Wow, we're already at the eighth chapter! I can't believe it! Well, this is a Kairi chapter, once again. Next will be a Sora chapter, although I'm still not sure what I'm going to be doing with him, so expect some delay before the next chapter. Speaking of which, I got this one up pretty fast didn't I? :beams, proud of herself: Hehehe...well, I didn't get any reviews, but I didn't really expect any really. It's my own fault, sorta, for not updating this in a while. Well, partly my fault and partly glares school's fault. But I'm past that now, for three, wonderfully free months. There is someone up there.

I think I went a little overboard with the descriptions of all of the characters that show up in this chapter. They're there just in case for you people who don't know where she is (can't say much now with out ruining the story, see author's notes at end of chapter).

Beginning is a dream, like Riku's chapter, but I think I'll put this just for this chapter. Okay, well, I won't delay you any longer. Bye!

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PROMISES

A PROMISED JOURNEY: A NEW TOY

"...hello?"

Kairi turned around and smiled at the blue-eyed boy behind her.

"Hello Sora."

She reached out to him, but he stepped back, eyes wide and fearful.

"Who are you?"

Those words, three little innocent words if they hadn't just come out of one of her best friend's mouth, pierced her heart, like a thousand burning needles.

"Don't you remember me?" she stepped closer, getting angrier with each passing moment, not noticing or caring that the boy in front of her continued to step back from her. "The girl who you grew up with on Destiny Islands? The girl who is-was one of your best friends who wanted to come with you to the other worlds?" Kairi was shouting, tears streaming down her face. Suddenly, she stopped moving, just staring at the boy. Softly, ever so softly, she whispered, "The one who you promised to come back for?"

"Whoa whoa, just hold on a minute! First of all, just who is this Sora guy?"

Kairi opened her eyes groggily. Blinking, she winced as bright light streamed into her eyes. Slowly, blurred images became clear as her eyes got used to her surroundings. Concerned and confused faces encircled her, all looking down at her in worry.

Kairi sat up, groaning and rubbing the back of her head. "Owww...what happened? Where am I?"

"You're asking us?" A large pink...pig, yes, pig, spoke up, staring at her. She had seen pigs at the farms on Destiny Island, but never one as big as this. Only a little shorter than her, the pig was sitting on its hind legs. It looked like it was made of plastic, like a kid's toy. A wide slit was centered on its back, and when the pig moved, it made a jangling sound, like the sound of loose change. Sarcastic black dots blinked at her quizzically. Weird, very weird, Kairi thought.

Kairi definitely knew she wasn't in Destiny Islands anymore.

"I think you're scaring her Ham. Is that any way to greet a new toy?" A voice came to her left. Kairi looked and saw a pretty girl in an old fashioned dress, a little taller than her. The dress reminded Kairi of the ballroom dresses that she and Selphie had often dreamed about wearing. The bottom looked like an upside-down umbrella covered in pink polka dots. The top was a pale white with puffy pink sleeves that reached halfway to her elbows. She held a light blue cane in her hand, which came up to her neck and curved inwards, like half of a spiral. Her skin was pale, very pale, and as smooth as china. Twinkling blue eyes looked at her, concerned. A pink bonnet covered her head, but a few stray blonde curls peeked out.

"Well, it's her own fault. I mean, no box, no tag, no nothin'. Just a flash of bright light from the toy box and poof! She appears! How are we supposed to trust her? Especially with all those ghost thingamajiggers poppin' up everywhere... ", a potato shaped thing said from her right. It was about the same size as the pig, only standing upward. Its spindly arms with white gloves rested on its 'hips', its overlarge blue shoes tapping the floor impatiently. The thing looked like to be made of the same material as the pig. A large, busy mustache decorated the thing's upper lip, right under its ridiculously large nose, making Kairi conclude that this thing was a boy. Some sort of black hat was perched on his bald head, right above large pink ears that stuck straight out from the thing's body. His irises were black and right now, they were confused and frustrated, his fierce black eyebrows only enhancing the glare he directed at Kairi.

