This world embodied some of the strangest things the team had ever seen. So strange, in fact, that they even wondered if this world purposefully allowed such silliness for the sake of simply being silly. Where else would you explore a giant forest while one tenth of your original size only to eventually find yourself at a tea party where it was customary to celebrate the days when it wasn't your birthday?
And now, they had found themselves in a room similar to the one they originally entered with the doorknob; except this time, they were walking on the ceiling, in all of its gravity-defying glory.
"Hey, look guys! I can see the door from here!" Sora said as he gazed at the ceiling, which now held the ground floor they initially found themselves on.
"Wow, and there's the table with the bottles that shrunk us!" Goofy added.
Donald tapped his foot angrily, glaring at Akira. "Do you have to wear that silly hat?"
Akira clapped her hands together, gazing adoringly at her new headpiece. She had been given a pointy paper hat during the tea party they passed through earlier but, unlike the others, she refused to discard it once they had left the festivities behind. "Of course! It's my unbirthday today!" she said with a wide smile.
Donald rubbed his temples, sighing loudly. "Why don't we just leave you here when we leave for the next world?"
She glared at him. "Lighten up! It's just a hat!" she said as she gingerly straightened it, "It's not my unbirthday everyday, you know. Let me have a bit of fun!"
"But... literally every day is... you know what? Forget it. Just forget it," he quacked exasperatedly as Sora and Goofy burst into laughter behind him, fueling his anger. He wasn't sure if she was doing this on purpose to annoy him, but if she was, it was certainly working.
Their laughter and Donald's eventual snarky response were interrupted as the Cheshire Cat decided to make another appearance before the unsuspecting group. "Ah, you're here," he said with a grin, "And the momeraths outgrabe. Want to find the shadows? Try turning on the light!" He pointed towards a small oil lamp on the table before them.
"If you say so," Sora responded as he shook his head. The group followed the cat's suggestion and climbed onto the table, but found no switch for the light.
"How do we turn it on?" Goofy asked curiously.
Donald cleared his throat while pulling out his trusty staff. "By lighting it on fire, of course!"
"Ooh, can I try?" Sora asked excitedly, "You promised you'd teach me that spell!"
Donald sighed. "Fine."
He carefully instructed Sora on the correct way to cast magic spells, same as he had with Akira in Traverse Town. And, same as his old friend, he wasn't expecting the force of the recoil once he actually managed to cast his first spell; he fell backwards, and his ball of fire missed the lamp completely, instead hitting Akira's hat and burning it to a crisp.
"My hat!" she cried as the cinders of what remained of her party hat fell into her hands.
Donald snickered under his breath as he continued instructing an apologetic Sora. His second attempt had gone much better, and he was actually able to aim for the lamp, despite needing Donald to hold him up in case he fell backwards again.
The Cheshire Cat appeared beside the second lamp on the table, tapping at it with his claw. "It's too dim. Make it brighter."
Sora followed his instruction and did the same for the second lamp. Amazingly, he didn't need Donald to hold him straight that time.
"All the lights are on!" the Cheshire Cat said happily as he clapped his paws together, "You'll see the shadows soon. They'll arise in this room, but somewhere else. They might go after that doorknob, too."
He vanished as usual, yet his message wasn't so cryptic this time around.
"Sounds like he wants us to visit the ceiling… when it's right side up," Goof said with a smile while pointing to the door on the ceiling.
"Come on! Let's hurry and save Alice!" Donald quacked as he pushed Sora towards the opening in the wall leading to the queen's castle. They were almost where they wanted to be, with the Heartless just a step away… that is, if the Cheshire Cat were to even be trusted. Then again, what choice did they have?
After coming full circle, and skipping over the tea party much to Akira's dismay, they finally arrived at the room where they initially shrunk in size, yet no Heartless were to be seen. The Cheshire Cat sat on the table with a large grin painted on his face, waiting patiently for them. "You'll have a better view from higher up," he instructed.
