Kairi

Kairi is one of the several major original characters in the Kingdom Hearts series. Her major roles are in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, , Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts III. She has also appeared in other games as a minor supporting character.

Kairi is a Princess of Heart and is the only Princess of Heart to remain among the New Seven Hearts. Kairi is the original persona of Naminé. Kairi was born in Radiant Garden and currently lives on Destiny Islands along with her two best friends, Sora and Riku. Kairi eventually trains as a Keyblade wielder to help her allies.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
Kairi was born in Radiant Garden, where she lives with her grandmother. One day, she is chased by a group of Unversed and encounters Aqua, who senses a pure light in her heart, since she is a Princess of Heart. Frightened, Kairi touches Aqua's Keyblade, resulting in Aqua unintentionally bequeathing Kairi her own Keyblade. As she and Aqua are about to be attacked, King Mickey arrives and Aqua evacuates Kairi before returning to fight alongside Mickey.

After the Unversed are defeated, King Mickey and Aqua talk about the light they sense in Kairi's heart, and Mickey suggests that they team up, but is called away immediately afterwards. Kairi then gives Aqua the flowers she picked before the Unversed appeared as thanks for helping her (which becomes the Destiny's Embrace keychain). In return, Aqua puts a protective charm on Kairi's necklace and tells her, "One day when you're in trouble, the light within you will lead you to the light of another, someone to keep you safe". Kairi thanks Aqua and then returns to her grandmother, who begins to tell her the story of the light and the darkness, while Aqua believes their meeting may not have been a coincidence.

After Terra-Xehanort's defeat, Kairi is seen picking flowers in a large garden. She looks up to the bright sky, looking as if she sensed something. As she does, her necklace emits a weak glow.

Between Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts
One year after these events, Radiant Garden became shrouded by darkness and everyone was scattered across the universe; Kairi appears on the Destiny Islands during a meteor shower. Though it was believed that Ansem, Seeker of Darkness had sent Kairi to the islands as an experiment to test any possible connection between the Keyblade wielders and the Princesses of Heart, her arrival was actually due to the protection spell Aqua had cast on her one-year earlier.

Sometime later, Sora and Riku were in the Secret Place and talking about "the new girl at the mayor's house".

Kairi later becomes very close friends with Sora and Riku. As children, Kairi and Sora drew pictures of themselves in the Secret Place. Sora and Riku playfully compete for her attention and Kairi often supports these competitions, although she does not know they were contests for her affection and not just innocent rivalry. She bears no memory of her life before the Islands, and her mysterious past sparks curiosity in Sora and Riku, who are anxious to leave Destiny Islands and see other worlds. This leads the trio to build a raft in the hopes of traveling to other worlds.

Kingdom Hearts
Kairi wakes up Sora from a surreal dream and tells him to collect supplies for their raft. Later, while watching the sunset, she jokes about leaving without Riku, then tells Sora not to change. However, before they can leave, their islands are attacked by the Heartless, and Sora finds Kairi in their Secret Place. She turns towards him, looking sad and a little ill, and then a huge gust of wind sweeps through a door in the back of the cave and Kairi flies towards him. Sora opens his arms to catch her, but she vanishes right as she is about to be swept into his embrace.

During this time, it is speculated that Kairi's heart chose Sora as a vessel and when she passed through him, her heart was left behind in him while her body vanished to some distant world. She then becomes the game's driving force, as much of the game's story centers around Sora's and Riku's attempts at finding Kairi. However, Riku is hostile to Sora, having been manipulated by Maleficent into believing that Sora no longer cared for either Kairi or himself.

Throughout Sora's journey, he encounters multiple images of Kairi without knowing about Kairi's heart being a part of his. First, when he wakes up in a motel room after his fight with Leon, and sees Yuffie in Kairi's form and mistakes her to be Kairi until she tells him who she is. Later when he visits the Magician's Study behind the door of the Third District, Kairi appears to him and tells him how much the study reminds her of their Secret Place, but she disappears when Goofy calls to him. When Sora crash lands into Deep Jungle, she reappears again for a short moment, right behind Tarzan, then disappears again. Finally, before setting off to Hollow Bastion, Goofy and Donald Duck encourage Sora to believe in himself, then Kairi says from within "I believe in you." before pulling him into one of her lost memories about her grandmother telling her younger self a story about the light. These encounters speculate that Kairi was experiencing Sora's journey from within his heart, including befriending Donald and Goofy.

