Chapter Text
It was a typical day at Destiny Islands like any other. Kairi and Naminé were walking back from the store with bags of food in their hands, chatting away as they headed home.
"I seriously can't wait for dinner tonight! You think Riku will be back in time for it?" Naminé asked.
"Uh, not sure." Kairi took out her gummiphone, checking Riku's messages. "...Oh. Says he won't be back 'till late."
"Aw, that's too bad. Can't promise there won't be any leftovers for him~"
She smiled. "You're still excited about my cooking after last week's disaster?"
"How could I not be? I'm just happy I get to try new things!"
"Thanks...and I'm glad you decided to stay here with me. I don't think I've ever properly thanked you for that."
She waved her hand dismissively as her cheeks began to flush. "You don't have to thank me! I know how it feels to be isolated ...so I'll be here for you no matter what!"
Kairi locked arms with her. "Same goes for you! There's no way I'll ever let you out of my sight!"
"That kind of sounds like a threat..."
"Maybe that was poorly worded, but you know what I meant!"
Naminé chuckled. "That you'll be stalking me from now on? Good luck with that, you know how many times people have failed to track me down before?"
"Let's see, I already know where you live and go to school at it so it shouldn't be that hard."
"Hee hee, that's true."
The girls laughed together, but it only briefly alleviated the overwhelming sadness in Kairi's heart. As they walked to the top of the hill that overlooked the entire town, she stared at the small island where she, Riku and Sora used to play together as kids. Ever since Sora disappeared, she made another promise to herself that she wouldn't step foot on its sandy shores until she could reunite with him again.
Knowing that melancholic look in Kairi's eye all too well, Naminé gave her hand a tight squeeze. "He'll be back soon."
"I know...I just wish I was out there looking for him. Like he's always done for me."
When they made it back to the mayor's house, Kairi went straight to work on whipping up dinner for everyone. There was hardly any leftovers by the end of it, which she took as a resounding success, then they all retired for the night.
However, Kairi just couldn't close her eyes for the life of her. It didn't help that there was school tomorrow so she should've been fast asleep by now, but she kept on thinking about Sora and where among the many worlds he could possibly be.
'All I've been doing is standing around and waiting for him to come back to me. I can't sit around like this anymore. I need to find him no matter where it takes me.' She looked out of her window that had a perfect view of the small island. 'And I think I know how to do it.'
Kairi quietly gathered a backpack of her belongings, careful not to wake Naminé up, then snuck out of the house. She was on her way to the small boat that took them from island to island when she heard a voice from behind her.
"—Don't tell me you're going without me!"
She turned back to see Naminé with a worried look on her face. "Naminé...I'm sorry, I didn't want to drag you into this."
She shook her head. "What happened to you not letting me out of your sight? There's no way I'm letting you do this alone, we'll go together!" There was no talking Naminé down either, she boarded the boat so Kairi had no choice but to row them both to the other island.
"Kairi...you have the look on your face. You're not going to do something reckless, are you?" Naminé asked.
"Uh, kind of. I'm taking the gummiship and flying out to find Sora."
"The gummiship?"
"Mm hm, Riku left it on the island. I saw it out of my window."
"So you're just going to steal it...Do you even know how to use one?"
"Can't be that hard if Sora can use it!"
"Ehh if you say so."
Once they reached the island, Kairi used her keyblade to unlock the door and they ran inside. The interior lit up with about a million buttons and contraptions.
"I don't know Kairi, this is starting to feel wrong. Maybe we should tell Riku," Naminé said.
"No way, he's just gonna talk me out of it, I need to do this now before I change my mind! And I'll make sure to bring it back before he even notices it's gone!"
"You do seem pretty happy...okay, let's do it! Controlling this thing might be pretty complicated though, you think there's a manual somewhere?"
"No idea, but I don't think we'll need it." Kairi pointed her keyblade at the shield. "Let's take off and find Sora!"
Sure enough, the gummiship reacted with her keyblade and it lifted off into the sky. All the stars they were so used to seeing twinkle at night soon transformed into entire worlds right before their eyes.
Naminé pressed her hands on the shield and all the worry was swept away by her excitement. "Wow! No matter how many times I see space it never gets old!"
