The Superman of Haruhi Suzumiya
An alien man dreams of acceptance into an adoptive world.
His goals are law and order; truth and justice; a world of predictable safety.
A girl dreams of liberation from her world of birth.
Her goals are fun and chaos; the unreal and domination; a world of unpredictability.
In a world much like our own, but where history begins to diverge remarkably during the second Great War, these two would meet, and who can say what that meeting would portend?
Chapter 1
She loves unsolved mysteries, and is relentless in trying to uncover anything bizarre and unexplained. It drives her perhaps more than anything else in her life, with the possible exception of an intensely competitive spirit that won't let her back down from any challenge.
She is almost continuously paired off with a guy that she often finds overly simple, and at times, dull and ordinary. She practically, and sometimes literally, has to drag him off behind her. He seems so slow, and so utterly out of it, far more frequently than what she would like. She'd much rather if he was an alien who would sweep her off of her feet and restore her faith in the world around her. Yet… she does have feelings for this guy; feelings she has a hard time admitting to. If only she knew the truth about him, and the people who tend to surround him.
Yes, if Lois Lane knew that Clark Kent was Superman, and that he was a member of the Justice League, one expects that her relationship with him would be quite better. But in this universe, in September of 2010, Lois doesn't know that.
"Kent, Lane, Olsen!" shouted the cantankerous and grizzled newspaper editor Perry White, from within his office and with the door to it ever so slightly ajar, "Get in here!"
Perry's typically curmudgeon tone was lifted slightly by a vibrant excitement that even the experienced professional couldn't hide. Lois instantly picked up on it, and hence could tell that the assignment he was about to pass out to Clark, Jimmy, and herself would be a good one… no, scratch that, a great one. It may even be one that could earn her a Pulitzer Prize.
As such, Lois rapidly rose out of her seat, leaving her cup of coffee half-drank. She then sprinted towards Perry's office like a certain high school girl about to launch her latest bold club initiative. Clark, in sharp contrast, decided to pretend to be hesitant and stumbling and putting the finishing touches on an article he was writing pertaining to the lowering crime rate in Metropolis.
"Hurry up, Smallville!" Lois shouted at him, in an irritated voice, "This isn't the Kent farm. We don't have all day to sow seeds here!"
"Y-Yes, Lois!" stammered Clark in reply, "I-I'll be there right away!"
Then with superfast typing, Clark put the finishing touches on his editorial in a mere microsecond, sent it off for copy, and promptly joined his closest coworkers in Mr. White's office. With everybody in the office, Perry calmly asked Jimmy to close the doors behind him, and shut the door window binds.
"Now, I trust that you all know about the big news that is coming down in two days time?" asked Perry, as he leaned over his desk, placing one hand on each side of it, and gazing searchingly into the eyes and faces of Lois, Clark, and Jimmy.
"Aahhh, I'm afraid not, Chief" began Clark in sheepish answer, as he appeared to fumble a bit in adjusting his glasses, "Unless you're talking about the 33rd Annual John Napier Appreciation Night in Gotham City".
Perry released a lengthy husky sigh over these words, while Lois brought a palm to the side of her face and shook her head in exasperation. Jimmy merely looked perplexed, and blinked uneasily.
"Honestly, Clark…" began Lois, "For a supposed newsman, you sure have a hard time keeping up with the times. Don't you have any decent sources inside the US government at all?"
"Well, I have a pretty good relationship with Police Chief Sawyer, if that's what you mean, Lois" answered Clark in a tone more innocent than a choir boy's after singing Christmas carols.
"Kent…" interjected Perry, as his voice betrayed a mixture of displeasure with a desire to improve his charges, "You need to start thinking bigger picture here. The Daily Planet is the most read newspaper in all of the US of A, and soon it will be the most read newspaper through out the entire planet, as long as we play our cards right here!"
"The entire planet?" asked Clark, feigning ignorance, before making a short boyish chuckle and adding on the context behind his question, "But Chief, we have no clue how high the population in Japan is, or how well-read their newspapers may be. There's been a complete and mutual communications blackout between Japan and the wider world since World War II!"
"And that's exactly what's coming to an end!" exclaimed Perry in response, "With the recent dawn of the internet age, and a growing difficulty in maintaining lack of travel and communications between Japan and the rest of the world, and with Emperor Hirohito dead for about twenty years now, Japan is about to lift its communications black out."
"And word as it that large multinational corporations like Lexcorp and Wayne Enterprises are going to be in a fast and furious bidding war to get in on the action of whatever economic and industrial activities are going on in Japan" added in Lois.
