"You see, I'm sure we can change. Because we're weak. And because we die. We have to fight in order to live, and that's what will make us strong." ~Trisha Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood)
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It's been a couple of days since we returned back home. King Mickey, Donald, and Goofy wished us farewell and left back to their home world Disney Castle. Sora, Riku, Kairi, and I, agreed that we all deserved a little break before returning to school so we hanged out on the islands like what we normally do. Today was a little different. Sora and Kairi went to "run an errand", as they put it, leaving Riku and I alone.

Riku and I sat on the palm tree, awkwardly sitting apart from each other. "Nothing has changed, huh?" Riku remarked as we stared into the sunset as it reflected off the calm, ocean waters.

"Nope," I gave a small smile. "Nothing will."

"What a small world," He smirked.

"But it's part one that's much bigger world," I added.

"Yeah," he nodded.

As we sat in silence, I remembered something that was very important. "Oh, yeah," I smirked. "You owe me a date."

"Wait, what?" Riku stammered, a pink blush creeping onto his pale skin.

"Did you seriously forget?" I rolled my eyes. I reached inside my skirt pocket to pull out the folded up letter that contained the confession. "You confessed to me through a letter, remember?"

Riku took the letter out of my hands and unfolded it, reading the letter. He facepalmed. "Ugh, I cannot believe I forgot that," he groaned. "I was such a coward then. When did you get it?"

"It was right after we got back on the islands," I replied. "In the secret cave. Sora buried it there inside a bottle. Kairi found it and dug it up."

"Wha--" Riku stuttered before groaning. "I told Sora to give it to you. He probably did that just to get me to confess to you face-to-face."

"But I did confess to you, remember?" I reminded Riku. "It was before the darkness consumed our island. You practically forced me to. You know how scared and embarrassed I was when you walked away from me after I did that?"

"Yeah, I do," he sighed. "Sorry about that."

"Whatever," I smiled. "Water under the bridge, now that I do know you actually like me."

I went back to watching the sun set when I felt a warm hand over mine,. I looked down to see Riku's hand over mine. As I looked up, Riku was slowly leaning towards me. From all the romcoms I've seen with Kairi, I knew exactly what was about to happen and I was excited and nervous. So, I closed my eyes.

His lips pressed onto mine for a soft, yet tender kiss. I held my breath, practically relishing in the moment with Riku, with all my hopes and dreams coming true right then and there. Unfortunately, the romantic moment didn't last long, as I heard soft laughter from the distance.

I looked behind me to see Sora, with my camera over his eye, filming the moment along with Kairi who was holding something in her hand as they approached us, still laughing. I gasped, my face turning pink at seeing that this entire moment was caught on film. "Sora, Kairi, ugh, what are you two doing here?" I shrieked. "And Sora, is that my camera you have? Turn that thing off! Can't you see we like a little privacy?"

"Hey, your camera is fair game!" Sora justified, still holding onto the camera. "Besides, you're always filming us, so it's our turn to do the same!"

I crouched on the palm tree branch, glaring at Sora for embarrassing me like that. I leapt off of it, pouncing on Sora. "Oh sh--" he started but I tackled him onto the ground, knocking the camera out from his hands as we tumbled, laughing. even I was laughing through my embarrassment. I was ready to get back at Sora what he had done when I noticed the glass bottle in Kairi's hand,. Squinting, I could see the Mickey emblem on the rolled up paper.

Riku noticed the same exact thing as he gasped, "From the King?" Sora pushed me off of him and stood up, brushing his pants as he took the bottle from Kairi and uncapped it, pulling out the letter. We crowd around him, trying to read the letter.

Dear Sora,
I wanted to tell you right away...about the memories of the
past that sleep within you and about the pieces that will tie 
you to your future. Sora, Riku, Kairi, Sakura...the truth
behind the Keyblade as found its way through so many
people and now I know it rests in your hearts. Sora...you
are who you are because of those people, but they're hurting,
and you're the only one who can end their sadness. They
need you. It's possible that all your journeys so far have
been preparing you for his great new journey that's waiting
for you. I should of known there were no coincidences,
only links in a much larger chain of events. And now, your
next journey is ready to be opened.
Sincerely,
King Mickey.

We looked at each other. It's only been a couple of days...where on earth could King Mickey could of gotten all this information? But, still, there's only one question that lingered on my mind. "Sora," I asked. "When is this next journey going to begin? And what is it going to be about?"
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You think I'm done with this book...right?
Ha! WRONG!!!
There's still one more part to out that lasts only a couple of chapters. Can you guess what it is?
It's Dream Drop Distance! That's what!
Believe it or not, Sakura does play a role in the DDD arc of the game series. But, not a big one. It's not worth another book. So, I'm going to cram it into this book.
Be on the lookout tomorrow or the day after that for the first chapter of the Dream Drop Distance Arc!