Chapter 7.

Changing Times - Unexpected reunion

Time just kept passing faster and faster, yet nothing really interresting happened, and the whole Afterlife started becoming really boring. People all around started really getting creative about killing time. It's been nearly a month since Sora left us, and even though it was hard at first, I could slowly get used to the thought. It was much easier, since my friends were with me. First I shared my wisdom with them, and helped them get over their biggest problems with friendship and love and all and now they were the ones doing the same with me. It was quite a few times when I needed someone to cry myself out on the shoulders of. Those were hard times, but I could get over them all.

"Don't worry bro, it will all be alright! Time can resolve everything! Besides, you'll meet again as soon as you get out of here!"

That's what Tamaki kept telling me all the time, and somehow that was exactly what calmed me the most: The thought of seeing Sora some day, even if it will be a long time. However, along with the times changing, along changed the weather. That's right, one day, the boiling heat suddenly came to a halt, and it suddenly turned to late september. It was cold at times, and the days were much cooler aswell. We often sat on the top of the School main building, and stared at the cloudy sky.

"Sure is different than it usually is!"
"It is, but it's far better than the desert heat we usually get!"
"So true!"

We all laughed at that, and it sure was pleassant to feel the cool floor under our back and butts. Even though we could've caught a nasty cold in life, here it was just fine as it was. Illnesses just faded after a day at most. We just stared at the clouds and I suddenly came to a bright idea:

"Hey guys, how about we paint the sky the colors of the rainbow?"
"What do you mean?"

Obviously noone really understood my thinking, so I had to explain myself.

"You know it's a game! I don't know what you call it exactly, but the point is, you have to keep staring at the sky until you can make something like a scene out of the clouds... Like your favourite cartoons, or something that makes you laugh!"

I guess now it finally made it through as everyone now nodded in unison, and we laid back again. We weren't alone any more, as Rika and Sayuri's little friendship circle was also there with us. Tamaki just stared at the sky for a bit, and suddenly whispered to Rika, and they both burst into laughter.

"What?"
"You know, I already found one!"
"Where?"
"Right there!"

With her index finger, Rika pointed at a larger Cloud, that we almost missed and everyone else started laughing aswell, as we probably all thought of the same thing.

"That's us!"

Riku pointed it out quite well. It was like a huge Group picture: The chubbier cloud was Tamaki, the skinnier Yuta, the slim and sportly looking ones were the girls, and the one with the oversized head would be me. It was really nice to see, how much we were thinking alike, after all we've been a team and almost like a family since quite some while now. I also noticed one that looked like a man riding a motorbike and as the cloud slowly passed it turned over to the other side, as if he was in a curve. It was great fun playing this game, and the NPC girls also seemed to enjoy it.

"Look! That one looks like Tails with his plane!"

Kanna pointed at a group of clouds that actually did look like a little fox sitting in a Biplane. I loved the Sonic the Hedgehog games, so it wasn't hard to imagine. Sayuri kept staring at the clouds silently, but suddenly her tears started dropping more and more, and I almost instantly knew what it could be.

"Sayuri, what's wrong?"

She looked at me with those tearful eyes and it was all clear by then.

"Your mom, right? You remembered her?"

She nodded, and took a bit before answering.

"One of those clouds was like my Mom's face, when she smiled... When she smiled, she was like a fairy, or and angel from a child's tale."
"Wow... She must've been a really beautiful woman..."
"She sure was... So much even... My sister always kept telling me, that I was just like her when she was my age."

She went silent again, but everyone's quiestioning stares made her speak up.

"You didn't tell them, did you?"
"I only told Sora, as I thought you'd tell everyone when you feel like it."

She now nodded and proceeded to tell the others about her not quite lucky story of her life. At some point, she started crying again, and as I looked around, her honesty did reach everyone's heart and some of them, especially the girls even started tearing up. I wanted to say something to calm them at least a bit, but suddenly a shadow appeared over us. As I looked behing us, I saw a young girl of average height, incredibly long Brown hair and deep blue eyes. At first she looked confused for a second, but as her stare finally met mine, her face suddenly turned sad.

"Well hi there! You looking for someone?"

She didn't answer, and as I stood up to talk to her more directly, she started backing away from me.

"Wait, I don't want to hurt you!"

I didn't have the time to carry on as she disappeared in the staircase.

"What's her problem?"
"I dunno..."

