, we ought to shut the door behind us…”

And just then—

“Sora?!” Goofy yelped, and Sora turned.

There at the entrance was the man in a black cloak.

“Who are you?!” Sora raised the Keyblade.

But the man disappeared, as if to tease them.

“Where are you?!” Sora’s shout echoed in the hall.

And then, in reply to his shouting, the same figure reappeared in front of the stairs.

“Hey! Who are you?!”

The man only stood there with his arms folded, unmoving.

“He’s gotta be a Heartless! Let’s see how he likes my magic!” Donald waved his wand. “Firaga!”

But the wand was silent.

“Quack?”

Sora turned to see Donald with his head cocked, staring hard at his wand. “What’s the matter, Donald?”

“Firaga! Blizzaga! Thundaga!” Donald waved his wand furiously as if he might shake something out of it. Nothing came forth. “What’s going on?! My magic isn’t working!”

He kept on waving the wand around.

“I should think it’s obvious,” said the cloaked man. “The moment you set foot in this castle, you forgot every spell and every ability you ever knew.”

“What’s that mean?!” shouted Sora.

Beneath his hood, the man smiled a little. “In this place, to find is to lose and to lose is to find. That is the way in Castle Oblivion.”

“Castle Oblivion…?”

“Yes…” The man’s voice turned mysteriously kind. “Here, you will meet people you have known in the past. And you will meet people you miss.”

“Riku? You mean Riku’s here?!” Sora demanded.

“And the king?!” added Donald.

“Do you want to find them?”

“’Course we do!” yelled Goofy.

“If that is what you want…” With those words, the man walked through them—straight through their bodies.

It was a strange sensation, being passed through. Sora grabbed his chest. And yet…it was something he’d felt before, somewhere…

“I just touched your memories. And I made this. To reunite with those you hold dear…this is what you will use.”

The man tossed something to Sora.

It was a single card illustrated with a picture of a place he knew. “This is—”

“It’s Traverse Town!” cried Donald and Goofy, both peering at the card in Sora’s hand. It showed the familiar view of Traverse Town they had seen from the Gummi Ship in the Other Sky.

“That is a promise for the reunion you seek. Hold the card aloft and the door will open… Let the cards be your guide.”

“Guide…?”

“Proceed, Sora. To lose and to claim anew or to claim anew only to lose…” And then, with that foreboding statement, the man disappeared again.

“C’mon—let’s go.” Sora climbed the stairs and stood before the door.

“I wonder if we’ll really find them…” Donald looked anxiously up at the door, tightly gripping his wand, which was currently no better than a stick.

“I guess we don’t have much else to go on, besides what that feller told us,” said Goofy.

“Right!” Sora nodded. “Let’s go!”

He held up the card, and the door shone as if responding to it. They walked through.

“This is…”

“Traverse Town!”

Through the door, the First District of Traverse Town spread out before them.

Goofy cocked his head. “Maybe it was a card that transports you to the place in the picture?”

The cobblestone roads…the buildings made of wood and stone. The streetlamps shone down warmly.

But there was no one in the square.

“I wonder where Aerith and Leon went…?” Donald looked all around.

“Didn’t they all go back to Hollow Bastion?” said Sora.

“Oh…right.” Donald’s shoulders fell.

“Anyway, this isn’t really Traverse Town, right? We’re still inside Castle Oblivion.”

A low voice spoke from behind Sora. “Precisely. The town you see is not real. It is an illusion created by your memories embedded in that card.”

When they turned, it was the man in a hooded black cloak.

“You again…!” Goofy held his shield ready.

“What do you mean, it’s made out of my memories?!” Sora demanded.

“I’ll leave that to your imagination. In this castle, you can only move forward by using cards to open the doors. And you may stumble upon memories that were hidden or people who are dear to you…”

The man vanished again.

“…Hey, wait!” Sora ran to where he had been standing, but not a trace remained.

“Memories that were hidden, huh…?” said Goofy, tilting his head.

Screwing up his face, Sora rejected the idea. “I haven’t lost any memories!”

“Well, maybe not…,” Goofy agreed.

What had that man been talking about…?

“I guess we’d better keep going or we won’t find out anything.”

“Uh-huh…”

They’d met a man in a black hooded cloak once before, in Hollow Bastion. But they couldn’t tell if that man and the one who was appearing and vanishing before their eyes here in Castle Oblivion were one and the same.

