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. Throughout Sora's journey, he encounters multiple images of Kairi without knowing about Kairi's heart being a part of his.

However, Riku is hostile to Sora (having been manipulated by Maleficent into believing that Sora no longer cared for either Kairi or himself). 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.

She then becomes a part of the game's driving force of finding friends and saving worlds from the looming darkness. Sora opens his arms to catch her, but she vanishes right as she is about to be swept into his embrace.ĭuring 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 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. However, before they can leave, their islands are attacked by the Heartless, and Sora finds Kairi in their Secret Place. This leads the trio to build a raft in the hopes of traveling to other worlds. 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. She often supports these competitions, although she does not know it suddenly turned into competition about her right before leaving the Islands. Kairi later becomes very close friends with Sora and Riku who constantly and playfully compete together. She was then brought to the mayor's house, where she was presumably adopted by the mayor. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. During this, Kairi was captured by Xehanort, after she was cornered by a group of Heartless. One year after the events of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Radiant Garden became shrouded by darkness and everyone was scattered across the universe. As she does, her necklace emits a weak glow.īetween Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts She looks up to the bright sky, looking as if she sensed something. 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.Īfter Terra-Xehanort's defeat, Kairi is seen picking flowers in a large garden. 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 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). 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. As she and Aqua are about to be attacked, King Mickey arrives and Aqua evacuates Kairi before returning to fight alongside Mickey. 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.įrightened, Kairi touches Aqua's Keyblade, unintentionally performing a Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony. Kairi was born in Radiant Garden, where she lives with her grandmother. Young Kairi, Aqua, and Mickey in Birth by Sleep.

Kingdom hearts 1 and 2