CHAPTER 5: TRAVERSE TOWN: meeting again
CHAPTER 5
TRAVERSE TOWN
meeting again
SORA WATCHED DEEP JUNGLE VANISH INTO THE DISTANCE behind them. It felt like such a long time since he’d left Destiny Island.
He’d met so many people and said farewell to some of them again. But he still hadn’t found Kairi and Riku.
They have to be out there somewhere, Sora thought, staring out at the Other Sky.
The sparkling stars were so beautiful. He wanted Kairi and Riku to see this too. No… He wanted to see it with them.
“Say…this Gummi block looks kinda strange…” Holding the block that they’d found at the Keyhole in Deep Jungle, Goofy cocked his head.
Sora moved away from the cockpit window and looked at the thing in Goofy’s hand. “What’s strange about it?”
“I dunno, it just doesn’t look like a normal Gummi block.” Goofy held it up to the starlight.
“I’ve never seen one like that, either,” said Jiminy Cricket, hopping onto Goofy’s hand.
“How’s it different?” asked Sora.
“Hmm… I can see somethin’ inside it.”
“Where…?” Sora looked closer, and the light came through it, revealing something else in the middle that glittered like a tiny star.
What was it…?
“Maybe Leon’ll know,” Donald said from the cockpit.
“Yeah… Maybe. Should we go back to Traverse Town?” said Goofy.
“I wanna be pilot!” Sora tried to edge Donald out of the pilot’s chair.
“Hey, stop it!”
The battle for the pilot’s chair began once again.
“Oh, c’mon! I’m the Keyblade master!”
“I don’t care who you are! No!”
Watching the two argue, Goofy and Jiminy smiled and shrugged.
On their second visit to Traverse Town, the nighttime city was calm and friendly.
“Looks like there aren’t any Heartless in the First District…” Donald looked around. “There’s Yuffie!”
She was standing by the post office in the First District square. They ran over to her.
“Hey, Sora!” Yuffie greeted them with a grin. “Welcome back!”
“It’s good to see you!” Donald and Goofy replied, but Sora couldn’t say anything.
Yuffie didn’t seem bothered by his reserve. She kept talking. “How have your travels been?”
Bit by bit, interrupting one another, the trio told her about Alice and what had happened in Deep Jungle.
“Gee, I wish I could’ve been there, too… That sounds hard, Sora.” Yuffie gave him an affectionate gaze, almost as if she were his big sister.
“It’s all right! I’ll do whatever it takes to find Riku and Kairi!”
“And the king!” Goofy added.
“Actually,” said Sora, “we came back to Traverse Town to ask Leon something.”
“He’s probably training in the underground cavern,” said Yuffie.
“Underground cavern?”
Sora had walked around the city quite a bit, but he didn’t remember seeing anything like that. Come to think of it, they still hadn’t found the Keyhole in Traverse Town, so maybe there were lots of things they didn’t know about this city.
“You know the channel in the alley?” Yuffie explained. “That’s connected to the cavern.”
“The alley behind the hotel?” said Donald.
“Right! You can go underground from there. You didn’t know?”
The trio exchanged glances. They would just have to go and find out. “Okay, see you!”
“Watch out for the Heartless in the Second District!”
“Thanks!” They headed to the Second District.
The moment they stepped through the door between the districts, Heartless came up from the ground.
“Quack?!” Donald jumped away from a Heartless attack.
“Gawrsh, it’s so quiet in the First District, I couldn’t believe there’d be any…” Goofy rushed at the Heartless that had gone after Donald.
“And it feels like they’re stronger than before!” Sora slashed at a big Heartless from behind. They were definitely stronger. There were Heartless that attacked spinning around like a tornado and Heartless that used more powerful magic. “I wonder if that means the darkness is getting stronger…”
They ducked into the hotel.
“Whew… Bet they won’t come in here,” Goofy said, catching his breath.
“They were swarming all over last time we were in the hotel!” Donald went into a guest room. It was the one with green wallpaper, where Sora and Leon and Yuffie had discussed things before.
“I haven’t been in the other rooms…” Sora opened the door to the neighboring room.
