And now, a report from the author: Chapter 7 is finally here, after being delayed by holidays, returning to school and Lazy Bastard Syndrome (trademark). To those of you still with me, glad to know you've got the patience. To those who were anxiously waiting for this, I apologise. To be truthful, I did find this chapter a bit hard to pull off, so how well I did is dependent on public response. It is setting up for future events and actually giving this runaway train of a story a coherent plot path. Basically, try to bear with me: Alien didn't have the creature revealed to us straight away. Neither did Predator.
Disclaimer: Even though I've probably hammered this in enough, I'm going to say it again to make sure Nagaru Tanigawa doesn't send his minions after me. Nagaru Tanigawa created the Haruhi Suzumiya series, it's characters and the original plot. I'm just some bloke who wanted to add his own touch to it.
Chapter 7: Stupid Intelligence
On my trip back, I saw some familiar worlds, which I'm pretty sure were the same ones I saw on my back from the dramatic world and entering the MG world. There was an astronaut doing a space walk (probably off of the space shuttle I saw lifting off), a bunch of those sinister soldiers riding a tank (their helmets looked vaguely familiar…), another one of those mechs during a weapons test in the desert, several tentacles bursting out of a sewer (I hope there won't be a hentai world), men in radiation suits, and some sort of sinister surgical table. I wondered when (and if) I'd ever encounter these worlds.
At long last, I found myself seated on the toilet I'd left. Checking my watch, the time had reset to this world's rules and only five minutes had passed. Well I'll be damned. I became aware of a knocking on the door.
"Kyon-kun! Are you nearly finished? I need to use the toilet!" shouted my sister.
"Hai, hai, I'm just about done anyway," I replied, lifting myself off the toilet and exiting to my room. There, I proceeded to get straight down to business: call Koizumi and give him hell for not giving me the full picture. Once I'd dialled, I brought the phone up to my ear and waited.
"Ah, Kyon," answered the smug bastard. "There you are, I was wondering-"
"What the hell kind of informants do you have, you son of a bitch?" I yelled. "You said it would be a magical girl universe! I ended up getting attacked by a giant teddy robot and joining a militia version of myself to take it down with bloody rocket launchers!"
There was a silence on the other end.
"…gomen, I was going to tell you about that bit, but it seems the portal opened before I could finish," he said. "Other than the magical girl anime, Haruhi had also been looking at military equipment. We think it may be in response to a recent interest in conflicts, such as those in Somalia and Iraq. After that, she went looking at magical girls and must've fused the two together."
That…actually explained a lot. Perhaps I'm a bit at fault here for acting a bit aggressively, but I did just return from a fight against a cuddly version of the terminator. But, to be fair, the call was cut short by the portal, meaning I didn't get the full story. I began to regret my outburst. Memories of the Koizumi I left behind in the bunker came back.
"Sorry…" I said. "I've just gone through a level of hell that I'm sure Dante would've shit his pants and screamed at. Guess I'm just tense after that ordeal."
"It's not a problem," he replied. I could practically see that damnable grin on his face and whatever sympathy or guilt I may have felt quickly vanished. "There is some good news: I may have made an opportunity for you to convince Haruhi to cease sending you through the space between spaces. There's another search scheduled for tomorrow. The message came during the five minute period you were gone. I've called in to say I'm unable to attend due to business."
"And this is a good thing how?" I inquired. I'm a bit confused of how taking a leave of absence will help stop me from seeing new, interesting and terrifying worlds.
"I anticipated your question," he answered. "You know that Haruhi likes to select teams via the 'drawing straws' method? If that's so, you should also be aware that the two of you are never grouped together. By removing myself from the scene, your chances will increase."
Ah, now I see. With Koizumi there, the three to two split will be half and half. Each team will only have two members and if I'm lucky enough to get Haruhi isolated, I can simply bring up the topic of alternate dimensions in idle conversation and lead it so that she'll think no more of it.
"Well, here's hoping Koizumi. Thanks for the help. Sayonara." I turned off my phone and decided to relax for the rest of the day. Briefly, I wondered if my counterpart had the same luxury…
That night, as I slept, my dreams were consumed by these alternate worlds. The vortex was all around me and glimpses of these other worlds continued to assault me. I'm not sure if this was a dream or if my unconscious mind was pulled into the space between spaces.
I could hear voices this time. My voice…some slightly different, but all mine.
"Haruhi! Surely you must be out of your mind!" yelled an overly dramatic me. "One cannot simply expect birds to follow a magnet! The idea is absurd!" Ah, my first encounter universe. I don't know what crazy scheme they were hatching, but the view through my counterpart's eyes was a fishing rod with a magnet tied to the end. Maybe I should call it 'Monty Python Land'.
"Koizumi, get in position. I'll signal on the radio when to take the shot," whispered a more serious me. "The girls have him tied up, aim for the leg. That'll give us the upper hand." The streaks of colour flying before my twin's vision were no doubt from the world I'd just left. Crosshairs sat in the centre of the sight, and small adjustments to zoom and positioning told me I was looking down the scope of a sniper rifle. His target was clearly defined: a heavily armoured super-villain whose only flaw in his defence was lightly armoured leggings. That explains why my counterpart said to aim for the legs.
"Houston, this is Eagle 6. Satellite 'Sentry 5' is operational," spoke my counterpart in space. Beyond the machinery immediately before my twin's eyes and the large solar panels jutting out from either side was the blackness of space and the twinkling of stars. Slight muffling of the voice indicated a helmet-a necessary piece of equipment to use in the vacuum of space. I've yet to see this space world yet, but I hoped when I did, the vortex wouldn't deposit me in the vacuum.
