Of all the things that might herald a possible return of The World Ends with You in some fashion, of course it would be Tetsuya Nomura’s sartorial choices. First reported by Gamesradar+, Nomura, director and designer on Square Enix’s more well-dressed games including Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, and The World Ends with You, was spotted at last week’s D23 event wearing a shirt with the text Black Honey Chili Cookie.
野村さん着用
BLACK HONEY CHILI COOKIE
B.H.C.C 2020 Logo Tee pic.twitter.com/kfZ8foLnoS
— NØCTO (@NOCTO_Official) August 16, 2026
Far from being a Winter Soldier activation phrase, Black Honey Chili Cookie is both a real-life fashion brand and one that exists in The World Ends with You. His wearing the shirt at the Kingdom Hearts 4 D23 panel might be a hint that TWEWY characters will show up in the game, similar to how Final Fantasy XIV director Naoki Yoshida always shows up in cosplay whenever it’s time to announce a new FFXIV job class.
The World Ends with You was a popular, well-received game when it first launched in 2007 on the Nintendo DS, but its sequel, released in 2021, was just okay and passed by rather quickly. It’s taken on a bit of cult status within the Square Enix RPG oeuvre since, however, so the potential inclusion of its characters might be a nice treat for that devoted fanbase while also fitting in with KH4‘s overall vibe. From what I’ve seen so far, KH4, at least on the non-Disney side of things, seems to be reaching for the deep cuts. All throughout new KH4 media, there seem to be numerous characters pulled from lesser-known Kingdom Hearts games like Union Cross, and TWEWY would fight right in with that. Also, more simply, Kingdom Hearts has featured TWEWY characters before, making them prominent NPCs in Dream Drop Distance, and KH4 might be the right time to get that band back together.
However! The Black Honey Chili Cookie shirt also might not be any kind of hint at all. Nomura, known for the eccentric yet legendary fashion choices he creates in his character designs, is friends with the real-life creator of the fashion brand, Hiromu Takahara, who was featured as an NPC in TWEWY. So the shirt could either be a message, or just Nomura doing a bit of unpaid advertising for a friend. Whatever it means, I appreciate how the Square Enix RPG lore-understanders have activated on this tiny detail to figure out what kinds of shenanigans we can expect for KH4. Never stop.