“You’ve been in this green one?” said Goofy, peeking into both of them.
“I was talking to Leon here, right before I met you guys.”
“And Aerith was telling us everything in that room. Then Yuffie came, and the Heartless attacked…”
“…So that means we were all here at the same time, but in different rooms?” said Sora.
They laughed.
“When you guys fell on me all of a sudden, I thought you must be more Heartless!”
“We had no idea you’d be down there! Right, Donald?”
“The biggest surprise was when the one who broke our fall turned out to have the key!”
They found themselves talking about the time they met as if it happened a long time ago and not just the other day.
“And now here we are on a journey together!” Goofy folded his arms and nodded.
“Well, we don’t have time to stand around jabbering about it,” said Donald. “Let’s go!”
They went out on the balcony and jumped down into the alley.
In the dim alley, no matter how many Heartless they defeated, more kept rising out of the ground as always.
“They just won’t quit!” cried Donald, shooting off magic.
“Goofy, did you find the channel passageway?” Sora called. He was fighting them alongside Donald, while Goofy looked for the passageway that led underground.
“Nope… But the only place I can’t look is behind this grate…”
In the corner, the channel ran through a grate. Goofy tried shaking it, but it stayed firmly in place. At a pause in the fight, Sora and Donald ran over to join him.
“So it’s here?”
“Probably…”
Sora peered into the grate, but it was pitch-dark inside.
“Wak! Here they are!” A swarm of Heartless were coming up behind Donald.
“Maybe if we all run into it at once, we can break it?” said Goofy. They looked at one another…
With a running start, they crashed into the grate, and it came off almost too easily. They tumbled into the water.
“Whoa!” A huge splash echoed in the underground passage. It looked like the Heartless weren’t following.
“Gee, it sure is dark in here.” Goofy helped Donald up, and they went farther down the waterway.
“But it does go somewhere…”
They swam gingerly on, and suddenly a space opened up that they could see.
“Wow…”
It was a big cavern, and on the little bit of dry land in the middle, Leon stood silently swinging his Gunblade.
“Leooon!” Donald went splashing through the shallow water. Leon must have noticed them, but he went on practicing. Aerith was there beside him. “Aerith!”
“Sora, Donald, Goofy! Welcome back,” she said, smiling, when they had all reached the island.
“Say, Aerith…”
“Yes?”
“Yuffie said, ‘Welcome back’ to us, too… Isn’t it kind of weird?” Sora had felt like something was off when Yuffie said it, but now he brought it up.
“How?”
“Well… I mean, this isn’t where I’m from…” Sora looked down.
Aerith looked a little sad.
“Traverse Town is a city where people come when they have nowhere else to call home,” said Leon, still swinging his sword. “So the people here greet you like you’ve come home. Even if you’re really from someplace else.”
“Oh… Okay, I get it. Well, thanks! It’s good to see you guys again!”
“Welcome back, Sora,” Aerith said again with more affection in her voice.
Leon finally paused in his training. “So, have you found anything?”
“Well, I don’t know if it counts…”
They related to Leon and Aerith the same story they’d told Yuffie about Alice and Deep Jungle.
“So you locked the Keyholes…” Deep in thought, Leon folded his arms.
Aerith spoke as if she’d made up her mind about something. “You’re the only one who can save the worlds, Sora.” She clasped her hands together almost as if to pray.
Worry clouded over Sora’s face. “But…can I really do that?”
“Well, if you want to look for your friends,” said Leon, “I doubt seeing other worlds would be a waste of your time.”
Even if that’s true…can I really do something this crazy? Sora thought.
“C’mon, Sora, we can do it!”
“We gotta find your friends! And King Mickey!”
Donald and Goofy were staring at him.
I’ve already done a lot of things I couldn’t have imagined, Sora thought. I didn’t think I could, but I did them. And…I’m the only one who can, because the Keyblade chose me.
“I guess you’re right… Okay!”
“There, that’s what the Keyblade wielder is made of,” said Leon, as if Sora still needed persuading.
“Oh yeah, Leon. We’ve got this Gummi block…” Goofy took out the sparkling block and showed it to him. “It looks different from the other ones. Do you know what it’s for?”
