Dedications: This last chapter of The Melancholy of Sora Kazano is dedicated to all the wonderful people who reviewed, both registered and anonymous.

Thanks to A-dizzle, Aros Iruk Leax, khfreak116, Marcus1233, PirateCaptainBo, psalmofsummer, dark-ranmaru, pink-revolt, DarkEmoGirl, Echo the Ethereal Swordmaster, Weeee, earth2water1element, no dang name is available, and Elle Steinig. Your reviews have inspired me to write as fast as I could. This chapter is for you.

Chapter 16 – Someday in the Rain

The showers came quickly in spring; every day it was wet in Radiant Garden. So when the weatherman forecasted an entire week of no rain in April, everyone was surprised. It didn't take long for all the chatter at school the change from the latest gossips to "What are you going to do after class?" or "Want to go to the beach this weekend?" or "Let's go to a concert at the amphitheater!" and such.

As for me, the cessation of rain was a welcomed relief. The SOS Brigade clubroom had become a sauna with the rain; and with the heater on, all of us managed to work up a sweat just by being in the room for ten minutes. Stupid humidity.

Today, it was no different as the four of us sat in the clubroom doing mundane things; Sora had yet to show up. Kairi sat on her chair as she knitted cheerfully. Naminé was drawing in the corner as usual. And Riku and I had started a game of Yu-Gi-Oh with the two decks that Sora had managed to get a hold of. How or where he got them I have ceased to try to ask; he never answered me. It was a nice change from the usual board games to say the least.

Halfway into our third duel, the door suddenly slammed open as Sora came bounding in cheerfully with his cell phone in his hand. He had obviously been on the phone.

"Hey, everyone!" he greeted before sitting down at the swivel chair that was the leader's seat.

"Oh, coffee coming right up," said Kairi with a smile. Having great enthusiasm for making coffee, the red-haired time traveler jumped up and went over to the coffee machine.

"I just got off the phone with the electronic store that had sponsored our movie," said Sora as he pulled of the heavy woolen jacket. "It appears that he forgot to put a dehumidifier in storage, so he wanted to know if we wanted it for free."

I stared at him suspiciously.

"Hey, don't look at me like I'm some criminal," he said defensively, as if he was actually offended by my glare. "I had no hand in this."

I'll believe you when pigs fly.

"So what?"

"I want you to go get it," he grinned as he took the mug of coffee from Kairi.

"Which sponsor is this?"

"The one at the marketplace."

"Let me get this straight," I said, feeling a headache coming up. "You want me to walk down the hill, wait for the bus, take the bus for twenty minutes, get the dehumidifier, and lug it all the way back?"

"Yup!"

"Why?"

"'Cause you have more free time than the rest of us!"

I looked at him with the most annoyed look I could muster. He was, of course, unaffected by this.

"Go already. Get it before the guy changes his mind!"

"With a sigh, I got up and put on my black overcoat.

"Oh, here," said Kairi as she wrapped her pink scarf around me. "It's cold."

"Thanks."

"Get going already!" Sora yelled with exasperation. He really wants that dehumidifier eh?

"Alright, alright," I replied before leaving the sauna-like room with a brief wave.

I stood outside of the room for a short moment, shivering in the coldness before sighing yet again.

"Might as well get this over with." I began my way out of the building leisurely and onto the dry grounds underneath the grey sky. Even though the weatherman had guaranteed only 10 chance rain this morning, the ominous clouds suggested otherwise.

"And I'm without my umbrella," I muttered with annoyance.

I paused at the top of the hill leading downward, looking into the distance city of Radiant Garden. Sounds of distant traffic met my ears while the turbulent clouds threatened to pour down. Sighing once again, I began my journey.

As I walked, waited for the bus, and rode the bus, I couldn't help but think back on the past year, starting from the day when I met Sora for the very first time. I wonder how my past self thought about me now. Would I have been surprised by such a change? Would I have renewed my interest in the abnormal even before I met Sora? What would've I thought?

Then, there are the others.

