Chapter 6.
Didn't your mother ever catch you stealing money from her purse? Come on, be honest... or did your father ever question you the month you didn't bring your report card saying, "I haven't gotten it" only prolonging the agony...? it feels as though your intestines turn... the result is unknown to you, but you know that whatever it is, it won't be agreeable.
There the six of us were. Tachibana remained in silence and a little farther away, trying to stay out of whatever it was to happen there.
"How long have you been there...?" I asked... the tension of the moment made my voice sound more threatening than doubting.
"Long enough..." Haruhi responded with the same defiant tone. "So Koizumi flies, doesn't he? It was a nice lights' show..." She spouted to him, making the esper move his mouth without any sounds coming out. "And on top of it all, there are two of you!"
"Suzumiya…" He tried to respond. He couldn't do it.
"And you, Yuki! What were you doing? Don't tell me that it was thanks to you that the building didn't collapse!" She dangerously lowered the tone of her voice. "Because that's exactly what it looked like..."
"…" Nagato simply looked at her in silence, she didn't intend to respond.
"Mikuru... I didn't see you doing anything serious, but you didn't look surprised... I bet it isn't the first time that you are in a situation like this, correct?"
"S-s-s-Suzumiya…" She also tried, but she was caught off by Haruhi's next charge.
"You..." She then said talking to me, there was more resentment in her voice than in all the previous accusations. "You knew it all, right? You knew it all this time! You even brought here one of the little friends of that girlfriend you had!"
She yelled pointing at Kyouko Tachibana, who jumped from being pointed at by Haruhi's index finger and instinctively hid behind Koizumi... Sasaki wasn't my girlfriend, I thought we had cleared that up...
"Haruhi… let us explain…"
"Explain? No… everything is very clear now... How could have I been so blind...?"
I think that despite her mood being regularly bad, I had never seen her so mad before. Her fists were tight, as much or more than her lips which shook, her eyes were red and full of tears that threatened to fall at any moment. She took a deep breath and scanned everyone with a gaze full of disdain... she then turned around and walked downstairs. My first impulse was to run behind her, but I stopped a couple of steps after, noticing that no one was imitating me.
"Let's go! What the hell are you waiting for?" I reproached at the inactivity and dejection from the others.
"We must find another solution..." Koizumi said beginning to recover. "Perhaps if Asahina puts her to sleep again, we could argue that she had a nightmare or something of that style... we have been in strange situations before and we have been able to solve it like this."
Enough.
"Um... and we should establish a plan of action every time this happens..." Asahina doubtfully seconded. "And we must be more careful next time... it was my fault she became aware, it looks I didn't apply an enough amount of anesthesia."
It's enough, seriously...
"To establish a credible argument, in a way that Suzumiya Haruhi accepts it as truth and her thought patterns and cognitive appreciation don't get altered. You could take care of that." It came from Nagato's lips, talking to me. "It is priority, given our actual situation, that Suzumiya Haruhi stays at the margin of the events until the crisis we are facing gets solved in a reasonable manner."
It's enough!
"I will request assistance to get an Agency vehicle intercept her so we can execute this emergency plan..." Koizumi said reaching the phone in his pocket... he was going to begin dialing...
"OVER MY DEAD BODY!" It came out of my mouth almost involuntarily.
The four of them turned towards me, surprised.
"Kyon, you must understand..." Koizumi started, momentarily recovering his smile.
"No, I don't understand it and I don't pretend to do it! Did you hear anything of what you guys just say? You are talking about putting Haruhi to sleep and continue lying to her! I'd fear your cold blood if it didn't make me feel nauseous." I yelled at the esper. I ignore the expression my face must have at that moment, but from the sudden seriousness of Koizumi and seeing how he stepped back, I suppose I must be very scary. "Is that the great answer you have? You're supposed to be an expert at understanding Haruhi's mind! You don't understand anything! She trusted you...! She trusted all of us! Stop acting like you knew everything about her! You don't know even half of what's in her mind! I'm convinced that those stupid broadsides you tend to have, have led us to more problems than she has...! So, stop acting like the gallant of a cheap tragedy and assume the responsibility of your actions... but not in the way you propose."
Koizumi looked down at the floor. His face didn't carry an expression.
"But...Nagato backs up my..."
