» INFO
Riku
SERIES → Kingdom Hearts I/Chain of Memories /II
TIMELINE → Post KH: CoM / Pre-KH II
PERSONALITY→ Brimming with vim, vigor, talent, and confidence, Riku was early familiarized with the tantalizing grips of victory. He is fiercely competitive, often the type to initiate a challenge, especially where Sora is concerned, and very rarely loses. In the reverse, Riku is all too willing to accept a challenge and spares no prisoners or modesty when he proves himself. Coded with determination to be the best, he often pushes himself to and beyond his limits. According to many that know him, there is nothing Riku can’t do-and for a long time, they were right.
In terms of trust, Riku was never one to dispense his very easily and prefers to keep that sacred thing limited to a tight circle-namely Sora and Kairi. Somewhat removed from the habit of making new friends, he tends to keep a fair distance between himself and the majority of his peers. For a long time, when he wasn’t with Sora or Kairi, he was almost certainly by himself. His attachment to these two made him their unofficial protector with being the oldest firstly; the most mature and responsible, second and thirdly.
As history would have it, Riku is the friend you’d love to have and the enemy you’d hate to make. It is his very best friend, however, that experiences both sides of this spectrum when Riku is seduced by the dark. The visionary behind a plan to experience new worlds and new things, darkness introduces itself to Riku with a certain appeal. Despite the selfish overtones of his opposition to Sora, it is his desire to save Kairi that influences his turning. His negative resolve is simply a factor of his loyalty and his anger toward Sora escalates from the daring lack of trust and fealty that pits his best friend against him.
Dynamic ambition combined with a latent sense of insecurity make him something ripe for corruption, and deep sown deference glossed with the film of jealousy turn his mission of saving Kairi into the egoistic task of simply saving her before Sora does. Still, he does have her best interests at heart, even if his parallel desire for strength carried him farther away from his friends than he ever could’ve imagined. Riku’s reformation begins when he realizes just how far he’s been carried astray. This stirs a guilt-laden despondency within him and a desperate determination to rid himself of his darkness. With King Mickey at his side, Riku slowly overcomes his reluctance to let new people in, finding a friend in the king, who patiently helps him realize that he doesn’t have to be alone in this.
-Isolation still becomes him, however. Riku is tortured by his demons and he’s tenacious about conquering them on his own. His road is one of self-discovery, being constantly put in touch with who he is, what is truly important, and what he has to do.
ABILITIES→ Quick and agile, Riku’s natural abilities are increased five fold by the darkness inside him, which, when tapped, provide him with amazing strength and an arsenal of ready-to-use combat skills. When exploiting this dark form, he can manipulate darkness in various modes, including, but not limited to: energy blasts, temporary flight for means of attack, and much more.
In battle, Riku is terribly swift and his one-handed sword fighting style promotes his inherent speed. His blows are not only fast, but heavy, so that when Riku serves it up, he serves it hard, and he can be pretty relentless when necessary. He uses advanced evasion tactics, sometimes phasing behind an enemy when they’re on the offensive, and he also utilizes a reasonably powered jump attack.
Additionally, Riku can open portals of darkness and travel the dark corridors ( at his own risk). As demonstrated at length in Castle Oblivion, Riku’s immersion in the darkness has drastically altered his sense of smell so that he can detect the presence of darkness in the air.
BACKGROUND → Riku was born and raised on the Destiny Islands, where he was introduced to his best friend, Sora. The two boys grew up together and were recognized as virtually inseparable by everyone who knew them. It was some years later that a red-haired girl mysteriously turned up on their island. Her name was Kairi-and she would change everything. For the first time, Riku and Sora had incentive to compete beyond simply proving who was better. With her arrival, Kairi had not only become their friend, but a coveted prize to be won. Quite suddenly, the majority of friendly competition between Riku and Sora revolved around her, or more accurately, trying to impress her amidst constantly vying for her attention. It worked for them, though. They had fun, and at the end of the day, they were all friends.
As the eldest member of the Destiny trio, it made sense that Riku should be the first to grow weary of life’s daily monotonies. He felt confined by his surroundings and every glimpse over the horizon became a reminder of his wearisome stagnancy. It was Kairi’s coming to the island that stirred up his thoughts and led him to wonder what lie beyond. A few years later, at age 15, he rallied Sora and Kairi in the construction of a raft, on which they hoped to sail in discovery of other lands.
On the night they were destined to set sail, however, Riku opened the Door to Darkness and the island was overrun with creatures later revealed as Heartless. After attempting to coax Sora through the door with him, the two were separated with Riku awaking in Hollow Bastion. He was discovered by the castle’s mistress, Maleficent, who took an instant shine to him; working fast to pull his strings and draw him under her wing. It wasn’t until Riku’s first encounter with Sora after their removal from the Destiny Islands that Maleficent’s poison began to root and disperse.