"I know, it's beautiful. And I know Sora has to be out there somewhere."
She nodded. "For sure!"
For a while, it was smooth sailing until they were surrounded by an army of space heartless. "This is bad! We need to take these guys out!" Kairi rushed over to the control panel and in a panic, she haphazardly keysmashed the buttons. The gummiship did everything from violently twisting around to deploying a second shield, but by the time Kairi got the hang of the controls, they were already under heavy fire.
"K-Kairi, do you know what-" Naminé choked on her words as the ship underwent another dodge roll. "Ughh...I think I'm gonna be sick..."
"I'm sorry, I'm trying to defeat these guys as fast as I can! Why is this so hard?!"
Red lights started blaring inside the ship.
EMERGENCY: GUMMISHIP AT 10 PERCENT HEALTH
"Oh no! Come on, work you stupid thing!" Out of sheer frustration, Kairi slammed her fists on the control panel and ended up breaking it. "Oh my gosh..." She slapped her hands over her mouth.
"Wha..,What happened?" Naminé saw the black smoke that was pouring out of the control panel. "Kairi- what did you do?!"
"It's okay! I think I can still fix this!"
EMERGENCY: EVACUATE GUMMISHIP IMMEDIATELY - ALL SYSTEMS DOWN
"Or maybe not!"
REPEAT: EVACUATE GUMMISHIP IMMEDIATELY - ALL SYSTEM DOWN
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
After their disastrous gummiship ride, they weren't exactly expecting to wake up in a bustling city of all places. Kairi and Naminé had somehow found themselves right in the middle of Shibuya City, as well as in the center of everyone's attention.
"-Where'd those two girls come from?"
"-And what's with that weird get up, are they cosplayers or something?"
"-Probably got lost on their way to Akihabara."
Kairi and Naminé exchanged worried glances while they helped each other up.
"This is a new world," Naminé said.
"Yeah...no kidding. How are we even gonna find our way around here, let alone look for Sora? It's so big and there's sooo many people!"
"I know, it's kind of overwhelming. Let's just walk around and see what information we can find."
The girls ventured around, absorbed by all of the sights the massive city had to offer. However, one thing that caught their eyes in particular was the 'Take Your Heart' slogan that was plastered across a couple of merchandise stores, accompanied by talk of the elusive 'Phantom Thieves of Heart'.
Kairi managed to get her hands on a torn poster with its iconic logo spread across it. "'Take Your Heart' huh? Apparently they're some kind of group, you think they take hearts like a heartless would?"
"I'm pretty sure there would be a lot more heartless around if that were the case."
"—Hey! You two girls over there! What're you two doing out of school?!"
Kairi put her arm over Naminé. "This could be trouble!"
An angry police officer marched over to them. "What's this? You don't even have your school uniforms on? So you were fully intending on skipping the whole day, were you?!"
"What're you talking about? We don't go to school here so stop bothering us!"
"Don't play dumb with me! You sure got the look of a delinquent with all those bright colors you're wearing. I bet you're one of those Shujin Academy brats, they seem to be getting a lot of attention lately."
"A delinquent?!"
"-Um, yes we do go to Shujin Academy!" Naminé cut in. "W-We were just really stressed about a test and wanted to avoid school for the day. I'm sorry if we caused you any trouble, we'll head back to class."
His angry face softened up a little. "I understand. Believe it or not I used to be a student as well, but kids like you should go to school so you can contribute to society. How about I escort you girls to class, eh?"
"That would be wonderful! Thank you so much, officer!"
"Hmph, you know your redhead friend here can learn a thing or two from a nice girl like yourself."
"You just caught her on a bad day, that's all."
"He's about to have a bad day," Kairi said under her breath.
"What was that?"
"Nothing!" Naminé said.
"Come on then, hop inside my cruiser. Aoyama-Itchome is a little ways from this part of Shibuya."
The girls went inside the officer's car, not the preferred mode of transportation, but Naminé was as excited as ever. "It's like we're in one of those crime TV shows, right? This is so cool!"
Kairi gave her a wry smile. "That's...one way to look at it."
"By the way officer, there's a lot of talk about these 'Phantom Thieves of Hearts', what do you know about them?" Naminé asked.
