#could be why we might really only truly get sokai at the end of their story. at least a lot of it

[oveliagirlhaditright]

I was thinking the other night, that for some reason I could see Kingdom Hearts ending this way:

The entire story wrapped up (somehow) and everyone finally getting their happy ending. And we actually get to see Sora and the gang finally fully living out their lives and dying happily (think the beginning of Up). And that's the last thing we see before a black screen.

Nomura said once that he was trying to think of a way to end the series so no one could ever continue it, which I get. It's his baby that he's been working on for a large number of years now. I could understand why he wouldn't want someone coming in someday to continue it and potentially ruin it in his eyes.

But then we get some after credits scene where it becomes clear that Sora's been reincarnated into a new life, now that reincarnation is a thing in this series. (But, like, this wouldn't be a way to continue the story. Because things have so very much been wrapped up--like there are no Keyblades, Heartless, Nobodies, Unversed, Dream Eaters or what have you anymore; and this is a new Sora in a new life, and who knows how much like old!Sora he is. He's exactly like old!Sora, but shh. If you were to continue the story--and really, you shouldn't--you'd have to come up with a completely new premise, pretty much.) And you just know that he's going to find his friends, who have been reincarnated into new lives, too.

That way the series ends with a sense of hope and a new beginning, almost.

Not that the ending itself wouldn't have had that sense of hope, in a sense. It would have been a happy ending, at least (however, I can see people being sad that we see the crew die, even though we got to see them living the happy, full lives they'd more than earned).

But Sakaguchi when he created Final Fantasy said that one of the most important things to him with the series, was that whatever happened in the hours before, he always wanted Final Fantasy games to end with a sense of hope for the future: where it seemed like things could always get better. And that's something that Nomura carried over to the Kingdom Hearts series when he created it.

And I feel like such an ending might have that kind of feeling, and might be something he would do. And this does seem to tick off all his boxes of what he's going for with the ending (that we know so far) to me. -shrugs-

[phoenix-downer]

Autumn Mending Chapter 3: Firelight Confessions

~1650 words. Romance, Angst, Pining, Mutual Pining, Fluff, Comfort, Healing, Making Up. For SoKai Day 2021.

Sequel to Kisses and Lies because I couldn’t just leave Sora and Kairi hanging, now could I?

Happy SoKai Day!

Summary: Sora and Kairi are still broken up, but with the help of old friends and Twilight Town’s fall festival, the spark between them just might be rekindled.

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3

Sora felt lightheaded from the whirlwind of emotions swirling inside his heart. So much had happened today. Kairi had shown up here on Twilight Town and had apologized for breaking up with him. Was it possible she still loved him? That she still cared? 

The way he kept catching her looking at him sure made it seem like she did. And now this hayride. He didn’t want it to be over. He wanted her to be snuggled up next to him, holding his hand, for the rest of his life. 

But while his heart and body cried out for joy and begged him to be closer to the one he loved, his brain was yelling at him to put on the brakes, to slow down, to be cautious. What about that guy he’d seen her with? What about the past year and a half of anguish and torment? Could all of that really be forgotten in a single day? 

He wanted to forget. He wanted to put it all behind them. He wanted to forgive and move on and mend things with her. Even if it meant risking getting hurt again. The chance of being with her for good was worth it.

So all that kept his mind occupied to the point he was barely listening to the ghost stories. Before he knew it, the hayride was over and it was time to pile out of the wagon. A pang went through him when Kairi had to let go of his hand, and he wondered if she was as starved for his touch as he was for hers.

Hopefully they’d get to talk about it soon. Hayner, Pence, and Olette had rented one of the campfires nearby for the evening, and that was enough to temporarily distract him. Their little group spent the next couple of hours hanging out, cooking hot dogs and roasting apples and making s’mores. Sora loved sitting by the crackling campfire and spending time with his friends, but as the minutes ticked by, his eyes kept wandering to Kairi. She was seated across from him, and she looked really beautiful in the flickering firelight. Their eyes met, and she smiled and looked at him the way she always used to look at him. 

“Oh gosh, I almost forgot!” Olette said, clasping her hands together. “Our pumpkins! We should grab them so we can light the tea candles in them.” She stood and stretched. “Hayner, Pence, come with me so we can grab everyone’s pumpkins and bring them back.” 

Hayner and Pence finally got the hint and followed after Olette, leaving Sora and Kairi alone. He stood under the pretense of roasting another marshmallow, but really, he just wanted an excuse to sit next to her. He loved being close to her, and her natural scent mingled with the campfire’s smell in a way that reminded him of all the times they’d gone camping as kids back home. 

“The embers are best here,” he said to explain his sudden change in position, and she smiled and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. 

“Oh are they now.” 

“Yeah.” A few seconds passed, and he added, “Listen, Kairi, about earlier—”

“I’m still in love with you,” she blurted out, and he dropped the marshmallow and stake into the fire. Didn’t even care about them anymore. Something far more important was at stake here. 

“But—I saw you, with that guy—It’s why I left again—”

Kairi shook her head, and her eyes watered. “After our mission, I was hoping you and I could work things out, but I felt like you were avoiding me. I figured you didn’t love me anymore, and I couldn’t blame you. So when that guy asked me out, I thought, why not give it a shot. Why not try to move on and give you your space. But then he tried to kiss me, and I just… I couldn’t.” Her voice broke and she was crying in earnest now. “All I could think about was you,” she sobbed. “How badly you’d be hurt if you knew. How wonderful it feels when you kiss me. And I knew I was still in love with you. I knew my heart would always be yours. I knew it was pointless to try to move on.” 

Sora stared at her, his heart pounding in his chest. Kairi still loved him? Kairi still wanted to be with him? That guy he saw her with was nothing more than a quick fling that made her realize the one she truly wanted to be with was him? 

She wiped her teary eyes. “Say something, please.” 

He gently caught her hand and tugged it away from her face. She searched his eyes, and he smiled and cupped her cheek. 

“I love you too, Kairi,” he said, softly, tenderly, then brought his lips to hers. He kissed her with all the pain and homesickness he’d felt the past year and a half, all the pining and aching and longing, hoping she’d realize just how much he wanted this, how much he wanted her. And she kissed him back, so unguarded and wild and joyful that his pain started to fade away. What had happened couldn’t be undone, but it could be mended and healed, could be turned into something beautiful and good, could become another part of their love story. 

When it was over, he wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on her head. She leaned against his heart and gently touched where his scar was hidden under several layers of clothes. She knew it so well that she didn’t even have to look to know where it was. And he didn’t have to look to know where Xehanort had struck her down either; his hands had held the very spot countless times before and remembered exactly how to comfort her.

“I love you,” he said, his voice full of emotion. 

“I love you too.”  

He kissed her head and stroked her hair. “I’m gonna make you a new promise,” he said. “You mean everything to me, and I want to settle down with you, get married, start a family. The past several years, I’ve been saving up munny so we can do just that. Maybe we should go to college first though, that would probably be good. We’ve gotta provide for our family and for each other somehow. And I know it’ll be an adjustment for me. I’m not naive enough to think it won’t be. But you’re more than worth it.”

She sniffled and clutched his hoodie. “I’m sorry for doubting you.” 

“It’s okay. You had a lot of reasons to be concerned. I’ve left you behind too many times before.” 

“But you always come back to me,” she said as she looked up and searched his eyes. 

“That’s right. I made you a promise, to always return.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out her lucky charm. 

She teared up again and curled his fingers around it. “Keep it till we get home. For good, I mean. Then, and only then, will I take it back.” 

“Deal.” 

He tucked it back into his pocket and held her and kissed her and comforted her. He shared his hoodie with her too because even with the campfire nearby, she was getting a little cold. Plus it was just nice to be this close to her. He’d missed her, so much. And something about the fire was cozy and calming and enchanting. He could hold her like this and stare into it forever. 

Well, until Hayner, Pence, and Olette returned with the pumpkins. They had big smiles on their faces, and Olette told them to close their eyes. Sora heard the lighter flicking a couple of times as their friends lit the pumpkins, and then when he and Kairi opened their eyes, he could see why Olette had wanted this to be a big surprise. 

Kairi had carved the same drawing of him that she’d drawn in the Secret Place when they were kids, complete with the paopu fruit she’d added to it years later. It matched perfectly with his pumpkin because he’d carved the drawing he’d made of her with the paopu fruit too. A big smile lit up her face as she saw the two pumpkins side-by-side, and he grinned and kissed her cheek, only for her to kiss him properly on the lips. There was much whooping and hollering from Hayner, Pence, and Olette, much to he and Kairi’s amusement. 

“Operation-get-the-lovebirds-back-together is a success!” Hayner crowed, high-fiving Pence. 

Sora raised an eyebrow. “Wait, you guys planned this?” 

“Maybe,” Olette said with a teasing lilt to her voice, and Hayner and Pence both had triumphant smirks on their faces. 

“I can believe you did,” Sora said to Olette, “but these two interrupted Kairi and I so much tonight I was convinced they were trying to keep us apart,” he finished, jabbing his finger at Hayner and Pence.

“Reverse psychology, it works wonders,” Pence said. “We figured it would get you more desperate to talk to each other.” 

“I guess it worked then,” Sora said wryly. “Because as great as that hayride was, it was not worth all the interruptions.” 

Hayner, Pence, and Olette laughed, and Kairi giggled and nuzzled his cheek. Sora soon joined in with the merriment. He couldn’t hold the scheming against his friends, especially because it had worked. He and Kairi were together again, and while it would take time to mend all the hurt between them and forge a path forward, he knew they would. Tonight was a good start, and he was determined to make this work and so was she. 

