Chapter 1
Walking alone through the expansive halls of Kyoani Academy, I'd never felt more out of place. Genuinely valid questions struck like arrows in the back of my mind. What am I doing here? Why did I agree to all of this? Am I really that stupid?
The answers weren't very reassuring, I assure you.
But having come this far already, it was too late to turn back. For the next few years these halls would be my new home. That new building smell and the polished marble floors, the windows so fresh they'd yet to be covered in cobwebs. It was like walking into a newly built house, something I'd never actually done before, although Nagato's apartment sort of had the same feeling since she never really moved in despite living there for five years. The walls were yet to be vandalised by a hundred hastily printed, dog-eared notices and would have been totally bare were it not for the simple signs pointing out where the offices, dorms, cafeteria and such were. Following the arrows I headed towards the dorms to drop off my bags and relieve at least a fraction of that great weight off my shoulders.
The campus was fairly simple in its layout. A large central hub sat square in the centre of two outer rings of classrooms and beyond those a further set of dormitories lay towards the back. Viewed from the sky it probably looked something like a rigid concrete target sitting out of place in the middle of the forest. I sincerely hoped no invading aliens ever took notice of that fact.
While thinking such stupid things I rounded a corner somewhere near the cafeteria and found myself standing eye to eye with that same terrifying glare from the train earlier. Instinct took over and I dropped to the floor like a bird shot out of the sky, landing without a hint of grace, spread eagled on my back and hurling my luggage into the wall where it promptly exploded and spilled out across the floor.
A pitiful whimper escaped me as the villainous character took a step forward and extended a hand, most likely to give me the touch of death or something sinister. In a fight or flight reaction I slapped his hand away and bared my fangs, resigning myself to a grisly fight to the bitter end!
That was all until I looked up and met his eyes again. Adrenaline leaked out like water from a burst tap and my bones turned to liquid. Unable to fight back I closed my eyes and curled up into a defensive ball.
"Kyon?! What's wrong?!"
Haruhi's voice boomed out from the cafeteria and her thunderous running footsteps grew deafening as she bore down upon me and my assailant.
"Hey! What did you do to him?!"
"Nothing! I swear! We just bumped into each other and...and...He started doing that..."
"Whoa! I'd remember a mug like that for as long as I live! You're that guy from before!"
"What?"
"We saw you on the train! You were searching for victims with your hunter's gaze."
"Huh?!"
"So you targeted my buddy Kyon eh? Targeting the weak and feeble is a cowardly thing. You wanna throw down so badly, how about taking me on huh?"
"Wait! You've got it all wrong! I never touched your boyfriend! I swear!"
Haruhi screamed. It was a violent sound. Full of rage and hate. A rattling gurgling mess of bestial fury overladen with a touch of madness. Such was a sound that never and I really mean never should be uttered by a young woman. And yet Haruhi's roar ripped through the halls like a knife, banging off the bare walls to echo on into the distance.
"How dare you! I'll never forgive you!" she screeched.
That's it Haruhi! Save me-
"He is not my boyfriend! Like I'd settle for that!"
…
Ow...
And suddenly the situation started to simmer down. Tentatively, I unfurled from my protective ball and glanced up at the two combatants. Haruhi was standing firm by my side, legs spread and braced to pounce. The other guy looked like he wanted nothing more than to run for the hills, or so his stance would suggest, but his eyes were baying for blood. Was it a feint?
"You bastard...First you prey upon my minion and then you dare to insult the likes of me?! You're going down!" roared Haruhi. With a cry straight out of an action movie she made her move, charging across the hall with blinding speed.
"Minorin Missile!"
With a crack of lightning a burst of red splashed across the field of battle and suddenly Haruhi was lying on the ground staring up at the ceiling in blank disbelief. A figure with striking red hair slowly rose from their crouch and took up a crane stance.
A crowd had now gathered and the combined weight of so many stares begun to press down upon me. I turned to my original assailant whose shoulders suddenly sagged. Raising his hands in surrender he said, quite softly, "I can explain..."
"Boy do I feel stupid..."
"Don't worry about it."
"No, really. That was my fault back there. I behaved like a...Well...You know..."
"I told you, its fine. Let's just forget it ever happened and start again from scratch."
