Riku (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nightmaresfear) wrote2012-10-07 06:34 pm
nightmaresfear) wrote2012-10-07 06:34 pm
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revenance_rpg
[OOC Information]
Name: Candace
Age: 20
AIM/Plurk/Dreamwidth/Email: candescently (AIM),![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
moonsilver (plurk), knightess (DW), raintransformed@gmail.com (email)
What characters do you already play here, if any? None.
How did you hear about the game? Taiface! aka Ventus-mun.
[IC Information]
Character Name: Riku
Series: Kingdom Hearts
Gender: Male
Age: 16 chronologically; 15 physically
Species: Human / Dream Eater
Appearance: Although Riku is sixteen, in the dream world he takes on the form of his fifteen-year-old self, making him younger-looking and shorter at about 5'4". He's muscled but not overly-stocky, which allows him to remain powerful but agile in battle. Typically, he has a very serious, intense expression, magnified by his piercing turquoise eyes, and straight silver hair cut short.
Yellow jackets and baggy blue pants have always been a staple of Riku's outfits, and his current outfit is no different. He wears a sleeveless light cream and yellow jacket with a high black collar, and a Spirit Dream Eater symbol on his back. He wears light blue jeans with a black belt, black wristbands, and cream and yellow sneakers.
Personality: Cool, calm, and collected. Those are the best words to describe Riku upon first meeting him. He's mature beyond his sixteen years, a quality which comes from hard lessons and experience as much as it's innate. It would be hard to guess now that this quiet, thoughtful and serious young man was once an overconfident and even reckless boy, prepared to take any risk and make any sacrifice to attain his goals. He acted selfishly and with little remorse, casting aside his home and friends to pursue power and freedom. Now, he's learned the hard way the consequences of his actions, and for the past year has been locked in a bitter struggle against his darkness.
"Strength, to protect what matters." Riku's need to redeem himself manifests in a self-sacrificing desire to protect his friends and fight for the greater good. He'll do anything for his best friends Sora and Kairi, who went through so much suffering thanks to his own mistakes. After Destiny Islands was destroyed, Riku's only goal was to get Kairi's heart back. And after Sora lost his memories and had to have them pieced back together by Naminé, Riku's sole purpose was to watch over his friend until he woke up a year later, even if that meant taking on the face and identity of Ansem to acquire greater dark powers. He's turned the darkness he's wrangled with inside his heart from a weakness to his greatest strength, and coupled with his essentially good intentions, makes him a unique balance of light and dark. Out of the darkness to fight for the light: that is the meaning of the metaphorical "road to dawn" he walks.
Fittingly, in the dream realm while undertaking his Mark of Mastery exam, Riku himself unknowingly became Sora's Dream Eater, like Sora's other Spirits serving as a dark being which protected him from malevolent Nightmares. Time and again, against Xemnas and throughout the dream worlds, Sora and Riku prove to be the perfect team through the strength their unbreakable bond. Even though they often can't see or hear each other from their parallel dream worlds, just the knowledge that they're in this together is enough to spur them both on to keep fighting.
Unlike Sora, whose intentions are as much to make friends and explore as it is to fight the darkness in each world, Riku remains reserved and generally focused on his goals. (Much to the annoyance of Shiki, for example, when he walks off right after rescuing her from some Nightmares. He responds that he's still "not very good at this".) He's not a people person in the way that Sora is, which sometimes makes him a little awkward. Still, he does retain his old sense of humour. He also shows deep empathy for others, and sometimes offers wise advice from his own experience, for example when he urges Quasimodo to leave Notre Dame and see the world beyond the walls of the church. Still, as he observes himself, he's not so good at taking his own advice. There's still a great deal he tries to do on his own, without opening up to others or allowing them to help him.
He's very self-conscious of his flaws, though, and actively strives to improve on them. Riku's lost a lot of his old overconfidence, and even now he's still rebuilding his self-esteem after it was shattered by the weaknesses in his heart that allowed him to be taken by darkness. Even after defeating Organization XIII and rejoining his friends, he doubted his worthiness to wield the Keyblade after his past with the darkness, and even after his Mark of Mastery exam was concluded, he seemed dumbfounded at the result. Whereas once he would have bragged about beating Sora at something, he's become modest about his achievements and even tends to underestimate himself. Still, he's unwavering in his dedication to the light, and the shadow Xehanort once cast upon his heart no longer frightens him. He's found his path and his purpose, and he's determined to stay on that path.
Abilities: Riku is a Keyblade Master, and his time in the sleeping worlds has allowed him to develop his skills under the guidance of Yen Sid considerably. He now has a wide repertoire of attack commands (many of them darkness-based: Dark Splicer, Dark Aura, Dark Break) and magic (-aga level elemental spells, status effect spells, healing, and more powerful spells like Dark Firaga and Meteor). In battle he can also meld into the shadows to dodge attacks (Dark Roll) or protect himself using a cocoon-like barrier (Dark Barrier) to deflect attacks. He can also double jump, enabling him to reach locations otherwise inaccessible.