Leon stared at the Gummi block, but didn’t have an answer.
“Ask Cid,” Aerith told them. “He knows a lot about Gummi blocks.”
“Okay! We’re off, then!” Sora started back toward the waterway. “Thanks for everything!”
He waved the Keyblade. Leon and Aerith quietly watched him go, with Donald and Goofy close behind.
“But…,” Leon began when the trio were out of sight.
“I know.” Aerith seemed to read his mind. “You’re worried about the Keyhole in this world, aren’t you?”
“If we could seal off the Keyhole, the Heartless shouldn’t be able to get here.”
“But just sealing it isn’t enough…” Aerith’s brows knit.
“So all we can do is gather information and watch over Sora.”
“It’s kind of frustrating, isn’t it?”
Leon went back to swinging the Gunblade.
And Aerith went on praying.
Please don’t let the worlds disappear.
Please let him be safe.
She prayed for the worlds…and for Sora…and for him.
The trio returned to the First District and ran into the Accessory Shop. Cid was there as usual, resting his elbows on the counter. “Hey there,” he greeted them.
“Cid!” They dashed up to the counter and handed him the Gummi block.
“Well, if it ain’t a Gummi block.”
“Yup.” Donald nodded.
The Gummi block’s sparkling reflected in Cid’s eyes as he stared at it.
“So, what’s this one for?” Goofy asked.
“You’re kiddin’ me, right?!” Cid exploded dramatically. “You’re flyin’ a Gummi Ship and you don’t even know the different kinds of Gummi blocks?! You pinheads! The Other Sky ain’t no playground!”
“There’s a lot we don’t know. So what!” Feeling like a kid getting scolded, Sora pouted. “We have to use the Gummi Ship to go to other worlds. We don’t have a choice.”
“Oh— Well, I guess ya do,” Cid said quietly, looking at the Keyblade in Sora’s hand. “All right, I’m here to lend a hand.”
Cid took a deep breath and explained, “So this Gummi is pretty dang handy—if we install it in your ship, it’ll open up new routes. You know what that means?”
“New routes…” Goofy cocked his head.
Donald picked up the hint. “That means we’ll be able to go to new worlds!”
“Bingo. So, you want to install it?”
“Yeah!”
If they saw more worlds, they might find Kairi and Riku…and King Mickey.
“Naturally, I’ll take care of that, no worries,” said Cid. “But I’m gonna need something from you in the meantime.”
“What? We gotta pay?!” Donald complained, jumping up and down.
“Now hold on! I just want you to deliver something. And while you’re doin’ that I’ll install this Gummi. It’ll take a while. Plenty of time for you to make a little delivery, okay?”
“I guess so…,” said Sora, still not convinced.
“And anyway… Eh, well…” Cid scratched his head. It looked like he had something important to say but couldn’t get it out. “Well, you’ll see when you get there!”
Sora, Donald, and Goofy looked at one another. “Okay. So what do we need to deliver?”
“Just this…” He held out a beat-up book. “It’s pretty old, and it looked like it was gonna fall apart, so I fixed it.”
There was a little keyhole on the book, but it didn’t seem to be locked or anything. They opened it to an illustration of a forest, torn here and there. It looked like a children’s picture book.
“Are there some animals in here, too…?” said Goofy, peeking at the book over Sora’s shoulder. Just as he said, there were some drawings of creatures that looked like stuffed toys.
“Careful there. This is a precious book. And it seems like it’s got a special power. So I want you to take it to the old house in the Third District. Look for the fire sign. Say, can you pip-squeaks use fire magic?”
“Whaddaya think?! You’re speaking to a royal magician!” Donald snapped, waving his wand.
“That’ll do, then. Well, I’m leavin’ it to you.”
“Got it!” Sora put the book in his pocket.
And just then, the air trembled with the ringing of a giant bell from somewhere.
“Wow, what’s that?!” Sora looked around.
Cid didn’t seem startled at all. “Sounds like the Gizmo Shop bell is ringing…”
“The Gizmo Shop?”