Despite my best efforts to repay my foolishness earlier he seemed more than eager to just repress the memories and sweep the entire incident under the rug. After several minutes of haggling I managed strike a deal. It wasn't much, but I bought him a drink.
We were sitting across from one another in our room. As unbelievable as it sounds, we were assigned as roommates. Fortunately it turned out he wasn't a murderous thug like I had first assumed.
Ryuuji (he even has a delinquent name...) simply looks like a murderous thug. In actual fact the guy is just your run-of-the-mill adolescent if you overlook that terrifying glare. After the 'incident' had died down Ryuuji spent five full minutes professing his innocence. His eyes were apparently a throwback from his father who was the genuine article. Though the violent streak somehow skipped a generation, that stare that could cut through solid steel remained. Poor guy. If I was born with those looks I'd probably cave in and hit someone simply to meet everyone's expectations.
Back in the dorm room we sat facing each other in the midst of an awkward silence. The entire building was unnaturally quiet and so the lack of conversation was only made more poignant by the complete and utter lack of noise save the audible gulping as we drank.
"So...Who was that girl with you earlier?" I asked unable to look past what had happened earlier.
His eyes flashed for a moment as he averted his gaze and studied the back of the door. "Her name is Kushieda Minori. We were...Friends back in high school."
Okay that was weird...
"So you aren't friends anymore?"
He didn't answer. He just looked down into his iced coffee with a frown. Taking that as a hint to move on I desperately fumbled around for another topic, but before I could, Ryuuji cut me off with a quiet sigh.
"It's complicated..."
"Ah...I see..."
I didn't.
"Your friend seemed a lot like her to be honest. I'm sure they'll get along well."
"Oh don't get me started on Haruhi," I laughed, "she's as strange as they come!"
Ryuuji's smile returned, if only a little. "I don't know, Minori's in a league of her own. She might be too much for your friend to handle."
Nope. The stranger they are the more Haruhi will latch onto them. She'd better watch out. She might end up joining our silly little club before long.
"You were in a club?" Ryuuji blinked, looking me up and down, no doubt trying to pinpoint what club a generally non-athletic nor academic person such as myself might belong to. I'm not surprised he came up empty with a perplexed look. "What club was it? No offence, but you look like you'd have been in the go home club."
I smirked at that. "You're not far off. We didn't do much. In fact it's more appropriate to say we didn't do anything. We just...gathered in the club room. That's pretty much it."
He looked confused and I didn't blame him. I was confused myself even after three years of membership in the SOS Brigade. I considered explaining Haruhi's true goal but decided against it. It would only make it harder for him to understand.
"So where are you from?" he asked, settling back against the pillow he'd propped up against the wall.
"Nowhere special. North High. You?"
Ryuuji stared back at me with a blank look. Well actually it was a glare, but after talking with him for a while I'd started to learn how to interpret his vast spectrum of death stares.
"I think I've heard of that school before...Didn't something really weird happen there a few years ago?"
You're gonna have to be a little more specific.
"Huh?"
Never mind...
"I'm from Ohashi High by the way."
"Oh, really?"
I'd never heard of it.
And thus the conversation lapsed into a vacuum and we each stared blankly at the walls beside each other's heads. Despite clearing up the worst of that debacle earlier it was still difficult to meet eye to eye just yet. Honestly I felt stupid for acting the way I did. Sure he looks angry, but honestly the kind of clichéd delinquent that I had in mind wouldn't even be allowed to go to university anyway, it's not like they have the grades, let alone the desire to keep studying. If nothing else that little nugget of common sense should have blown a hole in my panic-stricken assumptions.
Seriously, it's wrong to judge people simply for the way they look.
'BAM!'
And just like that a boy staggered into our room, eyes ablaze, hands clenching the door frame to the point of breaking. Looking like he'd been on the run from a crime scene he glanced from Ryuuji to me and smiled a disconcerting and broken smile. His breathing was ragged and sweat plastered his oddly discoloured hair to a pale face. With a rabid, throaty chuckle he limped into the room and slammed the door behind him. Ryuuji and I both cowered in opposite corners of the room as he set his sights on us.
The criminal ran a hand through his greasy hair which ran the gamut from sandy blonde through to muddy brown and snarled. With a glare dripping with malice he smiled at me and with a blood curdling growl uttered, "Yoroshiku!"
It took a moment to recognise that the screaming I heard then was in fact my own.
