Of course I don't own it. And be warned, this thing is full of spoilerish material for The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya.
Haruhi Suzumiya was irritated.
This was never a good thing for those in her good graces, much less the people she was upset with. The former - a tall boy with styled hair and an ever-present smile - had a nervous air about him as he watched her pace in front of the gates of North High. She couldn't entirely blame him for being apprehensive; she had dragged him out of their own school during lunch break and taken off on a breakneck pace up an extremely long hill to this place without any prior warning, and her explanation on the way had been spoken so fast that she might as well have tried to upload the information directly into his brain. He was slightly out of breath as he glanced at the area around them, then turned back to her. He was worried about what she would do next.
Koizumi coughed politely, snapping Haruhi out of her thoughts. "Miss Suzumiya, what exactly are we doing here? If this thing can wait at all, we should probably get back to school before any severe punishment is issued out. This place is probably starting its afternoon classes around now, too."
"I told you what we're doing here - we're collecting the other three, and once we figure out what went wrong things can go back to normal."
She cut off his next sentence by abruptly spinning in mid-step and starting towards the school entrance. Koizumi sighed, but followed her anyway; he should at least see what she was planning before they were both kicked out.
---
The complete lack of guards and an unlocked front door made it too easy to get in, and Haruhi thought to herself that she should bring some attention to it; any maniac could enter the building during the day. The layout of the school was basically the same, except for the conspicuous absence of class 1-9, which wasn't surprising considering the circumstances. Haruhi stalked past the first-year classrooms until she reached 1-5 and peeked in. There he was, sitting in that same corner near the back of the room with a vacant expression on his face. He must be so bored. A few steps behind her, Koizumi stopped. "This is the place?"
"Yeah. Get ready, this is going to take confidence and wit only the leader of the SOS Brigade could possess!"
"SOS Brigade?"
Haruhi ignored him, took a steadying breath, and slammed the classroom door open. At the front of the room, Okabe was speechless as he watched two students from a different school invade his class.
"What's up, Okabe! We're representatives from Kouyouen High, here to spread diplomacy to other schools in the area!"
"What? I- I never heard anything of this! Who are you?"
"Don't worry, we just need to borrow one of your students. We'll be gone before you know it! Now, where is he..." She scanned the stunned faces in front of her for show, trying to hide a smug smile. Kyon had already gotten over his initial surprise and was now staring at her with an outwardly blank, but intensely curious gaze. Next to him, another familiar face had an expression of pure panic.
"Idiot Taniguchi! Long time no see!" She reveled at the increasing alarm in his face as she walked in his direction with a predatory grin. Behind her, Koizumi spoke quietly to Okabe, apologizing for the interruption and promising that it wouldn't happen again. Taniguchi wouldn't call her bluff; she doubted that his luck with girls had improved at all, and it would just do more damage to his reputation if the fact that Haruhi had dumped him after five minutes spread to the student body. Stopping in front of his desk, Haruhi grinned menacingly down at him for a moment before turning to Kyon, who seemed faintly amused at Taniguchi's cowering. "You."
His head snapped up to look at her. "What?"
"You're the one that I need." She leaned down close enough that he pulled back, startled, until she grabbed his tie and tugged him out of his seat. Using the tie was necessary for dealing with this untrained Kyon. "You're coming with me."
"I don't know who you are! Let go-" His struggling was useless against her strength as she marched him down the isle, passing the bemused faces of former classmates. Sitting in her place behind Kyon, she noticed, was Ryoko Asakura. Odd.
"We'll be going now. Thank you for your time!" Okabe still looked traumatized at the blatant hijacking, but that wasn't important at the moment. Yuki and Mikuru still needed to be retrieved. Koizumi followed her and Kyon out in to the hallway, shutting the door quietly behind them. At that, Kyon finally broke free of her iron fist and yelled, "That's enough! Who are you, who's the guy with the creepy smile and why are you kidnapping me? How do you know my name?" His hands worked furiously at the knot of his tie, where it had tightened uncomfortable around his neck.