“It’s a weird shop in the Second District. They say if you ring it three times, something’ll happen, but nobody’s ever heard it ring three times in a row. Maybe you can check it out after you deliver that book.” Cid grinned at them over his folded arms.
“Okay. Donald, Goofy, let’s go!” They left the shop and headed to the Third District.
“Man, it’s been a while,” Cid said to himself. “Good to have some real work.”
He stretched his arms and disappeared into the back of the shop.
The trio went through the Second District again.
“No matter how many we take out, the Heartless just keep on coming!” Goofy grumbled as he defeated more of them. “D’ya think we could hide the Keyblade somehow?”
“If we did, we wouldn’t be able to lock the Keyholes, and besides, the king told us to stay with the key,” Donald shouted back. “We’d be disobeying orders!”
It was true that there was just no end to the Heartless, but… Just then the bell rang again, shaking the ground.
“Whoa!” Sora stumbled and fell.
Goofy helped him up. “You okay, Sora?”
“Sheesh… I wonder if we can do anything about that bell ringing…”
“It’s that bell up there, right?” Goofy pointed to a tower. “Maybe we can stop it…”
“Quack! No slacking off!” Donald scolded them. They’d paused in fighting the Heartless.
“Okay, okay…” Sora picked up the Keyblade. They reached the Third District. “Finally, we made it…”
Fighting off the Heartless, they ran through the Third District square to the hidden house. After all that, they weren’t in the best shape.
In front of the big door, they caught their breath and helped heal one another. The door was marked with a flame insignia.
Goofy pushed, then pushed with all his might. It didn’t budge. “It won’t open…”
“Didn’t Cid say we have to use magic?” said Sora, looking at Donald’s wand.
“Well, that’d be…fire!” Donald shot a flame at the insignia on the door. And then—it slowly opened.
“Let’s go!”
They stepped inside and found themselves in a big cavern.
“Gee, I didn’t know there was a place like this in Traverse Town…” Sora gazed around. There was a wide pond in the cavern, and in the middle of that, a little island with a single house perched on it. “Is that it?”
Donald moved first, jumping onto the stepping-stones. “C’mon, hurry up! Quack!”
Looking back at the other two as he leaped, Donald fell into the water with a spectacular splash.
“Gawrsh, are you okay?” Goofy jumped onto the stepping-stone and helped Donald out.
“Wak!” In a huff, Donald jumped to the next one. “You too, Sora!”
“I’m coming!” Sora started across, too. They made it up to the odd little house that looked like a pot with a red hat on top.
“It won’t open!” Donald kicked at the door. Apparently falling into the water had been the last straw for him.
“Maybe there’s another way in…?” Goofy walked around the house.
“I’ve about had it! Falling in ponds, houses with no way in! This is the pits!”
“Aw, don’t get so mad about it, Donald.” Sora tried to calm him down, looking up at the house. The red roof was kind of dilapidated—it didn’t really look like anyone could live there.
“Sora! Donald!” Goofy called. “I found a way in!”
They went to join Goofy on the other side, and there was a big hole in the wall.
“Are we really supposed to go in this way…?”
“Why not?”
So they ducked into the house through the hole. It definitely looked abandoned. Sora glanced from side to side, and…
“There’s something about this musty old place.”
Sora turned. That voice—it was definitely Kairi’s voice he’d just heard!
“Doesn’t it remind you of our secret spot?”
Kairi was standing there. Her red hair shook as she turned her smile to Sora. It was Kairi. That smile was just the same as he remembered, the same as when they’d last parted on Destiny Island.
“With the cave where we used to scribble on the walls. Remember?”
“Kairi…” Sora reached for her hand.
“Sora?”
It was Goofy’s voice from behind him. Sora turned, and then when he looked back again to where Kairi had just been standing—no one was there.
“I-I just saw…”
Sora tried to explain, but then another voice addressed them.
“Whew… Well, well. You’ve arrived sooner than I expected.”
Next to the wall stood an old man with a long beard, in a tall pointy hat and glasses.
“You knew we were coming?” said Sora, walking toward him.
“Of course.”
“Are you a Heartless?!” Donald had his wand at the ready.