Naminé, the data-human interface with the ability to change the world, could have potentially overthrown Sora as the "god" of this world, but she doesn't. In fact, her boss doesn't allow for it. Perhaps if she had obtained absolute power, then the world would've been a boring place. The data creation would have been dull and uninteresting. It would be unworthy of investigation. Of course, if Naminé was in charge, I doubt the Data Integration Thought Entity would exist. I know I wouldn't let my boss exist when I have supreme power. But that's just asking for too much.

Kairi, the originally trembling girl who was as skittish as a mouse, had managed to overcome her skittishness and become one of the most understanding people I've ever met, though she might be overprotective of us all. I wonder sometimes if it was her future self that was giving her now/past self orders to observe Sora. If that's the case, how would the younger Kairi react if she knew that was the case? Since the older Kairi never mentioned the fact that she knew that it was her future self that was giving her orders, then I doubt the younger Kairi knows.

Finally, Riku. I don't think I'll ever get accustomed to the haughty smirks and mysterious expressions the guy makes. His willingness to go along with everything Sora said and did just annoyed me even more. I know you're supposed to just observe the guy, but at least act like you're a normal person with common sense! But his powers are given by Sora, so I guess he has reason to act grateful and turn an eye away from Sora's inane activities.

As I walked toward the electronics shop after getting off the bus, I thought back on the days when each of the three others had revealed their identities to me. The memory brought a smile to my face, especially the little date Kairi had asked me out on.

"Ah, Roxas," said the electronics shop owner upon seeing me.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Kingsley," I greeted. "I'm here to pick up the dehumidifier."

"I thought so. Sora mentioned that you'll be picking it up," the man said with a smile.

"How's the business been doing?"

"It's been fine," he replied as he set down the box containing the dehumidifier at my feet. "Not as well as I'd like, but the movie's brought in more business than before."

"That's good to know," I replied with an understanding smile.

"Tell Sora that when he makes a sequel, be sure to let me know. I'd like to sponsor that one too."

"Ah, sure." I wasn't sure if Sora would be interested in making another movie. He's really fickle like that after all.

"Are you going to be fine to carry it back by yourself?" he asked me with concern.

"I'll be fine," I replied, scratching the back of my head humbly. "Thank you very much for this."

"It's not a problem. Stop by once in a while, I'd like to hear how the SOS Brigade's doing."

"Sure thing," I said. "Good-bye, Mr. Kingsley."

"Take care, Roxas."

I picked up the brown box and noted that it was pretty heavy. Thank god I would be taking the bus for the majority of the trip.

"Yo, Roxas," came Axel's voice. I stopped and turned around to see him and Demyx walking up to me, each of them had a bag of what smelled like popcorn chicken. And, of course, Demyx would have a large cup of tapioca milk tea in his hand if he had popcorn chicken.

"Hey," I replied, placing the box down. No sense in wasting energy to hold the box up if I'm just going to be standing around talking. "Just came from Tapioca Café?"

"Yeah," said Demyx as he took a sip of his sweet milk drink.

"What are you doing?" asked Axel as he raised an eyebrow at the brown box containing the dehumidifier.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" I replied drolly.

"Sora's got you on a short leash," he commented.

"That's only the second time you've said that," I replied with a smirk.

"At least I'll never get caught doing errands for a classmate."

"Just wait until you have a girlfriend of your own," said Demyx teasingly.

The red-haired teen scoffed. "I'll make her, or him, do all the work for me," he retorted.

"Good luck with that," I commented. The three of us laughed.

"Anyways, Demyx and I are headed to the theater; you should come join us after your errand."

"What's playing?"

"Snowfall."

"Snowfall? Sounds like a chick movie," I replied with a raised eyebrow. Why are my friends watching a movie titled like that!?

"It's actually a horror movie," said Demyx. "It's supposed to be pretty good. At least according to the critics."

"So, how about it?" My red-haired friend asked.

"Ugh," I groaned. "No thanks. Especially not after that disgusting movie we watched last week at your place."

