"Sora... Sora..."

Slowly, feeling returned to Sora's body. Beautiful golden eyes were the first thing he saw once he opened his own. It took him a moment to realize he wasn't looking at Xehanort or any of his other selves, but rather at Mami Tomoe. He sat up, putting his arm over the backrest of the sofa he'd slept on.

"Oh, good morning, Mami!" He greeted.

"Good morning, Sora." She returned. "I really hate to have woken you up."

"Huh? Why is that?"

"O- Oh. No reason..." She said, turning her head to face away from him. "I just wanted to let you know I was heading off to school."

"Aw, you didn't have to do that." Sora admitted. "If I woke up and realized you weren't here, I likely would've figured you had errands to run or were out looking for Witches."

"Well, I didn't want you worrying either way." She concluded. "I won't be back for a couple of hours. Do you have any plans?"

"I was thinking I'd keep looking for Kairi. Even if I don't find her, I'll at least get a feel for this place."

"I suppose that's reasonable." Mami agreed. "Kyubey is with Madoka and Sayaka. "If you need to speak with any of us, just approach Mitakihara Middle School and call for us in your head."

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"

"While you were asleep, Kyubey put you, Madoka, and Sayaka in a mental link with each other and myself. Think of it as a sort of online chat without the online part."

"Oooh... Cool!"

"I'd better get going, I'll be late if I don't hurry. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Alright!"

And with that, Mami left, leaving Sora alone on the sofa. Or, at least he thought.

"Gee, Sora. You sure got lucky." A familiar voice said from around his shoulder.

"Huh?"

A small figure with a top hat and cane leapt from his perch on Sora's shoulder and onto the glass coffee table. Sora recognized him immediately.

"Jiminy!"

"Yep! It's me! Your faithful guide and conscience!"

"You could've told me you were here earlier." Sora remarked.

"Well, I would've, but I was just finishing up writing my journal entry on your battle against Master Xehanort when you ran into Hitomi back there. And, well, you know what happened after that. I started a new journal after you got caught up in that Labyrinth, and the whole time you were talking, I was filling everything in. Then you ended up falling asleep, and I decided to wait until that Mami friend of yours left to speak with you."

"It's fine, at least you're here."

"So, you're gonna look for Kairi again?"

"What else can I really do? It's not like hunting Witches is my job, and Kairi is the whole reason I'm even here."

"Hm, I guess that's true." Jiminy admitted. "Speaking of Kairi, how do you think she'd feel upon seeing you like this?"

"What are you talking about? I feel mostly the same as I did when she last saw me."

"I guess I should rephrase. How do you think she'd feel upon seeing the company you're with?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jiminy just chuckled to himself, leaving Sora to make a connection. "What!? Jiminy! It's not- I don't-"

"Oh, you should've seen Mami when she was going to wake you up. She spent a good moment just staring at you with this big smile on her face. I'll bet she likes having you around."

"Jiminy! That's ridiculous! We just met!"

"Keep an eye out, Sora." Jiminy advised. "Maybe then you'll see the things I do."

He then hopped back up onto Sora's shoulder and disappeared again, leaving the red-faced Sora to collect himself before heading out.

"Are you sure this is okay? I mean, tagging along to school and everything?" Sayaka asked through the mentioned mental link as she sat at her desk.

"Why not?" Kyubey responded.

"That psycho chick who was trying to kill you yesterday just transferred to our class. You're sort of risking your life being here."

"Actually, I think the school is the safest place for me. Besides, Mami's here!"

"But Mami's a ninth grader." Madoka pointed out. "She's all the way on the other side of the school."

"Don't worry." Mami's voice suddenly stated. "I can hear all of you perfectly."

"She's not that far." Kyubey explained. "So my telepathy can still reach her!"

"Oh, uh... Good morning!" Madoka stammered.

"I promise I'll keep a close watch over all of you." Mami reassured them. "Besides, she doesn't seem like the type to attack you in public."

"If you say so..." Sayaka conceded. "Ugh, speak of the devil." She muttered, watching Homura Akemi, Kyubey's attacker, enter the room and take her seat. She only turned briefly to glare at the two girls and Kyubey. The bell for class rang, and Sayaka's doubt turned into determination. "Don't worry, Madoka. If she steps out of line, I'll punch her lights out! Besides, Mami's got our back!"

"Hey! Don't forget me!" Sora's voice stated. "Although I might not be able to get to you as easily as Mami."

"Wait, Sora? You're here?" Sayaka wondered. "But, doesn't Kyubey's telepathy have a sort of range?"

"It does." Sora agreed. "At least I think."

"But, that would mean that for us to hear you, you'd need to be somewhere near the school. Where are you exactly?"

"The roof."

"The roof!?" Sayaka thought incredulously. "How on earth did you get up there without anyone seeing you?"

"Oh I definitely think people saw me." He admitted. "I did sort of run up the wall to get up here..."

"You ran up the wall!?"