When their eyes met, he knew something else, too. He loved her and she loved him, and that was more than enough for them to make their own storybook ending and happily-ever-after.

~~~

A/N: Last year I wrote nine kiss prompts for SoKai based on this list, and I wanted to write one more to hit ten, so, this story fits... 

11. ...in joy, 

30. ...as comfort, and 

50. ...out of love.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed!

[maddrmatt]

A Beautiful Future: A Premonition or a Punishment?

New to this fanfic? Click here to properly begin!

Greetings, readers and fellow SoKai fans!

Time for a certain Princess of Heart to take the spotlight in this story!  

Fair bit of warning though, I sort of used this chapter to showcase a few headcanons and speculations regarding the future of the series.  

Also, there’s a little challenge within this chapter that you can take on if you wish.

Enjoy!

________________________________________________________________

Chapter 3: Writings of a Princess

Land of Departure

Dear Sora,

I know it’s been a while since I last wrote to you.  I haven’t really had anything really important to tell you since I came here.

Now something incredible has just happened and I had to tell you first before anyone else.  But before that, here’s a few updates on what’s been happening on this side of reality.

I’m still training hard.  No offense to Merlin, but I think I’m getting way better with my Keyblade training under Master Aqua than him.

My days here at the Land of Departure are filled with learning various fighting techniques or improving my magic skills.  And to test them, I often spar with Aqua, Terra or Ven.  One day, I might even get a perfect score against one of them in our matches.

All of three of them and Chirithy have been very good to me. They’ve really made me feel like part of their family.

But as great as it’s been with them, they’re no true replacement for everyone back home.  I miss everyone:  Mom, Dad, Selphie, Wakka, Tidus, Riku, and you.  Especially you.

Sorry, Sora.  It’s just so hard every day knowing that you’re trapped in that fictional world.  I really wish I could’ve gone there with Riku to save you.  But after being out of action for a year and the fact that I couldn’t even land a single blow on that memory of Xehanort, I knew it was the better choice to stay behind and train even if I didn’t like it.

I really hope Riku finds you soon.  We’re all so worried about both of you.  Since nobody really knows anything about this Quadratum place, we’ve all thought Riku was a little hasty in just taking off there alone.

We still haven’t heard anything from Mickey yet either. Hopefully, he’ll come back soon from Scala Ad Caelum, and he’ll have found something we can use to help you and Riku.  Until that happens, all the rest of us can do is wait.

Anyway, time to tell you the real reason for this latest letter, Sora. And you are not going to believe what it is.  I can hardly believe it myself.

Last night, I had a dream.  It was actually the first dream I’ve had since I came to the Land of Departure.

Not that I’ve minded not having dreams just in case they ended up being recreations of my worst memories.  I’ve already watched you vanish twice.  I don’t think I could bear to watch it happen again in my dreams.

But the dream I had was nothing like that at all.  It was of a wedding, Sora.  Our wedding.

It was an amazing sight.  It was in this gigantic chapel that looked like it was in Radiant Garden, and it was filled with all your friends from around the worlds.

Many of our fellow Guardians of Light and closest friends made up our wedding party.  It was hardly a surprise to see Selphie as my maid of honor or Riku as your best man.

You looked so handsome in the suit you were wearing.  And judging from the stunned look on your face when you saw me coming down the aisle, I must’ve looked pretty beautiful to you.

It was truly incredible, Sora.  It felt so real and so wonderful.  I wished it never ended.

But, unfortunately, as it is with dreams, we all have to wake up eventually.  And when I did, the happiness I felt ended up giving way to other emotions as I reflected on the dream.

First of all, I felt a little confused.  As good as that dream was, I couldn’t help but wonder why I had it at all.  I mean, wouldn’t you find a little strange to have a dream about a wedding especially since we haven’t even had our first kiss yet?  It’s kind of rushing things a little.  

But don’t get me wrong, Sora.  I know, deep down in my heart, how we truly feel about each other. I wouldn’t have shared that paopu fruit with you otherwise.  And when the time is right for it, the idea of getting married to you is something I will embrace wholeheartedly.

So, I thought more about the dream and believe it or not, I started to think that it was not merely just a dream.  I wonder if what I saw was our future.  It definitely did feel like that since there were so many unfamiliar parts in it.  

For example, I had no idea there was a tradition in Radiant Garden weddings for the bride and groom to crown each other with symbolic flowers.  Then again, I could have known that if the knowledge came from a memory from when I lived there.  Maybe I attended a wedding there when I was young.

But what really stood out to me and made me believe that this could be our future was the many unfamiliar guests.  I knew that because I’ve been studying the details of your last two journeys from Jiminy’s Journal and the Gummi Phone.  And even though the Journal of your first journey was erased (Naminè’s still really sorry about that), I still remember everything about it from being in your heart through it all.

So, I was able to recognize who you had met and who were strangers. They were far too numerous to mention. But here are some examples that really stood out to me.

A tall woman with long black hair wearing a tan colored dress and a beautiful turquoise necklace with a raccoon, a dog and I think I saw a hummingbird flittering around her.

A pair of robots, one yellow and box-shaped, the other white and cylindrical, who were holding hands.

A couple that consisted of a redhaired woman and blonde-haired man who appeared to have some kind of hairless rodent on his shoulder.

A teenage boy and girl along with a younger boy and a company of animals such as a bear with gray fur, a panther, an elephant with a tuft of brown hair and a quartet of vultures.

A large family that appeared to be a mix of humans and skeletons along with a very colorful winged dog and a giant winged cat.

A boy with red hair (whose head looked triangular) along with another boy with green hair and a bunch of other teenagers as well as some kind of strange teal animal that looked like a cross between a duck and a beaver and a man with brown hair, poor posture and wearing a lab coat (who wears that to a wedding?).

A princess dressed in a beautiful green gown accompanied by a prince in a green suit with a blonde woman dressed in pink, a short old woman dressed in white and wearing sunglasses and a snake around her shoulders as well as an alligator who was carrying a trumpet.

A very unusual group consisting of two men and a woman with blue skin and pointy ears along with a dog-sized dragon, a centaur, and a winged lionlike creature with horns and a scorpion’s tail.

A girl with bushy brown hair among what appeared to be a family of giant frogs.

A woman dressed like she was some kind of islander with a burly man with numerous tattoos (I think I saw one of them move) over his body along with a pig and a chicken that didn’t look very smart.

A family who seemed to be some kind of royalty consisting of a princess in a simple green dress with long curly red hair along with three identical boys with the same kind of hair, their big, strong father with a peg leg and their very elegant mother.

A boy and a girl who looked like they were twin siblings who were accompanied by a pair of old men who looked like twins as well.

A redhaired boy in the company of a group of what looked like various human-sized bugs.

There were so many more, but I think I’ll stop here.  With the large number of guests at this wedding, I could go on listing them for a long time.  But it does seem there’s a lot more friends for you in the future.

Unfortunately, while I was mulling over the dream further, a horrible thought came to me.  I started to wonder if the dream, as beautiful as it was, wasn’t meant to bring me happiness at all because it was actually showing the future that we could have had but now would never have.  And the true reason of it was to punish me for my failures in the fight against Xehanort.

I know you wouldn’t like to hear this, Sora.  But there are still days where I can’t help but feel responsible for your disappearance and think that if I had made some different choices, you’d still be here.

I know it was my choice to fight alongside you because I wanted to keep you safe the same way you’ve always done for me.  But looking back, I now see it was foolish to assume that my training alongside Axel would turn me into a Keyblade wielder on yours or Riku’s level. And it was probably an even worse idea for a wielder with very little actual battle experience to go from basic training to a high stakes battle with nothing in between.

We may have been desperate to stop Xehanort before he went after the New Seven Hearts especially since he had already assembled all his darknesses. But we probably could’ve and should’ve explored some other options instead of going to fight the Organization right away after you woke Ven.

Since Ienzo told us that they had a replica body ready before we even left for the Keyblade Graveyard, we could’ve gotten Roxas or maybe even Xion out of your heart before the fight.  In Axel’s words, they were the old hands when it came to Keyblades.

We also could have made a bigger effort to find and save Terra first even if our chances were pretty low.  That would not only have gotten us a more experienced wielder, but it would’ve also lowered Xehanort’s ranks by one.

Maybe if we had done things that way, we would’ve had more experienced Keyblade wielders to fill out the Seven Guardians of Light.  And even if it would be disappointing to be put in the reserves, it would’ve been worth it if it led to you being safe.

So, those are the reasons I believed that dream was a punishment. But you’ll be glad to know, Sora, that I only entertained those beliefs briefly.

After thinking it over some more, I decided that it didn’t matter what that dream’s purpose was.  Comfort or punishment, I’m going to actually use it to serve my own purposes instead.

I’m going to let it remind me of what my ultimate goal is and drive me to be the best Keyblade wielder I can be.  One that’s going to make the forces of darkness think twice before causing trouble and one that you and Riku will be proud to have fighting alongside you.  And hopefully, that will lead us to a future like the one in the dream or at least one that’s pretty close.

In fact, after seeing that dream, I think I may end up actually proposing a couple of ideas to Aqua and Master Yen Sid.  I’ve been thinking about them a lot and maybe now is the time to try to put them into action.

Since I need to get some real battle experience to become a stronger Keyblade wielder, I’d like to go on a journey throughout the worlds to gain some. Hopefully, Aqua will think it’s a good idea.  And even though there’s been little sign of the Heartless and Nobodies since Xehanort’s defeat, there is one thing I really wish to do.

I’d like to try to find and identify the remaining three of the New Seven Hearts.  After all, who’d better to find them than someone who’s part of the same group?  And if we knew who they were and what their home worlds were, we’d be in a better position to protect them if someone tried what Maleficent and Xehanort did.

Who knows?  Maybe all those unfamiliar faces at the wedding were not only friends you’ll make on future adventures, but ones I’ll make on my own adventures.  Maybe even the remaining New Seven Hearts were among them.

I also have an idea that may be able to help in the quest to bring you home. If Fairy Godmother could bring me back to the Final World, I could talk to that girl from Quadratum again.  She may not be able to remember certain things. But she might be able to tell us something about that world that could help.  

Naminè might even be able to help with this plan.  Even if you only met that girl briefly, that may be enough for her to be considered connected to you and therefore, Naminè’s memory powers can work on her.

Hopefully, the Masters will think that these are good plans.  I really want to do any part I can to not only help bring you and Riku home, but also to protect the worlds as both a Keyblade wielder and a Princess of Heart.  After all, with you two gone, someone’s got to pick up the slack.

Well, I think that’s enough for now.  It’s nearly time for breakfast and then it’s training until lunch.  But before I go, there’s just one final thing I’d like to say.

Whether that beautiful dream shows a wonderful future that is meant to be or not, it doesn’t matter.  Because the only kind of future I’ll ever wish for is one in which we’re safe, we’re happy, and we’re together.  That’s all I really need.

See you soon,

Kairi

________________________________________________________________

Much later, the training hall in the Land of Departure was filled with the sounds of clashing Keyblades and various shouts of magical invocation.  While those sounds were nothing uncommon in that location, there was an unusual intensity that day.

As Aqua, Ven and Chirithy watched, a heated sparring match was taking place between Kairi and Terra.  But much to their surprise, the more experienced Keyblade wielder was actually struggling as the young rookie was keeping him mostly on the defensive.

“Wow!  Kairi’s on fire today!” exclaimed Ven.

“She is, indeed,” concurred Chirithy.

“Well, she has improved a lot in her skills since she came here.  But you two are right.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen her this driven before,” said Aqua.

“You’ve got that right, Aqua.  If she lands one more hit on Terra, this’ll be the first time she’s won by a perfect score,” said Ven.

As the match went on, Terra blocked blow after blow from Kairi.  Then, strangely, she ceased her attack.

Terra saw his opportunity and charged toward her with a downward slash. The Princess dodged to the right narrowly avoiding the hit.

“Light!” she cried out as she fired a small but powerful Light spell at Terra’s side.  He grunted as the magic struck him and knocked him off his feet.

“Point to Kairi,” declared Aqua.

“That’s three to nothing!  Kairi wins!” exclaimed Ven as Chirithy clapped its paws together.

“Well done, Kairi,” said Aqua.

“Thank you, Master Aqua,” Kairi said as she walked over to Terra and helped him up.  

After exchanging bows with each other, the Princess of Heart said, “I hope that didn’t hurt you too badly, Terra.”

Terra chuckled.  “Not at all.  It helps that you’ve learned how to restrain your magic during training.  But I’ve got to say, Kairi that I am impressed. That’s the first time since you’ve come here that I’ve been unable to land a single hit on you.”

“You’ve certainly come a long way, Kairi.  Today, you showed some truly exceptional skill and strength.  You should be very proud of yourself,” said Aqua as she, Ven and Chirithy approached.

“Well, I’ve had a good teacher and some great sparring partners.  But I think it really helped that when I woke up today, I just felt a little extra drive,” said Kairi.

“Yes.  We noticed,” said Aqua.

“Why is that exactly?” asked Chirithy.

A certain smile came to Kairi’s face which caused her four friends to exchange knowing looks.  They had spent plenty of time with her by now to know what exactly brought out that special smile of hers: thoughts of a certain someone close to her heart.

“I had the most amazing dream.”

________________________________________________________________

Notes from the Mad Doctor:

I thought the best way for Kairi’s spotlight chapter would be to do in the style of one of her letters to Sora.  I’ve used it before as readers of my big fic Kairi’s Epic Journey would know.

So, in case it wasn’t obvious, the challenge I mentioned at the start is that list of unknown guests.  It was quite a challenge to write all those characters by description alone.  I hope you all will take a shot at identifying them. Some are pretty obvious, but some may be a little more difficult.

I hope I did a good job in trying not to make this chapter’s narrative too similar to the previous chapters.  I actually tried having Kairi leap to the punishment notion before the premonition notion.  But unfortunately, the flow didn’t work right.

Fortunately, the views on the punishment notion are a little different. Sora has absolutely no regrets for what he did and believes that he’s being unfairly punished for breaking rules he had no idea existed.  Kairi, however, believes her punishment is deserved since she blames herself for what happened to Sora.  Fortunately, both are able to use that dream to keep on fighting.

I hope you all aren’t put off that this is more like a series of one-shots centered around a certain plot device (the wedding dream) instead of a congruent storyline.  That was what this project ended up being.

I give my thanks to whoever reads this chapter.

I also give my special thanks to @fandomchanger, @flynn-science​, and @ladylucky​ for their likes on the previous chapters as well as @sokaiweek, @phoenix-downer, and @the-secret-place​ for reblogging the previous chapter.

Comments, likes and reblogs are much appreciated!  Stay tuned for what comes next because it’s going to be a real feel-good chapter!

________________________________________________________________

Onto the next chapter!

[paintedwithapalette]

SoKai Week Day 4 - Together

Words: 3,545

---------------------

Useless. 

Insignificant. 

Worthless. 

These were just a small portion of the words that ran through his mind as he trudged down the empty road with nothing and no one to keep him company aside from a backpack with water and a few of his favorite snacks. Sora stopped walking, planting his feet firmly in the middle of the asphalt road and the weight of his own loneliness truly settled in. 

This was it. He was going to go through with it. No backing out now. 

He tried, he really did. No one could say he didn’t. No one could say he didn’t train for days on end. No one could say he didn’t travel in hopes of looking for a cure that would bring an end to this horrible disease that plagued countless worlds. No one could say that he didn’t give it his best every single day and that he didn’t pour his own sweat, tears, and yes, sometimes even blood, into doing his absolute best to uphold the honor of being the chosen one. 

