The battle finally seemed to be over. Master Xehanort had passed on with Master Eraqus, handing the x-blade off to Sora and the others. As light engulfed them, they left Scala ad Caelum and returned to the Keyblade Graveyard, staring on at Kingdom Hearts high in the sky, safe and sealed once again. A moment of silence passed between the entire group.

Mickey was the one to break this silence. "It's finally over." He declared, with everyone, save one, nodding in agreement.

The only one who didn't think the battle against darkness was over was Sora himself, the one who went head-to-head with Master Xehanort and came out on top. And anyone who knew him knew what he was thinking.

"...No." Sora muttered.

"We'll find Kairi." Riku tried to assure his childhood friend. "Let's head back to Master Yen Sid. We can figure it out."

"No. I know what to do." Sora stated.

"Sora..." Mickey trailed.

"My whole journey began the day I lost her." Sora explained as he turned to face his friends. "And every time I find her... She slips away again. I thought we'd finally be together. But she's out there, alone. Not for another second."

Donald and Goofy, the two closest friends Sora had save for Riku and Kairi, stepped forward.

"We'll go, too!" Donald said.

"Right!" Goofy agreed.

"Thank you, Donald, Goofy. But this time, I have to go it alone."

"Sora, listen. The power of waking isn't for chasing hearts around!" Mickey scolded. "Even if you do locate Kairi, you may never come home to us again!"

"I will." Sora declared. "We'll both be back before you know it!"

"Please..."

Riku looked towards the King, and then to Sora, kneeling down to be at eye level with the former. "Let him go, Mickey."

"Riku..."

"His heart and his mind are made up. Now, believe in him."

"Yeah..." Mickey conceded. "Safe journey, Sora."

"Thank you."

Sora then turned towards the endless expanse of Keyblades, summoning his own. Ultima Weapon glimmered crimson in the sun as Sora aimed its tip towards the sky in front of him. A glow appeared, then a beam shot out, breaking through the fabric of the world itself. A bright flash of light, and Sora vanished.

Sora woke up in an unfamiliar city. At first he thought he had ended up in San Fransokyo, which wouldn't of been the first time. Shaking off the unpleasant memories of that accursed Lich, he looked around and saw that he was not in Hiro's world at all, despite the similarities. And for once, he didn't have any sort of objective in mind.

For one, he found that he hadn't lost all of his powers this time, only most of them. Ultima Weapon, Favorite Deputy, Starlight, all the Keyblades he'd obtained throughout his adventure had vanished, leaving him once again with the basic Kingdom Key. He still kept his abilities such as Glide and Doubleflight, alongside his Flowmotion maneuvers. While he still had spells like Fire, Water, Thunder, and Aero.

Whatever, he'd had less. As long as no Heartless or anything of the sorts showed up, he'd be more than fine. All he had to do was find Kairi and get home. Only problem: He had no clue where to start looking.

If Sora had to guess, it was probably the middle of the afternoon by the time he'd made his way into a giant dome-like building that was practically made of glass with how many windows it had. The architecture would've looked perfectly in place in San Fransokyo, though.

Upon walking inside, he found it was a sprawling shopping center with multiple floors. It was like Galaxy Toys back in the Toy Box, if he'd been proper size in that world. Unlike Galaxy Toys, moving platforms resembling staircases would take people up and down the various floors of the complex. He was so busy admiring them that he didn't realize someone was on their way down until he felt a shoving force in his side, and both he and the other person fell to the ground.

"Oof!" Sora grunted as he hit the ground, papers flying about from the olive-haired girl's bag. "Sorry about that!" He said, quickly getting up and gathering some of the papers, helping the girl up at the same time. "Are you okay?"

"Y- Yes, I'm fine." The girl confirmed as Sora handed her back the papers. "I don't think I have seen you around here before..."

"Oh, uh..." Sora bit his tongue to keep from saying the truth, the vestiges of Donald's voice quacking in his ear about world order. "I'm not exactly from here..."

"That would explain your outfit..." The girl muttered. "Oh! Where are my manners? My name is Hitomi Shizuki. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Sora." Sora introduced.

"Sora..." Hitomi trailed, as if getting a feel for the name. "It's interesting."

"Well, I can say yours is too, Hitomi." Sora remarked. "Anyway, I'm looking for someone named Kairi. She wears something similar to what I have." He explained, motioning to the crown-shaped necklace he always wore. "Short brown hair, pink hoodie. Have you seen her?"

