Everyone rushed to the first district of Traverse town, the safest of the districts. Here it would be almost impossible to run into any heartless as not a single inch of district one was allowed darkness. Aside from the alleyways between the buildings, dark and cold, and not to be mentioned by the citizens of the town. In those shadows is where Kairi had woken up.

Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith had gathered in their friend Cid's accessory shop with Kairi by their side. He had a toothpick in his mouth and slicked-back blond hair. He looked much older than any of Kairi's new friends and talked with a slow accent.

"Well I'll be—the keyblade master. I knew ya'll were out lookin' for him, but I never actually thought you'd find him, much less that he'd be a little girl."

"I'm not that little, and I'm no master of the keyblade! I barely learned what a keyblade was a few minutes ago." Kairi was flustered and still had the key in her hand, Cid's eyes not leaving the shiny metal.

"I hate to ask this with it being such short notice but," Leon said to Kairi, "you're going to help us, right?"

"I'm still so confused." Kairi said, looking down the shaft of her keyblade. "What exactly is it that you need me to do?" Aerith's soft voice stepped in as she relayed Kairi's mission, should she choose to accept.

"You now know there are many other worlds out there besides your island and this town. They were supposed to be a secret, and they were until now. Because now, they've been connected. The heartless are using these connections as bridges to target an increasing number of worlds."

"The heartless were the ones who attacked us, right?" Kairi understood.

"That's right." chimed in Yuffie. "The darkness in people's hearts—that's what attracts them."

"And there is darkness within every heart." Leon's deep voice took its turn.

"We're looking for the key," Aerith continued.

"The key?" Kairi looked down at her blade.

"That's right, the keyblade."

"So… this is the key?"

"Exactly." Leon took over again. "The heartless have great fear of the keyblade. They'll keep coming after you, no matter what."

"Well, I didn't ask for this."

"The keyblade chooses its master," said Yuffie, "and it chose you."

Kairi nodded, everything slowly sinking in. She was filled with a warm determination, feeling in her heart that she needed to follow the trail laid out for her and she would find what she needed.

"Tell me what I need to do." Kairi's words made the girls smile, happy to hear that she'd help.

"The worlds," started Leon, whose expression was still stoic, "they shouldn't be connected, but they are. Like Aerith said, it's how the heartless are spreading and they're spreading fast. If we seal the worlds then the darkness should have no way to get to them anymore."

"How do we do that? …Sealing the worlds."

"Like us people, each world has its own heart. If we find it, then we can lock them with that," he pointed to the keyblade, "then the heartless should cease their thievery of people's hearts throughout the worlds."

"We're not the only ones who need your help," said Aerith, hinting at something greater. "My friends Donald and Goofy have also been searching for the keyblade master. They need help finding their king, another powerful keyblade master. He's actually the one we mentioned earlier—the one searching for Ansem's reports on the heartless."

"Donald and Goofy," Kairi tapped her chin. "I met them, right?"

"Yes they're—Oh no! I think we left them back at the hotel! We have to go back."

"Really?" breathed Cid, "Ya'll just got here, too. I get no company in this shop here at night. Guess I'll just have to catch ya'll later."

"Have a good night, Cid," called Aerith as the four of them exited the shop into the cool night.

"We have to go back to the second district." Said Leon. "It'll be a little dangerous, even though you have the keyblade with you now, you have to stay close—you still don't know how to use it."

"Got it, I'll be right behind you." Kairi nodded, staying close to her new friends.

There was a large wooden door up the stairs behind the accessory shop and it took both Leon and Yuffie to push it open. Once it was open, Leon signaled for them to proceed. Yuffie leaded down the rightmost side of the district and on to the building labeled 'hotel.' The second district was darker and none of the shops seemed to be open this late at night, unlike the accessory shop in the first district.

Yuffie and Aerith entered the hotel but Kairi looked back to Leon.

His path to them was blocked by a giant heartless, twice as tall as Kairi and more than four times as wide around. It was almost a perfect sphere with arms, legs, and a head. Leon tried striking it but his sword but it only bounced off its round body. He wasn't getting anywhere.

With its back to Kairi, she decided to sneak up on it. Swinging her keyblade as hard as she could, she slashed through the heartless in a single strike. It exploded in darkness and the bright light of a heart escaped it, releasing itself up into the night sky and becoming one with the stars.

