Chapter Seven
The two of us didn't wake until much later when the sound of the doorbell jarred us from our sleep. Yuki-chan gasped and struggled quickly to clean up a bit, throw her clothes back on and get to the phone, whereas I took longer to wake from my torpor, clean myself off, as I was by far the messier one, and get adequately dressed for company.
"R-Ryoko?" I heard Yuki whisper from the other room, and I began to panic. Surely, she would note that something was wrong, and murder me, now, that I had slept with Yuki-chan. Granted, it had been completely consensual, but I still didn't trust that girl to be rational. After a few moments of protracted but weak argument from Yuki-chan, she ran over to the door and allowed Asakura in. My insides froze, and I stood stock still. Nonetheless, Asakura looked over at me and smiled.
"I had heard that there was a problem at the library, and that a young man was arrested for assaulting a young woman with glasses… Knowing your luck, Kyon, I assumed the worst…"
"Bite me…" I said, slouching slightly. Asakura looked at me, slightly surprised at my hostility. But I really didn't want to discuss what happened.
"Hm… It smells strange in here… How unusual, you usually keep this place spotless, Yuki-chan…"
"Y-yeah, well… I-I guess…"
"But this smell seems familiar." Asakura continued, interrupting Yuki and sniffing around the apartment like a bloodhound. Finally, she made her way towards the one place I would have never wanted her to go… The bedroom. She slid the door open, and her smile faded.
"You scoundrel…!" Asakura said, glaring at me. "How could you even think of doing that to Yuki-chan?"
"N-no, wait! I swear…" I began. I was sure Asakura didn't want to hear it, though. She advanced slowly towards me, but I was so paralyzed with fear that I couldn't move fast enough, and before I knew it, her hands were around my throat.
"How dare you defile Yuki-chan like that?" She whispered, her eyes half closed, glazed like she was in a trance. I gasped in pain as her fingers contracted, closing on my windpipe. I barely heard Yuki screaming at Asakura to stop. My arms moved shakily to try to break Asakura's grip, but her arms and her wrists were too strong, and they held fast, despite my own and Yuki-chan's best efforts. I continued to try anyway, but my hands and arms were starting to tingle and go numb, and shortly, they simply fell to either side, completely useless.
"I will protect you from anyone who tries to harm you…" Asakura said to Yuki, smiling once more, despite the look of horror on Yuki's face. I get the feeling that I would have died that night had the doorbell not rung once more. Asakura let go of my neck and I fell to the floor, gasping for breath, my chest heaving in and out, my hand massaging my sore throat, now. Yuki scampered to the door, and looked through the peephole to see a man in a hat with a large basket of flowers.
"Personal delivery for a Miss Yuki Nagato!" He shouted. Yuki opened the door, looking out at the man. He didn't seem dangerous. He merely handed her the flowers and tipped his hat. Yuki reached down into her pocket and pulled out some money to tip the man, and he thanked her and left.
"Well, Yuki-chan? Who is it from?" Asakura asked as Yuki shut the door, and looked at the letter, and gasped, tears or terror forming in her eyes.
Dear Yu-tan,
I know what that man did to you. What he did was unforgiveable, and I promise, I'll make him pay for it. It just goes to prove, though, that I'm the only one you can trust. Not that blue haired girl, not your so-called boyfriend, who would be so barbaric as to rape you. Only I can make you feel safe, and if you won't realize it on your own, I'll make you realize it. You will be mine, one way or another. Make it easy on yourself and come to me willingly. I know you're scared to leave that monster, but I can protect you from him! I'll protect you from the whole world, and together, we can live happily forever…
Eternal Love
XXXXXXXX
"Huh? Who the fuck is this weirdo!" Asakura said, scrunching her face up and acting in a very undignified manner.
