A New Keybearer
Chapter 3: Trip to Radiant Gardens

“We’re going to fly in that?”

After everyone had said their goodbyes the group was ready to head out again. It had taken longer than they had hoped since Sora’s mother wouldn’t let him leave. However, after a long explanation, with the help of King Mickey, she consented for Sora to go, not that that was going to stop him in the first place. However, at the moment everyone was standing in front of the gummi ship.

“Yes Kairi. Don’t worry the gummi ship is perfectly safe. I’ll be flying it so there’s nothing to worry about.”

In unison Riku and Kairi said “That is a reason to worry.”

“Why is the gummi ship on the group in the first place? Don’t we normally get teleported in?” stated Donald.

Kairi felt something on her shoulder and looked over to see a small chipmunk
there. “Well Dale and I wanted to meet your friends too.”

“Yeah, we wanted to know what we flew to all those different worlds for.” Sora and Kairi tried not to laugh as Riku was glaring at the chipmunk that, while originally was on top of Riku’s head,  now was currently hanging upside down in order to look Riku in the eye.

“Wait you flew the gummi ship here?”

Both Chip and Dale stated in unison “Well you’re not one to talk Sora.”

“Oh yeah, oops . . .  well let’s go.”

Reluctantly everyone started to board the ship and Sora started to grin. “Yep, nothing to worry about. I’m sure we won’t get attacked by heartless or nobodies this time.”

Kairi stopped dead in her tracks. “You mean they are in between worlds too?” Sora just kept walking pretending he didn’t hear her. “Sora!” Kairi began to run after him and ran into the gummi ship. By the time she reached him the door closed and Kairi realized that everyone was inside. When she looked back at Sora he was sitting down in a chair that seemed to have controls for the ship.

“You guys might want to hold onto something.” Sora said as he started to push buttons on his console. Kairi looked around but didn’t find anything she could grab onto. Desperately, she started moving to the front of the ship with the hopes of something to hold onto when she was pushed up against the back wall as the ship took off. After the ship had left Destiny Islands and started to slow down Kairi was finally able to regain her footing. Sora was looking at something, she couldn’t see what exactly, when he mumbled “It’s farther away than I thought.”

At this moment Kairi felt confident enough to walk again and stormed to the front of the ship. She scowled as she looked at Sora and said “What did you do that for?”

Looking back at her he replied “I did warn you.”

“But you didn’t give me enough time to find anything to hold onto.”

Sora just shrugged. “I’m sorry Kairi.” And he whispered so only Kairi could hear “you can hold onto me next time.” Kairi started blushing and decided to change the subject as quickly as possible. “So where are we going anyways?”

“We’re going to Radiant Garden. It’s farther away than I hoped it would be. I’ve never flown the gummi ship from Destiny Islands before so I didn’t know how far away it was in relation to other worlds. It won’t take too long to get there though.”

Kairi was about to ask why they were going to Radiant Garden, and even where that was, when her eyes saw a gigantic window in front of them. She was at a loss for words as she saw them fly by all the different worlds. The word amazing came nowhere near close to describing what she was seeing. Kairi stayed quiet for a few minutes and just enjoyed the view. Sora looked up at her.

“Are you alright Kairi?”

“I’m fine Sora.” She once again went silent and Sora spoke a little quicker this time.

“Are you sure? I mean you have hardly said a word in the last few minutes.” Sora stated, afraid that Kairi was still annoyed at him for his prank.

“It’s beautiful, that’s all.” Seeing Kairi wasn’t angry with him anymore he went back to flying the ship.

Kairi stayed quiet until they reached their destination. While getting ready for the ship to land Kairi grabbed the back of Sora’s chair but she was surprised when the ship instantly disappeared. Since the chair she was leaning against wasn’t there anymore she fell directly onto Sora. Kairi tried to jump back but she lost her balance and started falling backwards. Sora grabbed her arm and pulled her upright.

“Careful Kairi, we wouldn’t want you to fall.” Sora kept on grinning as Kairi started to blush.

“Where are we Sora?”

“Oh, sorry about that. Welcome to--”

“Sora!” Everyone looked around but they couldn’t see anyone. Then, with a puff of smoke, Yuffie appeared behind Sora. “You’re back!” Sora turned around to see Yuffie and smiled.

“Yeah, I was hoping to see Merlin actually. He’s home right?”

“Yep.” Looking behind Sora Yuffie saw Riku, Kairi, and King Mickey in addition to the normal group. “Oh who’s this? Did you guys find who you were looking for?”

“Yeah. This is Kairi, Riku, and King Mickey.” Sora gestured to each respectively.

“That’s great. I’ll go ahead and tell the others.” With that she ran ahead of them towards Merlin’s house.

“C’mon you guys, let’s go.” As they started walking Kairi reached Sora again.

“Sora, you never answered my question.” Sora looked at her for a second and then his face brightened.

“Oh, Kairi this is Radiant Garden.” With that he began walking out of the market place. Kairi followed him while feeling that there was a lot more needing to be explained and that she had somehow been here before. She continued to think on this when Sora turned around to look at Kairi. “You should be careful around here. There’s a chance there might be heartless.”

“Alright but I thought you said that the heartless haven’t been around . . .” Kairi thought she saw a weird shadow out of the corner of her eye for just a moment “here.”

“You noticed too.” Sora whispered.

“We’re surrounded.” Riku said while moving closer to Kairi.

She was nervous. Even though she had fought heartless she didn’t really have that much success. Maybe if they just pretended they hadn’t seen them the heartless wouldn’t attack, right? However, at that moment Kairi’s keyblade manifested in her hand and the heartless attacked.

A Morningstar appeared above them and Sora grabbed Kairi, barely saving her from being crushed under his attack. Shadows surrounded them and the attack really begun. During most of the fight Kairi remained surrounded by her friends so fighting, for her, wasn’t really an option. After a moment Sora drew away from the group so he could defeat a heartless that was always just out of reach. While fighting the heartless he failed to notice that another Morningstar appeared right above him, but Kairi did.

“Sora!” Without thinking she placed her keyblade in front of her, holding it with both hands, and she focused all her energy into the keyblade. A light shone through the keyblade and it struck the offending heartless and froze him in midair. With another shot it was defeated. All the heartless seemed to disappear as everyone defeated their foes, leaving the area peaceful once again.

“You’re right on time I see.” Everyone turned to see a funny old man with a long, white beard wearing a blue robe and hat.

“Merlin.” Sora beamed and ran over to greet his friend.

The magician smiled back at him. “It’s good to see you too Sora. I see you’ve found your friends.” Sora proceeded to introduce everyone to Merlin. “It’s a pleasure to meet you all.” Merlin then turned to look at Kairi. “That was some powerful magic young lady. I’m curious to know who you learned it from.”

“M-Magic! That was magic?”

“Yes it was. Are you saying that was your first time casting magic?”

Sora piped up at this question. “Yeah it was. This is why we came here Merlin.” Looking around Sora saw that heartless could once again be seen in the shadows. “Why don’t we continue this inside.”