Chapter One: Memories

"Sora, Riku!" Kairi said with a smile and a bottle in her hand. She got closer and held out the bottle. "The king," I said opening the bottle. I read it out loud.

"Dear Sora and friends," It read.

"We are hosting a keyblade warrior festival here at Disney Castle. Knowing that you all have keyblades, I sent this invitation. The festival will be on June 2nd. I know you all just got back from an adventure, so please, take your time to respond.

Sincerely,

King Mickey"

Kairi looked up at me and smiled. "We should go!" she said, jumping out of the palm tree.

"Yeah, the three of us!" I said. "And this time, nobody gets left behind."

"I don't know…" Riku hesitated. "Last time we left the island, we left family and friends. I don't want to be forgotten again."

"Wait…we were forgotten?" I asked.

"Yes, Sora," he responded.

"How come I didn't know about this?"

"Because…you're as smart as a rock," Kairi joked.

"That's not nice," I said jokingly.

"It's not my fault you're slow."

"I'm not slow! I'm actually pretty fast!"

"I meant you don't catch on very fast."

"Oh!"

"Point proven."

Later on that evening...

"Maybe there are other worlds out there," I remember Riku saying one night two years ago. "And if there are, I want to see them. I want you guys to come with me too." "And what if there aren't" I remember asking, very confused. "Then we'll just have to pretend that there are."

I remember that we built a raft and we were planning on leaving a week later. I remember the storm, the Heartless, the boats that were missing when I left the main island. I remember everything that happened that night. I remember fighting the dark side of me.

When we got back from our big adventure a couple of weeks ago, I still remembered. I remembered fighting the fake Ansem. I remembered locking, unlocking, and relocking doors. I remember killing myself to save Kairi.

Kairi. I wanted to tell her, but… I was worried that she wouldn't feel the same way about me.

I remember the way she looked at me when we arrived back on the island. "We-we're back!" I remember saying to her. "You're home," she said. We were home. I remember her helping me up and me giving her talisman back. It was seashells tied together in the shape of a star with pink in the middle that faded out to blue.

We were home.

"Sora!" Kairi yelled as she came running from the beach. I was sitting in a palm tree looking at the sunset.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"I want to talk to you," she said.

"About what?" I asked.

"Riku," she answered.

"What about him?"

"What if he really isn't going?"

"I don't know. I guess that means that we'll go…alone?

"Yeah, I know. But…I want to go…with both of you."

"Well, you're going to have to make a decision soon, because I'm leaving tonight."

"What?!!?" she said, clearly under a lot of pressure.

"I'm just kidding," I said, laughing so hard I fell out of the palm tree.

"I hate you," she said giggling.

"I do want to prepare to leave tomorrow, though," I said seriously.

"So…we're leaving tomorrow?"

"No. We're preparing to leave tomorrow. We'll leave on Friday."

"Deal, I'll meet you here tomorrow," she said as she ran to the boats.

"I love you," I said quietly enough so she didn't hear me.