Riku finds her first, but she is in a comatose state, with a vacant, lifeless expression and a limp body. She'd lost her heart and because of her Princess status, her body remained untouched by the darkness that usually produced a Heartless. With empty promises by Maleficent, Riku was convinced that he alone could locate Kairi's heart and restore her to health. When inside Monstro, Riku attempts to kidnap Pinocchio in hopes to use his heart to restore Kairi's. This act confuses Sora as he hasn't learned of her fate. His attempt fails and he is forced to retreat.

Riku then brings Kairi to Neverland, first bringing her to the clock tower. Sora finally encounters her body, along with a painful reunion with Riku; who is very defensive about her and ends up locking her in a room with Wendy so that Sora can't get to her. When Sora reaches the room below her cell, he extends his hand towards her, desperately hoping for a reaction as he is just now discovering the full lengths of Kairi's condition. Unconsciously, her hand twitches before going still again, much to Sora's relief. Riku then takes her away yet again, having new knowledge of where Kairi's heart might be. After the defeat of Captain Hook, Goofy ponders aloud whether or not Kairi had indeed lost her heart, but Donald, not wanting to upset Sora, promptly shushes him. Sora, however, appears to be in denial, pondering over his disbelief that he could fly and whether or not Kairi would believe him.

Their friendship severed for the time being, Sora continues his journey, destined to clash with Riku in the near future once again over Kairi. Eventually, Sora follows Riku and Maleficent to the world of Hollow Bastion where he too learns of Kairi's fate. However, Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, while possessing Riku, reveals that Kairi's heart has been resting within Sora all along, which explains all the visions he has had of her during his journey. Furthermore, Kairi is one of the Princesses of Heart, a maiden whose heart holds no darkness, and is needed to open the Final Keyhole. He then attempts to take her heart from Sora, but he defends himself to protect it.

After winning a fight and driving Ansem from Hollow Bastion, Sora sacrifices himself using the Keyblade of heart to free Kairi's heart, and is turned into a Shadow Heartless. Awakened as her heart is finally restored, Kairi runs towards him, but as soon as her fingers touch him, he vanishes. Refusing to believe that Sora is gone, Kairi prepares to fight the Shadow Heartless that surround her, along with Donald and Goofy. However, once Ansem reappears and Riku's spirit stops him from attacking Kairi, she flees. Devastated, she, along with Donald and Goofy, attempt to escape from Hollow Bastion. But just as they are cornered by the Heartless, she somehow recognizes Sora's Heartless from the crowd and manages to bring Sora back from the darkness by embracing him and promising to protect him. The group escapes Hollow Bastion, revealed to be Kairi's home world, and find shelter in Traverse Town where she could be protected by Leon and the others.

Sora finds Kairi in the underground water tunnel after talking with Leon. She states absentmindedly how much this place reminds her of their Secret Place. While lost in darkness, Sora witnessed one of Kairi's memories of her as a little girl wandering around the Hollow Bastion library with her grandmother. Sora mentions this and it is revealed that after her heart was restored, Kairi could remember certain things from her past. Though Kairi wants to help rescue Riku and stop the darkness from emanating, Sora convinces her to stay put, not wanting her to get hurt and also joking that she would be in his way; he also acknowledges that, since their hearts were one, they will always be together. During this conversation, it was revealed that Kairi's voice brought him back from the darkness. Kairi gives in and gives Sora her lucky charm, which doubles as the Oathkeeper.

After Sora's final battle with Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, the world is breaking apart as the worlds that were destroyed previously began themselves. Trapped on a section of Destiny Islands, Sora runs to Kairi and promises that he will come back to her as soon as he finds Riku and King Mickey. She is then transported back to Destiny Islands without him, wistfully watching the island regenerate around her with Sora's goodbye still fresh in her mind.

