Lifeboat
A lifeboat (箱舟 hakobune) is a device used to travel across worlds and through time. In Kingdom Hearts Union χ, some of the Dandelions use the lifeboats to escape the collapse of Daybreak Town.
According to Darkness, the lifeboats are intended for traveling between worlds, not through time, even though they are capable of doing so. Additionally, although the lifeboats can travel to and from the data world as well as travel through time, they cannot do both at once. Quest 960: To the Race Track! Pt. 5 Using a lifeboat is the only known way to travel through time without giving up one's body. However, doing so requires the traveler to have a "medium" with which to rebuild their body as well as someone with memories of them at their destination.
Story
Kingdom Hearts Union χ
The lifeboats are first mentioned by Darkness, who tells Maleficent that there is a way for her to escape from the data world and return to her own time. Quest 841: Sweeping Away the Heartless Pt. 1 Darkness leads Maleficent to where the seven lifeboats are stored in the Clock Tower of Daybreak Town. Quest 925: To the Kart Bakery Pt. 2 Lauriam attempts to stop Maleficent, but is defeated, and one of the lifeboats is destroyed in the process. Quest 940: Sweeping the Area Pt. 5 Maleficent takes one of the lifeboats from the data Daybreak Town to the real Daybreak Town, and then from the real Daybreak Town back to the future, where she appears in Kingdom Hearts II. The departure of the first lifeboat triggers the beginning of the destruction of both the data Daybreak Town and the real one.
After Maleficent's departure, Luxu uses one of the lifeboats in the real Daybreak Town to send a cloaked figure that he calls "the true Dandelion" to the future. Quest 977: Darkness Looms
Later, Lauriam, Ephemer, Skuld, Brain, Ventus, and Elrena use the remaining lifeboats to escape from the data Daybreak Town. The lifeboats are able to be transferred between the real world and the virtual world, as Brain appears to send two lifeboats from the real world back to the data world for Ephemer and Skuld. Quest 979: The Final Battle
Kingdom Hearts
A lifeboat device similar to the one seen in Daybreak Town can be seen in the World Terminus through the terminal for Hollow Bastion. This device holds five lifeboats, rather than seven, and has a computer terminal at the front which displays the text:
- Ones born of the heart and darkness, devoid of hearts, ravage all worlds and bring desolation. Seize all hearts and consummate the great heart. All hearts to be one, one heart to encompass all. Realize the destiny: the realm of Kingdom Hearts. The great darkness sealed within the great heart. Progeny of darkness, come back to the eternal darkness. For the heart of light shall unseal the path. Seven hearts, one Keyhole, one key to the door. The door of darkness, tied by two keys. The door to darkness to seal the light. None shall pass but shadows, returning to the darkness. Ones born of the heart and darkness, hunger for every heart until the dark door opens.
Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory
The lifeboat device from Hollow Bastion is seen again in Kairi's memory of Radiant Garden. In Kairi's flashback, Terra-Xehanort abducts her while she is fleeing from the Heartless manifesting throughout the world. He places her in one of the lifeboats and tells her that her heart will resonate with that of a Keyblade wielder, leading him to that wielder's world.
Design
The lifeboats are brown, cylindrical containers large enough to contain a person. They have a single door that hinges open from the top. On the outside, they have metallic decoration and a tinted, heart-shaped window that resembles the Heartless emblem. The interior features a similar metallic decoration that resembles circuitry. Their inner workings appear to contain blue and red wires, as seen from the lifeboat that was destroyed in the clash between Lauriam and Maleficent.
Trivia
In Japanese, the lifeboats are referred to as hakobune (箱舟), meaning "ark". In the Biblical narrative, an ark is the vessel that shields Noah and his family from the great flood that destroys the Earth.
