Chapter note: For the proper effect, play "Simple and Clean" by Utada Hikaru during the part of this chapter written in italics.
Once she had finished with all of that, Sarah felt a bit more tired than she could easily account for given the oh-so-brief scuffle that she'd had with Riku. Carefully tucking the journal away in one of the large pockets of the bluish-gray shorts that she'd managed to find in Sora's closet, Sarah yawned deeply and set about settling herself down on one of the softer, thicker patches of foliage nearby.
She wasn't particularly eager to wake up stiff and sore, even after what was probably going to end up being a short cat-nap, but since there were no beds in the area – and she knew that Sora wasn't really the type to go home just so he could have a nap – Sarah knew that she would have to make do with what she found. Patting down all of the nearby foliage, both to find the softest available and to make sure that there were no rocks – sharp or otherwise – under any of them, Sarah yawned widely one last time.
Looks like this is the best of the bunch, she mused, coming around once again to the large bush that seemed to be made entirely of huge, low-growing green leaves in various shades of such.
After making a final check for anything that would bother her while she was napping – rocks, worms, beetles, spiders, or the odd lost left shoe – and moving out those few things she did find, Sarah yawned for a third time, curled up within the leaves of the plant that she had just officially designated the "napping bush", and closed her eyes.
Her last coherent thought was that it would be funny as hell if she ended up having the same kind of dream that Sora did at the beginning of the game...
... A figure, indistinct but clearly female, stands atop a circular, dark gray platform marked with a single, light-blue 'X' that stretches almost to the edges of the platform. As she takes a step closer to the center of the X, the platform shatters beneath her, and she falls into a bottomless gray abyss, tumbling over headfirst and turning into a streak of light as she plunges faster and faster.
On a beach, a boy with spiky brown hair that seems to casually defy the law of gravity, looks out into the sky as an uncountable number of shooting stars fall toward the ground. One of them seems to be heading towards him, and he blinks up at it as it heads right for him. The shooting star disappears just before the boy falls to the ground on his back.
The boy kneels, looking up to the sky, before looking down into the ocean in front of him. His reflection in the water changes to an older girl, her light-colored hair pulled back in a ponytail, as the water ripples. The boy plunges his hands into the reflection's face, and rinses his own with the water cupped in them; the resulting spray glitters in the air as it slowly falls.
The boy stands up, seeing a taller boy with silver hair standing out in the ocean, a wave just beginning to crest behind him; the silver-haired boy reaches out his right hand, beckoning the brown-haired boy to come to him. The brown-haired boy holds out his own right hand, and the silver-haired boy runs back through the ocean to join up with the brown-haired one.
The wave breaks as the two boys hold their clasped hands above their heads. A red-haired girl joins them, and the brown-haired boy clasps her hand as well, holding it above their heads. All three of them smile, as the brown-haired boy drops both their hands to his sides, then tugs them forward. The three of them race across the beach, holding hands and laughing.
The ground underneath them begins to tilt upward, gently at first before becoming a steep incline. The three companions unclasp their hands, pumping their arms as they run up the incline; the silver-haired boy takes the lead, while the red-haired girl falls back to the rear. The ground begins to split under them, dividing into three distinct sections, as the remaining sand falls away to reveal that each one of them are standing atop a large pillar; the one with the red-haired girl being the lowest, then the middle one with the brown-haired boy, leaving the silver-haired boy standing atop the highest.
The third pillar vanishes into the ground, taking the red-haired girl with it as the two boys turn to look back at her. The silver-haired boy reaches out his right hand to the brown-haired one, as the second pillar begins to tremble; holding out his own hand for a moment, the brown-haired boy pulls it back as the pillar shatters and he falls backward, covering his face with it, and opening his fingers just enough to reveal his left eye as he falls into the abyss beneath the pillars.
A pair of hazel eyes open, blinking once before the face they're in subtly changes, and the eyes open slightly wider to reveal blue irises, blinking once more. The view pulls back to take in the boy's body from the waist up, as he continues to fall, turning slightly until he's falling head first. A ball of pulsating, white light appears in the center of his chest, swiftly spreading out to encompass his entire body, then spreading beyond the ends of his limbs; half a foot beyond the ends of his fingers, and a full foot beyond the tips of his shoes.
The light wraps around his torso, rippling like sunlight on water, as it forms a distinctly human shape; the figure is larger than the brown-haired boy, and while still slender, is clearly more muscular than him. The swirling, shimmering lights hold the clear shape of a human figure, taller than the boy, and wearing narrower, more pointed boots that taper to squared-off ends, with slender fingers at the end of its arms. The chest area is more indistinct, making the figure's gender difficult to determine.
Tumbling gently in the abyss, almost like a leaf freed from its mother tree, the boy rights himself as he continues to fall. An uncountable number of birds begins to take wing, revealing a glowing platform as the boy descends toward it. For just a few moments, he seems to be able to stand on the glowing boots of the rippling, ethereal figure surrounding him, his eyes closed as he raises his arms and curls his fingers outward, the ethereal figure mimicking the action.
Just as he opens his eyes, watching the last of the birds flying out into the distance, the ethereal figure bursts apart into a cloud of stardust, hovering over the boy's head, and he lands on his own two feet.