On the morning of the eighth day, the friends were summoned below deck by the succulent aromas of warm biscuits and cinnamon rolls. After breakfast the small crew got a sprinkling of pixie dust and flew to the beach where Sora and Riku once raced for the chance to name their homemade raft.
They sat up on the ledge by the rock wall. For a while they sat in the shade, enjoying the cool of the morning and the chill given off by the wall behind them. But the time was not just spent mindlessly lounging. Sora, Riku and Kairi told the Masters about their island home. After spending time away from it all, even Riku had a better appreciation for the things they'd left behind. They also planned for what they'd do when they got together again. That way their island visit could be jumpstarted just like this last one was when Rachel and Bryan dropped out of nowhere and rushed their friends off to the other worlds. As their times together were uncertain, they'd need to make the most of every minute.
When lunch came around, the meal was taken above deck in the sunshine. After that, the friends retired below deck once again to Bryan's game room. Bryan and Sora played ping pong. Riku got comfortable in one of the hammocks. Rachel and Kairi sat off to the side, Rachel with one of her many sketchbooks was drawing Kairi. Riku watched her draw. His angle wasn't too good and he didn't feel like moving but he could see lines appear on the paper as her pencil flitted across it. For a second, it was like watching Namine doodle in her white room. Perhaps that feeling was brought up just because Kairi was a part of the scene.
"Something I've wondered for a while," Sora said as he bounced the little ball back to Bryan. "How do you guys…not get noticed…when you go around the worlds?" He frequently paused concentrating on hitting the ball. "I mean, King is a lot bigger… than the Gummi Ship. It's a lot harder to hide so…how does nobody see it and wonder where it came from or try to investigate?"
"Perception Spells." Rachel answered. She made a quick correction then continued her sketch.
"Lots of perception spells." Bryan corrected, smashing the ball back to Sora.
"What are those?" Riku asked.
"It's…magic that…keeps you…from seeing things, darn it!" He lost focus trying to return the serve and explain at the same time. Bryan picked up the ball but didn't serve until he was finished explaining. "Perception magic is kinda like making something invisible. It makes something not register to you as important or that you're even seeing it even if you'relooking right at it. Somebody here would just see a ship anchored at sea and not even give a second thought to its odd design or the fact its hovering ten feet above the water. You'd need someone who knew it was there to point it out to you in order to see it for what it really is."
"Like when you're eyes are skimming over the words in a book but until you get to the bottom of the page do you realize you haven't actually registered a single word." Rachel added.
"So that's how that works. C'mon, pass it." And the game resumed.
The game continued until there was a smash fest and the girls forbade them to continue after the ball went flying at them. After that, Bryan took to his drum set and Sora and Riku played darts. Riku looked over his shoulder at the girls when it was Sora's turn. Rachel must have finished enough so Kairi didn't have to sit so still anymore. She'd also gone from a pencil to a kind of pen. Later, as their game continued he noticed Rachel viciously going after the paper with huge eraser, getting rid of the unnecessary lines. The next time he looked he saw and heard Kairi give a short gasp of awe. Apparently she approved of the end image.
Bryan upped the music a bit by calling the Base Blade and placing it across the bass drum. As he continued playing, the Keyblade caught the sound and it sounded like the entire percussion section of an orchestra. While he played the others got out a board game that the Masters brought from Radiant Garden. Except Rachel. She sat back and sketched the others at the table. Bryan played quietly so they all could talk and be heard.
"We'll have to take you two sailing when you come back here again." Kairi said. "Or wind boarding."
"Sounds cool." Bryan said. "We've never done any of that before. I'll bet balance and core strength built up as a key bearer would make surfing easier." None of them gave any thought to how surfing for the Masters would be impossible since they grew tails when submerged.
"I never thought about that." Sora said thoughtfully. "Love to see the look on Tidus' face when I'm not wiping out every other wave. He always got a kick out of my trouble."
"Wiping out?" Bryan said with an air of accepting a challenge. And he proceeded to beat out the percussion line of Wipe Out.
"You grew up on an island but don't know how to surf?" Rachel asked. She doodled a few more lines to her picture.
"Oh everyone knows," Sora told her. "Just not everybody's that good. Maybe that's what we should do tomorrow. See how rusty we are from years of not doing it." He added mostly to Riku and Kairi.
"I'm picturing your board gracefully gliding down the wave without you." Riku said.
"Hardy, har."
"Yeah, Rising Falls isn't exactly the best place to surf." Rachel said. "But if you're up in one of the castle balconies that overlooks the water, it's a really awesome way to watch a sunrise."
"It's pretty cool to be able to visit the castle whenever we like now that we've got friends in charge of it." Bryan said. "I hardly ever got to see the castle growing up except for the tallest towers that could be seen from the ground."