After the worlds are restored, Kairi visits the Secret Place and looks at the pictures that she and her friends had drawn over the years. After spotting the picture that Sora had drawn of him giving her a paopu fruit, she is moved to tears and adds onto it, so that it depicts herself and Sora exchanging two halves of a paopu fruit.

Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories
When Sora and Riku arrived at Castle Oblivion during their search for a way home, members of Organization XIII began their plans to manipulate them as they journey through the castle.

In order to gain control Sora, Marluxia orders Naminé to use her powers to strip Sora's memories of Kairi and replace them with her instead. However, Naminé knew she could never truly replace Kairi in Sora's heart, and saw herself as merely Kairi's shadow. Kairi's image shows up at Destiny Islands when Sora remembers that the one he holds dear to his heart is Kairi, not Naminé. When Sora is about to go to sleep, Naminé tells him that if he remembers "the one most important to him" his memories will restore faster, so Sora looks deep into his heart and finds Kairi.

While traveling through the castle, Riku desperately tried to control the darkness within him, but Zexion, wanting Riku to succumb it, torments Riku with an illusion of Kairi, as well as with illusions of Tidus, Selphie, Wakka, and Sora. However, Naminé takes Kairi's form to help Riku control the light and darkness in his heart before the final face-off with the devious Nobody.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
While Kairi continues to wait for Sora and Riku to return home to Destiny Islands, her memories of Sora fade due to Naminé's interference. Selphie occasionally finds her waiting at the beach, but not knowing who for.

Kairi appears in Roxas and Xion's dreams and memories, due to pieces of Sora's memories finding their ways to them. After Roxas wakes from his coma, Xion gives him a seashell, and when Roxas puts it up to his ear, he sees a memory that depicts Sora and Kairi on a beach looking at the sunset. Later, in Xion's nightmare, Kairi is seen waking up Sora. Roxas sees a memory of Kairi during a mission in Destiny Islands and remarks that she looks like Xion. And during Xion's coma, she dreams of the time when Sora sacrifices himself to restore Kairi's heart in Hollow Bastion. Kairi is also mentioned by Riku and Xion when they were having a conversation on Destiny Islands.

Because Xion is an imperfect Replica of Roxas, created from Sora's leaked memories as a fail-safe in case both Sora and Roxas proved to be useless to Organization XIII's plans, her appearance greatly resembles Kairi, since Sora's memories of Kairi were the strongest ones when she was created.

Kingdom Hearts II
One day, while walking home from school with Selphie, her heart is put into contact with a boy named Roxas, later revealed to be Sora's Nobody. Although neither of them understand it at the time, Naminé's encounter with Roxas connected his heart with Kairi's, and when Roxas has a near-death experience after falling off the clock tower, his heart reaches out for help and contacts Kairi's. Confused, Roxas asks about the strange boy in his dreams and Kairi asks for his name, prompting Sora's heart to join in to jokingly chastise her for forgetting and give her a hint. Soon afterwards, Kairi sends a letter in a bottle out to sea in hopes that it would reach Sora one day, and immediately remembers his name.

One day, as Kairi waits for Sora's return at the beach, Axel appears, offering to take her to see Sora. Suddenly, Pluto appears to warn Kairi. Axel summons a group of Dusks, but she escapes with Pluto into a nearby portal. She finds herself in a mysterious corridor, briefly seeing a hooded figure, then arrives in Twilight Town and meets Hayner, Pence and Olette. She befriends them, learning they met Sora and that he promised to visit again.

Unfortunately, she is found by Axel and forcibly taken by him, with Olette, Hayner, and Pence unable to stop him. However Saïx finds Axel with Kairi and takes her to The World That Never Was as a prisoner, stating that she is the "fire that feeds Sora's anger". Kairi is devastated, thinking all hope is lost until she is freed by her Nobody, Naminé. Naminé uses a Corridor of Darkness to allow them to escape the cell, telling Kairi to believe in herself.

