Kairi

Kairi (カイリ)
Role	Ally Princess of Heart Keyblade Wielder
Origin	Kingdom Hearts
Home World	Radiant Garden
Other Residences	Destiny Islands (KH - KHII) Traverse Town (KH)
Katakana	カイリ
Romaji	Kairi
English Voice Actor(s)	Hayden Panettiere (KH, KHII, BbS) Alyson Stoner (Re:CoM, Days, 0.2 BbS) Ariel Winter (Young Kairi, BbS)
Japanese Voice Actor(s)	Risa Uchida Sumire Moroboshi (Young Kairi)

"Don't ever forget. Wherever you go, I'm always with you."

—Kairi to Sora

Kairi is one of several original characters appearing in Kingdom Hearts, and is also one of the main characters in the series. She is the original persona of Naminé. Kairi was born in Radiant Garden and currently lives on Destiny Islands along with her two best friends, Sora and Riku.

She is four years old during Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, fourteen at the start of Kingdom Hearts, fifteen during Kingdom Hearts II and the events of Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance.

Story

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

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.

Kingdom Hearts

One year after the events of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Radiant Garden became shrouded by darkness and everyone was scattered across the universe. Kairi appears on the Destiny Islands during a meteor shower, appearing floating in the water on the beach; though it is believed that Ansem, Seeker of Darkness had sent Kairi to the islands as an experiment to test any possible connection between the Keyblade wielders and the Princesses of Heart, her arrival was actually due to the protective spell Aqua had cast on her one year earlier.

Sometime later, Sora and Riku were in the Secret Place and talking about "the new girl at the mayor's house". This provides the player a kind of insight into her origins: Kairi is not a native of the Destiny Islands, and is the adoptive daughter of their mayor.

Kairi later becomes very close friends with Sora and Riku who playfully compete for her attention. She often supports these competitions, although she does not know they were contests for her affection and not just innocent rivalry. She claims to have no memory of her life before the Islands, and her mysterious past sparks curiosity in Sora and Riku, who are anxious to leave 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, and 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 the game's driving force, as much of the game's story centers around Sora's and Riku's attempts at finding Kairi. 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, when 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 once again over Kairi.

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 People's Hearts 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.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

Although Kairi did not directly appear in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, she did play a very important role. She served as a constant figure of light for both Sora and Riku and fervently awaited their return on Destiny Islands.

In Sora's journey, Marluxia ordered Naminé to take Kairi's place in Sora's heart. However, Naminé says later on that she could never really replace Kairi and that she is only Kairi's shadow. Kairi's image shows up at Destiny Islands when Sora remembers that the one he holds dear to his heart is Kairi, not Naminé. When Sora is about to go to sleep, Naminé tells him that if he remembers "the one most important to him" his memories will restore faster, so Sora looks deep into his heart and finds Kairi.

In Riku's journey, Zexion torments Riku with an illusion of Kairi, as well as with illusions of Tidus, Selphie, Wakka, and Sora. However, Naminé takes Kairi's form to help Riku control the light and darkness in his heart before the final face-off with the devious Nobody.

In the credits for Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, Kairi is shown to still be waiting for Sora and Riku's return.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

During this time, Kairi is assumed to be living a normal life on Destiny Islands where she is waiting for Riku and Sora's return, though her memories of Sora have probably become vague due to Naminé's interference with Sora's and her memories. With the two of them away, her only company becomes Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka.

Xion is an imperfect Replica of Roxas created from Sora's leaked memories as a fail-safe in case both Sora and Roxas proved to be useless to Organization XIII's plans. She takes the visible form of Kairi, since Sora's memories of Kairi were the strongest ones when she was created.

Roxas sees a memory of Kairi during a mission in Destiny Islands and remarks that she looks like Xion.

Kingdom Hearts II

Kairi, now fifteen years old, lives her life normally on Destiny Islands. She attends school regularly along with her friend Selphie and has noticeably aged, having longer hair and more defined features. It can be assumed that she has spent most of her time focusing on her studies, thinking about the boy she's forgotten, and hanging out with Selphie, Wakka, and Tidus - all of whom have returned to Destiny Islands safely. She's also become slightly more withdrawn because of Sora's absence, with wisdom beyond her years. She's not as brash and bold as she was in the first game, but she's still pretty sociable. She understands that both Riku and Sora have great destinies and duties to fulfill, but that still doesn't keep her from pondering taking action and searching for them on her own.

She misses Sora, but most of her memories of him have faded away because of Naminé's interfering with his own memories. One day, while walking home from school with Selphie, her heart is put into contact with a young boy named Roxas, later revealed to be Sora's Nobody. It appeared that Roxas was trying to contact Naminé, Kairi's Nobody, and ended up reaching her instead.

During this conversation, Roxas brings up Sora, and, when Kairi inquires about his name, Sora himself, despite being in stasis, somehow uses Roxas as a conduit to talk to her, chastises her for forgetting his name, and jokingly gives her a hint ("Starts with an 'S'!"). Soon afterwards, Kairi sends a letter in a bottle out to sea in hopes that it would reach Sora one day, and immediately remembers his name and possibly everything else about him ("Starts with an 'S'... Right, Sora?").

• It is worth noting that this was the only conversation Kairi and Roxas had throughout the whole game.

Kingdom Hearts coded

During a flashback that Data-Riku or Data-Roxas had shown to Data-Sora, Kairi appears alongside Riku in Neverland.

After Mickey sends his letter to Sora. Sora, Riku, and Kairi read it, and Sora prepares to leave to meet Mickey.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance

Kairi appeared in the trailer for this game, seen sitting next to Sora near the paopu tree. She also made an appearance in the Jump Festa trailer along with Naminé.

