Editing Kairi

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|image=[[File:Kairi KHII.png|250px]]

|enva2n=(''Re:COM'', ''Days'')

|java2=Sumire Moroboshi

|game2=Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

|game5=Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

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'''Kairi''' is one of several original characters appearing in ''[[Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep]]'', ''[[Kingdom Hearts (game)|Kingdom Hearts]]'', ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories]]'' and ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'', and also one of the main characters in the series. She is the original persona of [[Naminé]]. Kairi was born in [[Radiant Garden]] and currently lives on [[Destiny Islands]] along with her two best friends, [[Sora]] and [[Riku]]. She is four during ''Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep'', fourteen during ''Kingdom Hearts'' and fifteen during ''Kingdom Hearts II''. Kairi's name is derived from the Japanese word for {{nihongo|"sea"|海|Kai}}, though her full name is homophonous with the word for {{nihongo|"nautical mile"|海里|Kairi}}.

[[File:Magic to Keep Kairi Safe 02 KHBBS.png|220px|thumb|left|A young Kairi with Aqua and Mickey after they rescued her from the Unversed.]]

Kairi was born in Radiant Garden, where she lives with her [[Kairi's Grandma|grandmother]]. One day, she is chased by a group of [[Unversed]] and encounters [[Aqua]], who senses a pure light in her heart, since she is a [[Princess of Heart]]. Frightened, Kairi touches Aqua's Keyblade, unintentionally [[bequeathing]] her her own Keyblade. As she and Aqua are about to be attacked, [[Mickey Mouse|King Mickey]] arrives and Aqua evacuates Kairi before returning to fight alongside Mickey.

===''Kingdom Hearts''===

{{Q|Say, Kairi. What was your hometown like?|Sora to Kairi}}

One year after these events, Radiant Garden became shrouded by darkness and everyone was scattered across the universe; Kairi appears on the Destiny Islands during a meteor shower. Though it was believed that [[Ansem, Seeker of Darkness]] had sent Kairi to the islands as an experiment to test any possible connection between the Keyblade wielders and the Princesses of Heart, her arrival was actually due to the protection spell Aqua had cast on her one year earlier.<ref>'''''[[Kingdom Hearts Ultimania|Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Ultimania]]''''' "Nine years before ''Kingdom Hearts'', Kairi was thrust into the outside world, and found herself on Sora and Riku's world. Ansem, Seeker of Darkness thought that she had been able to search for a Keyblade wielder, but what actually saved her was the magic spell Aqua had put on her."</ref>  

{{canon}}

In the manga, Kairi washes up on the shore. Sora, then five years old as well, carefully approaches her as she awakes and asks, "Who are you? Where did you come from?"

{{canonend}}

Kairi later becomes very close friends with Sora and Riku, who playfully compete for her attention. She often supports these competitions, although she does not know they were contests for her affection and not just innocent rivalry. She bears no memory of her life before the Islands, and her mysterious past sparks curiosity in Sora and Riku, who are anxious to leave Destiny Islands and see other worlds. This leads the trio to build a raft in the hopes of traveling to other worlds. However, before they can leave, their islands are attacked by the [[Heartless]], and Sora finds Kairi in their Secret Place. She turns towards him, looking sad and a little ill, and then a huge gust of wind sweeps through a door in the back of the cave and Kairi flies towards him. Sora opens his arms to catch her, but she vanishes right as she is about to be swept into his embrace.

[[File:Destiny Islands 01 KH.png|thumb|right|Sora and Kairi watch the sunset.]]

During this time, it is speculated that Kairi's heart chose Sora as a vessel and when she passed through him, her heart was left behind in him while her body vanished to some distant world. She then becomes the game's driving force, as much of the game's story centers around Sora's and Riku's attempts at finding Kairi. However, Riku is hostile to Sora (having been manipulated by [[Maleficent]] into believing that Sora no longer cared for either Kairi or himself).

Throughout Sora's journey, he encounters multiple images of Kairi without knowing about Kairi's heart being a part of his. First, when he wakes up in a motel room after his fight with [[Leon]], and sees [[Yuffie]] in Kairi's form and mistakes her to be Kairi until she tells him who she is. Later when he visits the Magician's Study behind the door of the Third District, Kairi appears to him and tells him how much the study reminds her of their Secret Place, but she disappears when [[Goofy]] calls to him. When Sora crash lands into [[Deep Jungle]], she reappears again for a short moment, right behind [[Tarzan]], then disappears again. Finally, before setting off to [[Hollow Bastion]], Goofy and Donald encourage Sora to believe in himself, then Kairi says from within "I believe in you." before pulling him into one of her lost memories about her grandmother telling her younger self a story about the light. These encounters speculate that Kairi was experiencing Sora's journey from within his heart, including befriending Donald and Goofy.