Unique to Riku is also the ability to use Link Styles; he temporarily absorbs one or both of his Dream Eaters to augment his own powers with elemental boosts. The effects of the Styles are influenced by the Dream Eater(s) absorbed, for example one Link Style gives him dark claws on his hands and feet to tear at his enemies, another imbues him with water elemental attacks and allows him to attack with a surfboard, and yet another gives him dark demon-like wings and the temporary ability to fly. After a brief period, his Dream Eaters reappear and he reverts back to normal.
Finally, Riku's mastery over the darkness extends to his senses. He can see through darkness (quite literally; for almost a year he wore a blindfold and was still able to see), and he can "smell" darkness, allowing him to identify people according to scent, based on the amount of darkness (or lack of it) they carry.
Items: Way to the Dawn, his Keyblade, three Hi-Potions, an Ether, and the Keychains he obtained from his travels in KH3D.
History: Riku was born on Destiny Islands, an archipelago of tropical islands, where he grew up with his best friend Sora. When he was five years old, he met Terra, a Keyblade wielder who had been drawn to the islands by a warm light -- that light was Riku. He was a precocious boy who quickly recognised that the mysterious man was from the "outside world", and explained his own dream of seeing the outside world one day too. He'd heard of a young man who had once lived on the islands but had left for good, inspiring Riku to do the same. He believed strongly that out there he would find "strength to protect what matters ... like my friends".
Terra, seeing himself in the young boy, carried out the Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony and passed the power of the Keyblade down to Riku, promising that one day he would be able to escape his island prison, so long as he fought for his loved ones. Although he kept the incident secret, even from Sora, it had a deep impact on Riku, who never saw Terra again but would dream of the outside world for a decade to come.
About a year after that, a meteor shower fell over the islands, and in its wake there washed up a little girl called Kairi. At about the same time, Riku discovered the island's Keyhole. Kairi was adopted by the town mayor; she had amnesia and had no idea where she came from, but Sora and Riku befriended her, completing a trio that would become fast friends for life. Kairi's unknown origins only inspired Riku further to seek the world waiting beyond his own.
When he was fifteen, Riku had grown into a cocky and confident teenager who was still incredibly focused on his dream. He developed a fierce rivalry over Sora for Kairi's attention, constantly competing with him and teasing Sora. The three of them built a raft together, Riku vowing that they'd set sail for another world.
However, that night, Riku met a cloaked man in black at the world's Keyhole who promised him freedom: all he needed to do was open the door and allow the world to be consumed by darkness. Riku, declaring he wasn't afraid of the darkness, did so, destroying the islands and likewise consumed by darkness. When he awoke, it was in another world called Hollow Bastion. The evil fairy Maleficent found him and took him under her wing, giving him a place to stay and even going so far as to claim "You're like a son to me." Riku snubbed her and distrusted her, using her only as a means to find Kairi and Sora.
However, when he found Sora in Traverse Town, with a Keyblade and two new friends, Donald and Goofy, Donald made it plain Riku was unwelcome. Maleficent used this against him, claiming Sora had replaced him with new friends. Bitter and jealous, Riku turned away from Sora, assuming he no longer cared about his old friends, and focused instead on finding Kairi. In order to restore her lost heart, he helped Maleficent kidnap the princesses Alice and Jasmine from their respective worlds. Maleficent promised that once the Seven Princesses of Heart were gathered, Kairi's heart would be restored, and so Riku devoted himself, first to retrieving her body, and then, to finding her heart. Along the way, Maleficent began to grant him more and more dark powers, including command over the Heartless. Each time she granted him more power, it only fed his desire for more, ensuring his loyalty to Maleficent.
When Sora finally arrived at Hollow Bastion, Riku claimed his Keyblade as its "rightful" master; he recalled the meeting with Terra all those years ago and claimed Sora was only the delivery boy. However, Sora fought his way into the castle, and thanks to his fearless belief in his friends, as well as the darkness that had taken hold in Riku's heart, meant the Keyblade was passed back to Sora. The man in the brown cloak -- Ansem, Seeker of Darkness -- tells Riku his heart faltered and was the weaker of the two in that moment, and that if he wants greater strength, he must surrender to the darkness. Riku does so, and his body becomes possessed by Ansem, a man bent on seeing all the worlds swallowed by darkness.
It isn't until Sora later defeats Ansem in combat, and Ansem is consumed by light, that Riku is restored to his normal form. It is at this point he opts to stay behind the door to Kingdom Hearts with King Mickey in order to help close it from the other side, trapping himself inside the realm of darkness. As the door closes, he tells Sora, "Take care of her," referring to Kairi.