"Of course! Nagato!" I lashed out deviating myself from the esper and facing the alien. "Nagato is always there to solve our lives, no? But guess what... our very powerful card to succeed, the omnipotent and immovable Nagato, always a step ahead, could've prevented all this hefty volume since the beginning... however, she didn't do it, because her job is to observe... if that's the case, why does she coincide with you that we have to lie to the girl that blindly deposited her trust on us?" I asked at less than a step away from Nagato. I slightly inclined myself in a way that my face stood at a few centimeters from hers while I stared into her empty eyes. "Because she knows that she could've prevented this situation from the beginning if she had a little character... but you don't... do you?"
Nagato's eyes took an expression then. One that I could not read.
"K-Kyon…" Asahina tried to intervene. She shouldn't have.
"Please, Asahina!" I said irritated. "We don't need you to start crying now!"
That was enough for her... she stood there looking at me with her eyes wide open and with the very same expression she would have if I had slapped her.
Kyouko Tachibana stood at a reasonable distance, trying by any possible means to look invisible.
I walked towards the building stairs leaving my brigade partners behind. I stopped for a moment, but I didn't turn to see them.
"If you want to continue with that abomination of a plan, go ahead... but absolutely do not count with me... I'm going to look for Haruhi right now and tell her the whole truth..." I slightly turned my head. "And I want to see the idiot that tries to get on my way!"
I started to descend the stairs and I could hear a deep sigh from Koizumi and the whimpers of Asahina... and I didn't care, I had something more important to solve in that moment.
The night had already fallen on us. As it was expected, the first places where I tried to look for Haruhi were the classrooms and other areas of the school. After, I started to search for her on the surrounding streets, the train station, the park and so on. Until then, I kept ignoring where she lived, she didn't respond to my calls and my desperation continued growing. The cold had intensified and a mass of polar air hit our city making my bones hurt while I pedaled on my bike. I didn't have my school things, they would get on the way, so I had left them in the clubroom. I had spent close to five hours looking for my brigade leader and given the little success I was achieving, I had begun applying the technique of yelling her name from street to street.
I'm still mad at Koizumi, Nagato and Asahina. It seems to me that what they were planning is the vilest I've seen them even insinuate. The fact that they could execute their plan has me preoccupied, and if I didn't find Haruhi, I'd see her next day with a brain wash given by those three... Damn it! I truly trusted them... How can they have ideas so Machiavellian? Yes, I admit that Haruhi can be stupidly bossy, angry, inopportune and could continue with a long list of flaws of character... but when it comes to the people close to her, she's generous and attentive, to the point of being meddlesome... she doesn't deserve to be played this way... what we did, because yes, I too participated, was cruel and unnecessary... I'm still sure that if things are adequately explained to her, it can be much more beneficial than if the truths about her and her powers are hidden from her. I suppose that's what Koizumi was referring to when he said that there's a bond of trust between us that strongly link us together. Link that I just broke... the rage badly contained that I experimented and projected against the club guys was, in reality, rage against myself. Because I knew that I had spoiled everything... because I had lost that so special connection that I had with Haruhi, and although I didn't want to admit it... I needed to have it.
A look at my phone indicated to me the time... It was almost eleven at night and my effort hadn't been crowned with success. I think I went to places in the city that I didn't even know and once I saw unknown constructions I desisted to continue and came back to my locality... she mustn't have gone too far, after all. Defeated, I decided that the best thing to do was to go back home to change clothes and grab something I could eat on the way, because yes, I will continue my search, all night if it was necessary.
Then, a reasoning hit me... How didn't I see it before? The curve on the way home, the bench... the huge jacaranda tree... I began to pedal as fast as my strength allowed me, that was my only reference, if she wasn't there, I'd have to really start to worry.
I've thought about a bunch of ways to apologize or excuse myself with her once I see her, but I really don't know what I'm going to tell her. I truly feel bad about what has happened... maybe she should've discovered her potential in the middle of a more agreeable experience, without feeling betrayed by us... realizing her power is simply huge and can be used for the good of everybody. Perhaps I should have told her about it inside one of the closed spaces and convinced her...
The little light that the streetlamps offered made it a little complicated to see what was on the curve on my way home I'm talking about. In fact, the crown of the tree makes it impossible to see the bench... even so, something inside of me tells me that I will find her there...
"Haruhi!" I called once I was some meters away from the place. There was a person sitting on the bench... a girl... it was her! My bike fell next to me, frankly I didn't care. I ran to find my club commander.
