A somewhat normal Wednesday morning turned into something else when we had an assembly. Seems it wasn't scheduled or anything.
It was pretty much some important looking people coming up and speaking…most of them in business positions, pencil-pushers or CEOs or otherwise. The principal and the student council president also spoke.
I sat in my chair and kept my attention to a minimum. These guys were going on and on about the same things, telling stories and stating facts, and such.
What the hell. I'd rather listen to that Okabe ramble for an entire day in a blistering hot classroom than stand another moment of this crap.
I sighed to myself and continued to listen. As passably as possible, of course.
Another big-shot came up. His words caught my ear immediately, but not because they sounded important. It was because they seemed to be aimed at certain people.
Something about how people who read too many books are useless because they have no people skills. Or about how good-looking people can't be counted on with any important tasks, so it was better to give them pointless roles to occupy them. Something else about people who liked to analyze things and how they must have had some sort of mental problems. Another thing about people who were energetic – they couldn't pay attention and were just menaces to society. And of course, one about people who claimed to be good listeners – that was obviously because they had nothing to say.
People with patience were just scared to fight back.
People who cared about others were just soft.
Someone who can't make every decision on their own is weak.
A small part of me was amazed at what he was saying.
The rest of me was seething with anger. What the hell was this guy saying? How could he claim to know anything about anyone?
But what really pissed me off was the fact that there were people nodding their heads at this bullshit. They were actually agreeing with him as he stood up there and gave his little speech.
I couldn't believe it for a moment, but then I suddenly understood why.
I was different from them now; ever since that day last autumn.
The day I met that girl.
I sat as he finished his speech and the students around me stood up and cheered.
"Amazing!"
"That was incredible! So inspirational!"
"To think that such a person could come and speak to us!"
Out of the corner of my eye I caught another person near me sitting as well. I had a pretty good idea who it was.
I could guess that her thought on this was the same as mine.
Disgusting.
I decided to sneak out of the assembly. This was too much already, and the bastard was ready to continue speaking, too.
The air was incredibly refreshing when I stepped outside.
"Oh, you're here too."
I didn't even have to turn around to see who it was.
"Yeah. That bastard made me sick to my stomach. I couldn't sit in there another moment."
"…"
I decided to sit on the grass, and she followed suit.
Haruhi Suzumiya looked over at me with those eyes of hers, but I noticed something different. They seemed cold today.
There had always been a sparkle there, whenever she thought of some (usually insane) scheme or yelled at me for being late and made me pay for the Brigade on outings, or something like that. It seemed a bit odd, but I could figure out why.
"That speech really got to you, huh?"
I didn't have much to say, but I expected her to make a whole seminar on this occurrence. She usually had a comment for everything, whether it directly involved her or not.
Actually, everything in some way or another would directly involve her…eventually.
"…"
She started to speak, but stopped again. Maybe she was gathering her thoughts…?
"…Kyon."
"Yeah?"
"Don't think ill of me when I say this."
What could you say to make me think ill of you now? I haven't minded a lot of things you've said before.
"I didn't think you even understood most of those."
Geez, I'm not that stupid! Cut me some slack!
"Maybe I can start using more complex sentences, then?"
Fine. Maybe I am a little slow, you happy?
"Obviously not. You're going to have to improve from now on. You're representing my Brigade, you know!"
You're the one who dragged me into it in the first place, but whatever. I couldn't argue my way out of anything with this woman.
But you seemed serious just now.
"…I hate this world, Kyon."
Ah, I see.
"I hate the people in it, as well."
Whoa. That doesn't sound too cheerful.
"It's not supposed to be. I don't understand why I'm here sometimes, on this planet. I feel like…some kind of alien."
Maybe "god" would be a more accurate description.
