Connection: 6

There's one sure thing I'll never get tired of. It's something that I go through almost every day but no matter how many times, I can't get enough of that feeling. I'm talking about the end of school of course. The sound of the last bell, yes, it never gets old. At least that never changed in this Reality.

As I packed my bag I couldn't forget that there was another person that was going to be following me to the clubroom today. That person was right behind me packing her own bag getting ready to go.

I was looking forward to hearing what had happened between Nagato and Haruhi that made this all possible. I also considered the possibility that Nagato might be somewhat upset at me for lending her precious manga book to a person she didn't know causing a misdelivery of a message that was originally meant for me. Resulting in a misunderstanding where the person, in this case Haruhi, followed what the message had said and went to the park where she met Nagato. Both girls were waiting for the same guy who was never going to come. It might be safe to say that Haruhi didn't have much against me for standing her up unintentionally at the park, but I can't say the same for Nagato.

"Oh!" I heard someone cry as I bumped into them around a corner as we were close to the clubroom. It was Asakura Ryoko.

"What a surprise running into you here." I said.

"Really?" Asakura smiled, I noticed she was hiding something clutched in her hand behind her back. I caught a glimpse of something shiny as she slipped it into her pocket. "Enjoy yourself!"

"Bye." I waved as Asakura sped down the hall.

"W-what was that?" Haruhi asked.

"I do not know." I shrugged.

I entered the clubroom finding everything the way it was left when we left it yesterday. The tea cups were untouched, the books were organized, not a speck of dust disturbed. Nagato was where she always was, the seat by the window. The only thing different was that Nagato was not wearing her glasses today. Could this be the change in behavior Koizumi was talking about? If not, what was the point of it all? This can't be just a regular change in appearance.

"Good afternoon." Haruhi greeted as she followed me in.

Nagato simply nodded, not even bothering to look up from her book.

Haruhi proceeded to look through Nagato's collection of manga in interest while I took one in a moment's consideration and sat down, looking for a chance to talk about what happened yesterday.

Since I first met Nagato in the old world, it was as if she used her reading as cover to observe her surroundings. However, do not believe the Nagato in this world was of any kind of alien origin. Her reading was not a mere cover but is a genuine passion… for manga. And I doubt she's doing any observing at all or else she'd have to look up every ten seconds.

Instead of her observing me, this time it was me observing her. Although I can't say I was doing the best job. I found it strange that while Haruhi noticed almost immediately after I started, Nagato didn't notice me watching her from behind my book, despite the fact that it was overwhelmingly obvious. Was her book really that interesting? I don't think it has anything to do with her book. Her eyes were motionless and unfocused. It didn't make the sweeping motions across the page as she scanned the lines of words as any person reading would do. I believe this is something to add to the list of strange behaviors I should be aware of. Just to make sure she wasn't sleeping with her eyes open I decided to bring up some conversation.

"Sorry about last night." I said to Nagato. "I didn't know there was a note in the book."

"Don't apologize." Nagato said as she usually did. "I understand what you were trying to do and I don't find it to be any sort of ill intention. Are you happy that Haruhi joined the club?"

I glanced at Haruhi who was avoiding eye contact by pretending to be interested in her book.

"Of course I am." I replied.

Haruhi ended up sinking deeper into her book to the point where it was too close to read, covering her face.

"If it is fine with you, than I am likewise." Nagato said. "It wouldn't have mattered if nobody came at all. It would have been like any other day. It was a nice surprise meeting Haruhi instead."

Of course, if there's one thing that hasn't changed about Nagato is her unconcern for these kinds of things.

"Speaking of which," I began. "I was surprised to hear that you got Haruhi to join. So how did it happen?"

"I saw Haruhi with my book and when I asked her where she had gotten it she told me that you gave it to her." Nagato said. "I invited her to read with me anyway and we did, we talked about you, mostly."

"Oh really?" I smirked. "She did say she had fun."

At this point Haruhi had covered her head with the book with her face on the table.

"Thank you for joining Haruhi." Nagato said. "If you need anything, just ask me… and I'll ask Kyon to do it.

