The Sounds Of Change

Chapter 1

A/N: Canonically, in my fic, this chapter would take place during 358, but the actual Organization stuff will take place soon ;)
Also, this chapter feels lazily written, but whatever-

Kairi had a certain skip in her step as her and Riku walked through a lush forest. She hadn't been to Wonderland in a while, it felt nice to be back. Though, it was a lot different from she had remembered. The forest appeared to have grown in vegetation, and was somewhat overgrown. But that was expected, it was a forest after all. Riku hopped atop a mushroom, standing on it like a stereotypical adventurer.

Kairi sighed, crossing her arms. "C'mon, Riku. We need to continue scouting."

Riku huffed, rolling his eyes. "Can't I have some fun?"

"Maybe when we're done here. We can go back to Radiant Garden and you can go bouncing along rooftops with Yuffie or something."

"I'd rather have fun here!" Riku rebutted, growling lightly under his breath. "Giant leaves, different terrain.. it's awesome. I've never really been here before."

At that, Kairi chuckled. "Who's this new Riku, and, where's the old one?"

Riku raised an eyebrow. He leapt off the mushroom, doing a flip and landing in front of Kairi. His head tilted to the side. "'New me'?"

"Yeah." Kairi giggled, pointing at Riku as if he was part of a police accusation. "You're more like Sora."

At that, Riku leaned forward, smirking. "Oh really...?"

"Yep!"

Riku's smirk deepened in the slightest. He uncrossed his arms and poked Kairi's shoulder. "Tag, you're it!" Before Kairi could even react, Riku took off. He leapt back on the mushroom and onto the giant leaves.

Kairi sighed and took off after him. Yep, he was certainly embracing his inner Sora, that was for sure. It made her happy to see Riku so content with their life right now, even if they were missing one of their friends. And, as much as Kairi didn't want to admit it, she was rather exhilarated by the idea of playing tag. It had been a while since they had had that much fun. The last time they'd played tag had probably been right before Sora went missing. The thought made Kairi's shoulders fall, but she shook it off. It wasn't the time for that. She took off after Riku with a smile on her face. The wind that was going past as she ran whistled in her ears and made her smile wider. Riku wasn't getting away from her. Definitely not.

As they played tag, they ran up and down the different areas of Wonderland. Up and down the walls of the Bizarre Room, all over the Queen's Courtroom, which she didn't appreciate. Even to the Tea Party Garden. The world was sure diverse, Kairi gave it that. And with so many different hiding spots and places to go, it certainly didn't make this game of tag all that easy. But it made it fun as well.

Eventually, the pair of them ran back to the forest, with Riku just on Kairi's tail. She was laughing as Riku chased her down. Occasionally, she would turn around and change direction, but right now, she was up on the giant leaves.

She called down to Riku with a chuckle. "Hey!" Riku looked up at her with a challenging smirk. "Let me win, and I'll-"

She was cut off by a loud scream, followed by a "help!" That wasn't good, obviously. But, the voice didn't sound like any of the world residents. Either way, she needed to help them. With a glance down to Riku, she jumped down. Clearly, he had heard it too. Kairi nodded at Riku, who nodded back. In Kairi's palm, there was an unnatural white light.

In imperfect unison, Kairi and Riku took off in the direction of the scream. With how fast they were going, it didn't take long to reach the person. Then again, the other side of the forest wasn't exactly far from where they stood.