I had no idea why, but she seemed awfully familiar. I was kind of puzzled by her appearance and to tell the honest, I wanted to find out more about her. However, no matter how much I kept looking for her afterwards, I never found her. After a few days of early fall, the clouds stacked up and became a thick layer of rainclouds that wouldn't back down and suddenly it started raining... What raining, pouring literally. It was a refresing change, and we often found ourselves playing and fooling around in the rainy weather. Yuta and I even went over into some mud wrestling and we both ended up covered in mud from bottom to top. The not so funny part was, that we were both shivering, as we were both cold. It was that late october, early november kind of weather. I looked behind me once and I saw her again, that strange, seemingl mute girl. I heard some stuff about her, like her not talking to anyone, and always sitting ducks in her room, but now there she was again and under her umbrella, watching us, or more precisely, me. I waved at her, at which she seemed to be stunned, but after some bit, she finally waved back, and disappeared around the corner.

"Strange girl, I'd say..."

Indeed she was, but from then on, again I didn't hear from her. It took another few days and from late fall we went over to cold winter. At first it was just freezing cold, and temperatures were way below 0, so the heating needed to be turned on. Yes, whoever designed this place, thought of basically everything. One morning however we awoke to the fact, that snowwas coming down at an increasing rate. So much even, that soon the snow started piling up into mountains on the schoolgrounds. Us boys took the duty of keeping the sidewalks clean, while the girls kept the spirits up in us with some hot drinks, and some cookies too. It was really nice to have them around and I somehow found myself bound together with Yuuki all the time. By now the big winter coats were out, and everyone just covered themselves in their thick blankets every night. One day however, as we were preparing for another concert, I was heading back to the Band meeting room, when I heard someone singing Sora's song, which we now titled as 'Song of my Heart'. I rushed to the Room and found Riku singing and the others following in with the music. As I stepped in, everyone's attention turned towards me.

"Yamato? What's wrong?"
"Oh nothing! Do you realise, what you're singing?"

That was when everyone caught themselves together.

"Oh, right... Sorry about that! I..."
"No-no, it's okay! I just..."

I probably hurt her with that. She obviously sang that song with no bad intent, and was just trying to lighten the mood, but me interfering was probably a bit rude too. I just sat down at the Keyboard and continued on with playing to let her know, that I didn't mind. Suddenly, as I looked up, there she was, the mute girl, and she was listening carefully to the music and smiling. I didn't stand up, just waved at her, to come on in if she wants, but she shook her head.

"So you like Music? Do you want us to keep playing?"

Her smile widened even more and nodded swiftly.

"Alright then! Come on guys!"

At that note, Tamaki stood from the Corner and Yuuki took the solo guitar up, which was kind of an unusual setup, but she did tell me once that she can play on more than just two instruments. We played some of the songs from the previous concert and as I played and sang simulanously, I kept watching our little VIP guest as she just stood there, bent against the door and smiled away. She really enjoyed herself, and I could've sworn I knew her somehow. When we finished playing, I still held her back for a moment.

"Say, we'll have another concert at the Peace-day Celebration. Will you be there too?"

For a moment she went into pondering and finally nodded. Now she finally left but this time she took it nice and slow, unlike last time. Still not a word from her, yet she was slowly getting closer to us. At the end of yet another peaceful winter day I ended up in my room with Yuuki who brought over some hot chocolate, and I got my coffee and cigarettes, because why not, and we sat around at the window staring out into the snowy landscape.

"Got hooked on it again, huh?"

She pointed it out, I was back on smoking.

"Yeah, but you might understand, that this is my only painkiller since Sora left."
"I know, I just worry about you..."
"Like you worry about everyone."

I really liked how Yuuki kept a close watch over me all the time, and for some reason, her presence seemed to calm my soul too. I suddenly noticed our little friend standing outside of the girls dorm, and she was, what else, staring at my window. I knew that from the fact, that when waved at her, she waved back. Her hair was all covered in snow and her face all red by the cold.

"She's really addicted to you, don't you think?"

I didn't notice, but Yuuki waved too, and now the girl ran inside, realising she was cold.

"Do you know her maybe?"
"Not really sure... She does look familiar..."

Yuuki smiled and took a deep sip out of her drink.

"Deja vu, huh? I had a strange encounter myself when I was alive."
"So you remember now?"
"Yeah, a couple things are still blurry, but this one I remember quite clearly."

She stared out of the window with her eyes wandering off into the distance, along with her mind.

Yuuki's POV

Not sure if it will be a surprise to you, but I had a sister who was eight years older than me. She and I, we were like twins from the day on, as I turned 15. It wasn't like she wasn't beautiful or anything, but we looked a really lot alike. We took after our mother, who died at a young age, and only Kanade remembered her. The only diference between me and her was our eye color, which in my case was blue, and in hers Golden. We often played pranks on our friends by trading places for some time. It was great to have her around, as she was like reading my mind all the time.

