Sora, Riku and Kairi.
"Huuh, Luca? No, never heard of him." The taller boy quickly said.
"Really?" Questioned Kairi.
"Yup." Answered the tall kid.
"Why did the other kid step back when I asked that then?" Pointed out Kairi.
"Ah, my friend.. Luke.. Pescatrice, similar names, you know, don't you think it makes sense he'd be surprised by a stranger searching for him?" The kid said tilting his head and crossing his arms with a smug expression.
"Alberto…" Said "Luke".
"So, could you leave us alone? Luke and me has great plans for today." Stated the kid, apparently named Alberto.
"Fine, but first, can I do one thing?" Requested Kairi.
"Besides suddenly grabbing my friend and bringing him with you, I guess." He answered.
"Thanks, then… Water!" Exclaimed Kairi, suddenly summoning her Keyblade and casting the spell at the duo.
As the three of them were pretty close to each other, the small water explosion got all the kids, transforming them.
Afterwards, Kairi saw how the tall kid was a blue and purple sea creature, and the smaller one a green and blue creature… just like the mother said.
"You are Luca, aren't you?" Asked the pink sea monster.
"Ah! What's wrong with you, stupido? Exclaimed Alberto.
"Excuse me…?" Kairi answered, crossing her arms.
"That was… really awesome! I never saw something like that, and you can throw water out of it!?" Luca excitedly exclaimed.
"Magic." The wielder answered, waving her hands, mysteriously.
"Amazing…" the kid said in awe… until he did a double take and realized that obviously, he was in his true form now.
"Huh, oh no… wait!" He said, stepping back.
"Can you tell me why you ran from home? Well, swam, then ran." Asked the princess.
"I can explain. I can't go back, my parents will send me to the depths of the ocean as punishment for being in the surface!" Luca explained, worried.
"The… depths? Wait, the underwater village wasn't that far from the surface, wouldn't someone from there going to the very depths be potentially hurt?" She wondered.
"You know, she makes a good point there, you could have told that to your parents." Stated Alberto.
"I couldn't really think about that, I had just meet my transparent uncle from the depths and had to punch him in the… heart, and I had to go away!" Complained his friend.
"And I guess you make a good point too." Alberto agreed.
"Huh, anyway. I always wanted to know what was in the surface, see it with my own eyes, instead of just dreaming about it in my head, and my parents want to take it away from me!" Kept explaining Luca.
The girl looked at the young boy… he was going to be punished, just because he wanted to see what was out there… Kairi found that, unacceptable.
"… They can't do that, it's not fair." She stated.
"You… actually agree?" The kid asked, hopeful.
"I do…"
Suddenly, Kairi remembered when she was at Destiny Islands, sitting on the Paopu fruit with younger Sora and Riku.
"So, my parents said that it was perfectly fine for me to go on the raft we'll make, and leave this place, as long as I just grow up a bit. You see? I told you they wouldn't say no." Riku said.
"I still have to ask my mom… I'm not really sure what her answer is gonna be…" Kid Sora said worried, with his arms crossed in thought.
"You still have not asked? Are you scared? I thought you were braver than that." Teased Riku, as usual.
"I'm not scared! If I was, I wouldn't want to explore the ocean and other places with you two, right?" He argued back.
Kairi didn't say anything in that moment- The mayor, his adopted father… just said yes very quickly, his words were in her mind.
"You want to leave? … Well, of course dear, you have my permission."
"Wait, really?"
"Yes… When you first came here, I was told in a note, to let you go if you ever requested to leave this "world"."
Kairi was wondering about the strange note, of the use of "world", when she heard Riku talk again.
"And, even if they didn't allow us… so what? Can they actually just keep us trapped on this place? I say that we have the right to leave and search for the place we want." The kid said, staring at the horizon… at the sky.
The flashback ended, when Kari heard the two sea kids talking.
"Is she broken? I think you broke her. Can you unbreak her too?" Asked Alberto.
"I don't think she's broken, maybe she is just dreaming awake, like I do." Answered his friend.
"Huh? Oh, sorry, I was remembering some stuff from the past." She apologized.
"That's fine, huh… I don't think we got your name?"
"Oh, I'm Kairi." She presented herself.
"Kairi… what?" Questioned Alberto.
"What do you mean, "what"? She asked.
"Well, what is your last name? You know, people usually has one." He answered.
"My last name? It is… It's… I, have no idea…" She realized.
"You, don't have a last name?" Asked the taller boy.
"I probably do… but I cannot remember it." She slowly answers.
"Oook, this got a bit weird." Alberto stated.
"Ye, huh, so… Are you planning to make something that can help you go far away and explore?" Asked the girl.
The boys looked at her in surprise for some seconds.
"Yes, you are right, wow. We were just planning to go to the human city, meet the signor Vespa… and ask him to make the best Vespa ever for us to ride on!" Explained Luca.
"A Vespa? What is that?" Asks Kairi.
Alberto points to a poster in the wall, which had a person riding on a vehicle with two wheels, that kinda was like a bicycle, and the words "Vespa è Libertà" over it.
"When signor Vespa gives us our new Vespa… we'll be truly free." Luca said with a hopeful expression.
Kairi laughed for a second.
"Sorry, this really reminds me of something… and also, in such case, how about I help you to get your Vespa?" Proposed Kairi.
"You'd do it!?" Exclaimed Luca.
"Huuh, I honestly think we are fine, thanks." Refused Alberto.
"Alberto, have you seen what she can do? It's awesome!" Complained Luca.
Seeing the excitement of his friend, Alberto sighed.
"Fine, she can come, but, I don't think Vespas have space for 3 persons." Accepted the boy.
"Don't worry, I'm just going to help you get one." She assured.
