ig:
Day ??
Kairi's Heart
Time - ???
"It... probably seems that way, huh? But this..." You look at the dark pastels that dominate this place, the girl curled in on herself, before focusing your gaze on Kairi. "This
isn't your life. I know it... I've seen it. And it does get better." You smile. "That guy... he's
wrong. And you've proved it - with every smile..."
You remember her face, the way her cheeks brighten and her teeth show just a little when she smiles, the light in her eyes when she's excited...
"... every laugh..."
The pranks pulled both by and on her friends... the jokes told... the races and competitions started and judged because she felt like it...
"... every friend you've made..."
Pink blurs and stumbly maids and cheerful barmen fill your sight... giant turtles, wisecracking men in red, and others from all over the worlds... creatures that defied their nature... busy corridors swarming with tiny crew... a squawking, fussy mage and a fatherly shieldbearer... energetic kids on the beach watched over by loving parents... a boy with silver hair and a will to protect...
"... and every happy memory that comes next." You take her hands in yours, looking her in the eye. "And there's so many of them..." You find your thoughts brought to the countless sunsets you've shared, sitting on the Paopu Tree, talking about the fun you had with each other... the sightseeing you did looking over Traverse Town from the Lightrail... staring out into the wonders of the Space Between... "I don't know if your Grandma is still out there, but I'll help you look. I don't know how long this nightmare will last... but I'm here with you to the end. Because you're my family, too, and
I won't lose you."
"I..." Kairi keeps eye contact with you, and her eyes start to brim over anew. "... What if I... can't make it? What if you have to-"
"Nuh uh. I won't. Not ever. Wherever you go, I'll always be with you." She breaks down, and you let her hands go as she brings them to her face, trying to wipe her own tears. You pull her close.
"... Thank you..."
-----
Time passes. More experiments are done. But you are there - you hold Kairi close, giving her hope, reminding her, again and again, that she isn't alone, that in time, this storm will pass. Seemingly tiring of her screams, they begin doing something that makes her soundless before every experiment. It doesn't stop the pain.
More and more, it becomes harder to distinguish what is your reaction to the events unfolding before you and what are the memories of what Kairi felt at the time. It stops mattering - you focus more on comforting Kairi after each relived terror.
One day, the door opens, and the man with one eye comes in.
"Hey there... been a good girl?"
"... Yes..." Her voice is weak, her throat hurting from ages of countless screams.
"Heh, thought so." As he steps forward, the girl flinches back - they've had to hit her, once or twice, to make her do what they want.
"Please... please don't... I..."
"Hah! As if. Not today. I'm just here to bring you lunch." He's carrying a plate. It's... different... from the previous times. More fancy. The smell makes your mouth water. But looking at the glowing yellow of his one eye kills your appetite. She murmurs a thank you, anyway, avoiding eye contact, until he grabs her, forcing her to look at him. “Come on, look me in the eye when you’re thanking me. Now, let’s see what I nabbed for you… Oh, roast chicken. Mmmm mmm mmmmm. Some salad on the side… and hey, I even got you some of those dressing cups. Add a little variety to your meal. And to drink, we’ve got you some tea. Real classy.”
He sets it down in front of her. She stares at it. Is this... some new experiment? A trick? Is she... allowed to have it, or is he trying to get her into trouble?
"What's wrong? Don't like it?"
It reminds you of home. Your real home. "I... want to go home. Please... let me go..."
“... Now you know I’m not gonna do that. As if. Why do you torture yourself asking that every time I see you?”
"Please. I just want to see Grandma... just for a little while... I... I'll come back-"
The man rolls his eye, and sighs. “... Ah, is that it? You wanna see your old lady again? Well… let me fix that.” He kneels down, and meets her gaze again. Kairi's eyes widen, before he opens his mouth again, and you can feel her terror, her sorrow. “Truth is, your granny’s dead. Dead as a doornail. If I were the… poetic sort, I’d say she died of a broken heart. She just couldn’t believe anymore, by the end.”
You, Kairi, and the girl are in shock.
“I was there, you know. For the funeral. Unlike you. Man, what kind of granddaughter doesn’t go to her old lady’s funeral? You must be ashamed.” He chuckles as though he was making the joke of the century. You feel the girl's heart crack, breaking worse than any experiment has managed to cause. “But I know. You’re only doing what’s right, right? Helping the world, and all. Tell you what? If you’re a good girl during the next test, I’ll go leave her some flowers for you.”
Kairi's response is a choked sob.
“Would you like that? I’m not such a bad guy. Just doing my job.” The tone tells you he enjoys his job a lot more than the words should imply. “Now, I gotta go. Lots of stuff to do. Experiments to run. Results to collect. All that lame, science-nerdy stuff.” He steps out of the room, closing the door behind him, and something in the girl finally shatters.
The food lies untouched.
She barely fights back the next time they test her... and this time, when it's over, you don't feel anything. No sorrow, no loneliness. Just... emptiness.
The world seems to blur, and you can tell - the girl you're watching has changed, utterly. Her heart has finally broken under the stress, and everything she was is fading away. This is the moment that her heart, to escape the physical, emotional, and spiritual pain, banished everything associated with it to the abyss.
For a while, even when they experiment on her, she feels nothing - she is dead to the world.
In time, though, she becomes aware, and you can feel her heart returning to normal. What comes next is almost worse than before it shattered - she has forgotten what is coming, what they're about to do to her, and does not know to run away until she is already suffering once more.
They ask her about herself, and she cannot tell them anything, even when they promise her freedom in exchange. The man talking to her has to remind her that her name is Kairi.