[[File:A Sad Memory 02 KHREC.png|thumb|left|180px|During a flashback shown to Data-Sora, Kairi appears on Neverland's clock tower.]]

Their friendship severed for the time being, Sora continues his journey, destined to clash with Riku in the near future once again over Kairi.

 

Eventually, Sora follows Riku and Maleficent to the world of Hollow Bastion where he too learns of Kairi's fate. However, Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, while possessing Riku, reveals that Kairi's heart has been resting within Sora all along, which explains all the visions he has had of her during his journey. Furthermore, Kairi is one of the Princesses of Heart, a maiden whose heart holds no darkness, and is needed to open the [[Final Keyhole]]. He then attempts to take her heart from Sora, but he defends himself to protect it. After winning a fight and driving Ansem from Hollow Bastion, Sora sacrifices himself using the [[Keyblade of heart]] to free Kairi's heart, and is turned into a [[Shadow Form|Shadow Heartless]]. Awakened as her heart is finally restored, Kairi runs towards him, but as soon as her fingers touch him, he vanishes. Refusing to believe that Sora is gone, Kairi prepares to fight the Shadow Heartless that surround her, along with Donald and Goofy.

[[File:A Connecting Dream 08 KHII.png|thumb|right|Kairi brings Sora back from the darkness.]]

However, once Ansem reappears and Riku's spirit stops him from attacking Kairi, she flees. Devastated, she, along with Donald and Goofy, attempt to escape from Hollow Bastion. But just as they are cornered by the Heartless, she recognizes [[Sora's Heartless]] from the crowd and manages to bring Sora back from the darkness by embracing him and promising to protect him. The group escapes Hollow Bastion, revealed to be Kairi's home world, and find shelter in [[Traverse Town]] where she could be protected by Leon and the others.

After the worlds are restored, Kairi visits the Secret Place and looks at the pictures that she and her friends had drawn over the years. After spotting the picture that Sora had drawn of him giving her a [[Paopu Fruit]], she is moved to tears and adds onto it, so that it depicts herself and Sora exchanging two halves of a Paopu fruit.

===''Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories''===

While Kairi continues to wait for Sora and Riku to return home to Destiny Islands, her memories of Sora fade due to Naminé's interference.

Kairi appears in Roxas and Xion's dreams and memories, due to pieces of Sora's memories finding their ways to them. After [[Roxas]] wakes from his coma, [[Xion]] gives him a seashell, and when Roxas puts it up to his ear, he sees a memory that depicts Sora and Kairi on a beach looking at the sunset. Later, in Xion's nightmare, Kairi is seen waking up Sora. Roxas sees a memory of Kairi during a mission in Destiny Islands and remarks that she looks like Xion. And during Xion's coma, she dreams of the time when Sora sacrifices himself to restore Kairi's heart in Hollow Bastion. Kairi is also mentioned by Riku and Xion when they were having a conversation on Destiny Islands.

Because Xion is an imperfect Replica of Roxas, created from Sora's leaked memories as a fail-safe in case both Sora and Roxas proved to be useless to Organization XIII's plans, her appearance greatly resembles Kairi, since Sora's memories of Kairi were the strongest ones when she was created.  

Kairi, now fifteen years old, lives her life normally on Destiny Islands. She attends school alongside Selphie, and has noticeably matured, sporting longer hair and more defined features. With both Riku and Sora gone, she seems to have become less spunky, often pondering the fate of Sora, whom she can barely remember.

[[File:A Letter to a Boy 01 KHII.png|left|thumb|Kairi and Selphie sending the letter.]]

She misses Sora, but most of her memories of him have faded away because of Naminé's interfering with his own memories. One day, while walking home from school with Selphie, her heart is put into contact with a young boy named Roxas, later revealed to be Sora's [[Nobody]]. It appeared that Roxas was trying to contact Naminé, Kairi's Nobody, and ended up reaching her instead. During this conversation, Roxas brings up Sora, and, when Kairi inquires about his name, Sora himself, despite being in stasis, somehow uses Roxas as a conduit to talk to her, chastises her for forgetting his name, and jokingly gives her a hint: "Starts with an 'S'!". Soon afterwards, Kairi sends [[Kairi's Letter|a letter in a bottle]] out to sea in hopes that it would reach Sora one day, and immediately remembers his name and possibly everything else about him.  

One day, [[Axel]] comes to Destiny Islands and tells Kairi to come with him. When she refuses, Axel summons a group of Nobodies, but is saved when she runs off into a nearby portal with King Mickey's dog, [[Pluto]], into [[Twilight Town]] and meets [[Hayner]], [[Pence]] and [[Olette]]. She befriends them, immediately fitting in with the three and going as far as to explain for whom she is searching. To her joy, Hayner, Pence, and Olette know Sora, assuring her that she could stay in Twilight Town until his next visit.