"Yuki-chan, th-this means he has cameras inside your apartment…" I said. He had made references to us sleeping together. That could only mean that he had bugged her home. That was frightening. "Perhaps you should live with someone else for a while. I think I know just the person. Hold on…"
I pulled out my cell phone, and went through my contacts. It felt wrong to be asking Haruhi for a favor like this, but she was one of the few people I trusted in this world to keep Yuki safe. The other one would have been Tsuruya… However, I didn't know her nearly as well, and felt uncomfortable asking her for a favor, or, at least more uncomfortable than I felt asking Haruhi.
"Suzumiya Haruhi… Speak now…" Came the voice on the other side. So like Haruhi. Short, sweet, and to the point.
"Hi, Haruhi? I'm really sorry to be calling you at such a late hour…" I said, trying to convey my worry over the phone. It seems she picked up on it, because, she replied quickly.
"No, not at all, John… I'm surprised you called, though. What's up?"
"I wouldn't normally ask for a favor like this, but do you think Yuki-chan could stay with you for a little while? She's… got some personal issues right now, and we're not sure it's safe for her to be living alone."
"Yeah, of course. Do you want me to come get you guys? I could probably get my folks to drive her to my place."
"No, no. Just give us directions, we'll walk…"
"Okay… See you soon, then…"
And with that, we hung up, and I watched as Yuki-chan got a coat on, and Asakura and I took her down and out of the apartment. We figured we could get her some clothes later. For now, it was more important to get her to Haruhi's safely. She had texted me directions from Yuki's place, and I was following them quite perfectly. Asakura, however, seemed suspicious. As we walked down the street, her eyes were narrowed, and she was looking this way and that for any sign of danger, and sure enough, as we were walking past an alley, Yuki shrieked as she was grabbed, and I felt something hard and cold slam into the back of my head. I yelped in pain and fell to the ground. Asakura tried to help me, but I waved her away.
"No! You get help as fast as you can! No use both of us getting hurt!" I said. Besides, I was seriously pissed at this guy, now. Threaten Yuki-chan, try to hurt her, get me arrested, and finally smack me in the head with a metal bar. He was gonna pay. I jumped up and tackled the man, who reached for his knife, and slashed at me. I just managed to roll off in time to avoid my neck being cut, but he managed to cut open my right eye. I shouted in pain. I would have thought this was really cool if I wasn't so scared for my life.
"Yuki-chan! Go with Asakura!" I shouted. Yuki shook her head violently, but I shouted once more, "DO IT!" She was about to go, to, when the man pulled out a small pistol and shot her in her leg. Yuki cried out in agony and fell to the ground, unable to walk now.
"Sorry, Yu-tan! I can't lose you again! You'll understand someday why I'm doing this!" He shouted, tears forming in his eyes as he punched me in the face. I was seeing stars… So cliché, but true. Regardless, though, I ducked the next punch, and picked the bar up off the ground and swung it as hard as I could at his head. It hit straight on, but in his fervor, he barely seemed to feel it, and he grabbed the bar and slammed it down on my shoulder, which I felt being crushed under the force of the attack. I groaned in pain as my left arm fell limply to the side, but still continued to attack. I couldn't let Yuki-chan be taken by this crazy man, so I punched as hard as I could at his chest with my right hand, only succeeding in breaking a finger. Using that opportunity, he pulled out a larger gun, and shot me. I gasped as the gun cracked loudly, and the bullet tore through my shoulder.
Even though my vision was hazy, I saw Yuki-chan gasp as she saw the blood, and I saw her beginning to get sick. She struggled to stand up, but her left leg was too weak from being hit with a bullet, and now, from blood loss. Despite my injuries, though, I grabbed the man once more in a desperate final attempt. He took a boxcutter from his pocket and slashed at my neck. I felt it go straight through my Carotid, and I gasped weakly as the blood spurted out. In my last moments of consciousness, though, I saw Yuki-chan limping weakly behind the man, dragging her shot leg behind her, with his small gun, and she held it up to the back of his head.
"S-sorry, but I c-c-can't let you hurt anyone… else…" She whispered. So like her to apologize to a murderer, and she pulled the trigger, though the backlash from the gun knocked poor Yuki off her feet.
