Sora's next stop is at Pranksters' Paradise. He is amazed at the sight of a carnival, but is even more amazed at reuniting with his old friend Jiminy Cricket. Jiminy, however, doesn't recognize Sora, and the Keyblade wielder is initially baffled until he remembers something Yen Sid had told him: in the Sleeping Worlds, time remains frozen, so though there may be familiar faces he may have met in the past, they may have been in the world before they had met him.
Jiminy explains that he has lost Pinocchio, a wooden puppet given life who has been on the loose in the park. In particular, the last time they met, Pinocchio had claimed that he had run into a man in black who had told him to prank Sora. With that, Sora and Jiminy team up to find Pinocchio. They run into a few fakes, who are Jestabocky Nightmares pretending to be him, but ultimately find him hiding in a funhouse and surrounded by Nightmares. Sora fends off the Nightmares while Jiminy and Pinocchio run off. However, once he's done, he encounters the Mysterious Figure and his old nemesis, Xemnas. When Sora claims that Pinocchio is not like a Nobody, Xemnas refutes his statement, saying that Sora has much more in common with a Nobody than he thinks.
Leaving the funhouse, Sora meets the Blue Fairy, the fairy who had given Pinocchio life to begin with. She explains that Pinocchio and Jiminy are in trouble; Pinocchio's maker, Geppetto, has been swallowed by the whale Monstro, and Pinocchio and Jiminy have gone to find him. With that, Sora enters the ocean to find them and eventually arrives just as Monstro swallows them. However, Monstro himself is frozen by another Nightmare, the Chill Clawbster.
Near Monstro's frozen body, Sora fights the Chill Clawbster and eventually manages to thaw out Monstro, which eats the Nightmare. After Monstro sneezes, sending Sora back to the shore, Sora realizes that at this point, the Pranksters' Paradise fell to darkness, and Pinocchio and Geppetto ended up in Traverse Town before meeting Sora for real. He then seals the Sleeping Keyhole and leaves.
Meanwhile in Radiant Garden, Lea returns to Ansem's study, having found no trace of Braig and Isa. Aeleus assures him that Dilan and Even are resting due to still being unstable, but dismisses Lea's request to search the castle grounds, saying that if Braig and Isa were in Radiant Garden, then they would have been at the castle already. Ienzo explains that normally, if someone were to become a Nobody and a Heartless and both were destroyed, then they would return in the world they fell; otherwise, if the world has already fallen to darkness, they would be in Traverse Town. Lea decides that he's going to get them himself, and looks at Ansem's notes on the Door to Darkness for clues...
