Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts2, or any of the KH merchandise.

Experiment in Darkness

Chapter One: One Year Apathy

A year had passed since the defeat of Organization XIII. Things were well once more in the universe. Sora had returned victorious with Riku by his side. There had been a sad farewell with Donald and Goofy, but even that had a sweet edge. Now things were back to normal…

And Sora and Riku were enduring a long session of summer school to make up what they had missed while they were traveling about the universe, saving the worlds from the darkness.

Sora glanced out the window from his desk. He was working on an algebra problem that was making his brain feel like it was boiling. Looking at Riku, it seemed that his friend was having the same difficulties.

A Shadow leaped out from behind one of the many crevices in the plain of Radiant Garden. Sora batted it out of the way with the Keyblade, the sword tearing the thing's body to shreds of darkness. He yelled out a battle cry and challenged the hordes of Heartless that were gathered before the Villain's Vale. He swept up the Keyblade into battle position and took off running toward them. "Ahhhh!" Sora yelled, jumping up---and swinging his pencil like a sword.

"Sora, what are you doing?" asked Mr. Harding the teacher. He was sitting up at his desk and blinking as if Sora had woken him up---which he probably had. "Do you usually go wild in class like this? This is the fourth time this week that you've done this."

"Oops…er…sorry" Sora said. "Guess I got carried away."

"I guess you did" Mr. Harding agreed. "Sora, I think that tomorrow we'll have a talk about a new school for you. There seems to be no way for us to control your behavior."

"Wait" said Riku. He was the only one in the class except for Sora. "If Sora leaves, then who am I going to work with?"

"Why me of course" responded Mr. Harding without a moment's hesitation. "I'll be your partner and this will give you time to get focused on the geometry." He rubbed his hands together.

Riku's groan could probably be heard all the way in the World that Never Was.

That afternoon, Sora couldn't resist. "Look like you'll have lots of quality time to spend with Mr. Harding pretty soon" he joked.

"Oh, shut up" said Riku. He was walked with his hands in his pockets. He looked at the setting sun. "Going to school from sun up to sun down seems like a poor repayment for what we did, doesn't it?" he asked suddenly.

Sora sighed. "Yeah, I guess. I never really thought about it that way. I mean, the whole point of our mission was to try and get back home, right? So now that we're here you start complaining? Remember how worried you were when that message in a bottle came from the King?"

Riku shuddered at the memory. "Yeah. Yeah, I do. I thought that something else had happened and we were going to be called back to save everyone from some kind of other menace to world peace."

"Sora! Riku!" called a voice near the school baseball field. The two turned to see Kairi, friend and recently graduated Keyblade Master. After the nightmare that had passed for a school year, Sora had begged Kairi to spend her time in summer school with them. Riku hadn't outright asked; he would never do that, but Sora could tell that he wanted that too. Kairi had flatly refused to waste her summer vacation in summer school after she didn't need it. Kairi had passed with a straight A in every subject.

"Then tutor us" Sora pestered. "If you get As in everything, then you have to be a super brain! C'mon!"

Kairi had still refused, saying that she had something planned for the summer.

"Oh, hey Kairi" said Riku.

"So how did this class go?" asked Kairi. "Did Sora have another flashback?"

Sora nodded. "Yeah. And this time I woke Mr. Harding up. He was so mad!"

"Are you going to another school like he threatened?" Kairi asked.

Sora shrugged. "He said I am. But that's what he said last week. And the week before that. And the week before that. So I can't really tell if he's serious or not."

Kairi waggled a finger at Sora and said "You should really be careful though. Now that there's no more need for a Keyblade Master, you've got to get real jobs. You can't be daydreaming about the Heartless and still get a high school education."

"Jeez Kairi, don't tear his head off!" Riku said, laughing. He gazed out in the direction of the Play Island. You could see it clearly over the rooftops of town from the hill where the school was located. Sora had always believed that it was built that way so as to torture the children inside, to glimpse freedom so far away. They rarely went there anymore. Since that time one year ago when they had first come back, and three other times. In fact, the three of them didn't get together very much anymore. Two of them maybe, but never all three. They were growing apart, the magic was fading. To Riku, his adventures across the universe were still fresh, but they seemed to have happened to another person. Kairi, who had the least experience of the small group, was already forgetting bits of her role. And Sora…well it was evident that Sora hadn't forgotten his adventures quite yet.

"So what do you want to do?" asked Sora. "I have an hour before I have to get home. Riku?"

"I don't have a curfew" Riku said. "I can't believe you forgot that Sora."

"What about…what about you Kairi?" asked Sora, swallowing slightly. It had been a while since Kairi had really joined them and hung out. She always had something better to do, usually with Selphie or Tidus, or Wakka. Sora guessed he couldn't blame her. She had been waiting for a year for them to come back. She must have gotten closer to the others during that time. Still, it didn't stop the pain from spreading itself across his heart. He wondered suddenly if Roxas wasn't feeling sad that Namine couldn't spend time with him too. Roxas, his Nobody. He couldn't forget it even if he wanted to. Thanks to that little seppuku stunt he had pulled in the recently renamed Hollow Bastion Castle, he had a whole set of memories that weren't his floating around in the back of his head. He wondered if Kairi didn't have that problem too. It wasn't bad---just weird. Still, even if he had known the ramifications it would have, he wouldn't have changed anything. It was how Kairi had gotten her heart back, for heaven's sake!

"I promised Selphie that I would go out to that new restaurant that opened a day ago…" Kairi said.

"Oh" said Riku, his head down. "I guess we'll see you then…" he began to walk away. "Just let us know when you want to hang out Kairi" he said in a voice which meant he didn't expect it to be anytime soon.

"Well, guess what? Selphie also said something else…" Kairi said.

"What is it this time?" Sora asked, a little annoyed.

"It's a party for you Sora on your sixteenth birthday!" Kairi smiled. At the same time, Riku clapped Sora on the back.

"We really had you going there for a while didn't we!" he laughed.

"Wha…? You were playing along?" Sora said, surprised. "I didn't know you were that good an actor."

"I'll see you at six" Kairi yelled. "It's called the Universal Vale!" Kairi yelled. She and Riku went off down the street.

Sora went off to his house, musing about what good friends he had. Summer vacation, summer school or not, was going to be fun. His first summer back on the Islands.