“Oh-ho-ho! My name is Merlin. As you can see, I am a sorcerer. I spend much of my time traveling—it’s good to be home. Your king has requested my help.”
“King Mickey?” said Goofy. It was the first news they’d heard of the king since their journey began.
“Yes, indeed. Donald, Goofy… And who might you be?” Merlin peered at Sora.
“I’m Sora.”
“…Ah. So you have found the key.” Merlin nodded and stared at him closer.
Running out of patience, Donald demanded, “What did the king ask you to do?”
“Now, just a moment…” Merlin went to a stone platform in the middle of the room, climbed on it, and waved his wand. “Presto!”
His bag opened itself, and all sorts of furniture and housewares flew out of it, each thing taking its proper place.
“Wow!” Right before the trio’s wide-open eyes, the ramshackle house transformed into Merlin’s home.
“There, that should do it. Now then…” Merlin waved his wand at a little model of a pumpkin-shaped carriage in the corner. “Bibbidy-bobbidy-boo!”
With that mysterious incantation, an old lady in a deep blue hooded robe appeared. “Why, hello. I’m the Fairy Godmother.”
She waved her own wand and a cloud of sparkling motes fell.
“Your king asked us both to help,” said Merlin.
“So where is the king?!”
At Donald’s question, Merlin and the Fairy Godmother exchanged glances.
“There’s not much time left—
“I can’t go back—
“But the light is there above the darkness—
“And the darkness is beside the light—”
Merlin and the Fairy Godmother told them as if reciting a poem.
“That doesn’t make any sense!” Donald stamped his feet.
“Darkness is lying in wait for you.”
“But…that there is darkness means there is also light.”
“Darkness and light…,” Sora mumbled.
“I don’t get it!” Donald complained.
Merlin pointed to the Keyblade. “Stay with the key, and the path will become clear.”
“With the key?” Goofy said anxiously.
“That was the hint the king left.”
“What am I supposed to do?” asked Sora.
The sorcerer and the godmother looked at one another again. “Go where the light leads you.”
“What about Kairi and Riku?!”
The Fairy Godmother shook her head. “I don’t know… But…I do feel them. Very close by…”
“Simply go,” said Merlin. “Go where the key points…”
“Okay. I will.” Determination came into Sora’s voice. “Let’s go—Oh, wait…”
Merlin already knew. “The book that Cid asked you to deliver, is it?”
Sora turned back and handed him the worn book.
“Ah, look at that. He’s repaired it quite nicely…”
Curious, Goofy leaned in. “What kinda book is it?”
“Well…I’m not even sure myself. If you want to find out, you ought to read it.”
“We will, next time!” said Sora, and they left the house.
They ran back through the Third District, fighting through the Heartless. “They really just won’t stop…,” Goofy grumbled as he opened the door to the Second District. The moment they stepped through, the bell rang again with a resounding clang.
The tremble went through the ground. “Gwa-waaak!” Donald yelled.
“Isn’t there a way to stop it from ringing?” Goofy wondered.
“Never mind that,” Donald scolded. “We gotta get back to Cid’s shop and go see some more worlds!”
“But there’re so many Heartless, I think the Keyhole must be somewhere around here,” said Sora, looking up at the bell tower.
“Are you saying the bell’s got something to do with the Keyhole?”
“Well, I dunno, but—” In the middle of Sora’s sentence, the Keyblade began to shine brightly. “Whoa!”
“It’s shining!”
The three looked at one another and then headed for the Gizmo Shop.
They wandered to and fro in the Gizmo Shop with all the huge gears turning and turning.
“Hey, how about that way?” said Goofy, and they ducked between some gears. “Aw, it’s a dead end…”
They really had no idea which way to go.
“What are we gonna do when we find the bell?” Donald asked Sora as they dodged more gears.
“Well, Cid said if we ring it three times something will happen, right?”
“Huh? Won’t it just make that humongous noise again?” said Donald.
“But look at all the mechanisms here!” Sora exclaimed. “They’ve just got to be hiding some kind of secret.”
“I think Sora’s right,” said Goofy, leaping over some kind of swinging pendulum.
“I guess so…,” Donald grumbled.
