Hey hey hey everyone, its me again with a whole new chapter. Im in a rush as of now so im going to keep this short, thanks to all of those who've reviewed and put this story on their alerts. Your responses really gives me an incentive to write and update as fast as I can. I hope that all of you will like this chapter and please please please review! =P
Ahh Sunday, the only day of the week where one is allowed to rest and charge up their heavily worn out bodies. Unfortunately when you're a member of the S.O.S Brigade that particular incentive is not offered to you, courtesy of the mighty Brigade chief Haruhi. I have absolutely no idea why she continues to have those city wide searches, I mean it's not like we've found anything worthwhile in our numerous attempts. Maybe she uses it as an excuse to just have fun and hang out with her friends while putting up a false show of trying to accomplish the Brigade's goals, not that I'm complaining. As long as she remains happy it doesn't matter what we have to do, I've had enough stress dealing with her melancholy to last a lifetime. Anyways coming back to the topic, I woke up extremely early for once and I was feeling far better than I did on Friday. Haruhi gave us all the day off yesterday and I took that opportunity to think about the developments that took place over the past few days. I think I really needed that considering that I was an absolute wreck after finding out about Haruhi and Koizumi, but some good hard thinking made me realize that it was probably just surprise that affected my behavior and emotions. Did I love Haruhi? Nah, not a chance in hell. In fact I didn't really care what happened between her and Koizumi, and that realization really helped me sort myself out.
Now we were all supposed to meet at 10 near the station for another one of the searches and seeing that I had about 2 hours to get ready I decided to reach the meeting place early for once. I don't think I can bear the screams of my empty wallet anymore, not to mention the fact that the look on Haruhi's face would be priceless if I reached early. With that incentive in mind I got ready quickly and was riding on my bike within the next one hour. The morning breeze was pleasant and was drying off whatever little sweat was on my brow. The streets were relatively empty and the trees were shedding the remaining autumn leaves, covering virtually the entire sidewalk with them. Looking at this beautiful sight might actually convince me to wake up early every day, although my sister would be denied of her favorite pastime; namely jumping and inflicting pain on me in order to wake me up. Not to worry little sister, I may appreciate the beauty of nature but sleep is an activity second to none. With these pointless and random thoughts in mind I reached the meeting point. Even though I got here a good half an hour early Koizumi, Haruhi and Nagato were already there. I don't know what made me sadder – seeing that my efforts were of relatively no use or that the sweet Asahina-san was not there to brighten my day. Oh Asahina-san, your absence is like depriving hardcore Otaku's of their favorite manga. Please note that I use this only as a comparison and I do not mean this literally, I do not think of Asahina-san in a perverted way. One can never think of an angel as anything but beautiful and innocent. But putting these thoughts aside I parked my bike and got to where the remaining S.O.S Brigade members were. I may have come 2nd to last but it looks like even that much was enough to leave Haruhi shocked. Koizumi just smiled at me as usual and Nagato acknowledged me with a slight shake of the head which anyone except me would have probably missed or overlooked.
Haruhi finally regained her lost voice though putting an end to the golden silence. If silence was an actual person Haruhi would probably be put in jail on charges of genocide. "Kyon! You're actually not last for once? Good job, it seems that my training and disciplined regime has made even a couch potato like you punctual!" First of all it had nothing to do with you. In fact it's your fault I'm usually late in the first place considering the fact that you overwork us. Add to that the number of times we need to clear up your mess, but I wasn't in the mood to argue so I just accepted this with a wave of my hand.
"KYON show more enthusiasm!" Haruhi screamed. "I thought of awarding you 50 points for your good work but such lousy behavior will not be tolerated!" said Haruhi said while pointing her finger at my face. What grief, I have been denied a mammoth 50 points that would have created a huge dent in Koizumi's relatively miniscule 10,000 odd points total. Just how can I continue living in peace?
