Fan Number 61

by a quirky little tune

"Sora Hikari."

"Uh, present?" Sora said as he peered around the mostly dark room in bewilderment. He could have sworn that he saw the silhouette of Selphie's distinctive hairstyle in the corner, but it escaped from sight behind other innocuous shadows.

"You are here to join the DaiRiZu." It wasn't a question and Sora couldn't help but be amused. The whole situation, in general, was pretty ridiculous and the leaders of the DaiRiZu trying to act intimidating was especially ridiculous when compared to staring down Xemnas in a world that teetered on the edge of existence.

"Yes," he replied strongly, having absolutely nothing to fear from high school kids playing secret society. He cast another look about the dim room. "Um, excuse me, where exactly are we?"

"Unimportant. State your reasoning."

Sora blinked at both the brush off and the demand that followed. "I'm sorry?"

"Your reasoning for joining the DaiRiZu."

"You mean I have to be interviewed to join a fan club?" Sora cried out, aghast. He had thought the blindfolding and the spinning and the being shoved into a random classroom after school ended was overkill, but this really took the cake. He'd expected a sign-in sheet, or a brief orientation on the history of Riku's amazingness or something – not a cultish setting in which he was grilled and evaluated for membership.

There was a slight pause, as if the DaiRiZu leaders were taken aback by his response. Sora supposed that a lot of the new inductees probably were a little more shocked and intimidated by the whole secret society/cult aspect of it and didn't really protest against anything. Then, one of the female leaders replied in her most booming voice, "The DaiRiZu has reached unanticipated levels of membership. To keep things manageable and to make sure that all members are sincere in accomplishing the DaiRiZu's ultimate goal, we decided to make the membership process a bit more… thorough. Please answer the question, Sora Hikari. What is your reasoning for joining the DaiRiZu?"

Sora blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "Free merchandise?" He could vaguely hear Selphie giggling somewhere in the back, roughly around the exact second he realized that it was probably not the best answer to give. He quickly added, "To admire. I would admire the free merchandi – that is – I mean, to always have a piece of Riku with me."

There was a long pause. Sora felt it was tinged with disapproval of his butchered answer. "Sora Hikari… we normally do not let a potential member's identity outside of the club affect his or her application – equal opportunity fan club, you see – but in your case, we find we must ask. You are known to be one of Riku's closest childhood friends, arguably his closest. Why are you joining the DaiRiZu?"

Sora felt glad for the dim lighting, he could feel his tanned cheeks heating up. He couldn't believe that he was about to tell a room filled with possible rivals and nutcases and stalkers he didn't even know what he couldn't gather enough courage to tell his best friend in the entirety of the universe.

"Sora Hikari?" Damn, they were starting to sound impatient.

He cleared his throat. Courage, Sora, courage! "Uh, I… you know… I want to j-join for the same reason anyone else wants to join. I have feelings for him… for Riku." Everyone in the room had most likely already guessed this fact, but Sora saying it aloud seemed to cause a bit of a commotion.

The leaders broke character and finally spoke in normal tones. "You're serious? Like, for real serious?"

Sora gaped and wondered whether or not he should feel insulted. "Yes, I'm serious. Why else would I be here?"

"You could just be here as a joke or something," muttered one of the female leaders.

"Yeah," Sora replied in disbelief, "Right. Because I would do all of this – allow you to tie me up, spin me around, push me around, and then interrogate me – for a few laughs."

"Exactly!" the boy replied.

A different boy, one whose voice was familiar and who Sora thought might be in his fourth period math class, spoke up. "C'mon, it's not fair for us to question his feelings for Riku like this. We didn't do this to the other applicants."

"I think it's romantic!" a girl stated loudly and Sora blushed.

"Yeah, very romantic!" That had definitely been Selphie, from somewhere in the background. She always had to add to the chaos, didn't she?

As put off as he felt in being doubted and called a liar, Sora didn't really want to cause this much of a scene. He jerked a thumb towards a random direction – he still couldn't tell what room they were currently in, let alone where the exit would be – and asked, "Do you guys want me to leave?"

Someone switched on the light and the sudden brightness made everyone cringe a little. Sora looked around, seeing people he recognized, but very few that he actually knew himself, and took stock of the meeting room. It was one of the generic classrooms that had its desks and chairs all stacked and pushed to the far walls. Someone had gathered large cardboard boxes and placed them against the window, trapping out most of the natural light. It spoke of a lot of effort and once again Sora wondered what kind of mess he was signing up for.

