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Sora’s always been haunted by suspicious hooded figures. It started with Ansem in the Secret Place, then he dealt with the original gaggle of Nobodies during his adventure finding Riku. Now, during his Mark of Mastery Exam, they’re appearing again. He assumes that this is a part of the test. After all, he defeated the Organization months ago!
But this time around, these enemies of his are acting… Strange. Almost soft. The insults and anxiety-triggering taunts are long gone, replaced with almost endearing terms and lighthearted teasing.
He trips during a battle with the Hockomonkey and scrapes his knee. While he can take burns from fire magic and hits from a keyblade all day, the vulnerability of that kind of wound usually brings him to tears. This time however, before he can so much as utter a sob, the wound disappears in a flash of green Cure magic. He whips his gaze around and sees something black disappear around a corner. He’d originally thought that Yen Sid’s magic had been healing previous minor scrapes during the exam, but now he begins to wonder.
When Riku enters Prankster’s Paradise for the first time, he catches snippets of a rather harsh scolding in the distance. Something about “running off” and “not safe alone”. He curiously follows the sound and peeks around a corner when he gets close enough to snoop. His brows shoot to his hairline. Before him, his back turned and a little ways away, stands Young Xehanort and a much smaller hooded figure. Young Xehanort is wagging a finger in the smaller person’s face while continuing to scold. Riku hears the shorter person begin to sniffle and cry a little, and he’s further surprised when Young Xehanort pulls his ally in for a hug. To top it all off, Riku sees Xehanort pop a pacifier of all things into the short figure’s mouth.
Sora is soon captured by Organization XIII and dragged further into the depths of slumber. As he begins to drift off, he feels someone gingerly scoop him up and rest his head on their shoulder. His consciousness fades when he feels them gently bounce him in their arms and shush him like one would a sleeping toddler.
Riku arrives Where Nothing Gathers to rescue Sora. He’s too busy fighting to really make sure at the time, but he thinks he sees a couple members sitting on booster seats atop their already tall chairs.
Once Sora departs on his quest to save Aqua, Ventus and Terra, things get even stranger. Maleficent and Pete are pests as usual, but Xigbar is oddly… Fatherly? He talks to Sora as if he’d known him his whole life, and even manages to briefly ruffle the teen’s hair before disappearing into a dark corridor.
In Twilight Town, Sora is bewildered to hear about how much joy Roxas’ return would bring Xemnas and Ansem. The two seem weirdly concerned with Roxas’ well-being, and don’t recommend placing him back inside the Data Twilight Town. When Xemnas mentions that he wouldn’t wish that amount of loneliness upon anyone, Sora scoffs in disbelief.
In Toy Box, Sora actually feels insulted when Young Xehanort suggests that a few toys in the Babies and Toddlers section would be just right for him. When Soras face heats in embarrassment and he starts shouting at his enemy, the young man has the gall to coo at him. At one point during a battle Young Xehanort teleports in front of him with a “Peekaboo!”, and Sora is disappointed in himself when he squeals babyishly. Sora can no longer look Young Xehanort in the eye.
In the Kingdom of Corona, Sora finds himself being lulled to sleep again, this time with a gentle lullaby and a soft flowery scent. He’s found napping with his thumb in his mouth, a trail of drool making a small puddle on the ground. He shouts at Donald and Goofy to shut up when they start teasing him about it later.
At random times throughout the forest of Arendelle, he’s getting pranked and messed with. He’s pelted with snowballs. He gets startling, mild static shocks when touching something. At first he accuses Donald and Goofy of messing around, and this starts a few actual snowball fights between the three. But when Donald and Goofy deny vehemently each time, and Sora manages to take a snowball to the head when he’s alone, he realizes someone is following him. Each time afterwards, he turns around quickly in an attempt to catch them in the act. Before he can see who it is though, they disappear with a girlish and mischievous giggle. Once he lays eyes on Larxene and she beans him in the face with a ball of granulated ice, he understands who it is.
Sora, Mike and Sulley are confused when they see a masked person actually playing with one of those new not-Heartless enemies. They give it tummy rubs, toss it in the air and catch it with a childish giggle.
In the Caribbean, Sora is shocked when a giant bird-like heartless of all things scoops him up and takes him back to its nest. He escapes before the thing can try to feed him upchucked sea critters.
When Ventus awakens and clashes with Vanitas, the darker boy doesn’t block in time and takes Vens strike directly to his head. Vanitas yowls and clutches his head where he was hit, startling Ventus out of his rage. Vanitas races into a Corridor of Darkness with a frightened wail of “DADDY!”. Aqua, Ven and Sora all witnessed the same thing, but they still question whether it was a fever dream.
Ven feels bad for cracking Vanitas on the head.
The entire group of Guardians is wondering the same thing, but they don’t talk about it… Is the Keyblade War really a good idea if Organization XIII is this close and affectionate with one another?