The two's escape is halted by Saïx; he offers to take her to Sora, but Kairi refuses. Suddenly a cloaked figure attacks Saïx, who withdraws. Naminé calls the figure Riku; before he can leave, Kairi removes his hood, revealing Riku is trapped in the form of Xehanort's Heartless. She takes in stride, happy her friend is safe. Riku leads her to Sora and is attacked by a group of Heartless. He hands Kairi a keyblade, and they successfully fend off the remaining Heartless. She is then reunited with Sora with a touching hug between these two. When Riku attempts to leave, Kairi has Sora talk sense into him; she helps Sora see Riku's heart within "Ansem".

The three along with Donald and Goofy face off against Luxord and Saïx to get to Xemnas. Kairi acts as a pillar of support during these battles more than an actual participant - as Luxord's battle leaves them caged by cards and Saïx uses a shockwave to force both her and Riku (using his body to shield her) behind a barrier so he can battle alone with Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

After Sora and Riku defeat Xemnas, Naminé appears and creates a portal, where Donald, Goofy and Mickey go through leaving Sora, Kairi and Riku. Kairi walks towards her and Sora follows Kairi. Kairi thanks her as Naminé reminds Sora of their promise. Roxas comes out of Sora. Naminé and Roxas accept their fate together to live inside Sora and Kairi as they fuse with their original selves. Kairi walks into the portal, but when Sora and Riku follow the portal disappears and they fight Xemnas again.

After they defeat Xemnas, they arrive at the shore of the Dark Margin. Kairi's letter washes up on shore and Sora reads it. The Door To Light appears and the two boys go through it and arrive at Destiny Islands shores as Kairi shouts for them. Sora excitedly swims towards her but Donald and Goofy jump at Sora first and Mickey jumps at Riku. Smiling at each other, Kairi welcomes Sora back home as he hands her back the good luck charm.

Kingdom Hearts coded
While Sora and Riku are talking about the Door to Light, Kairi runs up to them, shouting their names. Kairi hands Sora a letter in a bottle, containing King Mickey's letter. The trio immediately open the letter and read it.

Blank Points
Sora sits on the Paopu tree while holding the message from King Mickey, staring off into the sunset. After Sora tells Riku that he has made a decision, Kairi walks up to them. Sora tells her that everyone needs him, and that he has to go because he is who he is because of them. She then hands him her lucky charm and tells him that she'll see him soon.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
In The World That Never Was, Young Xehanort forces Sora into a second sleep, during which he dreams of the various people connected in his heart. One of these figments takes the form of Kairi, who is walking side by side with Riku, away from Sora. She then takes the appearance of Aqua, while the figment of Riku turns into Terra, and Sora takes on Ventus's appearance. Sora is incredibly confused, especially when Aqua and Terra turn around and walk away from him again, morphing back into Kairi and Riku. Ignoring the voice of Riku in the back of his head telling him to wake up and choosing instead to follow the pain in his heart, Sora chases after them as they flicker back and forth between his friends and Aqua and Terra. A long-forgotten memory of meeting Aqua on the islands nearly twelve years prior is recalled before Sora is ejected from his dream, landing in front of Xigbar.

As Xigbar and Xemnas reveal the true nature of the Organization to Sora, he is outraged by their disregard for the value of people's hearts. When Xigbar brings into question the strength of Sora's own heart, he pauses momentarily before saying with conviction that the Keyblade may not have chosen him, but that he was proud to be connected to those who it did choose. Kairi momentarily appears behind him, Keyblade in hand, alongside all the other friends connected in Sora's heart. The immense power of all the intertwined hearts unnerves Xigbar, who flees, leaving Xemnas to battle with Sora.

Later on, with the knowledge that Master Xehanort is organizing a new Organization XIII, one made from thirteen different incarnations of himself, Master Yen Sid orders Riku to retrieve the seventh Keyblade wielder, Kairi, in order to train her for the battles ahead.

Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-
Right after being brought to the Mysterious Tower, Kairi is brought up to speed about the threat of the real Organization XIII and the fates of Terra, Aqua, and Ventus. Mickey reveals to Kairi and Riku that Aqua sacrificed herself to help keep the Heartless from attacking Riku back when the Door to Darkness was being sealed. After Yen Sid assigns Riku and Mickey to rescue Aqua, Kairi asks what she should do. Kairi learns that Merlin will instruct her in how to use her Keyblade alongside Lea, whom she is shocked to hear is the original form of Axel. However, both Mickey and Riku assure Kairi that Lea is now an ally, and even helped them save Sora from Xehanort. After Yen Sid gifts Riku and Mickey with new garments to protect them against the darkness, Kairi leaves to undergo her training.