"Cut out the sarcasm and just be happy that Mikuru will have to pay for our meal today, not you" said Haruhi in a dismissive tone. Usually the news that I would not be paying would send me into a fit of ecstasy, but to imagine sweet Asahina-san pay for the entire meal made me feel a little sad. We waited patiently for about 20 minutes during which Haruhi was flirting with Koizumi, and it looked as if that Koizumi was enjoying it. It wasn't bothering me that much now though, and I spent that time making light conversation with Nagato which could be described as my monologue more than anything else. Just when I finished telling Nagato how troublesome my little sister usually was, Asahina-san came into sight. She was running as fast as she could, nearly tripping and falling over while doing so. Haruhi would have described this as extremely 'moe' but I'd just say that it was extremely cute.
"Mikuru-chan you're late! PENALTY!" said Haruhi leaving Koizumi's side. "I-I'm sorry Suzumiya-san. I j-just woke up late." Asahina-san looked terrified and couldn't really say anything else. So I did the gentlemanly thing and told Haruhi to take it easy on her, and to my surprise she agreed relatively easily.
"Fine, but Mikuru you still have to pay for our meals!" said Haruhi. Asahina-san nodded lightly and everything would have been fine if I had left it at that, but the thought of Asahina-san paying for our meals was too much to bear. "Haruhi leave it, I'll pay instead." Everyone turned to look at me. Haruhi just looked at me with a stern gaze while everyone else was looking cautious. "Why?" said Haruhi in a flat tone. I really don't know what the big deal was; I mean half the guys at school would have would do anything to pay for Asahina-san. But Haruhi being Haruhi…well let's just say logic doesn't exactly apply when dealing with her.
"Well since I've been late on so many occasions I just thought that I could make up for it in this way" I said casually. Haruhi proceeded to look at me for another 10 seconds, narrowed her eyes and then just shrugged her shoulders. "Whatever. All I know is that I'm starving so let's go!" said Haruhi while dragging Koizumi by the arm. Asahina-san walked side by side with me while Nagato kept her distance while reading a book. How in the world does she do that while walking ill never know.
"I-I'm sorry Kyon-kun, you don't really have to pay for me" said Asahina-san cutely. Oh Asahina-san, this is nothing as compared for what you have done for me. The only reason I've remained sane all this while is because you always bring light to me during my darkest hours with your kindness. "Thank you Kyon-kun" said Asahina-san while giving me a bright smile. I'd pay for the meal ten times over if it meant that I could see this smile when I did so. As I shifted my gaze back in front I swear that I thought that Haruhi was glancing in my direction, but as soon as I looked her way she turned around in a hurry and literally yanked Koizumi off the ground while picking up her pace. That darn esper was still smiling though, I have no idea what it takes to make that guy sad.
Our meal at the café was pretty uneventful. We drew lots again and I ended up getting paired with Asahina-san and Nagato while Haruhi was paired with Koizumi. Surprisingly she didn't look happy, I mean I expected her to show some enthusiasm at the fact that she was paired up alone with her boyfriend. Or maybe she was remaining true to her word and not mingling personal relations with Brigade activities. Whatever it was she was certainly acting weirder than usual today, which to make it clear means extremely weird. We went out of the café and we were just about to go with our respective groups when :-
"Kyon, thank goodness I finally found you." That voice….it sounded really familiar but, well it just couldn't be. I turned around and to my utter shock it really was who I thought it was. Even Haruhi and Koizumi turned around to see who the owner of that voice was.
"Sa-Sasaki?" was all that I could mutter. Sure enough, before me stood my old friend from middle school who also happened to be the alternate God who was also the focal point of the Anti-S.O.S Brigade; not that I bore any ill-will towards her. She was as confused by all of this talk of the supernatural as I was. Getting back to the topic, she was the last person I expected to see at the moment and I just stood there looking for an answer.