"I could've handled it," said Leon, avoiding eye contact.

"I'm sure you could have." smirked Kairi.

They met the other two girls back in the hotel. Donald and Goofy were there with their weapons out. Goofy had a large round shield with the silhouette of a mouse's head on it. Donald wielded a cartoonish looking staff, short and stout to match the user.

"How do we know you're not heartless?" screeched Donald.

"Donald, do we look like heartless to you?" Yuffie said trying to calm the situation.

"Yeah Donald," said Goofy, "You should recognize your friends when you see them. Besides, none of the monsters that I know of look like humans."

"Oohh…" Donald grumbled, the two of them lowering their weapons.

"Uh, Donald," Goofy's eyes trailed to the keyblade in Kairi's hand.

"I get it, I get it. They're not heartless, it was an honest mistake."

"But Donald."

"Whaaaat!?"

"The key." Goofy whispered.

Donald's eyes followed over to Kairi and laid a gaze on her keyblade. His eyes shot open and his bill dropped wide. He flailed around before Goofy calmed him down.

"We already gave her the rundown," confirmed Leon. "She's agreed to seal the worlds and help you find your king."

"She'd really help us look for the king?" asked Goofy with big, puppy dog eyes.

"Of course." Kairi smiled. "I'm looking for someone too. Two someones to be correct," her smile wavering only a bit. "We can help each other."

"We sure will!"

"My name's Kairi." She said, throwing out her hand. "I don't think I ever told you." Goofy took it and gave it a good shake with both of his hands.

"You know us, I'm Goofy, and that there's Donald Duck."

"I remember. You two are a little hard to forget."

The three of them smiled with some light laughter and the others in the room nodded together.

"So, to search for our friends we're going to have to travel to other worlds, and then seal their hearts to protect them from the heartless, right?" Kairi mused in summary. "How are we going to do it? I don't think I can go the same way I came."

"We can travel to other worlds on our vessel," said Goofy.

"Vessel?"

"It's called the gummi ship! It can get us to any world we want."

"Alright then," Kairi looked to all her new friends from Traverse Town and smiled at them, knowing that this was goodbye for now. They gave her their approval and said their goodbyes, but she knew she'd return to see them. So, turning to Donald and Goofy she gripped her keyblade tight and signaled to them. "Lead the way."

The gummi ship was adorable to say the least—bright orange with yellow decals and a roundness and stoutness that made it seem sturdy but appealing. The cockpit was encased by a bubble at the top and the rest of the structure wasn't all that complicated either. Inside was also simple, making Kairi feel like she had walked into something straight out of a cartoon. There were two individual seats where Goofy and Donald must've sat.

Kairi didn't see another seat, still she joined them in the front, leaning against the control board.

"I've never been to another world besides the town we were just at. What are they like?"

"Well they're supposed to be a secret, but—" Goofy put his white gloved hands over his mouth.

"You'll just have to see when we get there," interrupted Donald.

The ship sped through space and the three passed far off worlds that looked almost like stars. Donald had pressed a large red button earlier that projected a new seat from the cockpit's floor, giving Kairi her own space and really making her feel a part of this trio.

Kairi, Sora, and Riku would always watch the setting sun after a long day of adventuring on the island. She always loved the sun and its warmth and she knew Sora was no different. For Riku, however, the setting sun seemed to fill him with a different emotion. He always seemed on edge as the sun passed, as if he were anxiously waiting for something. He would only settle down when the stars came out, and when Sora and Kairi suggested they head home. Still, he would stay just a little longer. Kairi knew he loved the stars, but she never would have imagined that they were really other worlds that he was looking up to.

Did he always know that they were more than just stars? Was that why he would so desperately cling onto the night sky?

"Man the controls, Donald! …Or should I say, duck the controls?" Goofy chuckled.

"Be quiet and let me shoot!" screeched Donald.

Heartless lobbed in and out of their vision, weaving through asteroids and the swirling matter that was the space between worlds. These heartless were more colorful than the shadows Kairi was familiar with, but they were also bigger, some even larger than the ship itself.

"There are heartless between the worlds too?" Asked Kairi.

