Chapter 11:

We sat around Yuki Nagato's table, about to begin our first brainstorming meeting for the forty-five thousand seven hundred and thirtieth loop of summer. Asahina was interjecting with "Well, should we start with learning what we have tried in the past?"

Yuki spoke up, "I have a prepared message for that question."

Itsuki asked, "Prepared? What do you mean?"

Yuki looked at Itsuki, "You have, on a previous iteration, prepared a statement for me to recite, triggered on asking what we have done in the past."

I raised my eyebrows, "That was pretty smart of us. When did we start doing that?"

Yuki looked at me, "I was told to tell you that you should stop asking questions and just let me recite the speech. By you."

I frowned as Itsuki and Mikuru laughed, "Past me is a jerk. Go ahead then, Yuki."

Yuki nodded, took a breath, and began speaking in her normal flat tone, but with my cadence and word choice. It was… disconcerting, to say the least. "You have gathered here to brainstorm ideas. That's good. We did the same. But we did something better than just try to escape our own iteration. We have some advice for you, after we toot our own horn, so to speak.

"Mikuru had first prompted the idea that she wished she had classified information that could store information beyond the time-loop. Itsuki brilliantly realized that we did have something like classified information, whatever Mikuru meant, since Yuki can effectively transfer messages beyond our current iteration. I just made up the message, so don't let me from your loop feel too smart for my part in this."

"Past me is really a jerk." Everyone was now smiling again, trying not to laugh. Yuki even smiled a little.

She continued, "First of all, don't ask what we have done in the past. At all. It doesn't help and it's kind of depressing. You probably shouldn't even ask how many different things you have tried. Just make suggestions and Yuki can tell you if it has been done."

"Hearing Yuki talk like you is very disconcerting." Itsuki was smiling blithely, but something in his eyes told me he wasn't joking as much as he usually did. I didn't blame him. I agreed, actually.

Yuki paused, tilting her head to the side, "I can provide you with a direct vocal match, but previous iterations have stated that it is even more unsettling to hear your voice coming from my person." I think Yuki was joking about actually doing this. She couldn't have been joking about it being unsettling. I didn't really want to see voice impressions as done by Yuki.

"No thanks. Please continue." She nodded.

"This will save you a lot of time." She continued, in her cool, controlled tones, "Secondly, stop killing Haruhi. Seriously, it doesn't help. All it creates is this black void thing that only Yuki can remember. She gets in trouble each time Haruhi is killed too, and Yuki has been through enough, don't you think? So stop killing Haruhi, especially Mikuru."

Mikuru, at this point jumped in her seat and made a nervous noise while Yuki continued, "We know how tough it is. You are not alone though, and you aren't facing oblivion. We'll get out of this and make sure your future happens. So lay off the assassinations."

Mikuru started making apologies, but Yuki continued on.

"Third, remember to be, not just a little, but very spontaneous. We don't know when you will get this message, but, remember, everything you would usually try has probably been done. Multiple times, in different ways. Start thinking outside the box. Do crazy things. Make up stuff like you are trying to challenge Haruhi to new depths of insanity. Our past selves lazily took all the easy stuff. You now have to make up for their predictability."

I shook my head, trying to imagine imagining beyond my normal imagination. It made my head hurt.

"Finally, and most importantly, have fun." Yuki nodded along with this, so it must have been important. "It's been more than seventeen centuries for us. No telling how long it has been for you. We've all become friends, and I mean that. When we got together here on the last day of our cycle, it wasn't just to make a message for your benefit. It was to be together. I am not going to go into some sort of shtick over 'bonds beyond time,' or some crap. That's Haruhi's gig. But remember to rely on each other. This goes for you especially, Yuki."

Yuki almost smiled a little at that last part, having finished reading a script I had once come up with. I hate to criticize, but I think I could have done better. Still, as we sat around the table in Yuki's apartment, on the first day of the end of the world, we looked at each other.

Sometimes, I wonder if it is all worth the effort, this Brigade of ours. Then again, I have never felt like I belonged to nearly anything as much as I have belonged here.

Mikuru broke the silence first, "So… what should we do?"

I laid back, staring up at Yuki's ceiling, "Anything we want, I think."