Kairi

Kairi is one of several original characters appearing in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II, and also one of the main characters in the series. Kairi was born in Radiant Garden and currently lives on Destiny Islands along with her two best friends, Sora and Riku. She is four during Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep, fourteen at the start of Kingdom Hearts, and fifteen during Kingdom Hearts II. Kairi's name is derived from the Japanese word for "Sea."

First Entry
''Islander. Kairi, Sora, and Riku were best friends. They built a raft to sail out and see new worlds. The three were separated when a mysterious force struck the Destiny Islands. Thus did Sora's search for Kairi begin.''

Second Entry
''Kairi, Sora, and Riku always hung out together. When their island vanished, Kairi lost her heart. It turned out that it was hidden within Sora's. As one of the princesses with the power to unlock the secret Keyhole, Kairi restored Sora's heart when he was turned into a Heartless.''

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Sora's childhood friend.

Sora's journey began as a search for Kairi, who disappeared when their island home was swallowed by darkness.

Kairi was held captive by the Heartless, but thanks to Sora she and the islands were saved.

She waits there for Sora and Riku's return.

Reverse/Rebirth
Riku and Sora's friend growing up.

''Kairi vanished when their home islands were devoured by darkness. Riku and Sora both journeyed to find her.''

Kairi was held captive by the Heartless, but thanks to Sora, she and the islands were saved.

She waits there for Sora and Riku's return.

First Entry
''Longtime friend of Riku and Sora, and one of the Seven Princesses with ties to the Keys and Keyholes. Not long ago, when she was lost in the darkness, Riku and Sora both tried to save her, each in his own way.''

Thanks to them, Kairi was able to return to her home islands, but her memories of Sora were gone, and she soon stopped visiting the island where they once played.

Second Entry
Longtime friend of Riku and Sora, and one of the Seven Princesses with ties to the Keys and Keyholes.

She had lost her memories of Sora, and after they returned, she wanted to meet him more and more with every passing day.

Falling through an unexpected hole into the darkness, she arrived in Twilight Town and befriended Hayner, Pence, and Olette before being captured by Axel.

Kairi is fervently hoping to meet up with Sora once more.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
Kairi was born in the Radiant Garden, where she was living with her grandmother. One day, she is chased by a group of Unversed and encounters Aqua and King Mickey, both of whom can sense a pure light in her heart, proving that she is a Princess of Heart. Frightened, Kairi touched Aqua's Keyblade, unintentionally performing a Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony. When she is about to become captured by the enemy, Aqua and King Mickey combine their forces to protect her. After the Unversed were defeated, King Mickey gets called away. Kairi then gives Aqua the flowers she picked before the Unversed appeared, which become the Destiny Place Keyblade, which Aqua returns by putting a protection charm on her necklace, and then she returns to her grandmother, who begins to tell her the story of the light and the darkness. Aqua believes their meeting may not have been a coincidence.

During the ending credits, she is seen picking flowers in a large garden. She looks up to the bright sky, looking as if she sensed something.

Kingdom Hearts
One year after the events of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, the Radiant Garden became shrouded by darkness and everyone was scattered across the universe. Kairi appears off the coast of the Destiny Islands during a meteor shower, due to Aqua's magic that was used on Kairi one year earlier. Sora, then five years old as well, carefully approaches her and asks, "Who are you? Where did you come from?"

Sometime later, Sora and Riku were in the Secret Place and talking about "the new girl at the mayor's house". This provides the player a kind of insight into her origins: Kairi is not a native of the Destiny Islands, and is adopted by their mayor.



Kairi later becomes very close friends with Sora and Riku who playfully compete for her attention. She 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. However, before they can leave, their islands are attacked by the Heartless, and Sora finds Kairi in their Secret Place. She turned towards him, looking sad and a little ill, then a huge gust of wind swept through a door in the back of the cave and Kairi flew towards him. Sora opened his arms to catch her, but she vanished right as she was 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 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.

In Neverland, 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, 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 People's Hearts 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 was gone, Kairi prepared to fight the Shadow Heartless that surrounded her, along with Donald and Goofy.

However, once Ansem reappears and Riku 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 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.

