There isn’t much time left.

It’s too late, I can’t go back.

But don’t hurry.

Don’t be afraid.

The door is still closed.

Then I woke up from my dream.

A blue sky, a blue sea, a white sandy beach — This is Destiny Islands. Our home islands. After sitting up and letting out a big yawn, I flopped back down. That dream - what was that? I could feel my eyes starting to droop again when, suddenly, Kairi was staring at my face — “Whoa!”

Surprised, my body swung back up and Kairi spun around.

“Don’t startle me like that, Kairi!”

“Why am I not surprised. I figured you’d be slacking off, Sora.”

“I wasn’t! A black thing swallowed me up and I couldn’t breath and —!”

I was frantically explaining. I didn’t know whether or not I was explaining what happened in that dream clearly, but I hadn’t been slacking off — wait, had I been slacking off because I’d been sleeping?

“Are you still half-asleep?”

“It wasn’t a dream — or maybe it was…Ya see, I was in this strange world, it was a really weird place, and—”

“Yeah, yeah.” Kairi said in an exasperated way. She turned her back to me and started walking.

“Hey, Kairi. What was the town you lived in when you were little like?”

“I’ve said it before, I don’t remember.”

At that time, the only thing that I knew was that the town Kairi lived in when she was little wasn’t Destiny Islands. And though I was told that there was a town, it seemed that she didn’t remember anything about it in the slightest.

“I just thought that you might’ve remembered something.”

“Not a thing.”

I sit on the sandy beach, looking up at Kairi, who’s standing. “Don’t you want to go back?”

“Hmm…Well, I’m happy here —” Kairi stares out at the ocean, her face unreadable. It doesn’t look lonely or sad or even happy, but her face is expressing something. Kairi wears this expression often. “But, you know, I wouldn’t mind seeing it.”

“—I’d like to see it too.” Kairi looks back at me. I go on talking. “If there really is another world outside of this one out there, then, without a doubt, I want to see it before I die.”

Back then that was my greatest desire - to see that place that wasn’t ‘here’ - the town where Kairi was born.

“Then, let’s go together.” When Kairi said this, Riku’s voice called out:

“Aren’t you forgetting someone?” He’s carrying a log under his arm. “After all, seems I’m the only one serious about building this raft.”

I scramble to catch the log Riku flings my way. Seeing that, Kairi laughed.

“You were slacking off right along with him, weren’t you, Kairi!”

“Hehe, I’ve been found out.” Kairi laughed, arms open, shrugging her shoulders.

“Right then, you two, let’s finish up! Race ya there!”

“Huh?”

“What are you on about?”

“Ready, go!”

Despite Riku having just sat down next to me, Kairi signaled “Go!” Riku and I glanced at each other, stood up at nearly the exact same moment, and then took off running.

We dash straight through to the beach’s inlet.

Then it was evening. Kairi and I were sitting side-by-side on the Paopu Tree on the small island at the end of the pier. Riku was next to us, leaning up against it.

The sun was sinking below the horizon.

“If we go out there, beyond the sea, then the world that you came from will be out there too, right?” I asked Kairi, but the answer came from Riku.

“I don’t know — but we’ll never know if we don’t try.” Riku was looking out at the horizon as he said this. Then I asked Riku, because I honestly had no idea:

“How far do you think a raft can take us?”

“Who knows — if it’s a bust, we can just think of some other way.”

Even though Riku is just a year older than me, he and I are totally different.

“Say, Riku, if you ever went to another world, what would you do there?” This time it was Kairi asking him. She continued, “Are you like Sora, were you’ll be satisfied with just seeing it?”

“To tell you the truth, I haven’t really thought about it. I just — I want to know why I, why we, ended up here. If there is another world out there, then why did we have to end up here?” Riku’s words overlap with the sound of the waves. “If there is another world out there, then here…”

Riku started to slowly speak. I think he was choosing his words carefully. “This place, it’s like it’s a fragment of a bigger world. And if it is a fragment, then it doesn’t matter if we’re here on this fragment or another one right?”

“I don’t get it.”

Listening to everything that’s been said so far, I don’t understand a lick of it. I flop down on the tree branch, looking upward.

“That’s just it.” Riku slowly starts walking. “Even if we just sit here, staring, we won’t know anything. Unless we do something, nothing will change. It’ll just be the same old scenery. That’s why we’re doing something.”

Kairi looks up at the sky. I continue to lay there, looking out at the sea. It’s just as Riku said. Though the sunset was beautiful every day, it really never changed. And while there was the occasional stormy night, since the sky and the sea remain unchanged, I wanted to see a different world.

“— Riku, you really do think about a lot of stuff, don’t you?” Kairi said quietly.

“It’s all thanks to you, Kairi.” Riku turns to her. “Kairi, I think, if you had never come to these islands, then I never would have thought of any of this. Thank you.”

“Ahh, you flatter me.”

Kairi laughs. I look at the two of them. We’ll always be like this - shinning bright under the setting sun. Yeah, everything would always be the same - unchanging.

It was in that spot that our journey started. We didn’t want to be 'here’ anymore, we wanted to travel anywhere, to soon be off the islands and on a journey. But, I felt the end of our journey would undoubtedly be in this spot too.

And so — our journey begins.