Kairi

Kairi is caring, kindhearted and brave. She is determined and courageous when someone she cares about is in danger, as she always puts herself in harm's way to help Sora when he's in trouble despite the dangers. Kairi's heart is said to be filled only with pure light and goodness, despite darkness and evil residing in almost every heart. Kairi's good heart filled with pure light helped lead Sora back to his true form when he was consumed by the Heartless, and led Sora and Riku back to Destiny Islands when they were trapped in the Realm of Darkness after their battle with Xemnas.

Kairi is also very charismatic, quickly befriending Hayner, Pence, and Olette in Twilight Town before being kidnapped by Axel. She's usually always very cheerful and upbeat. Although she has no ability to defend herself in combat like Sora and Riku, she is very brave and strong willed and will put herself in danger anyway to help her friends. Unfortunately, this sometimes results in her needing rescuing by Sora. Near the end of Kingdom Hearts II, she finally obtains a Keyblade of her own given to her by Riku and helps Sora and Riku fight against the Organization. She is currently studying under Master Aqua to continue training with her Keyblade.

Probably the biggest part to Kairi's character is her fear of change and the anxiety with it. In contrast to Sora and Riku, who were both curious about Kairi's hometown, she'd rather live on the Destiny Islands with her friends. Kairi even prefers to stay on the islands rather than go to Hollow Bastion. And even so, up to the midway point of Kingdom Hearts II, she stays waiting for Sora and Riku to return. But she is loyal to her friends, and can be rather stubborn sometimes.

While the bond of friendship between Sora, Riku, and Kairi is strong, Kairi seems to be particularly closer to Sora than to Riku. This is noticeable when Kairi mentions a change in Riku to Sora in the beginning of Kingdom Hearts and suggests to Sora that just the two of them leave the island, which she quickly takes back as a joke. Her connection to Sora was strong enough for Kairi to recognize him in heartless form later in the game.

Kairi also has a strong connection with King Mickey's dog, Pluto. They met on Destiny Islands, and she followed him through the dark corridors. Pluto is like her protector as well. He even lovingly went to comfort her at the Organization's dungeon, with her responding nicely by petting him.

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, unintentionally performing a Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony. 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 bundle of 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.

One year after the events of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Radiant Garden became shrouded by darkness and everyone was scattered across the universe. During this, Kairi was captured by Xehanort, after she was cornered by a group of Heartless. Xehanort told Kairi that their world was about to fall to the darkness, and that the only way to save it was for Kairi to assist him in an experiment. He told Kairi that he was under the suspicion that she was one of the Princesses of Heart, and as such, he was going to propel her off world to test any possible connection between the Keyblade wielders and the Princesses of Heart, and if the experiment is a success, Kairi's heart would resonate with a keyblade wielder's heart, which would lead Xehanort to that wielder's world. Just before Xehanort sent her on her way, he warned her that if she the experiment fails and she ends up "somewhere on the other side", then she was to abandon her search.

The experiment was a success, due to the protective spell Aqua had cast on her one year earlier, Kairi's heart resonated with the heart of a boy named Riku and she appeared on the Destiny Islands during a meteor shower, appearing floating in the water on the beach. But, as a result of the experiment, Kairi's memories of her time on Radiant Garden were repressed, and she had no idea where she came from. She was then brought to the mayor's house, where she was presumably adopted by the mayor.

Kairi later becomes very close friends with Sora and Riku who constantly and playfully compete together. She often supports these competitions, although she does not know it suddenly turned into competition about her right before leaving the Islands. She claims to have no memory of her life before the Islands, and her mysterious past sparks curiosity in Sora and Riku, who are looking forward to leaving 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. After failing to save Riku and receiving the Keyblade, Sora finds Kairi in their Secret Place. She turns towards him, looking sad, pale 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 a part of the game's driving force of finding friends and saving worlds from the looming darkness. After Sora finally runs into Riku near the midway point, much of the game's story centers around Sora's and Riku's attempts at finding Kairi while Sora tries to reach out to Riku. 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 indicate that Kairi was experiencing Sora's journey from within his heart, including befriending Donald and Goofy. This is later reinforced when she's talking to Sora in Traverse Town, remembers showing Sora her grandmother's story from within his heart.

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.

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 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 Keyblade.

In the game's final cutscene, she appears on a section of Destiny Islands after Sora's final battle with Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, 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 the Secret Place, looking at the pictures that she and Sora had 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; the picture now depicting herself and Sora exchanging two halves of a paopu fruit.