"Finally, done!" Sora fell back on the ground as they attached the last of the logs to the raft.

"It looks pretty good," Riku said as he admired their work on the raft.

"Now all that's left is to name it," Kairi said with a smile. "I'd like to name it Starlight!"

"Aw, come on Kairi! You're in charge of the building process and barely did any work! We should get to name it," Sora said and pouted. Kairi relented.

"Alright, fine, what do you want to name it then?" she asked.

"I was thinking Highwind, what about you Sora?" Riku asked.

"Hmm," Sora thought for a moment before an idea popped into his head. "Kingdom Key." Where did that come from?

"I like mine better," Riku said.

"Mine's better!" Sora frowned.

"We'll race for it then," Riku said.

"I'll referee," Kairi said and stood off to the side. "First one to navigate the obstacle course, touch the star, and make it back here wins."

"If I win, I get to be captain," Sora said. "And if you win…"

"I get to share a paopu with Kairi," Riku said.

Sora stared at him in confusion as though the words didn't process. "Huh?"

"Deal? The winner gets to share a paopu with Kairi," Riku said.

"Wha… Wait a minute…" Sora could only stare at Riku in shock. He couldn't lose this race now if he ever wanted to share one with Kairi. He then looked over to Kairi. If she heard the conversation, she had chosen to ignore it.

"Okay, on my count: 3…2…1…Go!" she shouted. Sora and Riku bolted off immediately. Sora hit the first platform with a slight lead. He jumped across each one until he arrived at a small rock ledge, where a zip line reached down to the other side. His hand grasped the zip line and he looked behind him at Riku, who had just arrived at the top of the rock. He quickly threw it back (it wouldn't be fair if he had an advantage Riku didn't) before touching the tree and sprinting back along the beach to wear Kairi stood. He arrived, triumphant, out of breath, captain of the newly named Kingdom Key, and ready to share the paopu that he hadn't really thought about sharing.

"Sora wins!" Kairi shouted just as Riku walked up. He was only one down now. Their next match would be the one that would make them even.

"Good job," Riku said. "I was just joking by the way, you didn't have to freak out like that."

"Well whatever you were joking about, quit it, because we need to collect provisions for the trip!" Kairi said. "Riku, I want you to find sea gull eggs, coconuts, and fish. Sora, you need to get us some fresh water and mushrooms." She handed Sora an empty jar.

"How much?" Riku asked.

"However many you two think we'll need to survive until we hit the first world," Kairi said. "Now go!"

"Okay," Sora walked away from Kairi and off toward the cliff side of the island where a small waterfall ran off. He pulled out the jar and ran it underneath the waterfall so as to collect the fresh water they would need. Nearby was a small cave. Remembering the fact that mushrooms tended to grow in the dark, he entered the cave to find the cavern that lay behind.

"Oh yeah!" he said," the Secret Place." He began walking around the cave and looking at all the drawings. In the corner, by where he found some mushrooms, he locked eyes on the picture.

"Come on Sora, I'll draw you and you draw me! Okay?"

"But I can't draw Kairi!"

"I can't either, but it'll still be fun."

He picked up a stone, long forgotten in the corner as they had stopped carving pictures in the cave long ago, and carved an arm next to his face. The arm reached out toward the Kairi face and offered her a star to represent the paopu fruit. He smiled at it, maybe he did want to share one with Kairi after all. He heard footsteps.

"Wh-Who's there?" He turned around to see a brown cloaked figure.

"I've come to see the door to this world," the figure said.

"Huh?"

"This world has been connected."

"Wh-What are you talking about?" Sora asked again.

"Tied to the darkness…soon to be completely eclipsed." The figure continued to ignore Sora and his questions.

"Well, whoever you are, stop freaking me out like this," Sora said. To him, it sounded like the figure was saying that his home, the islands, were about to be destroyed. He didn't want that. "Huh? Wh-Where did you come from?"

"You do not yet know what lies behind this door."

"So, you're from another world?" Sora asked. He felt an edge of excitement creep into his voice. Even though he was being warned his home was being destroyed, this person might know the fate of Kairi's homeworld.

"There is so much to learn. You understand so little."

"Oh yeah?" Sora gaped at the figure. "Well, you'll see! I'm gonna get out and learn what's out there."

"A meaningless effort," the figure said. "One who knows nothing can understand nothing." The figure vanished, leaving Sora confused.

"What just happened?" he asked aloud. This definitely added onto the weirdness of the past couple of days, so he simply left the cave with the mushrooms in hand and went back to the other side of the island where Kairi stood waiting. She was moving string through shells while she stood.

"Hey Kairi, what's that?" Sora asked. He looked at the charm with curiosity. She jumped in surprise.