With his lifeless eyes, he summoned his Keyblade. Simple in its design but effective. A sentient Key that chose one person per generation to maintain order in the universe. To solve any problem that threatened the balance between light and darkness. Centuries of chosen wielders before him and only once had it chosen wrong. 

But as far as Sora was concerned, it chose wrong again. How was he supposed to live up to the legacy Zack Fair left behind? Sora couldn’t do anything on his own. Without Zack holding his hand, he was worthless. Maybe if he had developed any sort of competence in his months of training, he might have found a cure to resolve the geostigma crisis by now. Maybe he would’ve found a way to save the lives of thousands, no... millions... if he were someone else. Maybe if he were just a fragment of the man Zack was, he could’ve done something.  

And maybe, just maybe... he wouldn’t have let Eraqus die. 

Eraqus was counting on him to do something - to find a cure and bring him back to health. Sure, Sora was only sixteen and it was a lot of pressure to handle, but he had the Kingdom Key, so naturally that meant he was supposed to put the pieces of the puzzle together, right? 

Wrong. In the end, he was a failure who could only let down the people he cared about most. 

The boy chosen by the mysterious Kingdom Key. What a joke. 

As his eyes devoid of life wandered up and down the blade, he couldn’t help but wonder why. Why did the Keyblade choose him? It must have had its reason, it always did, but whatever reasons they were didn’t connect with him. All he wanted was a simple life where he could be a regular teenager, have fun with his friends, and just be normal. He didn’t ask for this. He didn’t ask for this responsibility. This pressure. The weight of the world sitting on his shoulders when he wasn’t even old enough to drink. None of it made any sense. 

It must’ve been a mistake. The fact that he let Eraqus die proved it was a mistake. Sora gripped the handle of his blade so hard that his knuckles were turning white.

“You were wrong!” Sora yelled as he tossed the Keyblade, sending it crashing into the pavement. Sora glared, as hard as he could before he settled into his prior look of indifference. He turned on his heel to leave the Kingdom Key in the middle of the road, hoping that it got run over by a car before he felt something pop back into his hand with an accompanied flash of light. Sure enough, when he looked down, it was the Kingdom Key refusing to leave his side. 

Clenching his teeth, Sora hurled the Keyblade once again. And like a broken record, he heard that familiar flash and the Keyblade return to his possession. With an agonized cry, Sora threw the Keyblade a number of times, his uncharacteristic sense of anger and resentment fueling every futile attempt at discarding himself of the burden the universe set on him. 

After a while, he hadn’t even noticed the fact that he threw his backpack aside and that dark sky was now dropping pellets of raint. His mind could only focus on trying his best to keep the Keyblade away and maybe eventually it would get the memo and just stop returning to him. But it never did. No matter how many times Sora pushed the Keyblade away, it kept stubbornly coming back. 

After his final attempt and the Keyblade returned once again, Sora stopped, his breathing heavy and dense. The rain continued to drench his clothes and slide down his brown spikes. When the dust cleared and his anger subsided and all that was left was... 

Sadness. 

It was the utmost level of dejection he had felt all day. It was clear that there was no way that the Kingdom Key would be leaving his side. But why? He was obviously no good. He was positive there was someone out there better than him to save all of the lives that were being ruined by this geostigma ordeal. 

That was why he had to kill himself. 

The Kingdom Key typically didn’t switch users until the current one was deceased. Then, and only then, would the Kingdom Key move on to the next suitor. Maybe if he was erased from the equation, the Kingdom Key would find someone strong, confident, and sure of themselves enough they would be able to locate some sort of remedy to this ever-growing dilemma affecting the worlds. Someone like Riku. His best friend. He always wanted to be the chosen one. Compared to Sora, he actually deserved it. 

Yes, it was the only way. He would go to the Play Island. Spend his final day appreciating all of the memories he and he friends had made during his sixteen years of existence, enjoy his final meal, write a letter to his friends saying how much he’ll miss them, how much he would miss her, and then… he’d plunge himself in the deepest, darkest depths of the sea and - 

“Sora!” 

He heard a voice. Her voice. 

Sora turned around and there she was; she looked like a ray of hope as she stood underneath the light of a street lamp - wet wrinkles drooping from her clothes and her hair drenched. A shivering sheen of liquid covered her eyes as her worried and gloomy expression told Sora everything he needed to know. 

Sora’s eyes still remained lifeless and that bothered Kairi even more. He couldn’t even look her in the face. Not if he wanted to suppress the tremendous guilt that came about over what he was about to do. They stood in silence, Kairi’s lips quivering. She’d never seen him like this - at his lowest. She barely recognized the person standing before her. This wasn’t the usual, upbeat, cheerful Sora she knew. 

But she was going to bring him back. 

“What are you doing here?” Sora asked. 

Kairi shook her head. “That doesn’t matter,” she answered. “I think the better question is what are you doing out here?” 

Sora opened his mouth but realized it wasn’t such a simple question with a simple answer. The layers to the situation were too vast for Kairi to understand. Even still, despite what he thought, Kairi had an inkling for why he was out there. His reaction back at the hospital gave her enough of a hint. 

“It’s not your fault,” was the first thing Kairi said after a stint of silence. 

“How can you say that?!” Sora asked, his frustration flaring. “How is it not my fault, Kairi?! I’m the one the Kingdom Key chose! I’m the one everyone expects to do something about this, and I just… I-I can’t, okay? I just can’t!” 

“But no one is putting this on you,” Kairi reminded. “This was just... an unfortunate incident that no one could have predicted. You can’t blame yourself for that.” 

“And why can’t I? I was the one everyone expected to do something about it. But I couldn’t. I can’t. And he’s dead.” 

Kairi didn’t say anything for a moment before she opened the gates of conversation once again. “Sora. Why are you out here?” she asked again. Like before, she received no answer. “Whatever is going on, we can figure it out. I’m here for you, Sora! I told you that I would be and I meant that.” 

Sora shut his eyes, holding back the tears he didn’t want Kairi to see. He really didn’t deserve her. And she deserved better than him. “Kairi... I’m sorry... I just can’t do this anymore...”

She was almost afraid to ask. “What... what do you mean by that?” 

Through the rain, he smiled. Though, clearly a sad one. “Don’t worry. You won’t have to deal with me anymore. Maybe... you’ll find someone better to worry over. You’re an amazing person, the way you look after your sister, Haru, me...” Sora’s eyes lowered. “I think I can truly say that I’ve never met someone like you before. I guess that’s why... I fell in love with you.” 

Kairi gasped, her eyes wide as saucers. He said it. He really said it. 

“I guess now at least... I won’t have any regrets,” Sora continued. “I wanted to at least tell you that, but I just couldn’t find the right time or place... but now, when you think of me, you’ll know. You’ll know how I feel. How I always felt.” 

“What are you talking about, you dummy?” Kairi asked, her voice choking as she used both arms to wipe away her tears like a child scolded by their parents. To see him acting so uncharacteristic hurt more than she ever anticipated. “Why are you saying these things, Sora?” 

“Please don’t cry,” Sora said gently. “I know it’s hard, but you’re strong Kairi. You’ll be okay. I know you will.” 

“What are you talking about?! Answer me, Sora!” 

“I know Riku has always liked you,” Sora continued, as if he weren’t even listening. “You know, he asked me once if I wanted to talk to you before he did. But I didn’t think I had a chance. Maybe I still don’t. So, I let him know that I wouldn’t take offense if he talked to you first. So, I guess I just thought it wouldn’t be right to tell you how I feel knowing how Riku felt. But it won’t matter now. Even still, I wanted to at least let you know...”

“Stop that!” Kairi cried out, clutching her chest as the pain in her heart swelled. She didn’t even bother trying to stop the stream of tears pouring from her eyes. “J-Just stop!” 

Sora sighed. He supposed the least she deserved was an explanation. “Don’t feel bad... I think I just realized that the Kingdom Key made a mistake. All I’m going to do is fix that mistake. I’ll make things right.” 

“You don’t really mean that...”

“If you, or Riku, Donald, Goofy, the King, Roxas, Naminé... you,” he almost stuttered. “If any of you got geostigma... what am I supposed to do then? I’m not going to sit here and watch as my friends die because I’m too weak to save any of you! I can’t do that, Kairi. That’s why...” he said, hesitating, “it’ll be best for everyone if I’m not here.” 

“Do you hear yourself right now?!” Kairi yelled. “You’re not even thinking about how much it’ll hurt the rest of us if something happened to you! How it’ll hurt me... doesn’t... doesn’t that matter to you?” 

Sora couldn’t look her in the eyes anymore. “You’ll be better off,” he stated bluntly. “Trust me.” 

“Sora, you’re not in your right mind! None of the previous chosen ones have been perfect. You can’t expect that of yourself. We’ll get you some help. I’ll help you! Let’s just go back to the hospital and figure this out! We can do it together!” 

When he found the willpower to look in her eyes, it was a face Kairi was certain she didn’t recognize. That droopy exterior of his only brought one word to mind for her. 

Loneliness. 

She could tell that her words weren’t getting through to him. No matter what kind of logic she mustered, it couldn’t connect. It looked like the Sora she knew was gone, but she refused to believe that. He must have been there... somewhere, deep inside. Kairi just had to pull that out. 

“Kairi... I’m sorry,” Sora said, breaking the silence. “I don’t want you to follow me. I don’t want you to see what’s about to happen... but just... I know what I’m doing. And this is the right thing to do.” 

“No, it isn’t!” 

“The Kingdom Key will move on to someone better. They’ll find a cure and maybe they’ll find a way to save all of the lives ruined by geostigma. Maybe it’ll be someone who wasn’t chosen by accident.” 

“Sora!” 

“You won’t be alone. Roxas, Naminé, Lea, Xion... Riku... they’ll be here for you.” 

“Sora, listen to me!” 

“And just know that to me, you were someone very special.” He smiled sadly. “From the moment I laid my eyes on you, I knew you were someone special. I think... leaving you is what’s going to hurt the most.” Sora felt some tears sneak up on him and he quickly wiped them away with the sleeve of his jacket. “But... this is what’s going to be for the best. For everybody. I know it won’t be easy, but just know that when I’m gone, I always appreciated you for the way you made me feel better even on my worst days. You always supported me through and through. I couldn’t have asked for a better friend…and the time we spent together...  will always be precious to me.” 

At this point, Kairi was bawling. Each and every word stung harder than the last. How could he be saying these things while knowing what he was about to do? She couldn’t make sense of it but she knew she wasn’t supposed to. She just wanted him to snap out of it, but how? 

Sora was such an amazing person. The way he lit up a room with just his presence. The way his smile made her feel warm and fuzzy inside. The way he brought people together. The way he cared for other people. That was why the Keyblade had chosen him. It wasn’t because he was the strongest, the fastest, the toughest... that wasn’t how the Keyblade went about its choosings. It was the kind of person he was. His compassion for others. His kindness. All of the good points. Why wasn’t he seeing that? 

Then again, she had dealt with someone with depression before. Naminé had been struggling with it for years, so this was just another case of that. But even Naminé had never been this severe. And Kairi was left unsure what to do. All she could do was cry and hope that her tears were enough to convince him that everything his brain was telling him was wrong. But it wasn’t that easy. 

The pain wouldn’t stop. It was welling up deep inside and was bursting at the seams. She clenched her fists and stopped listening to her head, but her heart. What was she supposed to do? She had to do whatever felt right in that moment. 

She didn’t have long to ponder, however, as Sora turned around. “Kairi... goodbye.”

“I LOVE YOU, TOO!” 

That’s when everything stopped. Sora whirled back around, his eyes wide and confused. He didn’t hear that, right? “What...?” 

“I love you, too,” she said softly. 

“No.” 

“No?” 

“No,” Sora affirmed. “You can’t do that. That’s not true. You like Riku, and you’ve always -” 

“Oh, so now you know how I feel?!” Kairi asked, her temper flaring up again. “It doesn’t work that way! Stop acting like you know everything and listen to me for once!” When he didn’t say anything, Kairi took that as her cue to continue. “I’m sorry, Sora, but you can’t speak on behalf of my feelings. And I���m not just saying this because I don’t want you to do anything stupid. I’m saying it because it’s true.” Her tears continued to flow freely. “I... I love you, too, Sora.” 

Sora stopped, letting the revelation process. “W-Why are you telling me this now?”

“I’m a coward too, sometimes.” She chuckled humorlessly. “But you deserve to know. You’re special to me, too. You made me realize that I do have more to offer to the world. You always make my day better. You’re always there for me and... I love you. I love you so, so much, Sora.”  

His mind was so foggy and cluttered that it didn’t even seem like a possibility. He thought he was nothing more than a friend she cared deeply for. Though, he supposed even if that were the case, she still wouldn’t be okay with his plans. 

Still, what was he supposed to do? Wasn’t he supposed to end things here and now, allowing the Keyblade to move on to a more suitable wielder? Sure, he could still do that, but knowing that Kairi returned his feelings, all this time... it definitely made it a bit harder for him to do that. 

“What am I supposed to do…?” Sora asked quietly to no one in particular. When Kairi didn’t have an answer, Sora’s conflicted emotions exploded in the form of a scream as he put his hands on his forehead. He fell to his knees, his hands still hovered over his ears. During his clouded thoughts convincing him that suicide was the only answer, he almost forgot about it. 

Love. 

Not just the love he had for others, but the fact that others loved him, too. 

And Kairi loved him in that way? He could hardly process it. 

Kairi raced towards him in a panic, her black and pink boots splashing in the murky puddles until she kneeled down to make sure he was okay. Sora found the strength to look up from his state of confusion. “You’re... not lying to me, are you? You’re not just saying that?” he asked. His voice almost sounded desperate. Kairi figured he was still dealing with the thoughts that convinced him he was being lied to. So, she figured the only way to prove it to him was to show him. 

And show him she did, as she pressed her lips against his. 

It caught him by surprise for a moment, but it didn’t take long for him to give in as he shut his eyes. The rain continued to pour during their moment that edged dangerously close to the margin of passion. It was a longing and need that hadn’t been quenched for either of them in what felt like so long. It took just about every fiber of strength in them both to break apart, as Kairi wrapped her arms around the back of his neck, pressing her forehead with his. 

“Do you believe me now?” Kairi asked. 

The question was enough to give Sora the ghost of a smile, but it didn’t take long before it returned to its prior frown. “I guess I just don’t know... if I’m someone worth loving.” 

“Stop that,” Kairi demanded. “You don’t get to decide how I feel. And this is what I feel. So, you’re just going to have to deal with it. I don’t care what you say.” 

Silent tears continued to fall from her eyes as she continued to hug him. Sora gradually went from standing on his knees to sitting cross-legged, but Kairi didn’t let go. She needed him to know that she wouldn’t let go. That he had someone there for him that would never let go. Their damp clothes and the fact that they were very likely to catch a serious cold didn’t matter... as long as they had each other. 

“Don’t you ever go doing something like that again, okay?” Kairi asked. “That’s not the Sora I fell in love with.” 

Sora felt his eyes beginning to well up. She was right. He couldn’t believe he was seriously considering that. So many people were counting on him. The Kingdom Key chose him for a reason, and while it may not have been a reason he understood, it knew what he was capable of inside. 

And, if nothing else, he had this amazing girl there to support him. To save him from himself. He forgot that his bonds with the people closest to him was what gave him strength. He had to be thankful for that. 

“I’m... so sorry, Kairi,” Sora said, choking up. 

“Don’t you ever do that again,” Kairi repeated. “Promise me.” 

She knew how seriously Sora took his promises. Once he made one, he would never, ever break it. “I promise.” 

Kairi mustered up a smile through her tears as she nuzzled into Sora’s soft hair. “It’s going to be okay,” she comforted. “We’ll figure this out. Together.” 

_______

Shoutout to my amazingly talented friend @blissfulnightrain​ for drawing this this page! You’ll be able to check out the full piece on her page! 

[cutegirlmayra]

Sokai: Kingdom of Missing Hearts

More Sokai?! You bet’cha!

Prompts are on shutdown! Don’t send any in until the grand reopening is announced :)b

Prompts:

“The light of our hearts...” The mysterious man walked towards Kairi, who just recently, was still within Merlin’s training but had to flee when it was momentarily compromised.

She adjusted herself and summoned her keyblade.

“Is weak when we’re apart.” The black-hooded man finished, seeming to quote something as his mysterious keyblade began to slowly burst out hazy darkness out of it, growing rapidly as he continued. “Though they say that’s not true... I’d like the vow to remain. Let’s let light die within the dark... if we’re ever too far from its spark.”

