The Death of Haruhi Suzumiya
Chronological Order
Chapter 11
3 days ago
11am
So, recapping my experience yesterday, I remembered the two final members of the RIP Cartel: Psychotic Tsuruya, the slider, and the forever revived Asakura Ryouko, the Macrospatial Quantum Cosmic Existence representative.
It seemed that the members in that group would never get along, given how the Nonchalant Lady defended me from Asakura Ryouko, and the way their own plans interfered with one another's.
However, the fact that they did coexist, though not entirely peacefully, was something of concern. They had the four powers available to them, and they constructed a secure base away from prying eyes. They were a dangerous team.
And they had succeeded.
They had given Haruhi the idea that death would be preferable to living in this horrid world, which was amplified a thousand-fold thanks to their manipulation and adjustments to everything Haruhi saw, heard or read.
Undoubtedly, she would begin to question why she would want to live on, despite all of this.
The propaganda of disease and suicide must've incited some deeper emotions within her, memories of her past, and as Koizumi put it so succinctly, that night at Tanabata, had she failed.
She created the entire situation herself.
From the first cough, the first drops of blood, to the Golden Poison Dart frog, its regeneration, to her later infection at the keyboard, and then the hospitalisation.
How would it be possible to defeat a disease that Haruhi wished into existence? One that was synthesised exclusively to target her alone, to end her life prematurely?
Their statements were reminders to me that these were indeed the people who wished for her to be dead. I was thankful I didn't choose the other option.
Still, there was nothing that could have been done to change things, as Haruhi would've been bombarded with all the horrid things humans do to one another. Even her clinical and logical brain, which would have immediately detected that these things were relatively small in the global scale or unlikely to happen in the near future to her, couldn't help but be depressed and downtrodden y all the facts.
An unhappy Haruhi makes for an unhappy world, case in point for the current status of all things originating from Haruhi.
Besides, perhaps things can change for the better; there must be a way to reverse this total lack of faith in humanity.
Ah, the bell is ringing...
The sound of happy children made me smile, two of them waved at me crazily, and I waved back slightly, a little embarrassed at being here.
Yes, I'm not at school. I'm outside my sister's primary school, watching her through the gates. I had to convince my parents to take her all the way to her school, and to even be allowed to wait nearby for her breaks.
I wasn't taking Asakura Ryouko's warning lightly. Even if it was meant as a joke, though I still couldn't tell, I was not about to let her try anything with me around.
The little I am able to do is to watch out for her from a distance, I can't be in the school, nor can I just lurk at the gates all day, unless the inside of a police jail cell is what I wanted to see. Other grandparents and housewives were here, waving to the kids, so it wasn't unusual in my area to see family members looking out for their young ones any hour they could.
My sister came close to me, dragging the adult looking Miyokichi along too. We chatted about normal things, though my sister was smiling more than usual, and she wanted to hold my hand for as much time as she could. Miyokichi was talking in her overly polite way to me, but also showing some warmth, as if she realised that my sister was receiving real affection from her only brother.
The bell rang again, and my sister, reluctant to let go of my hand, waved happily to me as she re-entered the school.
I heard a familiar chuckling in the air around me, floating indiscriminately from ear to ear, only to vanish again.
I knew that searching for the source would be useless. Asakura Ryouko could even be the air I'm breathing in.
My mobile phone, something that has been rarely used, but almost always used to receive calls from Haruhi or Koizumi buzzed in my pocket. Pulling it out, I saw a strange number, but local. Accepting the call, I spoke first.
"Hello?"
"Ahh, Kyon-kun?" The voice was one I wanted to hear after yesterday's meeting of hell. "I need to see you..."
"Okay Asahina-san, where?"
"Umm... Is the park okay, that same bench?"
Great, I vowed not to go anywhere near that place once more, and now the very next morning I'm doing the same thing.
I thought about my sister, about protecting her. I just hope my gut instinct told me correctly that Asakura Ryouko wouldn't try anything against her, because if she did, she would have a lot more to worry about than just my rage. It tore me up, but I had to accept, I needed to warn her anyway because of that Sneering Bastard.
"That's fine... I'll be there in ten minutes." The school was close to the train station, I didn't have to run to make up the time.
"Good, I'll be there in ten minutes too. See you there, Kyon-kun."
"Bye Asahina-san."
A short click and my phone displayed the call time and mobile network.
I made my way there, fingers crossed inside my pocket for my little sister.