Koizumi stepped up, letting the insult slide. "My name is Itsuki Koizumi, and this is Haruhi Suzumiya. I myself am not entirely sure what we're doing here, but I'm sure she means you no harm."
"Whats that supposed to mean? Wait - Suzumiya?" Kyon turned to her in surprise, recognition in his eyes. "I've heard about you from Taniguchi."
"Yeah, that idiot loves to hear himself talk." Haruhi was already looking into Yuki's classroom further down the hallway. The quiet girl didn't seem to be inside. "Hey, Kyon, do you know Yuki Nagato?"
"Nagato? Yes, I know her." He blinked, then seemed to remember what was happening. "How do you know about Nagato? You still haven't told me how you know who I am! And why are you using that stupid nickname? My name is-"
"Where's Yuki? I need to see her too."
"Not until you tell me what you're doing!"
She paused then and took a long look at him, reminding herself that this wasn't the Kyon she knew. "I don't have time right now to tell you the entire story, but I need some help from you, Koizumi, Yuki, and one other person in this school to set something right. It shouldn't take too long - just follow me as your leader for a while!" She met his eyes and held them, seeing the gears in his head turn as he considered the pros and cons of going along with her. At last, he signed, closing his eyes and rubbing at him temple.
"Fine, I'll listen to you for a while. At least it's more interesting than class... but I'm probably going to get a headache from this."
"Now where's Yuki?"
He glanced at the door of the classroom she was standing next to; several students inside were now peering curiously back out at Haruhi. "If she's not in there, we should probably get this other person you mentioned first. It'll be faster."
"Let's go, then!"
---
The walk to Mikuru's classroom was filled with the loud stomping of the two Kouyouen students' outdoor shoes - they'd neglected to bring a second pair when sneaking out at lunch - and Kyon's quiet chatter with Koizumi. Apparently, Haruhi thought to herself, those quiet talks with each other came naturally to them. She was leading the way with a small frown on her face as the two boys trailed a short distance behind.
"Oi, Suzumiya-" it was so strange to hear Kyon call her that now, "it might be a good idea to not be so abrupt if you're going to run around taking students out of class."
She turned around and grinned at him. "Ah, so you're giving your Brigade leader advice now? I didn't think you'd actually try to help this go smoothly!"
"What Brigade? And I'm only saying it because I'd rather not get in trouble for being with you when you're causing havoc. How do you know your way around this school so well, anyway?"
"I visited here during one of the festivals." Koizumi sent her a puzzled look at that; she met it and gave a tiny shake of her head. Even if she had never come here in his memories, it wouldn't do for him to raise any more questions for Kyon to ask. He sighed quietly and shrugged it off. Haruhi felt a sense of satisfaction at this, realizing that at the very least, her yes man hadn't changed. Kyon watched this exchange between them suspiciously, but accepted her answer for the time being.
"Here we are! Kyon, you wait out here."
This time, Haruhi rapped gently on the door before opening it and poking her head into the room. "Ma'am, may we come in?"
The teacher, a young woman, nodded and guestured for her to enter. Haruhi motioned for Koizumi to follow her inside and went to stand at the front of the room, bowing politely. "My name is Haruhi Suzumiya, and with me is Itsuki Koizumi. We're representatives from Kouyouen High School, here to find students interested in building a closer relationship between our schools. You didn't receive any notification about this, correct?" She said, turning to the teacher. Out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of Kyon snickering at her from the hallway. Giving her attention back to the matter at hand, she continued. "Is there a Mikuru Asahina in this class? We would like to speak to her.
"Yes, there is. Miss Asahina, will you go with her?"
From the middle of the room rose a cute red-headed girl who looked younger than the peers around her. "Y-yes, I will. Should I bring my books?"
"No, you won't need them. Just come with us for a while."
Mikuru joined Kyon in the hallway as her teacher cheerfully wished Haruhi luck with her endeavor. Smiling politely and thanking her profusely, she backed out until all four of them were outside, staring at each other. Kyon was smirking reluctantly at her. "Nice acting."