"I can tell that the business angle is the one that you're into, Lane." stated Perry, "That's great. I had planned to give that assignment to you."
Perry then turned his attention to Clark.
"So, Kent, I want you to do a write up on the Japan people, their infrastructure, their culture, and how they've changed in almost seventy years, if they have changed." Said Perry, "There's a whole country of people out there that we know next to nothing about, and that country was one we fought in the 2nd World War. The interest in these stories is going to be astronomical!"
"This sounds pretty exciting!" exclaimed Jimmy Olsen, "It might be great to get some good shots of what modern day Japan looks like."
"Exactly" stated Perry, "So I've booked flights for all of you to head to Japan in the special commemorative flight to Japan that will be taking off from Metropolis Airport in two days from now. That flight will be following the landing of the first Japanese commercial aircraft to touch down on American soil."
"Hhmmm…" mused Clark, "I wonder who will be flying over from Japan?"
"Mostly high ranking politicians, diplomats, and businessmen, I would wager" stated Lane, "Hopefully, I'll get a chance to interview them once they land!"
"You know Japanese, Lois?" asked Clark with a wry smile.
"I'm sure that Perry could spring for an interpreter" chimed in Lois in quick reply, "Am I right, Chief?"
"For this event, definitely!" shouted Perry White in earnest answer.
Clark couldn't help but be nervous while Perry, Lois, and Jimmy all seemed very excited about this major historical event that could rival the falling of the Berlin Wall. There was great potential here, to bring formerly antagonistic nations into closer and mutually beneficial relations. But Clark also sensed that this same potential could be perverted and twisted to questionable ends by dark and unfathomable forces…
That girl is truly unfathomable, and she only gets ever more unfathomable by the day.
It's bad enough that we are constantly engaging in outlandish behavior that makes teachers nervous, draws the horrified gazes of others students, and angers the Student Council.
But at least Haruhi is a top student at a sheer academics level, with an impeccable attendance record. I often felt that this status alone factors much into why the SOS Brigade had managed to escape much in the way of disciplinary action, or even official notice.
Now, though, she is actually having the SOS Brigade skip off from afternoon classes in order to hold an impromptu meeting in the Literature club room.
"What are you making that face for?" asked Haruhi, with a bit of a petulant look on her face, as she gazed up at me while dragging me behind her by my tie.
Haruhi, I can live with everything that you want the SOS Brigade and me to do. Really, I can. But can't it at least take place during appropriate hours for extracurricular activities? Isn't our club wildly different enough as it is? Do we need to add 'skipping off' to our revoltingly ravaged resume?
"We have to skip off because we have no time to spare!" exclaimed Haruhi with an oddly disturbed and hurried expression, "Arrangements have to be made immediately! Otherwise, we'll miss a once in a lifetime opportunity!"
Haruhi tends to treat every opportunity like it only comes 'once in a lifetime', so that particular colloquialism is decidedly lost on me by now. Indeed, I'd be much happier with more mundane and everyday opportunities, instead of the endless parade of extraordinary and supposedly 'once in a lifetime' ones that Haruhi tends to march us all unwillingly into.
March is the operative word, too, has Haruhi pushes back the club room door with all the force of a drill sergeant running his forces through a grueling training regime.
As I gaze into the club room, I am surprised to notice that Koizumi, Nagato, Asahina-san, and even Tsuruya-san, are already here.
Wait… why is Tsuruya here? How could a 'honorary' SOS Brigade member be called to notice so quickly.
"~Nyoro~!" purred the widely smiling Tsuruya while looking at me, "I'm here to help ensure everything goes smoothly, and to act as a principle point of contact. Don't worry! You're all in for a megassa cool time!"
"That's right!" exclaimed Haruhi with a big, bright, bold smile, "And to commemorate this totally tremendously terrific event, Mikuru-chan is going to wear that cowgirl outfit I picked out for her, he he!"
Asahina-san made a very frightfully frenzied face over these words.
But wait… cowgirl outfit?
"Yes!" confirmed Haruhi with a shout, "Since we're heading off to the wild west, it helps to look the part, right?"
The wild west?
"Indeed" chimed in Koizumi with a nauseatingly forced gleeful smile, "I think it would be best if Tsuruya explained the situation."
"Right!" quickly added in Tsuruya, "A very wealthy businessman from America has already make contact with my family, and wants me to help in introducing him to Suzumiya-san and the SOS Brigade!"
A wealthy American businessman? But why? What possible interest could a successful, and hence presumably sane, man like that have with the SOS Brigade of a nation that, until very recently, had no contact whatsoever with America?