Nine minutes later
The park bench
I was a minute early; talking with time travellers always made me acutely aware of the time differentials, as that Bastard said yesterday.
I saw my pink-haired sempai come jogging up to me, her face rosy from the light exercise, and her locks jumping from side to side, amongst other assets of hers, which I averted my eyes just in time.
"Phew, I'm here, sorry for being late Kyon-kun."
"You're not late, Asahina-san." I was just early for once.
"Ahh, that's good to hear." Her cheerful voice reminded me of how good the world could be, something to tell Haruhi about maybe...
We sat down on 'our' bench, and she sighed. "I know that a lot of things about the future are classified, however I'll try to use simple language." She cleared her voice, and I knew that I would need to concentrate for this. "At this moment I have established a link to my time, to my colleagues, in order to receive any important information from them."
"Okay..." I wasn't sure where this was going.
"You recall the two time quakes? One when the artificially created organism established its presence in the alternate universe, and the second when it instantiated itself into our dimension." I nodded; so far, so good. "Well, those effects have been slowly filtering down through the time planes, and they will both reach my home time, at identical times, in approximately two minutes."
Okay, I think I understood all that.
"What do you think is going to happen?" Something was niggling at me in the back of my mind.
"We're not sure, but whatever it is, it can't be to our advantage."
She gave a sheepish grin, an indicator that she was still the same ditzy time traveller sempai beneath all her advanced technology and knowledge.
"Do you remember that man from before? The one who took the memory card?" She gave a little shiver but nodded regardless, she wasn't happy with being reminded about him again. "I saw him again recently, he talked about some 'procedures' to do with you." She looked shocked and began to scan around her. "I don't know what he has planned, but I think you should be careful."
"I... I understand, Kyon-kun." She paused and nodded again. "My superiors have just heard this conversation too, so they will be careful." A moment passed. "Time quakes will impact in five... four... three... two... one... AAAAH!"
That last cry was a high pitched scream from Asahina-san, clutching her face as fresh tears flowed forth. She was shaking so much I thought she was suffering a fit, with all those convulsions.
Freaked out as I was, I tried to console her, to calm her, but she wouldn't stop, and instead stood up roughly, pushing me back slightly.
"Oh no... This is terrible!" Her eyes were growing wider. "We were infiltrated... There's a battle... No, a war! Haaah!" She bit her finger to stop her fear, but it wasn't working. "So many people dying... Wait, what?" She held her ear and noticed something even worse. "TPDD... Commands are being overridden... The time quakes!"
She stared at me and shook my shoulders, my own senses wrecked from seeing her so distressed. "Time is being locked! Each second has locked ten years of the past from my time!" She gasped and stepped back, pushing me away again by my chest. "Time Plane Destruction Devices... No, they're no longer called that any more... Time Plane Construction Devices... They're sealing off all of the future, and the past to us... Our own technology!"
She was crying, sobbing and she had become a completely broken person.
"Kyon-kun... I don't have much time left..."
Her cheeks were glistening with dozens of tears. Her devastation was apparent.
I don't know how much time had gone by since her scream, a minute, two minutes, or was it just thirty seconds? I could no longer tell as I watched my adorable friend and crush shatter all semblance of her life and happiness right before my eyes.
"I just wanted you to know... I -"
The sentence was cut off abruptly, but I didn't need to ask the reason why.
In every case that I saw involving use of the TPDD, the person, namely Asahina-san and her future self, even that Sneering Bastard, they always went into a confined space, or out of our vision. These included, but were not limited to, the clubroom, a library toilet, the small metal cupboard in the clubroom, a green van, and finally the park bench.
The main fact was that it was contained in a small space was important, and that it produced no sound.
One second ago, I saw Asahina-san suddenly, without any exclamation, flair, noise or overstatement, wink out of this time, forever.
The park lane was still, and life went on as normal.
Until my yell that is.
Ten minutes later
The park bench
It was no use... I searched for the rock and the key chain, but neither were there any more. No matter how much I tried, even looking through the bin or the tree, I couldn't find them.
Asakura Ryouko was right about one thing, I would never get to the base of RIP Cartel again...
I was completely lost; I had no idea where to turn to. Pulling out my phone I called the only person with a vague idea of what had happened.
"I am Koizumi. I was expecting you to call me. I've heard from my colleagues about Asahina-san's disappearance. Do you have any more details?"
I explained briefly what she told me, but more importantly, why she disappeared.
"This was most unexpected, a tragic oversight on my part. Given the reduction of my esper powers, I was wondering if the time travellers would also suffer similar problems."
