Disclaimer: I own neither Good Omens nor Haruhi

CH 2. Mark of the Beast

Haruhi's idiotic grinning is frankly getting to be more than I can handle. I can feel it, projecting its happy sunshine energy mania onto the back of my head. The both of us were rigid with barely contained anticipation, waiting for the last bell to ring.

There was of course, a major difference in the source of our anticipation; respectively dread and an unstoppable steam train ecstasy…guess which emotion belonged to whom. Wow, got it on the first try, you're so smart.

As the second hand on the clock made its last sweep across the face I took a deep breath to calm myself. The day before, after Haruhi and Adam had left, I had spoken to Asahina, Koizumi, and Nagato over the phone, but none of them seemed to know anything about him.

But I had a plan this time around. I was no longer going to simply stick my head in the sand waiting for the insanity wave to come from the ocean of Haruhi and drown me. As soon as I got a second alone with that kid I'm going to ask him strait out:

"Who are you, and what do you have to do with Haruhi!"

With any luck, his response won't be to stab me in the face just to see if anything happens.

…I should bring Nagato as back up…

You know what? No, I made a promise to myself that I would stop relying on Nagato so much.

There it is, the bell, a relief for most students. When did that happen? When did the final bell no longer become a saving grace for me, but a somber storm cloud predicting future misery?

I felt Haruhi's cocaine excited strength grip my arm as she proceeded to drag me out of the seat.

Oh yeah…it began a little like this didn't it?

I struggled to keep up as we rushed through the corridors, and I think we knocked at least three people over, but they were far in the distance before I could turn to apologize.

When we made it through the door, I saw that everyone was already there, except for Adam. As we were going to be heading into the city, Asahina hadn't bothered to switch into her maid outfit. This wasn't a problem though, Asahina could look good in anything, yes even that frog costume.

Just as I had finished freeing myself from Haruhi's vice grip, I heard the door open. It was none other than Adam himself, wearing the same uniform as yesterday; I'd have to ask him where that was from when I finally talked to him.

"Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate!" Haruhi exclaimed.

"The last person to arrive at a meeting is 'late' and has to pay for everyone's food!"

I winced, feeling bad for the kid despite all my suspicion. I have been on the receiving end of this particular Torture a la Haruhi far too often to not feel sympathetic.

Adam arched one eyebrow at us; I could already tell that was going to become a thing.

"I see…" He eventually said. His face was almost as unexpressive as Nagato's, but it was also very different. Nagato had a blank look, as if she either had no feelings on something or was perhaps unsure of how to express herself. Adam on the other hand, had a quite, intense gaze that held you in place. He poured his attention equally into everything, whether it be the mundane or the fantastic, the logical or the impossible, the major or the minor, everything was important to Adam. At least, that was my impression.

"My only problem with that is I'm only here in an advisory capacity, not as a member of the brigade…"

Haruhi seemed to think this over a bit before nodding her head.

"True, that wouldn't really be fair…Kyon, you do it!"

Well there goes my sympathy.

As we were leaving the school we were accosted by one of the student council members. I forget his name, it was Keisuke, or maybe Kenchiro…it was a ''K'' name.

"Suzumiya…who is this?"

"Adam Young"

"…right…listen, people from other schools aren't allowed to just wander about as they please…take him to attendance and have him get a visitor pass."

"Ugh, fine!"

And with that Haruhi stomped off toward the office, irritated at this interruption to her latest adventure.

We eventually made are way to the office where Adam was asked to sign his name. I didn't really care, but I happened to catch a glance over his shoulder. Something had to be wrong, even I with my limited English skills, could tell that his name shouldn't be that long.

When he finally finished I thought I heard a rumble of thunder in the distance. Odd, the weather was perfectly clear today.

As we turned to leave, I glanced again at the paper. I couldn't read most of it, he had written it in English, but it looked something like

Adam Young; the Adversary, Destroyer of Kings, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Great Beast that is called Dragon, Prince of This World, Father of Lies, Spawn of Satan, and Lord of Darkness

I really wish I had worked harder in those English language classes. Something else was odd with the signature, it seemed to glow faintly, as if it were smoldering, and there was an odd smell, like rotten eggs…I put it out of my mind as Haruhi called for me to hurry up.

When we finally made our way to the square where we usually met for our "Brigade Searches", Haruhi pulled out six sticks, on each stick there was a colored dot: red, blue, or yellow. I realized then that she was going to make us draw lots, and whoever had the same color dot on their stick would team up for the search.

Haruhi closed her eyes and rubbed the bundle of sticks in her hands for a few seconds before pulling one out.

"Mikuru!" She cried, handing Asahina a yellow. Then with her eyes still closed, she pulled a red and yelled "Koizumi!"

When all was done the groups came out: Koizumi and Nagato, Asahina and Haruhi, and Adam and me.

Haruhi glared at her yellow dot, then at my blue dot, and then she stomped off in whatever direction her internal Insanity Compass was pointing, with a dreading Asahina in tow.

Oh Asahina, my heart goes out to you, if only I had the power to rescue you from that dragon of a girl.

As Koizumi and Nagato wandered off, I turned to look at Adam, who simply raised his blue marked stick at me and shrugged.

I narrowed my eyes because really, what were the odds of that?