"Are we going to look for a way down?" Koizumi asks as I sit down.
"Yeah, yeah, eventually," I say as I take the last drink from my canteen. "I'm going to rest first."
With Haruhi gone, I notice that Koizumi has lost a little bit of his façade, and he leans up against the wall to rest as well.
So even esper-boy gets tired, eh?
Nagato, on the other hand, is still as strong as ever. She continues to stand, seemingly watching the darkness.
At first, we can still hear the echoes of Haruhi, Tsuruya-san, and Asahina-san as they venture off into the cave, but eventually those disappear as well.
How far down do you plan to go, Haruhi?
Then it happens. As I'm sitting around enjoying the silence, I notice, only too late, a noise approaching.
"Boo!" something yells from the darkness. The event leaves me tumbling over in shock, and by the time I've regained my composure and looked for the source, there is nothing to be found but empty cave.
I look around at Koizumi and Nagato, and Koizumi seems as shocked as I am.
"What was that?" I ask, but I get only silence in return. "Haruhi?" I ask the darkness, wondering if maybe she found a way up here and took the opportunity to frighten us, but the more I look around the more I think that's impossible – there's simply no place for her to hide in this room.
"Is this some kind of. . ." I begin, but then it happens again.
"Boo!" I jump to my feet from the shock, frantically needing to discover just what's going on before I have a heart attack. As I'm looking around the cave, my light just catches the tail end of something moving, just a quick flash, but by the time I realize it and turn to look, whatever I saw was gone once again.
"I think there's something in here," I say, looking at the other two. Koizumi is also standing upright again, cautiously looking around the cave. I don't think Nagato's moved during this entire event. "No one make a sound."
I listen to the silence, and the moment I hear it, the quick patter of something moving on the ground, I spin around, pointing my light right at the source of the noise.
Standing before me is a creature about the size of your average dog. Its skin is leathery like a bat or a pig's, but its features very much resemble that of a cat. For the second my light is on the creature, its eyes begin to glow red, and its mouth opens to reveal rows of very sharp fangs.
I'd like to say I was braver in the presence of this unknown creature; I mean, I've faced down blue giants, a murderous classmate, giant cave crickets, and, worst of all, kissing Haruhi, but the fact that we were underground in the darkness, I acted less than noble.
And by less than noble, I mean I ran like a scared child.
I don't make it far though. I trip and lose my helmet (and by proxy, my light), and I spend the next couple of minutes fumbling through the dark to find a wall to press myself up against. After a few moments, my heart stops punching my sternum, and I chance a look around the cave.
Nagato is still standing in the exact spot she started in, except now she's looking in a new direction. Centered in her light is the creature, but it's different now. Its eyes are brown, the fangs are tucked away neatly, and it looks completely submissive.
I put two and two together and realize Nagato must have incapacitated it somehow.
I pick up my helmet and find Koizumi near another wall. It looks like he also ducked for cover during the big moment.
Helpless, just like me, huh? How's it feel, now? Still feel like grinning all the time?
"What did you do to it?" I ask as I take a few steps closer.
"Nothing," is all Nagato replies.
Ding, the bell has rang and round two of heart vs. sternum is underway.
"What do you mean, you didn't do anything? Why's it just sitting there then?"
"It seems the creature is designed to become harmless upon discovery."
"Huh," is all I can muster. Before I can figure out which question I want to ask first, Koizumi walks over and picks the creature up.
I'm about to yell at him, tell him not to pick up the dangerous monster, but then again, if it mauls his face a little, that's not so bad, is it?
"What is it?" is the question I eventually go with.
"It is the manifestation of Suzumiya Haruhi's wishes," Nagato explains.
In Koizumi's arms, the creature begins purring, but the noises it emits are meek "boo" sounds – diluted versions of noise it had frightened us with earlier.
"Haruhi wished for that?" I say, pointing at the little monster. "Are you sure?" Nagato nods.
"It seems as though that noise she heard was the trigger. While I believe Suzumiya-san truly wishes to find a creature down here, possibly even a scary one, she also doesn't wish to be in any danger, hence this little guy's docile behavior." I let Koizumi's words circle around in my head for awhile before I reply.
"So you're telling me that Haruhi created a monster whose sole goal in life is to jump out at people from the dark and yell 'boo' at them?" He smiles and nods as he begins petting the little cat-monster's wrinkly skin.
"It seems that way."
Should I list Haruhi's accomplishments as God for you? World peace? Nope. End world hunger? Nope. Cure cancer? Nope. Create the world's worst Halloween prank? Check.
Who or whatever gave her these powers, take them away, please. I'm begging you.
"The question is, what are we going to do with it now? We can't let Suzumiya-san see it."
I wouldn't mind seeing the little thing scare Haruhi a few times on her way out.
"Also, this is a living creature. Like it or not, we can't just trick Suzumiya-san into wishing it away now that it's alive." Geez Haruhi, look at this new problem you've put in front of us.
"Couldn't we just leave it here? I mean, Haruhi created it to live here, right? It should survive," I propose.
"Yes, that would be fine, except the moment we let this little guy go, he's likely to return to his task of popping out at us from dark places."
As I'm pondering the pros and cons of trying to sneak the cat-creature around in my backpack until we leave, Nagato walks over and takes the creature from Koizumi. Then I watch as she begins moving her mouth in that rapid motion that accompanies her alien magic.
When I look back at the creature, it is now completely still, like a stuffed animal.
"What did you do?"
"I applied a complete spatial cessation of subatomic particles. The manifestation will reanimate in twenty-four hours." All I got from Nagato's sci-fi talk was that she froze it.
"Is that like what you did to me and Asahina-san at your apartment?"
"Very similar." I sigh. Where would we be without Nagato?
A very bad place, that's where.
"Now all we have to do is hide it where Suzumiya-san won't find it and the problem is solved."
Koizumi and I search around for a little cove to tuck the creature in until it wakes up. We find one, place the creature inside, and even cover it with some small rocks so that it's even harder to notice.
And fortunately, (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it) while searching for a place to hide Haruhi's latest creation, we also found an alternate path down to where Haruhi, Tsuruya-san, and Asahina-san are.