"Ehh they're all the talk these days, but I still think they're just a bunch of troublemakers sticking their nose where it doesn't belong. Though that's not exactly the popular opinion these days so what do I know." He stopped just outside the gates of Shujin Academy. "In any case, here we are girls, I better not see you skipping class again. Have a good day at school now."
"We will, thank you officer!"
As soon as he left, Kairi turned to Naminé. "That guy was a total jerk. Where did he get off calling me a 'delinquent'?"
"Oh I agree, but I kind of like you as delinquent Kairi. It makes you sound more hardcore!"
She chuckled. "Everyone's gonna have to watch out for the delinquent girl in the pink cat-eared hoodie."
"Looks can be deceiving, but we should try to keep a low profile going forward to avoid any unwanted attention."
"Then it was a good call to go here, there's nothing more unassuming than a couple of high school students. We can gather intel on the Phantom Thieves from all the students and find some leads on Sora!"
"Yep. Now we just need to figure out how to enroll."
They went through the doors of Shujin Academy, high school wasn't any new territory for them so they found the principal's office without any issue.
Principal Kobayakawa was quietly typing away at this computer when Kairi and Naminé walked in. "Huh? What're you two doing here? You should be in class- and where are your uniforms?"
"Well...we were actually looking to get enrolled here," Kairi said.
"Oh? More transfer students? As if one wasn't enough. Very well, why don't you bring your parents here and we can discuss our options."
"Our parents?"
"Or guardians if that's your situation."
"We're all we have...so please understand our circumstance," Naminé said.
"I see. Unfortunately, unless someone can arrange the proper documentation for you two, I'm afraid you won't be able to enroll in our school."
"Hold on-" Kairi pulled out her current student ID. "Here's an ID card from our last school, she has one on her too. We just got here, but I'll be able to find somewhere for us to stay by tonight so I can get a proof of whatever it's called by tomorrow."
"I suppose that's a start." He stroked his chin. "If you can provide a proof of residency. then I'll consider making some arrangements. Shujin Academy is currently going through...unprecedented times so we could use the boost in enrollment."
"Awesome! I'll get everything back to you tomorrow, hopefully we can start school by then! Thanks again!" Once they left his office, Kairi let out a huge sigh. "I can't believe we did it! I'm not excited about the school part, but at least we'll be able to blend in as students."
"You sure had a lot of confidence in front of the principal, but how are we going to find somewhere to stay exactly? It won't be an easy task."
"Aw, you worry too much Naminé. I brought some munny with me just in case so we should be set!"
"This world doesn't use munny. I noticed that their currency here is called Yen."
"—Excuse me, but shouldn't you girls be in class by now?"
"Here we go again."
This time it was a teacher who walked up to them. She was on the younger side with unkempt, dark brown hair and the most tired look they'd ever seen on a teacher's face. "Oh? I don't believe I've seen you two here before, new students?"
"Yep, we're in the process of getting enrolled right now," Kairi said.
"Is that so? Excuse me for asking this, but are you from around here? I don't mean to assume, you just don't typically see anyone around here with blue eyes if you know what I mean. Unless there's a new trend going on with the youth that I'm unaware of."
"No, we're actually from super far away, we just recently came here."
"Wow, so we have more foreign students then? How exciting and your Japanese is already really good so you shouldn't have any trouble adjusting here! By the way, are you two sisters? You both just look so similar to each other."
"That's a good cover..."
"Hm?"
She nodded. "I-I mean, yep we're sisters! I'm the oldest so I have to take care of both of us. You don't by chance know of any hotels nearby that accept outside money, do you?"
Her eyebrows furrowed. "Oh...so it's just you two then." She looked around the hallways to make sure no one else was around, then slipped Kairi some money. "It's not much, but that should help you get by, at least for a night or two. "
"Thank you, really, but there's no way I can take this from you. You don't have to worry, we'll manage on our own!"
"I insist. Kids like you shouldn't assume the role of adults while you're still so young. Cherish this time while you can."
There was a dead serious look on her face so Kairi took the money. "Uh- Th-Thank you so much for your kindness, ma'am!"