"I hate how this world works. I mean…we haven't changed a bit since the old days. Listen, we used to think that the Earth was the centre of the universe, right? We held that to be true for many years. We mocked and ridiculed anyone who thought otherwise, until we got proof that it wasn't so. It was a discovery, a great change. We started to see things that we had never seen before, and a whole new world opened up to us. The world wasn't flat. There were things smaller than dust particles. Machines weighing hundreds of thousands of pounds could fly through the air effortlessly. Atoms, space rockets, penicillin, fuel cells, Windows 3.1, Pong…everything started becoming new and wonderful to us."
I wondered what she was getting at. Wasn't that evidence of change?
"This is what science is…something to help enhance our daily lives. But at the same time, while breaking through those barriers, this practice of science put up the same ones in its place.
'It is impossible for other intelligent life-forms to exist.'
'Time-travel is not possible.'
'ESP cannot be achieved by humans.'
'There is no life on Mars.'
All of this…nothing's changed, Kyon. It's the same bullshit that we claimed to have gotten rid of back in the Dark Ages, but it's right in front of my eyes. I can't stand it. People aren't allowed to be unique, they can't be different. They just have to conform to standards, just do as they're told. If you're different, you're weird, if you're weird, you're unwanted, and if you're unwanted, then there's nobody by your side. That's the worst possible kind of existence, to have everyone ignore you because you don't act just like them.
What the fuck kind of sense does that make?!
If everyone acted like everyone else, if everyone just conformed, if everyone walked in a straight line and did the same things all of the time, this world wouldn't exist! All of these stupid luxuries, all of these high-paying jobs and foreign cars and planes and trains and everything wouldn't be here! That bastard wouldn't be there spouting his nonsense if not for modern medicine! That school wouldn't exist if not for modern architecture! Our uniforms, the shoes on our feet, the food we eat…! It would be nothing if we just stood there and waited for the person in front of us to invent it first! Nothing would get done! What kind of world would tell you to conform when being independent and free-spirited brought us to this point in the first place?!"
Her words reached me loud and clear. Haruhi was serious about this.
She was shaking from head to toe, her fists clenched tightly. I could understand what she meant, the feelings that she felt at that moment.
This world was a living contradiction, wasn't it? Maybe that's why I made that choice to return to this world…maybe something deep inside of me was saying to come back here, and stay with the one person who had the power to break that cycle.
That person…she was the Supreme Commander of the SOS Brigade, Haruhi Suzumiya.
I remembered what she said back in that other world, the other version of her.
"It's fun to believe!"
Now, I like to think I am a man of few words…or at least, few audible words. However, this was a good time to say something, something meaningful. The words were already on my tongue.
"That's the reason why we're here, right?"
She turned to look at me.
"Normal is really a subjective thing, you know. I keep saying that I just want a normal life, but what is normal, really? I mean, something that is normal today would be extraordinary in another period of time. So instead of trying to make the ordinary extraordinary, couldn't we just make the extraordinary ordinary?"
"...I guess that makes sense..."
"All you have to do is keep going. Everything will work itself out eventually."
"Hm. Is that so?"
The way she said that reminded me of Nagato for some reason.
"I suppose I could do that. A long time ago, I used to believe that if I wished for something hard enough, it would come true if I did everything that I possibly could. At one point, I stopped believing that…it was at the same point that I realized how small I was compared to the rest of the world."
A grin spread across her face just then, one that was so incredibly Haruhi.
"Of course, now I have a reason to believe, right?"
She looked right at me when she said that. What do you mean?
"The SOS Brigade, of course! However, there is a certain person in particular that I need to thank one day…"
I wondered who it was, and then a thought crossed my mind. I immediately dismissed it soon after. There was no way she was thinking something like that.
"So I have to make the impossible possible, eh? No problem, no problem!"
The old me would have freaked out at a comment like that. But I had changed quite a bit in the year that I had known Haruhi and everyone else in the SOS Brigade. Even though a part of me longed for a 'normal' life and cringed at the thought of crazy things happening every day because of her powers, in my heart I wished for her powers to grow stronger and stronger.
If she was going to change the world, I would be right there beside her. Was there a better place to be?
No matter what I may have said in the past, and probably will say in the future, there never will be.