Unfortunately, she is found again by Axel and forcibly taken by him, with Olette, Hayner, and Pence unable to stop him. However [[Saïx]] finds Axel with Kairi and takes her to [[The World That Never Was]] as a prisoner, stating that she is the "fire that feeds Sora's anger". Kairi is devastated, thinking all hope is lost until she is freed by her Nobody, Naminé. Naminé uses a Corridor of Darkness to allow them to escape the cell, telling Kairi to believe in herself.

The two's attempt to escape is stopped by Saïx and two [[Berserker]] Nobodies who offer to take Kairi to Sora. Once she refuses, Saïx gets ready to send the Nobodies to attack the two girls only to be saved by a cloaked figure. Naminé hints at who the cloaked figure is, causing him to pause as Kairi strides towards him to remove the hood. Her guess is correct and it is indeed Riku even though his appearance has changed to that of Xehanort's Heartless, though she takes this in stride and is just happy to be reunited with Riku. He leads her to Sora and is attacked by a group of Heartless. He hands Kairi a Keyblade named Destiny's Embrace, and they successfully fend off the remaining Heartless. She is then reunited with Sora with a touching hug between these two. She stops Ansem (Riku) from leaving and shows Sora that Ansem is really Riku.  

The three along with Donald and Goofy face off against Luxord and Saïx to get to Xemnas. Kairi acts as a pillar of support during these battles more than an actual participant - as Luxord's battle leaves them caged by cards and Saïx uses a shockwave to force both her and Riku (using his body to shield her) behind a barrier so he can battle alone with Sora, Donald, and Goofy.  

 

After they defeat Xemnas, they arrive at the shore of [[Dark Meridian]]. Kairi's letter washes up on shore and Sora reads it. The Door To Light appears and the two boys go through it and arrive at Destiny Islands shores as Kairi shouts for them. Sora excitedly swims towards her but Donald and Goofy jump at Sora first and Mickey jumps at Riku. They hug Sora, then Sora shows her the lucky charm and replies to Kairi "W-We're back!" while Kairi corrects him, saying "You're home" and extends her hand. As Sora takes her hand, he simultaneously returns the lucky charm to her.

For a brief moment, Roxas and Naminé are shown smiling back at each other, just as Sora and Kairi are.

[[File:Ending 07 KHII.png|thumb|right|Kairi rushes to Sora with the King's letter in hand.]]

[[File:Terra and Aqua 01 KH3D.png|thumb|left|220px|Illusions of Kairi and Riku in The World That Never Was.]]

[[File:My Friends Are My Power! 02 KH3D.png|thumb|right|220px|Visions of Kairi and Sora's other friends are produced by his heart to aid him.]]

As Xigbar and [[Xemnas]] reveal the [[True Organization XIII|true nature]] of the Organization to Sora, he is outraged by their disregard for the value of people's hearts. When Xigbar brings into question the strength of Sora's own heart, he pauses momentarily before saying with conviction that the Keyblade may not have chosen him, but that he was proud to be connected to those who it did choose. Kairi momentarily appears behind him, Keyblade in hand, alongside all the other friends connected in Sora's heart. The immense power of all the intertwined hearts unnerves Xigbar, who flees, leaving Xemnas to battle with Sora.

==Appearance==

Kairi's appearance shows the most growth with aging of the trio of main characters. Typically Kairi has dark red hair, violet-blue eyes, a pale complexion, and a necklace with a silver bead that is only absent when she wears her school uniform.

At age fourteen, during the events of ''Kingdom Hearts'', she wears a white top with a black one underneath (the black one shows at her collarbone and at the hem) which slightly exposes her navel, purple bike shorts underneath a purple skirt with a blue belt, and white slip-on shoes with purple caps. She also features a black choker, a yellow wristband as well as a purple arm band on her left arm and a pair of bracelets on her right arm.

In ''Kingdom Hearts II'', Kairi is taller, her hair is longer and has become a darker shade of red, her bangs part to the opposite side, and her body has developed into that of a young woman.  

She dons two outfits in ''Kingdom Hearts II'': her school uniform which features a white shirt of which she has rolled up the sleeves, a sky blue striped tie which she has slightly loosen up, a matching skirt with navy knee-high stockings and black shoes; and then her main outfit which mainly contains a pink strapless mini-dress made up of three zippers (two appear to be just decorative) as well as a white halter top underneath her mini-dress with a black hood. She also sports three bracelets on her left wrist, a black belt reminiscent of suspenders with a note book shaped bag attachment, and lilac sneakers.