Between Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage- and Kingdom Hearts III
As Kairi trains with Lea, she is a little scared of him, even as he constantly apologizes for kidnapping her when he was Axel. However, Kairi warms up to Lea as their training progresses and they start getting to know each other, seeing him as someone she can't bring herself to hate when she learns that he also has a friend that he is trying to save. Kairi notices that Lea sometimes stares at her face, and asking him what's wrong, Lea would say he doesn't know, but feels like it's something he should remember.

Kingdom Hearts III
Kairi writes a letter to Sora when she notices Lea staring at her again; she knows he's trying to remember something. Asking Lea not to hold back during their next match, Kairi sparks a memory of Xion, causing Lea to cry. Lea apologizes for worrying her. Kairi tells him to stop apologizing; he agrees if she calls him "Axel" from now on, to which she agrees to.

Shortly after, Merlin drops off new clothes for Kairi and Lea made by the Good Fairies; Kairi changes into hers and cut her hair. She tells Lea that she wants Naminé to live as her own person. Lea then proceeds to talk about Ventus and how they became friends and how Roxas looked identical to him.

When Kairi and Lea finish their training, they return to the Mysterious Tower with Sora, Riku, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and the newly restored Aqua and Ventus. Aqua recognizes Kairi as the little girl she and Mickey saved in Radiant Garden many years ago, and though Kairi admits she does not recall much of her time on Radiant Garden, she thanks Aqua for saving her.

Sora, Riku, and Kairi return to Destiny Islands the day before the final battle. Kairi sits with Sora on a paopu fruit tree and gives him a fruit. The two vow to protect each other, sharing the fruit.

When everyone arrives at the Keyblade Graveyard, they are attacked by Terra-Xehanort, who knocks out Ventus and Lea (the latter got hurt defending Kairi). Terra-Xehanort tries to strike Kairi down, but Sora shields her. Donald blasts Terra-Xehanort away with Zettaflare, but collapses. Riku and Kairi then check on an unconscious Lea while Aqua checks on Ventus. A Demon Tide appears and drags everyone into the giant storm of heartless.

Kairi remains trapped in the darkness, hoping with all her might Sora did not fade; this allows him to be sent to The Final World. Sora uses the power of waking to save Riku, Lea, Donald, Goofy, Mickey, Aqua, and Ventus; Kairi meets him on his way back to the Keyblade Graveyard. Kairi tells Sora that she believed he wouldn't fade away, and that saved him. Sora then tells Kairi he feels strong with her. Kairi holds Sora's hand and proceeds to take him back to the Keyblade Graveyard to redo their previous fight.

They once again encounter Terra-Xehanort, but he is intercepted by the Lingering Will, sent by Naminé. In place of Terra-Xehanort, thousands of Heartless, Nobodies and Unversed appear. Yen Sid appears to light a path for the guardians, who head to face the Organization. Xehanort arrives with his Organization and creates a labyrinth to separate everyone to battle separately.

Kairi and Lea face off against Xion and Saïx. After a while, Sora appears to help. Saïx goes berserk and blows back Kairi and Sora. As he moves to finish them off Lea stands in the way. The tide swiftly changed when Xion regains her memories and switches sides and Roxas revives as his own person. Xemnas teleports behind Kairi and grabs her, taking her as a hostage as the guardians now have back up lights.

After the defeat of Ansem, Xemnas, and Young Xehanort, Xehanort summons Kairi who is now unconscious. Sora tries to run to her location to save her, but Xehanort strikes her with his Keyblade and her body disappears before Sora can get to her in an attempt to anger him in order to have their final clash necessary for recreating the χ-blade. After the defeat of Xehanort, Sora leaves using the Power of Waking in order to find Kairi and bring her home.