That suspicious look made Kairi remember her manners. But just as she opened her mouth to introduce herself, a new voice spoke up.

"What's the problem guys?"

Kairi craned her head back to see who was talking and found herself staring into friendly brown eyes. A long and lanky...sheriff, Kairi read as she examined his badge, stood there, looking down at her. He had a brown cowboy hat on that covered his brown wavy hair. The sheriff wore faded blue jeans and a gold long-sleeved shirt with red crisscrossed lines. A cowhide vest rested over it and ended an inch above a brown leather belt that held up his pants. The man's clunky brown cowboy boots ended at his calves, the bright gold spur at each end twirling slightly. White buttons adorned the front and the sleeves of his shirt, right underneath the kerchief that hung from his neck. A smile creased the corners of his mouth, reassuring and welcoming.

To his left and right stood what seemed to be an astronaut (she had seen them in picture books that her foster parents gave her) and a dog (Wakka had owned one on the island). Mentally shaking her head to rid her of homesickness, she proceeded to examine the newcomers.

The astronaut was obviously concerned about Kairi's appearance. He stood a full sheriff's head (the sheriff had a larger than normal head) shorter than the latter. His suit was primarily white, black attaching the torso to the body and the arms to the shoulder joints. Green stripes decorated the backs of his palms, the tips of his toes, the ankles, the back of his forearms and around his lower body, while two purple stripes crisscrossed his chest and lined his knuckles. The soles of his shoes were also purple. On his chest there seemed to be some sort of green chest plate. A large red button was positioned on his left breast, while three red, blue and green oval buttons were stationed on the right. In the center, a pair of small white wings stood out from a blue background as some sort of symbol. Another smaller red button was on his right forearm, with some sort of words on top of it. Kairi squinted to read them, but she couldn't make them out. All that you could see of the man's body was his head. A purple hood covered his hair. Confident blue eyes stared at her from a handsome face with a square jaw. But right now, those eyes were clearly saying to Kairi that they wanted to know who she was and what she was doing here.

The dog on the opposite side of the astronaut was cute, in a mischievous sort of way. Long and skinny, the little dog only came up waist high to the sheriff. He was tan all over, with leathery dark brown ears that flopped every which way. A long pale snout extended from his head, ending in a little black nose. A green collar with a yellow dog tag hung from his neck. His little black tail was wagging slowly, as if it was in deep thought. But the weirdest thing about this creature was that in between his hind legs and the front part of the dog's body was some sort of coiled metal rope.

"W-we don't know Woody! This girl just came out of nowhere! What are we supposed to do?" The last voice exclaimed. It was a green dinosaur, a Tyrannosaurus Rex, Kairi remembered from her picture books. Scaly rough skin covered the creature from its long tail and three toed black nails to its oversized head. Small black eyes were positioned over the T-rex's long muzzle, which was filled with sharp white teeth. The under belly was a light tan. Although the dinosaur's appearance looked like his long gone ancestors, it was obvious that the T-Rex wasn't as fierce as his looks made him out to be. Constantly looking around and jumping at every shadow, the creature looked positively terrified.

"First of all, you need to calm down Rex. We'll take this one step at a time, okay?" Woody chuckled, laying a comforting hand on the dinosaur's shoulder.

"O-okay Woody. I'll try." 'Rex', as the cowboy had called him, took deep breaths, slowly calming down.

"Good. Now, what's your name girl?" Woody turned and addressed Kairi for the first time.

"O-oh. I'm sorry. My name is Kairi. I come from Destiny Islands. I'm sorry to have caused commotion here." Kairi stammered, blushing at her rudeness.

"Don't be. I'm Woody. This is Rex," he pointed to the dinosaur, "Slinky, Mr. Potato Head, Bo and Hamm" He said, pointing to the dog, the potato head, the girl and the pig all in turn.

"Hey, good to meet you." Slinky said, wagging his tail.

"Yeah, yeah." Mr. Potato Head grumbled.

