AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here is the Kingdom Hearts story I have been promising my friend Meghan I would publish for ages. I hope you all enjoy it! Please review!

DISCLAIMER: Kingdom Hearts is owned by Square Enix. I own Hana, Chizu, Machi, Hisano, Yukiko and Mariko.

Chapter 1 – It Begins

~Hana's POV~

"Hisano! Machi! Hurry it up!"

"Hana, shut up. You kept us up till two in the bloody morning last night."

I smiled innocently at Hisano. "What can I say? I was excited!"

Hisano looked less than amused. "Well don't expect us to be all excited when it's your fault we didn't get enough sleep."

"In Hana's defence," Yukiko piped up, "she kept us up too, and we're fine!"

Hisano glared at our resident ginger before throwing a sandwich at her. Yukiko dodged it and it landed on the floor before Mariko, being the calmest of all of us right now, picked it up and threw it in a bin next to us. Chizu patted her on the head and she laughed.

Very soon the six of us saw the massive golf ball-like structure in the distance and sped up, even the two sleepy-heads. Both Chizu and I actually squealed and started to run, Mariko and Yukiko soon following. Hisano and Machi just rolled their eyes and followed at a normal pace.

We were on holiday together to celebrate the end of our days at high school. We would all be off to university or college in a few months, and we would probably never get the chance to do something altogether for a while since we'd all be going to different places to do different courses: me to do teaching, Yukiko to do biology, Chizu to do photography and Hisano to do medicine. Machi was going to get a job, and Mariko was taking a gap year to decide what she wanted to do before she went to uni. So we'd wanted to do something big before we all went our separate ways, and as such we'd all saved up our money over the past year and a half and were now in Florida. Orlando to be precise. And right now we were heading towards Epcot, one of the four Disney theme parks. We'd already done Magic Kingdom a few days before, and had spent yesterday recovering by just hanging out at the pool. But today we were back at the parks and ready to go! Well, four out of six of us were anyway.

It took a while, what with the security checks at the front of the park, but we were soon in. Chizu and I were still squealing. By this point Machi had woken up properly and was joining in. Yukiko and Mariko were doubled over in laughter at our reaction to when Merida from Brave walked past, and Hisano was pretending she didn't know us, as per usual when the six of us were together.

After we went on a few rides and bought enough candy to feed a small country, we decided to check out the World Showcase, where they had miniature versions of 11 different countries. We did a panoramic cinema thing in Canada, had some fish and chips in the United Kingdom, and Hisano and Yukiko were brave enough to try some snails in France while Mariko and I each bought little Minnie Mouse dolls in can-can dresses. Then we got to the jewel in the World Showcase crown: Japan.

Chizu, Mariko, Machi and I love Japan and everything about it. We are complete and utter otaku. We love anime, manga, Japanese video games, the lot. Hisano likes the video games, and has read Bleach and Naruto, and Yukiko thought we were all bonkers but we dragged her along with the promise of a Pikachu plushie.

Of course, Chizu and I headed straight for the shop which sold anime merchandise, in particular, plushies, and the others followed not wanted us to get separated and lost. After finding multiple anime dolls and having to just pick one to buy since they were very expensive (seriously, took us about twenty minutes to decide), Machi shouted us over. Hisano, Mariko and Yukiko were looking at some Pokémon key-rings so we left them to it and went over to see what Machi was pointing at.

"Isn't that the weapon from that game you two love?" she asked.

My eyes widened as I saw what she was pointing at, as did Chizu's. In the box in front of Machi were six keyblades, replicas of the weapon from Kingdom Hearts which Chizu and I were ever so slightly obsessed with. They were Kingdom Keys, the most prominent keyblade in the series.

We both stood there silently with our mouths hanging open for a few moments with Machi looking back and forth between the keyblades and us worriedly. Chizu snapped out of it first and grabbed hold of one of the keyblades and began to wave it about in the air.

"Look at me!" she cried excitedly. "I am a Keyblade Master!"

Machi burst out laughing at how ridiculous she looked. That seemed to bring me to my senses and I grabbed a keyblade and copied her. We would have had a fake fight but we were both aware that the shop assistants would probably ask us to leave.

"These are…keyblades, right?" Machi checked, picking one up herself.

Chizu nodded, her black hair bouncing around her head and her fringe almost covering her eyes as normal.

I was about to say something to Machi, but all of a sudden something happened.

I couldn't move. And from the looks of things, neither could Chizu or Machi. Both of their faces were frozen in shock, only their eyes darting about wildly in fear.