After that, a voice wakes Riku, who finds himself suspended in a place between light and dark. A mysterious voice advises him to return to sleep in the darkness and turn his eyes from the light; if he goes ahead, the truth will bring him pain. The voice then shows him a card forged from his memories; he takes the card, and its light guides him to a place called Castle Oblivion.
From there on, Riku has to fight his way through the darkness in his memories, up through the basements of the castle commanded by a shadowy group known as Organization XIII. As he does so, his command over the darkness grows. Paradoxically Riku rejects that same darkness, fearing it and the dark shadow Ansem cast over his heart. More than anything he never wants his heart to become Ansem's prisoner again. An exact replica of Riku, created by one of the Organization's members, challenges him repeatedly and taunts him for being a coward afraid of the darkness. Zexion, too, challenges Riku within his memories of Destiny Islands, taking the guise of Sora, and attempts to consume Riku by light. It is at this point that Kairi's voice advises Riku not to be afraid of the darkness in his heart: if he can stare at it unflinchingly, he'll be able to see through the brightest light, and escape the deepest darkness. With that, Riku embraces his inner darkness and uses it to see through Zexion's illusion, defeating him.
Ansem attempts to take advantage of Riku's newfound resolve to use the darkness, and tries to manipulate him once again. However, King Mickey interferes, and joins Riku from there through the rest of his journey through the castle. The next town he visits is an unfamiliar place called Twilight Town. Ansem confronts Riku here again -- but Riku's dark senses mean he can distinguish that it isn't Ansem, but another, the voice who had been guiding him from the beginning. He reveals himself to be DiZ, a mysterious man swathed in red bandages, who drops a cryptic hint that Riku must make a choice, before vanishing. Deeper in the town Riku meets a girl called Naminé, who he realises was the one who spoke to him in the guise of Kairi. With her is Sora, fast asleep in a pod, where the memories she took apart in his heart are slowly being pieced back together.
She lays out Riku's choice: he can go to sleep, too, and forget Ansem and the darkness, locking both deep within his heart where they can no longer be of harm. However, Riku rejects her offer, deciding he'd rather confront his darkness head-on. He confronts Ansem alone, with Mickey promising to save him if he's defeated and enslaved once more. However, he emerges the victor. Ansem dissolves, but vows to return.
Riku then leaves Castle Oblivion. He couldn't return home, not with Ansem still lurking inside his heart. So, he dons the cloak of Organization XIII to shield himself from their eyes, and chooses to walk the road between light and darkness -- "the road to dawn". From then on, he travels with Mickey for a time, but they go their separate ways when Riku still finds himself plagued by the darkness in his heart. Eventually, his issues with the darkness become so severe that he assumes Ansem's form, and has to bind his eyes with a blindfold in order to remain in his own true form. Together with Naminé and DiZ he cooperates with them to help wake Sora up, at the same time looking for a way to conquer his own darkness.
However, a wrench in their plans is thrown in the shape of Xion, a replica forged from Sora's memories. Her existence meant Sora couldn't wake up until she disappeared. Riku fought and defeated her, calling her Keyblade a sham and warning her that Organization XIII were the "wrong crowd". Later, he meets her at Castle Oblivion, where she becomes overwhelmed by Sora's memories and faints. Riku stays with her until she awakes. At this point, she's become aware of her existence as a replica and ran away from the Organization; Riku advises her that she needs to choose what to do with her existence, and that if she goes with him, her memories would wake Sora up. However, he gives her time to choose, knowing that her friends are important to her, too. Later, she's defeated by Roxas, Sora's Nobody, and fades away. Once she does, any memory of her rapidly fades from those who knew her, including Riku.
Roxas also holds some of Sora's memories; he absorbed Xion after she was defeated, and since became twice as powerful. Riku faces off against Roxas, and is forced to draw out the dark power he'd been suppressing -- "Even if it changes me forever." He takes the form of Ansem in appearance, defeating Roxas and bringing him to DiZ, who proceeds to modify his memories and places him in a simulated Twilight Town. From there, "Ansem" and DiZ watch over Roxas until he's ready, after seven days, to rejoin Sora.
Once Roxas rejoins Sora, Riku withdraws back into the shadows, not wanting his best friend to see the form he'd taken, and forcing Mickey to promise he wouldn't tell Sora what had happened to him. He still continues to help Sora in minor ways, though, dropping hints, and even warning the Emperor of China that a dragon of his world had been transformed into a Heartless. He also watches over Kairi as she travels the dark corridors after escaping Axel. At some point around this time, his weapon, Soul Eater, transforms into a Keyblade, Way to the Dawn.
