Author's Note: Please do not spoil this chapter in the reviews! I want people to read it for themselves and to be just as shocked as you.
The Death of Haruhi Suzumiya
Fatality Rendezvous
Chapter 10
One second later
It was still dark, my eyes have seemingly adjusted themselves, yet I can't see any hidden source of light, nor any reflections from any surface in the place I found myself.
A light surrounded me, blindingly white, but illuminating only me and one metre around me.
"Hello?"
Yes, I called out stupidly; did I ever think for one second that this could all have been a terrible ruse to trap me, to ensure I don't allow Haruhi to get cured?
"Of course not, we did promise you..."
The room was finally shown, well, the floor at least, by around twenty metres. It was metallic, with large plates welded or riveted to the ground, but you could still see through the gaps. It seemed to be made of dull metal, and mostly rusted. Beneath the grills and vents I could a fire burning far beneath the floor.
We were teetering away above hell itself.
The person who spoke to me came out of the far reaches of the room into the lit area. It was none other than the Nonchalant Lady, her peaceful expression opposing my once horrified face.
"You're free to go after this; we will not hold you hostage, as there is no need."
She came in closer and touched the white barrier which was the light around me, small octagonal shapes appearing as she pushed harder. They fell away soon and I chose to step backwards from her. She had a look of disappointment as I did this.
"You still don't trust me, do you? I already apologised to you over the previous event, but perhaps it was too personal for you to consider one."
The strange thing was that this room sounded immense, her voice both carried far, but also died out once it reached the shadow, and I got the feeling that we were in a large cavern of some sort.
"Well, it wouldn't hurt for him to spend just that little extra bit of time with us."
The nasty accent came from that other person, the Sneering Bastard. His superior mocking smile turned many twists into my mind, gears rotating into the necessary position for me to smack him about the face.
He held up his hands, as if placating a small child. "Like a few bruises are really going to hurt me... I care little about your petty excuse for a life, nor for this primitive time." He sighed disgustedly. "Yet, I'm forced to stay here to hear your response to the question we asked you."
I wasn't taking his words lightly. "Who's telling you to stay here?"
"Are you truly that stupid?" His chuckle cut at my core. "I'm afraid that answer to that is 'Classified Information'."
His tone made me wonder if he did have the same programmed limitations as Asahina-san, or if he just said that because I didn't need to know.
"I'll tell it when everyone is here." I wasn't about to give away my position whilst not knowing if the others were going to hear about it.
"Oh?" he was mildly interested. "Your lack of trust in us only makes me more interested." His face wrinkled over again to its foul state. "What makes you think the others are not here?"
I was getting scared again – were they ready to strike at me? – I couldn't be sure, the only sound I could hear was my own heartbeat and my shuffling feet grating on the metal.
The Nonchalant Lady interjected my panic attack. "Do you recall your entrance to our land?"
How could I forget, the most meaningless amount of searching and rubbish ever.
She shook her head at my words. "Not quite..."
She held out her palm, in a manner disturbingly familiar to Koizumi against the Cave Cricket. Much to my dismay, she produced a fireball, but to put me at ease, she kept it hovering above her hand.
"This power, granted to espers around the globe, originated from Haruhi Suzumiya, yet we later discovered that the sun generated our abilities. Her other desire was of two rivals holding the same powers, but using them in different ways, the Family, and the Organisation." She let the miniature beach ball smoke away into nothing. "That rock you threw represented the heat of the sun, the magma of the Earth, and the how it affects the anti-gravitational effects on our bodies."
"My 'power'..." The Bastard spat. "Is nothing more than technology, first granted and accidentally discovered by Haruhi Suzumiya, only to be transformed into the TPDD that is used by all in my time to visit other periods. Her other desire was a group who possessed something incredible, only to want to be rid of it one day." He smirked. "The alarm you set, as you recalled, meant keeping to schedule is a vital importance for a time traveller, a single second out and paradoxes can occur."
"The power..."
This was a new, yet nauseously common - to myself that is - voice, so I concentrated on what it was saying, and trying to ignore who was saying it.
