Right Forward

A Kingdom Hearts Oneshot

A/N: Hey so I just finished KH3 after 13 years of waiting and I have a lot of thoughts and feelings to work out. Some parts of the game I really enjoyed while other parts, like ahem the treatment of my favorite character, left much to be desired. Rather than dissect what really made me mad though, I for some reason wrote this.

What I wish happened when Sora went to go save Riku because all three of them are best friends dangit

Kairi felt a sharp tug at her heart and froze. She pushed back on her keyblade and with a growl she sent Axel back a few feet. He grunted and raised his keyblade with a deadly grin in return.

"Wait." She commanded. "Something's wrong."

He dismissed his keyblade in an instant. He approached slowly, his hands raised in concern.

"Are you hurt? I thought that one strike was a little hard."

"No, it's not me. And it's not hurt. It's more like-" Kairi closed her eyes and focused on her heart. "Sora, he's worried." Usually when she reached out to Sora lately she felt a little bit of frustration and a lot of excitement. This was different. Even though Sora was one of the most empathetic people she knew, there were very few things, people, who could get him this worked up. She was fine. That left Riku.

She looked at the keyblade in her hands. It was a part of her now, as natural as when Sora swung the Kingdom Key back when she was in his heart- if not more so. Her magic had certainly improved. From instinctual light to more focused, deliberate spells. She'd worked hard to become the warrior she was today.

Time to put her training to use.

"I don't suppose you can use a Dark Corridor?" Kairi asked, still inspecting the deadly flowers on her weapon. For something so delicate looking they packed quite the clobbering power. She swung her keyblade with a satisfying swoosh.

"Probably not." Axel took another step. "Why? Where do you need to be?"

"Oh," Kairi laughed tightly, "I need to go help Sora rescue Riku. Seems like the boys forgot to invite me to the trouble again."

"Well, to be fair you are supposed to be off the roster." He caught her expression, "but really they should know better."

"Sora never has time to wait and Riku still likes to pretend he's all cool." She shook her head fondly. "One follows his heart and the other overthinks. That's why they'd never last long without me."

"How come?" He tilted his head, catching the mood with amusement.

Memories of days spent on a sandy beach came to her. Races and competitions, rules and judging. Spelling out quite clearly when Riku had gone too far. Reminding Sora that lazing the entire day away was boring. Listening to their fears and swearing to protect one another.

"Because," she grinned, "I'm the one with common sense."

And like anyone with a great deal of common sense she pointed her keyblade, away from Axel of course, and told it to take her to Sora. Surely that wasn't reckless at all. It'd be silly to waste time telling Merlin and requesting what she needed. She trusted her heart.

"Whoa!" Axel flinched away from the magic. "What are you-"

She supposed the lights looked somewhat like a portal. Or something. She doubted it'd obliterate her if she touched it. To make sure, she stepped forward and stuck her pinky through. It was oddly warm like a sunbeam.

"You're just gonna go into the light. Sure. Why not."

"They need me."

"…Yeah. Ok." He shook his head. His hair bounced impressively for the amount of hairgel the follicles contained. "Heh. By the time you get back I'm gonna keyblade circles around you."

"Not a verb, Axel." She placed a foot into the light. She didn't look back. "Anyways, I think I'm done with training." And with her heart turning into an excited drummer in a metal song, she left.

Immediately, her feet were met with less solid terrain. Perhaps someone else would have wobbled at the unannounced transition. But, Kairi was an island girl and sand felt more natural than the detritus of the forest. Also she looked around, she had to admit she hadn't expected to wind up here again so soon.

Ah! There was the trio. Sora gaped at her, his mouth wide open. She snorted. This was the first time she'd seen his new magic outfit as well. Plaid must be in this season. Donald and Goofy looked surprised but not as comical.

"Kairi?" Sora was standing by an unfamiliar door closing off the secret place. Either this was a magical door or she was having a firm talk with Wakka. "How did you-"

"Sora." She cut him off calmly before he could spiral off. She gave it a second for her smile to ease him a little. "I know Riku needs our help."

"He's in the realm of darknesss." Sora looked down. "Something's caused him and the king trouble. It's really dangerous."

"Sora was trying to go by himself." Donald grumbled.

"That won't do." Kairi ran up to Sora and grabbed his hand. His eyebrows raised while his eyes flicked from her, to Donald and Goofy. She giggled at his slight blush. "You know I'm coming."

She could tell he wanted to argue. He always did. He worried way too much for such a ball of sunshine. Kairi's grin flashed teeth and she squeezed his hand a little bit tighter. Sora knew she wasn't going to be left behind as much as she knew he'd never abandon his friends. Their fears were known to each other so intricately that they both knew what lines could and could not be crossed.

"Mmm." Sora nodded, his face taking a serious expression.

"But Sora, isn't Kairi s'posed to be training with Merlin? You're not even s'posed to go without the Power of Waking." Goofy looked at them both with concern.

"I'll protect him." Kairi promised. "And as many times as I've helped sleepyhead over here with waking up, I know I'm the right one for the job. I don't know why we'll need it but I believe in Sora."

"But Kairi," Donald looked sad. Worried. Perhaps parental.

"I can't abandon Riku any more than I could ever leave Sora." She said with a finality that even the duck had to respect.

"Let's go then." Sora reached out to open the door.

They went together, still holding hands. Kairi found it to be a more pleasant trip than the last portal.

At least, so she though until there wasn't anything under her feet. Sora seemed content to just float down in a beam of light. Kairi punctuated their decent with a few shrieks and pulled Sora into a bear hug. Her training admittedly hadn't gotten to surviving a large fall and her memories from being with Sora didn't help her without pixie dust.

"Sora? Kairi?!" Riku looked at both of them and then shrugged. "Well. I knew you'd be there for me. Also, nice haircut."

"Did you do something different with yours too?"

"Maybe it's natural, maybe it's a heartless tornado." Riku's shoulders shook with exhaustion and his laugh came out a bit wheezy.

"Remind me to tell you guys about the wind titan." Sora readjusted his stance to prepare for combat. "There's a reason I reached for the scissors instead of a brush." They all chuckled, especially when Kairi noted his new hair style had a couple spikes that almost resembled cat ears. Then it was time to get to straight to business.

Sora pointed at what Riku had been fighting. He nodded and raised his palm. Riku caught on and Kairi watched in astonishment as a keyblade with two halves forged at their command and shot out a powerful blast of magic. She raised Destiny's Embrace and sent out light to join their assault. It was then she noticed Mickey's precarious predicament. Definitely pretty snug in that darkness before they saved him.

Kairi made a mental note to pay more attention to her surroundings. Rookie mistake. The realm of darkness though was really distracting. Its oppressive presence rolled over her like the waved on the beach. Everything was blue and different, like an inverted, flipped, and sick Destiny Island. But… she supposed it had it's charm. Apart from whatever heartless magic mass that had held Mickey, a woman stood off in the distance. Was that a keyblade? She didn't look friendly with darkness gathered around her like a fog.

Kairi adjusted her grip on her keyblade and looked at her friends.

"Ready Sora?"

He finally grinned back at her, "that's not even a question."

It was time to put her training to work.

A/N: And then Kairi was treated like a competent warrior by the rest of the narrative and eventually she smashed Xehanort in the face with her flowery keyblade. The end.