Later, in the World that Never Was, he rescues Kairi and Naminé from Saïx. Kairi can instantly see through his changed appearance to the real Riku, and the two stay together from there, fighting side by side. When Sora and Kairi reunite, Riku attempts to leave, hiding his real identity and claiming to be "just a castaway from the darkness". Kairi begs him not to go, and shows Sora his real identity, which causes Sora to break down in tears at finally finding his long lost friend. The three friends, along with Donald and Goofy, join together. After battling through more members of Organization XIII, they reach DiZ, revealed to be a scientist named Ansem the Wise, along with King Mickey. When DiZ's Kingdom Hearts encoder explodes, Riku attempts to shield the others from the blast. DiZ is presumably killed in the blast, but once it clears, Riku has been restored to his true form.
They reach the top of the Organization's stronghold and confront Xemnas, the leader of Organization XIII, who wishes to acquire the absolute power of Kingdom Hearts for himself. Sora and Riku are separated from the rest of the group, and are forced to battle Xemnas together in one final battle. Throughout the battle Xemnas tries to drive them apart, asking Sora whether he thinks Riku is trustworthy, and asking Riku if he's jealous of Sora. At the end of the battle, Riku is badly injured protecting Sora from a blow, but the two manage to defeat Xemnas. They wind up on a beach in the Realm of Darkness, trapped.
With nowhere to go, the two reconcile, Riku admitting he was jealous of Sora, and that he always thought he was better. Sora in turn admitted he wanted to be like Riku -- to which Riku answers that he had one thing Sora could never have: "Having you for a friend." With that in mind, Sora decides he's happy the way he is, too. A bottle washes up on the beach containing a letter from Kairi; once Sora finishes reading it, the Door to Light appears, and the two step through it, returning to Destiny Islands where they reunite with their friends.
For a short while, things were back to normal and the three had a taste of normal life on the islands once more. Before long, though, a bottle washed up on the islands from Mickey, saying their help was needed once more and that Xehanort was going to return, as the two pieces of him -- Ansem and Xemnas, his Heartless and Nobody -- had been defeated. To prepare Sora and Riku, they were to undertake the Mark of Mastery exam. Their test involved sending them to even worlds that had been trapped in sleep by dark beings called Nightmares; their task was to unlock each Keyhole and turn and reawaken the worlds back to the light. To help them in their task, they joined forces with benevolent Dream Eaters known as Spirits, whose task was to destroy the dark Dream Eaters.
Appearing to them along the way were pieces of Xehanort: a young man revealed to be Xehanort from the past, Ansem, and Xemnas. As it is later revealed, the exam had been hijacked by Xehanort from the beginning. Sora is lured to The World that Never Was and dragged deeper and deeper into a nightmare laid out for him. Riku finds the comatose Sora and desperately tries to awaken him, but to no avail. It is revealed that Riku has been the Dream Eater intended to protect Sora all along, hence the meaning of the Spirit symbol on the back of his jacket. He's forced to fight off the Nightmare manifested from Sora's sleep, and then "Ansem", and a younger Xehanort. Organization XIII's true purpose is revealed: all thirteen members are intended to be vessels for pieces of Xehanort in his return, and that Sora was intended to be the thirteen member. (Riku, originally, was to be the thirteenth vessel, but has long since become immune to darkness' influence, having accepted and mastered the darkness in his own heart.) Riku tries to save Sora in his comatose state, but he and Mickey are subdued -- it's only thanks to Lea, Donald and Goofy arriving in the nick of time that Sora is saved.
However, Sora is still sleeping, forcing Riku to dive into Sora's heart to save him. He fights off the Ventus armour which had attempted to protect Sora but had become possessed by nightmares. In doing so, he releases Sora's heart from sleep. Riku then finds himself on Destiny Islands, where he is questioned by those residing inside Sora's heart: Roxas, Ventus, and Xion (who he no longer remembers). A bottle then washes up on the beach, containing the data Ansem the Wise/DiZ had stored inside Sora. Riku takes the bottle, and after a brief conversation with DiZ, leaves Sora's heart.
He wakes up back in Yen Sid's tower to find a wide awake Sora, who is incredibly relieved to see Riku awake again. Riku is confused, when it had been Sora who had been in trouble, but nonetheless the two of them, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Lea, all celebrate the two of them returning safely.
Following that, the results of the Mark of Mastery exam are announced. Owing to Riku's success, and the fact he returned to the world of sleep to save his friend, he is pronounced Master. Riku is completely shocked by the result, while Sora is just as happy for his friend as though he passed. Yen Sid goes on to explain that to stand against Xehanort, there are seven guardians of light destined to clash with Xehanort's thirteen darknesses: Sora, Riku, Mickey, the three that were lost over ten years ago, and one other.
Sora leaves to take care of some unfinished business in the Dream World, while the newly-titled Master Riku runs an errand for Yen Sid. He brings Kairi to the tower, where it is revealed that she is the seventh guardian of light, and will also train under Xehanort in preparation for the coming battle.