After Sora's departure, all of Sora's friends have a fun day on Destiny Islands. They then proceed to look at the paopu fruit tree and notice Kairi and Sora sitting together holding hands. As the two are sharing a moment, Kairi and Sora look at each other. Kairi soon smiles and sheds a tear. Right after that, Sora fades away and Kairi looks down in sadness.

Design
Kairi is four during Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep, fourteen during Kingdom Hearts, fifteen during Kingdom Hearts II, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance and "Kingdom Hearts III''. After one year has passed since Xehanort's ultimate defeat, Kairi is currently sixteen.

Typically Kairi has dark red hair, violet-blue eyes, a pale complexion, and a necklace with a silver bead that is only absent when she wears her school uniform.

As a child, as seen during Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and scenes from Kingdom Hearts, her hair is a little longer than it is when she's fourteen; she wears a white apron-like shirt with blue flowers and a blue line across the chest, a pink skirt with a white line on it and large, white shoes with pink and purple lines on them.

At age fourteen during Kingdom Hearts, she wears a white top with a black one underneath (the black one shows at her collarbone and at the hem) which slightly exposes her navel, purple bike shorts underneath a purple skirt with a blue belt, and white slip-on shoes with purple caps. She also features a black choker, a yellow wristband as well as a purple arm band on her left arm and a pair of bracelets on her right arm. Kairi's hairstyle is based on.

In Kingdom Hearts II, Kairi is taller and resembles a teenager more as opposed to a child, her hair is longer and has become a darker shade of red, and her bangs part to the opposite side. She dons two outfits in Kingdom Hearts II: her school uniform which has a white shirt of which she has rolled up the sleeves, a sky blue striped tie which she has slightly loosen up, a matching skirt with navy knee-high stockings and black shoes; and then her main outfit which mainly contains a pink strapless mini-dress made up of three zippers (two appear to be just decorative) as well as a white halter top underneath her mini-dress with a black hood. She also sports three bracelets on her left wrist, a black belt reminiscent of suspenders with a note book shaped bag attachment, and lilac sneakers.

In Kingdom Hearts III, after receiving a new outfit from Yen Sid, Kairi decides to cut her hair now reaching slightly to her shoulders. The outfit is a unique hooded pink-and-black dress, with two small black cat ears. There are black ruffles on one side of her skirt and plaid on the other. She wears thick belted black boots. She wears thin white bracelets on her left wrist and a thick wristband on her right wrist.

Kairi's name is derived from the Japanese word for "sea" (海), though her full name is homophonous with the word for "nautical mile" (海里).

Personality
Kairi is generally caring, kindhearted, and not afraid to speak her mind. She's usually always very cheerful and upbeat. She is loyal and headstrong, and she can be rather stubborn sometimes.

She is determined and courageous when someone she cares about is in danger, often risking her own safety to help them. Her bravery can be somewhat reckless. Examples of her bravery are when she embraced Sora as a Heartless even though it could be dangerous, when she offered to journey with Sora despite not having a Keyblade, when she jumped into a Corridor of Darkness despite not knowing where it could lead, causing Axel to comment she has guts, and so on. She dislikes feeling useless, such as when she asked Sora "I can't help?" when she wanted to journey with Sora, making her determined to help fight against the Heartless as Keyblade wielder.

In contrast to Sora and Riku, who were both bothered by not knowing about Kairi's hometown, she took it in stride and was able to look at the positives about living in the Destiny Islands. Despite this, she still has a strong sense of adventure, helping out with the raft. She also ran into a Corridor of Darkness, despite that she may never return, although she knew that other worlds existed and knew the portal may lead her to Sora and Riku, with Sora having a Gummi Ship.

As a child in Kingdom Heart Birth by Sleep, she is shown to have some affection for flowers, as she appears with flowers in her hand and is picking more during the final credits. But she won't hesitate to give them away in gratitude, like giving them to Aqua as thanks for saving her from the Unversed. Also, her Keyblade, Destiny's Embrace, has a floral design.

In Kingdom Hearts, she is seen with a rather playful, spunky side. For example, if Sora wins the race, she calls him "Captain Sora." She can also make comments about situations for the sake of teasing, like she joked about leaving without Riku.

