Sora went down a hall alone.
He'd split up from Lea after being pointed down this hall as one of the used residential areas. So far, he'd found Vexen's, Luxord's, and Marluxia's journals, and Sora was carrying them in his arms. The rooms had strangely been assigned out of order, maybe for this very reason.
Sora didn't find another room until he reached the very end of the hall, at the bottom of the last set of stairs. He shifted the journals until one of his hands was free to open the door, and he went inside.
The room's layout was simplistic and nearly identical to the others, with the same basic furniture of a desk and chair, bed, and nightstand. Bits of color, however, dotted the room, interrupting the monochromatic white. A glass bottle filled to the brim with white-gold sand sat on the desk, surrounded by a multitude of dried flower blossoms; some of them were familiar to Sora. A single sand dollar rested beside them, along with a ruddy starfish that reminded Sora of the ones he used to collect and preserve when he was younger.
He walked over to the bed, where dozens of small seashells littered the space beside the pillow. Sora set his journals down and picked up one of the larger whelks, brushing his fingers across the ridged, peach-colored shell.
Slowly, Sora felt his eyes well with tears.
He wiped them away before they could fall, knowing that they had nothing to do with him and everything to do with someone else. "Roxas," Sora whispered aloud. "Why are you sad?"
As if on instinct, Sora brought the shell up to his ear and closed his eyes. He had the distinct sense of déjà vu. Behind the distant roar of the sea, Sora thought he could hear a voice there for a moment, one that sounded so much like Kairi.
"You miss someone," Sora guessed quietly and opened his eyes.
He received no reply, except for a single tear that went down his face before he could stop it.
Sora set the whelk shell back down in its proper place and studied them all for a while. It was an impressive collection for someone who hadn't lived by the sea.
Eventually, he turned back around to the desk and searched it for the journal he knew was there. Finding it in a drawer, Sora opened to the first page and found it curiously empty – wait, no. There was writing there, but it was completely illegible, as if the letters had been scrambled and then worn away from age... even though he knew that shouldn't be possible with the pages still pristine.
The sounds of someone walking down the hall outside echoed into the room, and Sora quickly went to the door. "Lea," he called, sticking his head out. "You might want to check this out. Right now."