"No, I can't say I have." Hitomi admitted. "If it makes you feel better, I could keep an eye out for her."

"That's okay, you don't have to. You look busy anyway." Sora said.

A chill ran down Sora's spine, as if there was a powerful Heartless lurking somewhere nearby.

"Sora-kun? Is everything alright?"

"Y- Yeah. Everything's fine. I think I'll keep looking for Kairi. Maybe I'll see you later?"

"If you say so..." Hitomi agreed, walking out of the complex. Once she was gone, Sora focused on the direction of that dark aura. It was somewhere below him. Maybe the basement of the complex? He looked around for any way down, eventually finding a door labeled 'under construction' at the far end of the court. Activating Flowmotion, Sora flew towards the small lightbulb atop the door, launching across the court in seconds.

Finding it unlocked, Sora made sure nobody else was in the restricted area with him before summoning his Keyblade. As he walked deeper through the basement area, he kept his guard up for any threats, Heartless or otherwise, that could spring out and attack at any moment. However, the scenery shifted from dark, empty halls to a much stranger place.

It was hard to describe, it seemed to be made of an amalgamation of cutouts that were constantly shifting like one of Uncle Scrooge's movies back in Twilight Town.

"Huh? What's going on? What happened here?" Sora wondered aloud, now turning in circles to look for whatever threat might have created this place. Sure, some powerful Heartless had created pocket dimensions like this before, but never on this scale.

"This is some kind of joke, right?" A young female voice questioned from nearby. But, dashing Sora's hopes, it wasn't Kairi's voice. "I'm stuck in a bad dream... But I am dreaming, right Madoka!?"

When he looked over in the direction of the voice, he saw several cottonball-like creatures surrounding two girls wearing the same uniform Hitomi had been. One had blue eyes and hair in a similar style to Kairi's, and the other had pink hair done up with small ribbons. They weren't Kairi, but he still had to save them.

"Thunder!" Sora shouted, raising his Keyblade high and casting Thundaga. The spell did what it always did and zapped each of the chanting creatures with lightning, vaporizing them instantly.

"Huh...? What's happening?" The blue haired girl that looked like Kairi wondered.

"That was close, wasn't it?" Sora asked, slinging his Keyblade over his shoulder and walking towards the two girls. "Are you two okay?"

"Uh, we're okay..." The pink-haired girl answered. "Who- Who are you?"

"My name's Sora. It's nice to meet you. Say, are you friends with Hitomi Shizuki?"

"Wait, you know Hitomi?"

"Kinda. We met a few minutes ago, before I got here."

Thrashing, snipping, and chanting began to echo throughout the area again. "Hold on, it looks like we've got company!" Sora called, getting into a fighting stance as more cottonballs appeared.

Sora focused on the group of cottonballs in front, letting magic flow through his arm and to his Keyblade, charging his Shotlock. Once it was at full power, he fired. A ring of projectiles appeared around the tip of the Keyblade, and several projectiles flew towards different cottoballs, dropping them to the floor so they could dissipate in a cloud of smoke.

With his message sent, he once again focused on a cottonball, this time Airstepping over to it and hooking his Keyblade around where its neck would be. While still under the effects of Flowmotion, he spun around in a giant circle, taking out mutliple cottonballs as he spun. Once he was finished, he hopped off the first cottonball, taking his Keyblade with him, popping off the cottonball's head.

Keeping his Flowmotion combo going, he cast Aeraga beneath himself, launching several cottonballs to his level. He bounced off the center of the gust, and with one quick slice each, cut down each of the cottonballs in the air. As his Flowmotion finally ended, he batted away a pair of scissors attached to one of the cottonballs. Once he spotted the attacker, he used Glide to fly over to it and sliced it in two with his Keyblade.

He turned to face the rest of the horde, only for a giant fireball to come by and take them all out for him. Sora turned to face the direction the fireball came from, finding another girl in a uniform, this one with blonde hair done up in twin drills, holding a glowing gem in her hand.

"You're quite impressive." The new girl remarked. "But you're focusing too much on simple Familiars."

"...Familiars?"

"Surely you know what I mean."

"I'm afraid I don't..."

The new girl hummed in consideration at Sora's words. "Then it looks like we both have a lot of explaining to do. But before we get there, I should introduce myself. I'm Mami Tomoe, a Magical Girl."