CHAPTER II
A NEWLY RADIANT GARDEN
Kairi lifted herself up from the tall grass and brushed off her skirt. "Gotta work on those landings," She thought to herself. Kairi looked left and saw a giant, menacing castle. She knew at once that it was the castle where she was held imprisoned with the other princesses of light by Malifecent and shuddered. It had been a while since she saw that place. Quickly turning her back on the bad memory, she was greeted with a much more pleasant sight - a town full of hustle and bustle, shops, fresh and friendly faces and quite possibly best of all, food. She hadn't realized how long the trip through the dark realm had taken her, but she knew she had missed at least two meals and would have eaten her keyblade, if that were at all possible.
The town square was cute. Small, but cute. She resigned herself to a local store and purchased some soup by bartering some pretty stones she had on her with a strange looking creature. A little bit like a cat, but with a red nose and squinty little eyes. Well, whatever it was, it was cute, she decided. Sitting herself down at an unoccupied table, she decided the best thing to do was wait for Sora. She was a patient girl. She had waited longer before.
Finishing the final sips of her soup in a rather unlady-like manner, Kairi was taken aback by three small heartless running into the square. Most of the people screamed and ran for cover, but Kairi stood up.
"Hm. Well, I've seen the boys do this a million times. Worth a shot." And she stuck out her hand, fingers clenched around an imaginary keyblade that sooner than not had materialized in her hand. She jumped and pounded the first into dust, and did a backwards slash, taking out the final two. "Easy! And...fun! Don't worry folks, it's ok!"
Then, running at full force from where the heartless had come from came a man with long black hair and a red outfit. He looked gothic, and if it weren't for the headband holding some of his hair back, he would have been completely hidden from view in his mane of hair. His tattered red cloak swayed in the wind as he slowed to a stop. Taking his three-barreled gun from a battle stance, he slid it into a hip holster and bowed to Kairi, ever so slightly.
"Thanks. That was the last of them, for now. I've been chasing them from the crystal fissure, for crying out loud. You know how those things can get...if just one escapes, he comes back with a thousand more. Thanks for the help," said the mysterious man in red.
Kairi smiled
widely. She hadn't been thanked for helping in so long. In fact, Sora
and Riku barely even liked to acknowledge the fact that she was
strong. She knew the reason though - if Sora and Riku both thought
she was able to take care of herself, what would the two of them
argue over? She giggled and held out her hand to the stranger.
"No
problem, friend! My name's Kairi. Those...those were heartless,
right?"
"Yeah.
Shadows. Weak, but...annoying. Hmph."
"I'm sorry...I
didn't get your name."
"I didn't give it. Vincent.
Vincent Valentine. The pleasure is all mine, dear." He bent over
and kissed the back of Kairi's hand. She could feel something strange
about his mouth, something she didn't recognize...but she adored
being charmed, so she allowed him to continue for a moment before
drawing her hand back to her side. She blushed. "Um...you
haven't seen a boy about my age with crazy brown hair, have you? We
got separated recently."
Though it was hard to see his face
through his cloak, Vincent clearly smiled smugly. "Nope. Sorry
princess, haven't seen your boyfriend. Nice meeting you though.
Hopefully next time...it'll be far more pleasant a circumstance."
With that, he reached into his pocket, grabbed something that he
threw to the ground creating a cloud of smoke. When it cleared, he
was gone, leaving Kairi standing perplexed in the center of the town
square.
Sora bounded around the familiar streets of Radiant Garden. Stopping to give Hewey, Dewey and Louie high fives, he borrowed Scrooge McDuck's skateboard and was off to find Kairi. Axel said she was quicker than him...so she must be somewhere in Radiant Garden, right? Sora didn't need to think much more about it when he almost ran right into Kairi standing in the center of the square.
"Kairi! I'm
glad you're alright. Don't do that kind of stuff - you scared
me!"
"Oh, and you don't think I was scared when you went
and disappeared for a year? I can't believe you boys! You know, I can
handle myself! I don't need a babysitter."
Sora winced. "I'm
not trying to baby-sit...I just..."
Kairi changed the subject
very forcibly. "Fine. Where are we?"
"Welcome to
Radiant Garden. I've met a lot of people here. Lots of good friends.
This is a pretty safe place to be."
Kairi looked off
to where Vincent and the heartless had come from. "If it's so
safe...how come there are heartless running
around?"
"Heartless?"
"Yeah, I just took
three of them out. Sora, have you seen Riku?"
He bit his lip.
"No. But, we both ended up here...so maybe he's around here
somewhere too?"
"Radiant Garden, huh?" Kairi asked.
"Very familiar."
"Well, it used to be called Hollow
Bastion. But the restoration committee looks like they did a great
job! I can hardly recognize the place."
"Hollow Bastion?
Isn't that where..."
Trying to stave off the bad memories,
Sora quickly interjected.
"Yeah. Let's go down this alley.
There's some friends I want you to meet."
With the fresh memory of Vincent in her mind, Kairi only nodded and followed Sora down the alley.
