Author's Notes: This is my entry for the 2010 Scarlet Kitsune Anime Club's Fan Fiction Contest.
Thanks to BKE for beta-ing
Disclaimer: I don not own The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. This is a fan based work.
Sometimes, the end does not come at an instant. Sometimes, it all fades away slowly.
Fade to Black
A mysterious man, who's face she could not recognize, was following her lead, drawing on the ground with a chalk machine. It was a simple message, it read, "I am here." yet, it meant much more to her. She asked for the man's name. He replies, "John Smith." which she does not believe for more than a second. She knows that is not his true name, that he himself is one of the mystery's she is looking for.
Haruhi Suzumiya was walking home from one of the weirdest experiences of her life. Her spirits were high, because she was able to finish her message to the aliens. Soon, they will find her, and take her away from this boring world!
Unfortunately, it will never be straightforward like that.
On her way home, she heard a voice from an alley.
"Hey! Ribbons! John Smith sent me to tell you something!" Said a man with short, dirty blonde hair, and a nasty sneer.
"Who are you supposed to be?" She snapped back at the man.
"Like I said, John Smith forgot to tell you something important, and he sent me to remind you." The man replied.
"Why didn't he come himself?" Haruhi asked in an icy tone. She had a bad feeling about this man. What if he is some assassin from the future, or the leader of an evil organization dedicated to the elimination of aliens?
"Because he was being pursued by other time travelers. It wasn't safe in this time frame anymore." The man replied in a reassuring tone.
"I see. Fine then. Tell me." Haruhi demanded of the blonde man.
"There's too many people here. And we may be being eavesdropped on. Come with me, I know a place where they can't hear us." He said, sounding reassuring again.
"...Alright." Haruhi decided to disarm her doubt and go with the man. After all, how often do things like this come up?
The ribboned girl followed the dirty-haired man into the alley, and through a few side-passages. Eventually, after sneaking around a little, they made it to an abandoned warehouse. The warehouse had one door, and no windows. The lights inside were not running, as the only amount of light in the room was coming from the ceiling.
The man opened the door, and led Haruhi in, closing, and locking the door behind him. A loud snapping noise was made as he played around with the lock. "We're here." He said in a flat tone.
"Alright then. Now, what was it you wanted to tell me?" She asked.
"Tell you? Hah! I was just going to remind you that you are a stupid little bitch who thinks she's better than everybody." He said, his mask falling apart as a crooked smile appeared on his face as he brandished a knife. "I'm going to have some fun with you little girl." He said creepily as he started to approached the girl.
Haruhi decided to run for the door. She started fumbling at the lock, until she realized that he jammed the key into it. Panicking, she started to beat on the door, but to no avail. "Wh-What are you going to do to me? A-Are you going to kill me?" As she said this, the air turned stale, and a pale blue glow could be seen through a hole in the roof.
"No. But you'll be wishing I had." He said, as he threw Haruhi onto the ground, and with the knife in-between his teeth, pinned both of her arms on the ground. He started to snicker a dark little snicker.
He started reaching for the buttons on her shirt, as she weakly struggles against his advances. A thousand things went through Haruhi's mind at this point. The main thing that kept repeating itself, was "Am I going to die?". She remembered about all the strange things that happened, that this John Smith person knows the truth. That she could learn everything! That nothing would be boring anymore! However, those hopes were fading away as the man kept trying to undress her. A thousand different voices were screaming in her head at once, yet one voice spoke louder than the rest and silenced the others.
"I want to live." And then she lost consciousness.
The thug looked in terror when the eyes of the girl he pinned to the ground started to glow blue. He was shocked as she freed her arms and shoved him off with superhuman force. The man got up quickly, and ran for the door, but it was useless. She came up to the man incredibly fast and delivered a two handed, open-palm strike at the man. He winced in nerve wracking pain as he heard his ribs audibly crack as he was sent flying through the door, which was smashed out of the way by the impact. As he coughed up blood, his mouth dropped the knife as he started to try to back away. She then rushed up to him again and grabbed him by the throat. She held him like that for what seemed like an eternity, he not being able to take in the life-giving air his lungs needed, was about to pass out.
Then, she administered the death blow.
Her free arm started to glow a blue hue, almost transparent. It started to grow, no longer resembling a human limb. She then stuck the man through the chest with the appendage. Blood gushed out of the man's chest, covering half of her face, and the limb, which returned to it's normal form as well as her clothing. As he fell limply to the ground, the man was somehow able to let out a few words before taking in death's welcoming embrace.
"Forgive me, Fujiwara-anaki." He then closed his eyes...
Thirty minutes later, Haruhi regained consciousness. Numb, her last memory of being undressed by the violent man, she was tired and disoriented. She got upon her knees from laying on the concrete.
Then, she saw something so terrifying, she wanted to scream, but couldn't, because she was throwing up at the gore of the scene.
She saw the lifeless form of the twisted man from before, except that he had a hole in his chest, and there was blood everywhere. She soon noticed the metallic taste of the man's blood on her lips, and the blood, which completely covered her left hand. A loud thunderclap was heard, and a heavy downpour of rain started to come down from the heavens, washing the blood, and bile away. She started to back away, with what little strength she had left, and started to realize something as her eyes widened in terror.
"If no one else was here, who could of killed this man but me?" Then, she screamed. And then, her consciousness faded to black again.