Well, it has, and she's gone...
"For the time being, remain calm. Though the Organisation hasn't the technology nor ability to communicate with the future or with the time travellers, we will endeavour to somehow transmit a message to them."
I sighed and gave my thanks to Koizumi, before hanging up.
Asahina-san was gone... And I knew exactly why...
The Sneering Bastard.
His group had 'procedures', namely spies and who knows what else ready for a war in the future. Using their own inventions, they did something to the TPDD, or maybe it was an expected effect from the time quakes arriving at the same time.
Thanks to these two things, Asahina-san was lost, sent back to her time in the middle of a war.
I was trying to think of ways to meet him, to introduce my fists into his mouth, and his incisors to the tarmac. I only knew two things about where he was.
One was right here, their base. I had every belief that they knew exactly what had happened, and that I was desperately trying to get back in. There would be no reason to let me inside again, especially since I refused their kind offer, and I doubt that he would want to pop it open just to say hello to me.
Another place was where the green van stopped, at a location on a mountain road. This was a highly unlikely place for him to be, as it was just momentary for him.
The only other one that came to mind was the first time we met him, amongst a flower bed searching for a small, yet vital memory card relating to the future somehow.
Taking my chances, I went straight there.
20 minutes later
The flower garden
It was just like I remembered it, a small patch of soil and flowers growing over it, on a small bridge. Otherwise unremarkable, it was a place I wouldn't forget in a hurry, because of the association it had with him; the courage of those flowers to have bloomed in winter was also a hopeful sight I liked back then.
Glancing about quickly, there was no more memory card in the flower bed. This was obvious, but it would've been strange for it to reappear like that.
It must've been weird for people walking by, seeing me stare at them like they were some murderer, though I was literally looking for one.
As the crowds grew due to the lunch rush, I saw him walking proudly, his ugly grin plastered all over his face.
He was heading straight for me, his bitter eyes bored into mine, claiming his own victory.
"So, we meet again..." He said extraneously. "I figured you would come looking for me."
Around me, the world slowed to a crawl, people began walking as if they were sludging through treacle. By this stage, I no longer needed to fall away from shock or surprise, as so many things have happened until now. It didn't take much of a stretch of thought to conceive that the Bastard opposite me was controlling the world's time and either speeding him and I up, or reducing everyone else's relative time.
"What have you done to Asahina-san?"
"I personally? Nothing, as yet." His evil chuckle made my blood pump faster. "I purposefully left my description vague enough to concern you, but not detailed enough to cause a problem to me."
"So, why did you do it? What did you and your group do?"
"It's not important to you; your time is now forever free from interference from the future. Why should you care?"
"Because I care for her!" I didn't have to say who. "And now you've left her to her fate in her own time, with a big war going on, and I don't know if she will live!"
"Feh..." He shrugged. "Not my problem any more... The Time Plane Construction Devices will make traversing the individual streams and levels of time impossible, at least when the Master TPDD is captured. You won't be around either to find out if she survived, or perished in the neutronic explosions."
"Y-you bastard!"
Ignoring the slow-motioned people, I took two steps and jumped for his face, relishing the satisfying crunch of my fist against his nose. We bundled through the people, and they scattered away, again as if their bodies were underwater.
He was still grinning madly, ignoring the bloody nose pumping the red life fluid over his lips, and planted a neat and clinical punch beneath my rib cage, sending the wind out of me. Getting my wits about, I kicked him in the groin, the sacrosanct place for men.
However, he anticipated this and sidestepped, only to chop me sharply in the back of my neck. I saw stars for several seconds, trying to find him. When I did, I halted all movement.
He was aiming a pistol at me, but not the crude 20th century ones I was used to. This one was incredibly evil looking, with sharp spikes near the barrel exit and even a turning knob on the top.
"Unlike your former comrade, I am not restricted in the same methods, and as you can see I have my own weapons. I can De-Atomise you, create total synaptic nerve cascade failure, and even level cities using the Graviton Emitter, all with this gun."
I didn't dare breathe. Facing death was a side-effect of being around Haruhi. Then again, I am over-exaggerating; I always had the likes of Nagato and Koizumi near me, so I always felt protected.
Nevertheless, facing down the business, and wholly wrong, end of a gun that could destroy Tokyo in the blink of an eye, I felt numbed. I didn't know what to think any more. I've been scared more times in the past week than any human should have experienced in a whole lifetime. This gun was just another one added to the list.