"I received it upon searching for my family, only for this to be my last remaining clueth. Haruhi Suzumiya reactivated the transportation, and the old abilities, as wellth as reinstalling my past. She also wished for twin siblings who didn't knowth about each other. The keychain you placed into the tree signifies the similarity betweenth each realm, yet holding many differences within its roots."
As the person stepping into the light came out slowly, my face dropped suddenly, as my emotions went through the mangle, in both directions, only to head straight for the shredder and incinerator.
The person was a complete copy, aside from her eyebrows, which were pointing downwards in the middle, making her somewhat goofy smile seem a lot more malevolent.
"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue, Kyon-kun?"
That, and her protruding fang was on the other side.
"Ts-Tsuruya-san?"
Yes, it was her, same green hair reaching to below the back of her knees, North High school uniform, same cheery smile and energetic self, aside from her fang and mean eyebrows.
"Ah, so you do go by this name in this reality..." The doppelganger grinned, but with her forever V-shaped eyebrows, she looked as if she were belittling me. "Better than your usual name anywayth..."
Ok, it looks like this one has a lisp-version of my world's speech impediment.
"Well, it's hard to haveth this tooth sticking out like this. The surgery would be too much bother!"
She was chuckling to herself, and I forced myself to stay where I was.
"Who are you?"
She bared her teeth for me, giving me the impression I was speaking to Haruhi on one of her good days with ideas.
"Should I give you the full explanation? It's not entirely necessaryth, but I suppose I can tell you a little about it..." She looked off into the distance like she was about to give a dramatic performance, but stopped and turned to me. "Just kidding about that."
She crossed her arms and closed her eyes for a few seconds only to open them sharply. They were brutal, cold, and everything the complete opposite of the one I knew of from my world. Whether it was all directed at me or not, I would soon find out.
"You're right, Kyon-kun. I am not of this reality. I came from that Quarantined U825, Earth17, around five years ago."
I faltered. That was the barren reality Tsuruya-san told us about, and one year before the 'Haruhi Tanabata event' happened.
"Or, to be more exact, that is the oneth I woke up in..." She growled. "I knew nothing aside from my family name..." She gripped the sleeves of her outfit tighter. "A world of sandth, blue skies and no wind... It was a true hell." She began to walk forwards, each step showing more of her wrath and anger as the padding became more like stomps. "I don't know how, but I was still aliveth, no food or water, but I would not die... For one whole year I walked. I never knew the days of the week, nor the hours in the dayth because there was no night time there somehow, but it felt like eternity."
I cleared my rapidly fleeing voice. "A-and what happened?"
She smiled hungrily, perhaps at the memories. "I found something... One day, I saw a light, something reflecting on the sandth. I picked it up..."
She pulled something out of her pocket and thrust it at me.
I couldn't help but flinch, thoughts of daggers plunging beneath my skin for the third time made me nervous around small silvery objects.
However, this one was worse than any dagger.
It was a small cylinder, one I knew to be a rare titanium-caesium alloy.
"It was calling to me all this time." She held her head in an odd fashion, a queer smile spreading across her face from it. "I found a way back."
She pressed a button I had not seen on the other one before, and millions of images bombarded me in half a second, dazzling me with the knowledge they contained, but all that information was lost the moment the images vanished.
"My past, my home world, my banishment to that world, and finally..." She grinned devilishly. "My sister, the one you so affectionately called me earlierth."
I knew what was going on at last, this was the twin sister of Tsuruya-san, but she ended up in another universe all on her own, her prison.
But she got out...
"That's right..." She kissed her metallic cylinder and hugged it, her eyes growing wider. "With this I was able to exact my revenge on everyone liketh me, but your one will have the last laugh. Haruhi Suzumiya opened the portals, but with my help, they are now closing again." She giggled. "Only I can access those realities any more."
I fully stepped away from her by three steps, due to a blatantly obvious fact.
She was insane.
Driven to utter madness on that world, reliving those memories day in day out – that half a second for me was too much to take in – and her need for revenge on her sister, for whatever reason it was...
She moved back besides the others. They were all in front of me, the Nonchalant Lady on the left, the Sneering Bastard in the middle, and the Psychotic Tsuruya on the right.
I then remembered that there was still one member to go.
Only now had I noticed the background sound, a combination of leaving your television on but muted and a bass subwoofer cranked up to the max without playing a single sound.
