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It was raining that day . . .

A dream that seemed to enclose reality, the one thing that should never happen, happened.

Was it because it rained that day? Was it for that reason that . . . everything began? I don't know, I really don't . . .

All I know is that everything isn't going to be the same.

"What's with the long face? Eat a water bug?"

Very funny, never knew you had humor Kyon. Your always frowning . . .

I remained silent as I looked out the cold window. Rain season. I knew that it had been dry for a few days but I thought that the overcasting clouds would have avoided our fair city.

Why did it have to rain today?

I heard Kyon shift in his chair and a normal silence grew between us. I was planning on dragging him to the clubroom as soon as he got here but it's impossibly now.

Because it's raining.

I felt the demeaning eyes flicker towards my face and I shifted closer to the window as if to signal a plane away. Instead, he decided to crash the cock pit . . .

"What's so interesting about outside?" he asked. What a stupid question.

"It's raining."

"Yeah, and?"

He really didn't know? I've been telling him over and over again about this specific date and yet he still forgot? When will he understand? When? No one understands me. That's how it will and always be.

I sighed deeply, the glass fogging up.

"You are such an idiot. I told at least ten million times yesterday. Guess."

Kyon pretended to think. How stupid.

"Well . . . I do remember you barking at me about a certain date on the seventh . . . nope. Nothing rings a bell."

Damn you.

"It's Tanabata you dope! Tanabata! You are not allowed to mock the Brigade Chief, got that? Listen, Orihime and Hikoboshi aren't meeting today because the bridge that separates them can't be made! Don't you get it? The spirit of Tanabata is ruined!"

Kyon shook his head as if I just screwed up an entrance exam. What is it this time?

"Look, it's not going to rain all day . . .you don't really have to worry . . ."

. . . Hmm. When did Kyon start trying to make me feel better? A bit suspicious . . .

For some reason, my subordinate turned away suddenly to look at the streaming rain outside. Huh? Is there something on my face? I really couldn't see the look on his face but for some reason, I really didn't want to know what was on his face.

I looked out the window and wished that Orihime would stop being a big baby.

I sort of wondered what Tanabata wish I made sixteen years ago. I know I was only a year old but it's quite possible that I made a wish for food or something. That means the wish I made as a baby can't come true. This is terrible! Why is it raining? Why couldn't they make the bridge in the sky today?

They're separated. A whole year, they're separated. How depressing . . .

For some reason when I got to the clubroom it was empty. Even Yuki wasn't sitting in her usual spot. Kyon's such a lier. It's still raining outside and it doesn't look like it's going to stop. I walked over to the bamboo tree with all the wishes we had put up last year.

"Give me money."

I sneered at that wish Kyon had written. He would never get any spirit. You're suppose to make a wish about abnormal stuff stupid! The rest of the Brigade's wishes were all so normal and annoying. Especially Mikuru's.

It's already been four years since then, huh?

I wonder when I'm going to see him again? Maybe this rain is the reason why the wish I was going to make this year would never come true.

"I wish for the earth to rotate in the opposite direction."

Does it have to take sixteen years?

When will I see John Smith again?

Even if you can't grant my wish, just hear me out. Who knows? Maybe when it's raining our wishes transport faster. Whatever, I know that the tanzuku's aren't going to work this time. So I must pray to them. I'm normally not religious in the sense that I only pray to one type of religion but it's Tanabata so it doesn't matter.

"Hikoboshi, I wish that you could at least help me find him. It wouldn't be too hard for you. You're a God after all."

"Are you sure about that?"

Wha–? Huh? What is this slithering voice that seems to vibrate against the walls? How could anyone sneak up to me the Brigade Chief? How dare anyone who is not a Brigade member enter! You better be a client with a good mystery!

. . . But no. He wasn't a client. In fact, he looked like the Student Council President minus the geeky look and dark hair. Well it didn't really matter, they both looked evil.

What I was surprised to see was Sasaki standing there.

Sasaki, Kyon's "close" friend. I was still trying to figure out what she meant to Kyon but he's practically a brick wall when it comes to stuff that happened in the past. Well, I'm the same since I would never tell Kyon about John Smith . . . for various reasons.

What was she doing here? Did she have class to go to? After all, she is in an elite high school so don't their hours extend a bit further? Or maybe it has something to do with Kyon . . .

