"What the heck is that?!" Donald yelled out in confusion at the giant beast swimming(?) in the endless space around them.
"It's a giant whale!" Goofy responded now panicked.
" It's Monstro! He's a whale of a whale, and vicious besides!" Jiminy jumped onto Kairi's shoulder to get a better look at the situation.
Monstro came back around, opening his mouth directly towards the Gummi ship.
"Whoa! Kairi, get us out of here!" Donald
"Too late! He's going to swallow us!"
They all screamed together as they were swallowed by the whale, figured, the one time Donald let her drive the ship...
"WAh!"
Sora looked back at her, dropping the rock he was holding in his hand. He grasped his chest as he calmed his breathing, then turning back towards her with an annoyed expression.
"Kairi! You scared me!"
"..."
"Mmmmmm." Sora pouted in annoyance. "You can stay in me and Riku's secret place, but only because it's you!" He walked over to her, holing out his pinky, "You gotta promise, okay?"
She nodded, mirroring the gesture, causing Sora to smile as he then took her hand, guiding her to where he was sitting before. He then handed her a rock from a small pile that was sitting nearby.
"This stuff makes it real easy to draw on the wall, here I'll show you."
She smiled at her friend as he continued the drawing that he started earlier...
"Knock it off!"
Kairi was shocked awake by Donald's screaming, next to her was Jiminy who sighed in relief as she sat up.
"Kairi. Are you okay?" He asked jumping into the palm of her hand, and she nodded, lookig
"What's Donald yelling about? Where are we, anyway? Woah-" Suddenly, an item fell nearby almost hitting her.
"Uh, ya know, I think that big ol' whale Monstro just swallowed us. And for today's weather, expect showers." An item dropped on Goofy next, but it hit his shield. "Heavy showers!"
She giggled at his joke as the two walked to where Donald was yelling up towards someone, Jiminy now on her shoulder.
" Get down here already!" The duck demanded.
From atop the stack of wood, popped out a familiar puppet."Hiya guys. It's me."
"Oh, it's just Pinocchio. Pinocchio!?" Donald yelled as Kairi and Goofy just waved a 'hello'.
Pinocchio then walked away from them, towards a nearby boat.
"Pinocchio? Pinocc, where are you going? Pinocc! Come on, everybody! After him! Quick!" Jiminy shouted in a panic.
He remained on her shoulder as the three made their way past the driftwood towards a boat that was settled nearby. As they got closer they saw an older man with a kitten and a fish housed alongside him.
"What have you got there, Pinocchio?" The older man asked.
"With this, we can get out of here, Father." Pinocchio responded with a proud expression on his face.
"Really? With this big block? You think so?"
" It's true." Kairi responded. "But Pinocc, how did you get here?"
"My friend said that he knew where my father was, and so here I am!" He responded happily.
"Your friend?" Kairi asked curiously.
"Oh, my. So the whale swallowed all of you, too? My goodness." Pinocchio's father approached them with a sympathetic expression on his face.
Kairi looked back at her friends for a moment, before responding. "Yeah, pretty much.
Geppetto nodded understandingly. "My name is Geppetto. I'm Pinocchio's father. When we got separated, I traveled all over, looking for him and well…" He gestured towards Monstro all around them. "But thank goodness we're together again." He smiled patting his son's head affectionately, then picked up the Gummi that Pinocchio found.
"So, you seem to know Pinocchio quite well. I hope he was a good boy in my absence." Jiminy and Kairi exchanged a knowing glance. " Well, we've all had quite a journey. Right, Pinocchio? Pinocchio?"
They looked around for a moment, noticing the puppet running deeper into the whale.
"Pinocchio!" Geppetto called worriedly.
"Don't worry, we'll get him!" Donald reassured as they jumped down from the boat to follow the puppet.
"Pinocchio, what are you doing?!" Jiminy called out. "Come on, let's go back."
"You know, Geppetto's awfully worried about you." Goofy added as they began to hear the puppet's muffled giggles.
"Pinocchio, come on stop fooling around! This is no time for games!" Kairi called out.
"C'mon Kairi, since when have you been too cool for games?"
"Riku?!" Kairi looked un shock as her best friend was standing in front of Pinocchio, who had a mischievous expression on his face. "Wh-What are you doing here? You're supposed to be in Traverse town!"
"And what, miss out with playing with Pinocchio?"
"Riku!" She scolded. " It's dangerous to be outside of the town alone!"
Riku gave her a disapproving expression. "Just like Sora's alone?" She was taken aback by this, feeling a sudden rush of guilt. "Maybe if you cared about him more then he wouldn't be…" Riku's words trailed off as he avoided her now shocked expression.
"Did you find him?" She took a step forward in desperation.
Riku looked back, now with a smirk on his face. "Maybe. Catch us and maybe I'll tell you what I know. "Riku grabbed Pinocchio's arm, taking him deeper inside of the whale.
"Wait!"
"C'mon, we have to go after them!" Jiminy exclaimed, to which the trio nodded, with Goofy picking up the cricket in his hands as they ran after Riku.
As they verged deeper into Monstro, Kairi found Riku waiting for them with Pinocchio unconscious sitting nearby.
"Riku! What's the matter with you? What are you thinking? Don't you realize what you're doing?" Kairi reasoned angrily as she glared at her friend.
"I was about to ask you the same thing. You only seem interested in running around and showing off that Keyblade these days."
"You're not being fair!" Kairi retorted as she glared at her friend.
Suddenly, the ground began to rumble, as a giant heartless swallowed the puppet, now trapped in a cage. Riku summoned his weapon, as Kairi jumped to his side, summoning her weapon much to her friend's amusement.
"You up for this?"
