Kingdom Hearts fic: Area of Study

[mistressofmuses]

My attempts to catch up keep being thwarted!
This is the 8th, but this is the fill for Day 7: Boarding School AU.
This is a sort-of prequel/sort-of tie-in to a fic I wrote for the "Set Sail" Destiny Trio zine. :)

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Four years ago, Kairi was whisked away from her life on the distant planet of Port Destiny. She was brought to the hub planet of Radiant Garden, so she could study at their prestigious university. She knows that succeeding there, and making it through their six year curriculum is the only way she'll ever be able to return home, and bring Sora and Riku with her.

Kairi sat on the bench in the hallway, nervously smoothing down her uniform skirt.

Meeting with the head of the university was a rarity. Some students never met him personally until this moment, where they declared their area of study. She had met him once before, when she first arrived. She’d been a “special case,” when she arrived on Radiant Garden. She hadn’t even realized how special.

Just over four years ago, “ambassadors,” for lack of a better term, from Radiant Garden had traveled all the way to Port Destiny, one of the farthest port planets, to find her. To offer her a place here, at the most prestigious school in the entire galaxy.

Apparently her late biological father, a man she’d never met, had been very important here. A former head of the university, even.

She let out a slow exhale, fidgeting with the edge of her skirt. This felt like the longest she’d sat still in a year or more. Of course that was an exaggeration; she did sleep sometimes. Still, the university curriculum ramped up in intensity every semester. The last half of the fourth year was notoriously difficult, leaving many students feeling like they had no opportunity to even breathe. That was supposedly intentional, a last hurdle to weed out the students that had somehow made it that far, yet weren’t truly committed.

The final two years of the full six-year program were devoted to the student’s own area of interest. Kairi had made it through the first four years somehow, and now had to give her proposal for approval of what she planned to do for the next two years until she graduated.

Somehow she’d made it, she said, as if she didn’t know exactly why. She’d been given this opportunity, the sort of chance that seemed like it came out of a fairy tale. There was no other way that a nobody from the galactic backwater would ever even see Radiant Garden, much less be invited to study there.

Making it through, graduating with all the prestige it afforded, and the opportunities it unlocked, was the only way for her to get two more people off Port Destiny.

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Standing before the head of the university, she forced herself not to fidget.

He looked at her calmly from behind his desk, while she explained the work she had done so far as a student, which classes she’d taken and what research she’d participated in.

“Your graded work has been exemplary,” the university head agreed. “Have you determined a field you’re choosing to specialize in? Almost any would be open to you, considering your history with us.”

She took a deep breath. “I’d like to focus on xenobotany, sir. The botany collections here in Radiant Garden are the best that exist, but I also know there are areas where information is missing. With every new planet we visit, there’s more to be found. There’s plenty that’s been found, but that has yet to be appropriately catalogued. I want to do something to start filling in those gaps.”

He considered for a moment. “An excellent goal, Miss Kairi, one that I believe will reflect well upon the university and provide you with many opportunities for your future. Your bracelet will be upgraded to allow you unrestricted access to the library and to the scientific collections. Please speak to any of your professors about the next steps to guide your study.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Thank you for being one of our brightest. Take the rest of the afternoon off, and tomorrow begin to plan for the remainder of your time with us.”

---

Back in her room, Kairi set up her bracelet to record. She didn’t record messages home often, but this felt like a time she should. It was difficult to get the recordings all the way to Port Destiny. It was too far to send without having it attached to some sort of physical medium, and it was practically unheard of for anyone to go from Radiant Garden all the way to Port Destiny. Trying to get a message relayed over several different jaunts by different people was complicated at best. Trying to get one back was no easier.

She smiled, and said brightly, “Hey, you two. I always feel like it’s been too long. There haven’t been that many ships heading from here to there, and if there are more than a few ports before Destiny, I worry these will get lost.”

She was sure some of them had. Or else the responses had been lost. Sometimes they’d gone months, even close to a year or more without a message.

“This year has been so intense!” she continued. “I’ve probably said that every time, but each one is so much more so than all the other ones. I finally have access to the whole library now! This is when we really start on whatever our research field is going to be. It’s a big decision, but… I’ve decided on botany. Xenobotany. Kind of a cliché, right? Go to Radiant Garden, come away studying flowers? But even here, there’s just so much they don’t have, and don’t even know! So many worlds out there, waiting to be seen and learned about.”

A deep breath, fighting back the briefest sting of tears.

“Just like the three of us, counting stars and imagining how many worlds they represented. We said we’d visit them all, or at least as many as we wanted.

“I’m coming back. As soon as I graduate, I’m coming back. I miss you two!”

She reached forward and clicked the recording off. She pulled out the chip, and sealed it in a hard, protective case. She could research upcoming shipping routes, pay the right people the right amount to hand the chip off to the next person in line. With some luck, it would make it to Port Destiny.

She hoped Riku and Sora would get it. That they’d be waiting for it. That they’d be waiting in two more years when she left Radiant Garden and came home for them.

They’d always promised they’d leave Port Destiny together. She was going to keep her promise.