Goofy found an opening up above some gears. “Hey, we can go through here!”
“Wa-waaak…” Fighting for his balance, Donald stepped up atop the gears and jumped across. If his timing was less than perfect, he’d be crushed in the gears.
“Whoa… Here goes…” Sora rushed to jump across. There was a little door.
“Through here?” Donald opened the door, and then they were out on the roof of the Gizmo Shop. At the other end was the tower where the bell hung.
“Gawrsh. It doesn’t look like we can get in…” Goofy peered between the wooden slats. The bell was boarded up.
“Well, it can’t be as sturdy as the grate in the waterway, right?” said Sora. “C’mon—on three!”
The trio took a running start and crashed into it, and the boards broke too easily.
“So, this is the bell that rings like that…” Sora looked up at the huge bell. “Goofy, can you keep watch?”
“Sure thing!”
Goofy looked down at the Second District.
Donald jumped up and hung on to the rope that would ring the bell. “Three times, Cid said, right?”
“Right!”
Taking Sora’s reply as a cue, Donald pulled.
Once…
Twice…
Three times…
But all that happened was the sonorous sound of its ringing.
“Aw… Nothing’s happening…” Sora sighed.
But then Goofy called out, “A Keyhole!”
“Huh?”
“There’s a Keyhole!”
Sora ran over to Goofy and looked where he was looking. A Keyhole had appeared at the fountain in the square.
“All right!”
They leaped down from the roof and ran to it. “Now there won’t be any more Heartless in Traverse Town!” said Goofy.
But an enormous roar shook the ground.
“What’s that?!”
A giant Heartless fell from the sky—one they thought they’d already defeated. It was the Guard Armor.
“I guess they’re not gonna let us close the Keyhole without a fight…,” Goofy complained and held up his shield.
“But we beat this one before!” Sora readied the Keyblade.
Donald raised his wand—but the Guard Armor’s huge foot was already coming straight for him.
“Wak-gwaaak!” Donald tried to dodge but tripped on the cobblestones.
“Donald!” Sora ran over to cover him. “Hey— Look out!”
Goofy had covered his eyes, and then, with a clang, the Guard Armor’s foot went flying back.
“There you are. What’s going on?”
It was a voice Sora knew. Silver hair gleamed in the dark night.
Sora looked up, and it was— “Riku?!”
With a cocky smile, Riku helped up Sora and Donald.
“How’d you get here?!”
“I’ll explain later— Here it comes!” As Riku spoke the Guard Armor came at them with a furious punch, as if to avenge itself for having a foot knocked away. Riku and Sora jumped out of the way, and then Donald, just in time before its fist crashed into the ground.
“You big, stupid, ugly jerk! Fire! Thunder! Blizzard!” Donald pelted the Guard Armor with magic, and Goofy rushed back and forth. Sora and Riku attacked its main body, turn by turn, like comrades who had been fighting side by side for a long time.
“Looks like you’ve learned a few tricks, Sora!”
“So have you, Riku!”
It was him. That look, that voice—it was definitely Riku. Not an illusion, like he’d seen of Kairi a little while ago. This was the real Riku!
“Here I go!” With a flying leap, Riku landed a fierce blow on the Guard Armor’s head.
“My turn!” Sora attacked the torso—and then the Guard Armor fell apart with a clatter. The parts didn’t move.
“We did it!” Without thinking, Sora hugged Riku.
“Okay, okay, quit it,” said Riku, but he was smiling.
“Is this Riku?” asked Goofy.
“Yeah! The one I’ve been looking for!” Sora grinned, finally letting go of Riku. “Oh, right— What about Kairi?”
“Isn’t she with you?” said Riku, a bit alarmed.
It looked like while Sora thought that Kairi must be with Riku, Riku assumed that she had to be with Sora, too.
“Oh… She’s not with you, either.”
Riku patted Sora’s slumped shoulders and smiled. “Hey, don’t worry. I’m sure she made it off the island, too. We made it to another world. So we can go wherever we want.” Sora didn’t seem to cheer up, so he went on. “We’ll all be together again soon. Right, Sora? Just leave everything to me. With me around, you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
“But I’ve been looking for you and Kairi, too. With their help!” Sora rested the Keyblade on his shoulder and turned his smile to Donald and Goofy. Riku stared as if the pair were somehow suspicious.