Seriously, how could I have ruined it so much? There she was... she looked truly depressed. She didn't lower herself to even turn to look at me. She must be very angry... I would be. She was only wearing the sailor uniform from school, she didn't wear a coat. Without thinking, I took my jacket off and I slowly got closer to her. I set it over her shoulders and I waited for her to at least raise her gaze from the ground.
Some seconds went by and she finally dedicated a look to me. Her eyes continued to be sad, and carried such an intensity that I had to look at the ground. She slowly stood up, the inertia caused my jacket to fall off her shoulders. She walked the step that separated her from me without taking her eyes off me.
The flying kick from Asahina-Ni was a caress full of tenderness compared to the slap that Haruhi gave me then. My left cheek burned as if boiling oil had been poured on it and all my body shook. Some instants later, I could feel the flavor of my blood in between my teeth... she does have a heavy hand... however, I didn't move... I only limited myself to turn towards her. She hit me for a second time, this time, the pain obligated me to release a lament almost inaudible. The third slap arrived almost without any force. When I turned to see Haruhi, thick tears came out of her eyes.
"Why?" She asked, whispering, with a broken voice.
"Haruhi... you must understand... it was to protect you..."
"Lier..." She said a little louder.
"I know I shouldn't have hidden it from you, but our safety depended on it."
"STOP LYING TO ME! WHY ARE YOU INSISTING ON PULLING THE WOOL OVER MY EYES?"
"I'm not lying to you... if you could only understand what you mean to the world..."
"I TRUSTED YOU, ASSHOLE! FROM AMONG ALL PEOPLE, I CHOSE YOU, BECAUSE I THOUGHT YOU WERE HONEST!"
"I know and I'm sorry!" I tried to contain her with the biggest delicateness possible when I saw that again she would lash out against me. "That's why... I will tell you the truth... and I will make a deal with you. Just listen to me, if after that you don't want to forgive me, I will understand..."
Her face showed that her cholera didn't decrease, but she finally stopped trying to hit me... resigned she sat again on the bench and crossed her arms. I got closer and I set my jacket again over her shoulders and after I sat on the floor, in front of her.
"Do you remember that more than a year ago I told you that the brigade guys were... special?"
"Yes." She responded in short.
"It was true... and believe me, the problem isn't settled in them in reality... it's about you. It's because of you that they are reunited... it is because of you that strange events happen in our surroundings. Amongst us there's an alien, an esper and a time traveler... But they're only a small part of the whole mystery. You told me when we met that amongst all people in the world, you wanted to be the most special, that you wanted the whole world to turn around you... well, you must know that it is that way... I will not go into details, because frankly I don't understand a lot about you... the only thing I know for a fact is that I shouldn't have hidden it from you, at least, not for so long... my deal is that from now on, I will not hide anything else... I will reclaim the trust you had in me and I will help you find the answer to whatever comes after."
"And what happens if I don't want you to be with me?" She asked incisive, but more calmed.
"What I have learned from my brigade chief... I will do it despite of you. You like it or not, I will be by your side, without caring if you throw me out, insult me or hit me... because in a way I know that I have deserved it... I betrayed your trust once, and I feel terrible because it, I don't know if you will forgive me some day, but I will leave my life trying if it's necessary." I held her hands. "You mean too much to me... to the brigade, to leave you drifting off in this."
"That's true." A third voice said. It was Koizumi. "I believe Kyon is summarizing very well what we all think."
"Because we really care about you, Suzumiya... regardless of what you are or who you are." Asahina seconded.
I didn't even notice when they arrived... Nagato carried a low gaze. However, her intervention left me with an open mouth:
"It's difficult for a being like me to comprehend the complexity that develops in human's interpersonal relationships... not only they involved a dialectic interaction, but they also experiment... feel what they say at an organic level, which generates diverse type of moods in them. It's a revelation to this interface to know that I can experiment those emotions, but my lack of comprehension of them limit me to manifest them. When it comes to the absence of information about your condition and in concrete to the classification of the information that has been share with you, I experiment a high level of the noise that you call guilt. I have been sent here with a mission and I must follow it by any means... In the last six hundred forty-five days, I've been exposed to a great amount of confusing data that has made me prone to mistakes of many types. But one of the affluent of information prevenient from this interaction I'm talking about, it's the closeness to the association known as the SOS Brigade, that from a short time ago stopped being considered a mistake to me." She slowly walked towards Haruhi and extended her right arm. "Nowadays, I have the personal wish to give my greatest priority to the designs that this associations conceive as convenient and set them before the ones originally ordered by the Entity responsible of the Data Integration from which I come." Haruhi looked at Nagato's hand... she was extending the red bracelet with the legend 'Brigade Leader.' "...since I consider myself an active member of the SOS Brigade, therefore, you are my leader and because of that, my loyalty is with you."