"Sadly, I can't kill you..." He pursed his lips at this; obviously it was something he wanted to do in a while. "But, you did manage to punch me, something I bet you loved, so I'll just inflict..." He twiddled the knob to some setting. "A little bit of payback from the future."
The blue and white light project from the spikes, transferred to the barrel, and combined with a red pulse to collide with my chest.
I don't know what he chose, but whatever it was, it made me scream. Every movable extremity twitched constantly, going through to my innards, which roared in agony. If this was less deadly than that synaptic nerve cascade failure, then I can't imagine just how much less.
My tears were flowing from the fire that was coursing my veins, my skin and my muscles. The only consolation, though paltry, was that I didn't lose control of my bowels. Through all this pain and hurt, I kept my reddening and watery eyes on his own smug ones.
I then heard his last words.
"Time will resume polarity in ten seconds." He held his right ear, presumably where the TPCD lay. "This will be the last time we ever meet. Goodbye, Kyon, or should I say -"
As he spoke my real name, even as he left my world and the flood of sound came from people coming to help me, I fainted, losing consciousness.
Later that day
The hospital
The beeping of a heart monitor awoke me, and I stared at the light fixture above me.
"Another unfamiliar ceiling..." I muttered, before frowning.
Wait. This wasn't that unfamiliar to me, I've seen those light fixtures before, as well as the immaculate sparkling sheen on all the surfaces. I'd been in one of these rooms before, December 21st, and I've been visiting one frequently lately.
"Well, it's good to see your mood has lifted." Koizumi mirthfully joked.
"How long this time?"
I was referring to the last time I suffered something serious, when it fact it was a result of re-aligning the time streams from when Nagato changed the world. I was in a coma for three days supposedly that time, although now Koizumi knew the real truth.
"Not as much as then, just a few hours." He frowned, his plastic smile fading. "Your body suffered internal shock, almost to the point of rupture. Thankfully nothing serious was inflicted on you, but you did hit your head and limbs on the ground several times due to your massive contortions."
I felt my head and found a bandage there wrapped around my hair.
"It was just a precaution, but there is no damage, you can remove it if you wish, if you're able to move."
"Yeah, I am..." I sat up and didn't collapse into a pained posture, it really was only temporary.
Koizumi spoke in an undertone. "From what Mori-san said – sorry, we followed you after getting your call – she saw you speak with that man from the future for a few seconds, before falling to the ground. We couldn't find him afterwards."
"Yeah, he went home, he's not coming back." I pulled off the bandage and showed it to Koizumi. "He left me a parting gift in the meantime."
"I see..." Koizumi rubbed his forehead. "This complicates matters entirely. We were hoping to acquire that technology that belongs to him in order to send a message to the future." He sighed. "It looks like we were too late."
"I guess..." I stood up and walked about for a moment, checking my body for any lasting impressions, but as he said, nothing serious, other than a sore toe.
"As our Organisation is presumably known by the future agency, we will also take into consideration that by then we will have allied with them, unless something unexpected or drastic happens to further our ties with each other, or we somehow cease to exist by then." He held up a finger. "Thus, as allies, they will know of our main meeting areas, and will possibly retreat to these buildings during this so-called Time War. We will leave our messages in these buildings now, with instructions to move them in case the buildings themselves don't last." He shook his head. "We don't know what to write, nor what this message will accomplish, but we can at least give them hope."
The Sneering Bastard's face suddenly came back to me, and I understood that he wanted to fight eagerly. I believed that he wanted to get rid of Asahina-san personally, which made me angrier.
'I am not restricted in the same method' he said, as he pointed that torture device at me. That was when I realised that for once I was thankful of all those 'Classified Information' conversations I had with Asahina-san.
Sometimes, too much information from the future can be used against you.
"The message should include something about protecting the Master TPDD. He revealed that secret to me by accident. Once that one is gone, there will be no more time travel, so it needs to be kept safe at all costs."
"Are you sure?" Koizumi looked as if he was making a mental note. "This could be helpful to them. Perhaps they can hide it somewhere..."
He held the door open for me as we walked out. "I hope so, too..." I said.
I glanced back at my room number, and wasn't able to resist generating another wry smile.
Room 21.
A perfect figure to be when concerning Haruhi's own room number. I was exactly one half of that.
I left the hospital leaving Koizumi talking to Mori-san and Arakawa-san about the message, as I walked home for the day.