I lowered my eyes to a glare.

"What are you doing here?" I asked in a deep voice. The rain seemed to pound the window a bit harder and the wind seemed pick up outside. The strange guy came into the room as if he owned to place and sat in one of the metal chairs. Sasaki took only a few steps into the room and closed the door. What is this? Why is it taking Kyon so long to get here. Hurry up, you lazy ass!

"What are you doing here?" I asked a bit more forcefully. Sasaki looked around the room in curiosity.

"So this is the infamous SOS Brigade clubroom? It looks rather homey Suzumiya-san, I'm surprised."

What is with her? Did she wake up on the wrong side of the bed? I decided not to reply to that rather offending comment and placed my eyes on the stranger of the group.

"Who is he?"

"He goes by Fujiwara."

Well thanks but I was asking the sneering dude in the metal chair so just whatever . . .

Fujiwara's eyes traced over the rain outside the building, his dark eyes complimenting the mood. This is just getting a bit too creepy. Don't tell me they're spying on us. How stupidly cliche is that? Sasaki moved to sit in one of the chair's across from Fujiwara and I was the only one remained standing. And I will keep this commanding position.

"Are you sure this is three months into the future?"

"Yes, why would I lie to you?"

"Your mask is delicately built, Fujiwara. I'm not a fool."

"Shut the hell up. I'm not like that smiling buffoon. I at least have the dignity to be myself. I'm honest even when I don't want to be."

"You keep on saying you do not want to be here, why don't you explain."

"Sorry, but that's classified information."

Fujiwara then laughed after he said that like some clown had thrown a pie into someone's face. I had no idea what they were talking about so I just ignored that entirely. That's what I usually did.

"Tell me what you're doing in MY Brigade room. Whatever business you have with the SOS Brigade just spit it out."

"We wish to tell you things. Things you may not want to be true. Although you are a spoiled selfish brat, you deserve to know before the end."

The end? What end? Who said that anything was ending? Only I get to decide if this club would ever end, which is never! I'm not listening to this blond president masquerader. I'm tired of people opposing the SOS Brigade. Is there anything wrong with it?

"The truth, Suzumiya Haruhi, is that "your" Brigade does not belong to you. You see, they give you the illusion that you are the "leader" when in reality, they are pulling the puppet strings. And the one pulling those strings is the person you trust the most . . ."

". . ."

"Don't you see? It must feel terrible to be pulled around by forces you can not perceive, that's why I can relate to you, brat."

He placed his elbow onto the table and looked back at me with the eyes of a wolf. And I met him squarely. He doesn't scare me. And I know what he's doing. He's trying to make me distrust my members, that's what every enemy tries to do. I'm not falling for it.

I looked over to Sasaki in confusion and she gave me a smile (though it didn't look to kind) as she began to stand up again.

"You are lucky, Suzumiya-san," she said, brushing the table, "You are not weighted by reality and enjoy life as life gives it. I, on the other hand, am questioning this word life. I could be jealous of you or I could not be. I normally do not give into the emotions that tie the human race down from the evolution it has yet achieved but . . . something is . . . different about Kyon-san. It could be that I am not strong enough to deny or I am not strong enough to admit but that year I had spent with him had . . . I guess you could say it had brightened my life up even a little. Whenever he talked about the abnormal, I would sometimes, maybe even a little, believe in him. Kind of strange really, since I denied everything he said as a misplaced imagination. And that's what it was.

"The truth was that he was distracting me from what I wanted to achieve. You might want to push him away before he starts meddling with your goal, Suzumiya-san. Which is the reason I am here, correct? I need to inform you of misplaced judgment. Do not trust in him more then you would trust yourself.

"So separate yourself from him."

". . ."

I didn't know what to say. I knew I couldn't trust her for a penny's worth but . . . what I was shocked to find out was that Kyon really did get the spirit. Maybe he didn't now but I did understand him for once. I knew for a fact that even though he told me to stop believing in this "weird" stuff, he always stood by me.

Sasaki doesn't know anything about me. Whenever someone tells me not to do something, I just have to do it.

"Never."

And before I could hear a reply, the world had turned upside down.

I guess the world really did rotate in the opposite direction. I guess my formula was wrong after all . . .