To tell you the truth, Sora...I was jealous of you.

As I sat on the dark shore next to Sora, I wondered when I began to feel that way.

Was it when Sora became a Keyblade wielder?

Or was it all the way back when we were children on the islands?

It wouldn’t be strange for me to think I was better than Sora. After all, where you’re a child, a year is a big age difference, so I played the older brother and took Sora around with me everywhere. When did that change?

We defeated Xemnas. But this world was thick with darkness - no matter how many you brought down, the Heartless just kept coming and coming.

About to run out of strength, I fell to my knees.

“Riku!”

Sora came to help me up.

“Sora...I can’t…”

It hurt to breathe. I didn’t think I could walk anymore

“Don’t say another word! It’s not over. It’s just not.”

Sora took my arm, lent me his shoulder, and stood us up. Sora never was one to give up when things were tough.

“How can you say that? Even if we could go on….look where we are.”

I thought that was a calm assessment of the situation. But Sora just smiled and looked straight at the path ahead.

“Aw, c’mon, Riku. You’ve been hanging out in darkness too long. You gotta try and think positive.”

Sora began to walk. I made myself milp so Sora could carry me and let my heavy legs drag behind me. I couldn’t walk anymore. I didn’t want to walk anymore.

“Sora?”

“Hmm?” Sora responded, smiling at me when I called his name.

Smiling at me in this dire situation? I had no choice but to follow his lead. I lifted my head and looked forward beyond the darkness, just like Sora did.

“You lead.”

“Got it.”

I nodded at Sora, and he began to pull me along and walk forward.

I wondered how long this darkness would go on. I had walked all kinds of dark paths, but this may have been my first time on one with no visible exit. Nevertheless, Sora just continued on.

“You know…”

Sora peered at me again in response. When I saw his face, I could tell that he was also struggling, and it made my heart ache even more. I decided to confess to Sora something I’d never said out loud before --- a kind of repentance.

“I always figured I was better at stuff than you.”

“Really?”

But Sora didn’t respond the way I expected at all. It was as if he wanted to tell me he wasn’t interested in what I had to say at all.

“Are you mad?” I impulsively asked Sora, and Sora stopped in his tracks.

“No. I kinda always thought you were better at everything, too.”

Ah, that’s exactly what anybody would think, isn’t it? After all, I’m a little older than Sora. But I still felt some pride hearing him say as much.

Then Sora looked up and gazed straight ahead.

“Riku, look. What’s that light?”

I raised my head to look.

In the distance, I saw a faint, bright light. We gathered up the last of our strength and began to walk towards it.

However, it wasn’t an exit. It was just a light floating in the sky like a moon, faintly glowing above a dark coast.

You could hear the sound of waves here just like you could back at the islands - back home, but you couldn’t hear anything else. It was enveloped in complete silence.

“End of the road?”

“Yep.”

Sora nodded and responded quietly to my question.

“Put me down. I can walk,” I told him, and he took my arm from his shoulder and stood up on the beach.

Sora took a step toward the coast. I stared at Sora’s back. I couldn’t see an exit. Even from behind him, I could tell Sora was pretty fatigued.

“You know...maybe the darkness has gotten to me, too.” Sora muttered.

Sora might have also been coming to give up on the idea of getting out of here. As I thought that, I felt something like vertigo, then I placed my knee in the sand and just fell straight to the ground.

I couldn’t move anymore.

“Riku!”

Sora rushed over and helped me up.

“This world is perfect for me. If this is what the world really is...just this....then maybe I should fade back into darkness.”

“Riku…”

“If the world is made of light and darkness...We’ll be the darkness.”

Sora sat next to me, throwing out his legs.

“Yeah. The other side...the realm of light is safe now. Kairi, the King, and the others are there.”

“That’s what I mean. Hey Sora...could you help me? I want to get down to the water.”

Sora gave a small nod, and then he took my arm on his shoulder again and stood up to walk me slowly toward the coast. My legs were like sticks at this point.

“At least the waves sound the same.” I muttered unconsciously.

It might not have been so bad to face our end at a place that reminds us of home. I continued our conversation from earlier.

“What I said back there….about thinking I was better at stuff that you…”

“Hmm?” Sora responded, still staring straight out at the ocean.

“To tell you the truth, Sora...I was jealous of you.”

Sora finally turned to look at me.

“What for?”

I thought about it a bit. And then I opened my mouth.

This was a confession of guilt.

I fell to the darkness because I was jealous of Sora.

But that wasn’t Sora’s fault.

I was just weak.

“I wished I could live life the way you do. Just following my heart.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve got my share of problems, too.” Sora responded, staring at the horizon.

“Like what?” I asked Sora, smiling a bit.

“Like...wanting to be like you.”

“I see.”

That made me a little sad, so I responded with as cheerful a voice as I could manage.

“Well, there is one advangtage to being me..something you could never imitate.”

“Really? What is it?”

“Having you for a friend.”

Sora was surprised for a moment. Then, he exhaled a bit.

“Then, I guess...I’m okay the way I am. I’ve got something you could never imitate too.” Sora responded with a smile, and he looked off beyond the horizon, at the moon shining faintly in the sky - at the world where we would meet our end.

We both had our own things that the other couldn’t do. Our hearts, each just like the other, were both filled to the brim with happy feelings at that moment.

I was glad to have been Sora’s friend.

“Light.”

My eyes instinctively narrowed at the sight of the bright sun-like light that appeared right before us.

“The door to light...we’ll go together!”

Sora stood up and offered his hand to me.

“Yeah.”

I responded and began to walk with Sora.