The First District was unusually busy that morning. As far as Sora knew, things had been happening in the town that required Leon's attention and Krillin and Gohan had offered their services as well. Sora wanted to help but Krillin said it was not a job for kids, much to Sora's annoyance. He also felt the need to go out to search for Riku but Krillin refused to let Sora fly the Gummiship alone. He paced behind the Accessory shop getting bored and impatient when he spotted someone who could help him, "Hey, Cid! Can you do me a favor?" he asked.

"Sure, kid. Whaddya need?"

"I'm gonna take the Gummiship so I can look for Riku, but I don't want Krillin to know."

Cid nodded his understanding.

"I'll cover for ya."

"What will you tell Krillin?"

"Eh…I'll think of somethin'. You better get going."

And with that, Sora took the Gummiship into space by himself.

Amazingly, Sora had not encountered a single Heartless ship during his flight. Thanks to a warp gummi that Cid had installed, he reached the Eastern system in mere minutes. He passed Feudal Japan and came to another somewhat barren looking planet. As he descended into its atmosphere he saw some definite resemblance to Feudal Japan. Once he found a place to land his ship and set out to explore the terrain, however he saw some major differences as well. Much of the land was desolate and littered with bones and wreckage. The soil was the color of dried blood, and it stank of it too. Even the evening sky was blood red. The atmosphere was also somewhat oppressive and very uncomfortable. Sora thought he could hear people screaming, though it was very faint. He was not known for being very perceptive or insightful, but even Sora could tell that a lot of people had lost their lives here and this became even clearer when he entered a village and found it deserted. He did not want to stay here for very long. He was now certain that Riku wasn't here so he considered leaving right away. Then it occurred to him, The keyhole!

Should I even bother? There doesn't seem to be many people left. He thought, but then another voice inside seemed to say, "You must seal keyholes whenever possible."

"But how do I find it?" He asked himself aloud.

There was no response, only the sound of the howling wind, which no longer sounded like people screaming. As he walked, he stepped in something gelatinous. He lifted his foot to see he had stepped on a mysterious glob of dark purple goo. There were several others growing out of the ground like pustules. Suddenly, two Shadows burst out of one and went immediately for Sora, with a swing of his Keyblade he reduced them to black vapor. He smashed all of the globs and decided to head east.

Sora walked east for close to an hour, directed only by his instincts when he finally saw a sign of life, but it was not what he would have called "life." Two Heartless had confronted him. They were dressed in black and red robes, with ponytails on their heads. Each one carried a short sword. On the path above him, Sora could see a number of them, maybe twenty of them and they were attacking a man. He ignored the ones that appeared before him and leapt to the path above him and took out whatever Heartless that the man did not. Once they were all gone, sora and the man who was under attack turned to face each other. The man was unlike any Sora had ever seen, his face was gaunt and sullen. He had dark skin and big bushy hair with a slight greenish tint. He wore a long white headband around his forehead and carried a sword with a long, curved blade and a square handguard.

"Are you the only person around here?" Sora asked him and the man simply stared.

"Uh…sorry…it's just, I'm not from around here." He went on and after a few seconds the man turned his back on him and said, "Thanks for helping me, but you should leave." Then he walked away but Sora ran up to him and walked beside him.

"Those things that attacked you, they're after your heart." He said and the man replied, "I know."

"Well they're not just after people's hearts." He said and the man stopped. "They're after the heart of this world too, that's why I'm here." He said, showing the man his Keyblade. "I need to seal the keyhole of this world so it will be safe from them, otherwise it will disappear…like my world did." He fought back tears at the thought of never seeing Destiny Islands again.

"Will you help me?"

The man glanced to the east for a moment and then back at Sora.

"Let's go." He finally said.

Sora and the man who had introduced himself as "Afro" sat at a small campfire under the scarlet evening sky. Sora told Afro about his quest to find his friends and seal the hearts of the worlds and so Afro had decided to tell Sora about his past, which was quite surprising. He revealed himself to be a samurai warrior and told Sora about a legendary headband called "The Number One Headband." It gave its wearer god-like powers, the power to rule the world. Afro's father once possessed this headband and had planned on hiding it, but one day he was confronted by a man known only as "Justice." This Justice possessed the "Number Two" headband, and so he was the only one who had the right to challenge Afro's father. Afro was only a child at the time and he watched as Justice fought and killed Afro's father, then walked away with the Number One headband. After that, Afro silently vowed that he would find Justice and kill him. Over the years, Afro had fought and killed many people who challenged him because he had the Number Two headband. Afro sought revenge, something that Sora did not fully understand, but it was not in his nature to judge people.

"Are you still gonna kill this Justice guy?" he asked Afro.

"I have no choice, now that he controls the Heartless…but you let me worry about that. All you need to worry about is sealing the keyhole, and I think I know where it is."