"He's interested in aliens, like we are!" answered Haruhi with eclectic electric energy, "With the internet firewall between Japan and the outside world lifted, he came across the SOS Brigade's website while he was surfing the internet. He really liked our site, and found our stated goals intriguing. In fact, he made a donation to us, through Tsuruya-san!"
A donation?
"Yes!" responded Haruhi enthusiastically, "He actually donated one million American dollars to our club, Kyon!"
W-what? Even for all of my trivia knowledge, I can't begin to even comprehend what that insane amount would translate into yen!
"87 million, 214 thousand, 100" answered Nagato with such quickness that it startled Haruhi and the rest of us almost as much as learning of the donation itself did.
But what could the SOS Brigade possibly need with all of that money?
"Well, part of it is to pay for our flight to America" explained Tsuruya, "It will also help to cover any needed spending cash for while we're there."
"And the rest is just a grotesquely generous gift?" I asked, louder than usual.
"I-I guess you can put it that way" answered Mikuru with a bemused, cheery look.
"Isn't it simply the best, Kyon!" shouted Haruhi, taking fierce hold of both of my hands with both of hers.
I don't mind you being so happy, Haruhi, but please don't take it out on my poor weary hands!
But wait… we're going to America?
"That's right!" exclaimed Haruhi in answer, "That's why we needed to skip off school this afternoon. Tsuruya has already explained the details to our teachers, and they've given us approval. In fact, they hope that we'll all write up an assignment on our trip to America for when we get back!"
Oh wonderful. Yet more schoolwork piled up on the amount that I already have, an amount that's lofty height will soon rival Mount Fuji itself.
"Don't be like that, Kyon!" exclaimed Haruhi with a stern face, "Don't you see what an absolutely astoundingly awesome chance this is!"
A chance for what, exactly? Jetlag?
"A chance to confirm the existence of aliens!" shouted Haruhi, as she began prancing around the room, chewing scenery with greater efficiency than even Godzilla himself could manage.
"And…" continued Haruhi, coming to a halt, and drifting off in more contemplative than usual thought, "Even failing that, visiting America would let us see something at least a bit different for a change. Who knows how much different Americans are from we Japanese people! To us, they may seem like aliens!"
The mystifying motives of our American businessman benefactor are certainly alien to me…
"What is his name, by the way?" I asked, finding myself oddly curios about a wealthy and accomplished individual who would actually engage in the same pursuits as what Haruhi would.
"Well…" begin Haruhi in atypical sheepiness and slight blushing, "His name is a bit hard for even me to pronounce, as it contains two of these rrr… rraaooll… L sounds! There's nothing like that sound in our own Japanese language, of course. But let me try to say his name right anyway. Getting his name right is the least that I can do to offer gratitude to him!"
You certainly have that right, Haruhi.
"His name is…" began Haruhi, "Rree… Lllex Luthor! His name is Lex Luthor!"
Head Office, Lexcorp, Metropolis
A bald and fit man wears the finest of black three piece suits, and sits comfortably in his plush black chair, behind a large refined burgundy table. His hands are held in a steeple position while one leg is folded across his knee, and he gazes out a large window with a look of serene silent strength, and confidence. The man is smiling like an amused child, which is a rare look for this particular man of renown.
His personal assistance walks in on his large office, and bows slightly in difference to him.
"Has the daughter of my new Japanese business associate managed to help facilitate my meeting with this most intriguing Japanese girl?" asked Lex Luthor, as he turned his head sideways, to send a short glance towards Mercy.
"Yes, I just received a cell phone texting from her indicating as much" replied Mercy, courtly.
"Excellent" responded Lex, as he turned back to looking out the large window, "It is quite amazing, isn't it, Mercy?"
"What is, sir?" asked Mercy in turn.
"After years of trying to use green space rocks, mechanical marvels, and destructive alien robots, in order to defeat Superman, I find that the answer to his defeat is found in a seemingly normal human teenage girl, of all things" stated Lex Luthor with a mischievous grin, "To think that such limitless power could lie within a small girl from Japan, with naïve dreams and childish ambitions. All this time, and the answer to my Superman problem lay here, born on this very planet!"
Mercy grimaced slightly over Lex's words here. He came across as such a cold and heartless man to her. But as long as he was her meal ticket, she dare not betray him.
"And yet…" continued to Luthor, "How fitting that the detestable Kryptonian, who has been so profusely blessed by his arrival to this planet, would be served his ultimate destruction by that same planet. Yes, alien, your days are numbered. Humanity will no longer rely on the likes of you, as I will make use of the powers of one of humanity's own to bring you to a crushing, final defeat. Your waterloo has a human name, Superman, and its name is Haruhi Suzumiya."
To be continued…