"Yep. Just a perk of being a Keyblade Wielder. I'll show you what all I can do later. Right now, you should probably focus. Hasn't class started?"

"You're right. It has." Madoka stated. "But you're gonna be looking out for us too, right?"

"You bet!" Sora agreed. "Everything's gonna be fine, regardless of Sayaka and her punches."

"What do you mean 'regardless!?'"

Sora actively laughed out loud at Sayaka's reaction, but chose not to respond. He stood atop the spire at the very peak of the building, looking out over the city.

"So, are you just gonna stand there or are you gonna get to looking?" Jiminy Cricket asked.

"I will, I just thought I'd check in on everyone before I got moving." Sora explained.

"You were talking to them through that mental link thing Kyubey established, right?"

"Exactly!"

"Sounds like it'll be pretty handy." Jiminy hummed. "But that's off topic. Where do you think you're gonna start lookin'?"

"I dunno. I might just go wandering around until I find something. We might even bump into a Witch along the way."

"You sound excited about that." Jiminy said, caution in his voice.

"Well, kinda." Sora admitted, summoning his new Keyblade, the Key of Hope. "I got this new Keyblade at some point and didn't even realize it. If we run into a Witch, I'll have an excuse to check it out."

"Well, if yo're so excited, why don't you get moving?"

"You're right. Let's go!" Sora agreed, leaping from his perch and plummeting towards the ground.

Meanwhile in Class 3A, a brief shadow passed by the window outside, catching the attention of some of the students.

"Hey, did something just fall out there?"

"I think it did. Something big."

Seeing as it was a break time for the class, some of the students got up and looked out the window.

"Holy shit!"

"It's a person!"

Mami, upon hearing this, immediately stood up and prepared to transform, expecting a Witch to appear. Another suicide that couldn't be explained. And then she saw who had jumped from the roof.

Sora, noticing Mami's vibrant golden hair during his free-fall, turned a hundred and eighty degrees and Airslid towards the wall, latching onto it and Freerunning up to level with the class.

The few students in the window stared at him in shock.

"You sure gave everyone quite the scare." Mami mentally scolded as he leapt from the wall again.

"Heheh. My bad." Sora chuckled, activating Flowmotion and leaping from tree to tree until he was off campus, to which he then started leaping between street lamps until he was a long way from Mitakihara Middle School.

He eventually stopped on a random sidewalk, walking like a normal person in the direction he was facing.

"Was all that really necessary?" Jiminy questioned.

"It wasn't." Sora stated casually. "But I figured I'd have a bit of fun once I realized there were spectators."

"I swear, what am I gonna do with you...?" Jiminy muttered.

"Hey, I heard that." Sora noted as they passed a storefront housing a television playing a newsreel.

"Breaking news! Multiple unidentified creatures have been spotted in the Mitakihara Shopping District. All citizens are encouraged to evacuate the area while authorities deal with the threat."

The video on screen showed multiple shadowy creatures with beady yellow eyes gathered in a taped off area. Uniformed officers stood at the edges of the area, as if trying to assess the situation.

But Sora didn't need to do any of that. He knew exactly what was going on. And it wasn't good.

"Heartless!?" He shouted, drawing the attention of the citizens nearby. He summoned his new Keyblade and immediately went for the rooftops, trying to find where this place was. Jumping, and then activating Doubleflight to gain some extra air, Sora then used Glide to quickly move across the city unimpeded from a bird's eye view.

After only about three minutes, he had found the location of the Heartless, and stopped gliding, instead free-falling again. As he neared the ground, he raised his Keyblade to the sky and slammed down, creating a shockwave that took out several smaller Heartless.

The creatures of darkness seemed to understand that Sora had bigger priority than the other people, as they all turned to face him at once.

A few Earth Cores, as expected, dug their faces into the ground, becoming impervious to Sora's Keyblade. However, a solid use of Thundaga was not Sora's Keyblade, they quickly picked themselves back up, and were swept up by Aeraga. Sora knew these guys enjoyed the ground, so taking them out in the air was almost essential. He primed his Shotlock on the five of them, and as he let loose, five groups of six white muskets appeared, aiming at each of the Earth Cores. Each group fired one after another, taking out the Cores.

A Large Body was already sliding towards Sora, and without time to cast Blizzard or its variants, he instead opted to roll to the side, easily deflecting a flying nut from a Powerwild, its mark hitting perfectly. With the Large Body now pacified briefly, Sora froze it with Blizzard, and then Airstepped to it and put it out of its misery with ease.

A few Soldiers remained, no match for a swift combo from Sora, wiping out the last of the Heartless.

"Whew, no problem!" Sora quipped, only for the sound of a gate opening to echo behind him.

"I must admit, Sora. While those Heartless weren't particularly strong, you still handled them remarkably well."

He'd recognize that voice anywhere, and he was just waiting for when he'd hear it again.

"Alright, Maleficent. What is it now?"