Sora and Afro made their way through an old and battle-worn temple. Periodically, a swarm of Shadows would crawl out of the darkness and attack. Some were normal sized but most were not much bigger than cockroaches, and there were dozens of them. They took the tiny ones out easily enough then a grouped of the robed samurai Heartless appeared. They all fought with the same moves, vertical and occasional horizontal strikes, not unlike Sora who never cared much for form.

"Strike from your subconscious mind." Afro instructed.

Sora turned his head away from the Heartless he had locked blades with. "What?"

"Listen to your subconscious, be unpredictable. That's how you win a fight."

Sora knew exactly what Afro was talking about. He closed his, spun on his foot and swung his blade in a horizontal arc, when he opened his eyes he saw that he had beheaded several of the Heartless. Before he could really appreciate what he had done, Afro seized Sora's wrist and took him up to roof.

"What now?" Sora asked, rubbing his wrist and Afro replied, "Climb."

Sora and Afro climbed many meters up the mountain. As he climbed, Sora glanced at the two giant stone hands stretching up on either side of it.

"Focus" Afro said coldly yet sharply.

"Okay, geeze" Sora wanted to say, but he kept silent. At last they reached the barren and icy top of the mountain.

"Uh…" Sora started to say, but Afro strode onward without a word and they entered a cave. They made their way down a hall lined with statues of monstrous looking blue creatures with golden horns and tears of blood coming from their eyes. When they got to the end of the hall, it seemed that they had come to a dead end but a light shone down on them from above and the next thing they knew, they were in some sort of shrine. Everything was reflected on the floor and several long spikes protruded from it, a human skull was at the end of each spike and each skull had a white headband around it. Above them were what looked like blood red clouds.

In the back of the room was a throne, and sitting in it was a man. His face was hidden under a wide-brimmed hat but his skin was as white as bone and his ribs could be seen through his torso, he seemed to be decomposing. As he lifted his head, Sora finally got a look at his hideous visage. His eyes were glazed white and he had a most wicked grin. He must have been Justice.

"What took you so long, kid?" He asked in his gravelly voice. "I was getting tired of waiting. I was just thinkin' of callin an' leavin' you a...voicemail."

Afro glared back at Justice with unmistakable hatred, then Justice rose from his throne and drew two guns, one of them had a very long barrel.

"You ready to die like your pappy?" he taunted. Afro ran toward him and he fired two shots. Afro ducked from the first shot and deflected the other with his blade. Meanwhile, Sora was trying to locate the keyhole. The Keyblade was vibrating, indicating that it was near. Then it appeared on Justice's throne and Sora rushed over to seal it.

"Oh no ya don't!" he heard Justice call. At that moment, Heartless were attacking Sora. There were two Shadows as big as Sora and two more of the Samurai Heartless, Sora dodged the first Heartless and it's blade went into it's partner instead. Then Sora whirled and slashed the two Shadows open. He looked up and saw maybe twenty more of them on the ceiling, watching him. That did it, Justice had to be stopped before he could seal the keyhole.

Despite the shots Justice fired, Afro got close enough for a killing blow. As Justice raised his arms, Afro sliced them off with a single slash. As he was ready to run Justice through, Justice did something Afro had never expected. Time seemed to slow and out of Justice's back shot a third arm holding a rusty and bloodstained sword. Of course...That was how his father died, he knew it now. But before Justice could slay Afro, Sora hurled himself into Justice and hacked the arm of with his Keyblade. Afro wasted no time, he sliced into Justice's neck, shoulders, and midsection. He staggered back a few feet then fell to peices. The Shadows dropped down from the ceiling and crawled over to the dismembered Justice.

"Aw hell..." he rasped weakly as the Shadows dragged him into a dark portal they had opened in the floor.

"Sora, the keyhole." Afro said.

"Right."

The familiar beam of energy shot from the tip of the keyblade and into the keyhole, sealing it forever.

Sora and Afro stood next to the Gummiship under the pitch black sky.

"I uh...have to say goodbye for a while." Sora said akwardly. On Destiny Island, people did not really believe in "goodbyes." Then an idea popped into Sora's mind.

"Why don't you come with me? I could take you someplace where you can start a new life and..."

Before Sora could finish, Afro shook his head and said, "This is where I belong."

Sora could feel empathy welling up inside him but he nodded his understanding and Afro clasped Sora's hand firmly.

"Take care, kid."

"You too."

With that, Sora got into the Gummiship and blasted back into space.

As Sora made it back to Traverse Town, he found Krillin and Cid waiting for him and Krillin was not looking too happy.

"Sorry." Cid said, scratching the back of his head. "I couldn't think of anything to tell em'."

Sora sighed, he was going to get a stern talking to for this, no doubt.