Axel gave me a mocked hurt expression. "Oh come on, 'Zombie Heaven' couldn't have been that bad."

Demyx gave a laugh. "Actually, Axel. I'd have to agree with Roxas; that was pretty gruesome and pretty clichéd."

"Che, you just don't have the stomach for it."

"Maybe you added something to my dinner without me noticing," I joked.

Axel scoffed. "If I did, you'd wake up with a sore bum the next morning." Demyx and I both blushed.

"Axel!" the Melodious Nocturne sputtered as he laughed.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want, ass," I smirked. "Don't drop your lighter when you get scared."

The red-haired teen glared at me as Demyx and I laughed. Axel had a habit of playing with his dad's lighter when he gets nervous or scared. He almost caught his pants on fire when he accidentally dropped the lighter because he was so scared. I heard this from another student who also came from Radiant Garden Middle School, mind you.

"Anyways, I'll catch you guys later," I said with a grin. "Let's hang out this weekend if you're both free."

"Sure," said Demyx.

"You sure there won't be any projects with Sora?" teased Axel.

"I'll make him not have any plans, geez." I rolled my eyes at them before picking up the dehumidifier. Axel snickered, but stopped when he saw me glaring at him.

"I'll stop. Later, Roxas," he said, patting me on the back.

"See ya," I returned.

"Later, Roxas."

We went our separate ways.

"Goddamn it," I muttered with annoyance. The bus had just left, which means that I get to wait for another thirty minutes underneath the bus stop shelter waiting for the next one.

With a sigh of resignation, I placed the box at my feet and sat down at the bench. With nothing else to do, I began to think back more on the year.

As much as I wanted to forget Zexion Walters, I knew that it would never happen. First of all, he was the one who tried to killed me, then nearly succeeded in the altered world. I wonder what would happen if I did die. Would Sora be so shaken that he abandons his beliefs in the supernatural? Would he have remade the world when I did die and Naminé, Kairi, Riku, the Data Integration Thought Entity, the older Kairi, the Agency, and everything else would disappear? Or would he come to realize his own powers and end up remaking me?

But once you make someone, you can't remake them right? You can't recycle data, right? God, I'm starting to think in Naminé terms.

I shook my head and saw a six-year-old kid carrying a Struggle bat as he talked animatedly to his father.

Struggle. Man, I wished I had won that tournament. But, I guess fate had other plans for me. I guess it all means that I'm not destined for greatness as a Struggle competitor. I would've preferred to represent the Radiant Garden region in the World Series of Sports. To think that I was actually fairly close to achieving greatness! Curse you fate!

Meh, no use doting on the melancholic past. This is just as depressing as thinking about my near deaths at the hands of the insane Zexion.

Sometimes, I wonder if it's fine with me to be the only actual down-to-Earth member in the SOS Brigade. Sure, everyone except Sora has common sense, but seriously, how normal can you be when you have special powers? I'm just a normal high school student who has been thrown to the dogs here!

I don't have powers like Naminé, manipulating data and creating a brand new world in a snap like she did some two months ago. I can't type as fast as she could on the computer. Nor do I have the ability to stop time and in general, have all the powers of a god, but is not a god. I guess she technically couldn't make things out of nothingness. Only Sora has that power. Or something like that.

I'm not a time traveler like Kairi. Well, okay, I've time traveled, but that was with Kairi. And even though I would not like to travel back in time again, somehow I feel like the future will be full of me traveling between times with both the younger and the older Kairi to the past to fix the future and stuff. Mental note, remember to bring motion sickness pills. Even though time traveling is a fascinating idea, I figured that I might as well leave it to the "experts".

I'm certainly not a psychic like Riku. Or does his power make him more of a mage; though mage is such an archaic word. Whatever he is, he has powers under certain circumstances at certain times. I guess it is Sora's way to keep the supernatural things in check. Of course, I would love to see what would happen if Sora had dreamt up supernatural powers do exist in normal space and not just in Closed space. Would there be an all out war amongst the regions? Would the world become like those fantasy cartoon or anime about a fantasy world and all that?

