- Chapter 3: Embracing Madness
I know I've already mentioned how ominous this situation was, but I didn't truly appreciate the gravity of it until later that evening. I found myself in the familiar coffee shop, looking at a very surprised Haruhi. In retrospect, it seems pretty obvious. I mean, Yuki Nagato wouldn't just joke around or confess that she has a thing for somebody unless something is going truly wrong.
I think I might have greeted Haruhi in a casual way, but she sat there with her mouth gaping open like a landed fish, then finally gasped out softly, "Kyon? Is that really you?"
"Huh?" I said, absently wondering whether I should just go ahead and sit and order something. "Yeah, of course," I added, matter-of-factly.
Haruhi immediately stood up and, to my extreme mortification, she threw her arms around me and embraced me hard. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed. "Kyon, I never thought I'd see you again!"
I must have been reeling from shock, but I somehow collected myself enough to make a relatively normal reply. "Okay, well," I said. "Thanks for the warm welcome, but I think we're creating a scene, here."
Haruhi then pried her face away from my chest and took a look around. As I had indicated, we were definitely making a scene, and people all around us were muttering. She slowly pulled away, and I decided to have a little chat with her there. The others in the shop went back to what they were doing as we sat across from each other.
"I'm sorry," she said, "I was just so surprised to see you."
"You're looking kind of ragged there, too," I observed, trying to make her snap out of whatever weird mood she had just developed.
She scowled in a familiar way and said, "Damn, don't remind me. I haven't had a bath for three days."
I was a little beyond mortified at this point and offered, "Are you sure you don't want to be alone?"
"Please don't leave," she said with an oddly desperate look. "I really need some help, here. I didn't realize time travel was so dangerous."
"Wait, what?" I said, still a little in shock.
"Time travel," she repeated. "Please, don't make me raise my voice."
"Okay, okay," I said. "I got it. Time travel." It's funny, how the situation seemed comforting with a label of some kind, even if it was the unlikely event of time travel.
"Only," she added, "something went really wrong. I don't seem to have traveled in time, at all. I tried going back about five minutes, but it seemed like nothing happened. And now everything's gone all crazy."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I stopped her. "Slow down, there. How did you get a hold of a time machine?"
"I..." Haruhi confessed, "kind of stole one from Mikuru."
"Miss Asahina told you she was a time traveler?" I asked, not quite willing to believe it could be so easy for Haruhi to find a time machine.
"Well, sure," she replied. "I mean, she didn't exactly tell me. I think I dragged it out of her, and Mikuru being Mikuru just kind of accidentally let it slip."
This jibed so well with what I knew of Mikuru that I could only facepalm and shake my head. "Okay," I said, trying to get a grip on all this, "so you played with Miss Asahina's time machine..." I looked at Haruhi and noticed she was embarrassed at that particular wording. "...And now you're..." I started, unable to finish. Haruhi, in embarrassment, had turned her head. I finally noticed a small but crucial problem, here.
"What?" she asked. "What is it?"
With alarm slowly entering my voice, I replied, "I'm just now noticing this, but your hair is suddenly long, again."
"My hair is what?" she asked.
I think I became dizzy, and I steadied myself, muttering, "I must be dreaming or something."
"Kyon," Haruhi said, "snap out of it. You're not dreaming."
"Okay," I said, collecting myself. "You're right, everything has gone all crazy."
"You're damn right, it is," Haruhi added.
"And..." I said, finally reflecting on something more important. "Wait, you said you never thought you'd see me again?"
"Yeah," she admitted, "I kind of blurted it out. But, I was just so surprised to see you."
"Why is that? What's so strange about it?"
"Well, I thought you were dead."
"You thought I was dead?"
"It was a huge story. You were found in a classroom all cut up, and I admit I kind of freaked out. But that was months ago!"
"Okay," I said, "calm down." This was more for myself than for Haruhi. None of this conversation seemed real to me, at all. "I'm fine. Nothing happened to me."
"I know!" she exclaimed, then lowered her voice again. "But... I even went to your funeral. I saw a picture of you in the paper."
"When exactly did that happen?" I asked her.
"Shortly after the school year started," she replied. "Like, a few weeks in, I think."
As she finished saying that, I briefly thought of the incident with Miss Asakura, and I had a sinking feeling about it all. "Oh, okay," I said.
"What?" she prodded me. "Did you escape somehow and have amnesia? I'm right? Right?"
"No..." I quickly denied that. "That's not what I meant. Okay, let's be clear about this. I was dead? How did you know? Was there a witness?"
"No, but Yuki discovered your body," Haruhi replied.
"And what happened then?"
"Well, then the police came and the reporters came, and all hell broke lose. It was a huge mess."
"I can imagine."
"But you're clearly alive! So, what happened? Was it the yakuza? They were after you, and you needed to lie low for awhile?"
"No..." I quickly denied that, as well. No telling what might happen if I let her believe these weird stories. I briefly wondered what Koizumi would think of this situation, then decided I'd better bring the discussion back where it belonged. "Look, Haruhi," I said. "I'm alive. Nothing happened."
She seemed a little skeptical at that, but while she was at a loss for words, I quickly recovered my thoughts.
"Yes, there was nearly an incident like that," I informed her, "but I didn't die."
"You escaped from the killer?" she insisted. "So, who was it?"
I sighed and explained, "All right, I think what's important here is not what happened to me. What's important here is what happened to you. Clearly, you aren't the same Haruhi I know."
"Clearly," she agreed.
"We aren't going to get anywhere just spinning our wheels with our separate versions of what might have happened," I added.
"We need someone," Haruhi concluded, "to help us get a handle on this."
"I think I have an idea," I said, thinking quickly. "Just hold on for a moment."
