Chapter 2 - Devil of Details

That night, Sora sat at the campfire with Kairi, staring into the flames as if he could divine some answers from its depths. Kairi poked at the edges with a stick, sending sparks into the air. Donald, Goofy, and Mickey were fast asleep off to one side, the only noise from their area being that of Goofy's sleep talking.

"I'm sorry there wasn't any other way to tell you," Kairi said suddenly, making Sora jump. "I wanted to take things slowly, but the Organization attacked before I could make my move."

Sora grunted his assent. "Kairi, can you tell me what happened?"

"Of course. The last time I saw Riku… I mean, the only time I've seen Riku since you sealed Kingdom Hearts… was about a year ago. It was just before the Organization captured him. I think… I was one of the last people to see him before then…"

Kairi hit the beach after her morning training, taking a break before her afternoon training was scheduled to start. It wasn't the beach she'd played on as a kid; she never went back to that island anymore. The beach she walked along was the beach on the main island, the sand a little more coarse there than anywhere else on the islands.

Looking around, she saw a black coated figure standing in the sand ahead of her, just close enough to the water that the tide was lapping lazily against their black boots. Instantly suspicious, she walked over as quietly as the sand would allow, fists at the ready.

"Who are you?" she asked, trying to hide all of her nervousness.

The black coated person turned. "It's been a long time, Kairi." Reaching up slowly, they pushed the hood of the coat back.

Kairi couldn't see his eyes because of the blindfold, but she'd recognize the mess of straight silvery hair anywhere. "Riku!"

Riku's smile was so faint that she almost missed it. "Yes. I don't have time to waste, so I'll get straight to the point."

"What did he want?" Sora asked.

"He wanted to talk to me."

"To talk? That's all? Haven't you been home yet?"

He didn't respond to her questions. "Kairi, there are some things I have to explain to you about what's happened over the last three years. These things are related to Sora, so listen carefully."

"Sora?" she gasped, feeling the air leave her lungs, "What happened to Sora? Where is he?"

"Let me start from the beginning. After Sora sealed the door to Kingdom Hearts, he entered the Realm of In Between, a place between light and darkness."

"Is that where we are now?"

She nodded. "The Realm of In Between is one of four Realms: the Realm of Light, where we're from; the Realm of Darkness; the Realm of In Between; and the Realm of Nothingness."

"Traveling in the Realm of In Between, Sora was drawn to one of the worlds that exist in it; a place called Castle Oblivion," Riku continued, "When Sora arrived in the castle, I was drawn there to him."

Kairi folded her arms. "Why was Sora drawn there?"

"He was drawn there by you, Kairi."

"Wait a second…" Sora interrupted, "I kind of remember a castle. A big white one."

"That's Castle Oblivion."

"You've been there?"

Kairi smiled. "Yes. Only once, after you left."

"Why?"

"He was drawn there by me?" Kairi asked, "But I've never been there!"

"He was drawn there because of your presence, not actually by you. Just someone with your presence; your Nobody."

"Nobody?"

"Nobodies are what's left behind when a person becomes a Heartless. The heart leave the body, and the body and soul are left behind. When a person has a really strong heart, the body and soul form a Nobody, a being without a heart."

Sora blinked, thinking. "So, how do you have a Nobody?"

"When you released my heart from your body, it created a Nobody of me."

"Does that mean I have a Nobody too?"

She smiled. "Probably."

"So, my Nobody was in Castle Oblivion, and Sora was drawn there by her?"

"Yes. Naminé's presence brought Sora to Castle Oblivion."

"Naminé?"

Riku nodded. "That's her name. As I said, Sora was drawn to Castle Oblivion, but while he was there, the castle had a strange effect on him. I began dismantling his memories, pulling them apart. As it did this, Sora began forgetting things."

Kairi was awestruck. "The castle itself did that? How?"

"I'm not exactly sure how, but something in the castle feeds on the energy produced by breaking apart memories."

"Did it effect you like that?"

"No," he said, placing a hand on his chest. "The darkness in my heart protected me from it… When Sora reached Naminé, he remembered almost nothing. Thankfully, Naminé has the power to reassemble his memories, as she's your Nobody, and for the past three years she's been reassembling it."

"Three years!" Sora gasped, covering his mouth when he realized that he had spoken louder than he had meant to. "That's a long time."

"Well, there's a reason for that…"

"Naminé has had some problems locating all of Sora's memories, and the process of linking them all back together takes longer than you'd think. She'd link some of the pieces together only to find that she was missing some, and then she'd have to go look for those pieces…"

"Alright, alright, I get the point. Three years is a long time, though…" Kairi mused. "But, does that mean Naminé is finished?"

"Just about. Sora will wake up in a few days without any memory of what happened in Castle Oblivion. In the mean time, however, he's not exactly safe, and he needs to be protected until he can fully recover."

"Protected? From what?"

"Organization XIII, right? They're the ones after me?"

Kairi nodded, poking at the fire again. "Organization XIII is very strong right now. They're much too large a group to handle with the forces that we have."

"Which is… how big?"

"What you see here," she gestured around them, "and Riku."

