- The Underworld -
"Riku, slow down!" cried Mulan. After handcuffing the unconcious Mirosius and leaving him and Qazre in the care of Meg and Phil, the leader of the Restoration Society had begun running to Hades' chamber without rest. Mulan wasn't sure that this was such a good idea; after all, even if he was the sort of person who could defeat Hades, he would be exhausted by the time he reached his destination, and running into a dangerous situation without a plan was, well, pretty dangerous. Ordinarily, Riku would have understood this too, but he was getting tired and frustrated by several failed attempts to save Kairi, especially when he had no idea if she was still alive. Although he wasn't openly sharing his inner thoughts with Mulan, she recognized the anxiety in his face and could tell that this Kairi meant a great deal to him. And if she had thought there was a way to save her family from their cruel fate, she probably would have behaved in a similar manner. But she couldn't save her family, and she'd never met Kairi, and that meant that the task had fallen upon her to be the voice of reason now.
However, Riku refused to listen and kept on running through the misty caverns of the Underworld with Mulan barely keeping up. When he suddenly stopped, she slammed right into him. "What's going on?" she demanded. Riku merely held up a hand to silence her, and that's when Mulan realized that he had heard voices- two male ones, to be precise. "Who do you think they are?" whispered Mulan, "Friends or enemies?"
Riku didn't answer her; his eyes had grown wide. "What's the matter?" asked Mulan anxiously.
"Kairi..." he said softly, "That's her scent; I'd know it anywhere!"
"Her what?" asked Mulan in total confusion, "Wait! Riku, come back!"
But Riku would not come back. After all this time, he was finally, finally going to be reunited with Kairi, and he was not going to wait a second longer to make sure that she was all right. He entered a clearing and there she was, clutching her Mani-Katti, looking confused, upset, and exhausted. The two men who's voices he had just heard earlier were still talking, but Riku only had eyes for the Princess of Heart. And then he saw her collapse. "KAIRI!" he yelled, as he immediately rushed to her side and caught her in his arms. "Kairi, it's me! C'mon, wake up, I know you're tougher than this!" he called out gently. When he held her the way that he was holding her now, his mind went back to memories of the days before this nightmare had started, when the two of them had been together on the Destiny Islands with Sora. She had been so frail back then, being the only one in the group who didn't actively participate in any playful sparring, and yet she'd always had a strong will of her own, ordering her two hot-shot best friends around when she felt that the situation called for it. And somehow, she had always gotten her way. And though he was glad that she now possessed a greater amount of physical skills with her Mani-Katti, he sometimes wished that he could just take her back to those innocent, carefree days when she didn't need violence to solve her problems.