Name: Candace
Age: 20
AIM/Plurk/Dreamwidth/Email: candescently (AIM),
knightess (DW), raintransformed@gmail.com (email)What characters do you already play here, if any? None.
How did you hear about the game? Taiface! aka Ventus-mun.
[IC Information]
Character Name: Riku
Series: Kingdom Hearts
Gender: Male
Age: 16 chronologically; 15 physically
Species: Human / Dream Eater
Appearance: Although Riku is sixteen, in the dream world he takes on the form of his fifteen-year-old self, making him younger-looking and shorter at about 5'4". He's muscled but not overly-stocky, which allows him to remain powerful but agile in battle. Typically, he has a very serious, intense expression, magnified by his piercing turquoise eyes, and straight silver hair cut short.
Yellow jackets and baggy blue pants have always been a staple of Riku's outfits, and his current outfit is no different. He wears a sleeveless light cream and yellow jacket with a high black collar, and a Spirit Dream Eater symbol on his back. He wears light blue jeans with a black belt, black wristbands, and cream and yellow sneakers.
Personality: Cool, calm, and collected. Those are the best words to describe Riku upon first meeting him. He's mature beyond his sixteen years, a quality which comes from hard lessons and experience as much as it's innate. It would be hard to guess now that this quiet, thoughtful and serious young man was once an overconfident and even reckless boy, prepared to take any risk and make any sacrifice to attain his goals. He acted selfishly and with little remorse, casting aside his home and friends to pursue power and freedom. Now, he's learned the hard way the consequences of his actions, and for the past year has been locked in a bitter struggle against his darkness.
"Strength, to protect what matters." Riku's need to redeem himself manifests in a self-sacrificing desire to protect his friends and fight for the greater good. He'll do anything for his best friends Sora and Kairi, who went through so much suffering thanks to his own mistakes. After Destiny Islands was destroyed, Riku's only goal was to get Kairi's heart back. And after Sora lost his memories and had to have them pieced back together by Naminé, Riku's sole purpose was to watch over his friend until he woke up a year later, even if that meant taking on the face and identity of Ansem to acquire greater dark powers. He's turned the darkness he's wrangled with inside his heart from a weakness to his greatest strength, and coupled with his essentially good intentions, makes him a unique balance of light and dark. Out of the darkness to fight for the light: that is the meaning of the metaphorical "road to dawn" he walks.
Fittingly, in the dream realm while undertaking his Mark of Mastery exam, Riku himself unknowingly became Sora's Dream Eater, like Sora's other Spirits serving as a dark being which protected him from malevolent Nightmares. Time and again, against Xemnas and throughout the dream worlds, Sora and Riku prove to be the perfect team through the strength their unbreakable bond. Even though they often can't see or hear each other from their parallel dream worlds, just the knowledge that they're in this together is enough to spur them both on to keep fighting.
Unlike Sora, whose intentions are as much to make friends and explore as it is to fight the darkness in each world, Riku remains reserved and generally focused on his goals. (Much to the annoyance of Shiki, for example, when he walks off right after rescuing her from some Nightmares. He responds that he's still "not very good at this".) He's not a people person in the way that Sora is, which sometimes makes him a little awkward. Still, he does retain his old sense of humour. He also shows deep empathy for others, and sometimes offers wise advice from his own experience, for example when he urges Quasimodo to leave Notre Dame and see the world beyond the walls of the church. Still, as he observes himself, he's not so good at taking his own advice. There's still a great deal he tries to do on his own, without opening up to others or allowing them to help him.
He's very self-conscious of his flaws, though, and actively strives to improve on them. Riku's lost a lot of his old overconfidence, and even now he's still rebuilding his self-esteem after it was shattered by the weaknesses in his heart that allowed him to be taken by darkness. Even after defeating Organization XIII and rejoining his friends, he doubted his worthiness to wield the Keyblade after his past with the darkness, and even after his Mark of Mastery exam was concluded, he seemed dumbfounded at the result. Whereas once he would have bragged about beating Sora at something, he's become modest about his achievements and even tends to underestimate himself. Still, he's unwavering in his dedication to the light, and the shadow Xehanort once cast upon his heart no longer frightens him. He's found his path and his purpose, and he's determined to stay on that path.
Abilities: Riku is a Keyblade Master, and his time in the sleeping worlds has allowed him to develop his skills under the guidance of Yen Sid considerably. He now has a wide repertoire of attack commands (many of them darkness-based: Dark Splicer, Dark Aura, Dark Break) and magic (-aga level elemental spells, status effect spells, healing, and more powerful spells like Dark Firaga and Meteor). In battle he can also meld into the shadows to dodge attacks (Dark Roll) or protect himself using a cocoon-like barrier (Dark Barrier) to deflect attacks. He can also double jump, enabling him to reach locations otherwise inaccessible.