In the game's final cutscene, she appears on a section of Destiny Islands after Sora's final battle with Ansem, likely confused. Sora runs up to her, a little too late as the world is breaking apart, restoring all the previously destroyed worlds. Just before she is sent back, Sora 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 in the Secret Cave, looking at the pictures that she and Sora have drawn over the years. Once she sees the picture that Sora had drawn of him giving her a Paopu Fruit, she is moved to tears and adds to it; now the picture depicts herself and Sora exchanging two halves of a Paopu fruit. This could be interpreted as a sign that Kairi loves Sora, or simply that she truly does want to remain an eternal part of his life.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Although Kairi did not directly appear in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, she did play a very important role. She served as a constant figure of light for both Sora and Riku and fervently awaited their return on Destiny Islands.

In Sora's story Naminé tried to take Kairi's place in Sora's heart. However, she said that she could never really replace Kairi and that she was only Kairi's shadow, meaning she is her Nobody. In Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, Kairi's image showed up on Destiny Islands when Sora remembered that the one he holds dear to is Kairi, and not Naminé. When Sora was about to go to sleep she told him that if he remembered Kairi's name, his memories would restore faster. So he looked deep into his heart and found Kairi.

In Riku's story, Zexion tormented Riku with an illusion of Kairi, just as he had with Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka. Naminé also took Kairi's form to help Riku control the light and darkness in his heart before the final face-off with the devious Nobody.

In the credits for Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, Kairi is shown to still be waiting for Sora and Riku's return.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Kairi makes a brief appearance in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days; after Roxas wakes from his coma on day 49, Xion gives him a seashell. When Roxas puts it up to his ear, a flashback from Kingdom Hearts is shown, depicting Sora and Kairi on a beach looking at the sunset. Later, during Xion's nightmare, another flashback of Kairi is shown as she is waking up Sora. Kairi is also mentioned by Riku and Xion when they were in a conversation on Destiny Islands.

During this time, Kairi is assumed to be living a normal life on Destiny Islands where she waits for Riku and Sora's return, though her memories of Sora are probably vague because of Naminé's interference with her memories. With the two of them away, her only company becomes Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka. Roxas saw a memory of Kairi during a mission in Destiny Islands and remarks that she looks like Xion.

Kingdom Hearts II
Kairi, now fifteen years old, lives her life normally on Destiny Islands. She attends school regularly along with her friend Selphie and has noticeably aged, having longer hair and more defined features. It can be assumed that she has spent most of her time focusing on her studies, thinking about the boy she's forgotten, and hanging out with Selphie, Wakka, and Tidus - all of whom have returned to Destiny Islands safely. She's also become slightly more withdrawn because of Sora's absence, with wisdom beyond her years. She's not as brash and bold as she was in the first game, but she's still pretty sociable. She understands that both Riku and Sora have great destinies and duties to fulfill, but that still doesn't keep her from pondering taking action and searching for them on her own.

She misses Sora, but most of her memories of him have faded away because of Naminé's interfering with his own memories. One day, while walking home from school with Selphie, her heart is put into contact with a young boy named Roxas, later revealed to be Sora's Nobody. It appeared that Roxas was trying to contact Naminé, Kairi's Nobody, and ended up reaching her instead. During this conversation, Roxas brings up Sora, and, when Kairi inquires about his name, Sora himself, despite being in stasis, somehow uses Roxas as a conduit to talk to her, chastises her for forgetting his name, and jokingly gives her a hint ("Starts with an 'S'!"). 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 and possibly everything else about him. ("Starts with an 'S'... Right, Sora?")

It is worth noting that this was the only conversation Kairi and Roxas had throughout the whole game.

One day, Axel comes to the Destiny Islands and tells Kairi to come with him. She refuses until Axel summons a group of Nobodies. A bark behind her gives her another option. She then runs off into a nearby portal with King Mickey's dog, Pluto, into Twilight Town and meets Hayner, Pence and Olette. She hits it off with them, immediately fitting in with the three and going as far as to explain who she is searching for. To her joy, Hayner, Pence, and Olette know Sora, assuring her that she could stay in Twilight Town until his next visit.

Unfortunately, she is found again by Axel and forcibly taken by him, Olette, Hayner, and Pence's attempts doing nothing to prolong it. 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 trust herself.

The two's attempt to escape is stopped by Saïx and two Berserker Nobodies who offer to take Kairi to Sora. Once she refuses, Saïx gets ready to send the Nobodies to attack the two girls only to be saved by a cloaked figure. Naminé hints at who the cloaked figure is, causing him to pause as Kairi strides towards him to remove the hood. Her guess is correct and it is indeed Riku even though his appearance has changed to that of Xehanort's Heartless, she takes this in stride and is just happy to be reunited with Riku. 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. She stopped Ansem (Riku) from leaving and showed Sora that Ansem was really Riku.

