After lunch, Rachel and Bryan asked their friends what they wanted to do next. Kairi wanted to see more gardens. Sora was curious about a few as well so they and Bryan went together. Riku wanted to be alone with Rachel. So they split up.

Based on what had been said by Bryan to Sora and Kairi on the ship a few days ago, both Sora and Kairi were a bit surprised Bryan hadn't said anything about Rachel and Riku being alone together. They knew Riku was completely trustworthy, as they were sure Bryan knew too. But they were also sure there was always going to be a piece of Bryan that would always be suspicious of Riku on principle.

The first garden they explored had a huge hedge maze they spent a while trying to navigate. The hedges would've taken two of them standing on shoulders to see over. Big flowers grew on vines that snaked their way over the leafy walls. The ground was paved with tiles of white stone with soft moss growing between the cracks. Occasionally they would find a clearing with a statue, fountain or topiary in the center.

"So what's that tune?" Sora asked Bryan as they went through the maze. "Nope, dead end down this way."

"Same here," Kairi said. She turned around from the path she was trying.

"What tune?"

"That rhythm you're tapping."

Bryan looked down where he'd been lightly patting his thighs in a quiet but fast-paced rhythm with his hands. Neither Sora or Kairi missed his expression that he had no idea he was doing it until Sora brought it up.

"I'm always doing that."

"Gotta beat on something when you don't have your drums?" Kairi asked with a smile.

"Guess so. It's a bit more complicated than that, actually."

"Oh? How so?" Sora inquired. They'd come to another dead end and had to turn around.

"Well…how can I explain it? I guess…it's something that's always been a part of me. For as long as I can remember I've had people ask me to stop tapping because it was irritating even when I didn't realize I was doing anything. It's in my head all the time."

"What is?"

"The Drumbeat. The never-ending Drumbeat."

"What does it sound like?" Kairi asked.

"It's always changing. It's like…it's like somehow there's something in my head that lets me hear the rhythm that all things have. I can hear the beat of a city, of the woods…even the magic of the Tower. Most of the time I don't even realize I'm actually hearing anything before I start tapping it out. I don't think about it most of the time, really, I don't. It just happens." Even as he spoke was tapping out a beat of four counts over and over and over lightly on his thigh. "It's like…imagine…have you ever heard a song you recognize from a ways away? You strain your ears to hear it over the other sounds around you. Sometimes you can't hear it because of other sounds but your mind fills in the rest because you know how the song goes. It's like that…kinda. If that makes any sense."

"I think I get it."

"And you don't know where it came from? I mean, it has to have come from somewhere, right?" Kairi asked.

"That would make sense," Bryan answered. "But I don't know where. A gift I guess. Rachel has a thing for magic and I have my music. It probably would have never stopped but the day we found No Shortcuts was the day I got a step closer to understanding it. And I realized it was more than must the need to tap out rhythms. It's always there, it's always been there. I just didn't know it was anything special."

"And you have no idea why you're always hearing drums?"

"Maybe I'm just sensitive to the music all around us."

"Music all around us?" Sora asked.

"Well I guess there is the birds singing and the sound of wind in the trees or the babble of a stream." Kairi said, thinking she understood his meaning.

"Not like that at all. Music is in all things. Music, the true form of music is organized sounds as well as silence. There is no rhythm, tempo or meter people can come up with that doesn't already exist somehow, some way in nature. If people can think it up, maybe it's because they're already somehow in tune with what is already playing the music…or it could just be luck. Music is the invisible, ever-existing, ever-flowing world that's somehow made visible through sound. Everything and everyone has a rhythm of its heart and somehow I can hear it."

"That's deep."

"You can hear someone's heart beating?" Sora asked. They'd stopped at a clearing in the maze.

"No, not the beating sound of the physical heart. Just like how a heart has its balance of light and dark, a heart also has a rhythm…a Heart Song uniquely its own. It can change as the Heart changes, when a person changes."

"A Heart Song?" Kairi inquired.

"Yeah. Every heart has one. I can hear it, so can Rachel. But she prefers to sing and that's how she hears the song. She gives it the words, I give it the music."

"You can do that?" Sora asked excitedly.

"Well as best as we can. The heart is pretty complicated after all. We can't perfectly translate the song but I think we get pretty close."

"So you know the beat of your Heart Song?" Sora asked.

"Yep."

"Did Rachel share the song with you?"

"Yep."

"Did they match?"

"Kinda."

"Interesting."

"Can you hear my Heart Song?" Kairi asked eagerly.

Bryan shrugged. "Sure, um," He looked around. The clearing they stopped in had a few stone benches. He sat down and Kairi sat down next to him. "Just hold still for a second." The Master gently put his hands on either side of Kairi's face and closed his eyes, listening. His expression was calm, like he were sleeping. After a moment he opened his eyes again. He called the Bass Blade and sat back on bench, pulling his feet up and crossed his legs. Bryan placed the blade across his knees tapped along it like it were a conga. He closed his eyes again and began playing.

The Bass Blade thrummed as it was touched. The blade held the sound of every percussion instrument ever created. Anything that could be considered a drum cried out from the blade. Even the dull thumps of his hands came off as the sharp sound of a drum head being hit with a drumstick, mallet or something similar.

The song of Kairi's heart, at least the way Bryan heard it, had an interesting mix of rhythms. There was something sharp and upbeat like the kick of the tango and yet the elegant sway of the waltz. It was fast, but not so fast you couldn't dance to it. Sora and Kairi recognized the playful 'dwung' of the steel drum that seemed to dominate the song.

Kairi couldn't help it. She laughed. She'd never heard it before but she recognized it. She knew it. It felt right. The princess spread her arms and started dancing in the clearing. On one pass, Sora caught her hand and danced with her. The song seemed to last forever. It was all there was. It was all that was real, all that needed to exist. When Bryan finally stopped, the silence crashed down on them like an avalanche of boulders. It was like all that was beautiful stopped.

"That was amazing!" Kairi cried. "I mean, that was-that was the most magical thing I've ever heard! And-and that was all just from one set of instruments!"

"Imagine what it would sound like if there was an entire orchestra of sounds behind that!" Sora said, equally enthralled by the song.

Bryan spun his Keyblade with an I-know-I'm-all-that sort of air before making it vanish. "That was fun. You've got a great song. Now I should be able to find you wherever you go, too."

Kairi cocked her head. Sora too looked curious. "What do you mean by that?" Kairi asked.

"It means that I know what you're song sounds like now. Among all the other songs and rhythms of whatever world, I'll be able to pick out yours when I hear it and follow it to you."

"That is so cool."

"Me next!" Sora put his hand up like a schoolboy who knew the answer.

"Can we get out of this maze first?"