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"Dazing off again, are we?"

"I wouldn't..."

Sora opened his sleepy eyes and a yawn escaped his mouth before he looked at the redhead who was standing next to him. Her bright blue eyes looked straight at him and she smiled gently. He laid flat on the beach with his hands behind his head. There would be no decent excuse this time for being lazy...

"Ok, I might've closed my eyes a couple of seconds..."
"Like always, your seconds are way longer than the normal ones", she sat herself next to him.
"Give me a break, Kairi! After such an adventure it's almost obligated to take some powernaps!"
"Sure, if the keyblade wielder says so, but..."

Oh no, now he was in trouble, did he forget something? She always did this when he was supposed to do something instead of trailing off in the soft sand of the beach. He just couldn't figure out what he forgot, it wasn't her birthday because that's in a couple of months, party preparations maybe?

".. I'm also a keyblade wielder now; do you see me take a powernap between my practices?"

Oh, he forgot her practice... She wanted to practice with him ever since they got back to the Islands together. She wanted to be strong enough to protect herself, so that he and Riku didn't have to save her anymore. That little fragile girl from before was now more than ever a memory from the past. She became stronger, more confident AND she took lessons from the great master Yen Sid. Even Sora didn't have lessons this soon, he even failed his Mark of Mastery exam. She was just unstoppable, from the moment that she summoned her keyblade; she had been practicing 8 hours a day without complaining. Soon, she'd be better than him if he didn't practice. So he secretly practiced with Riku in the evening because now that the heartless were gone, they could only practice with each other. And now he forgot to practice with her, hopefully she wasn't too hard on him... He sat straight and wiped the sand out of his spiky brown hair with his right hand.

"I'm sorry that I wasn't in time for practice, everything is just so peaceful out here."
"So you do remember?" She smiled at him, "You're making progress then!"
He stood up and wiped the sand off his pants, "Well, we can practice here and now if you want, a nice sand beach, some decorative palm trees and a lovely blue sea, the perfect scenery for a good training!" He smiled and helped her up. She also wiped the sand off her clothes.
"That sounds great! Let's start then!"

This was going to be interesting; she summoned her keyblade and took a battle pose. With that keyblade of hers, she had obliterated many heartless. It looked as gorgeous as it was lethal... And Kairi was just perfect for it; gracious and deathly.

"Well, are you ready or not? You had enough time to nap."

She got a big smile and gave a swing on her keyblade in his direction. Sora instinctively summoned his own keyblade and blocked her attack right on time. Wow, she was fast! She got back to her battle pose.

"Now that I've got your attention, what do you think of this?"

She attacked from his left side, which he blocked, and then she hit him from the front with three following attacks. She had so much speed that Sora could only block her attacks. He had no time to attack her in return. Suddenly she jumped and attacked him from above. When did she get this good? With an inch to spare he got away, but landed in the sand when he lost his balance. She was really good. There he was, knocked in the sand by his old friend. A girl. Who would've thought that?

Kairi laid herself next to him and he couldn't help but ask: "Wow, how much did you practice lately? You jumped... and you were so fast and... Great balance by the way!"
"So you noticed? Maybe I've had a little trip to Phil at the colosseum..."
"Phil? He helped you? Wow, hold it for a second!" Sora turned himself to Kairi and put his hand under his head for support and asked: "Phil helped you?"
"Yes, he came to me saying that I had much potential. I first thought that he was mistaken, but he kept insisting. So I took his lessons. They're actually really hard..."
"Hah, Phil doesn't train everyone so I guess you're lucky to draw his attention then."
"Actually-"

Their conversation was stopped by Riku who called their names: "Hey Sora! Kairi! Check this! A letter from the king! I found it in a bottle at the beach."
Sora looked at Riku who was walking towards them, "From the king? Have you read it yet?"
"No, I thought that it concerned all three of us", said Riku, "There must be something up again."
"Another quest? This time I'm going with you guys!" said Kairi.
Riku looked at Kairi and said: "I don't see why not, you took Sora down."
"Hey! I just slipped ok? This sand is just so tricky and I was off guard."
"Ow, was that it? From a distance it looked like you got your ass kicked by a girl... Did I see it wrong? I should've paid more attention to your lazy hits..."

That Riku! Why did he put it in those words? Was he really watching the whole time?

"Well, I want to see you trying to fight her then, she's really gotten stronger, Riku! And faster too."
Riku grinned widely: "Or your footwork is just too slow."
Kairi had a small smile on her face: "Guys! Just read the letter please? We've got no time for this..."

Riku and Sora glanced at each other for a moment before turning their attention to the letter. Riku got the letter out of the bottle and when he rolled it open, there was a gummi block inside it. It looked like a star shard! Would they need to travel through the worlds again? The letter was written by the king himself and it said:

Sora, Riku & Kairi,

I'm sorry to contact you this soon,
but there's big trouble brewing.
Not sure why, but there are unversed spotted in the worlds.
And that means disaster can't be far behind.
I would like you three to go check into it.
There's someone dark who controls them,
and I need you three to find out what his goals are.
Got it?
We need to stop him or we're doomed!
So go to Hollow Bastion and find Leon.
He'll point you in the right direction.

Kairi looked at Riku while she said: "That sounds serious."

And she couldn't be more to the point. What were these unversed? A kind of heartless? Or nobodies maybe? Well, there was one way to find out and Sora couldn't help but smile: "Now we get to see the restoration committee again! Let's go and say hi to Leon!"
He took Kairi's hand and she held on to Riku's hand. Then Sora held the star shard in the air and said: "To Hollow Bastion!"
And the three of them disappeared in a flash of light.

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you liked it!