Good Evening. I arrive with another interlude. Now I know you guys will have all sorts of questions afterwards. Do not fret, for the holes will be filled as the story progresses.

Anyways, onward!

I do not own To love-Ru or Kingdom Hearts

(1/20/20 Edit: Rito finishes his Ice Cream)

(3/14/20 Edit: Changed Kairi's Letter slightly back to how it was in the original KH series, changes had no reason to exist in the grand scheme of this story's plot.)


Interlude - Progress of The Rookies

The Secret Forest

I'm sorry I left without saying good-bye. Did Master Yen Sid tell you? I'm training to become a Keyblade Wielder like you.

That's right. No more waiting for you to come back from your adventures. I want to get out there and do my part to help.

Merlin has used his power to bring us to a place where time doesn't matter. We've taken as long as we needed to complete our training. He's an amazing wizard.

Oh and by "us," I mean me and Lea. He's really sorry for all the trouble he caused. I told him it's fine, but he won't stop apologizing.

I'll admit I was a little scared of him at first, but with some help, I've gotten to know him better. All he ever wanted was to help his friends. Honestly, it's hard not to like him.

Ever now and then, I catch him staring at me. When I ask what's wrong, he says, "I'm not sure. I've forgotten something. Don't know what."

Sora, I think it may have something to do with you. Your journey is all about helping people: some that you've never met before, and some like Lea that you have. They're all counting on you.

It won't be easy, but I hope you'll remain the happy and cheerful Sora I know. There's no heart your smile can't reach.

- Kairi

Kairi was sitting on a log as she wrote her letter. The area around her was full of grass, shrubbery, and trees. The log she was sitting on was overlooking a cliff that gave her a perfect view of the setting sun that illuminated the realm with its warm light, along with a vast field of trees. The greenery around was slightly swaying due to the cool breeze flowing throughout the world.

She had recently changed her appearance from the last conflict with the previous Organization XIII. She used to have longer auburn hair, but now she had cut it to a bob cut that ends at her jaw. She had bright sapphire blue eyes and fair skin. Hanging on her neck was a string necklace with a small pearl hanging from it. On her body was a mostly pink full body sleeveless dress with a hood, with patches of black and two black pouches near her waist that made pockets. All along the front of the dress were two columns of white buttons, and one white button on the pouch pockets each. The top portion of the dress had a short open black lined zipper that showed a white blouse with small pink frills along the top rim. Around the openings of the dress where her arms were coming out of were black and pink plaid designs, and around the belly of the dress was a black belt. The dress ends at the bottom with black on her right, pink in the middle, and black, pink, and white plaid on her left. Around her right wrist was a multi-ringed bracelet and around her left wrist was a multi-checkered brace. She also had on black boots to complete her new outfit and as a bonus, the outfit also shields her from the darkness.(*)

The girl continued to write, unaware of the footsteps closing in on her until they sounded right beside her. Her sapphire eyes looked up from her paper to her right to find Lea; who was still wearing the coat of Organization XIII, staring at her with a distant look. She lightly gasped and took her paper to her chest.

"What's wrong?" she asked in a timid tone.

"Huh?" Lea snapped out of his daze and looked over to the side, breaking eye contact "Nothin', sorry."

"Lea..." she sounded unconvinced.

"What, I am." he insisted as he rubbed the back of his neck. Kairi softly giggled in response to his awkwardness while Lea went to sit on a rock across from her. As Kairi continued to write, Lea grew curious.

"A letter?" he asked.

Kairi looked up from writing and nodded in confirmation "Yup."

The fiery redhead went on "To Sora?" he assumed with a quizzical expression.

"Mmm..." the girl brought the pencil she was using to her cheek as she looked down in thought. "Technically yes, but I won't send it. It's more for me."

"Ask Merlin, he'll deliver it for you." he suggested

"I know, but it's OK. I just like talking to Sora, even if it's on paper." she explained while closing her eyes, hugging the paper close to her.

"Ah...OK" he spoke softly with a clear understanding of the girl's feelings. "So...how's this one holding up with ya?" Lea asked as he looked down to his left.

'This One' was referring to a sleeping Rito on the ground next to the rock Lea was sitting on. He was no longer in the clothes they found him in and was now wearing clothes made for him by Merlin. On his torso was a short sleeve open black jacket with emerald green trimming along the bottom edge and running along the silver zipper going down the jacket. The lower portion of the jacket had a dark gray pocket on each side that was closed by a diagonal silver zipper. At the ends of the sleeves of the jacket were green outlines going around the openings his arms were coming out of. Underneath his jacket was a black V-Neck undershirt that was white along the v collar. He was also wearing black loose fitting Capri pants that went over his knees and stopped halfway down his legs. There was a white belt going around the top of his pants with a metallic black buckle at the front, closing the belt. Just under the belt was a dark gray pouch at the side of each thigh of his pants. The pouches were closed thanks to the black and green plaid flaps closed over them with a silver button each. His shoes where styled like hiking boots colored in black with two green straps tightly going across the top with metallic black buckles keeping the straps in place and the front and the heels of his shoes were dark gray. Much like the outfit made for Sora and Kairi, it provides him with protection against the darkness as well.