On one occasion we were meant to meet at the famous Shibuya 109. I guess you know of that place, since you lived in Tokyo yourself. So I was standing there, half bent against a pillar, humming my favourite song, one I heard my sister hum a lot, and I recieved a text message from her, saying we shoud rather meet at the nearby café. So I up and wanted to walk away, when suddenly someone tapped my shoulder.

"Kanade, wait!"

I turned around only to find myself face to face with the guy who just walked past me a few seconds ago. Orangely colored hair, purplish eyes, and a weirdly inspective stare. For a bit he kept looking in my face, then his expression turned to a darker tone.

"Oh sorry about that... I think I mistook your for someone."
"It's okay, it often happens. I'm always mistook for my sister."

His eyes widened in surprise.

"Wait, you mean you have a sister named Kanade?"
"I do! I'm going to meet her, wanna tag along?"
"Sure!"

He was really friendly, and if I wasn't as young as I was, I'd say he was my type actually. Tall and handsome, but rather the same age as Kanade. I was in Highschool at that time and wanted to become a Veterinarian, while Kanade was working as a Florist. We kept talking while walking our way to the café.

"What's her surname again?"
"What do you mean? I thought you were old friends..."
"Yeah old friends... Like from a previous life maybe..."

I swear I didn't get what he meant with that, but if that's how much he wants to know.

"Korrogi... Korrogi Kanade! And I'm her sister Yuuki."
"Nice to meet you! Kurohana Yuzuru!"

Well with that we made friends and I had to tell, even though I never met him before, he made a good impression on me. As we arrived at the Café, I immediately noticed Kanade sitting outside, wearing her usual working outfit, and only the blue Plastic apron was missing. As she saw me, she wasn't at all surprised, but when she saw Yuzuru:

"Yuzuru... Is that really you?!"

She almost squealed in joy, as she ran up to Yuzuru and hugged him tight, while he lifted her up in the air and spun her around. She never was like this, always quiet and shy, but now... And what surprised me the most was that Yuzuru went straight ahead and kissed her. Their lips merging as one... Stunning I'd say.

Yamato's POV

"And, what happened?"
"Not a year later they got married, and they lived happily ever after."

That was quite the nice little Story Yuuki layed out there.

"You know I also found out something incredible about my sister and her husband here."
"And what is it?"
"You've seen those photos on the wall in the Principal's office, right?"

Now that she mentioned it, I did see a photo, that reminded me of Yuuki.

"Don't tell me..."
"It is! Tachibana Kanade was my sister in a former life. And her husband, here as Otonashi Yuzuru, they met here for the first time!"

That was really something, and to tell the least I was stunned by those minor facts she just shared with me. I'll be honest, I never thought about things could ever even happen like this. Whether this was a coincidence or not, it still was stunning.

"Wow... So... On another sidenote, how's the celebration coming along?"
"Just fine! Sunday is the big day!"

The thing is, Yuuki and I had a little something on our minds since a while. Since time seemed not to be passing at all, we didn't know what season it was exactly. In fact only during the last couple of weeks did the weather even change. This was what made us come up with the idea of a Christmas wannabe kind of celebration, called Peace day, since not all of us celebrated christmas in the first place. If anything, Yuuki was good at organising, that much as for sure since she did a great job with the concert too.

Then the great day came. 8PM, and we were set to rock. The concert went smoothely and Yuuki and Riku took turns in singing Sora's songs, and this time it was Yuuki who sang the most emotional one. I saw some people even cry while singing along to the beautiful melody of the last song Sora left us with. Finally Tamaki came close to me and Whispered:

"Look who's in the front row, just for you!"

And as I looked down, I saw our little mute maiden, who was standing there right at my feet and enjoying herself. I reached my hand out and helped her on stage. We now began the 'Mother' songs, which were emotionally involving, for they were about family, friends and the importance of our beloved ones. Even I shed some tears while singing. I even held the mic out for my new found little friend but she just shook her head, but still let me hold her close. After the concert was actually done, Yuuki sang a beautiful Christmas song just in case, which fit quite well with the snow outside in the roaring wind, which was slowly letting up. After dinner it was time for the presents: in the middle of the Gym, there was a mountain of all kinds of presents for everyone. I chose one smaller one for myself, and a bunch of others for my closest friends. Finally I was left with only one. I now sought my little silent girl and found her alone and sad standing at the wall. I walked up to her and held the box out to her.

"Here! This is for you! Happy Peace day!"

She looked up at me with those teary eyes and I could swear she was about to say something, but nothing came out her mouth. I was about to walk away, when she suddenly spoke:

"Thank you! Nii... - chan!"