"Yes Kyon, it's me. I know it's not the best time to bother you but I need to speak to you urgently – in private" said Sasaki. She emphasized the last word, and knowing Sasaki she doesn't emphasize things unless they're absolutely necessary. This must really be important then. Of course, Haruhi didn't really care about that and proceeded to act in a very Haruhi-esque style.
"Just what do you think you're doing?" said Haruhi to Sasaki. "You just can't interrupt a Brigade search and take one of the members, that accounts to extreme insubordination and I will not allow it! I don't care how good a friend of his you are, he is not available at the moment!." Typical Haruhi, not letting me speak for myself. Sasaki though seemed unperturbed.
"Yes I know about that, but I'm afraid that something extremely urgent has come up, but I promise you it won't take long" said Sasaki. She really did have guts to stand up to Haruhi like that. Haruhi took one good look at her before meeting my eyes with a questioning look. I just shrugged my shoulders. She thought about it for a while and then finally let out a breath. "Well all right, but if you don't get back here within half an hour it's the death penalty for you!" shouted Haruhi. She then walked away with Koizumi while I gestured for Asahina-san and Nagato to leave. After all of them left I looked towards Sasaki.
"Well you have me, so what's up?" I asked Sasaki. She had the habit of drifting off into space sometimes, so my comment brought her back to reality.
"Oh I'm sorry Kyon. Well it's just that the others are waiting at the café and that they really want to talk to you. I'm afraid that I really don't know more than that" said Sasaki. By 'others' I assumed she meant the other members of the Anti-S.O.S Brigade. I wasn't exactly enthusiastic to meet them, especially that sneering bastard Fujiwara, who was Asahina-san's rival. But as I said if Sasaki went through all this trouble then it was bound to be something important, so I followed her back into café. Coincidently they were sitting at the same place that we were eating a few moments ago. I took a seat next to Sasaki and Tachibana Kyoko while the sneering bastard and Kuyo Suo sat on the other side.
"Let's just leave the bullshit aside and cut to the chase. It seems that your girlfriend is way too unstable lately, and the rate at which she's forming those closed spaces of hers is way too dangerous which basically means that you jokers aren't doing your job properly. Care to tell us why?" Just when I thought that this guy couldn't get any more obnoxious he raises the bar. But if what he's saying is true….
"Yes, it is true. I'm surprised you don't know about it considering that you are probably the closest to her, so you should be able to see when she's stressed" said Kyoko. I really couldn't believe it. I thought that Haruhi was extremely happy these days seeing that she was going out with Koizumi these days. So if that was the case why in the world was she stressed? She seemed relatively happy with Koizumi; I mean she kept flirting with him and dragging him along and everything. So I really was at a loss to understand why she was making closed space.
"closed….space …..exponential 73% increase over…last week" said Kyuo. I didn't exactly catch the meaning but from what I gathered she seemed to be saying that the Closed Spaces have been increasing approximately ever since she started dating Koizumi, which really baffled me. I wasn't attributing it to Koizumi directly, but it seemed too much of a coincidence for it not to be true. Add to that to the fact that Haruhi was the one who actually took the lead in the relationship, and she still wasn't happy?
"Look, we're not here to babysit your girlfriend. All we're going to do is give you 2 options. First, help us in transferring the powers from your girlfriend to Sasaki over here and after that we don't care a damn about what you do" said Fujiwara. This was something that I wasn't going to agree to. Haruhi was certainly eccentric, but she had enough sense not to recreate the universe or something. I thought that Haruhi was still the most ideal person to have these powers.
"As I expected, there really is no hope with an idiot like you. Well I guess that leaves us no other choice then. If you don't do anything to improve the situation in the next 72 hours we're going to declare war on your little Brigade." Wait….. declare war? Was this bastard threatening the S.O.S Brigade?