Incredible... when I realized it, the horrible polar gale that was tormenting us was gone, although the cold kept being intense. Moments later, a light and agreeable snow fall began. Haruhi seemed particularly moved by the words that came out of those lips always so closed. She stood up and took the bracelet. After reflexing some seconds, she adequately put my jacket on and attached the bracelet to the left sleeve. With a smugly attitude she put her hands on her waist and took a deep breath to say:
"Fine... everybody will be penalized for hiding information from your commander. It will take me some time to design an appropriate punishment, but it won't be today... today we will go back to the club room and you will tell me everything I need to know, if someone has an objection, complaint or suggestion around this plan, I will receive your ideas in writing after the assembly." I could see that smile with a luminosity comparable to the one of various clusters of starts adorning her face and I felt more relaxed. This girl is so simple that she's further away than any dumb resentment... I also know that she profoundly appreciates us all and in a so uninterested way that her anger couldn't last long, but I would've liked... what did Koizumi say...? Ah, yes, darken her heart. She walked in front of everybody with the right hand raised high. "So everybody to school! There's work to do!"
Back at school, we set ourselves for the assembly... I think this is the first serious meeting since the brigade was founded more than two years ago. Koizumi set himself on the side of the coat track on the center table, he sat down like the host of a talk show. Asahina was in front of him next to Nagato. Haruhi, of course, occupied her commander chair and I took one of the folding chairs and I sat down some steps behind her with the chair set backwards, in a way that my arms could rest on the backrest.
"And well...? Haruhi began. "...who wants to start?"
"I suppose that the vice commander should start setting the example." Koizumi theatrically responded.
Koizumi spoke about his condition as an esper and of the Agency with a looseness similar as if he had been practicing the speech for years.
"...Like that, almost five years ago, all the members of the Agency got these strange powers, but we could only manifest around determined factors..." With this and all the story that I knew since almost two years ago.
"You mean with that in my moments of depression or melancholy these closed spaces and the celestials are created... As if the Id created them?" Haruhi asked at some point during the conversation.
"That's right. Your common sense or Ego kept you at the margin of knowing it, and we acted like your Superego, fixing the flaws that the celestials caused and avoiding that those propagated into reality..." Perhaps the most amazing part of this talk was how suddenly they arrived at the Freudian theoretical postulate of the psychic apparatus, and of course, the level of understanding that Haruhi had about it. I stopped following when they evolved into Lacanian matters.
"The year from which I come from will be for now classified information, but it's far, into the future..." Asahina narrated a little after. "Currently, we continue to study the cause of this space-temporal cataclysm that stops people from my era to continue with their investigations on previous stages to the actual period... actual to you all, of course..."
"Then..." Haruhi eventually interrupted, more than to ask, to confirm her own theories. "...what you're saying is that travel in time is constantly facing the paradox of the Heraclito river?"
"Basically yes, although in our era it continues to be a subject of discussion, because we equally must follow the parameters of the determinism and apply it as a fundamental rule to the execution of the intervention in events from the past..."
"And why does it look like you base your time travel more in philosophical terms than in scientific terms?" Haruhi lashed out with her usual acuity.
"Classified information…"
It was expected, no? But... how is Haruhi dominating with such looseness these subjects...? Do they really teach that in high school...? I must be spending more time sleeping than I thought...
"The Entity responsible of the Data Integration is an entity that has no tools to communicate with the organic life forms in a direct way, in fact, it has relatively a short period of time that it developed the capacity to create an understandable language for both forms of evolution and from that point, to begin to create interfaces like me." The group's alien trumpeted a little after.
"By a short period of time I imagine you mean the birth of the human reason..." Haruhi inquired.
"You imagine well. Only, and only until humanity reached an enough level of intelligence that allowed the storage and creation of data, the EID was capable of developing a linguistic system that allowed us to directly interact with the organisms auto nominated Homo Sapiens. It was discovered then that this species, located in particular on this planet, had cyclic explosions of data of different magnitudes and with different effects on reality approximately every two millenniums."
"Two millenniums ago something similar happened then?"
"That's classified."