They begin the experiments in earnest, under Ansem's insistence. This time, they do something to her, and it
worsens the pain caused by the testing.
It does not take long for them to break her all over again. And again.
And again.
Then, finally, something changes. Ansem comes to her room, and takes her, alone and on the brink of another breaking, to a room she had never seen before. He restrains her, and then his finger glows. Strange lights and shapes explode from his fingertips, forming together into patterns within patterns... He then shrinks it all, before pressing it onto the girl's chest, just above her heart.
The pain is almost as horrible as the tests, and it takes an extraordinarily long time to place such a small mark upon her. Her chest explodes into light - a light you recognize now as her Limit, as a similar light to what appeared when they pulled her Heart out. He easily ignores what feeble power this light brings, and continues to mark her with this symbol.
He then takes her to another room, leaving her there alone. It is not the dark room... but it is made of the same material as the room in which she has endured test after test. She has no restraints, however, and after some time, she decides it's not so bad.
Then the room shatters, and she finds herself in a place of strange colors and odd shapes - a place that you realize is the Space Between. She struggles as darkness encroaches on her, trying to destroy her, inside and out. She drifts here for longer than you can count, until she finally comes upon the light of another world...
The last thing the pastel girl experiences before her heart breaks down one last time is falling into the stormy seas, and not knowing how to swim.
The world is dark. For a while, Kairi looks worried, terrified, and sorrowful, reeling from the pain of her heart breaking and repairing itself over and over again... But you smile.
"It's going to be okay."
"But... I can't swim-"
"Maybe... but the worst is over. Just wait..."
When next the girl wakes, she is not pastel - she is real. She is in a bed, swaddled in blankets. There's a shirtless, bronzed man sitting backwards in a chair and taking a swig from a bottle. He finishes guzzling the drink, and looks blearily at the girl.
There is a pause as the girl locks eyes with Jecht, the drunkard master of the Guardians.
"... Uh. Hey. Morning..." He suddenly gets up. "Shoot! Mayor! Mayor!" He stumbles out of the room... then comes back in. "Uh. Um." He hands the girl the bottle he was holding. "Hide this for me, huh? Thanks." He gives her a thumbs up, and rushes out of the room, making a racket the whole way.
The memories flow freely, now - The Mayor, who would soon adopt the girl as her own, telling the girl that Jecht had found her laying on the beach, half-drowned. They ask her what her name is, what island she is from, who her parents are... but the girl barely remembers anything. They find the name "Kairi" on the tag of her dress, and it is by that name she is called.
They make a point of hiding the mark Ansem placed upon her when merely pointing it out starts to call back the memories that she had lost, bringing her back to those days of suffering. The Mayor realizes quickly that Kairi is different,
special, when one such incident draws forth the light magic of her Limit. Kairi remembers the strange joy in her when the Mayor makes the fledgling mother-daughter relationship they had official.
Kairi is brought before the other children of the islands. At first, the children find her odd, and mostly shun her. She meanders from one play spot to the other, finally sitting herself at the Paopu Islet, as the sun starts to come down.
"Hey there." Kairi looks up from the sand. A silver-haired boy and his brown-haired friend stride up.
"Er... um... Sorry. Am I taking your spot? I thought-"
"Nah, it's cool." The silver-haired boy hops onto the tree, sitting down next to her, and with a little prodding, the other boy does the same. "What's your name?"
"... Kairi."
"Nice," the boy grins. "Name's Riku, and this is Sora."
"Uh... hi!" Sora smiles, pushing past his awkwardness.
"So, what'cha doing out here? Don't most girls hang out by the treehouse, or by the docks?"
"... They don't want me..." Kairi admits. "They think I'm... weird."
"... Bah, they've got cooties anyway. You don't want to hang with them." Riku crosses his arms.
"... Yeah! You can hang with us!" Sora says. "What'dya think, Riku?"
"Hmmm. I dunnoooo." Riku grins. "Do you like adventure? Because I can't have someone who doesn't like adventure holding me back."
Kairi frowns. "... I've... never really... gone on one?"
Riku and Sora gasp. "No way. That's crazy," Riku says. "We need an adventure, now!"
Sora nods. "Ummmmmm... But what kind of adventure?"
Riku thinks for a moment... then grins. "Oh... I know..."
Fifteen minutes later, the three of them are fleeing the treehouse, chased by the girls.
"You guys are so weird!" A younger Yuna shouts at them. "So weird!"
"Run!" Riku shouts. "Cooties!"
The three barely escape the cootie-ridden horde. Kairi is winded, but holds up the bouquet she nabbed from the treehouse, a trophy of their victory.
"Haha! That was great!" Riku grins. "Though... that's probably infested with their cooties. Leave it on the docks. They'll take it back."
"Then... what's the point of taking it?" Kairi asks.
"For the fun of it. Besides, they acted mean to my new friend, so I had to show them that isn't right."
Kairi blinks. "Your... new friend...?"
"Yep! You're my friend!"
When Kairi got home that night, she could not stop talking about the new friends she made... friends that would last her a lifetime.
A voice comes from right next to you. "... Sora..."
You smile at Kairi. "You see? Things got better."
She looks at you, and manages a smile. It's a tired, pained smile... one that shows that things aren't over yet - she's still hurting. But she's taken a step towards mending it.
"Thank you."
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Music:
Kingdom Hearts BBS: Dearly Beloved
Characters:
KHVD Main Party Sheet
KHVD Main Party Growth Chart
Link Shards
Gummi Ship
KHVD Minor Party Members Sheet
Shop Sheet
Jiminy's Journal
Ansem Reports
Sora's Vision History
Don't like ending it here, but I
really need to get to sleep, so. Here.