"Some use the Realm of Darkness to travel," explained Goofy, "and some like to hoof it the old fashion way."

"Realm of Darkness? What's that?"

"The Realm of Darkness is uhh… it's a realm filled with darkness. It's where the heartless come from."

"What he said." Donald quacked, struggling with the controls.

"We've never been there," finished Goofy, "but we hear it's really spooky!"

Donald quacked loudly. His feet were on top of the control deck now and he was almost violently handling the weapon controls. Kairi hummed in amusement and offered some help.

"Mind if I try?"

Donald grumbled and at first, he wouldn't move his eyes off the window, but when he shot a glance at Kairi, he met her kind, sincere eyes causing him to relent and step down. Still, he insisted on crossing his arms.

Kairi grabbed the controls, her teeth sliding over her bottom lip in concentration. Her coordination was almost perfect, having learned second-hand from hours of watching Sora and Riku spar. Right now, she was channeling the best of both of them. Goofy's mouth parted to reveal his large, square teeth—he was impressed to say the least. One after another, Kairi shot down the heartless that were in their way like she was playing a game. She wasn't using her keyblade, so it wasn't like they were gone for good, but it was better to get rid of them now so they wouldn't attack the ship.

The heartless and the asteroids soon began to dwindle in numbers, which was fine by Kairi because after all that firing, she was beginning to break a sweat. As a vast parting of space greeted them, a sparkling world came into view. It was brimming over its edges with sand, peculiar architecture scattered around it. Goofy drove the ship in for a landing and Kairi braced herself for a new and interesting world.

The sand was nothing new, Kairi had lived on an island almost her whole life, but the architecture was something new and so astonishingly beautiful. It was something she had only ever seen in story books and movies about great gladiators and god-chosen warriors.

Kairi, Donald, and Goofy approached a large building lined with pillars. The building was guarded by giant stone soldiers, their swords crossing over the entrance. The trio made their way forward, a soft breeze unsettling the sand beneath them. The interior was small, no bigger than the shack back at the island. There were various trophies lining the stone walls and another entryway at the end of the room that was roped off with a closed sign. No doubt the extravagance of the outside was made up for with whatever was beyond that rope.

A small, stout man was polishing the trophies, but upon closer inspection he seemed to only be half-man, the other half seemingly goat with reddish-brown fur covering the lower half of his body and hooves that tapped away at the rock floor below him.

"Excuse me?" Kairi interrupted, trying to be as polite as she could.

"Well it's about time, do you know how long I've been—" He started his sentence like he seemed to have been waiting for someone, but disappointment washed over his face as he stared up at Kairi, who didn't seem to be who he was waiting on. "Now what's a kid like you doing at the colosseum? If you're here to watch the games they won't start for a while."

"Games? What games?" Kairi was beginning to think she had a knack for games and was interested for sure.

"You tellin' me you haven't heard about the games? All of Greece knows about them. You must not be from around here, kid. The games are where heroes of all shapes and sizes come to compete for the ultimate title of hero."

"Well, can I compete? I've been told I'm supposed to be some kind of hero, but unless I test my strengths I'll never know what I can do."

"That's right," affirmed Goofy, putting his hands on Kairi's shoulders. "Kairi here's a keyblade master—she's gonna get rid of the heartless!"

"Heartless you say?" Said the satyr man, putting a hand on his round hip. "We got a slew of 'em here, but you can't get rid of them! They're important training for our heroes. You can take a whack at 'em if you want, but don't go getting rid of all of them—not that a runt like you would be able to." Kairi wrinkled her nose at being called a runt. Sure, she was small for her age, but being called so by someone even smaller than her was a little insulting.

"Well," Kairi thought out loud, "training would be a good idea before I seriously go up against anything big. Mind if I give it a shot?"

"Phil!" A voice called from behind the rope. An energetic guy with curly orange hair leaned through the doorway. He was the picture of a perfect hero with thick muscles and almost god-like facial features. "I've finished with my training. I think I set a new record!"

"Hercules, rule number thirty-five: you're never finished with training."

"Phil, who're you talking to?" asked Hercules. Phil motioned to the three with the cleaning cloth still in his hand.

"This here's the new recruits, uhh…"

"I'm Kairi, and this here is Goofy and Donald."