"Don't mention it and my name is Ms. Kawakami. I hope to see you girls in my class." With that, she disappeared down the long hallway.
"She was so kind to us, I feel bad for taking this money," Kairi said.
"It's not like we can go back home any time soon so we do need it. We'll just return the favor to her."
"Good idea! Let's head back to that big city we were just at- it was called Shibuya, right? We should be able to find a cheap hotel there."
"That officer said we needed to use the subway to get back there."
"Sounds like a plan. I'll leave figuring out what lines we need to take to you."
She giggled. "Alright, Kairi."
They left the academy and went to the subway station. Naminé successfully navigated through the underground labyrinth and they were on their way back to Shibuya. Unfortunately, their ride was abruptly put on pause.
**Attention all passengers: There will be a slight delay for the Ginza Line heading towards Shibuya City. We apologize for the inconvenience and are trying to resolve this problem as soon as possible.
"-Ugh are you serious? I'm gonna be late for work at this rate!"
"-You don't think it's another one of those mental shutdowns, do you?"
"I hope it's nothing serious," Naminé said.
All of a sudden, they heard a scratching at one of the windows, then a heartless peered inside. "They're here too? I bet they're what's delaying the subway." Kairi stood up, her keyblade forming in her hand.
"Be careful, Kairi."
"These guys should be no problem." As she ran down the subway carts, she received various comments from the passengers that were downright confusing.
"-Whoa, where did that girl get that bat from?"
"-Is she one of those delinquent girls?! As if we didn't have problems already."
'Spiked bat? Don't they see this cute keyblade I have in my hands? Whatever, they can believe what they want.' She made it to the front where the subway conductors were busy trying to calm down the angry passengers.
"We're in contact with the police, but this will take some time. Please be patient with us and return to your seats!"
Kairi pushed her way through the crowd. "You don't have to call the police, I can fight the heartless!"
"They are certainly heartless people, but this is no job for a little girl. Return to your seat and wait on the police."
"Please let me through, I'm the only one who can stop them and I don't want anyone else to get hurt!"
"What're you going on about? Just please return to your seat already."
"Wha- you don't see all those monsters out there?"
"Monsters?" He shook his head dismissively. "I get it now. You're one of those teens who get strung up on drugs. I don't want to have to report you to the police."
"Ugh, forget this!" She forced her way outside to the tunnels and sure enough there were dozens of heartless crawling around. Luckily they were just a bunch of shadows so defeating them wasn't a problem. She triumphantly returned to the subway and was met with wide-eye stares and gaping mouths.
"D-Damn, that girl just took on all those thugs like they were nothing!" One of the passengers said.
"Yeah, she's a lot scarier than she looks."
"I got it all on camera too, this is gonna get so many likes!"
"Uh, thank you miss. I apologize for my previous behavior. I'll...overlook the weapon you brought since you did save everyone a headache," The subway conductor said.
"Sure...no problem." 'Those heartless were right in front of them but it's like they saw something completely different. This is so weird.' When she came back to Naminé, they were once again the center of everyone's attention, making the rest of the way to Shibuya an uncomfortable ride.
"You saw those heartless too, right Naminé?" Kairi asked as they were leaving the station.
"Definitely, those were no doubt heartless."
"Then...there's way more going on with this world than we thought."
"If the residents here perceive the heartless as real people and your keyblade as a bat then things could get ugly. We better figure out what's going on soon."
They found themselves a decent looking hotel to stay at, it wasn't much, but it would help them get by while they were still stranded in a strange world.
Naminé plopped down on the bed. "It feels great to finally take a break! We've had such a long day. So how do you think Riku's gonna take the whole us stealing the gummiship thing and ending up here."
She groaned. "Don't even remind me. He's gonna be sooo mad! Oh... I'm sorry Naminé...it's all my fault we're in this mess anyway. If i'd just listen to you then we'd be back at home by now."
"Aw, don't beat yourself up over it... I haven't had an adventure like this in a while so who knows what'll happen! Maybe we'll even be the ones to find Sora!"
"You think so?"
"Well, I don't know for sure, but we'll make the most out of our time here!"
"Yeah, you're right! We're in a new world, it won't be so bad...right? We'll figure something out like we always do and have some fun while we're at it!"