“Uh, we’re…” At a loss, Donald looked at Sora.
“We’ve visited so many worlds together,” Sora added, “looking for you.”
“Really? Well, what do you know? I never would’ve guessed.”
At Riku’s reply, Donald and Goofy exchanged glances and each put an arm around Sora.
“And guess what, Sora’s the Keyblade master!” said Goofy.
“Who woulda thought it?” Donald remarked, in their usual pattern.
“So, this is called a Keyblade?” Riku held it in his hand.
“Huh? Hey, when did— Give it back!” Sora lunged at Riku, but he dodged and Sora nearly fell over.
“You just never change, Sora.” Riku laughed a little and tossed the Keyblade back to him. “Catch!”
“Whoa—” Sora fumbled to catch it and then stared at Riku. “Hey, you should come with us, too, Riku! We’ve got this awesome rocket. Wait till you see it!”
“Hey! You’re not the boss here!” Donald scolded him.
“Aw, c’mon!”
“No!” Donald jumped up and down in a huff.
“Why not?! He’s my friend! And we finally found each other!”
While the two argued again, Goofy saw the Guard Armor’s hand twitch beside them. “Sora! Donald!”
The moment they looked up, the Guard Armor reassembled itself and stood.
Now it had feet in place of its hands and hands in place of its feet, and it had changed color—the Opposite Armor. And it roared and came at them.
“This isn’t over, Donald!” Sora shouted.
“Wak!”
With the Keyblade at the ready, Sora rushed the Opposite Armor, but it turned aside as if it was ready for him and shot balls of light at him.
“Wh-whoooa!” The attack hit Sora straight on.
“Oh no, Sora, are you okay?” Goofy ran over and healed him.
“Quaaack! Why you! This is for Sora! Thunder!” After seeing that Sora was mostly all right, Donald hurled out a spell, and a much bigger than usual thunderbolt struck the Opposite Armor right on its head.
“Wow! Nice one!” Once he was back on his feet, Sora ran to Donald without thinking.
“When I get serious, I really— Wak!” As Donald puffed out his chest, a giant armored foot kicked him back onto his tail.
“Well, I can get serious, too!” As if Donald’s attitude was contagious, Goofy leaped at the Opposite Armor and attacked from up in the air. His shield clanged against its torso and made a dent.
“Wow! I didn’t know you could do that, Goofy!” Sora called out, and Goofy replied with a thumbs-up.
“Umm… Wonder what I could try… Here goes!” Then Sora jumped up at the Opposite Armor, too, swinging the Keyblade in a huge arc. “Hiyaaaaaaa!”
The Keyblade drew a wide crescent of light in the air that hit the Opposite Armor with a shock wave.
“Gawrsh, that was amazing, Sora!” cried Goofy.
Shouting with effort, Sora kept attacking. The Keyblade clanged, and the Opposite Armor began to tremble with a clatter, then stopped moving. And at last a glowing heart floated up from its body, which turned to light and disappeared.
“We did it!”
Sora, Donald, and Goofy celebrated another victory they’d achieved together. But—
“Wait… Where’s Riku?” Sora realized too late. “Riku…?”
He ran around the square, shouting Riku’s name, but there was no Riku to be seen.
“Oh no… Just when I finally found him!” Sora hung his head and kicked at the ground.
I was looking for him all this time. I was so scared for him. But he’s just like he was on Destiny Island. He hasn’t changed a bit. So that’s good…
“Sora?” Goofy looked anxiously into his face.
“He just disappeared again. It’s not fair,” Sora mumbled, gripping the Keyblade tightly. Then he looked up with a smile. “Oh well. At least he’s okay!”
“Huh? Are you okay?”
“Yeah… We’ll meet up again. I just know it. Anyway, since we found Riku, I bet we’ll run into Kairi soon, too!”
With a smile still on his face, Sora raised the Keyblade to point at the Keyhole and the beam of light shot out at it. The Keyhole seemed to drink up the beam of light and closed with a click.
