Somehow, we made it to school just in time to avoid the bell. I suppose I should be grateful to Taniguchi for warning us, otherwise we would have been late, and I have no doubt that Asakura would hold me to account for making Yuki late for class. As it was, she made an audible sound of disapproval as I walked past her to my seat by the window. Kuyo Suou was in the same seat that she had taken yesterday, with no expression on her face to suggest that anything was amiss.
Strangely enough, I didn't feel particularly tense sitting in front of Kuyo Suou. At least, not as tense as I had been when I was sitting in front of Asakura. Perhaps that's unfair, since Asakura only tried to kill me that one time, whereas Kuyo Suou had thus far tried on one occasion to abduct Yuki, and on another had taken me hostage. On the other hand, she didn't seem to be willing to take any action while there were other people around. That's fortunate, since a battle of the sort that she and Asakura had yesterday would be kind of difficult to explain to the class.
Still, the problem of what to do about her nettled at the back of my mind, and kept me from paying any attention to what Okabe was talking about. Probably something I'll regret later.
As my mind drifted to the subject of Kuyo Suou, I reflected on what I knew about the strange interloper thus far:
One: She was connected to some kind of cosmic being, similar in nature to the Data Integration Thought Entity, but different as well. Asakura's former superiors called it the Macrospatial Quantum Cosmic Existence, and it called itself the Sky Canopy Dominion. Considering that the latter isn't quite as much of a mouthful, I'll just go with that.
Two: She, and presumably her bosses, were not affected at all when Yuki Nagato remade the world.
Three: She believed, rightly or wrongly, that Yuki was still somehow wielding Haruhi's powers, and she also wanted to study or access them, which apparently involved abducting Yuki.
Four: She might or might not be trying to abduct me for study as well. Though, judging from her actions, yesterday, she might not care either way.
Additionally, Kuyo Suou didn't seem to be entirely clear about why any of us should be bothered by her actions. I was reminded of how, when Asakura was trying to kill me, she seemed honestly perplexed that I didn't want to die, chalking it up to, "Not understanding the concept of death as it applies to organic lifeforms." Asakura seems to have improved somewhat in that regard, at least.
Of course, the fact that the Sky Canopy Dominion interface didn't know that what she was doing was wrong, or might not even have a concept of "wrongness", wouldn't exactly be much comfort if she got me killed, and especially if anything happened to Yuki. But how exactly was I supposed to go about addressing that? She was practically impossible to communicate with. She didn't seem to interact with anyone in our class, either. She just sat behind me, eerily silent. Was she planning her next move even as I contemplated her? Could she really be doing anything else?
As my attention shifted from my train of thought to a point in the class's lesson that our instructor thought was important enough to expound upon, I was aware of a scratching sound coming from behind me. Glancing behind me, I saw that the strange interface girl was writing with a pencil in a notebook. Normally, that wouldn't be anything strange, but considering the person who was doing it, it was a little odd. She couldn't possibly be taking notes on the class, could she? What possible use could she possibly have for that?
Craning my neck, I tried to see what she might be writing. What if it was important? I could almost make out the first character when the instructor called my name, sharply. "What exactly is on Miss Suou's desk that's so interesting?" he asked, his tone icy. "Uh, nothing, nothing at all!" I replied, flustered. "Miss Suou?" he asked, looking at the girl behind me. "Notes," Kuyo Suou replied. Nodding, the instructor returned to the lesson, but not before giving me another sour look.
Great, not only had I not seen what the Sky Canopy Dominion interface was writing, but now I was on another one of my instructors' radars. Fantastic.
The rest of the morning passed by with me attempting to pay attention to lessons, with limited success. I couldn't stop thinking about what Kuyo Suou might have been writing. It wouldn't really make sense for her to write down her plans, unless she had accomplices, would it? And any accomplices she might have would probably also have other ways of communicating. Still, you couldn't be sure. When Yuki Nagato was an interface working under the Data Integration Thought Entity, she sometimes claimed that she read in order to obtain data, although you would think that a being like her could obtain data in ways that were more futuristic than reading printed text on a page. I had just assumed that she preferred to read. Maybe that was the case with our interloper. Yuki had liked to read, and Kuyo Suou liked to write.
When it was time for lunch, I practically bolted from my seat. I planned on going straight to the literature club room. Strange, I had hardly thought about Yuki all morning, despite what had passed between us before school this morning. I had been preoccupied with the mystery of what the girl behind me had been writing. I silently cursed the interloper for that.
I wanted to talk to Yuki more about what she had said. I'm not really sure if it changed the nature of our relationship. I mean, to an objective third party, it would probably have already seemed that Yuki and I were boyfriend and girlfriend. While it might be conceited of me, I was pretty sure that she liked me before. And I thought I had made it fairly clear that I liked her. But saying it out loud did seem to make it more…definite, perhaps?
As I was leaving, though, I was ambushed by Okabe. All right, "ambushed" probably wasn't the right word. He politely asked me, as I was about to leave the room, if I could take a minute for a word with him in the teachers' offices. Despite the fact that I really didn't want to deal with this right now, I assented. I had a pretty good idea of what this was about. My grades last term had been abysmal, after all, and I could hardly expect Okabe to overlook that. Might as well get the lecture over with now. I had gotten a similar lecture from my parents over the break, so I was a little desensitized by now.
After taking the seat at his desk, Okabe leafed through a stack of paper until he came to a sheaf of papers held together with a rubber band. As he drew it from the pile, I recognized the handwriting on the top page as my own. Sure enough, it was my most recent math exam, which had taken place just before the end of the last term, right after my "episode". The exam had probably been a more traumatic experience than my "illness" had been.
I had expected Okabe to lecture me on the importance of keeping up with my studies during my high school years, about how the priorities I set during this period of my life would determine how the rest of it would turn out. I understood all of that, but when it actually came to sitting down to study, I found that such far off and abstract motivations weren't enough to push me to do what had to be done.
Instead, however, Okabe praised my performance earlier in the school year. He noted I had done decently in some subjects, and excelled in others. That was a little different from Haruhi's world, where I had been a mediocre to poor student. He pointed out that I seemed to have a wide-ranging knowledge of topics, such as history and mythology, that most students my age lacked. But then his expression became severe:
"Your grades seem to have gone downhill at the end of last term. And I've also heard about incidents with other students, including Miss Asakura and Taniguchi, in our own class. Is there any issue between you and these other students?"
"No, sir," I replied, "I wasn't exactly myself. I had a fever and it may have made me a little delirious."
His expression was dubious, as if he didn't quite believe me, but he seemed to let it go. After being admonished that I shouldn't let my performance falter, and to ask for assistance if I was having trouble with any of the material being taught in class, I was dismissed.
I found that I still had enough time to have lunch with Yuki in the clubroom. Taking the stairs two at a time, I made my way to the literature club's floor. When I entered the clubroom, Yuki looked unusually energetic.
"What's up?" I asked, secretly hoping it had something to do with this morning.
"I think someone new might be joining the literature club. Maybe even two people." Yuki said excitedly.
Well, that was a good thing too. If we were fortunate, this would reduce the number of new members that we would need to one. Still, it seemed odd that one or two people should be interested in joining, just the day after we received the Student Council's notice. "Who is it?" I asked. "I didn't get his name," Yuki said, "but he said that he was getting an application for an acquaintance of his who had asked him to get one for her. As he was about to leave, he asked me for a second application form, so I think he might be thinking about joining as well."
This was good news. So why was I hit with a sudden feeling of foreboding upon hearing it?