On the way to the castle to figure out about the third wave, the Shield Hero, who was accompanied by Donald and Goofy, scanned the bottom right corner of his vision, invoking the H.U.D screen. Shifting through his stats and abilities, he noticed something that struck him as odd. There was one branch of abilities that was far away from the standard cluster. Squinting at it prompted a notification to envelop his vision.

  Shield Series “???” Locked

  This was strange. Naofumi was used to the unlockable shields that showed question marks over an ellipsis, which seemed to represent continuation, judging from how far apart they were from the other unlockables.

  “No, wait. Most of the shields that I have to unlock are continuations from previous unlocked shields. Why are these so far apart from the others? It’s almost as if they were trying to remain hidden.”

  “Hey, guys?” Naofumi questioned the party about his new find. His distant gaze was enough to put Donald and Goofy on edge.

  “Bakk. What do you see, Naofumi?”

  “Ya. You look like you just saw a ghost.”

  The Shield Hero quickly snapped away from the H.U.D to look at the Dog and Duck duo.

  “There’s something strange. Look at your respective heads-up display. Tell me, what do you see? There should be a locked series in your peripheral vision near the end. Far enough away from the other weapons, abilities, and spells.”

  Donald proceeded to squint. His H.U.D popping up in front of him, creating a web of information. He could make out the silhouettes that showed up as abilities that were unique to him, but there were some that he could not decipher, and they were all clumped together, much to his chagrin. Beside him, Goofy was also trying to discern the information that was given to him by his fellow shield hero, but he saw no abilities that were far removed from the rest. Goofy then stopped looking for only a second to share a concerned glance with his fellow shield. Naofumi caught his glance and stared back at the dog with disbelief.

  “You’re telling me that neither of you sees what I see?” The Shield Hero, whose eyes were locked in position, was trying to figure out what the whole thing meant.

  “Sorry, pal. It’s probably due to bein’ from another world.” And as Goofy was replying to Naofumi’s assertion, Donald stood there, arms crossed and foot tapping on the ground.

  “Oh, Phooey, where are Sora, Raphtalia, and Jiminy?”

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  Naofumi looked at his companions and said

  “I told them to meet us at Castle Melromarc. Raphtalia said she had lost something and needed to retrieve it, but didn’t want me to know what it was, so I sent Sora with her, just in case.

  Still in the forest were the remaining half of the trio. Sora stood on lookout, waiting for Raphtalia to reappear from the overgrown thicket that she disappeared into.

  “Um, Raphtalia? Don’t you think you could have waited for all of this to be over before you started to do this?”

  “Sora, you don’t understand. This flower is very important. They say whoever gives this flower to someone special will remain a part of each other’s lives forever!”

  “Oh, so it’s kind of like a Paopu fruit?” Sora, who was previously pacing back and forth, decided to intercede in Raphtalia’s flower search. The thicket was prickly and very warm. It was akin to getting a warm needle acupuncture from The Land of Dragons. The duo looked around, only to find it was growing dark outside. The dimness of the sky was now a dark canvas upon which anything could be sketched. Sora and Raphtalia looked at it with wanderlust, both now world travelers who have explored its vast emptiness, with only the light of a world here and there to parallel the abyss.

  “We’re really that small in the grand scheme of things, huh, Sora?” Raphtalia looked down, her eyes glaring at the ground that she was so used to relying on to get to where she needed to go.

  “Um, yeah. I guess so. But you don’t need to look so sad, Raphtalia.” Sora said, his opposite to Raphtalia’s, forever glaring upward and outward.

  “Huh? Why is that? Mine and Mister Naofumi’s troubles are so small in the grand scheme of things. There are entire worlds out there that get overrun by darkness, and here we are concerned with earthly things.” Raphtalia’s tail sank, her eyes drooped.

  “Maybe…” Sora replied, arms crossed, showcasing a sentinel.

  “But a candle can be just as important as the light. It may not be needed all the time, but it’s there for you when the lights go out, and you’re alone in the dark. Naofumi is this world’s candle, and you’re the one carrying him through the darkness. Keeping him lit when everyone else causes him to flicker.”

  Raphtalia stood silent, her hair flowing in the wind, creating a contradiction to her still image. Sora could see that she was taking it all in. Raphtalia started to then understand what was being said to her and decided to add to the conversation:

  “I see… The worlds may all have their troubles, but maybe we don’t have to take them all on at once. Maybe it’s best to take small steps to make sure that nobody gets left behind, like Mister Naofumi almost was. The universe is vast, and maybe we won’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, but we do matter to each other. And I think that’s enough, right, Sora?”

  Sora’s pocket began to rumble. He reached in and pulled out the tertiary member of this trio, Jiminy Cricket. Jiminy jumped from Sora’s hand to his shoulder, his usual perching spot. His ragtag outfit was barely discernible under the cloak of night.

  “Gosh, that was really sumthin’. Sora, I didn’t know you had such a poet in ya.”

  “H-Hey! Knock it off, Jiminy. I can be understanding when I mean to be. Besides, it was the flower that started the whole thing…” Sora’s shoulders slumped, his eyes directed towards the ground.

  “I wonder what Riku and Kairi would think of this world?”

  They were kind of like Raphtalia, in a way. Every time Sora thought about them or was near them, the darkness didn’t seem so isolating or lonely.

  “Who are they?” Raphtalia questioned. Her curiosity was piqued by names that sounded friendly, but were alien to her.

  “They’re my friends. We used to hang out together on an island all the time. At first, it was just Riku and me. Then Kairi showed up one day when we were all little kids. We have been together ever since. Well, almost.”

  Raphtalia nodded, her face showing compassion for Sora’s melancholic memories.

  “Anyway. It’s time to find Naofumi, Donald, and Goofy. I believe they said we were to meet at the castle by sundown. We'd better get going!”

  And with that, Sora, Raphtalia, and Jiminy went to meet up with their friends. A Dog, a Duck, and a Shield Hero.