""
Something was trying to speak, I could tell because of the way the air around me changed.
" My power "
I whirled round, over and over, but couldn't find the source of my most hated voice. It was a lot slower than I remembered it, but it began to speed up to normal human speech, though there were still some pauses in between words.
" is that of manipulation of data variables detected at the quantum level as Haruhi Suzumiya did not like there to be only a yes or a no answer . She also liked wars between alien races."
I looked up as a red light glowed down at me. It was located behind the three others, but very high up.
"You inputted the Golden Ratio to form the perfect rectangle, spiral, and other variables that are found in both artificial and natural environments. The word was an indication that even in maths, some patterns are fun."
An electronic high-pitched giggle shuddered through my feet upwards, as well as the surrounding area.
From the shadows behind the threesome came a large mass of piping and wires. It snaked around them and began to form a figure below the red light. A cloud of metal drifted in the air to form two legs over wires, followed by a torso, then two arms. A long neck whipped up to the darkness, and dragged the light down.
Though the face was covered in shadow, I could recognise that person anywhere; despite my nightmares affecting me occasionally, I never imagined that they would come true one day.
"Well, Kyon, aren't you pleased to see me?"
Her innocent face belied nothing, but I knew what lay behind it.
"Y-You...!" I wanted to run; in fact my whole body was quaking at the thought of staying still. "B-but Nagato..."
The person laughed, the fringe of her hair covering the left eye, the one with the red light. "She merely nullified my data link." She displayed her body. "As you can see, I'm still here..."
"Asakura Ryouko..." My teeth were slowly being ground into dust as I grit them harder and harder. "Why are you still around?"
"Oh... Well, I was lucky you see..." She held her cheek coyly. "As my molecular structure dissipated into the data matrix, I was detected during dematerialisation by the Macrospatial Quantum Cosmic Existence. It was a fledging power, requiring more strength to realise itself into this plane of life. Repatriating my being, it integrated itself into me, and has become me."
Asakura Ryouko, with the power of the Macrospatial Quantum Cosmic Existence...
I... I had no words for how bad that was...
"I set up that little retreat for you, to say 'hello' to my younger sister, but she didn't seem to like it much."
She was of course talking about the Snow Mountain.
Another giggle from the former high school girl sent my sweat glands into overdrive. Her outfit wasn't the North High uniform, but a sleek figure hugging suit, with the odd protrusion here or there. As she walked around me, wires disconnected and reconnected to her feet and arms. Once, a whole arm became detached and moved nearer to me, teasing me with one finger urging me to come closer. I did no such thing, of course. Her red eye was also smoking through the lower fringe on that side, like a coal furnace in a steam chamber, from the amount of heat beneath it.
"Communicating with the Data Integrated Thought Entity cannot be achieved well in this form."
I moved backwards, but then found myself frozen to the spot. This feeling also haunted me since that afternoon in the classroom.
"Why are you leaving?" She winked at me. "I won't kill you, though I could do it in a second if I wished."
A blink by her and I could move, but now my fingers were missing, replaced by seven inch blades. My arms began to move of their own accord towards my neck, the the sharp edges came lethally close to my artery.
"Manipulating of quantum particles can make anything change form." She laughed.
"Stop this!" The Nonchalant Lady shouted, surprisingly jumping to my defence.
"How about acid?"
My fingers were back, but now I could see the skin running of my flesh, and the flesh peeling off to reveal the bones beneath, though there seemed to be no visible corrosive fluid.
"Don't do it!" The esper lady cried out again.
"Or perhaps, you'd prefer the classic version. I believe this would be the third time, no?"
Asakura Ryouko was wearing her old uniform now, holding the infamous commando dagger. She looked exactly the same as that class experience, or in the alternate world Nagato created, except she still had the red glowing eye.
Without needing to run up or jump, she just sort of flew straight for me, dagger arm held back, ready to propel it forwards into my stomach for a nice painful death as the digestional acids eat away at my body from the inside, my excessive blood flowing from the outside.
As my eyes tracked her movement, I couldn't help but notice that she was a lot faster than before.
A thunder crack broke the proceedings, as I saw a person in my way. No, it wasn't Nagato as I'd hoped, but it was the Nonchalant Lady, with tears in her eyes? Her right hand was to the left, as was Asakura Ryouko's face, her cheek bearing the hallmarks of a rash.