"No problem. Just keep up." She said sharply in annoyance, but couldn't avoid the feeling of relief she felt standing by his side.
"Hmph." Riku smirked with a smile on his face, the two jumping towards the heartless, weapons drawn.
...
...
After the fight, Parasite Cage released Pinocchio who fell into a pit that opened from under them, with Riku following without a second thought.
"Riku-" Kairi called out, but was too late. She gripped the weapon in her hand, fighting the urge to stamp her foot like a child. Her friend walked to her side before all three jumped in together.
They ended up where they started, only with a more grim sight awaiting them.
"Pinocchio! Pinocchio! Please! Give me back my son!" Geppetto called out in desperation.
Riku held holding Pinocchio under his arm, unconscious. " Sorry, old man. I have some unfinished business with this puppet."
"He's no puppet! Pinocchio is my little boy!"
"He is unusual. Not many puppets have hearts. I'm not sure, but maybe he can help someone who's lost theirs."
Wait a sec.
Kairi's eyes widened is realization, "Riku, is this about Sora?!"
He smirked, and turned away, jumping off.
"Riku, wait!"
But he paid her no mind got away running away again as the four followed him.
Jiminy ran ahead in a panic. Shouting for his friend "Pinocc, Pinocchio!" Growing more frantic with every yell. He finally lowered his head in defeat, realizing that his friend was nowhere in sight.
"Jiminy!" The cricket didn't respond to Kairi's voice from behind catching up. " You shouldn't run off like that. The heartless are everywhere."
"I'm sorry, Kairi. It's just… I'm Pinocchio's conscious, I'm suppose to guide and help shim get his wish granted."
"Wish?"
"Yeah, the Blue fairy asked me to be his conscious then once he learns how to be a good boy then she'll make him real. But Pinocc's still little, so I've got to be the one to teach him from right and wrong, Except, I haven't been doing that, all I've going is running around while he was alone in Traverse Town."
"Jiminy, you can't blame yourself, you would never hurt your friend would you? "
"Gosh no."
"Of course not, you were only doing what you thought was right."
Jiminy sighed removing his hat, "I thought that by helping the king then maybe I could help find Pinocc's world. So I thought he'd be safe in Traverse town but it looks like I was wrong"
Kairi lowered her head at the mention of the town.
The cricket picked up on this, jumping onto her shoulder, patting it apologetically, " 'M awful sorry Kairi, taking about Riku like he's some sort of villain."
Kairi shook her head,"It's funny but Riku's always been driven like this. Me and him would mess around with Sora, playing pranks and getting him all annoyed. But he's different now."
"Different?"
"We should be working together to find Sora, but all he's doing is messing around and picking on others."
"Sounds like we're in the same boat here, or, whale, more like."
Kairi chuckled, "Okay, no more feeling sorry for ourselves, now we have to find our friends and lecture the heck out of them!"
"Riku!" Kairi jumped first, now angry as Riku stood before her with Pinocchio lain to the side. "What are you doing?!" She yelled out as Jiminy hurried towards his friend.
" A puppet that's lost its heart to the heartless, maybe, it holds the key to finding his..."
"What?" She like looked at him in concern at the mention of their friend. It had been so long since she had seen her best friend again, his goofiness, his adorable pout, his smile that was brighter than any sunny day…
" Kairi, come with me. Together, we can find Sora, I know he's waiting for us to find him." He held out his hand towards her with a confident smile on his face, but one that sent bad vibes up her spine.
" Riku..." she shook her head, feeling guilt as she saw Riku's smile fade. " You're taking Pinocchio from his father."
" So? As long as we find Sora, nothing else matters!"
" Nothing else- don't you get it?!" She retorted angrily. "You taking Pinocchio away from his family just like the darkness took away Sora!"
She saw Riku flinch as he turned his head away from her.
" Your minds made up?" He asked under his breath. To which she responded by taking a battle stance, prepared to fight her friend.
" So you'd rather fight me for a puppet that has no heart, than help me find our missing friend?"
" Heart or no Heart, this is wrong Riku and you know it."
From the ceiling came the giant heartless from earlier, obstructing their view from each other.
" Riku!" She called out, but her friend didn't call back, as the destructive heartless send Monstro spiraling into a destructive rage.
When Kairi woke up, she was on the Gummi ship, Goofy was sitting next to her.
"What's going on?"
"We got thrown out of Monstro, luckily the Gummi ship was nearby." Goofy explained, as Geppetto and Pinocchio were taken with them, but the puppet looked downtrodden as Geppetto held him in a half hug.
"What's wrong Pinocc?" Kairi asked.
"I can't find Jiminy..."
"Don't worry Pinocc, whenever there's danger, Jiminy's always is suppose to hide in my-" Goofy took off his hat, but only the journal fell out.
"Jiminy?" Goofy asked as he looked closer into his hat, but then gave his friends a hopeless expression as nothing came out. Their friend, nowhere in sight.
...
...
...
"Hmmm, well this is a peculiar sight." The cricket said to himself as he looked around the white halls of the castle he had entered once he came to, none of his friends in sight. "Wonder where everyone is..."
"Hello?"
A voice behind him made him turn around, surprised to see another person in this place, a boy about Kairi's age with sky blue eyes and brown hair.
"Howdy friend, names Jiminy Cricket, but my friends call me Jiminy." He introduced himself, removing his hat respectfully. "Would ya mind tellin' me where is it I am?" He asked.
The boy looked around for a moment with an uncertain look on his face before he sat down to be closer to Jiminy's level. Now getting a closer look, the boy looked beaten up, with cuts and bruises all over his body, and scorch marks on his clothes.
"This place is called Castle Oblivion."