Sora sees an illusion of Kairi when traveling in The World That Never Was, when being reminded of his friends.

In the secret ending, Yen Sid sends Riku to bring Kairi to the Mysterious Tower. Yen Sid states she can wield a Keyblade and needs to talk to her, leaving confusion on Riku and Mickey as to why. In actuality, he wants to begin training Kairi in combat so that they can complete the 7 defending Lights army and so she can defend herself from the newly revived Organization XIII, who Yen Sid believes are trying to capture the 7 Princesses of Heart to create the X-blade.

Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-

Kairi appears at Yen Sid's tower, set immediately after the events of Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. She stands with Mickey and Riku and listens to the flow of conversation between the other three for the most part. When the matter of her training as a Keyblade wielder is brought up, Yen Sid reveals to her that she will be training with the wizard, Merlin alongside Lea.

Personality

Kairi is caring, kind-hearted and brave. She is determined and courageous when someone cares is in danger, as she always puts in danger to help Sora when it is in trouble despite the dangers. Kairi's heart is said to be filled with pure light and goodness, despite the darkness and evil that resides in almost every heart. good heart full of pure light Kairi helped bring Sora back to his true form when it was consumed by the Heartless, and Sora and Riku brought back to the Destiny Islands when they were trapped in the kingdom of darkness after their battle with Xemnas.

Kairi is also very charismatic, friends quickly Hayner, Pence and Olette in Twilight Town before being kidnapped by Axel. She is usually always very cheerful and optimistic. Although she has no chance to defend themselves in combat as Sora and Riku, she is very courageous and strong will, and you will endanger anyway to help his friends. Unfortunately, this sometimes results in its bailout needed for Sora. Towards the end of the Kingdom Hearts II, is finally obtained a Keyblade of his own given to her by Riku and helps Sora and Riku fight against the organization. He is currently assigned with Master Yen Sid to start training with his Keyblade.

In contrast to Sora and Riku, who were both bothered by not knowing the hometown of Kairi, he took it in stride and was able to look at the positive aspects of living in Destiny Islands. She is faithful, and she can be quite stubborn at times.

While the bond of friendship between Sora, Riku and Kairi is very strong, Sora and Kairi seem to be especially close to each other. This is evidenced by the fact that Kairi was shown to be the most special person in the heart of Sora in Chain of Memories , and that their bond was strong enough to recognize Kairi Sora fit without heart Kingdom Hearts .

Appearance

Kairi's appearance shows the most growth with aging of the trio of main characters. Kairi has auburn hair, blue eyes, a pale complexion, and a necklace with a silver bead that is only absent when she wears her school uniform.

At age 14, during the events of Kingdom Hearts, she wears a white top with a black one underneath (the black one shows at her collarbone and at the hem) which slightly exposes her navel, purple biker shorts underneath a purple skirt with a blue belt, and white slip-on shoes with purple caps. She also features a black choker, a yellow wristband as well as a purple arm band on her left arm and a pair of bracelets on her right arm.

In Kingdom Hearts II, Kairi is taller, her hair is longer and has become a darker shade of auburn, her bangs part to the opposite side, and her body has developed into that of a young woman.

She dons two outfits in Kingdom Hearts II: her school uniform which features a white shirt of which she has rolled up the sleeves, a sky blue striped tie which she has slightly loosen up, a matching skirt with navy knee-high stockings and black shoes; and then her main outfit which mainly contains a pink strapless mini-dress made up of three zippers (two appear to be just decorative) as well as a white halter top underneath her mini-dress with a black hood. She also sports three bracelets on her left wrist, a black belt reminiscent of suspenders with a note book shaped bag attachment, and lilac sneakers with black laces.

In Dead Fantasy, she retains her appearance in Kingdom Hearts II and when she transforms into her Valor Form, her mini dress became red and her halter top is black and her lilac sneakers became red and white.

In the preview of Dead Fantasy VIII, her outfit was updated only the straps on her halter top has white bows at the edge. She calmly removes her pink mini dress and black suspenders as her white halter top is revealed to be connected with a short skirt that reaches through her left knee and white short shorts and her lilac sneakers became white high-heeled boots.

As a child, as seen during Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and scenes from Kingdom Hearts, her hair is a little longer than it is when she's 14; she wears a white apron-like shirt with blue flowers and a blue line across the chest, a pink skirt with a white line on it and large, white shoes with pink and purple lines on them.

Skills

Powers as a Princess heart

Because Kairi is a Princess heart, his heart does not have the darkness inside, leading to the birth of one Namine when he gives accidentally Sora, who later sacrificed himself to restore his heart . If his lost heart, his body will remain in a dormant state until you return, as revealed in the first game, when his heart was lost.

• Like the other princesses, she has the power to open the Final Keyhole to Kingdom Hearts in Hollow Bastion once they have been collected with the rest of the princesses. This could be considered as the main power of the princesses.
• Kairi also seems to have some kind of latent magical ability, as seen when he manages to restore Sora, humanity, become a Heartless. However, it could imply that she is only able to restore him because they share the strongest connection.
• Since the other Princesses of Heart have the ability to retain the darkness and updating powers of other people, it is no doubt that Kairi can do the same.
• Aqua cast a spell on Kairi in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep so that if he were ever caught by darkness, its light would have brought to the light of another. In an interview, Tetsuya Nomura has stated that it was this fascination which led to Kairi Destiny Islands.
• It also has the ability to sense the darkness, like the other Princesses of Heart are able to tell Sora of a great darkness nearby. It may also imply why she was looking bad when the Islands fate has been devoured by the darkness before disappearing.
• In the manga, according to Axel, Kairi is able to travel through the dark corridor, without any negative effect because she is a princess of hearts.