"Tell me, Yuki... the entity where you come from, does it occupy a particular planet? Is it omniscient? Is it the only one in the universe with those characteristics? If I want to try, can I see it?"
"No, yes, no, it's unknown the true reach of your capabilities, although there exists a high probability."
The talk turned around that and other subjects, some getting more complicated (at least to me), and when I looked at my phone I noticed that it was almost two in the morning.
"And you..." Haruhi said, turning in her chair until being in front of me. "...how do you fit into all of this?"
"I wish I knew." I responded. "I registered to North High School willing to give up my fantasies about extraordinary things and you showed up with that strange introduction... a good day I made the dumb decision to begin to talk to you and then I was sitting here, being questioned about how I fit into all this craziness about aliens, espers, time travelers and sliders..."
Haruhi scrutinized me with those amber eyes for some seconds while she played with her hair. She then faced the rest of the concurrence again.
"Let's take a recess of fifteen minutes and then let's take the conversation from here... I suppose that there's something more serious on the table, I don't believe that you've revealed yourselves just because you appreciate me..." She ordered making it clear, even after only being made aware today, that she was a step ahead of us... it would be good for everyone to take a break, especially for Haruhi... the next thing we must inform to her won't be so pleasurable.
I walked almost by inertia outside of the old building and I searched for asylum under the tree where Haruhi decided we should make a band for the last cultural festival... it's a relief that the idea hadn't particularized. I only come with my uniform on, my crazy brigade leader still has my jacket... although it's okay, the truth is that the cold helps me think with more clarity. Now that I think about it, I really think that Haruhi is taking very well what's happening... Nagato and Asahina had told me before that Haruhi was able to perceive the strange things, but couldn't become aware on her own... it seems amazing to me the way in which she's assimilating everything... I think that in the time that we've all known each other, we've grown and evolved a lot.
"Aren't you cold?" Haruhi asked some steps away from me.
"No much, really." Lie... Even my spine hurts due to the freaking cold.
"Incredible things have happened since we started high school, haven't they?"
"You can't even imagine... I guarantee you that I will tell you all about them as soon as we have some time."
"Mikuru is getting some tea ready."
Haruhi stayed in silence some moments after saying that.
"I still don't understand very well how I fit into this whole situation." I commented. "However... there's something I think it's appropriate for you to know from me." I stood up and I looked directly into her eyes. I had made the deal of not hiding anything from her. I'd be faithful to that deal. "I... I am..."
"John Smith." She completed, with a relaxed expression on her face... smiling.
"How do you...?"
"I didn't know it..." She said lowering her gaze, suddenly enraptured. "From that first time I talked to you... your face... the timbre of your voice and that ridiculous attitude of yours... I didn't know that you were the John Smith I met almost five years ago, in Tanabata... only... only I wished that it was so... I wished it was you..."
Do the powers of this girl know any limits...?
"Haruhi…"
"Let's go, the tea must be ready!" She said recovering her enthusiasm.
She took my hand and began to drag me to the club room again.
Tears were almost ripped from my eyes in gratitude to the glorious tea of Asahina. In a few moments I had recovered all my aplomb and my body had recovered from the infernal cold I suffered some minutes before. After a brief instant of relaxation, the moment of truth arrived... to tell Haruhi about the SOS-Ni Brigade and what their arrival to our plane meant.
Koizumi and Nagato were on charge of the spoken explanation, Asahina and I were on charge of the experiential one. As we revealed the information and narrated what had happened in the last weeks, the face of Haruhi was becoming more serious. It looks it was easier for her than for me to understand the true dimension of the problem we were facing.
"Where are they now?" Haruhi asked once the summary ended.
"We ignore it." Koizumi responded. "Apparently, they have similar problems to locate us, they know only the necessary... even so, we are at a disadvantage."
"They're obviously dangerous to us... Are the dangerous to our families, loved ones or school classmates?" She asked, once again just to confirm her theory.
"The risk is undetermined, but the simulations throw critical levels of probability." Nagato said.
Haruhi stood up from her chair and looked through the window, reflexive... it took her a considerable amount of time on whatever she was thinking. At some point, I got to imagine that smoke would come out of her head.
"Well, I've made a plan... I hope to count with everybody's cooperation... it will be difficult to execute... in many aspects... but if we work together, we will make it work... I know we will..." She faced us all with that smile of a million watts. "Get close together, the plan is as follows..."
We all got closer to her and she began to give us the details...