"Erm...hi." Rex stammered.

"How are you?" Bo smiled kindly.

"Eh, nice to meet you too." Hamm shrugged indifferently.

"And this," Woody announced, gesturing to the astronaut beside him, "is Buzz Lightyear."

"Hello." Buzz said stiffly.

"If you didn't know, he's a Space Ranger from the Universal Protection Program. He's stationed in the Gamma Quadrant of Section Four." Woody whispered mischievously to Kairi.

Unfortunately for Woody, Buzz just happened to overhear, and pushed Woody playfully. "Oh come off it already Woody!" he said, blushing. "You know as well as I do that that's all just a load of baloney." Kairi giggled at the site of the two best friends teasing each other. They reminded her of Riku and Sora back on the island, always teasing and competing with each other, but still best friends nonetheless.

Kairi was brought back to her mission by those thoughts. "Umm, I'm sorry for interrupting, but have you seen a spiky brown haired boy, about this tall," she indicated with her hands, "with blue eyes? Or a silver haired boy that's a little taller than me, with aqua eyes? I'm searching for them."

The boys stopped fighting. "No, I can't say I have." said Woody, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "You're the newest toy that Andy's gotten for months."

"Toy? Andy?" Kairi asked, confused.

"Oh, sorry, forgot to tell you. Welcome to..." Woody waved his hand around at the scene around him, "Andy's Room!!!"

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Kairi stretched and yawned. Making sure that Andy wasn't around, she hopped down from the toy box, where she had been sleeping for the past three days. She had learned rapidly during that period of time, finding out that she couldn't be seen moving when Andy, the owner of all these 'toys', was around; discovering that when he was there, she had to keep absolutely still; and when he came back, she must be in position at the same place where he had left her. She had fit remarkably well in with the rest of the toys, banishing all the doubts that any of the toys had before. She played checkers with Slinky (usually he beat her, but she was getting better), competed with Rex at video games (she had never seen anything like this type of magic on the island), participated in cards with Hamm and Mr. Potato Head (she was remarkably well at go fish, having passed time playing it more than once on the island), talked with Woody about the world in general (he was immensely curious about her world, having been outside a few times himself, and she was the same about his), braided hair with Bo (she knew how to do a French braid!), helped Rex with his 'dinosaurhood' (he was really trying, but somehow couldn't get the roar just right), and told Buzz about the technology in her world (he often asked her to teach him how to perform magic, but so far he wasn't really good). Yes, she was happy here, but with each passing day she grew more restless, wondering where Sora and Riku were. Although she rejoiced at making new friends, the realization that she wasn't doing anything weighed heavily on her conscience.

"Hey Kairi, wanna play checkers? This time, I'm red!" Slinky said, snapping her out of her thoughts. He grinned triumphantly, glad that he had called red first this time.

Kairi glanced up at the dog, who was currently up on the bed, looking down on her. "No thanks Slink, not this time."

Slinky whined a little, for he loved playing with Kairi and teaching her the rules. She loved the game almost as much as he did, and was improving quickly, managing to beat him once or twice and amazing him with some really clever moves that even he didn't notice.

Kairi, hearing the whining, smiled at Slinky. "But I heard that Woody is bored..."

The toy instantly perked up and bounded off the bed. He immediately started to look for the cowboy. "Thanks Kairi! I haven't played him for some time, and now I bet I can beat him, from playing all those times with you! See ya later!" The dog yelled back to the girl, already gone in his pursuit for someone to play with.

The girl moved on, mulling over her biggest problem. Before she had been introduced Mr. Potato Head had said something about 'ghosts' being around. She hadn't pressed the matter at first, having only been introduced, but now that she felt more comfortable around him, she had resolved to ask him exactly what he meant.

"Er, uh, hi Kairi. Are...are you busy?" A nervous voice interrupted her thoughts. Kairi turned around and saw Rex, twitching nervously.

"Well, yeah, sorta. Sorry Rex." Kairi told him

"O-oh, it's okay Kairi. I mean... you have things to do too, so..." Rex said hastily. He lingered there for a minute or two, hoping that she would change her mind.