There was one thing they were sure of—men in black cloaks kept telling them confusing things.

Lost memories. A place where to lose is to find…and to find is to lose.

What was going to happen here in this castle?

“Wak!”

“Heartless!”

The creatures that rose up from the ground were the Heartless like creeping pitch-black shadows, the same as the ones they’d defeated in Traverse Town before.

“Whoa!” The Heartless were rushing at them with their claws raised.

“But I can’t fight if I can’t use my magic!” shouted Donald.

“Don’t worry! Leave it to us!” Sora replied as he and Goofy attacked. The Heartless that appeared in Traverse Town should be weak enough to take down with one blow. But—

“—Ack!” A Heartless knocked Sora flat.

Goofy charged with his shield up, but they knocked him back, too. “Yipe!”

“Aw, c’mon— Firaga! Fira!” The man had told him he’d forgotten his magic, but with his wand in his hand, Donald kept trying. “Fire! Hey, it worked!”

A tiny little fireball leaped from his wand. Compared to what they’d had when they fought Ansem, it hardly counted as magic, but there it was.

Sora got up, shouting, and swung the Keyblade at them over and over. “There!” Attacking with all his might, he’d finally taken out a Heartless.

“Gawrsh, we really have lost our power, huh…?” Goofy said miserably.

“Wak! But I can use Fire!” said Donald, waving his wand.

“And I’ve still got my Keyblade,” Sora added. “You’ve got your shield, too, right, Goofy?”

“But…” Goofy stared at the shield in his hand.

Donald looked up at him. “We’ve just gone back to where we started!”

“You mean, like when we left our castle…?”

“Or maybe when we first came to Traverse Town?” said Sora.

This feeling—the sense they had of fighting—it was like when they’d first encountered the Heartless in this very town.

“Oh…maybe that’s it,” Goofy agreed.

“Anyway, the three of us are still together, so we’ll be fine!” Sora grinned and thumped Goofy’s shoulder.

“You’d better be more careful, or the Heartless will make sure you’re not fine at all.”

It was a familiar voice. They turned.

“Leon!” Donald shouted with a jump.

Standing there was a man with a scar on his face—Leon.

Sora ran closer to him. “Leon! What are you doing in Castle Oblivion?”

“Castle…Oblivion? What are you talking about? This is Traverse Town.”

“Umm… But it’s not really…” Sora looked back at Donald and Goofy. “How can I make this make sense?”

“Anyway, how do you know my name? Who are you?” Leon drew the Gunblade from its place across his back.

Behind Sora, Donald jumped up. “What d’you mean?!”

“Gawrsh, that’s not very nice, Leon!” Goofy protested.

“I’ve never met the likes of you before,” said Leon.

“Never met— Quit playing, Leon!” Sora retorted. “We all fought the Heartless together! You know that!”

They’d spoken so many times…and Leon had helped him, too.

“Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Leon said coldly. “I don’t even know your names.”

Goofy hung his head. “You don’t?”

“Sorry.” Leon folded his arms, looking down at them.

Sora’s shoulders fell and he stared at the cobblestones. “How could you just…forget about us?”

“I feel for you, but you’ve got the wrong guy. It happens all the time. Don’t take it so personally, Sora.”

“…Huh?” At that Sora looked up again.

“You do know his name!” Donald jumped.

“Now—hold on!” Leon frowned in confusion, as if he couldn’t believe what he’d said. “Why do I know your name?!”

“You think Leon’s just kidding around?” Goofy whispered to Donald.

“If he is, it’s not very funny!” Donald muttered back, peeved.

“Who’s kidding around, Goofy?” said Leon. “You and Donald are the ones who—”

“Hey!”

Sora and his friends all jumped at once. Leon did know their names after all!

“That…can’t be right… Something’s wrong with my memory. What’s happening…?”

As Leon was getting lost in thought, a cheerful voice spoke from behind him.

“I dunno, Leon. Maybe Aerith was onto something after all.” It was Yuffie. “She said she sensed some kind of uncanny power. Well, this is pretty uncanny. Maybe you should take Sora and his friends to see Aerith.”

“Yuffie! You know my name!” Sora ran up to her.

“Yep! Looks like you know mine, too.” Yuffie turned to Leon, making her short black hair bounce, and grinned.