He finished and gestured to Kairi to listen, “This poem was written by a depressed lover. I find it rather... touching... to disappear within the void of loneliness than to be too far from love’s light.”

“I... I don’t understand. What do you want!?” Kairi bundled a hand into a fist, placing it on her chest as she readied herself to fight if needs be.

“What? Not a lover of poetry?” the man shrugged, but then chuckled. “Shame... I need you to bring someone to me... someone who would come if you were separated from him... I need him to surcome to the light. Wouldn’t be so bad if you did too. I’d reunite him with his light... through the darkness swallowing you both.” he flung his keyblade back, then rapidly dashed towards her.

She went to strike, unafraid, but the image disappeared the second she did so.

“What..?” she looked around, not sure what was going on before something jammed into her side.

“AHH!!...Ahh...haaa...” she collapsed as the darkness that had surrounded the strange and unfamiliar keyblade seeped over her body.

Leaving the Keyblade in, the figure stood up straight, snapping. “One down...” He looked over his shoulder, “One to come...”

-Yen Sid’s Tower-

“Ah! Kairi!” Riku, upon the door opening to reveal Kairi laying unconscious with a strange keyblade stabbed into her side, immediately dashed towards her and gripped the side of the table. “Kairi! Kairi, open your eyes!” When she didn’t respond, his shoulders slumped and his body began to shake, turning violently to Yen Sid. “Who did this!? What did they want?”

“Calm yourself, Riku... A keyblade wielder has trapped Kairi in a never-ending nightmare realm within her heart.” Yen Sid closed his eyes, “I’m afraid if we were to remove the keyblade... her heart would be lost, and the darkness would corrupt her physical form left behind.”

He reopened his eyes and placed his hands into his long sleeves, “It’s unclear... how exactly he was able to summon the power. A forbidden poem triggers the cursed realm, but one can’t simply just utter it to bring it forth... we’re dealing with a powerful new enemy... one who seems to want mischief more than simply just chaos.”

“Isn’t that the same thing!?”

The two now looked to Axel, walking into the room, looking even more hostile than Riku had been.

“Whoever this loser is, I’ve never seen his keyblade before. EVER!” he swiped a hand out, clearly upset. “Which means he’s not apart of the organization. At least, not officially, anyway.”

“They can’t recruit?” Riku glared, but Axel flinched back, a little hurt by his expression.

“Hey! Don’t pin the blame on me! How am I supposed to know what’s going on inside those crazy ol’coots minds now!?”

“Enough. Both of you. I know you care about Kairi... but this is no time to panic.” Yen Sid looked kindly to both men, as they did take heed to his words, and looked down in frustration.

“Is there really nothing we can do? Without risking her heart?” Riku spoke up then, unable to make eye-contact with anyone. He kept his anger fixed on a point on the ground, not wanting to upset Yen Sid again, or inadvertently make Axel feel bad.

“There is a chance... But who knows where Sora has gone off too.” He seemed to be a little hopeless on that last part, but Riku quickly looked up.

“The gummiphone?”

-The Gummi Ship-

“Sora! Look out!” Donald cried out in his signature duck’s voice.

“I’m trying! Err... Hyah!” Steering through the universe to get to another world, Sora’s pocket suddenly came to life with sound.

“Hey, that’s that there Gemmiphone, right?” Goofy bent his head down to look but Donald quickly corrected him.

“Gummiphone!” he quickly jumped out of his chair, but Sora moved the ship and he was squabbling across the floor, sliding to slam his butt against the side of the ship. “Heeeyy!!!” He let out his infamous anger and swung his fists around.

“Gwosh.” Goofy put a finger to his mouth, then looked back to Sora.

“Kinda busy!” he admitted, before finding an astroid to hide behind as he sighed. He put his keyblade down, something he was using to guide them towards the world, then pulled out his phone.

“Riku? Is everything alright?”

“Not really. Before me and Mickey could start our search for Aqua, something came up.”

“Woah, Riku looks pretty serious.” Sora lightly stated to Donald and Goofy, who had come up to look over and down at his Gummiphone.

“Sora... I don’t know what’s going on with you right now, but... It’s Kairi.”

Sora’s eyes widened, bulging at her name.

“What was that? Riku, what happened to Kairi!? Is she alright? She’s with Merlin and Axel, isn’t she!?” He leaned more and more towards the Gummiphone, his worry overtaking him as Donald and Goofy looked to each other, seeing him lose his composure.

“D’wah...”, “Ohh...” the two seemed to share the same reactions.

“Not... quite...”

“Huh? Axel!”

Sora saw Axel enter the frame, scratching the back of his head as Riku adjusted the Gummiphone and tilted it towards him.

“We were compromised. Only for an instant, mind you. Merlin sent us through different portals and the guy followed Kairi, coincidentally.”

“The guy..? Wait, where’s Kairi!?” Sora gripped the phone, his emotions getting the better of him.

The two looked to each other, almost sharing Donald and Goofy’s expressions.

They turned back to Sora, as if making a decision.

“It’s best you head to Master Yen Sid’s, Sora. We think your power could help... it’s got to be you, Sora.” Riku nodded firmly to him.

“My... Power? Ohh...” Sora looked off and let one of his hands go from the phone, looking at it. “But my power’s not back yet... I don’t even know if...” he formed a fist, shaking it as he closed his eyes and tilted his head.

“Don’t worry, Riku! Axel! I’ll be there faster than you can say ‘Sora’s here!’.” He gave a confident smile, but once the Gummiphone was off--and after Riku and Axel nodded to his statement--he felt his whole body fall into the Gummi Ship’s chair.

“What if... I can’t even save Kairi?” He felt his head hang low.

Donald and Goofy shared a look again, before changing it to a fierce look of conviction. “Sora!!!” Donald stomped a foot down, bundling his fists together in front of him. “You can do anything, Sora! You just gotta believe you can!” he stepped back as Goofy also gave it a go, encouraging Sora as well in his own words.

“Yeah, that’s right. We wouldn’t be able to do half of the things we can now without each other. I’m sure Kairi trusts you to help her too.”

“Yeah, we’ll do this together! Like everything else!”

“D’ah! You said it, Donald!”

Sora weakly looked up to them, “Donald... Goofy...”

After giving his friends a quick look, seeing each of their smiling and confident faces towards him, he smacked his hands into his cheeks and perked up a bit. “Right!” he threw a fist up, “Kairi’s saved me so many times! I can’t let her down now!”

“Yeah!” The two cheered together, also raising their fist.

-Back at Yen Sid’s Tower-

It was a minute before Sora and the gang arrived, and when they did, they came bolting in like lightning, heading straight to Kairi.

“Kairi!” Sora raced by Riku and Axel, who let him pass as he barged into the heavy table and looked over Kairi’s state.

The darkness was swarming all around her in a moving, living smoke. The keyblade was securely in her side, but there wasn’t any blood. It was strange... even it’s design was something Sora had never seen before.

He fell to his knees, spending a moment to feel before doing anything further.

Just like Axel and Riku, though... anger filled him and he stood back up, reaching for the keyblade.

“No!” Riku swung an arm out.

“Don’t touch that, Sora!!!”

“I can’t use the power of awakening just yet-! But I can use my own power to save her!” he gripped the keyblade’s handle.

Yen Sid stood up, “Sora! Halt!” he was about to cast a spell when he noticed Sora suddenly overcome by the darkness as well.

“I... I don’t feel... my strength...” Sora, losing his fight, suddenly leaned his head back and collapsed over Kairi.

“Sora!!!” Everyone cried out, racing to his side.

Then... They all heard snoring.

“Wha?” Donald stepped to the side, shaking Sora’s body before noticing he looked asleep.

“He... Couldn’t pull the keyblade out?” Riku looked to Yen Sid, “What’s going on?”

“How... interesting.” Yen Sid lowered his once raised hand, “After being alerted of Kairi’s predicament, I thought he might act hastily. However, I never truly expected him to completely abandon trying to awaken her, and instead, diving into the realm himself...”

“He what!? Listen, not one of the things coming out of your mouth is the same as the other words that came from it just a few moments before.” Axel slightly complained, but Yen Sid seemed relatively calm by his reaction.

“The unusual keyblade tore into Kairi’s heart, which is why her physical body was unharmed. But by means of the curse embued in it, that left Kairi’s heart punctured with darkness that took her mind into another realm within her own heart. This is the reason why she seems to sleep... But her training was not all in vain, as she is filled with a powerful light.” Yen Sid began to explain, which captured everyone’s attention. He looked back to Kairi and Sora, “Kairi possesses a strong, kind heart. I worried that if we were to remove the keyblade, it may cause her to falter to darkness. I took this as an opportunity, although unfortunate, to see if her peril could lead Sora to regaining his lost power.”

“Hold up, you’re telling me you used the situation to your advantage?!” Axel burst from his quiet listening, bending his body as though ready to fight. “You’re just as bad as the organization!”

“Bite your tongue, Axel.” Riku looked back to Axel, scolding him.

“What?! You can’t seriously say you stand to reason for this guy!?” Axel swung a hand in frantic gestures, “What has the world of light come to, huh!?”

“I know it sounds kinda harsh... but it’s true. We need Sora’s power.” Riku looked down, seeming ashamed to admit it, but forcing himself too.

Yen Sid looked down as well, “I know it sounds unorthodox, but any way to help Sora regain that power as soon as possible... is crucial to our purposes in this war.”

The others remained silent, but Axel fumed quietly to himself, turning away from everyone and folding his arms. “Hmph. Nothing you say will change my point of view.”

Sora began to speak in his sleep, and the others quickly turned to listen in.

“Kairi... Wake up... I have so many... adventures... to tell you... zzzz.”

Riku suddenly summoned his keyblade, going over to free their hearts but Yen Sid threw his arm up again, “No, Riku! If they do lose their hearts, it’s over.”

Riku lowered his keyblade, “So we have to just stand here and do nothing!? My friends are trapped in an endless nightmare!” He gestured back to them. “My heart’s already been inside the darkness, maybe I can-”

“I’ll not lose another light.” Yen Sid shook his head, “We must believe in Sora and Kairi’s light. There is a second poem to the first, written by the woman before the first poem was ever conceived. She created it as though knowing her beloved would succumb to torment at her lost.”

He began to recite, as Sora’s heart glowed from the words. “Though light seems to dim and fade, never is it darkness made. Though our hearts be long gone from this world, I still believe in the eternal flame. Light connects even within the night. Let stars collide, and a path be made bright.”

Sora’s heart burst and suddenly he woke up on a stained glass window beneath his feet. It looked like... “Kairi’s heart?”

“Sora!”

He quickly looked up and gasped, a Heartless jumped at him and swiped, as he was knocked back away.

Shaking it off, he looked up to now blurred vision. The floor seemed to shift into many scenes of Kairi’s life and adventures, before being swarmed in darkness and then broken through light.

“What’s... going on?”

Kairi swiped her keyblade at the horde of Heartless that quickly formed again after the explosion of Light from Kairi’s heart.

She looked exhausted, as though she had been fighting for a long time.

“Kairi... she needs me...” He slowly gathered the strength to get up onto one knee. “Kairi!” he called out, desperate to help her. “I’m coming!”

He fell again as another Heartless attacked him, then another, and soon he was piled on by a group of them that kept pummeling into him, ripping at his back.

He tried to endure but just like before, the floor became swarmed in darkness, and then a memory from Kairi’s past broke through the last depiction and burst into light.

For a moment, relief. Sora looked around, seeing there was no more horde and quickly got to his feet, dashing to Kairi who stumbled a moment to stay balanced on her feet.

“Sora...” Her eyes seemed distant, but she reached out to him.

He immediately grabbed her, holding her close as their light combined.

“You called me out of darkness once...” He stated as the Heartless hordes grew in number again. The last memory was being overwhelmed in darkness again, and it seemed as Kairi kept summoning new light from herself, it was quickly overcome time and time again by darkness.

She was running out of happy memories to sustain herself...

Sora looked to the horde, gritted his teeth, and summoned his keyblade. He moved Kairi behind him, letting her lean a little on his shoulder and back, as he glared the massive force of dark enemies down. ‘I can do this.’ he took a deep breath, ‘No matter how long it takes..! I will do this!’

He readied himself for a showdown, his typical positioning of his bent knees and keyblade off to his side in both hands.

“It’s my turn to return the favor!”

“But... Sora... You’re powers...” She worriedly placed a hand on his shoulder, sliding it to touch his neck as he looked down. “You still have them... don’t you?”

“I... I don’t know how to awaken your heart, Kairi.” Admitting that almost broke him. He closed his eyes, unwilling to see what kind of disappointed expression she might make.

But instead, she giggled.

He opened his eyes in shock and turned to her, knowing the horde was about to pounce at any second now, their numbers overwhelming at this point.

“I’ve missed you, Sora.” She lightly smiled to him, then tilted her head in a cute sense of trust. She was unworried, how could that be?

“I meant your other power,... don’t you know? The one you never can lose.”

“H-huh?” Sora tilted a little more towards her, his ear now right up by her mouth as he didn’t notice the proximity at the moment.

The horde jumped forward.

“You really don’t know? It’s your smile, Sora... Darkness just can’t stand to be around it.”

In that moment, light overwhelmed the darkness, and Kairi and Sora’s combined light began to lift them out of the dark nightmare realm that seemed to loop in a continual struggle, due to Kairi’s unfaltering heart.

With Sora’s added strength, the mysterious keyblade began to wobble as though floppy, then stiffen and shift before disappearing in balls of twinkling light.

Sora was the first to wake up, shaking his head before Kairi got up too, placing a hand on his head and grinning kindly to him.

“Good morning, sleepyhead.”

“Ah... Kairi!” his eyes shone at the sight of her.

They embraced.

It was bittersweet though. Although everyone celebrated that the first poem was the counter-spell, Yen Sid still reminded everyone they needed further training, and to be careful.

Merlin put an even more powerful spell, thanks to Yen Sid’s instructions, and hid Kairi and Axel better for their training.

At least it wasn’t the organization... but before they all left back to their tasks, Sora and Kairi spent a second to say...

“You have to continue the fight, Sora! I’ll complete my training, just you wait and see!” With that never-ending supply of positivity, Kairi was bubbly with energy.

“Heh.” Sora flicked his finger under his nose, “You never change, Kairi... Though you do get stronger every time I see you. It’s hard to believe that just a little while ago, you had a keyblade sticking out from your side.”

She confidently put her hands to her hips, mimicking her younger years, and leaning towards him, accusingly. “Are you saying I should be complaining?”

He shook his hands out, “No, no! It’s just... I’m kinda torn.” He looked down, admitting how he really felt.

Kairi straightened up, dropping her playful act a moment and listening to him.

“You want to stay... don’t you, Sora?”

He nodded, “Who wouldn’t want to be... with the people they love more than anything?” he seemed to be referring to Riku too, and she smiled at that innocence.

She didn’t take it the wrong way, but... she knew the feeling... and knew what more to say.

“Tell me all about your adventures when you get back. Don’t miss a detail, okay? I want to know everything.” she put her hands behind her back, tilting her head with a modest nod.

It was heartbreaking, but also sweet.

Sora, wishing he could give her one last hug, stepped forward to try for it but then harshly pivoted, ducking his head from her view to hide the painful realization that if he did so, it may hurt them both worse...

“I promise... Wait for me, Kairi!” he shook a fist and then looked up to give her back a overly happy grin.

“Will do!” she chimed before taking a step forward... and then rushing into him with a big hug.

He was taken aback... maybe they were both stronger than he thought.

He hugged her, knowing she was his true strength.

“So long... Sora.” Was she... gripping him tighter?

He knew exactly what she was feeling now, and pulled her even deeper too, digging his head into her shoulder. “Em... Wait up for me.”

“I’m always with you... in your heart... Sora.” she pulled away, but it was hard for the both of them.

It took them a moment, but they finally looked back into the other’s glossy eyes.

“And I with you... Kairi.”

He began to let her go... slowly... before dashing to the Gummi Ship.

She lingered in the moment, watching him rush up the lowered panel that lead into the Gummi Ship before stopping abruptly... looking back, and giving her an energetic wave.

She giggled, waving back just as much. ‘I’ll always miss you, Sora...’

‘I’ll never, ever forget the strength of your light... The presence of your heart... Kairi.’

They both slowly lowered their hands... their eyes turning kinder, before the two headed off.

“You, uh... You didn’t want to give him the letters?” Axel, feeling a bit like a third wheel, still had a hand up and behind his head.

“They’re more for me, remember?” She just walked right passed him, a smile still apparent on her face. She nodded cheerfully, but he could tell there was a quiet sadness there.

“You know... you don’t always have to be so strong.” He walked after her but stopped when she paused. “Just saying. You’ll miss him, right? So it’s okay to have... a shoulder to cry on.” he patted his shoulder with the hand that was behind his head, winking slightly as though to keep everything light.

The wind of the Gummi Ship taking off blew her hair gently back...