The three along with Donald and Goofy face off with Luxord and Saïx to get to Xemnas. Kairi is 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 (Riku uses 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 tries to make Sora remember her, but Sora gets confused. Roxas comes out of him. 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 to the shore of Dark Meridian. Kairi's letter appears to them 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 swims excited towards her but Donald and Goofy jump to Sora and Mickey to Riku. They hug Sora, as Sora shows her the lucky charm and replies to Kairi "We-We're back!" and Kairi corrects "You're home" and extends her hand as Sora takes her hand and at the same time returning the lucky charm to her. For a brief moment, Roxas and Naminé are shown smiling back at each other, just as Sora and Kairi are.

Shortly after King Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Pluto, Jiminy, Uncle Scrooge, Dewey, Louie and Huey return to Disney Castle, Sora and Riku talk about the Door to Light until Kairi appears running to them, shouting their names. Sora turns to her and asks "Hey, What's up?" and Kairi hands him a letter in a bottle that displays King Mickey's seal. The trio immediately open the letter and read it, though its contents are hidden from the player.

Kingdom Hearts coded
A data version of the then-fourteen-year-old Kairi was slated to appear in Neverland alongside the then-fifteen-year-old Riku. Like in the first game, her body is shown as a mere empty shell. However, the scene was cut from the final version. Instead, they appear in a hidden cutscene, showing them in Traverse Town.

During the end of Kingdom Hearts coded, the real Kairi, along with the real Sora and Riku, reads Mickey's Letter, corresponding to the final scene of Kingdom Hearts II.

Reconnect. Kingdom Hearts
Afterwards, 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 is suffering and waiting, and that he has to put back everything that is connected to him. She then hands him her lucky charm and tells him to hurry back.

Personality
Kairi is caring, kindhearted and not afraid to speak out her mind. However, she is determined and courageous when someone she cares about is in danger, often risking her own safety to help that person. She's also become slightly more withdrawn because of Sora's absence, has obtained wisdom usually beyond someone of her age. She's not as brash and bold as she was in the first game, but she's still pretty sociable. She also makes friends easily, quickly befriending Hayner, Pence, and Olette in Twilight Town. She's usually always very cheerful and upbeat and seems to be bit of a tomboy as well. 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. She is loyal and headstrong, and she can be rather stubborn sometimes.

It is worth noting that though the bond between the three friends is extremely strong, both boys are shown to have strong feelings for Kairi, although she seems to return the affections only for Sora. Numerous hints of a possible romantic relationship between her and Sora are as follows in chronological order:


 * During the sunset before the Heartless invasion of Destiny Islands, Kairi tells Sora "Don't ever change."


 * Before fading away on Destiny Islands when the darkness swallows it up, she lingers towards Sora, extending her hand before the darkness forces her into Sora. During the game, Sora has become a vessel for Kairi's heart.


 * When Sora sacrifices his own heart to restore hers, Kairi is visibly shaken and refuses to believe that Sora may be dead, shouting "No, he can't be. I won't let him go!"


 * During their escape from Hollow Bastion on the first visit, Kairi hugs Sora (who is still a Heartless) to protect him while she, Donald, and Goofy are attacked by numerous Shadows.


 * Before Sora returns back to Hollow Bastion for Riku, Kairi gave him her lucky charm and tells him "Don't ever forget. Wherever you go, I'm always with you."


 * In the ending sequence to the first Kingdom Hearts, she is genuinely moved to tears after seeing that Sora had made the drawing of him extending a Paopu Fruit to her in their Secret place. After that, she draws herself giving him a paopu fruit.


 * Throughout Chain of Memories, though she doesn't physically appear, her image spurred Sora on and even Naminé said that she was "the one he truly cared for" when she apologized for changing his original memories of her.
 * Riku tells Xion that Kairi is someone very special to Sora.


 * She wouldn't go to the small island where they had once played until she remembered everything about Sora.


 * While everyone remembers Riku, Kairi is the only person to retain any kind of memory of Sora, even if it is only that she has forgotten him.


 * Almost immediately after her communication with Roxas, she sent adrift to sea a letter she wrote for Sora the day before.


 * After explaining her story to Hayner, Pence and Olette, Olette comments on "What a romantic story!" it was.


 * While imprisoned in World That Never Was, she became upset to know she was the reason Sora was killing Heartless for the Organization.


 * When trying to escape with Naminé and asked by Saïx if she wanted to see Sora, she replies "I do, more than anything."