I guessed that she somehow got in between us and slapped her.
"STOP!" She shouted out. "This is getting us nowhere!" She lowered her hand and held it against her, it must've hurt badly. "All we're doing is getting his answer, and we're leaving him alone. We all promised this, together." She stood her ground. "I will not have you torture him!"
Seeing as how this enemy was supporting me so much, I felt inclined to consider her an ally, if only for a short time.
Asakura Ryouko let out a big sigh, like she just failed a final exam by half a mark. "Oh well, it was fun while it lasted ."
She walked back to the others and stood by them, though her red eye glowed further. The Nonchalant Lady was beside her, presumably to stop her in case she tried anything more. She didn't bother readjusting her clothing to its former, more technologically advanced, version.
"So..." Psychotic Tsuruya spoke raucously. "What have you decided, Kyon-kun?"
I hated the way she used my nickname, and my suffix, it made me feel dirty inside to think of her as my friend. By the smile on her face, it probably wasn't too far from the truth for her to have done that on purpose for that reason alone.
"I..."
I recalled everything, the moments of my life in my old school, my younger years believing these crazy things, only to shunt them off to one side and categorise them as foolhardy dreams. Entering North High, meeting my old friends again, and forming an unlikely partnership with Haruhi, who wanted the exact same things I did. Meeting Nagato, Asahina-san, Koizumi, Tsuruya-san, Arakawa-san, Mori-san, Nakagawa, the Computer Society President, Kimidori Emiri, the Student Council President, and many other people... Most became my friends. All the events, battles of data, Celestials, time adjusting, it came to me in a rush. The headache and general sickness I felt at having to fix everything that went wrong, even that time when that whole world would end.
And now it would happen again.
My mind was made up.
"I'm going to save the world. I'm not going to let Haruhi die for nothing. I despise the idea that you even believed I would try to hurt her more to die, just so I could remake the world again without her and all these new things."
"Just as I thought..." The Bastard spoke first. "A typical idealist, trying to strive for things that are beyond your control."
"To you I may be an idealist, but I consider myself a realist. What you're asking from me is idealism."
He growled at this statement.
"So, Haru-nyan is going to be saved by you? Fat chanceth, she'll be dead within a week, and then I can 'play' with my sis!" Psychotic Tsuruya giggled manically, I didn't want to interrupt her ranting.
"It was to be expected..." The Nonchalant Lady seemed disheartened. "Though it was a big ask of us, I knew that you wouldn't want her to die."
Though you're my enemy, you're treating me remarkably like a friend. For that I respect you.
"So Kyon, no time to play with me any more?" Asakura Ryouko was pawing her feet on the metal flooring. "Maybe I should play with you more some day..."
The Nonchalant Lady gave her a silent but furious glare.
"Oh, that's right, the promise..." She put a finger to her lips, thinking, before brightening up, her finger now pointing above her. "I know... I could try out my techniques on that cute little girl with pig-tails, your sister I believe?"
My stomach lurched, my skim was clammy, and my heart beat slowed to one every two seconds. My eyes were wide in shock.
"Y-You wouldn't -"
"Wouldn't I?"
The bitch rematerialised the dagger from air molecules and twirled it between her hands. The Nonchalant Lady was also panicking, not foreseeing this development.
"She's so young, so full of life, so soft." She pierced her skin slightly to make a tiny cut. No blood flowed as wires filled her body. "It must be so exciting to prevent her from growing old, to end and empty her of life, I wonder how smooth and supple it would be as I slice her -"
"SHUT UP!"
There have been few situations in my life when I was really angry, so mad that I could actually kill someone. Once was a bully at school that stole my school money every day for three years. By the end I planned horrible ways for him to die, yet I never went through with them being an ordinary school kid, and not a crazy murderer.
I can't think of any more at the top of my head, but I'm sure it was possible to count them all on one hand.
This was one of those times.
Here I was, powerless, but according to them, one half of God, the Order. I was wishing so much death upon Asakura Ryouko I was amazed her head didn't implode from the pressure I was pushing onto her.