“You know him?”

“Nope! Total stranger.” She looked at Sora again. “But I definitely know his name. It’s strange, sure, but convenient! We can skip the introductions.”

“How is it that you can accept this situation so easily…?” Leon held his head as if it ached.

“Heh. Well, I’m gonna run ahead and fill Aerith in. Leon, you can give them the grand tour!” Yuffie smiled, teasing him a little, and sprang up high to take a shortcut over the rooftops.

Leon sighed and put away the Gunblade.

“Leon…” Sora looked up at him nervously.

“I guess it’s no use dwelling on it. Come on, follow me.” He took a brisk pace deeper into the First District. The trio followed him.

“Are you taking us…to the hotel in the Second District?” Sora asked.

“You even know that?”

“Not really… Well, I didn’t know exactly… I kind of guessed.”

He could never forget the first time he’d met Leon in Traverse Town—not even if he wanted to. Leon totally kicked my butt that time…

That gave him an idea.

“Oh, I know! Hey, Leon!” Sora exclaimed.

“What?”

“Maybe you’ll remember if we fight!”

Leon turned and looked at him hard. Sora brandished the Keyblade.

“You…want to fight me?” Leon said skeptically.

“Us, too!” Goofy held his shield ready, too, and Donald his wand.

“Can you guys just watch this one?” Sora told them. “The first time I saw Leon, I fought him on my own.”

“Oh yeah! Ahyuck! ’Cos you hadn’t met us yet!”

Donald and Goofy moved back, opening a space for the fight.

“Are you serious? I don’t think this will be much of a fight…” Leon drew the Gunblade again, still looking doubtful.

“We won’t know until we try, right?” Sora grinned and took a lower stance, aiming the end of the Keyblade at him.

“All right…have it your way. Who won this fight in your memory, by the way?”

“…Well, you did… But I dunno about now. Here I come!”

Sora jumped up. But when he attacked with all his might, Leon easily deflected it.

“Shouldn’t you just quit while you still can? There’s no way you can beat me.”

“You don’t know that!” Sora adjusted his stance and jumped again—this time, though, Leon’s Gunblade blew him away. “Ngh!”

“Don’t be so reckless. You get the picture by now, don’t you?” Leon put away the Gunblade.

“Sora! Are you okay?” Goofy ran to Sora and helped him up.

“That wasn’t nice, Leon!” Donald shook his wand at him.

“I only did what he asked,” Leon replied. “I don’t know how strong you guys might be—but you don’t really know how to fight.”

“We just forgot, that’s all!” Donald stamped his feet.

“Forgot? How do you forget something like that?”

“Umm… Well, that is…” Stuck for an answer, Donald cocked his head.

“Anyway, let’s go and see Aerith. We can talk more there.” With that Leon turned and kept walking.

It was a room in the Second District hotel—the very same room where Leon and Yuffie had first told Sora about the Heartless.

“I brought them,” Leon announced.

“Welcome back!” Yuffie greeted him brightly, sitting on the bed. Beside her, Aerith smiled quietly and looked at Sora with her blue eyes that seemed to peer into the truth of everything.

But she said nothing. “Aerith, did you forget me, too?” Sora asked her uneasily.

“I don’t know whether to say ‘Nice to meet you’ or ‘Good to see you again.’ I don’t think I know you, but I still feel like you belong here,” said Aerith. “My heart says we’ve met before…but I don’t remember you, Sora.”

“Yeah, exactly! Like we’ve never met, but it still doesn’t feel weird that I know your name.” Yuffie shrugged and grinned, her white teeth gleaming.

“Like we…belong here?” Goofy cocked his head.

“Right, like you’re familiar somehow! I mean, how can I put it—like we met somewhere a long time ago or…maybe not…,” said Yuffie.

“But…we took on the Heartless together and everything!” Sora insisted.

Leon folded his arms and sighed. “It feels like you’re right…but I can’t remember.” He slowly shook his head.

“Then I guess you won’t remember what you told me…,” Sora mumbled. “In Hollow Bastion, when I sealed the Keyhole, you said…”

Donald picked up the cue. “‘We may never meet again…’”

“‘…But we’ll never forget each other,’” Leon found himself saying.

“Wak! You do remember!” Donald jumped.