They spoke some more about their home worlds and what it was like growing up there. Rachel and Bryan's dreams of something bigger and better weren't that much different from Sora and friends. Riku especially wanted so terribly for the stories of other worlds to be true and escape to see them. All the while Radiant Garden was slowly decaying into Hollow Bastion, creating a dreary home the Masters wished to see beyond. In many respects, the prologue of their stories was the same, only the setting was unique.
But the hours have a nasty habit of passing quickly when you don't want them to. The yawning sun prepared to tuck itself in as the moon stretched her pale glow across the sand and glittered upon the tips of the waves. Only a small crescent of the sun could be seen casting its orange radiance upon the water.
"Hey!" Sora exclaimed when he realized how late it had gotten. "We gotta go up top!"
"Why?" Bryan asked. He stopped playing.
"I can't believe after all the sunsets we've shared none of us ever told you about it or thought to look for it!" Sora continued, scurrying up the wooden stairs.
"Look for what?" Rachel put down her sketchbook and followed.
The Masters looked to Riku and Kairi for an explanation. They must have understood what he meant. Kairi made a short gasp that indicated it clicked what Sora was talking about and Riku had a similar, 'oh yeah you're right' look. They lined up on the rail facing the quickly vanishing sun.
"What?"
"Have you two ever heard of the green flash?"
It was a little freaky to watch the brother and sister raise a quizzical eyebrow at the exact same time in the exact same way. Taking their expressions as a 'no', Sora, Riku and Kairi took turns explaining what it was.
"Sometimes when the sky is clear and the waves are calm, a green flash lights up the sky as the sun sets."
"It doesn't happen very often. And you can miss it if you so much as blink."
"There are all sorts of legends about the flash too. Some believe seeing one blesses the viewer with lifelong good fortune, or make them lucky in matters of love"
"Other stories say seeing the green flash can give your very soul certain powers. Kinda how 'the eyes are the windows to the soul' sort of thing."
"Have you guys ever seen it?" Bryan asked.
"Once." Sora and Riku said. Kairi shook her head.
They stared at the horizon, barely daring to blink as the last crucial seconds of daylight ticked by. But the dying light of day had no secrets it was willing to give up this time. The last sliver of the sun sank below the dark line of water, leaving only a hazy glow behind.
"Anything?" Rachel asked. She tried blinking away a line of light like a camera flash from staring.
"Not tonight." Riku said.
"We'll get it next time." Kairi said.
"Is that why you guys sit around watching sunsets all the time?" Bryan asked. "To see the green flash?"
"It started out that way." Sora answered. "As kids we of course wanted the stories to be real so we could be lucky or have special powers. Then it just became our thing."
"When did you last see it?" Rachel asked Riku.
"A few days before Kairi appeared, actually. Looking back, knowing that so few things are truly impossible, maybe it wasn't just a coincidence."
"That would be so cool if it wasn't." Kairi said with a smile.
But as much as they all would have loved to have spent another night under the stars and continue the fun the next day, Master Yen Sid surely would have returned and Rachel and Bryan would need to return soon as well. The goodbyes got easier every time. With the exception of Rachel and Riku this time. There was a fair amount of hugging. Bryan was sure he was going to have to stick a crowbar between them to pry Riku and his sister apart. Every time he said it was time to go, she made 'nhm-mmm' 'no' sounds. And Riku wasn't making any effort in the slightest to make her get off.
Rachel's farewell hugs to Sora and Kairi didn't last as long but were just as heart-felt. Promises to see each other again weren't necessary but Sora made them say it anyway. Finally the Masters dropped their friends off on the beach on the main island and glided King over the open water. After one final wave goodbye, Sora, Riku and Kairi saw Bryan jog to the bow and with a sharp flicker of light they could tell he just attached his half of their Keyblade to the ship. Once again the trio witnessed the ripple and blur of color as the special space ship vanished into nothing.
They watched the sky for a short time, sad to see the sky and sea so empty of their friends but glad to see such a lovely night scene. The waves had calmed, no longer catching the moonlight on their tips but reflecting the stars in a near-perfect mirror. Then, with twinkling radiance, the three friends witnessed a falling star grace the sky.
"Oooh! Quick, quick! Make a wish!" Kairi said in excited awe. "We might have missed the green flash but that certainly made up for it."
"Yeah! That was awesome!" Sora agreed. "What do you think, Riku?"
Riku looked up at the empty sky, a smile teasing at his lips, thinking about Rachel. "I think something beautiful makes the goodbye easier."
"But it's never 'goodbye'." Sora said happily, playfully punching Riku in the arm in a 'oh come on you should know the answer to this' kind of way.
"No goodbyes. Only, 'Until the next time!'"