A bright light began to form at the tip of each of the keyblades we were holding, until they expanded rapidly and engulfed us.

The last thing I heard before I blacked out was Mariko screaming.

…

…Was that…waves I could hear?

I opened my eyes slowly and sat up, rubbing my throbbing head. I looked around. I was in a forest of some sort, but I could hear gulls and the ocean in the distance.

Where the heck was I?

I heard soft moaning and spotted Chizu lying in a bush next to me. I quickly shook her and she opened her eyes. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"You alright?" I asked her.

She nodded slowly, attempting to brush her fringe away from her eyes. "Yeah…I think so."

Her eyes widened all of a sudden. "Machi!"

I gasped and looked around wildly, calling her name.

"Machi!"

"…I'm over here!"

Chizu and I both jumped up and we ran towards her voice. We found her lying on her side just off of a path, her died-purple hair having fallen around her face as it had come out of its bun. She had a deep-looking cut on her face, and a bruise seemed to already be forming on her forehead.

"Are you hurt?" I asked.

She started to shake her head but groaned slightly, before nodding. "Yeah…I'm hurt," she sighed, sounding more frustrated than anything else.

We helped her sit up and she looked around. "Where the heck are we?"

I sighed. "I have no idea. But we'd better try and find someone to help you with that cut. It looks pretty bad."

Machi frowned before touching her cheek. She winced, and she saw the blood on her hand as she pulled it away. She sighed again and nodded.

"Can you walk?" Chizu asked.

Machi nodded determinedly, and we helped her to her feet.

We followed a natural path for a while, which seemed to be leading us uphill. I spotted a tree which looked easy enough to climb so I told Chizu to stay with Machi and went up to have a look.

From the top I could see we were on an island. I spotted another island in the distance, which looked bigger than the one we were on. I could see three people on the beach, two boys and a girl, who looked about our age. They were too far away for me to hear what they were saying, but I could see the two boys were playing some sort of ball-game and the girl was watching. I frowned, fairly certain I recognised them.

Then it hit me. And I hit the ground. Literally. I fell out the tree with shock.

Chizu and Machi crouched down next to me.

"Are you alright?" Machi asked worriedly.

I wasn't really paying attention to what they were saying. "Tidus, Selphie and Wakka…" I mumbled.

Both girls looked confused.

"Um…what?" Chizu asked.

I looked up at both of them, my eyes wide. "I think I know where we are."

After a few moments silence, Machi spoke up. "Well?" she pressed.

I shook my head, trying to convince myself that it was impossible, but I knew what I'd seen.

"We're on Destiny Islands," I told them. "We're in the world of Kingdom Hearts."

~Hisano's POV~

"This is Pikachu, right?" I asked.

Yukiko looked impressed. "I thought you didn't like Pokémon, Hisano."

I shrugged. "I don't really. But doesn't everyone and their mother know Pikachu?"

Before she could respond a blood curdling scream came from behind us. We both turned sharply to see Mariko staring at an empty space, her mouth hanging open and her eyes wide and scared.

"Mariko? What's wrong?" Yukiko asked.

Mariko pointed where she was staring, her hand shaking. "H…Hana, Chizu and Machi. They…they disappeared."

Yukiko frowned. "Come on Mariko. They can't have just disappeared into thin air."

Mariko turned to face us, and I could see her eyes were filled with tears. Mariko isn't the kind of person who would make this kind of stuff up.

I placed my hand on her shoulder. "Mariko, what did you see?"

"The girls picked something up out of that box," she pointed, "then there was a bright light and they vanished."

I squeezed her shoulder before walking over to the box. My eyes widened slightly when I saw what was in it. There were three replica Kingdom Key keyblades. I reached down to pick one up but Mariko grabbed my arm.

"Don't!" she cried. "The others disappeared when they did that!"

"They don't you see that doing the same thing is the most likely way we're going to find them?" I pointed out.

"Hisano has a point," Yukiko added. "We need to try and find them."

Mariko looked at us both in turn before wiping her tears away and nodding determinedly.

I reached down and picked up one of the keyblades, and Yukiko did the same. Mariko swallowed nervously before taking hold of the last keyblade in the box.

As soon as her hand had wrapped around the handle all three of us were paralysed. All we could move were our eyes. Mariko looked terrified, as did Yukiko. I felt the same but I refused to show it. I tried to shoot them both reassuring glances before a bright light engulfed all three of us.

Just before I passed out, the white light turned black.

Then there was nothing.