"Would you expect anything less? Now, Mikuru-" the older girl perked up, her eyes wide with confusion. "I'll be blunt. We're from Kouyouen, but we're not representatives or anything. I just need the help of certain people to fix something that happened; you're one of them. You might not even have to do anything - being a part of the group is enough! Is that fine with you?"
Mikuru nodded, still disconcerted from Haruhi's sudden personality change. At that, the freshman smiled brilliantly and threw an arm around the other girl's shoulders, hugging her close and pressing the sides of their faces together. "Perfect! You're as cute as ever!" Mikuru, as expected, blushed furiously and made a small cry.
"Hey, Kyon!"
"What, Suzumiya?" He'd been paying more attention to Mikuru's distress than anything else.
"We have everyone else - now where's Yuki?"
He have a long-suffering sigh and ran one hand through his hair. "I hate to drag her into this ridiculousness... but this way." The three others fell in step behind Kyon, and Koizumi took this time to introduce himself to Mikuru and apologize for interrupting her class time.
After some time, Haruhi realized that Kyon was leading them in a very familiar direction. Feeling a flood of excitement, she ran ahead, grabbed his tie and took off, leaving the other two shocked for a moment before they ran after her.
"Suzumiya, what are you doing? Let me go! How do you know the way- ack!" Kyon's shouts, as disrupting as they were to the classrooms rapidly falling behind them, had no effect on Haruhi. She kept a tight grip on his tie and towed him through the halls at lightning speed towards their destination, stopping only one they'd reached a certain door. Kyon yanked his tie out of her fist and leaned against the wall, catching his breath and Mikuru and Koizumi caught up with them. Koizumi inspected the sign at the top of the door before looking at her for an explanation.
"The Literary Club Room?"
"Yeah. This is Nagato's place." Kyon, recovered, adjusted his tie and walked up to the door, knocking three times. He paused, and the rest of the group listened intently for a reaction.
"Come in," said a quiet voice from inside the room.
Kyon stepped in and gave a crooked smile to the sole occupant as the other three streamed in behind him. "Nagato, you read through lunch again. Anyway, this girl here is Haruhi Suzumiya - she seems to know you, somehow. The other two are Mikuru Asahina and Itsuki Koizumi. They were just caught up in Suzumiya's insanity."
Sitting by the windows at the back of the room was Yuki Nagato, looking much to Haruhi as she had the first time she saw her. She was still wearing glasses, though, and was looking at them with more emotion (bewilderment) than she'd ever seen on the bibliophile's face before. In her hands, she held a book roughly the same size as a clay brick.
Kyon seemed used to her silence, as he continued on. "According to her, something went wrong that she needs our help to fix. Actually," his eyes turned to Haruhi, and he folded his arms in an imitation of her own stance earlier, "I think it's time for you to explain yourself."
She glared at him daring to give her commands, but walked to the center of the room. "Wait - first, how do you two know each other?"
"Library card."
Yuki gave her two-word explanation and turned back to her book; the sudden crowdedness of the room no longer fazed her. Kyon nodded in confirmation. "I met her at the library a few months ago and helped her get a library card. We met several times around school afterwards, and I joined the Literary Club."
Haruhi blinked in surprise. "You're a member?"
"It might have been disbanded with Nagato as the only member. And anyway," he shrugged, oblivious as to what a revelation this was to Haruhi, "it's relaxing."
Haruhi stood in place for a time, stock-still, and seeing that she was thinking, the other four began to interact among themselves. She watched her subordinates mixing with each other, already picking up on a similar vibe to what she knew. Koizumi smiled in a way that said "It can't be helped" when Yuki gave no reaction to his introduction, while Mikuru made uneasy sounds at the younger girl's uncanny silence. Kyon started speaking with the junior the moment he could, mentioning something about seeing her going to the calligraphy club before. She felt a mix of satisfaction and apprehension at having gotten this far; everything could either turn back to normal, or she might be stuck in this place for the rest of her life. The time to act was now or never. With some amusement, she saw that Kyon was already grinning stupidly as he spoke to Mikuru - that certainly wouldn't do. "Kyon."
The residual blush on his cheeks from talking with the upperclassman completely undermined his annoyed frown. He seemed to notice this as she snickered quietly, and the red stain on his cheeks grew darker. "What?"