BANG!
The shot sounded as though it was from a thousand feet away, with the loud drumming in my ears already, but I barely registered that the man had released me, and fallen to the ground. He was dead, but I was soon to follow. I saw Yuki-chan drag herself over to me, and I smiled up at her.
"Hey, Yuki… chan…" I gasped. "A-are you… Alright? You were… Awesome…"
I know. I was acting totally awesome just then, right? Too bad I only got to act so cool when I was about to die. It doesn't seem quite so cool, now, does it? I could've chosen to be a brave deadman or a live coward. I made my choice, and I don't regret it for an instant.
"Ryoko! Miss Suzumiya! Miss Tsuruya! P-p-please help Kyon-kun!" Yuki cried miserably. Well, she had gotten help. Hopefully she had also called 911 on the way so that Yuki's gunshot wound could be fixed. I could feel the last vestiges of my strength slipping away, so in that moment, I called for Yuki.
"Y-Yuki-chan… I-I just… Wanted to… kiss you… one last time…" Who knew I could be such a romantic?
"No! NO! You can't die! You can't leave me alone!" Yuki demanded, being more outspoken than ever. She tore apart her jacket and pushed down hard on my neck wound, and suddenly, a light began to glow… Although that may have just been the afterlife calling to me… It was so warm. Whoever said dying was cold was full of shit. I felt like I was right next to a crackling fire, and it felt amazing… Slowly, and with no regret, I closed my eyes for what I was sure would be the last time.
"Huh? Why is it so dark? Did I die?"
"You did not…" Came an empty voice from behind me.
"Ah! N-Nagato! I-I thought…"
"I thought, too… However, the extraordinary circumstances through which you sacrificed your life to save mine allowed for me to perform a minor miracle, slowing the flow of blood through your body so that your blood loss would be less severe. Yours was a life threatening wound, a severed Carotid Artery will kill in minutes. However, with my intervention, you should be able to survive at least another thirty before you exsanguinate. There is still no guarantee of success, however, you now have a chance. Look at yourself. The EMTs are there, and fixing you up to life support. They are now putting an IV in you in the hopes that they can maintain your blood level until you can get to the hospital and be sutured. Do you wish to go back?"
"Is that even a choice? If I wake up, I do. If not, I die."
"You always have a choice, Kyon. You of all people should know that…" Nagato said, sounding slightly exasperated.
"No. I have to continue living. Yuki-chan told me so. She told me that I can't die yet. And so, I have to go back…"
"Then… This is goodbye… And thank you… Take care of the one you so affectionately call Yuki-chan… Take care of the person that I always wished I could be."
"Then you…"
"Goodbye…"
And with that, I woke up. I looked around and realized that my vision was skewed. Was I injured in one eye in the… The fight! I was blinded in my right eye. I looked at Yuki-chan, and saw that she had a scar on her left leg where the bullet had gone through.
"K-Kyon-kun!" Yuki cried, hugging me. At that moment, I had an idea that, despite being somewhat mean, was still totally worth it.
"Do I… know you?" I asked, feigning a blank look. Yuki gasped and pushed away from me, blushing heavily, and looking back at Asakura, who smiled apologetically.
"Th-the doctor did say you might have amnesia from the blow to your head. Do you remember anything at all?"
"I remember… That you tried to strangle me earlier that night, Asakura…"
"Yes, and I'm tempted to try it again if you play that kind of trick on Yuki-chan again, Kyon…" She replied, gritting her teeth as a vein throbbed in her forehead. At this, though, Yuki could only laugh, even as tears formed in her eyes and flowed down her cheeks. The sight of her laughing so freely was kind of nice, and so contagious that I started laughing as well, and soon, everyone in the room, including Haruhi and Koizumi were also laughing.
"You're pretty when you blush, Yuki-chan, but you look even better when you smile…" I said, reaching across with my right arm and taking Yuki's hand with my one good arm. My left one, as I well recalled, had been shattered by a pipe.