Again, I was saddened, all I succeeded in doing was making my face redder, my pupils the size of pinpricks, and my knuckles white from clenching my fists.
"My, my..." She giggled. "Such a reaction... Perhaps your beloved sempai could be next?"
"Oi..." The Bastard spoke at that moment. "Asahina Mikuru is my responsibility. The procedures are in place. Leave her alone."
Procedures, what?
He merely sneered in reply.
"There's always Itsuki Koizumi and Tsuruya -" A cough from the other two people stopped her.
"Tsuruya is mine!" Psychotic Tsuruya half roared. "She will suffer for eternity! I'll rip that tooth out if it's the last thing I do!" Her wild grin sent shivers through me.
"Fine..." Asakura Ryouko stood firm, and grinned, her peaceful eyes for once turning mildly annoyed, then vengeful. "Then Nagato Yuki it is..."
I knew that this was the build up, the reason why she was teasing me just now, though her threat against my sister still felt serious.
She wanted to kill Nagato.
"It won't be that easy..."
She laughed. "Oh, I know, that's what I'm hoping for!" She skipped about the room, like someone of my sister's age. "Still, we managed to ensure Haruhi Suzumiya's death, due to me."
"W-what?" I didn't quite understand.
"Huh, you didn't know?" Asakura Ryouko looked over at the others, two of whom grinned, one looked away. "Hmm, I might as well tell you now." She leaned forwards, hands behind her back and grinned. "We implanted the idea of a disease inside her head."
"H-how?" This was making me ill again. "I thought you couldn't -"
"Oh... not like that..." Psychotic Tsuruya guffawed out loud. "We just made her realise how cool it would be to die!" Her laughs were echoing around us, making me ill in the process.
She started caressing her sliding implement in a lecherous way. I shut my eyes quickly, only for the Bastard to interject.
"Haruhi is a special person, Chaos incarnate. We chose to change little things around her to destroy her mind, and to state how easy it was to die from something unknown. As opposed to all these ridiculous ideas of extra-terrestrials, we decided to show her the real world, all at once."
I looked at Asakura Ryouko, she'd gotten very close to me, and was now a metre away, still humming to herself.
"The odd headline in the newspaper, documentaries about bird flu, cancer, AIDS, foot and mouth, increased coverage on wars and conflict, such as Iraq, Korea, Darfur, Pakistan and India, more focus on human poverty, depression, drugs, suicide, and finally natural disasters..."
She was taller than me now, but only because I had fallen on my backside, staring up at her.
"Y-you caused those...?"
"No, no, I can't create things!" She shook her head, her mouth making tutting sounds. "I instead manipulated the thoughts of editors, news programmes, even your own headmaster, to bring and prioritise these 'important issues' to your attention." She chuckled. "Then again, I had to do something big, so that tsunami was needed... A subtle push here, a nudge in the other direction, and boom!" She jumped up childishly. "An undersea earthquake!"
"Y-you sick -"
She held out a hand and her fingers spilt into hundreds of wires, spreading around the room. Her left leg detached and walked to one side of the cavern. Other body parts moved places, some even dissolved and floated around in the air. However her head remained there, her hair linked to all parts of her body. The red eye flickered and I could see inside it for a second. All I saw was infinite, the scale was mind-boggling, and I had to look away before my retina shattered from data overload.
"In the end, the RIP Cartel will win." Her disembodied voice echoed around me. "I am sending you back to your world. The previous access point you used today is no longer operational. You will never see our base again." Her giggle brought me to my senses, as I felt myself ascending. "See you around, Kyon."
Many different things happened at once, I flew into a yellow and red portal, followed by a quantum created room, but above ground. The grey ceiling of this weird see-through Closed Space shattered, and time restored its flow.
I was back at the park, the path in front of the bench. The leaf that was there before had continued to move with the wind, falling into the stream, and the man across in another street walked on to his home as usual.
I didn't even leave this time for a second.
Their base was located inside of Locked Time, Closed Space, a Macrospatial Quantum Cosmic Existence created area, and finally a Sliding Portal Dimension.
It would be nigh impossible for all four of our allies to break into this place, and for what purpose, to fight them in their own base? Even I thought that to be a monumentally stupid idea.
After breathing fresh air again, I decided that enough was enough.
I never ran home so fast.