The group of four used the chair as a platform to help them climb onto the table, where the grinning cat awaited them. He laughed heartily once all four of them had managed to reach him.
"Okay, what's the big idea? Making us run all over the place!" Donald quacked angrily.
The cat continued to grin. "The shadows should be here soon…"
Almost as soon as he spoke, Akira felt a chill in the air. Something ominous and threatening felt close by… an air they hadn't been able to detect until now. They knew they were marching towards the Heartless, the shadows, the darkness; yet they never questioned whether the Cheshire Cat himself could be the one behind it all.
"Did you trick us?" she asked softly.
"Trick? No, but he might! Are you prepared for the worst? If not… too bad."
The cat vanished with a final grin as the ground began to slowly rumble underneath them. They had followed the shadows all the way here… and had found the most dangerous one of all.
"Guys," Sora said softly as he took a deep breath, "Run."
The four of them scattered in different directions, barely having the time to jump off the table and out of harm's way before it was completely destroyed, crushed under the weight of the enormous Heartless that had fallen from the ceiling.
Its legs were massively long, holding its very thin yet agile body in place. Its arms were long and flexible, looking almost like folded paper; it held two unlit matches in its hands, which it juggled effortlessly. The Heartless was deceptively tall, keeping its knees locked and making it difficult to land any hits; no matter how high Sora jumped or reached out his Keyblade, he just couldn't reach the torso. Goofy fared no better as the Heartless slapped his shield away whenever he attempted to throw it at the massive creature.
Suddenly, Akira had an idea. She jumped onto the still undamaged chair and aimed for the Heartless' head, casting a fire spell when she had it in her sights. Sure enough, it hit its face, causing it some amount of damage; yet to her dismay, some of the embers from her spell had bounced off it and landed on its match, lighting it on fire in the process. The Heartless seemed thrilled, spinning its weapon enthusiastically at the unfortunate souls that remained on the ground.
"Oops…" she said softly once she realized her mistake.
"What do you think you're doing?" Donald asked angrily from the floor.
"I'm sorry, but what else are we supposed to do?" she called.
Donald shook his head in disbelief. "Blizzard is the ice spell!"
With a swing of his staff, he cast his powerful ice spell, interrupting the Heartless from lighting its other match. "See?"
Akira rolled her eyes. "And how am I supposed to know any of that if you don't tell me?" she asked sarcastically.
"Hey!" Sora called from afar, "Are you both going to argue every time a battle like this happens?"
Donald sighed angrily, climbing the chair she was standing on and placing himself beside her. "Now, cast Blizzard," he ordered.
She nodded and copied his previous movements from before. They were identical to the fire spell, and cast a small yet powerful snowflake, but without the awful recoil. She missed the Heartless' head by a mile, but she was at least able to cast the spell properly.
"Watch your aim. Do it again," Donald barked.
She cast it again, barely grazing the Heartless' head.
"Too far right. Again."
She cast it again.
"Too far left. Cast it again."
She cast it once more.
"Aim your staff higher," he yelled, pushing her staff upwards with his feathered hands.
She cast it one more time, narrowly missing its chest.
"Again."
She aimed her staff at its Heartless emblem on its chest and unleashed a final ice spell, hitting her target. She slowly smiled as she realized what she had done, watching the Heartless kneel to the ground in pain.
"See, I told you it was simple," Donald said proudly.
Akira put her hand on her forehead and sank to her knees, completely awestruck. "Wow, I-I did it!"
Sora and Goofy cheered as they ran to meet up with their friends. The massive Heartless sank in defeat to the floor, clutching its chest as its arms writhed in pain. The ice spell had damaged its core, the spot Sora and Goofy had slowly been chipping away at. Its lanky body crashed to the floor as a crystal heart floated from its chest, vanishing into the air.
"That was so cool!" Sora praised.
"That's because I was teaching her!" Donald said smugly, puffing out his chest.
"What a racket!"