Upon finding Sora wandering through Traverse Town, Riku was excited at having found his friend, but their reunion quickly turned sour. Sora didn’t seem nearly as thrilled to see him and was so preoccupied with his newfound friends that Riku felt bitterly stung. It suddenly dawned on him that Maleficent had been right-he had been replaced. He simply had to see it for himself, and the confirmation of this inspired him to disappear right from under Sora’s nose. He had no reason to stay. If Sora didn’t need him, then he’d just have to find Kairi by himself.
Armed with Souleater, Riku traveled the worlds on his freshly prescribed mission per Maleficent’s request: to locate and seize the Seven Princesses of Heart. During this crusade, Riku did indeed find Kairi; however, her heart had already been stolen. Throughout his travels to restore her, he kidnapped the puppet Pinocchio on the conjecture of saving her, and paid an antagonizing visit to Sora within Monstro’s bowels before their next encounter in Neverland. There, Riku held Kairi captive and unleashed Anti-Sora, who was defeated by its’ better half, but not in time to stop Riku from taking off with her.
By the time Sora and his new crew arrived at Hollow Bastion, Maleficent had tipped Riku off to some useful information, and he confirmed it at the castle entrance when he usurped the Keyblade from Sora. What Riku had learned was that he was the intended Keyblade Master... that Sora was just a stand-in. But what Riku didn’t know was that the Keyblade had supplanted him when it sensed his susceptibility to the darkness.
Upon taking possession of the Keyblade, Riku left Sora defenseless and alone, his ‘friends’ temporarily abandoning him to follow the new Keybearer. Inside the fortress, Sora repossessed the Keyblade from Riku by the power of his heart, and the two engaged one another in full blown combat. Defeated by Sora, Riku fled deeper into the castle, where his mind echoed a voice that promised immense power. Filled with determination to defeat Sora, Riku opened his heart to darkness, where the malevolent entity known as Ansem took root.
At the core of the citadel, Riku met Sora in arms once again, imbued with new strength and Ansem’s tangible influence. Despite the increased odds, Riku fell to Sora a second time, and was forced to the depths of his own subconscious, whereupon Ansem’s presence was wholly unleashed. Confined to the sidelines as a prisoner of his own mind, Riku was given plenty of time to reflect. Somewhere down the line, he had lost himself, and it wasn’t long before he realized this.
When Sora was plunged to the void during the final battle against Ansem, Riku’s voice called out to him: “Come on, Sora. I thought you were stronger than that!” With that word of encouragement, he watched from his best friend’s corner as Sora took Ansem down and liberated his body. But after the battle, the Door to Darkness was left wide open, threatening to spill armies of Heartless into the worlds. With Sora unable to close the door completely from the outside, Riku chose to remain on the other side, sealing it from within with the assistance of King Mickey, but not without a final word for Sora:
“Take care of her.”
Afterward, Riku took to wandering, with King Mickey as his guide and buffer as he struggled to conquer the darkness within. They eventually happened upon Castle Oblivion, where Riku emerged in the basement floors, completely unawares to Sora’s presence above. Sniffed out by Zexion upon his arrival, Vexen was dispatched with a very distinct motive to engage Riku in combat. In battling him, Vexen was able to compile of series of data through which ‘Repliku’ was born. Embracing the darkness while the real Riku was intent upon suppressing it, the replica declared himself the stronger of the two, and set out to prove this on two separate occasions, but was soundly defeated on both.
As Riku ascended from the basement, he battled his inner demons, from Maleficent to Ansem, the latter attempting to regain control of him all the while. Newer demons appeared in the form of Organization XIII. He first dispatched of Lexaeus, before taking on Zexion, who attempted to trap him in false delusions that Riku firmly overcame with a deeper understanding of the darkness within him. Riku would later encounter the mysterious Diz, who entreated him to seek out Namine`. He fought Repliku one last time in his attempt to speak with her, and felt a small kindling pity upon defeating him once and for all.
Upon finding Namine`, and learning what had become of Sora, she offered Riku an opportunity to be cleansed of his darkness in exchange for some of his most precious memories, and he refused her straightaway. “I’ll make that darkness show me the way,” he told her. He’d begun to realize that it was a part of himself he would have to live with, and it was a part of himself that he could conquer without the self-abasing cop out. The vindication of his fear lead Riku into battle with Ansem, pulled fresh from the depths of his own heart. Even with the defeat of the parasitic entity, a part of him still lived within Riku. In overcoming the fear of his dark side, however, Riku’s true potential was realized as a twilight being composed of both light and dark, destined to tread the Road to Dawn.
His path to redemption began with a renewed devotion to Sora, and an overwhelming desire to help and protect him where he could. His first step in doing so was following the advice of Diz in attempting to locate and capture Sora’s Nobody, Roxas. This was a measure intended to expedite the recovery process of Sora’s memories during his year long slumber. Riku was able to zero in on Roxas in The World That Never Was, where he engaged him in battle and it appeared that he might ultimately lose. Vexed by his impending failure, Riku began to accept that he might have to take more drastic measures to get the job done…
RELATIONSHIPS → Coming soon.
the player
NAME → Age
AGE → 22
JOURNAL → lv5_death
AIM SN → live in control
EMAIL → blood_flux@msn.com