Haruhi made a small noise from under her book in reply. The great thing about Nagato in this world is that she tells jokes. She better not be serious…

It was just when I felt that it was time to leave, Haruhi was the first one to stand up. She returned her book to the book case and lifted up her heavy bag of books.

"I'll be going now." She said. "Are you really coming Kyon?"

"Sure, I'll be right out." I said.

Haruhi went out into the hallway as I was returning my own books to the book case, having trouble remembering where everything was. I grabbed my bag and was just about ready to leave.

"Kyon." Nagato said closing her book. "Are you going somewhere?"

"Yeah, I promised to go help Haruhi return her books to the library." I replied.

After a moment of thought Nagato asked. "May I come too?"

"I don't see why not." I said remembering how the old Nagato enjoyed her trips to the library. It was the least I could do for leaving her hanging last night. Sure it worked out alright, but it was still my blunder. I was heading for the door expecting Nagato to follow; instead she remained in her seat with her hand extended out in front of her.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Take my hand." She said.

"Your hand?" I asked. "What for?"

"Just do it." She replied.

I approached her and hesitantly placed my fingers on top of her small ones. She grabbed my hand and pulled herself up. I thought my work was done and I would be allowed to separate from her, but that wasn't the case. She continued to grasp my hand, appearing to have no intention of letting go anytime soon. I tried to slip out, but the strength of fingers that turn a million pages a day were not to be taken lightly.

"To the door." Nagato said handing me the key with her other arm. "Lock up the clubroom."

I did as she told me to do, not being in a position to do anything else. I locked the clubroom in her stead and both of us continued down the hall. Haruhi who was waiting at the stairs looked confused we walked together with held hands.

"Nagato wants to come along too." I chuckled nervously just before Haruhi swiftly turned and went down the stairs without us. I didn't realize how slow we were progressing until we reached the stairs. Nagato went one stair at a time, with one hand gripping the rail and the other, my hand.

"Can we go a little faster Nagato?" I asked. "Haruhi's went ahead."

Nagato didn't reply, but continued on steadily with that absent minded look in her eyes, the very same she had stared at her book with the whole time in the clubroom. When we finally reached the bottom Haruhi saw us catching up and continued on ahead in front of us, her long waist black hair trailing behind her. A guy can't help it if he feels the need to make haste at this point. We were going faster on ground than we were on the stairs; but it was going to be a while before we'll be able to catch up to Haruhi.

This continued on for quite a while. Haruhi continued to march on ahead forward on her own, not even sparing an occasional glance to check if we were still following her. None of us spoke to each other. It was a silent journey to the library, a mood that I most likely will never be comfortable with. I began to realize that Nagato needed an unusual amount of help for the simple task of walking. She was tripping or stumbling every once in a while, sometimes trying to continue straight forward on her own when the time came to make a turn.

"Are you feeling alright?" I asked. "This is kind of weird for me."

"I'm doing just fine, great in fact." Nagato said. "Continue."

So there wasn't anything wrong with her. Well clearly something wasn't right.

When Haruhi entered a building I could only guess that the building she had went into was our destination, the library. Moments later, Nagato and I also reached the library. Inside it was very similar to the one the old Nagato and I had gone to in the old world. We stood at the entrance for a second or two. Seeing that Nagato had no particular requests to where to go at the time, I decided to choose for myself and head over the sofas where I always hang around when I'm at the library. I took a seat on the soft cushions, Nagato followed of course; after all we were still connected this whole time.

I scanned the library, looking for Haruhi. By now she's already returned the books on her own. I was being too neglective wasn't I?

"Hey Nagato, can you wait here while I get a book?" I asked. "I can get you one too if you want."

Nagato nodded after a moment of consideration, finally releasing my arm.

"Be sure to be back." Nagato said.

"Of course I will." I replied stretching my freed arm.

Since I couldn't find Haruhi by simply looking around, I could only guess that she was concealed within the columns of book cases. It didn't take long, after about a minute of searching I found Haruhi looking through the books, taking out and returning them one at a time. Her attention wasn't even on what book she had in her hand, rather there was something more pressing on her mind. Despite how distracted she appeared to be, she was alert enough to sense me approaching her, looking right at me then swiftly walking off somewhere else, clearly trying to avoid me.