"And not for nothing, but you looked pretty sexy holding that gun…" I said with a laugh that hurt my shoulder. Hearing this, Yuki stopped laughing and turned bright red. Apparently she had forgotten about that.
"I-I only… I-I had to… H-he was…"
"Yuki-chan, I know. I would have shot him too if I had been able…" I said, patting her hand consolingly, for she showed every sign of being about to have a nervous breakdown. If I had known that I would upset her that much, I wouldn't have said anything.
"Whoa! You're saying Yuki shot a gun!" Tsuruya asked excitedly, clearly not getting the picture.
"I-I…" Yuki stammered.
"Hey, Miss Tsuruya…"
"Please, Kyosuke… Call me Akane…"
"Well, Akane, please don't tease her."
"What? But I wasn't… Oh… S-sorry, Yuki…" Tsuruya said, glancing away looking slightly embarrassed.
"N-no, it's not… Please don't apologize…" Yuki said, smiling at Tsuruya. I don't think I would ever get used to calling her anything other than Miss Tsuruya.
"Well, we should let these two be alone for a little while…" Asakura said said, smiling at me in a way that she hadn't done before. It was a smile that showed real gratitude. I wasn't sure I deserved it, though. I had allowed Yuki-chan to get shot. What kind of man was I? I'm not usually the type to wallow in guilt, but this Yuki has made me look at everything differently. Would Yuki-chan ever be able to walk normally again? She was on crutches right now. Surely it was just a broken leg and it would heal in time, right? So, as everyone but Yuki left and shut the door, I looked over apologetically at the girl with whom I seemed to have fallen in love.
"Sorry, Yuki-chan… I should have been quicker. If I had been a little bit faster, he wouldn't have been able to shoot you."
"No! Kyon-kun… Y-you saved me again. You keep saving my life, and never asking anything from me… And now… Y-you've lost your eye, your neck will have a scar for the rest of your life, and you've gotten terrible injuries, all because you were trying to keep me safe… I'm the one who should apologize."
"Yuki-chan, you keep telling me that I saved your life. Maybe I did. Maybe I didn't. We'll never know because nobody's figured out how to turn back time yet… What I do know is that my life here would have been terribly bland and lonely if you had killed yourself… So you've already paid me back just by staying alive…" I said… Even I was retching at how sickeningly sweet and romantic I was being right now. I hope Yuki-chan liked it, because romance movies never sat well with me. Maybe I'll try to get used to it in the future.
"B-besides, wounds will heal, scars will fade, and I'll get used to only having one eye. But you can't pretend that losing someone you love wouldn't be a thousand times more painful than the worst physical injury you could possibly think of."
"Y-you mean… You… love me?"
I stared blankly at her for a moment. How the hell did she think I felt about her? Did she think she was just some passing fancy of mine… This thought was kind of funny, and I'm slightly ashamed to say that I indulged in my humorous mood, because I burst out laughing.
"Ahahahahahahahahaha!"
"W-well… Y-you could at least not laugh at me about it!" Yuki shouted, turning beet red.
"S-sorry… It's not that. I just thought it was obvious enough already that I loved you."
"O-oh… Thank you…" Yuki said shyly, smiling at me. Then, "I love you, too… Please promise you won't leave me…"
"What? What would make you think…? Of course I won't leave you."
Yeah, this whole thing is ending up reading like a bad chick flick… That didn't mean that I wasn't happy with it, or that I would have wanted it any other way.
We were about to kiss again when Haruhi, in all her self-proclaimed glory barged in and slammed the door. Nagato yelped in surprise and shoved me away from her, turning bright red. Suddenly, Haruhi looked completely different. She didn't have the usual scowl, or self-satisfied smirk on her face anymore. She looked like she was actually concerned about someone besides herself.