Then there was a phone ringing. A very old fashioned one at that, as the ringing was definitely not digitally generated. I saw the hand of my other self reach over to pick up the antique phone and place the receiver next to his head. What happened next shocked me.
"Hallo? Ah, guten Tag," said my twin. Is…is he speaking in German? Why is he speaking in German? I don't even know German! Is he German? Why isn't he Japanese like I am? He's supposed to be me, right?
"Kilo-4 deploying," a more familiar me said. The view had changed to a cockpit of sorts with a large Heads-Up Display, or HUD, projected before me. It generated an image of a large aircraft bay. There were some mechanical noises as my twin's vehicle gently slided to the open doors and then began a free fall. "Kilo-4 successfully cleared of clamps, now approaching-"
I didn't hear the rest of it as the scene changed yet again. Is someone hitting fast forward on a remote somewhere? Is any of this supposed to mean anything? Why are you making me ask so many questions?
"Yuki?" asked a nervous me. "Is-is that you?" Things had gotten dark. The only light came from a flashlight that I wasn't holding on account of the rifle my counterpart had in his hands. There were some scurrying and grumbling noises. And it didn't come from me. "Is anyone there? Is any-oh…shit." His gaze had shifted to movement in the darkness. Before he could wheel the light toward it and give me a good look as my twin brought his rifle to bear, the scene changed again. Damn it, stop teasing me! This is turning into a movie trailer!
"Desyat', devyat', vosem', sem'…" said a voice that wasn't mine for once. It was coming from a loudspeaker. My twin's vision was tinted by polarised goggles and he faced an open desert. The voice was speaking in some foreign language I couldn't quite pinpoint…
"Shest', pyat', chetyre…" continued the voice. Hold on a minute. Polarised goggles and a barren desert? And that voice…is that Russian?
"Tri, dva, odin, nol'." That almost sounds like a count-
My thoughts were interrupted by a bright flash followed by a loud explosion. I knew it…a nuclear test. Russia, nukes…what are you getting at, Haruhi?
I never saw anything related to the brains I saw on my way into the MG universe before I woke up.
"Ah, Kyon, there you are, are you ready to-eh? Kyon, are you alright? You look very tired," inquired Haruhi. I guess despite the fact my 'dream' ended when I woke up the next morning didn't mean my body got a good rest. Or it could've been from funny a homicidal teddy robot.
"Eh, I'll be right, just had nightmares," I lied. I gave a wave back at Asahina-san while Nagato just stood still and quiet as usual.
"Alright, since Koizumi couldn't be here, we're going to do things a bit differently!" said Haruhi. "But for now, just draw straws as normal and commence patrols."
I ended up with Nagato first, which was good; I still wasn't sure how to convince Haruhi to let go of her interest in alternate worlds. We each went our separate ways and I took the time to ask Nagato about my 'dream'.
"What you saw was not a dream," she explained in her monotone voice. "Suzumiya's abilities are causing these links to your alternate beings' point of view. All the possible alternate worlds are being linked to ours by Suzumiya's will. The breaking of these links will not destroy the worlds, but merely prevent any transdimensional exchange."
"So, if you know about what's the cause behind all this, can you tell me what any of those worlds are about?" I asked.
She shook her head. "You know more than I do." I didn't even think that was possible.
When we met back, surprisingly, Haruhi's team found something.
"It was sitting by the sidewalk and looked a bit out of place. Mighty suspicious, huh?" explained Haruhi. You know how you seem to remember some small, insignificant detail and find something that fits together with it? That happened to me right there, because the piece of metal Haruhi held was exactly like the type used to make the teddy robot. "It doesn't look like it came off of anything nearby…"
Haruhi dropped it and frowned. "Eh, it probably came off of a car…" she dismissed. But I picked it up and looked at it closely. This got her attention. "Kyon? What's the problem?"
"Uh…" I panicked. I can't tell her the truth, who knows what that'll do? Got to make up something…uh… "It…doesn't look like it came off of a car, that's all. Let me take it back with me and I'll have a closer look."
Haruhi gave me a sceptical stare for five seconds before shrugging and saying "Go ahead." When it came time to select teams again, Haruhi instead hand picked them, going with Nagato and leaving me with Asahina.
"I don't suppose you can show me where you found this?" I asked, holding up the metal fragment.
"Sure," nodded Asahina. "Follow me. I was the one who noticed it anyway."
Upon reaching the destination, it wasn't hard for me to compare it to the half-rugged, half-pristine one I was at the other day. The sidewalk was on the other side of the road from a fairly open courtyard-the same one I'd dug into and destroyed the teddybot from.
I turned to Asahina and gave her the piece of metal. "Could you show me where exactly you found it and what position it was in?" She nodded. It was only a short walk down from our current position, maybe a few metres or so. Once Asahina had finished setting the piece of metal exactly as she found it, I examined the nature of the positioning. On the wall behind it was small mark and I noticed another on the road. Remembering the position of the robot and the force it exploded, I came to a disturbing conclusion: this was definitely from the Teddynator. The explosion flung the piece this way, where it ricocheted off the road and was stopped by the wall, coming to rest here.
"Asahina…" I stuttered, shaking from the realisation. "Do you know what this piece is from?"
"It looks like it was from a robot," she answered. "That's why I was able to notice it. I'm not at liberty to tell you if there are robots in the future where I come from, but it did raise enough concerns from me to assume it came from the future. Why? How do you know it?"
"Oh, this is from a robot alright," I told her. "But probably not one you've ever seen."
