The Afterlife of Haruhi Suzumiya

Chapter 1: Every End...

I held her in my arms as she pulled at my finger with her tiny little hands. This girl... my daughter, was the most beautiful baby in the world. I looked up from this little bundle of love to see the other love of my life, my wife, who had recovered from giving birth in an hour and had gotten changed and forced her way out of the hospital room, demanding to see her baby. I smiled at her, and walked up to show her our baby.

"You know..." I said to her, "You didn't have to barge right out, I would've brought her in there for you; all you had to do was ask."

"Like I would do that!" she exclaimed, as if I had thrown a dire insult her way. "I don't want my earliest memories of my daughter to be while lying in a stinky, dirty, hospital bed with tears in my eyes just like every other mother in HISTORY! I want every memory of my daughter to be special, just like she is!" While I couldn't help but feel like she was being too enthusiastic about the wrong details, her feelings were in the right place, and it's not like I ever expected her to act any differently. That is to say, I never expected her to act the same as anyone else.

"So you're saying that you want her to be a psychic, time-traveling alien so that she doesn't fit in at school?" As always, I had to be the voice of reason that told my wife exactly how crazy she was. And, as always, my wife said something out of the ordinary. But it was out of her ordinary, so it surprised me.

"I want her to live a normal life however she wants to. If she wants to be a time-traveler, a princess, or even a super-hero, I'll be glad to give it to her. But until then, I'll let her live a normal, peaceful life, so that she'll always have something to come back to when things don't work out. Atleast, until I die, that is."

It was so sensible and caring; I never knew she could act like this. But... this was our daughter's future we were talking about, and she was a mom, of course she would be a little different. Yeah, our daughter will have a peaceful, happy life, living it however she wants to, until the day we die.

Wait... what!

"Did you say until you DIE!" I exclaimed, nearly causing our daughter to start crying until we calmed her down and let her fall asleep. Once she was sleeping, I pestered my wife further, but in a partial whisper this time. "Die! You can't die, you're practically God! Reality is at your command! It bends to your will! You don't need to die!" She just looked at me and smiled warmly, then gestured to me for the baby. I gave her our daughter to hold, and she rocked her a little bit, staring lovingly at her face, before responding.

"When our daughter grows up, she'll live a fulfilling, happy life. I know that she will; she has to. And when that life is coming towards an end, she'll die a peaceful death, and I won't be able to handle it. If I keep her alive, she'll suffer losing everyone she loves, too, and pretty soon I'll be keeping the whole world alive just to make myself happy. There will be food shortages and people will starve without dying because the population will just grow and grow, and if I make so that no one has kids anymore, than no one will be able to experience what we are now, and that just isn't fair. Everything dies, so I will too."

I stared at her, taking in what she just said. I knew that she was telling the truth, and that everything she said was right. But I couldn't help but be shocked, it was just so sudden!

"What about all of our time together? What about our experiences, and all of our high school days we used to spend? What about the rest of the S.O.S. Brigade? Yuki, Mikuru, even Itsuki! We all have such fond memories together, memories that we keep ourselves occupied by talking about whenever we get nostalgic or bored! If you die, those memories will die with you! We'll all just... end! I can't take that! I won't!"

I know I was getting a little emotional and mushy, but something just felt wrong! Everything was wrong! I just got a beautiful baby daughter, the beginning of a wonderful future as a father, and now I had to talk about the end of it all as a corpse!

"Kyon." she said, using my old nickname like she always did when she was being serious, "I've made up my mind. Someday, you and I will die together, in a beautiful way, with flowers blowing in the wind and lasers descending upon the field where we eat our picnic..." Boy did she plan things out thoroughly. What were the laser beams for? "Shut up; I'm trying to talk here! Anyways, we'll die together beautifully, and it will be an event to remember for all who see. And our memories together, our very selves, they won't disappear, they'll live on somehow."

"Somehow? What, are you going to dump all of our memories into our little girl's head when we die?"

"NO! Just... trust me, it'll all work out!" I take back what I said about her planning things thoroughly. "Shut up, you're being pessimistic!" No more than usual. But I suppose what she said got to me, in a way. The thought of all of our memories living on somehow, it kind of made me a little happier about facing the future. I looked at our daughter, such a beautiful baby girl, and thought about how our life would go. I knew that what my wife said was right, that everything would work out. It wasn't a hunch or a feeling, it was experience. She was almost always right, and of course she was right this time, too. After all, Haruhi was Haruhi, and she always will be.

Even in death.