A/N: This is based on Brian Randall's 'Kyon: Big Damn Hero'. It happens somewhere after Chapter 50 and before/during Chapter 51. I don't think Tsuruya gets enough love, but Brian is changing that. So am I, if I have anything to say about that.

Disclamers: I don't own the Haruhi Suzumiya universe or characters; that honor goes to Nagaru Tanigawa and Noizi Ito.

I don't own the 'Kyon: Big Damn Hero' universe either; that honor goes to Brian Randall. Much like Mr. Randall does for Haruhi, I'm borrowing his box of colors to play with.

Wakizashi

Tsuruya Haruka hummed to herself softly as she walked towards the classroom Kyon and Haruhi shared. Her thoughts wandered back to the interrupted date with Haruhi, Kanae and Kyon, this thought dampening her spirits slightly, but only slightly. She is, after all, the epitome of a genki-girl.

She paused at the rear entrance to the classroom. Students were scattered in small groups, opening their bentos and talking. Haruhi and Kyon were at their desks, talking, heads companionably close, bentos open but ignored. Yanagimoto was glowering at Takahashi, undoubtedly over something he had said that was off-color. Sakanaka sat nearby, looking up and blushing slightly as Kunikida walked over to Takahashi to talk to the somewhat pervy boy. Tsuruya didn't pay much attention to the conversation between Kyon's two friends, but Kunikida's next comment caught her attention.

"So, I was talking to my father's friend, 'uncle' Hiko, the other night. For some reason he was asking me about the route I usually took to cram school and what friends I may walk with along the way…" the smaller boy started to say.

Kyon's head snapped up, a scowl forming on his face. Haruhi whipped her head around, golden hair ribbons flying with the force of the motion, "Wait! What?" Tsuruya gasped as realization dawned. She reached into her skirt pocket for her phone and stepped back into the hallway, dialing as her eyebrows knitted in a frown. "Kasai" she said as the call was picked up, turning away from the classroom door where an outraged Haruhi could be heard loudly accusing Kunikida "You! It was you!...". Tsuruya continued into her phone, " I need you to make some arrangements…"

…

Kunikida bemusedly walked through the school gate. He couldn't make sense of what had happened at lunch. Between Haruhi's outburst and her tirade against him for 'betraying' her and her Brigade and Kyon's scowl and obvious anger at him for no apparent reason Kunikida was mildly shell-shocked and not paying attention to what was going on about him.

Until three large men in dark suits with identical lapel pins surrounded him. A limousine pulled up next to him and the three men; one of the men opened the door while another said to him "Kunikida-san, our mistress will speak to you".

"Wha… No… I mean, who… no" the boy started.

"Kunikida-san, our mistress will speak to you. Whether you will be in any condition to speak to her depends upon whether you come now or after further persuasion" the man who had spoken first said. Kunikida heard a sound behind him, as of knuckles popping. He resisted the urge to spin around but instead looked to either side at the large - very large - men on either side and at the third holding the door. Wide-eyed, the boy entered the limousine, sliding across the bench seat to sit next to yet another man already seated in the rear. Two of the men also entered, one sitting across from him and the other sitting between the boy and the door while the third closed the door, circled around to the driver's passenger side and seated himself. Kunikida said nothing but realized he was going nowhere these men didn't want him to go.

After a drive of about 20 minutes, a drive in total silence, the limousine arrived in an industrial or warehouse area not too far from the dockyards of the city. Kunikida could smell salt water, industrial smells and a slight iodine tinge of decay as he exited the limousine. The three men in the back of the car also exited with him, forming a loose cordon about him as he stood with his hand on the side of the car, awaiting, well, he didn't know what, really. The men were silent and offered nothing to the boy in the way of a clue as to what was going on.

After a few minutes wait another limousine pulled up alongside the one Kunikida had arrived in. The driver of the newly arrived auto got out, came around to the rear and opened the door, allowing a kimono-clad woman out. Kunikida immediately recognized Kyon's fiancée Tsuruya. The usually smiling young woman was not smiling as she looked at the boy; instead she gave him an appraising glower that made the air temperature feel a good deal colder.

"Tsuruya-sama" Kunikida started but the man to his left said to the boy "My mistress has not given you leave to speak". Kunikida's mouth closed with a 'clop'.

The young heiress stood looking at the boy for a very long moment. She reached into her sash and took an ornate fan in her right hand, but did not open it, instead, tapping the fan into her left hand softly as she continued her appraisal of the smaller boy. Kunikida's response was to gulp, a slight sheen of sweat forming on his forehead.

"You are careless, Kunikida-kun" the green-haired heiress finally said, tapping the boy lightly on his chest with the fan.

"Ts-Ts-Tsuruya-sama" the boy started to stutter, but this time the man on his right cut him off, "My mistress has not given you leave to speak". The boy abruptly silenced himself.

Tapping the boy again in his chest with the fan the sempai leaned in and said "You have greatly inconvenienced me, my friends and my family". Tap with the fan "You have endangered a friend," she continued. The boy looked at her in shock. The young woman in the kimono leaned slightly towards Kunikida, tap with the fan. "Kyon had to help rescue a friend because of you". Leaning in very close to the boy the heiress smacked him forcefully in the chest with the closed fan and hissed "Kyon had to interrupt a date with me to do this rescue". Kunikida fell back against the limousine that had transported him, mouth agape, eyes wide, in full sweat now. The men surrounding the boy nodded their heads slightly at the vehemence in their mistress' voice.

