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Nagato Yuki

It was eons ago, before...everything, when I first met her in that empty, white, never-ending fog.

Her hair was as azure as a clutch of bluebells, her eyes the same. Her smile was soft, but cold, almost accusatory.

"Who are you?" I asked, fearful of that malicious smile.

"I have no name, not yet." She giggled, head tilting to the left, as if in curiosity. "You don't have one either, do you?"

"I do! I have a name, my name is..." ...I trembled, unable to speak my own name. I know I had one...my name...it was Yuki...it was...soft, cold...just like the girl that stood before me...

"You and I...we're the same, we're not real." The girl looked on, as if she felt sorry for me.

"Not real? Then what am I? What are you?!" I demanded, feeling almost as if I was going to cry. What was going on?

I'm so...so confused...

"The Integrated Data Thought Entity might tell us that we're not, that we were created for some other purpose, but it lies. We're just...fake humans, interfaces, dolls meant to be played with. This is Haruhi Suzumiya's doing, we're her's to control." It shattered my heart, the idea of merely being some girl's plaything. I was real, I knew I was real!

She reached out, and gently took my hand in hers, leading me away from there, though it seemed as if there was nowhere to go, fog followed us, it was endless in all directions. Her stride was fast, her hands were warm, she seemed very much alive, real, and warm, unlike my cold, chalky hands. "Now, where shall we go?" She chirped smiling pleasantly.

"I...I don't know..." I spoke softly, trying to keep up with the doll of a girl.

She laughed again, amused by my simpleness. "We can go anywhere! Where would you like to go?" She suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, spinning on her heel to look at me. I flinched, almost coming to a collision with her.

I had been trying to go somewhere...but...now I couldn't remember...Where had I been trying to go? Moreover, where was I now? I looked around, there was no sky or ceiling, just and endless empty white void, all around me, where was nothing, just a dense misty fog that came up to my calf. I was here...but why? Why had I been chosen to be a...a doll?

"Weren't you trying to get to North High?" She answered my silent question.

And, at the mention of the school, it was as if I had been drained, the past few minutes of confusion had left me with a clarity of myself, why I was created and who I was. Yes, foolish me. I was going to North High, to...observe Haruhi Suzumiya, the god-figure of the known universe. Of course, why had I forgotten? She was the very reason of my existence, I lived only to be a part of her games under the guise of an alien figure and the patroness of her whims.

Without so much of a nod or confirmation on my part, she smiled and let go of my hand. "Well, it's settled then. Goodbye, Miss Yuki Nagato."

"...Thank you, Miss Ryoko Asakura." I spoke to her, my voice to monotone and empty even to my own ears. She left, farther into the dense fog, to go to her own place, where she belonged as one of Miss Suzumiya's 'alien' characters. I turned the other way, finding where I too belonged, put away neatly in that empty room in the Cultural department of North High.

The fog cleared, and I was walking down the halls of North High, passing empty rooms before I gently opened the one where I belonged. It was empty, a small room void of any furniture. I crossed the threshold, a uniform newly created on my body, and stood before the window. Soon the bell would ring, and students would file in. I opened my book, and waited as this room I was in slowly began to take shape, stacks of empty books forming, set away like this really had been a literature clubroom. Desks and tables, chairs put into a corner, and, right behind me, an empty one. I sat down, and opened the book I had no memory of retrieving.

I didn't set my eyes on it, instead looking out the window, onto the yard outside. Days went by, weeks, then months, until three years had passed, with me sitting in that small, empty room, forever stagnant until the day the Universe's goddess came to hijack both this room and me. There was no literary club, this room was meant to satisfy Haruhi's need. The leafs grew dull before my eyes, and then they fell.

When everything was barren, something...marvelous happened. Something fell from the sky, colder than rain, softer than hail...In all my three short years, I had never gotten use to this substance, it was wondrous to me. This whole world, my whole world...all of it was beyond my comprehension, and...I couldn't be happier about it. The eons before me, supervising a volatile god, staving off a world-recreation, it was all suddenly meaningless. So long as I had this amazement, I couldn't care less. This world, this crystallized rain, it was just like me...soft, cold...melting.

I decided that I would give this substance my name.

"Hey! The first snow of the season!" Haruhi chimed in excitement, sticking her head out the window. "Oh, that reminds me! We need to start planning!"

"Planning? For what?" I heard a distinctly male voice sigh irritably.

"For Christmas!" She spoke as if it were obvious.

"What a wonderful idea, Miss Suzumiya."

"Th-that sounds like fun! B-but..." We all turned to the red-headed junior. "M-maybe...we could make a snow-day before then, when it's high enough."

"A snow day! That's a great Idea Mikuru! We could have a snowman making contest, and a snowball fight with everybody in it! And the losing team will have to endure a punishment!" Haruhi's boisterous voice raved on, but I had stopped listening.

Yes...both it and I were 'snow'.

This was my first act of stealing Suzumiya's power, and I could feel my icy soul melt, emotions I've never felt before slowly running through me, like the rivers during the first thaw of spring.

I was a doll no more.