Ok, I lied about not putting another chapter up today. I am. This one's short, so I figured it be nice to end a good run with this chapter. XD
If you want more of something out of this fanfic, please email me, send me a PM, or write a review! It's good to get feedback. =P
Thanks to Viv-san and Monika for beta-ing it and helping me fix awkward language.
The rest of the week was rather uneventful. The club met as usual, but nothing particularly interesting occurred, except Haruhi's frequent glances at me. It wasn't a hunch anymore. Something was up, and I had that strange feeling that it wouldn't turn out right.
When I had told my sister that the whole club was going to the hot springs, she insisted that she accompany us, but this time I put my foot down. There was no way she was coming with us, and I would make sure that she didn't. Call me a jerk if you may, but her presence there would totally ruin the mood of the trip.
I recalled that she had snuck into my bag in an attempt to stowaway on the trip to the island a while ago, so to prevent this from happening, I decided to take relatively drastic measures. The night before the fateful day of the trip, I not only kept the bag in my room, but I also locked the door, and put a small but secure barricade on it.
Call it ludicrous or dangerous (in the face of an emergency), but it was necessary; even this wouldn't stop her. I had never realized how thin my house's walls were until she began to bang on them and wail incessantly.
I tried music, and even stuck a pillow over my head (which failed. It's stuffy in there), but to no avail. Tears were running down my happy face when my parents finally managed to shut her up. Man, they came through this time.
When this ridiculous scene finally ended, I stayed awake for a while, with Koizumi's words from earlier in the week ringing again in my head.
Why now? Ugh.
I stared at my white ceiling and thought. I thought about Haruhi and the SOS-dan. Eventually, my mind wandered to those four that had been causing us problems. While thinking about the encounters I had with the mysterious Kuyou and Tachibana-san, I realized something that I hadn't paid much attention to before. The SOS-dan consisted of exactly the following: a "god" with the ability to warp space and time, an esper, a time traveler, a humanoid interface, and me. When compared to Fujiwara and those three, their group was an exact foil of ours, minus the average human, me, who has no special powers or abilities whatsoever.
I shrugged internally.
Come to think of it, Kuyou is a representative of the Sky Canopy Dominion, or something within that range, which is similar to the Data Overmind. Tachibana-san is from an opposing faction of espers, too. What's with all of these antitheses?
What does it all mean?
Why would Haruhi, no, the SOS-dan encounter such a bizarre situation? Heck, where do I fit into the equation? Sure, I have the ability to directly influence Haruhi, and I'm friends with Sasaki, her foil, but that doesn't answer much. There has to be something else. Something missing, that I, no, everybody doesn't know yet. The factor connecting the supposed time quake four years ago, Haruhi and Sasaki's powers, and the conflict between Asahina-san and Fujiwara. It would explain everything. Connect all the pieces.
The pieces of the puzzle. Universal fragmentation.
The missing piece is impossible to find, though. Although we're all friends and in the same club, there are so many things being hidden. Koizumi's agency had another purpose besides defeating Shinjin. If Haruhi wanted espers, there wouldn't have had to be an agency. The agency was created independently of Haruhi's wish. Asahina-san couldn't be just an observer. The older Asahina-san would know more, but the only information I'd receive from her would be "classified this, and classified that." As for Nagato, I don't even want to consider the numerous possibilities. She's so much of a stoic sometimes it's beyond frightening.
So many questions.
It was too much to think at once. I frowned and closed my eyes. Why did I care so much anyways? It's not like I wanted to be involved. Then again, what did I want? Being in the SOS-dan is fun, I'll admit that. If it wasn't, then I wouldn't have chosen to return to this world when Nagato gave me an alternative option.
So why? Why was it so important? It was deeper than caring for my friends, but I couldn't grasp it.
I yawned. This was too much to think about during this time of night. Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day, after all.
Guess I'll go to sleep now.
I closed my eyes for the final time that night, and at long last, I drifted off to sleep.
Next chapter's a dream sequence!
Hope you enjoyed this short chapter. =] If you like it, favorite or set it so you get an alert when I upload chapters! I decided I'd upload on a relatively irregular schedule. (But there won't be any long intervals of time between chapter releases).
