It's a tricky one, and I'll tell you just why.
There's quite a few days in which Riku and Xion were apparently together, but we've no idea what went on there. As the Ultimania itself said -
This goes on for about 20 days. Quite a bit could happen during that time, especially seeing how this period of time began with them meeting on DI and ending with Xion and Riku showing up before Axel and Roxas in TLTW.
Eh... That's all hearsay. Can't really be sure of where they went.
Them showing up in Twilight Town has very little to do with anything relating to Destiny Islands, so that part of it is eh... That shows me that they weren't staying in one place, they were hopping around. This again is reason for me to doubt Xion having had much exposure to Destiny Islands in that time to become so attached to it that a Keyblade inspired by her would be based primarily off of that world...
*shrugs* It's possible she spent some considerable time there, as
when Roxas woke up, Xion said she had gotten to go to the beach... She also brought him seashells, which I doubt she found around Twilight Town, Halloween Town, The World/Castle That Never Was, Agrabah, Wonderland, etc... MAYBE Neverland, but I believe Roxas scouted that out after he woke up from that slumber... I was too quick to judge. D:
This is more to him than to you but since you're the messenger:
Xion's Memories had within them Memories of wielding a Keyblade, not the Soul Eater. And then of course we have Ven complicating things. More so than the act of her giving Roxas the Memories back waking the Keyblade up, I'd put my money on what Memories she gave back, linking back to Ven.
To top it all, Roxas was seen with both Keyblades immediately after the Xion fight. Riku most likely had a period of time with a single Keyblade, before the Memories would've 'kicked in'. And if Memories of Kairi pulled it along I fail to see why give so much significance to an act that took place more than a year before.
I had the info slightly off.
Spoiler ShowKnowing that Xion and Repliku are both replicas, let’s compare their deaths. Xion returns to Sora as his memories. This process allows Roxas to dual wield, and we see that Xion’s memories are connected with the Oblivion keyblade (when she talks to Riku through it).
Now, Repliku, when dying, wondered where his “heart” would go. And while Riku offered that it may go to the same place as his, we now have a definitive answer.
When Repliku died, his memories (including the ones he got from Riku) went to Riku, in a process known as Reverse/Rebirth (Unversed/Birth by Sleep, except the opposite. The Unversed memories become reversed in the original being, and the replica is “reborn” into the original so to speak. I don’t think Nomura meant this at the time of making CoM, obviously, but the term is something that could be used in retrospect). While this did not allow Riku to dual wield, you should note of something that happened when he did become capable of dual wielding. The Gayblade has a papou keychain... or rather, Namine’s good luck charm. So I believe Repliku’s memories do in fact play a part in his ability to dual wield, even if it wasn’t right away.
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So nevermind it. >>; Bug him there about it if you don't agree. He seems to more agree with the XH ideas, anyway, in terms of Gayblade.
Aqua knowing about the Paopu means she knew about DI, which is significant because it was before the Worlds were Connected. That's neither here nor there, though. I get your point and have been trying for a while to come up with something to refute it, but I've just decided to drop it, because you're right in that I'm looking far too deep into it. You could even argue that Repliku/Namine's charm wasn't even based on the Paopu fruit, as it looks just like a star. A star is a star. Just because the Paopu is star-shaped doesn't mean everything star-shaped is Paopu-related. :\But that's my point exactly. Saying Riku had the Paopu charm on a Keyblade that was no doubt based on DI in design linked to anything is saying Aqua and Riku are related because she knew about the Paopu too :\ it's a motif. People will know about it and give it form. Just because two people used it doesn't make them related in the sense you're trying to argue.