Kairi

Kairi (カイリ?) is the best friend of Sora and Riku, and one of the seven "Princesses of Heart". She is an original character created by Tetsuya Nomura for the Kingdom Hearts series.[1] Nomura has stated that Kairi's name can be interpreted as "sea";[17] the Japanese on'yomi pronunciation of sea is kai (海?).[16] She is voiced by Risa Uchida in the Japanese version of the series and is voiced in English by Hayden Panettiere in the first two games and Alyson Stoner in Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories. As a child in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, she is voiced by Sumire Morohoshi in the Japanese version.

Kairi was originally a resident of Radiant Garden, having encountered Aqua and Mickey at age five as they sensed the light in her heart that made her a target of the Unversed. Some time after, a few years before the events of Kingdom Hearts, Kairi was sent to Destiny Island by Xehanort in an experiment to test the connection between a Princess of Heart and a Keyblade bearer.[19] At the beginning of the main series, she is fourteen years old.[20] When Destiny Island is destroyed by Heartless, Kairi's heart is separated from her body, creating her Nobody Naminé, and soon enters Sora's body, leading him to see visions of Kairi and parts of her past. Riku, searching for a way to revive her, brings Kairi's empty and unresponsive body to Hollow Bastion where her identity as a Princess of Heart is revealed along with the location of her heart. Learning of this, Sora travels to Hollow Bastion, gives up his heart in order to release hers and restore her heart back into her body. Since Sora's heart has also left his body, this creates Roxas, Sora's Nobody, and transforms himself into a Heartless in the process. Soon after, Kairi finds Sora's Heartless and restores him back to human form. After Xehanort's Heartless is defeated, Kairi is left behind on the reforming Destiny Islands and separated from Sora. Sora promises to return to her with Riku, and Kairi waits on the island for their return.

During Chain of Memories, Naminé's memory-altering powers break the memories in Sora's heart as well as those of his friends on Destiny Islands. In Kingdom Hearts II, Kairi, and all of Sora's friends, slowly begin to remember Sora. Kairi sends a letter she wrote out to sea in hopes that it will find its way to him. After Sora's memories had been restored by Naminé, Kairi is confronted by Axel, who hopes to use Kairi to lure Sora to him. With the help of Pluto, Kairi evades him and escapes through a dark portal that mysteriously opens taking her to Twilight Town, but is captured by Axel soon after. However, Saïx takes Kairi from Axel and imprisons her and Pluto in a jail cell in the World That Never Was. She escapes her cell with the help of Naminé and they are saved from Saïx by Riku, in the guise of Xehanort's Heartless. Riku gives her the Keyblade Destiny Place which she uses to fight off the Heartless that Saïx summons. Kairi and Riku are reunited with Sora, and along with Donald, Goofy and King Mickey, the group face and defeat Xemnas. Kairi then returns to Destiny Islands with Sora and Riku, but a while later, decides to give her lucky charm to Sora again as he goes on another quest in response to a letter sent by King Mickey.