She turned around with a sly look, “You say that as though I need to cry.” She then looked up after the Gummi Ship, “But I know we’ll be together again... maybe not now, or even soon... but we will. We’re connected by an unbreakable bond... Our hearts are always filled with the connection of light. We won’t shut them out in fear of losing that connection, that path towards each other...” she shook her head, closing her eyes a moment in the sunlight, “I’m not sure what darkness thinks it can do... but darkness strives to sever the connection of hearts... that’s why, nothing good can dwell in it.”

As she opened her eyes, she was surprised to see Axel staring at her in the way he used to when reminded of something he forgot.

“What?”

“Oh, nothing! Sorry...” He looked away.

“Axel...” she lightly scolded.

“I mean-! It’s just so wholesome.” He faked it off, pretending it wasn’t the thing he couldn’t remember, but Kairi just smiled and followed after him.

She didn’t look back.

She didn’t need too.

Sora was right here... in her heart. She touched it lightly, and Sora--sitting within the Gummi Ship--touched his too.

Neither would succumb, because love can’t exist in darkness.

[chikoriita]

On My Mind

Here is my contribution for SoKai Day 2019! Also dedicated to @floralianspiderboynova​, who requested this a while ago (sorry it’s so late!)

Read on AO3.org

--

Ah, Radiant Garden. Her one last chance at refuge. Kairi only hoped that this was her safe harbor. In the last 12 hours, she was cornered at home and run out of her own house on Destiny Islands. Then, they chased her to Twilight Town and beyond.They would not let her live in peace, would they? She hurried along the outer edges of the borough. The others might not be able to find her here. With the reconstruction of the neighborhoods, Radiant Garden was a sprawling metropolis. If only for a few moments, she could rest easy.

This was, as usual, Sora’s fault. He had to open his big mouth and tell his brothers and sister about the bet. She never should have taken the dare in the first place. How was she to know that Sora could swim farther than her now? If she knew, then maybe she wouldn’t have taken such a silly forfeit. It was supposed to end with Sora dying his hair pink. Instead now, she had to do the unthinkable.

Kairi would have to ride a horse. Not just any horse, but a Pegaslick. Riku, who had been their judge for their contest, said that it had wings. So now, because of her shortsightedness, lest she go back on her word, she was doomed to ride a horse, the one animal in the worlds she could not stand.

Then he had to get the others involved; the others being Roxas, Xion, and Naminé.

“You know Kairi,” Naminéstarted at lunch the other day. “It’s not good to go back on your word. Sora won the bet fair and square, according to Riku. Just fulfill the forfeit, and we can move on.”

Kairi’s jaw dropped. Her own sister was betraying her. “Naminé!” She gasped. “You were once a part of me, and you’re taking his side?”

She shrugged. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

“Yeah!” A voice piped up from outside the window. Kairi peeked her head outside to find Roxas and Xion crouching in the bushes.

“What are you two doing spying on our conversation?” Kairi was both confused and frustrated.

Xion waved sheepishly. “Sora wanted to remind you that you have until tonight to pay up.” She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

“But he was too scared to tell you, so we decided to help,” Roxas said.

Kairi let out a small growl. “I am not going to let the three of you pester me into the forfeit.” She fled her parents home, leaving the three former Nobodies running after her. She ran until she reached her Gummiship. It was far beyond her old rowboat, and for that she was thankful. Her little boat wouldn’t get her beyond their reach.

And so the three had followed her to Twilight Town, the Mysterious Tower, and even Disney Castle! She thought that King Mickey would at least take her side, but he apparently did not judge in matters of wagers and bets.

“Kairi, you should always pay your debts,” he said softly to her during her stolen hour at the castle. She resisted making a face as she escaped (and not a moment too soon as Roxas’s Gummi landed as hers departed).

All the running and fleeing brought her here of all places. Radiant Garden, the same place Sora asked her to meet him. He requested at the Bastion steps for the ride. He said he would wait until the end of day for her, which meant she had a at least an hour or two to think about her decision. She sat on the perch of one of the fountains and closed her eyes. This was as good a place as any to think.

The ring of her Gummiphone knocked her out of her reverie. Riku’s name flashed on the screen. She quickly accepted the call and pasted on a wide smile.

“Riku!” She saw his Gummiship cockpit. He probably had the phone docked on his ship controls.

“Why did I get a call from the King to check up on you?” He asked. “Is everything okay?”

Oh that mouse, Kairi thought. She was going to have a talk with the Queen about his meddling. “The kids will not leave me alone! They keep pestering me about the bet.” She jumped off her perch and walked toward the Bastion. Not because she accepted her defeat. She just wanted to stretch her legs.

He raised an eyebrow at her. “You mean this is all about the bet? The one that you lost?”

“You don’t have to remind me,” she sulked.

“What do you have against horses anyway?”

“I once saw a horse beat a clown.”

Riku made a face. “Really?”

Kairi shrugged. “It was probably a man in a costume, now that I think about it. Still, I just don’t like them.”

“That’s a shame. Sora really got close to his Pegaslick when we were in the Sleeping Worlds.”

“They are killing machines, and you know it.”

He laughed heartily. “This coming from the girl that jumped into a swarm of Heartless to save Sora.”

A harsh chuckle came from off screen. “Is that Kairi? Tell her to pay up! My brother is waiting.” She heard Vanitas’s voice chime in.

Kairi rolled her eyes. “Tell him to stuff it.”

“Okay, I gotta go. See you soon, Kai.” Riku waved her off and ended the call.

“See you soon?” Kairi repeated. What did he mean by that? She looked up from the screen to find herself at the bottom of the steps. After focusing, she saw Sora waving down at her from the top.

“Eep!” She spun around to avoid looking at him. True to his promise, he had the Pegaslick with him. The winged horse was bright and awash with various colors and stood vividly against the bricks of the castle. She didn’t have to look at Sora to know that he didn’t expect anything from her. Even if she did owe him the forfeit, he would never force her to do anything. She knew that in her heart, and maybe that is why she took the first step up towards him. The remaining steps did not register as they were only a means to get to Sora.

Kairi stopped a bit short of Sora and hesitated. “Hi,” she finally said with a small wave.

“You made it!” He exclaimed, then sobered. “I’m sorry for all of our siblings’ nuisances. You didn’t have to put up with them.”

Truth be told, though it was annoying during the moment, Kairi appreciated the feeling of having pesky family members today. After all, didn’t it mean that they cared about them? Even crotchety old Vanitas wanted to help in his own way.

She reached out to take his hand. “I was the stubborn one. I should’ve just faced my fears.” She threaded her fingers with his.

“I just thought it would be…” He trailed off quietly and turned his head.

Kairi pulls it back toward her. “Would be what?”

“Romantic.” He blushed. Blush was an understatement, truly. His entire face was red. “It’s our anniversary, you know.”

“Our what?” Kairi nearly squawked as he tugged her closer.

His lips lifted into a sly smirk. “Don’t tell me you forgot,” He teased. “One year ago, we shared the paopu fruit.”

Had it really been a year since that moment in the sunset? “It’s been a hectic year.”

“You said you wanted to be part of my life no matter what. It worked; you’re always on my mind. Without you, I don’t think I could have faced my fears, then or now. Tonight, I wanted to help you face one of yours.” Sora petted the Pegaslick with his free hand. “Want to face it together?”

Kairi looked at their joined hands and thought about it. No matter how small of a matter it may seem, this Dream Eater was part of Sora’s life as well. Contrary to how she acted these last few days, Kairi did not go back on her word. No matter what. “Let’s do it.”

Sora’s eyes met hers. “Really?!” He said gleefully.

“Do not push your luck, Sora.” She moved closer to the Pegaslick. “How do we do this?”

He grabbed her by the waist (don’t blush Kairi, do not blush!) and placed her on the makeshift saddle he arranged. “Hold on,” he instructed as he climbed on behind her. Sora placed her hands on the reins and closed his left hand around hers.

“Are you ready?” He whispered.

She scrunched her eyes closed and nodded.With his right arm tightened like a bar against her waist, he gave a small kick, and they lifted off.

Kairi felt the air rushing past her ears as they ascended into the sky. After a few moments, they slowed down and stabilized. She cracked one eye open and gasped. When she opened both eyes, she saw the second most beautiful sunset of her life. They glided above pink and orange clouds, seemingly in their own world.

“How majestic,” she whispered, settling back against Sora’s chest.

He let out a deep breath, one he must have held since they took off moments before. “I promised myself that one day I would take you flying with me. Granted, it’s not the same as pixie dust-” She interrupted him. “It’s even better.” The serenity of experiencing twilight with him was incomparable, whether or not they needed help flying.

“Even though we are on a horse?” Sora asked in a slight tease. She nudged him with her elbow. The Pegaslick wasn’t as bad as she imagined. It was a serene creature, neighing periodically.

Kairi didn’t answer him, and instead, focused on the rays of sunset fading into the horizon. Night would soon follow. Sora circled the castle’s highest parapet three times before beginning their descent.

“We’re done already?”

He chuckled. “Just one more surprise.” He maneuvered the Pegaslick onto a balcony on the parapet where a picnic blanket awaited them. He slid off the Dream Eater and lifted Kairi off deftly.

“Now admire the view from up here while I explain a few things.” Kairi leaned against the balcony railing and watched as the neighborhoods below transitioned into the evening. During twilight’s final moments, street lamps lit the streets snaking through the city. Night markets began trading their wares. Radiant Garden was once again the booming world it once was.

“I’ve told you about Rapunzel right?” Kairi nodded slightly. Her story hit very close to home. The only difference was that Rapunzel’s parents looked for her for all these years while Kairi’s family was nowhere to be found.

“Well, they found her by sending out lanterns every year on her birthday. She found her way back to them by following the light.” Sora came to her side with a glowing paper lantern in his hands.

“Sora…” Kairi didn’t know what to say.

“We’ve been separated so many times in our lives. We didn’t need lanterns to find each other before. But maybe, we could spin the tradition our own way.” He placed the lantern in her hand. “This lantern will be our reminder that there is always a light in the darkness to guide us. You already did it for me. Now let me be your light.”

A tear streamed down her cheek. “Oh, Sora. You already are.” With both their hands, they lifted the lone lantern into the night sky. For a single moment, it bounced against the breeze and lit up against the darkness. In the next moment, a second lantern lifted up from another part of the castle. Kairi looked down to see Roxas, Xion, and Naminé on a balcony. Another lantern floated up from their left. Was that Riku’s silver hair she spied on another balcony? She couldn’t trust her eyes because it seemed like he had both Ventus and Vanitas lifting up lanterns together. Before she knew it, hundreds of glowing lanterns lifted up from the city below them.

“What is all of this?” Kairi asked softly.

Sora lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it. “Our destinies are intertwined and with them, our family. They all helped me pull off this night.”

“Ah, so you are to blame for their pestering!” She poked him on the cheek.

He grinned. “Guilty.”

“Well, you’re simply lucky that I like them.” She looped her arms around his neck and placed a small kiss on his nose. “And I really like you.”

[jokahlu]

Kingdom Hearts 3 Ted Talk, Kairi’s Edition (More like rant) (Will contain spoilers)

*Warnings*

While reading the following post you should expect:

*Spoilers are ahead.

*Duality of emotions clashing between love and frustration.

*A certain mouse’s head will be expected in a platter, and he will be the source of the darkness coming out of me.

*Love for a character that deserved way more than what she got.

*Deep disappointment for a forgotten friendship that was non-existent.

*A sailing ship warmed my heart.

*And an ending that shattered it.

…So it’s basically me ranting at how SE treats Kairi.

Also, it’s a pretty long read. I tried to make it short. Oh well.

Enjoy.

*Read at your own discretion*

I’m so wrecked after this game. But don’t get me wrong, I loved it!

The graphics were superb, their expressions on point, the writing and humor, the landscapes and worlds. It was all so precious. Being able to play as the spiked hair little bundle of joy again after so long was truly like coming home.

But as much as I loved it, there are so many things that rubbed me the wrong way. So many things I hoped for, that seemed reasonable and not out of the realm of possibilities, but never happened.

I will not mention all of them here because I could write an entire essay about it. Reason why I’ll try not to get overly excited. Underline try.

This time I will mostly talk about Kairi. 

Let’s do this quick, shall we?

First of all, I need that mouse’s head on a platter.

I wish Aqua would’ve given Mickey a good beating in this game. Don’t get me wrong, I usually like Mickey and his character in the KH franchise is pretty cool. But I hated his disregard to Kairi in this game. It just made me want to scream. Yes, he’s not the only one who doesn’t give a damn about the redhead (more on that lovely subject later), but I felt like he valued other’s life above hers in a blatantly obvious way. There are two scenes where I noticed this and it made me want to crawl up the walls.

The first scene was when Kairi is about to be struck down by Terranort, after him discarding two experienced fighters with a little more than a flick of his wrist, mind you. So, of course she’s scared and paralyzed, like any normal keyblade wielder (with only basic training and no real experience) would be. As Sora is desperately running to shield her with nothing but his body, Mickey uselessly screams “Sora no!”, as Donald and Goofy use their brains (and weapons) and come to the rescue.

What gives Mickey? Is she that unimportant in your mind, that Sora shouldn’t even try to help her? Did you honestly expect Sora to just let her die? Because if Terranort struck her, she was toast.

But I guess the answer is yes, because the other scene that made me want to strangle him was when Sora wants to go and save her and Mickey is trying to convince him not to go. I bet if it was Minnie on the line he would be jumping into lava if it meant to save her. But Kairi? Nah.

I swear I would’ve wanted Minnie to be next to Kairi and both be destroyed by Master Xehanort, just to see if Mickey’s reaction would be any different and if he would also risk it all at the end to save her instead of being like “oh don’t go Sora, you may never come back. Just leave Kairi to die, we can lose her but not you” attitude. Geez.

Love for a character that deserved better.

Oh, I could go one and on, on this one. It’s divided in many categories because the whole rant can be resumed in: she deserved better.

I’ll point out the obvious: I’ve always loved Kairi.

Yeah, she’s underdeveloped, not well written and can’t seem to shake the damsel in distress coat off, but I’ve always liked her. I’ve always felt Sora and Riku’s love for her real and heartwarming, and that’s made me like her so much. She’s also super brave, witty and has a great personality (don’t fight me on this)

I do get why some people might not like her, but I do.

Kingdom Hearts games have always treated her like a plot device and nothing more, and kh3 was the worst of the bunch in my opinion.

No one seems to care about her except for Sora.

When everyone reunites after Kairi dies, the only one who says something to him to reassure and confort Sora, apart from Donald and Goofy, is Xion. The rest are like oh ok she died, what’s next? I was expecting for Axel to be pissed, sad, anything, or anyone commenting something about it, but they just disregarded it like nothing happened.

Even if I understand that Terra, Aqua, Ven, Roxas, even Xion, didn’t know her that well and I didn’t expect it to affect them, at least they should acknowledge their fallen comrade. But ok, they didn’t know her that well. But Axel and Riku virtually not giving a damn? It really made things worse for my already wrecked heart. Those two are her closest friends, aside from Sora..

Even when the final battle is over everyone is like “wohoo we won! it’s all over!” (I’m glaring at you mouse) and even Riku agrees, Sora is the only one who is sad and heartbroken for her dying. Speaking of Riku basically disregarding her death..

Deep disappointment for a forgotten friendship that was basically non-existent.

Saying that I was disappointed in Kairi and Rikus interactions is a mayor understatement. This broke my heart because my highest hope for kh3 was to see Riku and Kairi being friends. Like, real friends.

In kh1 he was all over protecting her, in kh2 he silently looked after her and kept her safe as much as he could, but kh3? Man, in this game they felt like borderline strangers to me. Even faced by her being murdered in front of his face, he just stood there kind of surprised and pissed. Nothing more.

Seriously?

I mean Master Xehanort had just cold-bloodedly killed her right then and there, and he didn’t react as if his childhood friend had just turned into dust. 

And even worse, when the final battle ended he didn’t even offer to go with Sora to save her. What the hell?

If it was Sora who had died, there is no doubt in my mind that he would’ve been fighting his way to save him, consequences be dammed. (And it’s what probably happens when Kairi comes home alone, smh) And that reaction would be right because they’re best friends and that how any of the other characters would react if one of their trio was killed and they had the chance to save them.

So why did it seem like he didn’t care at all? It hurts a lot.

Where is the Riku who’s last worlds for Sora were asking him to keep Kairi safe? The one who helped her escape Axel or shielded her from Saix?