Unique to Riku is also the ability to use Link Styles; he temporarily absorbs one or both of his Dream Eaters to augment his own powers with elemental boosts. The effects of the Styles are influenced by the Dream Eater(s) absorbed, for example one Link Style gives him dark claws on his hands and feet to tear at his enemies, another imbues him with water elemental attacks and allows him to attack with a surfboard, and yet another gives him dark demon-like wings and the temporary ability to fly. After a brief period, his Dream Eaters reappear and he reverts back to normal.
Finally, Riku's mastery over the darkness extends to his senses. He can see through darkness (quite literally; for almost a year he wore a blindfold and was still able to see), and he can "smell" darkness, allowing him to identify people according to scent, based on the amount of darkness (or lack of it) they carry.
Items: Way to the Dawn, his Keyblade, three Hi-Potions, an Ether, and the Keychains he obtained from his travels in KH3D.
History: Riku was born on Destiny Islands, an archipelago of tropical islands, where he grew up with his best friend Sora. When he was five years old, he met Terra, a Keyblade wielder who had been drawn to the islands by a warm light -- that light was Riku. He was a precocious boy who quickly recognised that the mysterious man was from the "outside world", and explained his own dream of seeing the outside world one day too. He'd heard of a young man who had once lived on the islands but had left for good, inspiring Riku to do the same. He believed strongly that out there he would find "strength to protect what matters ... like my friends".
Terra, seeing himself in the young boy, carried out the Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony and passed the power of the Keyblade down to Riku, promising that one day he would be able to escape his island prison, so long as he fought for his loved ones. Although he kept the incident secret, even from Sora, it had a deep impact on Riku, who never saw Terra again but would dream of the outside world for a decade to come.
About a year after that, a meteor shower fell over the islands, and in its wake there washed up a little girl called Kairi. At about the same time, Riku discovered the island's Keyhole. Kairi was adopted by the town mayor; she had amnesia and had no idea where she came from, but Sora and Riku befriended her, completing a trio that would become fast friends for life. Kairi's unknown origins only inspired Riku further to seek the world waiting beyond his own.
When he was fifteen, Riku had grown into a cocky and confident teenager who was still incredibly focused on his dream. He developed a fierce rivalry over Sora for Kairi's attention, constantly competing with him and teasing Sora. The three of them built a raft together, Riku vowing that they'd set sail for another world.
However, that night, Riku met a cloaked man in black at the world's Keyhole who promised him freedom: all he needed to do was open the door and allow the world to be consumed by darkness. Riku, declaring he wasn't afraid of the darkness, did so, destroying the islands and likewise consumed by darkness. When he awoke, it was in another world called Hollow Bastion. The evil fairy Maleficent found him and took him under her wing, giving him a place to stay and even going so far as to claim "You're like a son to me." Riku snubbed her and distrusted her, using her only as a means to find Kairi and Sora.
However, when he found Sora in Traverse Town, with a Keyblade and two new friends, Donald and Goofy, Donald made it plain Riku was unwelcome. Maleficent used this against him, claiming Sora had replaced him with new friends. Bitter and jealous, Riku turned away from Sora, assuming he no longer cared about his old friends, and focused instead on finding Kairi. In order to restore her lost heart, he helped Maleficent kidnap the princesses Alice and Jasmine from their respective worlds. Maleficent promised that once the Seven Princesses of Heart were gathered, Kairi's heart would be restored, and so Riku devoted himself, first to retrieving her body, and then, to finding her heart. Along the way, Maleficent began to grant him more and more dark powers, including command over the Heartless. Each time she granted him more power, it only fed his desire for more, ensuring his loyalty to Maleficent.
When Sora finally arrived at Hollow Bastion, Riku claimed his Keyblade as its "rightful" master; he recalled the meeting with Terra all those years ago and claimed Sora was only the delivery boy. However, Sora fought his way into the castle, and thanks to his fearless belief in his friends, as well as the darkness that had taken hold in Riku's heart, meant the Keyblade was passed back to Sora. The man in the brown cloak -- Ansem, Seeker of Darkness -- tells Riku his heart faltered and was the weaker of the two in that moment, and that if he wants greater strength, he must surrender to the darkness. Riku does so, and his body becomes possessed by Ansem, a man bent on seeing all the worlds swallowed by darkness.
It isn't until Sora later defeats Ansem in combat, and Ansem is consumed by light, that Riku is restored to his normal form. It is at this point he opts to stay behind the door to Kingdom Hearts with King Mickey in order to help close it from the other side, trapping himself inside the realm of darkness. As the door closes, he tells Sora, "Take care of her," referring to Kairi.
