A Theory In Regards To The Secret Ending

So… okay. We know Sora is going to Shibuya. If I had to take a gander, I’d say he’s going to be playing in the Reaper’s Game from TWEWY. Maybe because he died while attempting to save Kairi, or (as mentioned by @keydreamer) maybe he takes Kairi’s place somehow.

The Reaper’s game is a game in which the prize is being brought back to life after dying. To play, you have to pay an entry fee. This entry fee is meant to be the most important thing to you. I’d personally say, even above Kairi, the most important thing to Sora is his connection to his friends.

Something keydreamer mentioned during her stream is that everyone is happy and playing in the beach in the ending, not off saving Sora like we would all expect from them. What if, because Sora had to pay the price of his connections, he faded away from their hearts… just like he did from Pooh’s in 100 Acre Wood (that whole thing was too foreshadow-y and unexplained for it to just be a one off thing).

But then why is Kairi the only one not playing? Why is she the only one sad? Well, my assumption is because they shared a Paopu. Their destiny’s are intertwined now. They’ll always be apart of each other’s lives. So while everyone else has forgotten Sora (AGAIN), she’s the only one who knows that something - someone - is missing. This is why she sees a vision of him. This is why she cries. Yet again, she’s the only one who knows he’s gone, but this time she has no way to reach him.

As for Riku in the secret ending… we can see he isn’t in Shibuya, which means he isn’t in the Reaper’s game. We don’t really know WHY he’s in the Verum Rex world. It could be that he isn’t even actually looking for Sora… at least not intentionally. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Big thanks to keydreamer and her stream chat for helping this theory dawn on me. I feel like it’s pretty sound.