Riku felt off to me in Kingdom Hearts 3, not only because of this, but I’ll leave that for my Riku rant.

Kairi’s performance in the final battle

Not everyone has to kick ass to be valid, and she tried her best to train and help, even when it was not something she was used to. 

I mean, come on! Her first real experiences in battle were in the final battle. Who the hell thought it was a good idea? She had only trained with Axel. So, of course she would freeze when she sees trained/experienced keyblade wielders being thrown all over the place. Even Sora didn’t take out his weapon, trying to save her in the rush of the moment. And even if she did take out her keyblade when Terranort attacked her, she would’ve been smashed against the wall like Axel.

I’ll admit that before kh3 was released, I wished she did become OP and beat some organization XIII butt, but as I advanced in the game I realized how ridiculous that is. If you put kh1 Riku and Sora in that scenario, even at the end of the game with all the experience they had gathered, I bet they wouldn’t have fared very differently.

What I truly want is for her to go on her own adventure and grow powerful at her own pace, so in the next big battle she’ll be fairly prepared. It would be better if that adventure was with Sora and Riku, exploring new worlds together just the three of them, like they dreamed about in kh1.

But I’ll say it again: Not everyone in the game must kick ass to be valid.

A sailing ship warmed my heart. Even if it was poorly written (Unsurprisingly. It involves Kairi so I expected as much)

The Sokai in the game honestly lifted my battered heart.

Sora grows to learn so much more of love in this game: how powerful true love can be, how if you truly believe, love can make miracles happen and that one day is enough if there is true love.. He even admits that he still doesn't know much about it, but as the story goes on we can see that he knows more than he believes.

I loved the paopu scene. I could totally imagine Kairi and Riku planning it beforehand, so that Kairi and Sora would be alone to do so. Key word being “imagine” because at this point, their friendship is only in my imagination.. but that will be saved for Riku’s rant..

I believe that it’s so in character that Kairi initiates the paopu scene, because Sora would never do so. But I loved it, and the way they looked at each other was so.. oh man this game.

The paopu moment did seem to make Sora bolder, touching her more than before and being blunter about how she makes him feel. And it’s so heartwarming and wholesome that the moment when Sora realizes Kairi’s light had been guiding him in the darkness, he remembers the two acts of true love he had witnessed before in the game: Rapunzel’s tear bringing Flynn back to life and Elsa and Ana’s scene as well. I believe that’s the moment when he realizes that she’s his True Love.. 

That moment when he finds her in the darkness, and he makes her shy when he tells her that he felt strong with her, smiling knowingly when she turns away embarrassed. Or holding her hand for longer than necessary when they go back with the others.

It’s amazing that after meeting so many new people, many gorgeous girls and guys, Sora’s heart hasn’t let go of the friend he fell for as kids. He loved her for her personality and heart, which is why their bond is so strong, even if they see each other less than before.. which is a massive understatement if I must say so myself.  

That heart wrenching scream when she was taken into the heartless tornado or his grief-stricken face as he screamed at Master Xehanort “Why”, are proof of just how deep his feelings for her are. How important and invaluable she is in his life.

Adding to this, his utter sacrifice to go save her as soon as possible, not enjoying his victory against Master Xehanort, and not making her wait one more second (his words, not mine) is a statement of his feelings for her, simple and clear (thought I would say clean did ya?)

I mean, come on! His first thought after killing that murderous bald sack of darkness was about her.

And at the end I love how they were holding hands and sitting so close to each other on the paopu tree (They’re definitely a couple now) before he vanished and shattered my heart in a million different pieces.

Speaking of which..

An ending that shattered my heart.

I feel like her dying was very unnecessary. I think that it was only for Sora to embark on a mission alone. Master Xehanort says that he lacks motivation, so he kills her (she’s being used as a plot device again dammit) but Sora clearly was going to fight him either way, motivation or not. 

So, killing Kairi was only for Sora to go alone at the end, leave the story inconclusive and the game, and players, in dire need of a sequel.

Before the secret ending had been added, I was super sad that the only person who truly cared for her had seemingly died, or vanished, but now we know he’s someplace else, looking for a way back to her. I would love for her to save him, but given how SE treats her, I think I’ll temper my expectations for her in the next installments of the games.

This game left me with a super bittersweet feeling, but it was definitely worth it! I won’t let SE and the character’s indifference towards Kairi affect my overall enjoyment of the game.

But let’s hope she gets to shake that damsel in distress title Nomura loves to give her.. I guess I can’t keep my expectations low for her, can I?

Oh well, Sora still need to give her her lucky charm back, which she gave back in Blank Points, so he needs to come back to her to return it.

Please SE let Kairi help save Sora this time, without being a burden. Thank you.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[thekingdomheartsprincess]

when kairi died part of me felt relieved

very long rant filled with run-on sentences, over-use of bold words, and over-use of italics. you’ve been warned

I’ve been holding off on my full review and thoughts on kh3 until after I get through my second playthrough. I will say, it was an overall great game and I was pleasantly surprised by a lot. I have my issues, but I’d like to hold off until I’m finished with my regular paced play through (not speedplay) before I write all my thoughts. However, one thing I really have to get out now is how absolutely disappointed and disgusted I am by kairi’s entire existence in kh3.

And just an fyi, I set the bar low going into this for her. I wasn’t expecting much, yet somehow, I was still let down harder than I thought was actually possible.To me, the highlight of kairi’s appearance in kh3 was probably going to be because she was training with axel. Therefore, with the reasoning that axel usually gets excessive screen time---you know, the guy that should have fake died twice before his actual fake death (which I’m not complaining about, just saying)...kairi would have by default gotten some of that extra relevance right??

Wrong... in a stunning turn of events they actually left axel to the side as well. He got a few good lines in, but at the end of the day he barely fights, does anything important, and somehow has his keyblade destroyed by xemnas in his first real battle with it. I’ll get back more to the truly ridiculous lack of keyblade skills later. While I’m still on the topic of axel though, let’s talk about kairi’s use as a tool to figure out axel’s feelings and xion. Like, no problems with the whole kidnapping thing, no deep connection making. Did a lot of us expect and fear that kairi would be used as a plot device for axel’s xion memories? Yes. Does it make it any better that we were prepared for it going into kh3? For me, yeah, but the real problem is it doesn’t stop there. And axel’s feelings and memories of xion were poorly included and barely mattered anyhow

Also the whole letter writing thing axel comments on, a sad excuse for not wanting to actually provide sokai interaction. “They’re more for herself”-bullshit tbh. Someone tell square enix that if they make me play another game where my girlfriend writes me letters and I can’t respond I’m gonna lose it. *cough ffxv cough* It was a sad excuse for trying to build up sokai before end game. Plus, bad writing aside, if my girl kairi is gonna be a romantic plot device forever; you could at least let her send sora those stupid letters. The poor girl is talking to him in her head. WHY

So much opportunity here to build up sokai before the end of the game. And you know what? I don’t really care about sokai anymore, or whether its canon, or if they have any moments at all in the game. But it you are going to use it as a plot device, you could at least put some effort into it. Sokai needs to be better if it is going to have such a huge direct impact on the ending of the game. Maybe this was difficult, because this really wasn’t the game for it. Everyone has a lot going on in this game, and for sora, his focus is really on getting the people connected to his heart back. He barely even talks about riku in the game! Which is completely justified, because the boy has a lot of stress on his shoulders and a lot going on. The sokai getting thrown in basically at the last minute of the game, is like white noise in the background...that shouldn’t have been there.

The paopu fruit scene felt uncomfortable and thrown in at the wrong moment. There was opportunity for this scene at the end of kh2, or before sora left the island again for 3d. Or if some effort was put into developing sokai throughout the game (which again, I don’t think this was the game for this) it could have worked. Instead, we got a scene which really wasn’t romantic in the slightest, and pretty much had “somebody or both of them is dying/being separated tomorrow” written all over it. The scene starts out of nowhere basically, riku is quite literally shoved to the side to talk to himself, kairi sort of dismisses romantic intentions when asking sora to share it with her, and sora sort of just nods his head and rolls with it. The best part, is the imagery relating to the drawings in the cave (which is admittedly beautiful). However, this is not the sokai paopu fruit scene 7 yr old me envisioned. While I certainly don’t expect to get what I wanted to see, this is almost an insult to all of the build up to this moment in previous games.

What would have been the only wonderful and meaningful sokai scene in the game, is the one where kairi is able to help sora basically escape death and light his way through the darkness or whatever. The whole “I’m going to keep you safe now” and “you make me feel stronger” thing is really sweet as an out of context scene if I knew nothing else about kh3. The problem is, this isn’t really true. Kairi doesn’t keep sora safe, and the limits of her strength seem to be in that one cutscene. Not to mention, this already happened. We literally saw this same thing happen in kh1-and it was a better scene.

Maybe I could believe kairi’s determination behind her words if she was able to even lift her keyblade when she’s being attacked, or put up a fight against her kidnapper (i mean come on, even belle got to elbow xaldin), or finish a battle against someone who was not an alternate version of herself (or remotely believably on xehanort’s side for more than a second). Seriously, she did more with her keyblade knocking out a few heartless in kh2. That scene was actually cooler. I am truly disgusted that I have to even think that. It’s not that I thought she would go up from kh2, but I surely didn’t think she would go soooooo far down. 

They totally shot themselves in the foot with the whole merlin’s magic excuse. Axel and kairi show up as if they just got the keyblade 20 seconds before the keyblade war, yet supposedly they had unlimited time to train. Maybe we’ll get some bs excuse on how it “wasn’t exactly unlimited time” later, but seriously? If you were going to have both of them fail so miserably, you could have used the short training time as an excuse!! Why would you write yourself out of that excuse, just to give me these pathetic jokes of keyblade wielders. By all logical reasoning, if they had unlimited time to train, they should have both shown up stronger that xehanort and eraqus combined. Like did they just settle after they could shoot magic at x number of moving objects in merlin’s training facility???

She may not have done much, but by the time we saw her get mercilessly stabbed for no real logical reason I was relieved. Relieved that I might finally not have to watch this anymore, and can just go into all future kh games without having to worry about what they will do with her character. I want to say I was pissed, upset even, that they killed her off like that. Confused as to how this helps xehanort’s plan? Absolutely. I mean, wouldn’t that ruin his 7 princesses part 2 backup plan if he needed it? Wouldn’t the last key form as soon as he killed kairi? Were the 7 lights going to stop fighting him there? Was he just being a cruel dick? I don’t have the answers. But I will say that I didn’t actually get angry, until xehanort stole her fucking lines. “One sky, one destiny” She doesn’t even have that anymore. The significance of those lines, now can’t just be kairi’s but has to be shared with the man who killed her. Could it get any worse? Yes! Because sora has to go and do some strongly hinted form of self sacrifice for her again. Turning the shit show writing of kairi into probably the most detrimental part of the story. 

Now, its playing such a huge role in kh3 and future kh games. It makes the major plot point of the ending of the game suffer. There’s no kairi for me to appreciate that would make me care about her dying, the one really good moment sora shares with kairi is hardly based in reality, and what’s supposed to be used as a way for sora to prove himself doesn’t really do that. He already sacrificed himself for kairi. What more is this proving? And with no excuse for kairi’s lack of training or presence in the game, I’m confused as to how this happened or why I’m supposed to care. However Nomura needed this to end up to set up future kh games, was this really the only way to do it? 

I wish I could say I just personally cared this much about feminism in kingdom hearts, and that’s why I’m so disappointed by this complete and utter failure of writing a character, but that’s not even it. When I was little I loved kairi because she was like a new disney princess in a video game, and I was heartbroken when sora told her she couldn’t come with him for the rest of his adventure. That she would just “get in his way.” 23 year old me is still pissed and not letting go. Even more frustrating, is that square enix has (deliberately or not) ignored a large part of the fandom who just asked for a little bit better. The kairi bar was low, and square enix did the limbo rock under it. (bad joke i know, it’s 2:30 am and i should be sleeping)

I’ll shut up now, but be aware i’m screaming “and another thing about kairi in kh3!” every hour on the hour in my mind

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Will of Light - A Light Sora/SoKai Story

The last thing I wrote for Sora’s birthday.

Summary: Sora finds a way to get a heart of pure light--and to even give others hearts of pure light--in order to try and prevent Heartless... which sounds wonderful, which will lead him down a slippery slope that he might not be able to come back from. SoKai. Destiny Trio, etc.

Will of Light

Kairi’s PoV "Sora, you had your light take in more light for me… how? Why?" Kairi asked the obvious, as she stood on the small islet where the paopu tree was. And she took in not only Sora’s pristine white outfit, but the fact that rays from the sun itself seemed to come from him now. "Weren't you light enough already?" It was insane to Kairi that he would think any differently, when he had the purest heart she’d ever seen and had done more than anyone else in the world had. "...No. And I felt I was maybe tainting you by even being near you, so I- I had to do something… Well, that’s part of it, anyway. I’ll tell you more later." "But…” Kairi started, as she took her shoes off so she could feel the sand beneath her feet. She needed to feel something real, because this didn’t feel like it was that at all. “Sora... aren't you worried that you'll have lost some of your personality and be 'boring' this way? “...Not that I ever want to doubt the light, of course... But when Riku and I had that spat after we lost you—and at first, I wanted to stay on the paopu tree and just wait for you... in thinking that you'd had to die at all, since I’d thought I could fight when I clearly couldn't—he oddly told me that if I did that, I’d be boring… “And that snapped me out of my funk more than anything else could have. Maybe because I was worried that I’d lose you then—when you eventually did come back—if I was like that… and aren’t you worried about the same kind of thing?” If she’d had to say anything to Sora to try and convince him this was, perhaps, a bad idea… she had no idea why she’d chosen to babble about him becoming boring in being pure light. Sora could never be anything but interesting, and Kairi knew that well. Everyone did, really. And how did she even know this was turn out badly? …When they’d been looking for Sora a few years back, Naminé had showed Kairi all of Sora’s memories. And she’d seen when Goofy had suggested that everyone’s hearts were full of light, the Heartless would probably go away and Sora had excitedly nodded his head. Was this the answer to the Heartless problem? Would it create a better world? What did she know, really, in order to doubt that? …And yet Kairi couldn't help feeling that this was much more wrong than the times Sora had been consumed by the darkness. Because even she—a being of pure light naturally—had access to negative emotions, but this Sora didn’t seem to have that choice anymore. "No... not really,” Sora answered the question she’d just asked, that she’d already almost forgotten. “And even if it is true… why worry about boredom when you can worry about the world instead?! Isn't that the reason you stayed behind for Riku’s—and my—Mark of Mastery, Kairi? Because you couldn't fight yet, and didn't want Riku or I getting hurt protecting you if something sprung up? You were thinking about the universe then." That was true. And it actually amazed Kairi that Sora had now seen that about her. In learning that he had fallen in love with her after she had him, she’d begun to think that maybe he hadn’t noticed as much about her as she had him… and that that was what had taken him a while to fall in comparison. So, if this Sora was so all-seeing and empathetic, could it really be a bad thing? “Sora!” Kairi exclaimed, touched, as she sprung forward to quickly peck him on the lips and had to giggle when he spun her around as he held her afterwards. “Kairi…” Sora whispered against Kairi’s forehead—that he’d just kissed—after they finally stopped. “I- I know I wasn’t always the best boyfriend to you in the past, and I apologize for that. I took you for granted and didn’t spend enough time with you. I see that now… And I feel perfect. Maybe like I was always meant to be, if Xehanort hadn’t interfered. And I think I should pass this feeling onto other people, don’t you?” With all of their moving around, the two of them lost their balance at this point and fell into the water that was far below them. And though it was quite a fall, Kairi barely noticed since Sora had used his newfound light magic to shield her from the impact. And as it stood, something more important had Kairi’s attention now, anyway. 