After that, a voice wakes Riku, who finds himself suspended in a place between light and dark. A mysterious voice advises him to return to sleep in the darkness and turn his eyes from the light; if he goes ahead, the truth will bring him pain. The voice then shows him a card forged from his memories; he takes the card, and its light guides him to a place called Castle Oblivion.
From there on, Riku has to fight his way through the darkness in his memories, up through the basements of the castle commanded by a shadowy group known as Organization XIII. As he does so, his command over the darkness grows. Paradoxically Riku rejects that same darkness, fearing it and the dark shadow Ansem cast over his heart. More than anything he never wants his heart to become Ansem's prisoner again. An exact replica of Riku, created by one of the Organization's members, challenges him repeatedly and taunts him for being a coward afraid of the darkness. Zexion, too, challenges Riku within his memories of Destiny Islands, taking the guise of Sora, and attempts to consume Riku by light. It is at this point that Kairi's voice advises Riku not to be afraid of the darkness in his heart: if he can stare at it unflinchingly, he'll be able to see through the brightest light, and escape the deepest darkness. With that, Riku embraces his inner darkness and uses it to see through Zexion's illusion, defeating him.
Ansem attempts to take advantage of Riku's newfound resolve to use the darkness, and tries to manipulate him once again. However, King Mickey interferes, and joins Riku from there through the rest of his journey through the castle. The next town he visits is an unfamiliar place called Twilight Town. Ansem confronts Riku here again -- but Riku's dark senses mean he can distinguish that it isn't Ansem, but another, the voice who had been guiding him from the beginning. He reveals himself to be DiZ, a mysterious man swathed in red bandages, who drops a cryptic hint that Riku must make a choice, before vanishing. Deeper in the town Riku meets a girl called Naminé, who he realises was the one who spoke to him in the guise of Kairi. With her is Sora, fast asleep in a pod, where the memories she took apart in his heart are slowly being pieced back together.
She lays out Riku's choice: he can go to sleep, too, and forget Ansem and the darkness, locking both deep within his heart where they can no longer be of harm. However, Riku rejects her offer, deciding he'd rather confront his darkness head-on. He confronts Ansem alone, with Mickey promising to save him if he's defeated and enslaved once more. However, he emerges the victor. Ansem dissolves, but vows to return.
Riku then leaves Castle Oblivion. He couldn't return home, not with Ansem still lurking inside his heart. So, he dons the cloak of Organization XIII to shield himself from their eyes, and chooses to walk the road between light and darkness -- "the road to dawn". From then on, he travels with Mickey for a time, but they go their separate ways when Riku still finds himself plagued by the darkness in his heart. Eventually, his issues with the darkness become so severe that he assumes Ansem's form, and has to bind his eyes with a blindfold in order to remain in his own true form. Together with Naminé and DiZ he cooperates with them to help wake Sora up, at the same time looking for a way to conquer his own darkness.
However, a wrench in their plans is thrown in the shape of Xion, a replica forged from Sora's memories. Her existence meant Sora couldn't wake up until she disappeared. Riku fought and defeated her, calling her Keyblade a sham and warning her that Organization XIII were the "wrong crowd". Later, he meets her at Castle Oblivion, where she becomes overwhelmed by Sora's memories and faints. Riku stays with her until she awakes. At this point, she's become aware of her existence as a replica and ran away from the Organization; Riku advises her that she needs to choose what to do with her existence, and that if she goes with him, her memories would wake Sora up. However, he gives her time to choose, knowing that her friends are important to her, too. Later, she's defeated by Roxas, Sora's Nobody, and fades away. Once she does, any memory of her rapidly fades from those who knew her, including Riku.
Roxas also holds some of Sora's memories; he absorbed Xion after she was defeated, and since became twice as powerful. Riku faces off against Roxas, and is forced to draw out the dark power he'd been suppressing -- "Even if it changes me forever." He takes the form of Ansem in appearance, defeating Roxas and bringing him to DiZ, who proceeds to modify his memories and places him in a simulated Twilight Town. From there, "Ansem" and DiZ watch over Roxas until he's ready, after seven days, to rejoin Sora.
Once Roxas rejoins Sora, Riku withdraws back into the shadows, not wanting his best friend to see the form he'd taken, and forcing Mickey to promise he wouldn't tell Sora what had happened to him. He still continues to help Sora in minor ways, though, dropping hints, and even warning the Emperor of China that a dragon of his world had been transformed into a Heartless. He also watches over Kairi as she travels the dark corridors after escaping Axel. At some point around this time, his weapon, Soul Eater, transforms into a Keyblade, Way to the Dawn.