"Oh, he's holding up just fine. Been asleep for a while now." Kairi informed as she kept her eyes on the sleeping nobody. He was laying on his side, motionless apart from his breathing.

"Really" Lea began in a mock disbelieving tone. "Because from what Merlin told me, he barely passed his last test."

Kairi frowned "Well..." She can say he knows a lot about magic, but his combat prowess proved to be a little lacking...

"Oh." he spoke as a thought occurred to him. He reached behind himself with both hands and pulled out two sea-salt ice cream bars. "Here."

"Ice Cream? Really?" she asked as her face beamed with delight at the bar.

"Yeah, I asked Merlin to pick these up." he explained "You know, the three of us did pass our most recent test. Even if Rito barely did we can still celebrate, right?" he offered with a cheeky grin.

Kairi took the ice cream bar from Lea's right hand "I hope you got one for Rito too..."

"C'mon, of course I did." The spiky red-head pointed a finger at his sleeping form "But the log can't eat if he's asleep, ya know."

"Aw, you're sweet Lea." The girl praised

"Ha, nah..." he trailed off as Kairi began eating her treat. After a few moments, the girl noticed Lea staring at her with the same distant look from before.

"What?" the question broke Lea out of his thoughts again.

He looked over to the side, stammering "N-nothing, I just...".

"...You're trying to remember what it is that you forgot?" she filled in the blanks for him

"Well, I, Uh, yeah...yeah..." he admitted wistfully as he looked off into the sunset, feeling a sense of solemn conflict within his heart. That feeling of déjà vu has been with him for a long time now, particularly when he's with Rito. But with Kairi, the feeling was WAY stronger. It was as if he had the need to remember now, like he's forgotten something really important. What's more, it feels like he did recall it some time before, but just as quickly as it came...


The City of Light - Radiant Garden (The Past)

"...I...I SAID...MOVE!"

After that shout, an overwhelming wave of pressure engulfed him, shot out passed Lea, the heartless, and beyond. Along with the wave of pressure were thin, grey, thorny tendrils of energy that went unnoticed by all present. The world, the heartless, everything, seemed to have STOPPED moving. Everything halted for a while, as if trying to register what that wave of pressure was.

Then, after a second later, the Neoshadows that were in their way, disappeared in puffs of dark smoke.

Lea was shaken from the sudden intense pressure that seemed to come all at once from Rito. Lea was now looking wide-eyed in the direction the heartless were once standing, slightly shaking from the experience. Then he turned his head in shock to the boy who was no doubt the cause of this phenomenon. The kid looked angered and winded, but was still conscious. It felt like Rito's presence itself bipped out of existence when the intense pressure engulfed him, but now, it's as if it never happened.

Lea's mind finally cleared as he had one question in his head.

'What the heck just happened?...'


...It was gone, his memories of that moment being more about the Heartless attack and Rito than anything else. Man, what a drag...

Kairi took this chance to change the subject "...So tomorrow; you, me, and Rito take our final exams in the ring. You ready?" she asked with smile.

"Of course." he replied.

"Don't hold back Lea, Promise?"

Lea face twitched as he slowly turned to the girl, déjà vu kicking in full force. As he came face to face with her...

He could swear he was looking at a different girl...

The gleam from the sun made it hard to grasp, but he could see short black hair and an Organization XIII coat. The light slowly lessened as he started make out her facial features and she looked...Just like Namine...and Kairi.

Lea let out a small breath of heartbroken astonishment as he dropped his sea salt ice cream to his left. Tears built up in the red-head's eyes and fell, much to Kairi's shock.

She gasped and not a moment later, got up and rushed to Lea. "Are you OK? Lea!"

"Yeah, Sorry..." he tried to apologize with a wavering voice as he dried his tears with the back of his hands.

"You're crying, what's wrong?" her worry was very evident in her voice and expression . It was so sudden, this wasn't like him at all.

He sniffed as he responded "Just something in my eyes."

"Lea..."

He got up from his seat "I'm gonna go...sorry"

Kairi was looking up to the tall Keyblade Wielder "Kay, but stop apologizing. OK?"

"Fine...one one condition..." Lea began as he put his right hand on his hip. "Call me Axel from now on. Got it memorized?" he spoke his traditional catchphrase with a soft smile as he brought a finger to the top side of his head.

Kairi brought a hand to her lips, letting out a soft giggle "Okay, Axel."

With that, he walked back to wherever he came from. Kairi watched Le-Ahem!-Axel leave, uncertain if she should follow him or not-

"Eugh! Uh-Chee!" Kairi was taken out of her thoughts when a sudden sneeze broke through the air. She turned to the source of the noise and found Rito sitting up, a sea-salt ice cream bar in his left hand as he wiped his nose with his right forearm.

"Ugh...wha?" he looked to his left hand. "Ice cream?" he questioned with a drowsy confused look, wondering where the treat came from.