"Sounds good to me, and now that everything is fine… I'm Alberto Scorfano, piacere, girolamo, trombetta." Alberto officially presented himself, shaking Kairi's hand.
"What does that mean?" She asked.
"And this here is my friend, Luca Paguro." Proceeded Alberto, seemingly, ignoring her question.
"It's good to meet you, Kairi!" The kid happily said.
"Now, let's get going?" Said Alberto.
After the introductions, the trio climbed down the tower, and walked towards a cliff in the island, Alberto jumped off it, reaching the water, next was Luca, and Kairi could tell that he was nervous, but he sighed and jumped down to the water too, and finally, the wielder jumped down.
Underwater, the three kids has turned back into their sea forms, and began to swim towards the town that Kairi saw from her ship and the island, and they were moving at a good speed, after some minutes, Alberto had suddenly picked up a lot of speed, and jumped out of the water, extending his arms and legs and turning back to human for a second, before going back into the water.
Luca smiled at that, and tried to do the same, jumping out of the water and extending his members as he turned human… but he quickly hit the water and bounced on the surface a bit, before going back below. Kairi laughed a bit, and picked up a lot of speed, for then jump out of the water the highest, and did several spins mid air, turning back to her normal form as she spins, for then fall back into the water with a big splash.
The trio of kids were enjoying the trip a lot… until suddenly a harpoon crashed on a rock next to them.
"Ah! The land monsters already found us!" Panicked the green monster.
"Luca, Alberto, stay away! Those are another kind of monsters." Kairi said, seeing some Harpooners swimming down to them alongside a group of Sea Neons, the friends did as told, and began to swim away.
And then, Kairi saw above her, and barely dodged a big fireball that was heading towards her. She looked at the surface to see what made it, and saw a boat, she swims upwards and reaches the water's surface… to see a new Heartless.
Apparently a steamboat, this black boat had a few harpooners on the deck alongside some blue Rhapsodies, but the boat itself was the thing, it had 2 small cannons, one on each side, a decently sized red wheel in the front, and the steam… seemed to make some angry face? And the steam face changed expressions, as the steam turned red, and a fireball came from the pipe, going very high up, and then fall down, aimed at the pink monster, who dodged it again.
"Boats? One never truly sees every type of Heartless it seems." Kairi stated as she summoned Sorcerer's Squire.
Now, this Heartless group was rather large with a good amount of Harpooners, some Sea Neons, a few Rhapsodies, and the steamboat, which Kairi decided to name… Boiling Point, to make things easier.
Two Harpooners swims towards her, trying to poke Kairi, but her Barrier didn't allow it. Then came the ranged enemies, the Harpooners began to throw lasers from their weapon, and the Rhapsodies threw small Blizzards, Kairi decided to dodge around the lasers, and blocked the Blizzards, sending them back and slightly stunning the casters.
The Boiling Point made a sound like that of boiling water, the red wheel was slightly covered in fire as it began to quickly spin, sending waves of very hot water towards Kairi, even underwater, she began to swim away, before thinking on something, and turning back to cast a Blizzard on the hot water, making it normal again.
Meanwhile, the Sea Neons had managed to swim close to her, and began to quickly spin to hit her, Kairi is smacked around a bit by the spinning strikes, but she retaliated with Aerora to gather the jellyfish around, and finish them off with Thundara.
"Now, I think Magic is just overall going to be the most effective thing here… so maybe Merlin can help me." She said to herself.
The pink sea monster closed her eyes for two seconds, letting her Heart connect to Merlin… and then, she felt a surge of magic inside her, and also more energy as the Link healed her.
"My magic… it feels, different!" She exclaimed.
A group of three Harpooners came towards her, she casted a Blizzard… and was surprised when instead, many smaller Blizzards were casted, though instead of a projectile, it was several short range ones that hit in an area in front of her, dealing high damage to the Heartless trio.
Kairi started to realize what was happening, she saw some Rhapsodies up at the surface, and she swam up there, jumping out of the water, as she casted Fire, which this time, was far faster, and allowed to cast in rapid fire, melting the ice wizards.
The steam face of the Boiling Point was hot red now, as it threw a fireball high up, and then aimed its cannons towards Kairi, firing several slow cannonballs towards the pink fish, she was easily able to block them… but got caught off guard by the quick falling fire.
Then, Kairi proceeded to quickly swim towards the boat, and started to strike the left cannon with her Keyblade, for then do a Blizzara, this one point blank, so all the Blizzards hit the Heartless, dealing very high damage.
The steam face turned a deep red now, as the wheel got fully covered in fire, and the boat began to move around, trying to ram on Kairi, she went underwater, but the wheel made hot water waves below the water so Kairi isn't fully safe there either. After some charges, the wheel fully stopped and turned off, and Kairi took that chance, and fired an array of Thunder around her, destroying the Heartless.
Water Slide!
Summon Water below you, to quickly propel you towards enemies at a short-mid distance at any direction, including above and below.
Kairi sighed of relief after the fight, and threw a Potion above herself to heal the mostly small wounds she got from this encounter.
"Are you alright you two?" Kairi asked, looking around for Luca and Alberto, but not seeing them.
"They must have managed to reach the town by themselves, I better go there too." She assumed, and began to swim towards the now closer town.
She eventually got close to the shore, where she saw a fisherman, fishing, and based on Luca's previous "land monsters" scream, she assumed being seen like this wouldn't be good, so she went to the other side of the shore, and jumped with a spin, the spinning drying her so that she was now human when she landed.
"Ok, now, where are you two?" Kairi asked, as she started to walk towards the town.
Author's note: I'm really sorry about the wait for this one, writer's block got me quite well, and I couldn't write much for a while, but at least for now the block has ended, and I should be able to post more consistently.