Too many hypothetical questions, and the prospect of testing the hypotheses is too daunting. I think I'll abandon that train of inane babble and reground myself.

The bus arrived just as I finished my inner debate and I got on the bus with my heavy box. I'm going to kill Sora when I get back.

Even though I was tired and wanted to sleep, I knew that if I did, I would completely miss my stop. So, I decided to think more about the past two months, which were surprisingly dull and uneventful. The most insanity that Sora had decided to do was to actually carry out the city-wide search that he had originally planned for us last fall. I, of course, had to pay for everyone's drinks because somehow regardless of how early I get there, the others are already there. Are they mind readers or something!?

In any case, we had split up into two groups and I managed to group up with Naminé for the morning and Riku in the afternoon. Riku had taken me to another Closed space that afternoon while I took Naminé to the library and helped her get a library card. I think she has a new place to go now besides her apartment, the convenience store that's around the corner from her place, and the ice cream shop.

At the end of the day, we found nothing as expected. Sora had glared at me before we all dispersed; obviously blaming me for the day's lack of discoveries. After the others had left, he said that he and I were to review the day's behavior and routes the following Monday. Then, he stalked off with a childish frown on his face. It made him look quite cute, actually.

Ironically, that following Monday was Valentine's Day. And Sora, being the popular mysterious guy that he is, was bombarded with love notes, presents, and girls throwing themselves at him. He never got a chance to talk to me and had left the school after the third period break. I have never seen the poor boy look so flustered before.

The bus came to a stop and I got off at the stop for Radiant Garden High. The clouds continued rolling ominously above me, but so far, they haven't released their watery bullets down on the city. For that, I am relieved.

Of course, staring at the upward slope to the campus did nothing to comfort me.

With a sigh, I began my slow ascent up the hill, stopping occasionally to adjust my grip on the box lest it slip out of my hands and slide down the graveled road. That would not be a good thing for my sanity.

After what seemed like thirty minutes, I finally managed to reach the top of the hill just as a soft drizzle began raining down on me.

Damn you, sky!

I hastened my pace toward the locker building, cursing as I went along. Curse you clouds. Curse you rain. Curse you steps. Curse you stupid glass door. Curse you box. To say I was bitter would be a grave understatement. I was cranky and tired as hell.

Finally, I managed to get indoors and placed the box at my feet again. I wiped my forehead with my jacket just as Hayner came into view.

"Yo, Roxas," he greeted. He looked at my flushed face and then at the box at my feet. "Running errands for Sora?"

I nodded silently.

"Here," he said as he threw me a small towel. "Dry your hair and have Kairi hand it back to me tomorrow."

"Uh, thanks," I said, eying the white towel suspiciously.

"My mom washed it last night. I forgot there's no P.E. this week, so don't worry about it."

"Oh, okay," I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Anyways, catch you later."

"Thanks man," I began drying off my hair.

"No problem." The second year teen then left the building whistling "real Emotion" song.

With my hair semi-dry, I was a little less annoyed and thus began my way back to the clubroom. Of course, the set of stairs before I would reach the clubroom only served to aggravate me and the little refreshing session I had at the lockers quickly evaporated like my sweat on a hot summer day.

At long last, I braced myself and opened the door into the humid, hot room.

And saw only Naminé in the room reading.

"Where did the other people go?" I asked Naminé. The reading girl was back to her habits of ignoring people while she read, but she did point out of the window for a brief moment before turning her attention back to the novel at hand.

"I see," I commented tiredly. The hot humid room only made me sleepier. So, eager to make the room dry, I quickly unpacked the dehumidifier and put it to work. I could feel the effects instantly.

"Ahhh…" I sighed with relief and looked around. I felt like drinking coffee, yet I felt too lazy to make my own. My eyes drooped and I knew that my body was telling me to go to sleep. So, I shall follow my body's commands and lay my head down on my crossed arms on the table.