"Nice to meet you Kairi, Goofy, Donald," smiled Hercules, his perfect teeth glimmering at them. "Are you here to train with Phil?"

"Yep! I'm going to be a real hero soon, so I need to start shaping up to get there."

"Oh, Phil is really going to train you? I was only joking." Hercules turned toward Phil. "Phil, I thought you were only supposed to be training me." He seemed to be pouting.

"You know I'm not one for handouts, Herc, but who am I to deny a young lady?" Kairi tried not to blush at the comment. "I'll train you side-by-side and give you each pointers as I see fit. Herc, you can help her out too, seeing as you're her superior in all this."

Hercules groaned but relented at Kairi's eager composure. She couldn't remember having any sort of charm when she was younger, but she knew her will and determination was breaking through already.

Back on the islands, before she met Sora and Riku, she was on the edge of being labeled an outcast. She may have been the mayor's daughter, but she was the mayor's adopted daughter. There wasn't anything wrong with Kairi other than her strange situation, so the other kids picked her apart for whatever they could come up with. Whether it was how she was smaller than the other kids, or how she was quieter than the other kids, or how she was often seen playing along by herself; her size, her demeanor, her friends—or lack of. They even made fun of her red hair. But she found herself in Sora and Riku. If they could find a friend in her then she could find a friend in anyone. And she did—in Yuffie and Leon and Aerith and Cid. Not to mention Donald and Goofy. And now Phil was going to train Kairi so that she could be even stronger. She was going to be a hero just like Hercules. At that moment Kairi eyed Hercules's red hair once again. She silently snubbed anyone who had ever made fun of her for hers. She was starting to like other worlds.

"Thanks for helping me Phil, Hercules." Kairi smiled. She meant it.

However, Kairi was sweating soon after training began. Phil wound up giving her some more unique pointers as opposed to Hercules because unlike him, Kairi was wielding a weapon, an entirely different monster than going at heartless with fists alone—not that Kairi would have tried that. Phil boasted about having trained many of heroes in the past, and it was obvious with how fast Kairi was progressing that Phil was something serious. And having Hercules train by her side worked in her favor, motivating her to be better.

If she was going to find her friends, the king, get rid of the heartless, and save the many worlds out there, she would need to shape up quick. She thought about how Sora and Riku used to spar against each other. They always seemed to be having fun, but training was hard work, and the keyblade was starting to feel heavy in her hands. Kairi dropped to her knees to take a breather and Phil scurried up to her, handing her a towel.

"You're doing good, kid. Here's a towel, you need anything else?" Phil said checking in on her, throwing a quick thumbs up to Hercules to check in on him as well.

"Yeah," Kairi huffed, catching her breath. "I was wondering if you could tell me if anyone else has passed through here—two boys about my age, or maybe someone who calls himself a king."

"Not that I can remember. Most people have minded that the games are currently closed. I'll keep an eye out for them though."

"Thanks Phil."

Donald was impatiently tapping a webbed foor at the doorway.

"Don't you think we've spent enough time here? We need to hurry and find the king! Aren't you looking for your friends too?"

"You're right, Donald. I got a little carried away, but thanks to Phil and Herc I think I'm getting the hang of this thing." Kairi swung her keyblade around with a little more ease than she had before. "I can go to the next world with confidence!"

Goofy and Donald gasped and covered their mouths, Kairi having mentioned something confidential. She looked sheepish as she peered back over to Phil.

"I didn't hear anything." Said Phil, throwing his hands up. "Get out of here, kid. I'd invite you back to join the games but I just don't think you're ready yet."

"Feel free to come and cheer me on though," said Hercules, waving energetically to Kairi, as if he'd not tired out at all. She smiled and nodded at them, thanking the two again as she, Donald, and Goofy headed out.

The gummi ship was right where they left it and Kairi took no time in finding a water bottle and chugging it down. She finished it with a satisfying sigh and looked toward Goofy and Donald who were already setting course for the next world.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Our girl gets stronger with an obligatory Donald and Goofy. Though I was always more interested in the original content KH had to offer I can't deny that the disney aspect of it is what made it so charming in the first place. I promise there is a pattern to the POVs but we're gonna "expand our horizons" a little more, so to speak, so from here on out please stay tuned!