Chapter 43

After absorbing the blow, Xemnas sailed through the air again. But then—he blasted a flare of light upward, and when it faded, the world was cloaked in darkness. “Look upon the strength of my hearts! Fury, hate, envy—power of all hearts, come to me, give me sustenance!” Red lights rose out of the darkness, swirling around Sora and Riku. “What…?” Sora muttered—just as the red lights blitzed toward them. “Ngh—!” Riku batted the lights away, trying to protect himself and Sora, but there were too many for him to defend them both, and they knocked him to the ground. “Riku!” Before consciously deciding to do so, Sora was running to his side, interrupted by a red flash swiftly coming to rest at his throat—one of Xemnas’s swords, the Ethereal Blades. There was no move he could make, and above his head, the other blade glinted. Sora stiffened, expecting a terrible blow, but then—Riku was on his feet. He shoved Sora out of range. “Riku…!” Sora cried. In saving him, Riku had taken a direct hit from the Ethereal Blades to his own back. “Sora!” he called. Sora leaped in his direction, and as he passed close, Riku handed off Way to the Dawn—his own Keyblade. With a Keyblade in each hand, Sora charged at Xemnas. “How about this!” Xemnas was knocked aloft and flipped through the air. “Riku!” Sora landed next to him and lifted Way to the Dawn. Riku’s hand closed around it—they both held it together. And a beam of light burst from Way to the Dawn into the sky, into Xemnas, piercing through his chest. Seeing the heavy damage, Sora and Riku leaped up in tandem to finish the battle, each bringing his Keyblade down on Xemnas. Both blows struck home. “Cursed…Keyblades…!” Xemnas snarled. He stretched his hand out toward them, and his final roar faded out as if swallowed up by a world of silence. At last, Xemnas wisped away into a spiraling mist of light and dark. “This time we did it!” Sora jumped and grinned at Riku. But Riku didn’t smile back. “I wouldn’t be so sure.” Xemnas, who supposedly controlled the lesser Nobodies, was no more. And yet there were now swarms of Nobodies pouring in from the darkness around them, almost as if in mourning for their master. “If we’re gonna get out of here, we’ll have to beat them!” Riku repositioned Way to the Dawn and charged into the swarm, with Sora close behind. How many times have I taken down Nobodies like this? But I usually had Donald and Goofy with me… Oh, and sometimes Axel, too. But now I have Riku. And if I’m fighting beside Riku, we’re going to be okay, Sora thought firmly. They fought on and on, taking out Nobody after Nobody. There was no counting them, so they didn’t even try. And as the last one vanished, Riku collapsed to his knees. “Riku!” Sora dashed to him, crouching down in preparation to help him up, and peered into his face. “Sora…I can’t…” Riku could scarcely catch his breath. “No. Don’t say that!” Sora was deadly serious now, almost angry. “It’s not over. It’s just not.” He took Riku’s arm and draped it over his shoulders to help him stand. “How, Sora? Even if we could go on…look where we are…” I can’t even walk under my own strength, Riku thought. How can we both make it out of somewhere past the ends of all the worlds? “Aw, Riku, you’ve been hanging out in the darkness too long. Try and remember how to look on the bright side!” Sora gave him a cheerful smile and stared ahead. There has to be a way out. I’m not giving up, Sora told himself. I haven’t given up yet. I’m going back to the Destiny Islands with Riku. “Sora?” Riku said softly. The name of his best friend, who he was leaning on. Literally. “Yeah?” Sora’s smile was still untroubled. “You lead.” He looked ahead, too. “Got it.” Sora nodded and started walking, dragging Riku along. There was no way to know how far this shadowy nothingness went on. Riku felt like they would keep going forever and never find a way out. But Sora just kept moving, focusing on the next step in front of him. I don’t have that kind of strength, thought Riku. If it was just me, I might have let myself waste away in here… But I want to get Sora home to our island. I want to go back to Kairi… “Hey, Sora…” “Hmm?” Sora’s breath was already labored again, since he was basically carrying another person’s weight—which made Riku feel guilty. If Sora was alone in here, he’d be able to go as far and as fast as he wanted. “You know, I just…always figured I was better at stuff than you,” Riku confessed. He’d never told anybody that. Would it make Sora upset? But Sora’s response was not the bluster he expected. “Huh. Really?” “You’re not mad?” Sora looked at him thoughtfully, about to say something important. “No. I kinda always thought you were better at everything, too.” Riku hung his head. That wasn’t how he imagined Sora would feel. He never would have been able to admit so easily that someone else was stronger. Well, not the way he was before. Sora came to a halt then. Riku looked up at him curiously. “Look—there’s a light up ahead!” Sora exclaimed. In the distance, they could just barely