Ten minutes later
Forgetting that I took a train to reach this area, I still managed to get home in record time having caught it immediately, bursting through the door like Haruhi does to us on a daily basis. Running up my steps, I again smacked open the door to my sister's room, only to find it empty.
"Hey! Where are you?" I shouted out loud, thinking that maybe it was too late.
I heard a sound next door, something thumping regularly.
Was it happening at this moment? Was my sister struggling against Asakura Ryouko, or...
Wasting no more time, I almost broke through my door, only to find her happily jumping on my bed, Shamisen not enjoying the continual shaking of his napping material.
She stopped suddenly seeing my angry and fearful face, and she got scared. "Ah... Kyon-kun... I... I'm sorry..." She began to grow teary. "I just wanted to have some fun... I..."
I didn't let her say any more, I just picked her up and hugged her deeply.
Having had her in my life for around seven years, I just accepted her as my sister, and that was it. She always seemed to be happy, whilst I had the pressures of being the first child. Yeah, I'd give her the odd hug now and then; maybe a kiss or two for her birthday, but that was about it. Being a boy I wasn't very touchy-feely, and for brothers and sisters it was hard for them to express their love for each other due to the gender gap.
I erased all these inhibitions and chose to show all my love for her for the first time.
I told her in her ear that I loved her, more than anyone in the world.
She was obviously confused by my behaviour. "Kyon-kun? Wha...?"
I didn't want any misunderstandings this time, like with Haruhi. Even though she's too young to comprehend how off-quilter some relationships can become in terms of incest, I wanted her to know the truth from me.
I pulled her back and was still carrying her, her short arms around my neck, her legs cradled by my arm. I brought her to the mirror in my cupboard.
I've never said this to you before, you're the most important person to me. I want to play with you and your friends until you get bored of me. I want to tuck you into bed and read you stories. I want to bring you with me when you want to come out.
"I want you to be happy."
"Kyon-kun..." Her eyes were watery from earlier, but they only filled up more. "You... I like having you as a big brother! I love you too, Kyon-kun!" She grabbed me by my neck and hugged it tightly.
That night, I slept in my sister's room, despite my parents' questions. I lay next to her bed and held her hand as she snoozed away, with me staying awake the entire night.
As I gently stroked her hand, I thought about everything that had happened to me today, the threats, the revelations, the secrets, and that no matter what I chose to go against all that and fight.
If we humans just accepted everything that was given to us, we would never do anything special. 'A gentle sea never a good sailor made', as the old saying goes.
If my choice was between accepting the inevitable, or struggling to survive, I would prefer the latter.
I have found there to be only two constants in life: Death and Change.
With these, I could change Haruhi's death. I could make her life longer.
I only wish I knew how...
---
Author's Notes
As I said above, please do not spoil this for anyone in the reviews! I want them to be as shocked as you were when you first read this chapter!
I went through many emotions when writing this one. I had already planned for the two more identities (no Suoh Kuyoh here, since this diverges from Novel 8 onwards, and as such doesn't include new developments in Novel 9), I hoped I made them realistic enough to terrify you. This was also the first chapter where none of the Brigade appeared.
Psychotic Tsuruya was hard to characterise, it looked like she became more crazy as she spoke, it was easy to classify her though, exactly the same as normal Tsuruya, except all her thoughts were geared towards revenge and killing. That'd make her fairly insane I'd reckon. Naturally, it was a lot easier writing Asakura Ryouko, since she was already somewhat developed, but I thought I'd continue in the sense of an innocent pleasure in killing people, and aligned with the bad side. The Sneering Bastard was again, simple because he hasn't changed whatsoever. The Nonchalant Lady (aka Tachibana Kyoko in Novel 9) I'm happy to say has the same impression on me since the new novel, and I did a good job in writing her earlier.
I like the relationship between Kyon and his sister in the Novels, and I touched on this in the previous chapter, so I thought I should have him acknowledge just how close she is to him, and vice-versa. This is partly real-world related, since I miss my own sister, as I'm in a whole different country to her.
Apologies for the real world stuff, if I hurt anyone I'm sorry, I just wanted to bring a sense of reality to this story, how we currently live in a culture of fear, and how this might affect someone like Haruhi.
- J