At that moment, at those words my eyes widened in surprise, as I turned around to see her crying in joy. I felt tears flowing down my own cheeks aswell, but I didn't care. I extended my arms and held her as close and as tight as I could, and only now did I come to words while crying like a child:

"Mikoto! My dear little Mikoto! My little Sister!"

It was true, it was my sister Mikoto, and even though right now she was in the body of a 16 year old young woman, she still was the one I knew from when I was alive. Just now did I realise, why she looked familiar: I once saw an old photo of my mother at the same age, and Mikoto looked a lot like her in this form. Soon enough all of my friends got to know her closer and they greeted her like an old friend. Probably because they saw some of me in her too. Soon we were the only ones left in the Gym and we sat around talking. Mikoto was still the same, cheerful little girl as she was, no matter how much older she got when getting here.

"Wow, Yamato, you sure have some great friends here!"
"Yeah, and I owe them a lot!"
"How come?"

With that the flood of great and not so great stories of me began, and they didn't forget the part with Sora either, never mind mentioning me and her getting married aswell.

"Wait, you're married? And where is she? Where is my... What's it called again?"
"Sister in law?"
"Yeah, where's my sister in law?"

We all went silent after that question, and Sayuri came closer to explain the part with the light and passing on in short terms. Mikoto's face turned sad and she stared at the floor for a bit, then gave me a huge hug.

"I feel so sorry for you nii-chan!"

After we all parted ways, Yuuki and I wanted to join Mikoto back to her room, under the now clear starry sky. She suddenly stopped and kept deaf silent for a bit.

"Mikoto, what's wrong?"
"Nii-chan, I was so happy to have seen you at last!"

That was kind of strange, but I felt the same.

"Yeah same here little sis, but what about it?"
"Just this..."

She now took her warm gloves off and there it was... Her hands were glowing.

"No! Not this!"

I now stepped up to her and hugged her as tight as possible, not willing to let her go.

"Why?! Why does it have to be the hands?!"
"It's alright Nii-chan! I think this is when I say goodbye!"
"No! Don't go! Please!"

She was shining as bright as daylight, even blindening Yuuki. She had just enough time to finally whisper:

"Nii-chan... I love you!"

And then, in a bright flash, as bright as a supernova, she turned into light particles and those particles slowly flew up to the sky, lighting up the dark night into a sun shining day for a few brief seconds, and afterwards disappearing into a new, more fortunate life. I just stood ther for a bit, staring up at the sky, with my eyes full of tears, and took a bit before I finally spoke up.

"Imouto-chan! I didn't get the chance to tell you, but I love you too! I just hope you'll have a good life now, and that we can meet again!"

I now turned around, and saw Yuuki standing right behind me, smiling.

"I'm proud of you!"
"Yeah, I guess I needed this last push to finally get used to stuff like this! Thanks for staying behind for my sake!"
"You're welcome as always! You know I care for all of my friends!"

It was true, she did indeed care for all of them. We now parted ways with her throwing me kiss, and only when I caught it, did she enter her dorm. Now I opened up the box I got as a present, and it was a small necklace, with a pendant on it, surprisingly enough someone carved a heart onto the back of it. I didn't know what to make of it, probably it wasn't meant for me, but I hung it around my neck, and I went to sleep smiling, while staring at the bright moon.

A couple days passed and as the winter came, it went away again. On the first day, the snow melted away. On the second, it all dried up, and at last it was like an owen again. It wasn't like we didn't like it better like this anyway. I met Tamaki on one of these beautiful mornings when I woke up with the Dawnbreak.

"Morning Tamaki!"
"Morning bro! How was your sleep?"
"Great! I feel refreshed!"

He had that worried face which made me curious.

"What's wrong?"
"Don't you smell it?"
"Smell what?"
"The smell of fear in the air!"

Now that he mentioned it, it was awfully quiet around school and I could only think of one thing. I could clearly sense when trouble was coming since a while now. Suddenly we heard an unmanly fearful scream from outside of the schoolgrounds. Tamaki and I looked at eachother and we immediately ran that direction. We found a student lying on the fround in the middle of a pool of blood. He was ruthlessly stabbed in the chest.

"This guy was one of our civilians. I remember him quite well!"
"What happened to him?"
"I'm thinking whatever attacked him, must have skills like Yuuki!"

That was a ludicrous idea, but the wound did seem like it was caused by the Hand sonic, only larger and broader. Suddenly the seemingly lifeless body awoke and sat up, and to our shock, his eyes were empty, devoid of life.

"He... He turned into an npc!"

That was bad news, but before we could carry on with that thought an inhuman roar broke the silence of the land. It came from the gate this time, and Tamaki and I up and ran that way, leaving the now NPC kid behind.