In Kingdom Hearts II, however, she becomes more mature and is saddened by Sora's absence, but obtains wisdom beyond her age. She is not as brash and bold as she was in the first game, but is still sociable, as she quickly befriends Hayner, Pence, and Olette in Twilight Town before being kidnapped by Axel.

Kairi appears to retain fear of anyone who has wronged her in the past, such as her former kidnapper, Axel; when she heard Lea would be training with her to master a Keyblade, she became quite frightened at the prospect. However, she soon overcame this thanks to Mickey and Riku telling her that Lea had helped save Sora.

While sharing a deep friendship with Sora and Riku, Kairi seems to be particularly important to Sora, and vice versa. Kairi's feelings for Sora have been hinted at several times. She jokes about her and Sora taking the raft, just the two of them. She embraces Sora's Heartless as the other Shadows jump on them. She gives him her Wayfinder in hopes it will bring him back to her. The face sketch on said Wayfinder resembles Sora. She sheds a tear when she sees that Sora added a paopu fruit to their drawings of each other they did as kids, and even adds another. Kairi was the only person on the Islands to have any recollection of Sora, and felt guilty that she couldn't remember his voice, face, or even his name. When Kairi tells the Twilight Trio about how she was looking for Sora, Olette says that it was "a romantic story". When Saïx asks her if she wanted to see Sora, she answers "I do, more than anything." After reuniting with Sora, she hugs him, confirming it's really him, while Donald and Goofy looked on as if they were intruding. When Sora tells her that he has to leave again, she just smiles and, once again, gives him her Wayfinder.

While training with Lea, she states while writing a letter to Sora that she likes to talk with him even if its on paper. Her feelings for Sora were confirmed the day before their final battle. While Sora and Kairi are sitting on the paopu fruit tree, she hands him a paopu fruit. She states that she wants to be a part of Sora's life no matter what. After both of them promise to keep each other safe, they share a paopu fruit together. When Sora finds himself near death in Limbo, it was revealed by Naminé that Kairi was the person keeping him from completely fading away into the afterlife. When Sora finds her, they happily join hands. Kairi states that she believed that he wouldn't give up. When Sora states he feels strong with her, she looks away and holds his hand to proceed with their final battle. When everyone is on Destiny Islands having fun, Kairi is away from the group and sits on the Paopu fruit tree with Sora holding his hand. Kairi smiles while looking at him, and sheds a tear when Sora fades away and continues to stay there after he is gone.

Kairi is not fond of mushrooms, wondering why she and her friends should even take them on the raft.

Weapon
Kairi is able to wield a Keyblade due to her having touched Aqua's Keyblade many years prior to the events of Kingdom Hearts. Kairi's abilities in combat are limited. Kairi cannot do much when she is in danger—she has to depend on Sora or Riku to come to her aid, and as such, she is fairly easily captured. This is seen when Axel merely grabbed Kairi by the wrist and effortlessly dragged her along with him.

During the events that take place in The World That Never Was, Riku hands her Destiny's Embrace, allowing Kairi to protect herself without any help. She is shown to be fairly competent with it, and was shown to take out two Heartless on her own in one cutscene; in the manga, she was able to destroy a group of them with a single swing of her Keyblade. Her potential is recognized by Yen Sid, who has Riku bring her to him to begin training with the Keyblade to become stronger.

In Kingdom Hearts III, after completing her training with Lea and Merlin, Kairi is able to use the Cura spell, and a magical blast called "Flower Shoot" (similar in appearance to Mickey's Pearl spell in Kingdom Hearts II) during the battle against Xion and Saïx. She wields her Keyblade from a stance similar to Sora's, and is capable of performing a corkscrew-spinning ground-to-air combo effective for stunning foes. She is also seen holding her own in single combat against Xion in a brief cutscene before Sora enters the area to assist her, even putting her on the defensive. Despite her training, Kairi is taken by surprise by Terra-Xehanort and nearly struck down by him. She is also easily restrained by Xemnas, though both instances can be attributed to her lack of combat experience in the battlefield, compared to the others.

Notes and references
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