“They’re right, Leon! I remember you saying that, too. And then I told Sora, ‘I couldn’t forget you even if I wanted to.’ Didn’t I?” Yuffie tilted her head at him, uncertain of her own memories.

“I guess we can’t write it off as a coincidence, then.” Leon frowned in concentration.

Everyone had that memory—but they couldn’t remember meeting these visitors. What could it mean?

“Yes. Our hearts remember—that is, we feel the memories in your heart, Sora.” Aerith stood and stepped closer to him and gently took his face in her hands, looking into his eyes.

“Sora’s heart…?” Donald said blankly.

“We don’t know you, Sora,” said Aerith, “but your heart is full of memories of us together.”

“Gawrsh, what’s that mean?” Goofy wondered.

“Sora’s memories must resonate in our hearts, too. Maybe they tell us things we couldn’t otherwise know.”

“So you’re saying that Sora’s memories are affecting ours?” Leon asked.

Aerith turned to him, smiling a little. “His memories do seem to have a certain power.”

My memories…? thought Sora.

“Maybe it’s like that guy said, then… This town is just an illusion, something my memories created.” He frowned, sinking into thought.

Aerith turned back to him. “And…there’s someone special to you in this town?”

She spoke as if she knew everything.

“How did you know what he said?” Donald demanded.

But Sora just nodded. “Oh… I get it.”

“Huh? What do you get, Sora?!”

“My memories are resonating in her heart, telling her what happened.” Sora felt like it made sense somehow, to him.

“What’s that mean?”

“I dunno!”

Goofy and Donald both tilted their heads in confusion.

“Hmm. I can’t really explain it very well, but… It’s like you said,” Sora told Aerith. “A friend of mine is somewhere in this town— I mean, in Castle Oblivion.”

“Huh? Castle Oblivion?” Yuffie jumped up from the bed. “What’s that? There aren’t any castles around here.”

“That’s not quite what I mean… Um, it’s… Well…” He had serious doubts in his ability to explain it in a way that made enough sense.

“You’re still not sure what’s going on yourself,” Aerith spoke up, seeing Sora at such a loss. “Right?”

“Right. We just got here, after all,” said Sora. “I want to take a better look around and find out if this is really the Traverse Town we know.”

Donald and Goofy chimed in.

“Yeah, same here!”

“Me, too!”

“Well, this hasn’t begun to make sense yet—but go have a walk around town,” said Leon. “There are Heartless, but that’s no problem for you.”

“So, you know I can fight?” Sora said, quite self-assured.

Leon snorted. “I can’t say I know…but I feel like believing you. Let’s leave it at that.”

“Hey, don’t be such a stranger, Leon.” Sora grinned at him.

“Should I knock you around with the Gunblade again to make sure?” said Leon.

“You can hold off on that… C’mon, Donald, Goofy, let’s go!” Laughing, Sora dashed out of the hotel room.

The trio walked across the Second District square.

“So, you were sayin’… This town is just an illusion your memories created, right?” Goofy asked from behind Sora. “What’s that mean?”

“I told Aerith, too… I don’t really know. It just seems like this world is connected to my memories somehow.”

“But it can’t be an illusion!” Donald shouted, baffled. “We’re standing right in it!”

“Gee, what about me and Donald?” said Goofy. “Are we from your memories, too?”

“…Huh? Umm…I don’t really know…” Sora looked down.

If the town really was an illusion made out of his memories, then how could he tell the difference between the parts that were illusion and the parts that weren’t?

What if the Donald and Goofy next to him now were just illusions? Where were the real Donald and Goofy?

“This doesn’t make a whole lotta sense.” Goofy folded his arms.

But just as he did, Donald jumped up. “Heartless!”

Several of them appeared in the middle of the open square.

“All right, here we go!” cried Sora.

“But, we’re all weak now…,” Donald said uncertainly, tightly gripping his wand, which wouldn’t make anything now but tiny little flames. He exchanged glances with Goofy, who looked nervous, too.

“What’re you talking about? We’ve just gone back to how we were when we met, right?”

“Oh, right! I get it!” Goofy’s smile returned. “Let’s go!” The trio rushed into the swarm of Heartless.

They ran for the door to the Third District. Sora leaned up against it, catching his breath. “Doesn’t it feel like we got a lot stronger just from that?”

“Yeah! I can use Blizzard now, too!” Laughing, Donald waved his wand around. Ice crystals stuck on the end sparkled.