see something bright. Sora moved faster toward the light. And then it flooded over them… But it wasn’t a way out after all. The sound of waves reached their ears. They stood on a desolate shore. On the faraway horizon was a weak, hazy glow, unidentifiable as either moonlight or twilight. Sora had the faint sense he’d seen this place before. But he didn’t know what it was. “Dead end?” asked Riku, squinting at the bleak sea. “Yup.” Sora nodded. There was no way to get Riku across that sea. So they couldn’t go any farther. It was indeed a dead end. “Let me down,” said Riku. “I can walk.” Sora was a little skeptical, but he gently removed Riku’s arm from around his shoulders. Riku teetered for a moment and then gained his footing properly on the sand. Sora let out a breath in relief—quietly, so Riku wouldn’t hear—and walked up to the edge of the lapping waves. He couldn’t see any way out. He had no idea how to get off this lonely beach. What could they do at this point? The water here was dim and gray, nothing like their Destiny Islands. He could scarcely believe that it was the same thing—an ocean. “You know…,” Sora mumbled, “maybe the darkness has gotten to me, too.” He wouldn’t give up, no matter what happened. He would never abandon hope. But now, his hope was faltering. He was so uncertain. What could they hold on to now? He heard something behind him and turned to see Riku collapsed in the sand. “Riku!” Sora dashed over to him, skidding as he crouched to anxiously check Riku’s face. “The way I am now, this is where I should be…” Riku lifted his head, sand stuck to his cheek. He stared out at the metal-dark sea. “If this is what the world truly is…maybe I should just fade back into darkness.” I wanted to see other worlds, Riku remembered. I wanted to go somewhere else. And that wish has already come true. Back then, on our island, I said to Sora and Kairi… “It’s just… I’ve always wondered why we’re here, on this island. If there are other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one?” Now I think it was because we had to be there to meet each other. And if this really is the end of all the worlds, I don’t mind fading out here. “Riku…” Sora murmured his name. “If the world is made of light and darkness…we can be the darkness.” Although, to think that Sora would become part of the darkness—Sora, whose very existence was a brilliant light—it was a little sad. Still, being in the dark along with Sora…that wasn’t so bad. Riku wouldn’t be lonesome at all. Being here by himself would be horribly desolate. And he didn’t want to be alone anymore. Beside him, Sora looked at the sea and idly stretched his legs. “Yeah. The other side, the realm of light…it’s safe now. Kairi and the king and the others are there.” Even without us, the worlds will be okay, he thought as he gazed at the horizon. I don’t mind becoming part of the darkness, if I’m with Riku. “Right. That’s what I mean. Hey, Sora… Could you help me? I want to go closer to the water.” Sora got Riku’s arm over his shoulders again and hoisted him up, then started walking, step by step. It felt like Riku could hardly move his legs anymore. Is he really going to waste away here like this? “At least the waves sound the same,” said Riku. Sora didn’t reply. The ocean filled the silence between them, just like at home. They sat down side by side on the slightly damp sand, and the waves lapped at their feet. How many times had they watched the ocean together like this? Blue sky, blue sea… Home lived only in their memories now. How is Kairi doing…? Maybe she’s sad that Riku and I disappeared. The thought dampened Sora’s spirits, too. “What I said back there…about thinking I was better than you…,” Riku began. “That wasn’t all of it.” “Hmm?” Sora still faced the ocean as he listened to Riku. “The truth is, Sora…I was jealous of you.” Then Sora looked at him. “What for?” Riku hesitated over his words for a moment, staring out at the line between sky and sea. “I wished I could live life the way you do,” he said after the pause. “Just following my heart.” Right—if he was being honest, he’d always, always envied Sora. That carefree laugh, the way he romped around with Kairi, his ability to face what was ahead unflinchingly. Riku had been jealous of all of it, all those things that simply didn’t come to him naturally. Sora turned back to the ocean. “Yeah, well. I’ve got my share of problems, too.” “Like what?” “Like…wanting to be like you,” Sora admitted quietly. I always looked up to him. He was only a year older than me, only a little bit taller, but he was better at sword fighting, and he always looked cool, and I practically worshipped him. My best friend Riku. The truth is, I wanted to be just like him. “Really?” Riku looked up at Sora’s confession, letting out a tiny laugh under his breath. His gaze rested on the silvery horizon. “Well, there is one big advantage to being me. Something you could never imitate.” “Wh… What do you mean?” asked Sora with a defensive pout. Riku’s words came easily this time. “Having you