"Oh, this? I'm working on a necklace made of thalassa shells. In the old days sailors always wore thalassa shells. They were supposed to ensure safe voyage," she said. Her face had turned slightly red as though she hadn't wanted Sora to see it.

"I think that's pretty awesome!" Sora said with a smile. "Anyways, I got the last of the stuff."

"Really, that's great!" Kairi smiled. "Riku finished up his collecting and went home already, so do you want to watch the sunset, just the two of us?"

Now it was Sora's turn to blush. "Uh…sure!"

"Okay, just give me a few minutes to gather up the last of the shells I'll need for my necklace and we can go to the docks to watch it!" Kairi ran towards the shore of the beach while Sora went to the dock. He watched her sit down, deep in concentration, and pick up a couple more shells to thread onto the charm. When she was finished, she walked over to Sora and sat down next to him.

"So you've finished?" Sora asked.

"Not quite yet, but it's close enough where I'll have it finished by tomorrow," she said. They sat in silence for a while. He noticed the unhappy look on her face and sighed.

"Kairi, what's wrong?" he asked. Was it possible she'd heard his earlier conversation with Riku or the cloaked figure and it was bothering her?

"You know, Riku has changed," she said slowly. It was like she was trying to pick just the right words so that way Sora wouldn't be upset.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well…" she started, but couldn't seem to figure out what she wanted to say.

"You okay?"

"Sora, let's take the raft and go- just the two of us." This was drastically out of character for Kairi. It just didn't make sense that she wouldn't want Riku to join them.

"Huh?" He stared at her in shock.

"Just kidding," she laughed, and he started to laugh as well.

"What's gotten into you? You're the one that's changed, Kairi," he said. She stood up and his gaze followed her movement.

"Maybe…you know, I was a little afraid to go at first, but now I'm ready," she said. Sora looked at her in surprise. She'd never seemed to not want to go or seemed scared. The fact that she had been made him slightly worried. "No matter where I go or what I see, I can always come back here. Right?"

Sora nodded. "Yeah, of course!" his voice sounded slightly too excited, even for who he was. Maybe the cloaked figure from earlier was just making him nervous.

"That's good, Sora. Don't ever change," she said.

"Huh?"

"I just can't wait. Once we set sail, it'll be great."

-x-

"To Luigi,

Sorry I left, but I heard rumors about what might have happened to Daisy and Rosalina. I heard they were kidnapped by a madman who wants to destroy the worlds. I don't know much about him yet, but I'm going to find out. Let Peach know that I'm gone and apologize that I didn't tell her where I would be going, but I have to take this chance now. I'll send more word when I find out, but in the meantime, keep her safe and get word out to Bowser, he might be able to help us out.

Your bro, Mario," Luigi read the letter to Bowser as quickly as possible.

"See Bowser, that's why you have to help," Peach said.

"But…I don't wanna help!" Bowser complained. "There's no way I'll ever help out Mario."

"But Bowser, if you don't there won't be any place left where you can rule and I'll be gone," Peach said.

"No!" Bowser insisted.

"Come on, you'll get to spend more time with the princess if you do," Luigi said to bribe the Koopa King.

"What?" Bowser glanced at Peach and growled. "Alright, but just so I can spend more time with Peach."

"Good, now we need to-"

"Excuse me…I'm looking for a Princess Peach, Luigi, and King Bowser," a small rainbow butterfly flew into the room in front of the three.

"That would be us," Luigi said.

"Excellent. My name is Tippi, and Mario sent me," Tippi said.

"What did he say?" Peach asked.

"You three are supposed to head to a world called Traverse Town to look for a key," Tippi said. "He will be the one to fulfill the prophecy within the Light Prognosticus. A man called Leon is supposed to be able to help."

"Back up, what's going on?" Peach asked.

"Mario came to visit Merlon in search of advice. Mario then proceeded to ask Merlon about what's happening, who then lent him me after supplying the answers to help you three and the key," Tippi said. "I'm a Pixl, one of few fairy like creatures with unique abilities, in my case, I know everything about everything."

"So what's this Light Pragmatics thingy then?" Bowser asked.

"It's Prognosticus, but I digress," Tippi said. "It's an ancient book of prophecies that was created to prevent the prophecies its sister book predicts from occurring. The Dark Prognosticus predicts the end of the universe many times over. Unfortunately the light one is very vague, so we don't know who this key is and anything about the threats to the worlds besides their name, the Heartless."

Peach looked at Tippi for a moment in thought. "So you'll be coming with us Miss Tippi?"

"Until the worlds are safe, yes, then I'll be returning back to Merlon," Tippi said. "I'll be chronicling everything that happens along our journey for the future as well. It was Merlon's idea."

"Then come on, let's go to the Toad brigade's ship already and get going!" Luigi said.

"I'll call Captain Toad, it should be ready in about ten minutes," Peach said.