And closed my eyes.

A shadow fell over me as I slowly returned from the land of sleep.

"Gah!" someone yelled. It sounded rather loud to me, but that's probably because the yell had been close to my ear. I blinked open my sleepy eyes and saw Sora standing over me with a startled look on his face. He looked like he had just been caught red-handed or something.

"It's just you?" I yawned, rubbing my eyes.

"What do you mean, it's just me!? Do you have a problem with that?" Sora retorted with annoyance once he got past his initial surprise. He stalked away.

"Not really…" I rubbed my face. "You didn't draw on my face did you?"

"Like I would do something childish like that. I'm fourteen years old for god's sake!" Technically we're still adolescent…

"Where's everyone else?"

"They all left already," he replied. "And it didn't look like you were waking up any time soon."

"So you opted to stay behind?" I asked, feeling rather warm within to know that Sora actually cared.

"I can't help it!" he said. "I can't lock up with you still sleeping." Right, Sora, just keep making excuses. "Besides, it's raining!"

I looked out of the window and sure enough, it was raining. Pretty hard too. Curse you weatherman!

Sora held his arm out.

"Give it back."

I looked at him with confusion.

"My jacket!" he exclaimed with a huff.

"Oh," I replied sleepily, noticing for the first time that his jacket was placed over my shoulders. I pulled the jacket off, noticing that another jacket that wasn't mine laid underneath Sora's. I wonder whose it was. Oh well, no sense boggling my still groggy mind trying to figure out whose it was. Chances are, it was probably Kairi's.

"Anyways, everyone's already left awhile ago," said Sora as he put on his jacket and rain boots. "We should get going too."

"Ah," I said, hanging the jacket on the chair. I ruffled my hair as I looked out at the raining sky. "Man, this sucks. I don't have an umbrella."

"One should be enough for the both of us," Sora said as he thrust a black umbrella towards me. I jumped slightly and noticed that Sora seemed rather shy now. He looked away as he presented the umbrella and I smiled before taking the umbrella from him.

I put on my overcoat again and the two of us locked up. The cold air did nothing to dampen my well rested spirits.

As we walked down the hill, I couldn't help but feel warm and fuzzy inside. Walking side by side with Sora sharing an umbrella. I guess I could thank the rain for creating such a scenario for me and Sora.

"Hold it closer to me, I'm getting wet over here," Sora complained.

"It's well on your side," I said with slight amusement as I looked at him. A white tag on the inside of the umbrella caught my eye and I looked at it. I must've squawked, because Sora looked at me like I had sprouted horns on my head.

"This isn't your umbrella," I commented. "It says 'for faculty use'."

"So what? It's school property; no reason why students can't use it. If you want to walk home in the rain without the umbrella, then I won't share it with you!" With a laugh, Sora grabbed the umbrella from me and ran off ahead, leaving me in the rain.

I stood there in the rain with a look of exasperation on my face. Sora will always be Sora. He didn't even thank me for getting the dehumidifier. Oh well.

"Oy, wait up!" I shouted as I ran after him. He stopped and turned around with a grin before sticking his tongue out playfully at me.

Maybe I've already gotten my thanks for getting the dehumidifier. To be able to spend time with Sora like a normal teenager and not have to worry about Sora's supernatural abilities is well worth the errand.

For the first time in eight months, I felt at peace and appreciative of the world around me that revolved around the eccentric boy named Sora Kazano.

Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts belong to Square Enix. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya belongs to Tanigawa Nagaru. Yada yada yada.

A/N: Thus concludes The Melancholy of Sora Kazano. I hope you all have enjoyed this fanfic and thank you for reading. The sequel The Intrigues of Sora Kazano is in the planning stages right now, but will deal with the second year of the SOS Brigade at Radiant Garden High. Once again, thank you all for reading and supporting me. And to my reviewers, many thanks. If you have any comments or concerns, feel free to put in a review. Until The Intrigues of Sora Kazano, this is Tsukisamu Sayako signing off.