Kairi is caring, kindhearted, and not afraid to speak her mind. However, she is determined and courageous when someone she cares about is in danger, often risking her own safety to help that person. In ''Kingdom Hearts II'' she becomes slightly more withdrawn because of Sora's absence, having obtained wisdom usually beyond someone of her age. She's not as brash and bold as she was in the first game, but is still sociable. Kairi also makes friends easily, quickly befriending Hayner, Pence, and Olette in Twilight Town before being kidnapped by Axel. She's usually always very cheerful and upbeat and seems to be bit of a tomboy as well. In contrast to Sora and Riku, who were both bothered by not knowing about Kairi's hometown, she took it in stride and was able to look at the positives about living in the Destiny Islands. She is loyal and headstrong, and she can be rather stubborn sometimes.  

As a child in ''Kingdom Heart Birth by Sleep'', she is shown to have some affection for flowers, as she appears with flowers in her hand and is picking more during the final credits. But she won't hesitate to give them away in gratitude, like giving them to Aqua as thanks for saving her from the Unversed. Also, her Keyblade, Destiny's Embrace, has a floral design.  

While the bond of friendship between Sora, Riku, and Kairi is very strong, Kairi seems to be particularly important to Sora, and vice versa. Though it has yet to be confirmed, Kairi's feelings for Sora have been hinted at several times. She jokes about her and Sora taking the raft, just the two of them. She embraces Sora's Heartless as the other Shadows jump on them. She gives him her Wayfinder in hopes it will bring him back to her. The face sketch on said Wayfinder resembles Sora. She sheds a tear when she sees that Sora added a paopu fruit to their drawings of each other they did as kids, and even adds another. Kairi was the only person on the Islands to have any recollection of Sora, and felt guilty that she couldn't remember his voice, face, or even his name. When Kairi tells the Twilight Trio about how she was looking for Sora, Olette says that it was "a romantic story." When Saïx asks her if she wanted to see Sora, she answers "I do, more than anything." After reuniting with Sora, she hugs him, confirming it's really him. When Sora tells her that he has to leave again, she just smiles and, once again, gives him her Wayfinder.

===Powers as a Princess of Heart===

Because Kairi is a Princess of Heart, her heart possesses no darkness within it, leading to the unique birth of Naminé when she accidentally gives it to Sora, who later sacrificed himself to restore her heart. Should her heart be lost, her body will remain in a dormant state until it returns, as revealed in the first game when her heart was lost.

*Like the other princesses, she has the power to open the Final Keyhole to [[Kingdom Hearts]] in Hollow Bastion once she is gathered with the rest of the princesses. This could be considered as the princesses' main power.

*Kairi also appears to have some kind of latent magical ability, as seen when she manages to restore Sora's humanity after he becomes a Heartless. However, it could imply that she is only able to restore him because they share the strongest connection.

*Since the other Princesses of Heart possess the abilities to hold back darkness and upgrade other people's powers, it is no doubt that Kairi can do so as well.

*Aqua cast a charm on Kairi in ''Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep'' so that if she was ever captured by darkness, her light would lead her to the light of another. In an interview, Tetsuya Nomura stated it was this charm that led Kairi to Destiny Islands.

*She additionally has the ability to sense darkness, as the other Princesses of Heart are able to tell Sora of a [[End of the World|great darkness]] nearby. It may also imply to why she was looking ill when Destiny Islands was devoured by the darkness before she disappeared.

*In the manga, according to Axel, Kairi is able to travel through the Corridor of Darkness without any negative effects because she is a Princess of Heart.

===Keyblade wielding===

[[File:The Heroes, Together Again at Last 02 KHII.png|250px|thumb|right|Kairi holding Destiny's Embrace.]]

Kairi is able to wield a Keyblade due to her having touched [[Rainfell|Aqua's Keyblade]] many years prior to the events of ''Kingdom Hearts''.<ref>'''''Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Ultimania''''' "The Keyblade inheritance ceremony is performed with a Keyblade master touches someone using a Keyblade. When Kairi was running away from the Unversed in ''Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep'' she grabbed Aqua's Keyblade, which performed the ceremony. That is why she is able to use a Keyblade in ''Kingdom Hearts II'' to help Sora."</ref> Kairi's abilities in combat are limited. Kairi cannot do much when she is in danger—she has to depend on Sora or Riku to come to her aid, and as such, she is fairly easily captured. This is seen when Axel merely grabbed Kairi by the wrist and effortlessly dragged her along with him; though, in the manga, she is shown to be more aggressive and tries to put up a fight, throwing punches at Nobodies and biting Axel's hand. During the events that take place in The World That Never Was, Riku hands her Destiny's Embrace, allowing Kairi to protect herself without any help. She is shown to be fairly competent with it, and was shown to take out two Heartless on her own in one cutscene. Her potential is recognized by Yen Sid, who has Riku bring her to him to begin training with the Keyblade to become stronger.

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File:Kairi (Young) KH.png|Young Kairi

File:Kairi KHHD.png|Kairi's initial attire

File:Kairi (School uniform) KHII.png|Kairi in her school uniform.

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