“Hey, welcome— Oh, you’re back.”
Cid wasn’t alone in the Accessory Shop. Leon, Aerith, and Yuffie were all there, too.
“So, you delivered the book? I’m all done installing the navigation Gummi.”
“Thanks! Actually, though—” Sora began.
“We closed the Keyhole!” shouted Donald.
“Really?” said Yuffie.
“Yup, really!” Goofy replied. “We rang the bell, and then the Keyhole appeared by the fountain.”
“So you were the ones who rang the bell three times?” said Leon.
“Yeah. The Keyblade told us what to do!” Sora held it up.
Yuffie walked closer to him and stared at the Keyblade. “Wow. That thing sure is amazing.”
“But another giant Heartless appeared,” said Donald, “and then—”
This time Sora interrupted him. “We found Riku!”
“The friend you’re looking for?” asked Aerith.
“Uh-huh. And Riku was helping us, but the giant Heartless woke up, and when we beat it again, he was gone…” Sora trailed off sadly. “But maybe we’ll find him again, I hope.”
“You will,” Aerith said gently.
Yuffie was more curious about other things. “Gee, I wanted to see the Keyhole, too.”
“So there was one in Traverse Town,” Leon said, completely serious in contrast, his arms folded. “You’ve got to hurry, Sora. Even while we’re standing here talking about it, the Heartless are taking over other worlds.”
Sora nodded briskly.
“Yeah, by the way— You guys ever hear of Maleficent?” Cid asked them, his voice hushed.
“Who’s that?”
“A witch, man, she’s a witch!” Cid folded his arms, too.
Leon went on explaining, “She’s the reason this town is full of Heartless. Don’t take her lightly.”
“She’s been using the Heartless for years,” said Aerith, looking down.
“We lost our world, thanks to her.” Leon looked at Cid until he picked up the thread.
“One day a swarm of Heartless took over our world!” Cid said finally. “…That was nine years ago. I got out of that mess and came here with these guys.”
“That’s awful…,” Donald murmured, looking sincerely troubled and folding his arms.
“Our ruler was a wise man named Ansem,” said Leon. “He dedicated his life to studying the Heartless. He was probably searching for some way to defeat them for good.”
Remembering the name, Goofy struck his open palm with his fist. “That’s the Ansem you were talking about, right, Aerith?”
“That’s right,” she replied softly. “And his report should tell us how to get rid of the Heartless.”
“King Mickey must be looking for that report,” said Donald.
Aerith shook her head. “But we don’t know where its pages might be.”
“I’d bet Maleficent’s got most of the pages…,” Cid said grimly.
“Well, they’ve got to be somewhere!” exclaimed Sora.
“Probably.”
“Then we’ll find them!”
Aerith smiled at him. “Thank you, Sora.”
“That’s not terribly reassuring.” Cid smirked.
Sora turned to him. “Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?!”
“Well, you just don’t look much like a Keyblade master,” Donald joined in.
“What, you too, Donald?!” Sora glared at him with the Keyblade out.
“But you’ve gotten way stronger than when you started!” Goofy said, grinning.
“Than when I started… Aw, quit it…” Sora weakly sat down on the spot.
“Want to give it another go?” Leon brandished the Gunblade at Sora.
“Huh?”
“Then maybe you want to try a round against the great ninja Yuffie!” She held up her shuriken.
“C’mon, guys, I’m already beat!” Sora groaned.
Then Aerith laughed, and everyone else followed.
“Hey, why’re you all laughing at me?” Sora complained, but he was laughing, too.
Outside the window, two shadowy figures stood watching the scene.
One was Riku. And the other…
“You see? It’s just as I told you.”
Riku made no reply to Maleficent, but kept staring into the window.
“While you toiled away trying to find your dear friend, he quite simply replaced you with some new companions. Evidently he values them far more than he does you,” Maleficent murmured to him, terribly gently. “You’re better off without that wretched boy. Now, think no more of him, and come with me. I’ll help you find what you’re searching for…”
But Riku only went on silently gazing at Sora through the window.
To be continued.