"I'm ready to talk now."
As one, each member found a place in the room to listen comfortably. Mikuru and Koizumi took seats at the long table, while Kyon leaned against the door frame, and Yuki stayed where she was - the only indication that she was paying attention at all was that her book rested unopened on her lap.
Haruhi took a deep breath and let it out slowly; everything came down to this. "Last night, something went wrong with the world, and I'm the only one who knows it. When I woke up this morning, I found out that I'm attending a school I've never been in before, along with Koizumi, and that none of my memories from the past half-year happened. I even hard long hair again, when I cut it short back in May. In short, I've fallen into some sort of parallel universe, and since I have a memory of how things should be, I'm supposed to fix it to make everything normal again, right? In the other universe I'm the head of the SOS Brigade - that's you four - which is made to find supernatural people and events so we can have fun with them, and all four of us attend this school - I don't know the layout of the school from attending some festival, Kyon. I figured out that reassembling everyone in this room, our meeting place, would be the first step to setting things right. So here we are. Now we just need to find some sort of clue that'll point us in the right direction."
The reaction was dead silence. Kyon stared at her with his eyebrows dissappearing under his bangs. Itsuki looked torn between deep contemplation and fear that she'd completely lost it, and Mikuru was more confused than ever. Yuki stared at her intensely while managing to stay expressionless.
"Suzumiya, things like that don't exist. People don't get dropped into parallel universes, they just wake up from dreams where they saw an alternate life for themselves."
"Nobody knows that for sure. In fact, this scenario would explain why the Miss Suzumiya of today has been acting very different from the one I've known since May. She's more energetic and considerably happier in general - and I don't believe any dream is vivid enough to make a person convinced that the previous six months of their lives haven't happened. It would also, as she said, explain her knowledge about the school's grounds and who you three are."
Kyon frowned. "But it's impossible. Stuff like that only happens in-"
Ding!
All five turned towards the computer in the back of the room. Haruhi realized with a start that she hadn't found anything odd about how there was already a computer in the room, since she was so used to having the one they'd gotten from the Computer Research Club. The current machine was much older, a large desktop instead of a flat screen. It had turned on without anyone touching it. Haruhi strode over to it and took her place at the desk where the computer sat.
The computer screen was black, except for a blinking cursor at the top right. As she watched, words began to appear.
tt Yuki.N You have found the answer. This is the Emergency Escape Program... /tt
"What's it doing?" Kyon was leaning over her shoulder, reading the words with growing confusion. "Nagato, did you type this? It's never showed this kind of screen before."
Yuki finally rose from her seat and leaned over Haruhi's other shoulder. She Gazed at the screen calmly for a time before replying, "I did not type this. As of now, I am also unaware of how to make the computer display such a message."
Itsuki came to stand behind her, and feeling awkward left alone at the table, Mikuru joined him. Itsuki stood directly behind her chair, while Mikuru found a place behind Yuki.
"This is certainly odd."
"Ehh, h-how does it know all of our names?
"Escape Program? What's that supposed to mean?"
"I believe this is more proof for Miss Suzumiya's story. Apparently the Yuki Nagato in her world was able to leave this message. It's possible that she was the one who made the entire thing happen."
The four of them continued to bat theories back and forth as the message went on to tell Haruhi how to repair the space-time continuum. She looked around the clubroom, taking in its familiar yet strange appearance, and the people behind her who were her best friends, and yet not. This world might have been interesting to explore for a while, but she wanted the people she knew back. This place was only an imitation, in her opinion, and not a good one at that. Besides - she had to talk to her own Yuki.
Grinning, Haruhi pressed the enter key, and as the world turned black, she felt the sensation of falling.
Feedback would be lovely. I feel like the ending is abrupt - and I know there's no explanation for why Haruhi is there instead of Kyon. The main point of this fic, though, is just that Haruhi is storming through the school. I got the idea for the fic as I was re-reading volume four and Kyon commented that if Haruhi needed to go to his school and collect the missing members, she'd handle it beautifully. Damn plot bunnies.