Sora chuckled sheepishly. "I'm sorry I asked. Anyway, Kairi, what do you know about Organization XIII?"

"Organization XIII is group of Nobodies. They're very careful about how they move, so I haven't found out much about them, but I do know that each of the members fall into strict criteria set out by their leader. All of them have special abilities, command large groups of lesser Nobodies, and carry unique weapons suited to them."

Kairi clenched her fists. "And they're after Sora? Why?"

"One of the members of the Organization wields a Keyblade. Organization XIII needs a Keyblade for their goals, though I don't know what that goal is. I've been protecting Sora from them by leading them away from Castle Oblivion, but I can only protect him so much when he's back out in the open. His Majesty is doing his best to help, but…"

"There's a limit to what you can do," she finished, "One thing I don't get. If the Organization needs a Keyblade, wouldn't they be wise to try and add Keyblades to their arsenal?"

Riku gave her another faint smile. "A smart move, but not possible, and for a couple reasons. First, their Keyblade wielder is apparently very uncooperative. Second, they know that Sora would never willingly help him. They might have been able to get him if they had interrupted the memory restoration process, but now that it's too late, they have only one option."

"They want to kill me!" Sora shouted, covering his mouth again. Goofy chuckled in his sleep, but nothing else happened.

"They want to remove the possibility that you might interfere with their plans. More than one Keyblade in the mix will cause complications."

"With two, there'd definitely be problems," he mused, crossing his arms. "And there are already three if you include His Majesty."

Kairi nodded. "And more than that would be even worse…"

"There's someone else with a Keyblade?" Sora asked, looking at her.

"There is. I have one."

"I have a Keyblade? But… where did it come from?" Kairi asked, more skeptical than before. "And how come I didn't know about it?"

"I'm not exactly sure of the details, but you have a Keyblade. You probably don't recall receiving it, and you haven't had an opportunity or a need to call on it, especially with Sora and his Keyblade around."

"So, if I have a Keyblade, I can call it whenever I like?" Holding her hands out in front of her, Kairi concentrated, trying to imagine what a Keyblade was like and how she was going to summon hers. She concentrated so hard that her head started to hurt.

To her surprise, Riku laughed. "It's not as easy as it seems, Kairi. Give it time. You'll understand eventually."

Sora chuckled. "Can you summon it now? Can I see it?"

"Sure." Holding out her hand, a bright flash of light appeared and vanished and Kairi had her Keyblade. The shaft was sunset pattered and the teeth were various kinds of flowers. The hilt was split into two designs, a crashing wave on one side and a strip of sandy beach on the other. The keychain was a Paopu, the yellow fruit held there by a long piece of red silk.

"Wow. That's amazing, Kairi! When did you learn to summon it?"

"It's a bit of a story in itself, so I'll save that for another time."

"Well, that's mostly everything I came here to tell you."

Kairi blinked. "Then, you're leaving already?"

"Yes. I have to prepare for when Sora wakes up."

"You… can't stay a little longer?" she asked, trying not to sound like she was begging and failing miserably.

He walked over and rested a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, Kairi. I know we've been away for a long time, but I'll make sure Sora comes back."

"Make sure both of you come back, Riku. I want to see both of my best friends together again."

He didn't say anything for a while. She was starting to worry that she'd said something wrong when he nodded. "I promise. This will be over soon, and when it is, we'll come back."

"Riku…" she started, but he was already turning away. She reached out and grabbed his sleeve, holding him back. "Are you… sure I can't come with you?"

"My transport is only for one. Sorry."

"It's alright. I'm the one who's sorry. I shouldn't have asked."

Riku turned back, and she could almost see his eyes beneath the blindfold. "You're not doing anything wrong. We're the ones who are being unreasonable, leaving you like this. I'll bring us together again, I swear."

"That was it. After that, he left," Kairi muttered, tossing her stick into the fire. "Sometime after that, His Majesty came to tell me that Riku had been captured, and I begged him to let me help. I couldn't sit around while both of you were in danger. I just couldn't…"

Sora gave her a smile. "Don't worry, Kairi. We'll rescue Riku, together."

"I know. I know that, Sora, but I can't help but feel that everything is much worse than we think it is. The Organization is powerful, powerful enough to capture Riku, powerful enough to want to hunt you down… What if we can't win?"

"We'll win. I'm sure of it. If Organization XIII is hunting me down, then I'm strong enough to be a threat to them, right? With all of use fighting against them, we can beat them. I know we can."

Kairi stared at him for a minute before she smiled and broke out into laughter. "You haven't changed a bit, Sora. Actually, that makes me happy. I was worried that I would see you again and you would have changed completely."

"What do you mean?" he asked, giving her a questioning look.

"Nothing, nothing," she muttered quickly, putting out the fire. "Good night, Sora." She shifted over in the grass and lay down in her side, back to him.

Sora stared at her for a moment before he shrugged and lay down. 'A lot has happened, and I've missed it. I have to catch up on everything, especially with Kairi, and I have to save Riku.' He smiled, closing his eyes. 'Looks like I've got a lot to do before I can go home again…'