for a friend.” A bit bashful, Sora turned to the horizon again. “Then I guess…I’m okay the way I am. I’ve got something you could never imitate, too,” he said, glad for it, and raised his eyes to the gloomy sky. Riku has something I can never imitate. And he can never imitate what I have. Somehow, that lifted his spirits. They both gazed absently up at the starless heavens. There was no telling what time of day or night it might be here—they couldn’t be sure what that light on the horizon was. The humid breeze from the ocean brought a hint of a chill. And yet they felt completely content to be here—because they were together. Sora quietly closed his eyes, and then Riku did, too. They could almost pretend they were back at the beach on their island. The sound of the waves… The ocean breeze. Suddenly Riku opened his eyes again. A little glass bottle had settled at his feet, and inside, there seemed to be a letter. He took out the cork stopper and scanned the letter. “Sora?” “Huh?” Sora looked at him. Riku held out the letter. “I think it’s for you.” Sora took it and silently read it over. Thinking of you, wherever you are… We pray for our sorrows to end and hope that our hearts will blend. Now I will step forward to realize this wish. And who knows… Starting a new journey may not be so hard. Or maybe it has already begun. There are many worlds, but they share the same sky. One sky, one destiny. The letter was signed Kairi. “Light,” Riku murmured. A brilliant glow was pouring down in front of them. Light—enough light to drive away the darkness. It was the world connected to Kairi’s letter. “The door to light…” Sora got to his feet. “We’ll go together!” He reached out his hand to Riku. “Yeah.” As they stepped forward together, the warm light enfolded them. The bronze sun was just about to sink into the sea beyond Destiny Island. Kairi gazed at the water. The twilight hour—between day and night, between light and darkness—when the rays of the sun stretched out long between the sky and the sea, turned the world to indistinct shapes of deep blue. Xemnas had to be defeated by now…but Riku and Sora weren’t home. Kairi and King Mickey, along with Donald and Goofy, had made it here through the Corridors of Darkness, the way Naminé had told her to go. But only them. Sora and Riku were trapped in that strange world on the other side. Hey, Naminé… Are you here? Kairi softly touched the place over her heart. She had a feeling that since Naminé had instructed her how to get through the Corridors of Darkness, maybe she could tell her something about how Sora and Riku were doing. But there was no answer. Staring at the sea, Kairi anxiously folded her hands in front of her chest. “I bet they’re all right,” said the king from beside her. “Your Majesty…” He was watching the sea, too, and so were Donald and Goofy. All facing the same direction with the same wish in their hearts. Sora, Riku… Please come home. We’re waiting for you here at the blue sea, under the clear sky. If this wish reaches you… If you’re somewhere out there under the same sky… I want you to know. We’re waiting for you. And we’ll keep waiting. She could hear the soft rushing of the waves. Kairi thought back to that day when she’d written a letter to the boy she couldn’t quite remember. She’d believed that letter would begin something. Why had she thought that? It was someone she’d seen in a dream. It must have been Sora—no, Roxas? “It starts with an S!” “Starts with an S…,” Kairi murmured. “Sora.” We made a promise. I know we did. Two lights appeared—two shooting stars streaking across the sky. They grew brighter and trailed down into the sea, one after the other, as if reaching the end of a journey. And where the stars fell, two faces broke the surface of the water. They belonged to two boys very dear to her. The two she was waiting for. “Sora! Riku!” Kairi waved to them. Sora’s grin was dazzling. He sloshed through the waves, running up out of the water. Riku followed him at a steady pace. A smile came to Kairi’s face in answer. Just before she could dash down to the water’s edge, Donald and Goofy ran out ahead of her with King Mickey close behind them. Goofy reached Sora first, tackling him in a hug, and Donald joined in, knocking Sora down into the waves. Goofy nuzzled against Sora’s cheek, Donald draped his arm around Sora’s neck, and the water splashing around them sparkled like drops of sunlight. King Mickey dodged the flailing trio and made a leap for Riku, who caught him in a hug and spun him around. Kairi looked on, smiling ear to ear. After hug-wrestling Sora for a decent amount of time, Donald and Goofy turned to her, beaming. Sora eventually got up with a sheepish smile and took the thalassa shell charm out of his pocket, his fingers closed gently around it. “I’m making them so even if one of us gets lost, we’ll make it back here safe and sound. So the three of us will always be together.” “…We’re back,” Sora told her shyly. “Welcome home.” Kairi held out a hand to him. He took her hand and held it tight.