Tsuruya leaned back, opening, then closing her fan with a loud snap, causing a small start in the boy. She returned her fan to her sash, and then reached into the left sleeve of her kimono, removing… something that wasn't readily apparent to the now thoroughly intimidated Kunikida.

Holding the object in her two hands but keeping her gaze boring into the boy, she slid her hands apart slightly, a slight snick sound revealing the object to be a wakizashi. She closed the blade with a snap, and then re-opened the blade with a snick before again closing it with a snap.

"I am very angry with you", snick. "Very angry". Snap.

"I – I – Ts-Tsuruya-sama…" the Kunikida started to stammer. The heiress glanced slightly to the man on the boy's left, who placed a large - very large - hand on the boy's shoulder. "I've told you, my mistress has not given you leave to speak". The boy again shut up.

The heiress tapped Kunikida in the chest with the sheathed wakizashi, much as she had with the fan. "In a more civilized time" she began, again tapping Kunikida on the chest with the wakizashi, "honor would be served using a blade such as this". Snick. She withdrew the blade entirely from its scabbard, holding it upright before Kunideda's wide-eyed gaze, rotating the blade slightly. Kunikida didn't know much about weapons such as this, but he could tell it was Damascus steel with a keen edge and a… gulp… sharp, very sharp, tanto point, and a gently undulating hamon. He stared in fascinated terror as the green-haired girl continued to turn the blade slightly in the diminishing sunlight here between the warehouses. About this time Kunikida noticed that the heiress' speech was missing the extra sa-sound. With that thought he realized just how serious this situation was. Tsuruya nodded again to the man on Kunikida's left. "You may speak, now, boy" the man growled.

The 'boy' stammered, "I… I… Ts-Tsuruya-sama, I am so sorry, but I don't know…"

The heiress stopped him. "True, you do not know. True, too, you are sorry. But the question now before us, what shall we do?" Snap as she sheathed the blade. She looked at the sheathed wakizashi, "What shall we do?" Her gaze met the boy's. "Maybe, the better question is, what shall you do, nyoro~?"

"All this over a date?" Kunikida asked in a small voice.

"A date with Kyon" the heiress hissed fiercely in reply, "But more than that, the insult to Kyon and my friends for the danger." She didn't need the blade in her hands to cut the boy, not with looks like she was now piercing him with.

"Wha… wha…what can I do?" the boy stuttered. "What are you going to do? Are you going to kill me with that …?" pointing to the blade in the girls hands.

The heiress threw her head back with one of her trademark laughs. "Oh no, that would be too easy. And, it would anger Kyon." She again tapped the boy in the chest with the sheathed blade. "Try again" she urged. "What is the traditional use of the wakizashi in Japanese culture?" she smiled at the boy with absolutely no mirth – or pity.

"You want me to kill myself" the boy squeaked at the heiress.

Again the laugh. Kunikida was truly getting weak-kneed at that laugh, at the entire situation. "No, again, too easy" the heiress said. "And, again, Kyon considers you a friend. That would make him sad." She leaned in close to his face again, "But only he would be sad were that to happen." She leaned away from the startled boy. Tap with the sheathed blade.

"No, I will help yous" she said. Kunikida took note of the sa-sound reappearing. "Yous will be mindful" the heiress continued. "Mindful of your surroundings, mindful of the people around you, mindful of the situations around you".

"This wakizashi is an heirloom of my familys" Tsuruya added. "I give it to you, Kunikida-kun, because you are Kyon's friend and as a reminder. A reminder that friends can cut friends if they are not careful, if they are not mindful." With that, the green-haired girl held the sheathed blade out to the startled boy, who took it in both hands and bowed to the heiress, as much out of reflex as well as out of respect for the gift, or gifts if he thought about it carefully.

"Take him home" Tsuruya said as she turned to enter her limousine, the driver quickly closing her door before entering the drivers' seat and setting the car in motion.

"Kunikida-san" the man to his left said, gesturing towards the limousine, "If you please?" Still holding the wakizashi Kunikida entered the auto, which then sped off towards his home.

…

Kunikida's mother knocked on the door of his room, and then entered. "Son," she said, "what was that noise?" She looked at her son, seated at his desk, looking at the wall where a wakizashi was hung, tachi-style. "What is that?" she asked?

Kunikida looked from her to the blade on his wall. "A gift", he said, "and a lesson".

…

Tsuruya's limousine rolled to a stop in front of a storefront in the more upscale part of the business district. Kasai got out of the car and opened the door for his mistress, then opened the door to the shop. The only markings on the door of the shop was the street number, the window had neither display nor lettering but was tastefully treated with a bamboo screen obscuring the interior of the shop. Tsuruya entered the tastefully lit shop, admiring the katanas and occasional yari on display, hand softly sliding across a display case with tanto and wakizashi blades. The shopkeeper came though a curtained doorway and greeted the young heiress.

"Tsuruya-sama, a pleasure to see you again" the wizened man bowed deeply in greeting.

"Takeda-sama", the heiress bowed as deeply in return. "Did your wife receive the gift I sent her? Is she well?"

The man again bowed to his client. "She is much improved, thank you, and thank you for the gift. But, how may I help you this day, Tsuruya-sama?

The heiress giggled. "I need another Tsuruya heirloom wakizashi, please. No, make that two – you can never have too many heirlooms, nyoro~!"