"Call it what you want. What I'm saying is that if you don't do anything then we will forcibly initiate the transfer of power. And believe me when I say this, we don't really want it to come to that because that method has some consequences we don't want to even think about. As far as you are concerned, let's just say that if it does come to that then the chances that your girlfriend will survive are extremely unlikely." The fact that he said something like this with a smirk made me want to punch him straight in the face. What was this maniac planning to do with Haruhi? If he even laid a finger on her…..
"Please understand that none of us want it to come to that. All we know is that if you don't do something soon then it will become too late to maintain the status quo" said Kyoko. I really didn't understand what was going on. Why in the world was Haruhi so mad that she would endanger reality?
"We've said what we needed to, the rest is up to you" said Fujiwara while getting up. The others followed suit, and all of them save Sasaki left the café in the blink of an eye. "Kyon I'm extremely sorry, I didn't know that they were going to be so blunt and aggressive, but they wouldn't let me be unless I scheduled this meeting. But don't worry, I'll try my best to see that they don't go through with what they've planned if things become bad" said Sasaki. To be honest her words calmed me down a little. Sasaki was someone who was reliable and I believed her when she said that she would try her best. I smiled lightly and we said our goodbyes. After that I walked out of the café and went towards the decided point where everyone was to meet up. Surprisingly I was early enough, so I didn't get the death penalty.
"So, what did she want with you?" asked Haruhi. An idea popped into my mind, and I was sure that if I went through with it I was probably going to regret it later on, but it was too good to resist. Putting it simply – I was going to give Haruhi a dose of her own medicine. "Nothing really, she kinda wanted to ask me out on a date." I've always wanted to see what kind of effects those words were going to have on Haruhi. I expected her to get angry or just shrug it off, but I never expected the reaction that followed. Her jaw dropped and she looked at me with a crestfallen expression. Koizumi's usual smile wore off and he shot me a glare. Asahina-san looked shocked while Nagato kept her usual neutral expression. Coming back to Haruhi, I never thought I'd see the day that she would look shocked and that she would be rendered speechless, but that's exactly what happened now.
"Well I couldn't possibly go for a date since it would interfere with Brigade activities, so I turned her down" I said in an attempt to salvage the situation. Sure enough Haruhi jolted back into reality. She pouted, huffed and turned her face away, "Well, it's not like I care what you do, it's your insignificant life after all!" said Haruhi. She looked extremely cute when she did this but I kept my mouth shut in order to wake up without any injuries tomorrow. The tension in the atmosphere descended dramatically though and everyone relaxed. Koizumi put on his trademark smile again but this incident proved that he had his weaknesses too. After that little show we drew lots again for the last patrol for the day, and I was drawn with Koizumi while the 3 girls were in the other group. Finally, a chance to grill Koizumi and get some answers from him.
I waited until we were out of earshot. We were walking down a relatively desolate street where the only visible inhabitants were cats, birds and some old couples taking a light walk. "So Koizumi, I just wanted to ask you, have there been incidents of Closed Space lately?" Hearing this Koizumi immediately stiffened. He did manage to keep his smile, but only just. My question clearly caught him by surprise and rattled him. "I don't know what you're talking about. Suzumiya-san has been quite happy lately so Closed Space is out of the question" said Koizumi. He was clearly hiding something and if I pressed him I would just make him suspicious, so I decided to drop the matter altogether. He seemed relieved that I didn't ask him any other questions and we set in to a comfortable silence. Time passed by pretty quickly and before I knew it we were back at our meeting place and were dismissed for the day.
I went back home and decided to skip dinner again. Something was certainly fishy here; Haruhi was really unhappy for some reason, the Anti-S.O.S Brigade made their intentions clear and Koizumi was definitely hiding something from me. The more I thought about this the more confused I became so I decided to forget about it and hoped that a good refreshing sleep would clear up my mind and help me to focus. All I knew is that something big was going to happen, and it was going to happen soon.
Well things are certainly getting a lot more interesting arent they? Im still not entirely sure how I want to end this but be rest assured I'll put in a lot of effort to come up with an appropriate ending. Cheers, and please review!
