Bequeathing



The Bequeathing is a ceremony in which a Keyblade wielder chooses someone to inherit a Keyblade. The Bequeathing causes a Keyblade to choose the person being Bequeathed, and it only works if the person performing the Bequeathing is a Keyblade Master or around the level of one and if the person being Bequeathed has a strong enough heart to be able to wield a Keyblade.

In a Bequeathing ceremony, a Keyblade Master chooses a successor to bestow the right to wield a Keyblade. All the Keyblade Master must do is allow the individual to hold their Keyblade. This ritual may be accidentally performed if an individual touches the Keyblade while the Keyblade Master is wielding it.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
Some time before the Mark of Mastery exam, when Terra, Ventus, and Aqua were still training together, Ventus felt down about losing to Terra in a mock battle. Terra cheered him up, performing a mock Bequeathing, in which he recited the mantra and passed his Wooden Keyblade on to Ventus.

The Bequeathing is unintentionally performed when Aqua visits Radiant Garden and comes across a young Kairi, who was being attacked by a swarm of Floods. Kairi runs to hide behind Aqua and touches the Keyblade, which causes her to become an inheritor.

Aqua also had the intention of performing the ritual with Sora when she met him in Destiny Islands, but she noticed that Terra had already made it with Riku. Not wanting them to fight like she and Terra would, she refrained, although Sora and Riku would inevitably clash with each other several times ten years later.

The Bequeathing is intentionally and correctly performed by Terra when he meets a young Riku on the Destiny Islands. Seeing himself through the boy, someone who would do anything to protect his friends, Terra proceeds to select Riku as an inheritor.

Kingdom Hearts
When confronting Riku in Hollow Bastion, Sora learns that he was not originally the Kingdom Key's original chosen wielder, and that the Keyblade actually chose Riku due to the Bequeathing that Terra performed on him. However, due to Riku's weakness of heart, the Kingdom Key had jumped over to Sora instead. This was able to occur since Sora reached out and touched Riku's heart during that moment on Destiny Islands. Riku would not gain another Keyblade until one year later on his path to return to the light.

Notes and references
Vererben