The next day I arrived at school earlier than I normally did. There were very few students in the room, only two in fact and they were busy studying. I quietly reached into my backpack, grabbed the folders and quietly placed it on Haruhi's desk.
Nothing happened for the first half of the day. Haruhi showed up, seeming to be in a better mood than yesterday, and took her seat. When she saw the folders, she seemed to perk up even more. She grabbed one and opened it. I could hear her flipping through the pages until class started. She seemed to be returning to her old self, albeit a little bit at a time.
Finally lunch rolled around. Haruhi stood and walked out of the room as soon as the bell rang. I took out my lunch and ate it quickly. I don't know why, but I wanted to go outside for a bit.
As soon as I finished, I cleaned up and walked out. Eventually I found myself at a lone tree standing in the middle of the break area. I collapsed against the tree and closed my eyes, blocking out the sounds of the world from my mind.
It didn't last long.
"Well, so this is where you are."
I opened one eye and spotted Koizumi. He had on his traditional smile. Behind him were Ms. Asahina and Nagato. In their hands they all held the folders from the past two days.
I closed my eye again and leaned back. "Hey guys. What's up?"
I felt someone sit next to me. Damn it, Koizumi, that's too close.
"K-Kyon?"
Koizumi hadn't sat next to me. It was Ms. Asahina. My eyes shot open and looked into her beautiful eyes.
"Yes?" I asked.
"Have you been getting these?" she handed me one of the folders. I lazily took it from her, sat up and opened it.
"'Whoever said that war was hell must have mistaken hell for heaven. Because the war taking place throughout the whole galaxy had to be worse than the fire and brimstone version of hell…' Uh, what is this?" I said, hoping not to give myself away.
"You're telling us that you haven't been getting these?" Koizumi asked.
"No…why would I? Would someone care to tell me what is going on?"
"Well, yesterday Haruhi called a meeting. It seems that someone placed these stories in a folder on her desk. Each copy one had our names on it and a chapter to a story. In fact, it's a reimagining of the movie we were making."
I sat up, trying to look alarmed. "How is that possible?"
"Unknown," Nagato spoke up. Wow, either she really doesn't know or she is keeping the information from the others. If so, bless you, Nagato.
"The Organization's looking into it, and we can't find anything. No DNA evidence, nothing."
"O…kay…" I said, "but who would want to do that? Rewrite the movie in story form? That is what this is, right?"
"Correct," Nagato spoke up again.
"Very well written, I might add," Koizumi interjected.
"What about you, Ms. Asahina? You're a time traveler, so you should know who it is."
"I don't," she replied in that cute tone of hers. "My superiors said that they know but aren't going to tell me."
Okay, so, if she's telling the truth, Ms. Asahina is going to find out sometime in her future. Does that mean everyone else will too?
"So, why come to me with this?" I asked.
"We were wondering, as I said before, if you had received copies of this story too," Koizumi said.
"Sorry, nope," I answered.
"Well, it seems that the story is bringing Haruhi out of her depression somewhat after last Sunday's incident at Ms. Tsuruya's house."
"Hmph, good for you. Less work for you espers."
Koizumi just chuckled "Well, yes that has been the case. The amount of Closed Space has dropped ever since yesterday afternoon. Did you know that whoever wrote this included Haruhi in the story, as well as someone named John Smith?"
I had to act surprised. I stood up abruptly, catching Ms. Asahina off guard. "Where?"
That caught Koizumi off guard as well. I grabbed his shirt and started shaking him back and forth violently. "WHERE!"
"H-here," he replied as he opened the folder to a certain page. It was the scene when Mikuru met Haruhi. I made a show of reading over it in a frenzy.
"Kyon, what's wrong?" Ms. Asahina asked.
How could she not…? Oh, she was asleep the whole time. Right.
"N-nothing," I replied. "Never mind, I thought it was something else."
"Okay, well, I need to be going. Haruhi wants the rest of us to be on the lookout of this mystery author. So does my Organization. We need to find out how much he or she knows."
"Okay, good luck with that," I replied as I sat down again. I leaned against the tree and closed my eyes.
But again that didn't last. I heard someone come up and sit down next to me again. Opening my eye again, I saw that it was Nagato. She had opened her folder and was reading the second chapter.
"Nagato, what are you still doing here? I thought you were supposed to observe Haruhi."
She looked over at me, and I could swear that I saw a hint of curiosity in her eyes.
"What are you going to do with my character?"
So, she knows. I hope she's the only one. But for now let's assume she doesn't know and I'll play dumb for a minute.
"Excuse me?"
"The Data Integration Thought Entity has suspected that you are involved in the creation of this story."
"Oh."
Well, I guess there's no point in lying. Especially to someone like Nagato. "Why do you want to know?"
She just stared at me for a while. Finally, she replied, "I am…curious."
Nagato? Curious? That was new.
I sat up a bit. This was a side of Nagato I had never seen before. "To tell you the truth, I haven't exactly given it much thought. I mean, so far I've only mentioned you in passing. I only write when I'm frustrated."
"I see." I thought I heard a hint of disappointment in her voice as she turned back to the story.
"Nagato, do you…do you like the story?"
She looked back up at me and nodded, then returned to reading.
"Do you want me to continue the story, Yuki?"
I had never used her first name before, and that caught her attention. She looked up at me again. To my surprise, I saw her lips curl up into a small smile.
"Yes," she replied.
"Then maybe you can help me," I said with a smile. "After all, the Yuki Nagato in the story is based off of you. Loosely, I'll admit, but it is based off of you. You could help me in describing her; give her a personality based off of the circumstances of her creation, what she would say in certain situations etc."
She blinked, but her miniscule smile didn't disappear. In fact, I thought I saw it grow just a bit. Of course, it could have been my imagination.
"I will help you," she replied.
I smiled. "Great. When you're done with the Brigade meeting today, drop by my house and we'll work on it together, okay? Oh, and don't say anything about this to Haruhi. Who knows what would happen?"
"Understood," she said in her usual monotone voice. She then went back to reading the story until lunchtime was over.
After I got home that afternoon, I started on my homework. Fortunately, there wasn't much to do, so I was finished in two hours. It was just as I was putting my homework into my backpack that my little sister burst in.
"Kyoooon! There's a cute girl downstairs waiting to see you."
"Okay, tell her I'll be down in a second."
"No need."
I turned at the sound of the new voice to discover Yuki was standing directly outside my room. She was still in her North High uniform.
"Oh, uh, hello Nagato. Please come in," I gestured for her to enter and she did. "And you can leave," I said to my little sister, who was looking at me and Nagato with suspicious glares.
"Aw, I wanna stay too!"
"Sorry, but no. We're working on something. Now scat. Play with Shamisen or something," I said as I picked her up and placed her outside my door.
"No fair, Kyon!" she whined. I rolled my eyes and shut the door.
Nagato had just been standing there the whole time watching. I grabbed another chair which I kept in my closet for guests and placed it at my desk. I grabbed my laptop and turned it on.
"Okay Nagato, before we begin, can I ask why you're doing this?"
She just stared at me. "It will help me to understand you, and therefore understand Haruhi's interest in you. Also, because I wanted to." At that I saw her smile briefly.
"Oh." I smiled back, and then turned to the screen. "Well, Nagato, let's start then."
She turned to me and said, "Call me Yuki."
I know this chapter is a bit short, and it doesn't have any of the other story in it, but I wanted to show what the reaction of the club members was. Yuki's may be a bit OOC, so sorry if that's wrong. Well, enjoy!
morbiusgreen