"John…" She said. I have to say that it's kind of ironic that I really do seem to attract weird girls… Although Yuki-chan isn't exactly 'weird'. She's just… I guess I could say that much like Haruhi, Yuki-chan defies absolute description. She's shy in one sense, but brave enough to tell people what she wants if she wants it badly enough… She's painfully timid, but seems to be able to express other emotions as well as shyness… And then Haruhi was Haruhi and nobody but Haruhi…
"I can't believe you nearly went and got yourself killed like that!" Haruhi said, grabbing me by my collar, causing Yuki to panic slightly.
"What would you have had me do if you died, huh! I would've had to throw myself on your cremation fire like Indian women are supposed to do! My life has finally gotten interesting with you in it, and you think you have the right to just up and leave, now!" She ranted. Yuki was in the corner, quietly trying to convince Haruhi to stop shaking me, and I couldn't help myself. I started laughing… Laughing so hard that my ribs hurt, as I believe that several of them are still broken. I laughed and laughed, and Haruhi let go of my collar and stumbled back as I continued to laugh hysterically. This was so utterly Haruhi… The kind of self-serving logic that our great and infallible brigade leader would have come up with to justify her own selfishness. I wasn't allowed to die because I was the reason her life was interesting. It had been a long time since I had heard her talk like that, and to be honest, I missed it. Although I wouldn't trade this new life for anything, I'm glad that the old Haruhi is back to some degree, because life was far too quiet with normal, relatively polite and pleasant Haruhi. I couldn't help but admit that all of us, including Yuki-chan needed her asinine and insane adventures to keep us on our toes.
I only stopped laughing when I felt my chest seize up, and I gasped, and coughed up blood, causing Yuki to bolt out of her chair and run over to me. It was kind of nice to have beautiful women worrying over my health… But I don't want to repeat this experience. In anime, a near death experience only makes the character stronger, but I get the feeling that even a major character like me isn't lucky enough to cheat death twice… Not that I was the one to cheat death, anyhow. Nagato's explanation sort of made sense to me, although to be honest, I wasn't sure if I completely got it. Something about slowing my blood flow so that I wouldn't exsanguinate as quickly… If that's really what she did, then kudos to her, and thank my lucky fucking stars… I think I'll start bowing down and worshipping Nagato as 'God' now. After all, she's done way more for me than the 'big man upstairs' ever has.
How many times does this make it that she's saved my life? Let's see, Deranged Asakura, Mikuru Beam the First, Mikuru Beam the Second, Giant Evil Cricket Phenomenon… Was there anything else? Oh, yeah, and this most recent event. That makes five times Nagato has saved my sorry hide from certain death. I think a little worship for her is in order… Better her than Haruhi. After all, Haruhi was the one who caused most of those incidents… Doesn't that make Haruhi more like the Devil than God? And by that logic, wouldn't that make Esper Koizumi a Satanist? No wonder he had such unnatural powers! In the wise words of Carrie's mother*, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live!" I wonder if holy water and chanting "the power of Christ compels you!" would work against Haruhi's power? I doubt it. Knowing her, she'd be immune to every demonic weakness out there. But I digress. My point was that now that I had stopped laughing, I noticed that even Haruhi was blushing slightly.
"W-w-what's so damn funny!" Haruhi raged, stomping her foot.
"Oh, i-it's nothing, Haruhi… What you just said reminded me a lot of the other you."
"Oh? Were you and the other me lovers or something? You sure speak fondly of her…" Haruhi said, smirking back at Nagato. This time, it was her turn and, especially my turn to blush.
"W-what! No way! The other you didn't take a thing I said seriously! We had sort of a strange friendship, I guess. It's completely impossible to describe the dynamic of it. We weren't dating or anything, though…"
"Ah, methinks thou doth protest too much…" Haruhi said with a snicker. "Eh, but it doesn't matter now, anyhow. I see the way you two look at each other… There's no way I can beat that." And with that, Haruhi stalked off, shutting the door behind her. Once again, Yuki and I were alone.
"Hey, Yuki-chan… I have a question. The stalker, whatever his name really is, called you 'Yu-tan'. Why? I've never heard anyone else, even Asakura, refer to you as that. Most of your friends either refer to you as 'Nagato', 'Yuki', or 'Yuki-chan'. It can't just be from his own head. He seemed to consider himself even closer to you than Asakura or me, so…"
"It was my parents…" Yuki said shyly, her eyes starting to fill with tears.