Later, in the World that Never Was, he rescues Kairi and Naminé from Saïx. Kairi can instantly see through his changed appearance to the real Riku, and the two stay together from there, fighting side by side. When Sora and Kairi reunite, Riku attempts to leave, hiding his real identity and claiming to be "just a castaway from the darkness". Kairi begs him not to go, and shows Sora his real identity, which causes Sora to break down in tears at finally finding his long lost friend. The three friends, along with Donald and Goofy, join together. After battling through more members of Organization XIII, they reach DiZ, revealed to be a scientist named Ansem the Wise, along with King Mickey. When DiZ's Kingdom Hearts encoder explodes, Riku attempts to shield the others from the blast. DiZ is presumably killed in the blast, but once it clears, Riku has been restored to his true form.
They reach the top of the Organization's stronghold and confront Xemnas, the leader of Organization XIII, who wishes to acquire the absolute power of Kingdom Hearts for himself. Sora and Riku are separated from the rest of the group, and are forced to battle Xemnas together in one final battle. Throughout the battle Xemnas tries to drive them apart, asking Sora whether he thinks Riku is trustworthy, and asking Riku if he's jealous of Sora. At the end of the battle, Riku is badly injured protecting Sora from a blow, but the two manage to defeat Xemnas. They wind up on a beach in the Realm of Darkness, trapped.
With nowhere to go, the two reconcile, Riku admitting he was jealous of Sora, and that he always thought he was better. Sora in turn admitted he wanted to be like Riku -- to which Riku answers that he had one thing Sora could never have: "Having you for a friend." With that in mind, Sora decides he's happy the way he is, too. A bottle washes up on the beach containing a letter from Kairi; once Sora finishes reading it, the Door to Light appears, and the two step through it, returning to Destiny Islands where they reunite with their friends.
For a short while, things were back to normal and the three had a taste of normal life on the islands once more. Before long, though, a bottle washed up on the islands from Mickey, saying their help was needed once more and that Xehanort was going to return, as the two pieces of him -- Ansem and Xemnas, his Heartless and Nobody -- had been defeated. To prepare Sora and Riku, they were to undertake the Mark of Mastery exam. Their test involved sending them to even worlds that had been trapped in sleep by dark beings called Nightmares; their task was to unlock each Keyhole and turn and reawaken the worlds back to the light. To help them in their task, they joined forces with benevolent Dream Eaters known as Spirits, whose task was to destroy the dark Dream Eaters.
Appearing to them along the way were pieces of Xehanort: a young man revealed to be Xehanort from the past, Ansem, and Xemnas. As it is later revealed, the exam had been hijacked by Xehanort from the beginning. Sora is lured to The World that Never Was and dragged deeper and deeper into a nightmare laid out for him. Riku finds the comatose Sora and desperately tries to awaken him, but to no avail. It is revealed that Riku has been the Dream Eater intended to protect Sora all along, hence the meaning of the Spirit symbol on the back of his jacket. He's forced to fight off the Nightmare manifested from Sora's sleep, and then "Ansem", and a younger Xehanort. Organization XIII's true purpose is revealed: all thirteen members are intended to be vessels for pieces of Xehanort in his return, and that Sora was intended to be the thirteen member. (Riku, originally, was to be the thirteenth vessel, but has long since become immune to darkness' influence, having accepted and mastered the darkness in his own heart.) Riku tries to save Sora in his comatose state, but he and Mickey are subdued -- it's only thanks to Lea, Donald and Goofy arriving in the nick of time that Sora is saved.
However, Sora is still sleeping, forcing Riku to dive into Sora's heart to save him. He fights off the Ventus armour which had attempted to protect Sora but had become possessed by nightmares. In doing so, he releases Sora's heart from sleep. Riku then finds himself on Destiny Islands, where he is questioned by those residing inside Sora's heart: Roxas, Ventus, and Xion (who he no longer remembers). A bottle then washes up on the beach, containing the data Ansem the Wise/DiZ had stored inside Sora. Riku takes the bottle, and after a brief conversation with DiZ, leaves Sora's heart.
He wakes up back in Yen Sid's tower to find a wide awake Sora, who is incredibly relieved to see Riku awake again. Riku is confused, when it had been Sora who had been in trouble, but nonetheless the two of them, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Lea, all celebrate the two of them returning safely.
Following that, the results of the Mark of Mastery exam are announced. Owing to Riku's success, and the fact he returned to the world of sleep to save his friend, he is pronounced Master. Riku is completely shocked by the result, while Sora is just as happy for his friend as though he passed. Yen Sid goes on to explain that to stand against Xehanort, there are seven guardians of light destined to clash with Xehanort's thirteen darknesses: Sora, Riku, Mickey, the three that were lost over ten years ago, and one other.
Sora leaves to take care of some unfinished business in the Dream World, while the newly-titled Master Riku runs an errand for Yen Sid. He brings Kairi to the tower, where it is revealed that she is the seventh guardian of light, and will also train under Xehanort in preparation for the coming battle.