“It’s like the strength we lost is comin’ back, little by little,” Goofy said brightly.

If they had just been booted back to the beginning, there wasn’t any reason to get discouraged. All they had to do was keep going forward, and they would get stronger again.

Sora held the Keyblade in both hands above his head and stretched.

“Huh?” Donald exclaimed, as he was about to waddle into the Third District.

“What’s the matter?” said Goofy.

“It’s Cid!” Donald ran toward him.

He had a bellyband over a white T-shirt and goggles pushed up over his hair—just the same as the Cid they remembered.

“Cid!” Sora followed Donald.

“Hey, whaddaya know. It’s Sora!” Then Cid paused and scratched his head. “…Hm? Sora? I’ve never met you before… But you do look like a Sora, what with the spiky hair and baggy pants…”

“It’s okay, Cid. That’s my name.”

Even if the Cid they were seeing wasn’t the real one, just the Cid from Sora’s memories, it still felt nice to be greeted by a friend.

“Well, uh, what do you guys need?” asked Cid.

“A friend of mine’s supposed to be somewhere in this castle— Er, in this town,” said Sora. “Got any ideas?”

Cid tilted his head, thinking. “Your friend, huh? Lately all this town sees is Heartless. Can’t take two steps without gettin’ ambushed. In fact, this plaza’s the worst.”

“The worst how?” said Goofy.

Cid looked up at the bell tower that rose from the gizmo shop in the Second District. “Word is, a jumbo-sized Heartless shows up when that bell rings.”

“Huh—I wonder if it could be…” Sora looked at Donald and Goofy.

They had fought a huge Heartless in this very square. And that was…

“If you value your hide, you’ll get out of here while the gettin’s good.” With that Cid left the square.

“Gawrsh, maybe we should leave, too,” said Goofy, stepping backward.

“But don’t you want to see what shows up?” said Sora.

“No, we don’t!” Donald snapped.

They were all remembering the thing that had appeared before. It was a Heartless like an enormous suit of armor, with hands and feet that came off to whirl around—the Guard Armor.

Suddenly the bell rang. Donald jumped “The bell! C’mon—let’s get out of here!”

And with a terrible rumble, something fell out of the sky—the Guard Armor, just as they had suspected.

“There it is! Run!” Donald was trying to escape, but Sora caught him.

“We’ll be fine. When we faced that thing, that was the first time we’d ever fought together, but we worked together and beat it!” Sora set his shoulders, not scared at all.

“But I don’t have all my magic!”

“You couldn’t use very strong magic back then, though, right?”

They spoke over the clanging sound of huge metal footsteps as the Guard Armor stomped closer to them.

“Yeah, but…” Donald looked like he still wanted a way out of the battle.

“I’m gonna fight, Donald.”

“Goofy?!”

“Back then we didn’t know each other too well, but we sure do now,” said Goofy. “We know how to fight together. We’ve still got that, so there’s no way we can’t be stronger than we were!”

“And maybe we won’t be able to beat it without your magic!” Sora looked into Donald’s face, grinning.

“All right! Fine!”

“That’s the spirit!” Sora turned and leaped at the Guard Armor, which was already close enough to hit. Goofy and Donald did the same.

“Hah!” Sora sprang up higher. He wasn’t as strong as he remembered being, but he could jump just as well. The Guard Armor’s hands waved back and forth, attacking, and he swung the Keyblade at them.

“Fire!” Donald hit it with magic and Goofy rushed in with his shield. Just like before, they were fighting as one.

First they took out the Guard Armor’s right arm, then its left, and then its feet, one after the other. And finally the torso…

Almost as if they enjoyed it, they faced off against the Heartless dozens of times their size.

“This is it!” Sora jumped even higher than before, and he felt the impact on the Keyblade. “There!”

The Guard Armor fell like a puppet with its strings cut and lay still, then turned to light and disappeared.

“Huh?”

The door to the wizard Merlin’s house in the Third District wouldn’t open.

“What’s with this thing?” Donald pushed and pulled, but the door stayed tightly closed.

“Did you find your friend?”

The voice that hailed them was Leon again.

“Uh… Hey, Leon, what’s through here…?” asked Goofy, a little confused.

“Through there…? I don’t think you can go through there.”