"M-my mother and father used t-to call me Yu-tan… Even when I started getting older and I went into middle school, that was their name for me. I was always a little bit childish and sheltered, so I never asked them to call me anything else…"
"O-oh… Sorry… I shouldn't have asked…"
"No! It's alright that you asked! I told you, Kyon-kun, you've saved my life twice now… Th-the least I can do for you is answer your questions honestly…"
"Yuki-chan…" I complained. How many times would I have to tell her that she didn't owe me anything? First of all, I don't doubt that the stalker would have murdered me, too, after he secured Yuki, so I was also acting in preemptive self defense. Second… I think I very well might have gone temporarily insane when that happened. What else could have prompted me to ignore my own sense of self-preservation like that?
"I-I know what you're going to say, Kyon-kun… Thank you…"
"Hey, did they ever find out who that man was?" I asked. Yuki smiled at this and nodded.
"He was a foreigner named Dirk Roswell… H-he broke out of prison in the US about 10 years ago, and moved as far away as he could, which would be Japan. He got a job at my middle school as a groundskeeper. Now that I think about it, I did talk to him a few times back then. He always seemed like a nice person, if a little bit eccentric…"
Yeah, eccentric. That was stretching the definition of that word to the breaking point. It's hard to believe that someone as intelligent as Yuki-chan wouldn't have picked up on his madness sooner. Of course, she was only 12 or 13 at the time, so I suppose I really shouldn't be too surprised.
"I don't know exactly what happened to him, because one day, he simply disappeared from the school. I didn't find out until later that he had been caught trying to break into my locker, and been fired."
"I see."
I see? Was that really the best I could come up with?
"I hope you get out of the hospital soon. I'd like to at least try to go on one decent date with you…" Yuki said, laughing with that shy smile on her face that lit up her features.
It seemed as though the worst was over. We had had two dates so far, and on the second one, ironically, I was almost killed. It seems as though bad luck follows me wherever I go. Fortunately, though, after that date, my luck changed, and all our dates started to go wonderfully. I dated Yuki-chan all the way through high school, and even as we went on our way to college. She graduated with a degree as a librarian (funny how some things keep popping up), and with all the adventures that I had with the SOS Brigade, I took a bunch of classes in English, Literature, writing, etc… and became an author (go figure), writing under the pen name Nagaru Tanigawa. Shortly after high school ended, in what I suspect was more of Nagato's tampering, I began to have dreams about events that I can only suppose would have happened had I decided to go back to my old life… And thus, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya became an internationally acclaimed series, being turned into a manga and an anime as well as the novels… And I have that completely insane and totally egocentric Haruhi Suzumiya to thank, along with all my friends from the SOS Brigade… Eventually, Yuki-chan and I got married, had kids as any normal couple would do, and now we live a relatively quiet life. I say relatively because Haruhi is still a part of it, and though she has calmed down a lot, she's still quite as eccentric, and still, ironically, my number one fan (I'm so flattered).
I'd also like to add for the record that I'm deeply relieved that I decided to stay in this normal world, because had I decided to go back, shit would've only gotten weirder and my sanity degraded even further, and I don't doubt for a minute that I could've simply ended up in a psychiatric ward… So help me Haruhi…
The End
A/N: For any who don't know, Carrie was a horror movie released in 1976, based on a book by Stephen King about a girl with telekinetic abilities. Her mother was a religious fanatic who believed that Carrie had received her powers from the Devil, and in the end, after uttering that line, she tried to drown Carrie in the bathtub.
Well, that's it. I rewrote The Confession of Yuki Nagato because of a few comments that I got. I haven't deleted the old version because it has overall been well accepted. Say what you want, but I enjoyed the challenge of rewriting the ending. Thank you all my loyal fans… Mwahahaha!