'But what about Riku?' Kairi wanted to ask… but she didn't. Afraid of what Sora might say, and what the right answer should be. Riku had found the perfect way to walk the Road to Light and Darkness together: the Road to Dawn, so was Sora saying he should give up the darkness… or would he be the one exception to this new idea? And what if other people didn't want to give up their darkness? Seeming to sense she was troubled, Sora helped Kairi to her feet and kissed her ear as he put a strand of hair behind her ear. “Kairi… let’s get married. What do you say to that? You’re too polite to say so, but I know you think I’ve somewhat messed up with you in the past. So let me make up for it now!” “Sora!” Kairi exclaimed, truly in shock as she swatted his arm. “We’re only seventeen! And we don’t come of age on the Island until eighteen!” But even as Kairi was technically refusing Sora here—because they were still so young, and since she had the bad feeling that Sora was trying to manipulate her here (that she tried to stamp down)—she did think they could probably be engaged for a year and get married as soon as they turned eighteen. Maybe that was the best solution here, because—if she was being honest with herself—Kairi had dreamed of their wedding. And as Sora almost looked disappointed for a second (before it was gone so fast, she had to wonder if she’d imagined the whole thing), Kairi decided to spare his heart some as beings of pure light did… So maybe she and this new Sora weren’t do different, after all. “Alright, Sora. We’ll be engaged for a year and then get married as soon as we can! Lighten up!” Kairi said as she kissed Sora’s cheek, and little fish chose that moment to swim over her ankles. “To a year of engagement, then!” And Sora was spinning Kairi around in the air again—and oh, how it made her giggle—but she also couldn’t get over the awful sense that Sora was lying about much. ... The next few months on the Islands—as Sora and Kairi tried to convince their parents to let them marry, and Sora talked to everyone about lightening their hearts—passed by pretty normally. …Except that Sora was more respectful to his parents than Kairi he ever seen him be before—so much so, that he hadn’t see Riku or her for a while, when Sora’s parents had banned him from “seeing those he had traveled to other worlds for” for two days—and he was doing a lot more chores now… but Kairi supposed it was nice that he was closer to them than he ever had been before. Sora was also now cooking his amazing dishes for his parents, and her and Riku all the time now! And not even once complaining that they were using him, or exhausting him, or anything. The day he had actually succeeded in making her love mushrooms, was the day Kairi thought she'd died and gone to heaven. And Sora couldn’t have been happier that they were all happy, and was writing many nice journal entries about what he’d learned and “the wonders of understanding people’s feelings” But even so… Kairi—and Riku, too, she thought—still had their suspicions. And Riku was somewhat sniping at Sora even now, as the three of them sat atop the shack on the Play Island together. "So... how's your mission going, Sora?" Riku asked as if he were suspicious. "I still don't know how you found more of your own light to give yourself, and a way to give your light to others…" “I- I went to the Final World, of course Riku. It’s partly dream there. At least, the pathway that links to the Final World there. Dreams… and my heart. So if, in my dream, I want to imagine there’s more of my light there, I can. And through Chirithy’s help, I found a way to make it physical… to literally give more light to myself this way, and others.” Well, this was all news to Kairi. She hadn't known that Sora had been going to the Final World at all, and if she had she would have stopped it immediately! She turned towards him with a glare on her face now, and nearly slapped her betrothed. How dare he be risking his life like this, when they’d all just gotten him back?! "Sora, you can't do that kinda risky thing!” Kairi said with her hands shaking, as she started seeing stars and thought she was going to black out. “I don’t like this. At all! And I thought Chirithy was with Ven! Why did he go back? Or is it a new Chirithy, and-“ "Kairi KairI Kairi!" Sora tried to calm her, as he gently held her in his arms now and looked at her with the most loving expression he’d ever worn before "...I swear to you that it's going to be okay this time. Since the new Chirithy at my Station of Awakening knows that I fall asleep and end up there by accident a lot, he's given me an ability called 'quick sleep', where I'll wake up in three seconds after having fallen asleep… but I’ll have been there longer in the real world, of course. But three seconds in that world—in real world time—won’t hurt anyone." ‘Don’t make promises you can’t keep’, Kairi wanted to say… but she didn’t. Riku was absentmindedly nodding his head now, so maybe she was being the crazy one and all would be okay. But then again… Riku was just as selfless as Sora was, and would easily die for the sake of the world or someone else. Kairi didn’t know if she trusted either of them to be good judges about this, but for now… she’d bite her tongue. "Kairi... I swear I'm fine," Sora promised. And despite everything that had changed with him now, Kairi believed Sora's sincerity here. But she also realized… that he had no idea that she still had his qualms about what he was suggesting to people—for whatever reason—though at least he’d left Riku alone… And she must have still seemed shattered, because Sora took it up a notch even further. "Kairi... I'm asking you to trust me now,” he said now, as he kissed Kairi’s neck and Riku laughed (huh. This was a new way of trying to comfort her). “Please please please please do so, love." And with that kind of earnestness—and this sweet new endearment for her--how could she do anything but? Kairi leaned her head on Sora's shoulder then, and happily breathed in his scent as he moved her to sit in his lap. She wouldn’t lose Sora again. She just wouldn’t! "I have to wonder, though," Riku broke the silence, as he jumped down to try and spear a fish, "What made you first get the idea to try all this out, Sora?" And at this, Sora sat up straight a little and scratched his chin in thought, as if he hadn't really stopped to try and articulate it before. That surprised Kairi; she had imagined he at least told the King. "...I guess because of this pretty peaceful world I went to, with more elderly people there than anyone else? At least that I saw, I mean. I followed this old man… with pristine white hair but still some pep in his step, and watched him be in this play about murder... "But despite the fact that a neighborhood full of elderly people was putting on a play about murder… I swear I could sense so much light in their hearts! “Like, the man I was tailing was, to be honest, not the best actor in the world? But do you think anyone would dare hurting his feelings to tell him that? Nope! And it was actually pretty sweet. They instead tried to change the play to fit him, as best they could. "But anyway…. I guess there's proof that, no matter what—unless we change things—the brightest light will always cast a great shadow, because this woman in it ended up being a real murderer, unfortunately! “And the lawyer—the, umm, bad actor—had to figure that out with my help... Throughout the play, there was a line Matlock kept failing at saying: 'Murder, Miss Isabel, that's what it was..." And it was the woman who played Isabel who did it! And then Matlock had to say that to her in the courtroom when she was convicted... it was awful. “And after that, everyone decided to try and get rid of the darkness in their hearts. Even the lady who played Isabel. Yeah." Well, when Sora put it like that... Kairi could maybe understand where he was coming from. Seeing such a light place even have a darkness like that… it would make you hate the dark even more, wouldn’t it? And deciding that Sora probably was making a real utopia here, Kairi brought Sora’s hands to her face, and summoned the light out of them. “I’m curious now, Sora… can you add even more light to me? Perhaps the world will be even better that way.” And as Sora made will-of-the-wisps float around them, as Riku cried out to them both, he did just that.

[oveliagirlhaditright]

In Defense of Kingdom Hearts III Kairi

To be honest, from the get-go I’ve thought that Kingdom Hearts III Kairi is a mix of some of the best of Kairi we’ve ever seen and some of the worst. And I stand by that even now--and it’s what I’m about to get into--even though I know many fans will say she’s the worst she’s ever been (and they’re entitled to their opinions there) and try to sway me off from this.

But starting with the good, because this is what we’re mostly here for for a change (because so few will defend KHIII Kairi).

Point 1: Whether you like it or believe it or not, her fighting in KHIII is the most physically active she’s ever been in the series. Yes, she’s not perfect--I believe Nomura was trying to make her development realistic--but if you just compare the things she did in KHI and KHII with what she did in III, they don’t even come close. KHI Kairi was, like, the slowest runner in the world. And KHIII Kairi is certainly not a slow runner. KHII Kairi was actually a faster runner than KHI Kairi (except for the scene when she and Naminé are holding hands while running, where they have to be “girly and slow” for that reason), that I think that that was intentional by Nomura to show that she was improving even then. Kairi does a little fighting in KHII, she does. But not on the level she does in KHIII. KHII Kairi just smacks a few Heartless and then stops using her Keyblade for whatever reason... I assume because it faded away, because she hadn’t figured out how to wield it yet? Whereas KHIII Kairi can summon her Keyblade now and fights many Heartless, Nobodies, and Unversed (though unfortunately, a lot of this is offscreen. But we do get to see some of it, and know from the way the scenes are staged that this is what’s happening. Like, that while Sora’s off fighting a sea of monsters with Donald and Goofy, Lea and Kairi are on another side fighting their own) and even some members of Organization XIII... which she’d never even tried before, and would not have done as good against in KHII. Like, people like to point out how she was bad against them in III, when Xion sends her flying once for instance--and once again, I think it was Nomura trying to be realistic here. Because while Kairi has improved, these guys still have years of experience on her--but she also did things like sending Xion flying! (In an aerial move that I definitely don’t think KHI Kairi could have done, or KHII Kairi, even though KHII Kairi had jumped off a balcony.) And then does pretty well as your party member for the first time, which is where we really see her shine in fighting in KHIII.

Point 2: This kind of ties into the above--with Kairi actually being more active this time--but Kairi actually got to be part of the final battles. Like, mostly all of it. In Kingdom Hearts I, even though she wanted to go, Sora wouldn’t even hear of Kairi going with him to try and find Riku and Kairi listened and stayed behind. And she somehow showed up at the end of it, after SDG had already defeated Ansem and sealed the Door to Darkness, just to have a final goodbye with Sora and that was it. In Kingdom Hearts II, she’s there for the entire World That Never Was section, but she barely does any fighting and gets knocked out of all of the boss fights. And Kairi does try to go into the final battle with everyone... but when Xemnas starts throwing skyscrapers everyone’s way and they begin running away from them, Kairi and Mickey make it back out the door (thus unintentionally leaving the battle) while everyone else gets stuck there and still has to face Xemnas by themselves (Kairi also somehow got knocked out by getting hit with said door or something. Ugh. Also, Mickey somehow is able to teleport to help in this fight if needed--if Sora loses all of his HP--but Kairi doesn’t). And then after that, after they all think they’ve defeated Xemnas but they really haven’t, everyone unintentionally leaves Sora and Riku behind so they have to truly kill him alone (once again, Kairi isn’t a part of this). In Kingdom Hearts III, Kairi is a part of the entire Keyblade Graveyard section--save the eleventh hour, where she got killed off. Ugh. We were so close to finally having her there for a main game’s full final hour, but no cigar--and is actively fighting enemies during it: Heartless, Nobodies, Unversed, and members of Organization XIII and isn’t getting kicked out of the battles. Organization XIII is actually, perhaps, really seeing her for the first time--as an actual somewhat equal to them, and threat (hence why they completely incapacitate her to kidnap her, and summon her unconscious to kill her later--when they didn’t bother with any of that to kidnap her in KHII and just pulled her along by holding onto one of her hands and nothing else. Ugh.)

Point 3: This is, like, the first time in the entire series where Kairi’s given the full story on what’s going on--that pertains to herself--and gets to make her own decision about it that is respected. She knows that as either a Princess of Heart, or a Guardian of Light, or both (which she is. She is both), Xehanort is going to target her to try and create the X-Blade, anyway, and that she can remain defenseless and do nothing... or try to learn how to fight and be one of the Guardians of Light that they need, and she chooses the latter (for the greater good. Partly so the other new Princesses of Heart won’t be targeted instead). And for the first time ever, the people around her who care about her and don’t want her in danger (including Sora) respect her decision.

Point 4. In all of the cutscenes Kairi’s in in this game, she actually has lines and things to do. This hasn’t happened in the past--like in KHII, where she might as well have not been in some of the Castle That Never Was scenes, to be honest, because she wasn’t saying anything and no one was saying anything to her--so in KHIII, I made a point of seeing if this would happen again. And to me, it really didn’t... In every scene she’s in, she’s at least given one line, people interacting with her, and some level of importance--even if it’s pointing something out, like she often did in KHII. Kairi being observant and noticing things before anyone else is actually a personality trait of hers--and believe it or not... I actually feel like in some ways, more care went into Kairi this time around. If you got Nomura’s message for the fans in KHIII, he talks about how many characters there are--and that he knows each one has their own fans and means so much to them, and he went into the game with that in mind and trying to do right by them--and I think it shows in things like this.

Point 5. Kairi actually didn’t do any worse than any of the other characters in this game (save for Sora, who was the Messiah). If anything, she arguably might have done better than some of these seasoned veterans. Angel-With-a-Pipette made the good point that Kairi is one of the first to be swallowed by the Demon Tide... and yet since we still see her reaching out of it at the end to try to get to Sora, she must have been fighting tooth-and-nail to find her way out of it: even more than everyone else was, who we didn't see here. And everyone... everyone does dumb things in the Terranort and Demon Tide thing. I don’t think you can fault Kairi for it, who was in her first real battle, if you don’t fault everyone else who had so much reason to do more than they did. And she didn’t even need to be saved the first time! Everyone else did, but not her! So you could even say the rookie held on longer than everyone else did. And she’s the reason anyone in this game is saved at all (in her rescuing Sora, that then allowed him to rescue everyone else), and that we didn’t get the “on that land, darkness will prevail and the light expire” bad end. Kairi did the second biggest thing in this game--perhaps the biggest thing she’s ever done in this series--and she gets no credit for it, and it’s unfair. And even with her eventual death... She was the last one to need saving after dying, which is pretty impressive (everyone else’s needing saving after dying came before hers, including Sora’s own needing to be saved by Kairi). And since Sora was already doomed in using the Power of Waking the first time--that he didn’t have to use for her--Kairi didn’t kill him, but everyone else did. And this means she actually made good on her promise to protect him.

Point 6. Nomura actually finally fully-developed the SoKai relationship. He really didn’t have to do this, if he didn’t want to (and apparently they did do a version where you didn’t hear Sora and Kairi eat the paopu fruits, or whatever, but in the end they went with the one where they did). But the fact that he did--and didn’t leave it hanging--to me shows a care for Kairi that I wouldn’t have believed in if this hadn’t been there. And the fact that he even wants to do a true romance plot with Sora and Kairi now, which means Kairi will have to have a focus in the newer games, says a lot to me. Edit: I also love that Kairi’s the one who proposes to Sora. And her declaring to him that she wants to keep him safe, turns usual promises between childhood friends in Japanese media on its head.

Point 7. Kairi was the only one to believe in Sora in this game--when everyone else was being so down on him--that I think was exactly what Sora needed, and why he realized he didn’t only like Kairi but loved her in KHIII, that I think was intentional on Nomura’s part. He dialed back some of her feisty attitude, that I do still think is there, to show a level of growing maturity to Kairi, I think. And to try and make the romance plot work, that again: he didn’t have to do if he didn’t want to. He could have pretended he never laid the groundwork down for this at all and completely shafted Kairi in that way, but he didn’t. He didn’t take this--that has always been a main plot about her--away from her.