"Haruhi!" She heard a familiar voice, faintly.
"Suzumiya-san!" She heard another, familiar voice.
She felt a shaking, and started to slowly open her eyes. She saw the images of her brigade members over her bed, all staring at her with a look of concern. She noticed that she was drenched with sweat, and she felt that she had a small headache.
"She's opening her eyes! Haruhi, are you okay?" Asked Kyon, who looked like he was panicking.
"I-I'm okay." Haruhi would normally remark at his concern, but was still recovering from her nightmare. "Where are we?" she asked.
"You passed out a little while ago. You were in a tree, trying to get a better vantage point, when you fell out. Fortunately, Kyon-kun here broke your fall, and you suffered no severe damage. You were knocked unconscious, however." Itsuki reminded her. Any trace of his normal smile was nowhere to be found. He looked serious.
"Then, what happened after I was knocked out? And how are we in this lodge? " Haruhi asked back at the boy.
"A young man, who lives in this lodge, found us as we were carrying you somewhere safe. We needed to get some rest too, since Kyon-kun tweaked his knee upon breaking your fall. He was generous enough to invite us to his lodge." The esper youth replied.
"Ah. I see. May I speak to them after I wake up a little?" Haruhi was starting to get her senses back.
"I think he'll be back in a little while. I think he went hunting for game." Mikuru, who was standing between the two men, said. Her eyes were red, as if she was crying earlier. "I'm going to go make some tea now." She then left the room and started to make her way to the kitchen.
"Hey, Haruhi. About halfway here, you started to breathe heavily. And about the time we got you here, you started to scream. Is everything okay?" Kyon asked her, looking concerned.
"It's nothing. Just a bad dream." Haruhi replied, trying to act tough.
"Ah. I see. Just curious." He replied.
"Kyon, you idiot. Don't try to get into my head. And don't worry about me. I'm the mighty brigade chief of the SOS Brigade, after all!" She replied, sounding confident.
"And, that's the thanks I get for breaking your fall?" Kyon said, sarcastically.
"...Fine. I'll make it up to you when we get back to town. And you better get that leg healed up real quick, too! I don't want to make Koizumi-kun carry your load of stuff for long." The yellow-ribboned girl replied.
"Oh, there's no need to worry about me, Suzumiya-san." Itsuki replied. "I have no problems with carrying Kyon-kun's load." Itsuki said, his smile returning to his face.
"Yare, yare." The brown-haired cynic muttered out.
After a short while, Mikuru came back with a few cups of tea. Haruhi gulped hers down, and started to feel better. Kyon took his in sips, preferring to savor the taste of the sweet tea. Itsuki also took his in sips, as he was admiring his brigade chief. Yuki, who was reading on a chair all this time, took a sip and continued reading her book. Then, the door to the room was knocked. Mikuru went to the door, and opened it. As Haruhi took a look at the man, she spat out her tea in shock. None of the other members noticed, as they looked like they were glaring at the young man. She took a look at the man with dirty blonde hair, dressed in hunting gear. She could of sworn she saw a ghost.
"Ah, I see you are awake. Let me introduce myself..." His tone was exactly like the tone of the man from her dream. "...My name is Fujiwara. May I ask you you're name?"
"S-Suzumiya Haruhi." She stuttered out for a second.
"Interesting. You're from North High, right?" He asked.
"Yeah. Why?" She replied, keeping up her guard.
"That's a nice coincidence. I'll be transferring there in about a week. I hope I'll be able to be friends with you guys." Haruhi saw a slight sneer in the man's face.
"Yeah...Me too..." She said cautiously. "...Guys, I'm feeling much better now. We don't need to trouble this man anymore. We should go home anyway. It's getting late, and we don't want to worry our folk's, right?" She then got up from the bed. She felt a little dizzy, but was able to walk around
"But your friend there still seems like his leg is hurting." He then motioned to Kyon. "I'm sure it won't be a problem if he stays."
"That's alright. I've felt worse." Kyon said as he limped up to his feet. Despite a good amount of pain in his leg, he wanted to leave as soon as possible.
"Alright then. See you around, Ribbons." He said with a slight snicker. Being called that caused Haruhi to flinch, she remembered that was the way the man addressed her.
"Y-Yeah. See you, Fujiwara-san."
Haruhi led the group to get their things. After Itsuki grabbed everything, She led them out of the door. She then noticed that, Kyon was having some difficulty walking.
"Kyon! Get over here. I'll help you get around for now."
"No. It's fine. I'll get better soon." Haruhi was not listening to him however, as she took his arm, and gave him some support.
"You'd better be grateful for this! I don't do this with everyone." Kyon noticed a very slight blush on her face.
"Yare, yare." He just went with the flow.
Eventually, the SOS Brigade made it back to town. They had made it just in time to take the train back home, and after going to their individual stops, Haruhi walked Kyon back to his house. After being mocked by his sister at the front door, Kyon said his goodbyes, as Haruhi started to walk to her house. After walking for a short while, Haruhi made it back to her house. Her parents were on a business trip, so she just went to the kitchen, threw some leftovers in the microwave, had dinner, and went straight to her room. She was especially sleepy, and the second her head hit the pillow, she fell asleep, hoping not to be taken by the nightmare again.
And that would be my first venture away fro the crack dimension. This is sort of a side project, so don't expect updates on this anytime soon.
Until next time
(Tag Out)