"Just what I would've expected from Suzumiya." Koizumi said once all the information had been shared with us.
"We will do it...!" Asahina affirmed, full of determination.
"The probability of success if superior than if a plan wasn't established." Nagato added.
"That's craziness..." Yes, that was me... "But it could work..."
"It's decided then!" Our commander exclaimed, radiating. "A malign association of usurpers has come from another dimension to attempt against the SOS Brigade! We will give them a fight and we will defeat them! This is the first! This is the first grand adventure of the SOS Brigade!" It surprises me the kind of heart this girl has... we are standing at the edge of the precipice, about to lose it all, and to her, it's an adventure... I feel very envious of her so unique way of looking at life, and at the same I'm thankful it's that way. "Koizumi, when you talked about your Agency's resources, how much reach were we talking about?"
"I couldn't exactly say... What's in your mind?" Haruhi made a pair of petitions that seemed a little strange to me. "That's no problem, I'll have both things before dawn."
"Yuki... how far does your data manipulation reach? Particularly when it comes to matters of the memory." She then spouted at the alien.
"It's competent."
"Perfect! Mikuru! Are you armed in some way?" She then asked passing the baton to the time traveler.
"N-no…"
"Can you obtain arms and authorization to use them?"
"I co... could try to obtain permissions..."
"You will do it tomorrow then... for today the session is over, although I don't want you to go home... so we will all have to sleep here and early tomorrow we will execute the plan."
Some minutes later, we set everything according to Haruhi's designs, Asahina shared the sleeping bag with Nagato, Koizumi set his head on the big long table at the center of the room and I kept the spot I had used the whole reunion, close to the window. Haruhi also stayed in the brigade leader's office hair. The lights were turned off and little by little, the initial silence became a little orchestra of weak snores and synchronized breathings. I couldn't sleep...
"Kyon... are you awake?" Haruhi asked a little after, in a whisper barely audible.
"A little..." I responded with the same tone in my voice.
Barely making any noise, she turned her chair and started to push it with her feet, getting close to me.
"Did you know what Koizumi said about the creation of close spaces?" She asked me as close to me as she could and being careful to say it as low as possible.
"Yes…"
"You know... some time ago... strange dreams... about you..." By this point, my heart was beating with a lot of strength. "...And I was wondering... those dreams...?" I curiously noticed that the snores and the synchronized breathings had also stopped... Nosey guys! This is a talk between Haruhi and I!
"They weren't dreams..." I said feeling as if my face burned in shame.
"Oh...!" Haruhi had put both hands over her mouth and had opened her eyes as much as she could... A very uncomfortable silence was formed then... Neither one of us dared looked at the other. "Hm... eh... well... you are good..." She said making me feel even more embarrassed if that was possible.
"Eh... thank you... you too..." I responded barely being able to modulate the tone of my voice.
And after some instants, the uncomfortable silence became hilarious... and then we both laughed like silly people at the discovery. And when our gazes caught each other's again, I felt the impulse to kiss her... she was very close to me and I didn't feel heavy hearted anymore from lying to her. It seems she thought the same thing, so we simply did it. It's the first time in my life that I have an authentic kissing session... because the closed spaces don't count... this is different, it's real... and it's enormously comforting. We were on this channel for some minutes, but the fatigue was greater, it had been a very long day.
"Good night." Haruhi said, getting away towards the desk.
"Good night." I responded supporting my head over my arms, getting ready to sleep.
And I should take advantage of the little hours of sleep that will be left today... I suspect that they will be my last calmed nights in some time.
Chapter 6.
End.
Author Notes: It's been crazy and busy days for me, but since is not me who really are working on this project, I think I owe at least a little of time to publish due all the work that luf5 is doing. One of my targets writing this whole story was to humanize the characters, I know they were already very human, but I still could feel them away from me… well, now I'm just babbling, so ignore it. Until next update!
Translator Notes: Was this chapter very long or was it just my imagination? Haha. This is one of my favorite chapters, so many things happen here. Haruhi finally finds out the truth, including John's Smith true identity, and I don't know about you all but I think Pepsipez did an outstanding job handling all the characters' interactions. Which part was your favorite? I honestly can't decide between Yuki's words to Haruhi or Kyon and Haruhi's exchanges. Those are always amazing. I'm sure you are all wondering what Haruhi's plan consists of and you'll soon find out. Just let me tell you, the next chapters will have a lot of good old action. Hope you're ready!