This trip to the library wasn't going to be as much worth as I had thought it was going to be. How was I supposed to make connections if Haruhi wasn't going to even talk to me? I had been lucky before, but it looks like I won't be this time. Feeling a little disappointed I decided to return to the sofas, grabbing any old book that was in the book case closest to me to bring back to Nagato.

She was sitting exactly where she was when I left. I sat down and handed her a manual for airplane maintenance I randomly picked out, which she then tossed to her side without even looking at the cover. Something tells me that she wasn't interested in reading at all if not having any concern for airplane maintenance. She found my arm far more interesting, once again locking her's around mine returning to the position we had been when we first took a seat on the sofas. Luckily I wasn't actually bothered by it anymore, however strange I might have found it to be at first. If there was anything negative about it is that this clingy behavior was far from anything that might have given me an intuition that any trace of the old Nagato was to be found in the new. Ironically, never would I have thought that 'too strange' was going to lead me to a completely opposite conclusion. Perhaps this was just a stage?

I saw Haruhi looking in our direction from the bookcases. There's still some time left. I might be able to make at least a few small connections worth this trip if I can just get a simple conversation going with Haruhi, if not be next to her when she reads.

I made a small waving gesture and invited her to join us. To my relief she started over in our direction. I couldn't tell if she was still annoyed at me or not. She had the book in both hands up to her chin covering the bottom part of her face. Her eyes were covered by her bangs as they always were. She took a seat next to me.

I'm not kidding. She was next to me

There was a sudden loss of presence in the area the moment Haruhi sat down. There was nobody else besides us three. Before I could grasp the situation, I felt my other arm being locked down by Haruhi. I lost ability to speak; honestly speaking I was too confused to do so. Both girls had me chained giving me the feeling that I was a prisoner in some medieval dungeon. The books that the two were supposed to be reading lay forgotten at their respective sides. As I sat rigid on the sofa intended for my comfort, I felt blood going to my head, beginning to feel uncomfortably warm, especially on Haruhi's side. I began to lose track of time, how long were they going to keep this up?

"Excuse me." Called a voice I assumed belonged to the librarian. "I'm sorry, but I must ask you to leave."

"You're not the only one bothered by this you know." I called back.

"I didn't mean that." The voice replied. "It's time to close. Don't worry about the books. I'll take care of them."

I looked from Haruhi to Nagato to check if they were aware that we were supposed to leave. Nothing was going to made them budge so I decided to try and take the lead. I wasn't expecting to get an inch off the sofa at all given that fact that the two prevented me from making any kind of movement while they had my arms. I guess they also heard the voice telling us to leave because they followed me up this time. Walking was no more comfortable with Nagato than with Haruhi on the other side.

I looked around the empty library finding it eerie that there was no librarian at the counter and that we seemed to be the only three in the library.

"Have a good evening." The voice said now coming from the inner regions of the library. It was as if the voice was coming from within the library itself.

Luckily the front entrance had double doors, had it been smaller it would have been difficult for the three of us to fit through.

"Good luck." Said the voice from behind. I turned around just in time to see all the lights in the library go off, the doors shut, and lock with a click. Just what was that supposed to mean?...

"So…" I said. "Whose house are we going to stay at?"

If there was one thing that was clear to me was the fact that this couldn't go on forever. If they wanted to go home, they were going to have to let go. I waited a full minute until Haruhi finally let go.

"You two just have a good night." Haruhi said before she quickly walked away disappearing into the evening darkness. I looked at Nagato who was staring off ahead at who knows what.

"You're not following me to my house." I said frowning slightly.

"Do you remember where my apartment complex is?" She asked.

"I thought so…" I sighed and began in the direction of the park. I'd have the best chances of finding Nagato's apartment complex through it. The layout of the reality made it hard to find a solid direction to go in. My navigation was no good in this reality it seems. Since Nagato wasn't helping me with the directions for some reason, most of the turns I made on the way were just instinctive guess work. I myself would have thought that I had done a bad job doing so, but soon I was able to see the lights from the windows of the top half of Nagato's apartment complex in given time. I guess some of the knowledge from the old world helped.