A brown haired girl who Sora thought to be in the graduating class held out her hand and said, "No, Sora, stay. You're being judged unfairly here. I think we should let him join."

"You guys can't just ignore the fact that he's Riku's best friend. I mean, did any of you realize that he had feelings for Riku before this meeting? It's just too sudden, too suspicious – it smells like a prank or a set up or something!"

"Plus, we asked him why he wanted to join and he said 'free merchandise' at first! Doesn't sound like he's serious to me!"

"He was just nervous, we freak all of the applicants out –"

"I bet he's joining for kicks so he can laugh at all of us with all of his other friends!"

Sora knew that most kids his age had a tendency for the dramatic, but this was far beyond any of his expectations. He didn't think even he had been this paranoid when fighting for his life. "Seriously, I can just go –"

A loud whistle pierced the jumbled conversation, followed by a shrill, "HEY!" All eyes turned towards Selphie, who had jumped on top of a chair she had pulled from the wall. Sora could see from her eyes just how much she was enjoying the drama unfolding before her and her own role in it. She placed her fists on her hips and said, "I'm one of Riku's childhood friends, too, you know. You guys let me in, why not Sora?"

One of the dissenting members hesitated, then said, "She's got a point…"

"If he doesn't take it seriously, we can always just kick him out," a girl suggested, giving Sora a reassuring smile.

The five main leaders reconvened in front of the blackboard and discussed quietly. Selphie winked at Sora and the boy shrugged in return. Honestly, at this point, he would either be accepted or spared the insanity and, at that moment, he wasn't sure which one he preferred. Everyone finally seemed to come to a consensus and fourth-period-math-class-boy stepped forward.

"Sora Hikari, we've thought it over and found that we shouldn't jump the gun and assume things of you before they even happen. We also don't think we have the right to say whether or not your feelings are genuine, solely because you're good friends with Riku," he announced with a small smile on his face. "We would like to apologize and formally welcome you into the DaiRiZu!"

Sora smiled back and shook the kid's hand; a smattering of applause filled the room, though he could tell by glancing at some of the faces that a few members disapproved. It all seemed so self-important, so silly, that he had to bite the inside of his cheek to stop himself from laughing aloud. A small hand clapped him on the back in celebration and the spiky haired brunet turned around to see Selphie beaming at him. She grabbed onto his arm and began chattering a mile a minute.

"I told you that you could do it, didn't I? And now you're a member! Congratulations, Sora," she said with a giggle, pulling him in front of a table that held a stack of papers and a few pens. "You just have to fill out your form and then you'll receive your membership number."

Sora sighed. Of course there was paperwork. Considering everything else this psycho club came up with, he really shouldn't have expected otherwise. Simultaneously grabbing the paper and the shoddy pen, which was decorated with the club's title and Riku's name, he begin filling in the information. Hesitantly, he supplied his address and phone number, disliking the idea that they were asking for such details but realizing that most of the members probably already knew where he lived regardless. It was a pretty small island, after all, and he was a relatively well-known kid. He signed the bottom line with a steady hand, bit his lip, and hoped that whoever needed to read his form could understand his chicken scratch. Selphie grabbed it out of his hands and delivered it to a leader holding a thick red marker. She skimmed it to make sure he had filled out every question then wrote a big 61 at the top.

Someone handed him a familiar looking key chain and pin and it all suddenly felt very official. He was in the DaiRiZu.

He was Riku's fan number 61.

Look, an update on time! Pretty amazing, huh? See, I can do this, I can do this! I'm still estimating around 3-4 chapters left. Stick with me, guys, we're almost there!

Short chapter, but it was originally supposed to be short, anyway. I hope you enjoyed it! Don't worry, Riku and Kairi and even some of the others will be making their grand reappearances in the next chapter. We're also going to truly get to the meaty stuff soon (read: next chapter), so stay tuned.

Once again, thank you so much for reading. An extra special thanks for all of you reviewing as well – I really appreciate every word. I'm very bad at correspondence and replying, but trust me when I say that a single review brightens my day and inspires me. All of you are wonderful!

Sincerely,

a quirky little tune