"Oh, Axel must've dropped that earlier."

The boy turned to Kairi "Axel? You mean Lea? He was here?"

Kairi walked to where he was sitting; making sure to watch her step, and dug into the pocket of her dress, pulled out a handkerchief and slightly bent down; handing it to Rito.

"Hehehe." she giggled "Here. You've still got some on your nose."

Rito's eyes widened a bit before he put his free index and middle finger on his nose. Kairi was indeed telling the truth as when he took his fingers off, he noticed some light-blue ice cream on them.

"Oough, sorry about that." he apologized while gently taking the hankie.

Kairi reached out a hand and rubbed the top of his head with care "You hopeless sleepyhead. Don't be, you've got nothing to be sorry for."

As Kairi stepped back and watched Rito wipe his nose, Her thoughts went back to the day she first met the quiet nobody. It was a very...close-up experience, to put it mildly. A chill ran up Kairi as she remembered that moment of accidental perversion. But after training alongside Rito and Lea (which led to more incidents between her and Rito.) and getting to know him, she could say for sure that Rito was a good nobody-no, a good person, even if he had a strange...quirk.

"Thanks...should I give this back to you?" he asked as he offered back her handkerchief while still on the ground.

She smiled sweetly and picked the cloth from Rito's hand "Yeah, don't worry. I'll take care of it." she assured as she put it back into her pocket. She went back to sit on her log and continued to write her letter to Sora.

Rito watched the girl while silently eating his surprise ice cream until he spoke up. "What are you doing?" he questioned.

Kairi looked up from her writing "Writing a letter."

That response only brought up another question "What's a...letter? Is it something like a note?" Rito guessed.

"Hmm, I guess you can say that." She put her notepad down on her lap while continuing to talk to him. "But a letter is more for when you want to talk to someone really far away, rather than just a reminder to yourself." she made the distinction "Sometimes, letters are for someone close to your heart." She looked down to her writing "Like this one..."

"Oh...I get it, kinda..." the boy rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand "That letter you're writing is special, makes you feel...warm?"

Kairi smiled and nodded "That's right."

The heart was something Rito was still learning about slowly but surely. These days, he's more knowledgeable about things like that compared to when they first met.

"What are you writing about?"

"Sorry" she playfully apologized with a wink "But that secret stays with me, this is a personal letter to the person I'm writing to. Meaning it's only for them."

That being said, he still has trouble understanding things about it, and trying to explain to him would only lead to him being even more confused.

Rito looked ever so slightly disappointed she didn't tell him "Oh...Okay..." and went back to finish eating.

Kairi noticed his disappointment and decided to shift the subject around "So how was your nap?"

The Nobody swallowed before responding "Pretty weird." he stated.

"Weird? How?

"Hmm..." he thought out loud "I only remember bits and pieces now. But I do remember a voice telling me to 'Try again.'"

Kairi sported an uncomfortable smile "...Today's test didn't go so well, huh?"

"...I wouldn't say I was bad, but..."

"...You could be doing better?"

"Yeah..." he confirmed while finishing his ice cream and looking down to the ground he was sitting on. "I want to be strong. Strong enough to go to Traverse Town without holding you guys back." he clenched his fists "Not like the last time with Lea...when the Heartless attacked."

Kairi held her eyes on Rito while he voiced his motivation. it was a motive Kairi can understand all too well.

"I just seem to have a problem with going offensive against other people."

Kairi continued to hold her gaze on Rito with concentration "You don't have a problem with destroying the magic furniture Merlin conjures up, right?"

"No, no problems there..."

"So..." she began "I think it's a case of 'You don't want to hurt other people'...is that right?"

"..."

The girl remained silent for a bit before she asked "Are you sure you want to do this? I know we've asked this multiple times before, but if combat's not your thing then..."

"I don't want to give up on the friends I've forgotten without trying, Kairi." he spoke up. "You don't need to worry about me. I should get used to it the more I try, right?"

With that, Rito softly smiled and got up from where he was sitting "I'mma go train a bit more. Is that OK?" he asked permission.

"Hold on, let me come with you." she offered "You still have an issue with going offensive against people; especially against me, don't you?"

"...Yeah..."

"So, let's work on that together. Tomorrow is our final exams, so we should be at our best. That includes you too."

Rito opened his mouth to say something but-

"You just said 'I should get used to it the more I try'. So let's try that scenario now."

Rito closed back up for a moment before he obtained a small smile "...Okay. If you think that's a good idea. Thank you, Kairi."

Kairi smiled back, took the finished Ice Cream stick from him, and walked behind Rito as they made their way into the forest to their training area. But not too close to him however. She didn't want another 'Rito situation' to happen.


*Kairi's KH3 look

Yup. Rito is training alongside Kairi and Lea. He has a new outfit too! I was trying to go for characters explaining things to others rather than me making a whole paragraph explaining things like I usually do.

Next Time, we go back to Team Sora as they rendezvous with Yen Sid.