"Hey Rex, wanna play a video game with me?" Buzz asked, having overheard Kairi's predicament and knowing that she would probably help Rex if he stayed there long enough anyway, even though she was busy. Kairi flashed a grateful smile in his direction as the green dinosaur ran toward the table where Andy's video games were. Buzz waited a minute for Kairi first.

"Thanks." she said appreciatively.

"No problem. I know how Rex can be sometimes." Buzz replied, looking to make sure the T-Rex was out of earshot. He winced a little remembering how many times he wasn't able to say no to the green dinosaur.

Kairi laughed. "Yeah. Well, if you excuse me, I have some business with Mr. Potato Head. Any chance you've seen him?" she asked hopefully.

Buzz nodded toward the dresser. "Yeah, he said something about a rematch with Hamm. He's over there. Are you going to play cards with him?"

Kairi shook her head, smiling. "No, I think I beat him badly enough last time I played. Actually, I wanted to ask him about something...that he said when we first met."

A flicker of...doubt? Confusion?, flew across Buzz's face, but when Kairi looked closer, it had gone.

"Hey Buzz, are you going to play or not?" called Rex from the table where he had set up the game. He waited impatiently for the space ranger, toe tapping on the floor.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, coming!" Buzz yelled back. "Well, guess I'll see you later Kairi. Right now I have to beat Rex at Andy's fighting game." He told Kairi. She smiled and waved him away. He climbed up the table and began to play the video game, arguing heatedly with Rex as to which character was better to fight as. Kairi shook her head, thinking that she had probably imagined that look, and moved towards the dresser, intent on finding Mr. Potato Head.

Deep in the shadows, catlike eyes narrowed and watched the red-haired girl make her way to the dresser.

Kairi hummed absentmindedly as she slowly walked towards the dresser. Finally, she thought, I can get to the bottom of this.

But just as she had reached the leg of the dresser, a claw with long sharp nails covered her mouth and yanked her into the shadows.

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Ooooo, cliffie! And you'll have to sit through two more chapters until you get to find out what happens! Muwahahaha!

Anyway, yes, Kairi's first place on her little 'tour' is the Toy Story world! Yay! Timeline: Somewhere in between the end of the first movie and the beginning of the sequel. The toys are in their new house, Buzz and Woody are friends, but there's no Mrs. Potato Head and no dog, as seen in the epilogue of the first movie.

Kairi's mission? Do what Sora did in the first Kingdom Hearts. Travel to different worlds, help with certain 'things' (can't and won't say here, you'll have to wait), search for her two best friends, etc, etc. Don't worry; all will become clear (I think). Short chapter, true, but this is a filler, a set-up chapter, if you will, for the next Kairi chapter.

Speaking of chapters, Kairi will be visiting thirteen worlds in all. I think the average amount of time she'll spend in each world is two or three chapters. That alone makes this story around thirty something chapters. And that's not counting all of the wrapping up stuff that will happen in the end. Riku has about sixteen chapters to his name right now, and Sora I have no idea, only that it's more than thirteen chapters. Sooo...we have a long time ahead of us! I have no idea if I'll even make it to the tenth chapter, to tell you the truth. But I'll try. I've gotta update Sacrifice though, my Ayashi No Ceres fic. And I have about three Teen Titans fic ideas floating around in that space between my ears that I call a brain. That means......well, I don't really know. A long wait for the next chapter maybe. But the next chapter will come! Probably.

{DISCLAIMER}

I get nothing. I got nothing. Get it?

{REVIEWS}

None. My fault. And school's. Yeah. Please feed my hungry reviewer box.

{UPDATES} a.k.a. {MY LIFE}

Same as last time. I watched fireworks with my family at some airport. They were really pretty, but short. I have a great idea for a picture though. Well, see ya!

Soraoathkeeper

{QUOTE OF THE WEEK}

"The real voyage of discovery consists, not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."