"Wake up! Wake up! Daddy!"
Young Juro and Reiko Koizumi shook their father, Itsuki. They had to wake him up. This day was very important in their eyes.
When he was finally awake, Itsuki turned his sleepy-eyed face towards his children.
"Happy Birthday, Daddy!"
Itsuki smiled brightly.
"Thanks, guys!" He ruffled their hair and got up from bed.
"We made a special breakfast for you, Daddy!" said Reiko excitedly.
"Come on!" called Juro, who had already ran to the door of his parents' bedroom.
"Alright" said Itsuki.
Itsuki enjoyed his delicious thirty second birthday breakfast. Time had flown by and he was already thirty two years old. He swallowed his last bite, and then suddenly gasped.
"Amazing, it's been such a long time," he mumbled under his breath.
"What is it?" asked his wife, Hina. "Is it…a closed space?"
"I'm afraid it is," replied Itsuki, "and on my birthday, too. I'll see you later!"
He dashed from the kitchen and threw on the first clothes he set his eyes on. He slammed the door as he ran out of the house.
He breathed heavily as he ran farther and farther. It got harder for him to run as he got older, but he still had energy. He didn't care about the looks he got from all the people he passed by.
The closed space was just outside the city centre. It was the biggest one Haruhi had ever created and the first in many, many years. It had an eighty-mile radius. Fifty celestials pounded inside of it.
When Itsuki entered, he was nearly hit by a piece of debris as it flew through the air.
He enveloped himself in a red sphere and then soared through the air. He cut at the Celestial with fellow espers. He shot himself around the huge creature's neck, cutting of its head. His hair whipped his neck as he flew at break-neck speed all around.
He had the Celestial destroyed in minutes, but there were still so many around him.
He fought continuously, feeling more and more drained of power as he went along. His colleagues were becoming worried that they would not win this time.
They had finally conquered the closed space, and it was the biggest spectacle all of them had ever seen. Such an immense closed space made for a heart-pounding sight as it cracked and fell apart.
Exhausted, Itsuki walked home at a leisurely pace.
When he got home, he collapsed into his chair. His children bounced into his lap and hugged him.
"What happened?" asked Juro.
"We want to know what happened!" said Reiko.
Itsuki had hidden the meaning of "closed space" to his children since the day they were born. After exchanging a look with his wife, he decided the time was right to explain everything to them.
He told them about his powers, but told them they mustn't tell a soul anything of what he was telling them. He explained how Haruhi had the power to destroy the universe, and how she created closed spaces that contained Celestials when she had stress.
At first, they found it difficult to understand that a single person could do such things, but as Itsuki explained it, they stopped asking questions.
They understood.
"Now, I need to go rest," said Itsuki on to finish off. He had fought very hard in that last event, so he needed a break from it all. He walked into his room and practically fell onto the bed. He lay there staring up at the ceiling.
That went well
Itsuki skipped work the next day and called in sick. He wasn't really sick; he was just exhausted from the events that happened the day before. The kids made breakfast for him and that made him feel a little better.
The day after, he felt much better and decided he'd go to work. He was strolling casually, when he got the silent signal. Haruhi Suzumiya had created another closed space.
He rushed to the site and entered. This one was smaller than the last, with only one towering Celestial contained inside.
Itsuki heard a sound he had never heard inside a closed space. He could hear the echoing screams of a child.
He ran around the closed space, following the sound.
There was debris flying everywhere, but Itsuki could see through it. Dodging the pieces of a destroyed building was Juro Koizumi.
How―What are you doing in here? This thought only swept through Itsuki's mind for a moment, then he dashed through the clouds of destruction to his son.
"Daddy!" yelled Juro over the thundering pounding of the Celestials. They were so close to it, it was dangerous.
Itsuki picked up his fear struck child and stormed away from the giant. When they had reached the edge of the space, he set his son down.
"Stay here!" he shouted. "Don't move!"
He turned abruptly and let his red power glow around him. He rose up and went to fight with his esper comrades. They had it down in only a few short minutes.
Itsuki immediately hurried back to his frightened son, who was shaking.
"Watch, Juro," he said calmingly. "This is what happens when we destroy a closed space."
Juro stood up and huddled up to his father and they watched together as the sky seemed to crack and fall around them, revealing the busy city.
Itsuki and his son looked at each other for minutes in amazement, then they walked home together.
They sat down with some tea and talked it over.
"When I was a bit older than you, I found out I was an esper who is supposed to destroy the closed spaces created by Haruhi Suzumiya. It must be because you are my son that it didn't seem so apparent."
"I guess I never realized it was my esper powers," replied Juro. "I had felt strangely before. I think most of the times were right before you went off to a closed space. When I was in the closed space, I had no idea what to do. I just didn't know what those feelings meant. Now I do."
"Well," Itsuki said as he ruffled his son's hair. "It looks like we've got two espers in the family."
The Koizumi family had just sat down for they lunch. It was special, as today they were celebrating the family's newly discovered esper. They were enjoying it very much. Everything was well.
Suddenly, Itsuki and Juro looked up at each other with a little bit of a surprised gasp.
"We're sorry," started Juro excitedly.
"But…." Continued Itsuki as they both stood up at the table.
"We must be leaving you for a short moment!" they said together. "Haruhi Suzumiya has created another closed space!"