Their moment of triumph was interrupted by the doorknob, who had finally awoken from his slumber. "How is a doorknob to get any sleep?" he yawned.
As the doorknob opened its mouth wide to yawn again, Sora caught a faint glimpse of what looked like a keyhole. Before he could squint to take a closer look, the Keyblade in his hands reacted suddenly. With a mind of its own, it pulled Sora closer to the keyhole as a beam of white light shot out from the tip, making a locking sound as it made contact with the keyhole.
"What was that?" Donald asked curiously as the remaining three approached Sora.
"I don't know," he answered, "It started to do its own thing, like it had a mind of its own. And then, it sounded like something closed!"
"Then, what's that thing that fell out of its mouth?" Akira asked, pointing to the tiny green object that had rolled across the floor.
Goofy picked it up and examined it. "A gummi block! And it's not like the others, no sir!" he said with a grin.
Goofy was in the midst of securing their prize in his pocket when the Cheshire Cat decided to appear one last time before them. Donald quacked something incomprehensible at the sight of him, but the others assumed it couldn't be anything nice.
"Splendid! You're quite the hero. If you're looking for Alice, she's not here. She's gone! Off with the shadows, into darkness."
"So, you did trick us!" Akira growled.
"Me? The Cheshire Cat doesn't trick; he leaves the tricking to the Trickmaster, the master of tricks! Though you made certain that title is now up for grabs, hm?"
"Then maybe you should claim it!" Donald quacked angrily.
"Master of favours, perhaps. I brought you to the shadows, just as you asked."
"Then take us to Alice, master of favours," Akira said as she glared at the cat, looking ready to rip its tail off.
"Hah! We may all be mad here, but I am certainly not that mad. Only a fool would dive that far into the darkness; though I presume you are all undeniably mad enough to do it!"
The Cheshire Cat grinned widely as he disappeared, leaving them with the most puzzling riddle yet. But one thing was for certain: Alice wasn't merely kidnapped. She was completely removed from her world, beyond their reach.
"No…" Sora said sadly.
Donald put a hand on his arm, attempting to comfort him. "Don't worry, Sora, we might find her in another world."
"Yeah, we all did our best," Goofy said with a nod, "And that's all we can really do for now, isn't it?"
The team had found the bottle that returned them to their normal sizes and agreed to return to the Gummi Ship. While Donald and Goofy attempted to remember where they left their ship, Sora had approached Akira from behind as she gazed one last time at the tunnel leading to the curious room.
"Looks like you had fun back there," he said with a smile.
Akira turned to face him, startled but still with a small grin. "Yeah, well, Donald is a pretty good teacher! Strict, but still good."
Sora laughed. "I meant the entire time we were here. You were so suspicious of everything back in Traverse Town and here, you just took everything as it was, no questions asked."
It was true. She didn't question the talking rabbits and cats, card soldiers, or upside-down rooms. Well, she may have questioned the talking rabbit a little bit... "Yes, I guess so," she said reluctantly.
"Well, I'm glad to see you're starting to have some fun!"
Fun wasn't quite the word she was looking for. As amazing, and as dangerous, as this world was, she couldn't help but feel an emptiness inside her the entire time they spent here. She wished she could come back with a clearer mind – not during a time when Kairi and Riku's whereabouts were constantly taking residency in her thoughts. After all, they were supposed to be here with them, weren't they? "It doesn't make it hurt any less," she said softly, putting a hand on her heart.
Sora's eyes fell when he realized what she was talking about. "I… know. But we have to keep going. They have to be out there, right?"
Akira nodded softly in response as Donald called them over. They approached the ship and boarded, taking their seats and fastening themselves in silence.
"Gawrsh, you two, are you okay?" Goofy asked when he noticed their glum looks.
Sora nodded. "It'll be okay."
Donald took that as confirmation and started the engines of the ship, preparing for liftoff. Oddly enough, Sora didn't beg to drive.
"Riku, Kairi… where are you?" he thought to himself.