I noticed Nagato's grip loosen as she began to rest her head on my arm. This was a chance for me to get her to walk on her own. Taking this chance I took a particularly large stride ahead and sure enough I slipped from Nagato's grip. Nagato walked on her own for a few steps before falling forward. Good thing I caught her in time before her face met the ground.

"Goodness." I said feeling a little shaken. "Are you feeling alright? Cause I think you need a whole other kind of help that isn't my arm."

"Don't worry." Nagato assured adjusting herself back to my arm, backwards. "I'm doing fine, great in fact."

"This way." I sighed spinning her around. Her words of reassurance didn't reach me.

There was something I noticed about Nagato that I really hadn't before. I remember her tripping and stumbling as we walked to the library. I had just thought she was a too tired, had skipped too many meals reading, or suffering from anemia, that was excusable. I didn't start to get worried until Nagato almost ran into obvious obstacles on the side walk that any person would have most certainly made some kind of effort to avoid. I had to pull her out of the way from oncoming utility poles and light posts to piles of garbage bags she would have stepped into without me pulling her strings to dodge them.

We finally arrived in front of her apartment complex. There was no reaction from Nagato at the fact that we had reached our destination.

"Are we there yet?" she asked.

"Yeah." I replied a little concerned.

"There you are!" I heard a voice ahead of us. The automatic doors of the apartment complex opened up and Asakura Ryoko walked outside, and approached us.

At the sound of Asakura's voice Nagato pushed me away and began to waddle in her general direction with her arms stretched out in front of her. For a moment I felt like a father watching his daughter's first steps as she unstably covered the short distance to her mother.

It was only inevitable that Nagato began to head in a completely different direction. Asakura had to step in and took her hand.

"There we go." Asakura giggled going through her pockets and pulling out something shiny and metallic, and fitted it over Nagato's eyes. I'm talking about her glasses of course. That was the last thing I saw before I covered my face with my hand. Asakura reveled in my reaction.

"Why?" I asked. "What was the point?"

"I wanted to see if I could trust Nagato with you." Asakura replied. "Looks like she came back in one piece, you did a fantastic job."

"That was it huh?" I asked wondering how many connections with Haruhi I could have made if not for Asakura's little game. In exchange I seemed to have earned the trust of Asakura. Does that count as a connection? What was its value? Does it compare?

"Let's get inside Nagato." Asakura said. "You can tell me more about it over dinner."

Asakura headed towards the entrance but Nagato did not follow her. See looked back and smiled, not seeming to mind, continuing inside, and leaving the two of us. Nagato walked to me, steadily and coordinated with her glasses returned to her.

"What am I going to tell Haruhi?" I sighed.

"You did not enjoy the time we spent together today?" Nagato asked looking to be a little gloomy. "I was told by Asakura that you would like it."

"It's not that." I replied wondering why Nagato was staring so deeply into my eyes. I then realized she was reading my face which said it all. All this time she wasn't able to tell without her glasses.

"You expression tells me otherwise." Nagato said with her head down. "I'm sorry if I was an inconvenience."

"Look," I said. "I'm not angry. Don't worry about it."

Nagato didn't reply.

"Did you have fun?" I asked.

She nodded. I couldn't help chuckling. Even in this situation Nagato never beats around the bush does she? After hearing me laugh Nagato seemed to let up a little.

"Do you trust me?" I asked.

"Of course." Nagato replied.

"Asakura does." I said. "After today, you probably do too."

"Today had nothing to do with it." Nagato said.

Neither of us said anything. I really felt stupid for asking. Did it really matter whether I confirm Nagato's trust or not? Was confirming it a connection made or was it already a connection existing from the moment we met? There could be no connection at all.

"Haruhi, what do we do?" Nagato asked.

"I'll have to explain." I replied. "Just let me handle this, hurry up and eat dinner. Get a good night's rest and see each other tomorrow, alright?"

Nagato nodded once again, this time with more energy. She walked through the entrance. Asakura was waiting for her inside the lobby. She had expertly left the scene to grant us some time alone. Nagato waved goodbye as Asakura gave me two thumbs before they disappeared around the corner of the hallway.