Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, nor the main story background.
Author's note: This story is based from the fanfiction "The Imperium of Suzumiya Haruhi", by Julius Firefocht. It is a story based on the days before Haruhi changed the reality, Kyon's point of view.Kyon's point of view. By the way, the previously mentioned fanfiction is also here in this website. You might need to read it if you want to fully understand the story. And yes, I'm part of the project. Credits for Julius himself for revising spelling and grammar errors and editing.
"Before the Rising" Chapter 1:
Again I was here, in the SOS clubroom.
If you were a normal student, you probably would be in your house, playing videogames, reading books or manga, or anything you like to do on your free time. Unless you wanted to go outside, where you could be chatting with friends, go to the movies, and have a laugh. Or maybe something more romantic like dating your girlfriend or boyfriend, treating him or her to dinner, or spending time on the beach…
…but not me, because I am not normal. No, wrong, actually I am. The abnormal ones are the people I met when I started studying in this school.
We were on summer break. The sun shining at us with an intense heat every single day made my ascension to the top of the hill a real pain. I don't think even Edmund Hillary could've handled this everyday hiking.
But, why was I on route to the school on summer break, you ask.
Simple: because our leader, Suzumiya Haruhi, wanted us to go to the SOS-Dan clubroom everyday. And refusing was not an option.
Anyways, like I was saying before, I was in the stolen clubroom, relaxing a bit with the new electric fan Haruhi bought us by "advertising" their store.
To my left, Nagato, reading a book with that blank face as always. Also, Haruhi, at the brigade chief desk, was surfing around the Internet. And finally, my little angel Asahina-san, preparing her superb sweet tea.
The only one missing was Koizumi. Weird… as he never arrives late. Of course, he wouldn't receive any punishments from our leader, because he was the vice-leader. Lucky bastard… not because his position, but for his immunity to punishments.
I see the door knob moving. Oh… talking about him, here he is, with that disgusting smile on his face… and his new fancy tabletop game.
Speaking of which, thanks to him and his poor playing skills, I was able to learn more than twenty tabletop games and play them quite well. Of course, I wouldn't say I was a professional tabletop game player. I only played with Koizumi and no one else. I believe if I played with Nagato, she would sweep the board quickly, killing all my forces, leaving me bankrupt or capturing my flag in a matter of minutes.
But this time… it was something different. He carried a book and a bag full of little plastic soldiers. I've gotta say that I haven't played with little plastic soldiers, while imagining their little wars. Never. Was he trying to teach me how to improve my imagination or something?
He sat down in front of me, dropping the bag of soldiers and the book on the table. I was able to read the title of the book.
Warhammer 40,000? Hmmm… doesn't sound familiar to me.
"I know. I wanted to try something different." He said with his typical smile. "A friend of mine taught me how to play this and I wanted to know if you or the others wanted to play too. He lent me these."
By "friend" you mean anyone in your group? I wondered. He nodded to me like he had just read my thoughts.
"Ooh! Cute little figurines!" Asahina said as she brightly stared at the bag of plastic soldiers. I've got to agree with that. They were really well made and painted.
Nagato was reading her book, as if nothing happened. However, Haruhi…
"Wow. That game looks a bit interesting. Is this like moving around these little soldiers that you command in the battlefield?" she asked. Koizumi nodded. Haruhi, you don't have to own little plastic soldiers to give orders. You have us, playing us around like those figurines. Now I understand how a chess pawn feels when he's about to be sacrificed.
"Hmm… reminds me of some game I played on the computer" Haruhi said. Of course! The Day of Sagittarius III! We had to command ships and lead them to victory! And the game's most avid player was an alien! Nagato, if you somehow dedicate your free time to playing games, you would become a professional in no time.
Speaking of which, she left her book and started looking at the tabletop game. I wonder if she's interested.
"So, you want to play?" Koizumi asked me. Well, I didn't have anything to do. So, show me the rules.
Koizumi pointed at the book. Wait… are you saying to me that I have to read this entire thing just to play a game?! I remember the day you brought a tabletop Role Playing Game, and you brought a heavy, physics-textbook-size book just to start with!
"Come on!" Koizumi encouraged. No thanks. If I observed a game first, I would probably understand it better than simply reading the rulebook.
Let'see… we have a book, and we don't have enough time to read it, nor four more copies of it to lend it to everybody so that we could play tomorrow. So who's to save the day? Nagato, of course.
Nagato moved her lips quickly and two seconds later she stood up and accepted to play with Koizumi. Yep, she learned everything about this game in just a matter of seconds.
The next two hours we saw Koizumi and Nagato playing hard on this game. I understood its rules a bit. Asahina asked every ten minutes about a rule she forgot. But Haruhi…
She was kind of speechless. I saw her eyes glitter at the time the figurines started to battle. She had her mouth open and drooled a bit.
This is not a good sign.
After Koizumi and Nagato finished their battle, with the alien standing victorious against the ESPer, Haruhi couldn't contain her excitement anymore.
"That was the best game I've ever seen! I wanna play too! Now!" she yelled. Now? Are you sure you understood everything?
"Yes I did! Come on Kyon, don't be an idiot! The rules were obvious!" she said to me. All right, if you're really sure of it… Koizumi, you're the fodder.
Koizumi just raised his shoulders and accepted a challenge from our leader and current commander of her figurines, Haruhi. And again, we watched for two hours the entire battle. With… Haruhi victorious?! Wow, she really has understood the rules.
And she asked for yet another battle… Yare yare… can't she get enough of it?
Another conquest in the name of Haruhiism later, we realized it was darkening outside. Koizumi was about to pack his game, but then…
"Hey, Koizumi, can you lend me your game please? I want to look further into it." Haruhi asked him. Oh boy…
Koizumi accepted, and the other four brigade members, that is, counting me, left the clubroom with an overexcited Haruhi.
"She is having fun, that's a good sign." Koizumi said. "My colleagues say that closed spaces are disappearing completely for the moment. I can't believe I achieved that much with just a tabletop game." Me neither, Koizumi.
"She's happy, but…I can't remember the game rules. Silly me!" she said, patting her head herself. You don't have to, little angel, just have fun watching!
"Suzumiya-san's emotion signs are stable" Nagato remarked. "However, I sense an increasing affection towards this entertainment." Well, you sure had fun with computers, right? Everyone will have an excessive affection for at least something in their lives, you know. This is one of the many human facts.
I wonder if she will put it off soon, like every single thing she did: The baseball, the movie, the band…
…she will put it off soon, right? …Right?!