 * When she finds Sora, she attempts to attack the Shadow Heartless unarmed while trying to assist him.


 * When they reunite, Kairi quickly runs over and hugs Sora to make sure that he is really there.


 * Shortly after, if a player talks with Kairi, she says "I wanted to see you so badly. I missed you so much!" to Sora.


 * While escaping from the Castle That Never Was, Kairi tells Roxas and Naminé that she and Sora will be together every day.

Appearance
Kairi's appearance shows the most growth with aging of the trio of main characters. Kairi originally appears as a girl with short, dark red hair and violet-blue eyes, along with a pale complexion. She wears a summer theme outfit with a short skirt and large shoes, keeping with the characters' outfit theme. She wears a white shirt with many bands and belts as well as a bracelet. Kairi's appearance never changes from that until Kingdom Hearts II where she is shown to have grown. Kairi is taller, her hair is a darker red, and has longer hair with more developed features than her fourteen year old appearance. She holds two outfits while this happens, her school girl outfit which Selphie also wears to some sort of school on Destiny Islands, and then her main outfit which mainly contains a hooded pink strapless mini-dress made up with three zippers (two appear to be just decorative) as well as a white halter top underneath her mini-dress, a black belt reminiscent of suspenders with a note book shaped bag attachment, and large lilac shoes keeping up once again with her trio of friends. As a child, 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 it.

Kairi is seen as a young girl in Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep and some scenes in the original Kingdom Hearts. As a child, Kairi's hair is a bit longer than it is in Kingdom Hearts, and she wears white shoes that resemble slippers with two stripes, one lilac and one pink, on each side. She wore a short, white dress with a thin, lavender stripe near the top and a wavy cut at the bottom. The bottom of this dress is decorated with lavender X's. Kairi also seems to wear a second, slightly longer dress under the white one, this second dress being pink with a white stripe at the bottom.

She is also shown to have worn the same necklace all her life. The only time she is shown not wearing it is in her school outfit.

Powers as a Princess of Heart
Because Kairi is a Princess of Heart, her heart possesses no darkness within it, leading to the unique birth of Naminé when she accidentally gives it to Sora, who later sacrificed himself to restore her heart. Should her heart be lost, her body will remain in a dormant state until it returns, as revealed in the first game when her heart was lost.


 * Like the other princesses, she has the power to open the Final Keyhole to Kingdom Hearts in Hollow Bastion once she is gathered with the rest of the princesses. This could be considered as the princesses' main power.


 * Kairi also appears to have some kind of latent magical ability, as seen when she manages to restore Sora's humanity after he becomes a Heartless. However, it could imply that she is only able to restore him because they share the strongest connection.


 * Since the other Princesses of Heart possess the abilities to hold back darkness and upgrade other people's powers, it is no doubt that Kairi can do so as well.


 * Aqua cast a charm on Kairi in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep so that if she was ever captured by darkness, her light would lead the way. In an interview, Tetsuya Nomura stated it was this charm that lead Kairi to Destiny Islands.


 * She additionally has the ability to sense darkness, as the other Princesses of Heart are able to tell Sora of a great darkness nearby. It may also imply to why she was looking ill when Destiny Islands was devoured by the darkness before she disappeared.

Keyblade Wielding
Kairi's abilities in combat are limited. Kairi isn't able to do much when she is in danger, and frequently depends on Sora or Riku to come to her aid; this also results in her sometimes being captured, which is seen when Axel merely grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her along without any problems. During the events that take place in the World That Never Was, Riku hands her a Keyblade crafted from his memories of Destiny Islands, and allows her to wield it so that she may combat the Heartless. She is shown to be fairly competent with it, and was shown to take out several Heartless on her own in cut-scenes.

Kairi is able to wield the Keyblade due to her having been touched by Aqua's Keyblade many years earlier.

Trivia

 * Part of her name ("Kai") is the Japanese word for "sea" (海; her whole name is homophonous with the word for "nautical mile" (海里 or 浬)).


 * The reason to why Kairi returned to Destiny Islands instead of Hollow Bastion, where she truly comes from, is because people return to the world they were on before it was devoured by darkness. It may also have something to do with the old saying "Home is where the Heart is".


 * It can be noted that the very last scene of "Another side, Another story..." shows a prototype of fifteen-year-old Kairi watching a meteor shower, which is Sora and Riku returning home in Kingdom Hearts II.


 * In Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Roxas writes in his diary about a girl that looked like Xion, after returning from a mission in Destiny Islands. This girl is assumed to be Kairi.