“But there’s a door— Wha—? It disappeared!” Donald tapped the bare wall with his wand. He’d just been trying to throw his weight against it—but there was no door, only a brick wall.

“What’s going on…?” Sora cocked his head at it and turned to see Leon and Yuffie, as well as Aerith and Cid. “Hey, guys…”

“So your friend wasn’t here, huh?” said Yuffie a little apologetically.

“No, I don’t think I’ll find him in this town… But he’s somewhere in this castle,” Sora replied, determined. “I just know it.”

Riku was here somewhere. Sora was sure of it.

“Castle?” Cid folded his arms. “Like this whole town’s inside some humongous castle? Hoo…that’s rich.”

“We might not be able to understand it, Cid,” said Leon, “but Sora and his friends do. They can see that reality is bigger than just this world.”

“I wish I was that sure,” Sora mumbled. He was starting to get less certain of what was illusion and what was real. A door disappearing right in front of his face—what could that mean?

“You’ll be okay, Sora,” Leon told him firmly. “No matter what shape reality takes, you can handle it.”

Yuffie grinned at him. “Take care, Sora.”

“I’m a little lost, but…best of luck anyway,” said Cid.

“Oh! Wait, how do we leave this town?” Sora asked.

“Well—”

Leon and the other Traverse Town citizens looked at one another uncertainly.

“There’s a door, right over there.” Aerith pointed to a corner of the Third District square.

“Huh…?” Sora looked at the wall—or it had been only a wall. Now there was a door. “What’s going on?”

Aerith quietly shook her head.

“Whatever! We can get somewhere else through there. C’mon, Sora, hurry up!” Donald ran toward the door as if he couldn’t stand still a moment longer.

“Hey, wait!” Goofy went after him.

“Umm, but…” Hesitating, Sora was about to follow them anyway, but Aerith called to him.

“Sora, wait.”

He turned back to her.

“I don’t have all the answers, but I had to tell you something.” She looked terribly sad somehow.

“Aerith… What’s wrong?”

“Your memories created this town, right?”

“That’s what the guy who gave me the card said.”

If the man in the hooded cloak was right, everything in this world was an illusion…

“If that’s true,” said Aerith, “then this town is just a figment of your mind…and so are we.”

“But…you can’t be a figment!” Sora exclaimed. “You’re standing right here. The town is here, too!”

Even if this place was made out of his memories—he just couldn’t believe that.

“But I’m not really me,” she went on. “I don’t remember the things I should. And I sense things I shouldn’t.”

“Things you shouldn’t know…?” Sora frowned, thinking hard. How did Aerith know things that she had no way of knowing? Because she had some kind of special power, or…?

“Sora… Beware your memories.” She pronounced the words slowly, giving them weight.

“Beware? How?”

“In the journey to come, you’ll be faced with more illusions. The shadows of your memory might deceive you, try to lead you astray…”

Sora could only blink at her. This wasn’t making much sense. The shadows of my memory…?

“So, uh… What exactly does that mean?” he asked finally.

“I’m sorry. I’m just another illusion. The truth is out of my reach.” Aerith looked down disconsolately.

“Don’t say stuff like that,” Sora blurted. “It’s depressing…”

Leon and Yuffie, and Aerith and Cid were all just illusions? He didn’t want to think about it.

“Stay strong, Sora. Don’t let the illusions distract you from what’s truly important.”

At that Sora stood up taller and nodded.

“Soraaa!” Donald was yelling for him from over by the door.

“Maybe we oughta get going,” Goofy added.

“Yeah, I’ll be right there!” Sora replied, and then turned to Aerith again. “Well, I’d better go.— Aerith?!”

She wasn’t there at all. He looked around frantically. Just what was going on?

“Sora, what’s the matter? We’re gonna go without you!” Donald shouted.

“Aerith’s gone! But I was just talking to her! And Leon and Yuffie and Cid, too—they were right here! I thought we’d get to say good-bye to them!”

“What’re you talking about? There wasn’t anybody here!” said Donald, sounding exasperated.

“Huh?”

“We were gettin’ worried. You were just standin’ there all by yourself.” Goofy peered into Sora’s face anxiously.

“Illusions…,” Sora murmured.

Heading for the door again, Donald stopped to look at him. “Did ya say something, Sora?”

“Nah, it’s nothing… Let’s go.”

And the trio went through the door that hadn’t been there before, leaving Traverse Town behind.