Edit: Point 8. This game actually cared about Kairi, in some ways, more than recent ones. What do I mean by that? Well, the obvious: that she was actually in KHIII and her “action girl” role was finally brought forward. But also... Birth by Sleep did things like have it written in the stars, that “in time, the world would be saved by these two heroes who stood beneath these stars” about Sora and Riku, but didn’t mention that if it hadn’t been for Kairi these boys wouldn’t have been around to save the worlds. I often got the impression that Nomura doesn’t give Kairi the credit for things that we fans do. Like, it’s never once come up that the Door to Light opened because of her. And I wonder if that’s because in Nomura’s eyes, it wasn’t her. Yes, it was Kairi’s letter to Sora that caused Sora’s heart to be happy--or whatever--so the Door to Light did open, but because of the latter part of it Nomura might actually moreso see that as a Sora thing. But KHIII actually gave Kairi saving Sora--and therefore saving everyone in a roundabout way--and she actually got the credit she deserves for it! And Sora thanked her and was impressed by her, which is the first time that’s happened since KHI (and just as a sad rule in this series, we see very little of girls getting praised for what they do but we see it with Kairi here). And going along with this, I don’t think past games would have had Sora say “that part of you reminds me of Kairi”, when Naminé said she “had his back.” Also, before KHIII came out... I was honestly thinking of all the times Sora had unintentionally broken promises to Kairi, but thought it was an accident on Nomura’s part and nothing would ever come of it in the narrative. But KHIII had Sora actually realizing this himself at the end, and being sick of it and finally wanting to do right by her. There was a self-awareness here that I hadn’t expected, and hopefully bodes well for her in the future. And also, unlike in the past... where stuff was made for Sora and Riku with no Kairi, Kairi is in all of this game’s marketing and is seen in artwork wielding her Keyblade alongside Sora and Riku and things like that.

But with all of this being said... do I think Kingdom Hearts III Kairi is perfect? No. Though... I think we all need to get off our high horses and admit that no Kairi has ever been perfect. They’re all a mixed bag. KHI Kairi is great... when she isn’t sleeping the whole game, that is! KHII Kairi has some moments of greatness (and she's my personal favorite), but she also has some embarrassing moments that keeps her from full greatness and makes me think the developers didn’t fully care about her... KHIII Kairi has some of the best Kairi moments thus far... but also paired with some of her worst, which hurts what otherwise could have been a pretty great Kairi.

But I do think Nomura cares, even if Kairi’s maybe not his favorite. If not, all of this stuff wouldn’t be here... and he probably would have killed her off, and left her dead, and not have her be a stinger now.

And even some of the more problematic things he did with her, like the fridging thing that I regret... We don’t know what’s going to happen in the next saga, but maybe he has some brilliant plan that will make it okay. Or at least better. But I don’t think it was malicious towards Kairi. If anything, it was probably for a twist... to make this war realistic... to push the Sora and Kairi narrative and make them a tragic romance, or what have you. And as much as it sucks, we also have to realize it’s a cultural thing. The West hates the fridging trope with a burning passion, but apparently the East mostly doesn’t see a problem with it and rather loves it.

But KHIII Kairi isn’t nearly bad as everyone thinks--in some ways, she’s the best Kairi we’ve ever seen--and she certainly doesn’t deserve all the hate she gets, and deserves a chance to see how she’ll improve even further in KHIV.

[oveliagirlhaditright]

After all of her trauma from the Keyblade War, Kairi finds herself wishing Sora had initiated the paopus sharing with her, instead of the other way around... and imagines what that might have looked like.

She wishes for this--and much more--in her heart. And she may get her desire, but with some consequences.

Selfishness (First Chapters So Far)

Chapter One

After Sora disappeared from Kairi’s side, she selfishly found herself dreaming of what it would have been like to actually have Sora happily share paopu fruits with her from the get-go. Could she say that she was really against how the actual moment had transpired? Not really. As Sora had shared them with her in the end, even while looking at her dreamily. But at the same time… Kairi had somehow expected more: that Sora could have started that moment between them. And that in doing so, he properly would have showed his love for her that he’d displayed in so many other ways in the past. …If Kairi believed like some, that the World was a giant computer program run by a some computer system, she could have believed that Sora had just been written differently than normal when he’d seemed so shocked by her proposition. But since that wasn’t true of the World at all, and Kairi knew it, she didn’t know what had happened to make her favorite spiky-haired brunet seem so distant. … And even years later—after Sora and Kairi were miraculously together again, after everything that had happened (Sora scooping her up in his arms the moment he saw her, awkwardly kissing every inch of her available skin—awkward in that he was new to this—and apologizing and promising he’d be with her forever, as Kairi just held onto him and banished her tears away because Sora deserved to cry more than her)—Kairi still somehow found herself regretting that part of their past. And so it was, that Kairi later—while everyone was trying to find some coconuts they could use for milk at this makeshift “welcome home” party for the Keyblade hero—found herself fantasizing about Sora having been the one to truly propose the idea of the paopus to her before the Keyblade Graveyard: She thought that he probably would have nervously picked a paopu fruit from the tree before asking her to join him… That he would have stammered through some long and confusing confession—with hand movements and hair everywhere, as he mussed his spikes in his nervousness… That would have then surprised her with the paopu, as he said he’d seen her addition the drawing and would be honored if she would share it with him now. And knowing herself… Kairi knew that if that situation had occurred, she would’ve acted much like a girl getting proposed to: She would have placed a hand over her heart, had her face light up… and maybe would have even tried to give Sora her ring finger, before realizing this was only paopu sharing and readily took a bite of the one he’d offered her. And in proving just how much she and Sora were soul mates, because she could be awkward (and lazy) too, Kairi would have then ripped her own paopu fruit down from the tree… and prayed to these gods from Mount Olympus that she didn’t also unearth dirt from the tree in doing so, to accidentally get it on Sora. …After making sure that everything was okay—and that Sora really wanted to do this—Kairi would have helped him get a bite, the way wedding couples smashed cake into each other’s faces. And if she’d been a bit more courageous than she had been in the Keyblade Graveyard—something Kairi still hated herself for, and always would—she may have even kissed Sora… It wouldn’t been a perfect one—since it would have been their first, in this alternate universe—but it still would have been as sweet as the fruit they’d tasted. Kairi knew that for sure. Then, hand-in-hand, they could have gone and camped out in the Play Island’s tree house with Riku… as they all waited for the upcoming War. …But it hadn’t happened that way. And even as Sora held her in his arms now—as they were in bed together—and tried to hush her tears, as she again reprimanded herself for how she’d fared in the Keyblade Graveyard (and even found herself saying, that maybe she could have fought better for them if she’d felt loved by any Light at all), it somehow wasn’t quite enough for Kairi. She wanted a wish that she wanted granted… To go back to before everything went to Hell, and rather back when Sora and Riku had returned home from defeating Xemnas. A beautiful wish it was, too, but as many don’t… she had no idea just how much she’d pay for it. But for now—reminding herself she was a Princess of Heart, and they didn’t act this way—Kairi better snuggled into Sora, and smooched his forehead and his crown and told him that what they had was beautiful. Author’s Note: A little angsty-er than I intended, but perhaps this can somewhat fit into the “Reunion” category for SoKai Week. So, to be honest… I kind of went insane after the end of Game of Thrones destroyed me, and deleted all my stuff everywhere (my social media accounts… my fanfictions I’d started on my computer…), and this was one of the few things I had left. So that’s why I used it for SoKai Week, and tried to find a way to get it to fit (as I didn’t have time to write something completely new, like I did for some of the other days). Otherwise, I might not have used this one… Because for the last day’s theme, I probably would have wanted something cheerier. But ehh. It is what it is. And maybe I can work on a more chipper one in the future. Also… this was a vent piece I did sometime ago. Because, while I am mostly okay with how SoKai was handled in KHIII (okay, not the fridging thing. Never that), I do have some issues with it (moreso Sora suddenly not realizing he was in love with Kairi until the back half, when I feel earlier games contradict that. But it’s less so the paopus thing. I think that scene was mostly fine—despite how SoRiku fans try to say Kairi forced him to do it—and I think Sora’s reaction is normal, to pretty much getting proposed? to so young, and he quickly did get into it after his initial shock. I also loved that Kairi initiated it…), so I wrote this to go along moreso with how I think we all thought it would happen pre-game. And, yes: I do have more stories for this, if anyone’s interested (I even had written some for it, before I threw it out. But I could always rewrite..). I also realize Kairi’s probably OOC in this… But I kind of don’t care? Because this girl’s allowed to actually feel things, and be selfish sometimes: Especially after the trauma for her that is KHIII. Honestly, I had no problem with Kairi until Kingdom Hearts III: and before that I even would have told people that she was written well and consistently, and that the problem was that she just needed more screentime and the chance to do something… But now I think she has a whole hell of a lot of writing problems because of this game: Like the fact that Nomura always has her smiling about everything (why, oh why, is Kairi smiling while crying when Sora fades. I get she believes he’ll come back… And that maybe he told her something to reassure her, or gave her the Wild Card… and maybe Nomura did this to avoid a complete downer ending, and let us know things would be alright… But no, Kairi didn’t need to be smiling there). Don’t misunderstand. Her smiling is actually a Kairi trait I LOVE: that even though Sora leaves her for the greater good and it hurts her, she selflessly lets him go, keeps her chin up, knowing he’ll always return as she waits for him… But at the same time, that can only go far. And if that’s literally all she does all the time, then she becomes stagnant. And especially since KHIII has hurt his poor girl—and Sora, and their relationship: ripping them away from each other in the worst possible way, right that they finally got together—more than anything else, I think she should and needs to break down about it some. I don’t care if she’s a Princess of Heart. Human is human.

Chapter Two

Kairi woke up when music pouring into her ears via her earbuds. She sighed when she realized this, since she didn’t want to be like Bella Swan when she’d drugged herself and listened to her music on full blast when she’d figured out that Edward Cullen was a vampire. Sure, the King sending a message to Sora and Riku that he needed them was somewhat annoying and worrisome, but she didn’t need to be acting like this. It had been a complete accident that Kairi had fallen asleep in such a way, but she still felt bad about it. So, getting out of bed somewhat lazily—for Kairi hated getting up early on weekends if she could help it, but that letter had somewhat ruined any possibility but her sleeping her depression away—the redhead tried to be healthy now to make up for what happened. And then before she knew it, she was heading out her kitchen’s screen door and towards the outside world. …And who would she see there other than Sora, climbing up onto her palm tree-shaped deck as if he’d been born to do it. “S-S-Sora?” Kairi stammered before she could stop herself. This was just too much like a dream she’d had one time, where Sora had gotten away with getting her mail for her by pretending to be her fiancé. She knew for sure that wasn’t what was happening now, though. No. Sora was just stopping by to invite her to the beach like he had numerous times in the past, and- “Hey, Kairi… Even though the letter was addressed to you… Riku and I were kind of planning to leave you out—for your protection!—and I think King Mickey wanted the same thing, even though he was being polite… but I think you should come with us.” At Sora’s admittance, Kairi couldn’t help but swallow deeply—waiting for the next blow to come. After all, Sora had said they had been planning on abandoning her—even after all of their promises—so naturally, what should follow now was even more hurt… despite Sora saying he was going to do the opposite of that. “Kairi… did you hear me?” And there was a certain lilt in his voice when Sora said this, that should have spoken of good things to Kairi… but there was something about it that bothered her. Sora had always said her name differently from how he did Riku’s. With Riku, Sora would speak his Christian name casually, and with a sort of brotherly affection. But her own… Sora could sometimes whisper it or shout it, as if he was ashamed to use it or angry. And before Kairi could stop herself, she was narrowing her eyes at Sora—barely keeping herself from pushing at his chest—and demanding answers for this question she had always had, but had always dreaded asking. “Why do you have to say my name like that, Sora?! Like I let you down? Or-“ Sora was looking at Kairi with doe-like eyes now—beautiful ones, at that—and it was almost enough to make her believe he was being sincere with his shock at her question… and then his assurance, as he walked over to her and put a gentle arm around her shoulder: “Kairi… I- I say your name with reverence. How could I not? And why would you think any different? Really, I shouldn’t even be saying this. Because this gives too much away about me, but-“ Kairi didn’t let Sora finish his sentence: And not just because they were both afraid of where it would lead if he did. And also for Kairi, because… for whatever reason, she didn’t think any of this was right. And she couldn’t put her finger on why. “Sora… if you were going to leave me alone and have no qualms about it, what changed your mind now?” Kairi queried miserably, knowing full well she wasn’t going to like this answer at all but having to do it all the same. And she even pushed Sora away to do so. Something very out of character for her, because she loved him so. “…Because I know how you can be about eating, Kai—or about not eating—and I didn’t want you to stop because of me… “And because—this is going to sound weird—but I had a nightmare about some sort of Heartless getting inside of you, because of your eating disorder, and it keeping you from eating and you-you-you… “So anyway, I’d rather have you somewhere I can keep an eye on you.” Kairi was about to be insulted by this—Sora didn’t even want to take her to the other worlds because of what they’d once dreamed about, but for this reason?!—but then she saw the terrified look on his face, and realized just how scared for her he was… Perhaps moreso than he ever had been before. So why did she feel that the one really in danger was him? She and Sora were… so messed up now. And it was weird to think, with how they’d just been together at the Castle That Never Was. And Kairi didn’t want to have these sort of issues with Sora. She loved him too much for that. And if there was one place Kairi could think of that would always made him happy, it was the Play Island. So that was where they’d go. Grabbing her oar from where it was hidden behind her door, Kairi bumped Sora on the shoulder with it once—remembering some old times between them—as winked at him. “Okay, Sora. I will go with you to Master Yen Sid’s. But first, I want to say goodbye to the Play Island. C’mon.” … “Sora… do you think I’m bulimic?” Kairi asked before she could stop it—and she instantly hated herself for it, since she’d been trying to steer things back into a positive direction for Sora and herself—but she couldn’t help it. She knew he thought she was anorexic… which she somewhat was, but she needed to know just how far this went. Especially since this was the whole reason Sora was taking her with him at all. Sora sighed heavily, as he seemed to weigh his words here. “…No. I don’t even think you’re anorexic. I know it just appears that way, since there are moments you can’t eat without getting sick and no one knows why. So sometimes you just don’t eat if you’re going somewhere… You’re just an ill, Kairi. And labeling you anything else is wrong.” They were into some heavy topics now… but Sora seemed to want to let her know that despite it, he was okay with keeping up the flirty behavior they’d been doing a few weeks ago. So while they sat in front of the water, Sora splashed Kairi by kicking his feet to and fro. And she caught as much of the sea as she could into her hands, and then poured it on Sora’s head. They laughed. And it quickly turned into a water fight, with the two of them embracing but snearly ending up in the ocean before they got their act together. “But Sora… Even if you don’t believe that about me, you seem to your dream… So do you just think something bad is destined to happen to me, whether I have something to do with it  or not?” Sora’s only answer to that was to boldly kiss her clothed stomach—to which Kairi was blushing ear to ear, since she and Sora hadn’t even properly smooched normally yet—and said, “I just want you by my side. Let’s leave it at that.” And even though Kairi thought there was foreboding here, she smiled at this and leaned her head on Sora’s shoulder and wrapped an arm around his waist—much like she had during their reunion. And she wondered what wonderful lie they could come up with, to convince themselves that everything was going to be okay. Author's Note: Some of the weird things in this chapter are actually references to other people's SoKai stories (like the idea of a Heartless somehow getting into Kairi's system, and making her not eat and nearly die because of it) ... And while clearly being a nice homage to these authors, they're also there for a story reason