Later that evening
Home
I went back to my sister's school, after remembering saying that I'd promise to pick her up afterwards. She was still surprised to see me there, but was eagerly jumping through the playground to get to me. Miyokichi came step by step, and bowed politely, saying that she too would like to walk home with me, to play with my sister.
I began recalling that story I wrote for Haruhi, of the 'Romance' genre, I ended up writing about the only real life experience I had, with said girl above. Although it turned out more like a mystery story, it was merely a time when the physically mature Miyokichi, the same age as my sister, asked me out to watch a movie with her favourite actor in it, then to a tea shop.
She does like coming over to visit, so it didn't come as a shock to me. I asked if she checked with her parents, she said she'd send them a text message while walking with us. In fact, she pulled out her mobile phone and started tapping away as we made our way home.
It's amazing how kids these days get new fangled equipment; I never had anything like that in my youth...
Anyway, I'm getting off the topic. Miyokichi was chatting and playing away with my sister in her room, my parents informed me that they were going out on some private meal, and that I should take care of the two staying here. That was why, when the doorbell rang, I lazily got up off of the living room sofa and went to answer it.
Opening it up, I was met with... nothing. No person was there, and no parcel left on the door step, or worse, a baby with a note saying 'Please take care of me'. Thinking it was some prank, I was about to shut it when a scared voice brought me out of my stupor.
"Kyon-kun... Help me..."
I recognised that voice, it was impossible. Suddenly a large fleshy mass pressed against me and into my home, knocking me to the floor, having jumped from the bushes.
The pink hair was instantly recognisable.
"A-Asahina-san?"
I also could tell that, barring the wide red blush that was on her face and upper chest, she was completely naked. Trying to maintain my hormones at having a naked girl squashed literally on my loose clothing was harder than it seemed, no pun intended. Reaching out with my leg, I slammed the door to avoid people outside seeing, but it was a little too loud.
"Kyon-kun!" My sister's voice sounded curiously. "Who is it?"
"N-No one, just a friend, th-that's all..." I weighed all the options and thought of a way out. I whispered to the girl on top of me, straddling my waist. "Wait here, I'll make sure she stays in her room, and then I'll give you a signal."
Feeling her nod, as I couldn't see her face properly from beneath her fringe, I gestured to her to move away, and she shirked off me hiding her body in the corner by the door. Leaping the steps two at a time, I peeked my head in to check up on them.
"Everything okay?"
"Kyon-kun! Come play with us, we're doing 'I Spy'."
Miyokichi nodded too, as if she too wanted someone else to join in.
"Maybe later, I'm going to help a friend with some tutoring for some time..." I didn't indicate who, but it did sound like an authentic excuse, despite no one coming over for help in the past.
"Okay..." She pouted. "When you want to play, knock, right?"
I smiled at her and closed the door, sighing lightly.
I opened my room door and waved down the steps, trying not to look any more than necessary.
Asahina-san's footsteps came lightly on the staircase, and she went straight for the open door. Without her asking for anything, I pulled out some clean clothes for her from my cupboard, more of my casual homewear items, as well as some underwear; though I wasn't sure she would accept it.
Turning the other way on my desk chair, I let the world's background noise take me away from the rustling of cloth against skin, and her final sigh.
"You can look now, Kyon-kun."
Returning to stare at the beautiful girl on the bed, I was startled by two things.
As I initially focused too much time on her nakedness and blush, I failed to spot the cuts on her skin, and blood leaking from her head. Even as I watched, open wounds were bleeding through the clothing to create patches of red on the otherwise dull looking green and blue outfit. I quickly checked myself and saw I that I too had blood smears from when she fell onto my in the entrance.
The second item on the agenda was that this was not my Asahina-san.
It was Asahina-san (Big).
"I'm sorry to come to you like this..." She said so succinctly. "I know right now you are going through many issues in your life at this moment, and that by the end of it all, you probably already hate me for what I have asked of you in the past..." She took a breath and held her arm, where the largest red patch was. "However, I just wanted you to know that my younger self is alive, well and hidden."
It was true, I was angry at her for the small tasks I had to perform in order to adjust the future adequately. Yet, being a sane human male, seeing a beautiful woman asking not to hate you, whilst crying and bleeding all over, only made me feel pity and care for her.
"That's good to hear." I was genuinely happy that my sempai was safe from harm. "But, what about you? Aren't you in a bad state already, do you need any bandages or medicine? Why risk it all to come back in time, naked no less..."
I failed to hold back my blush, as did she.
"I'll be fine thanks." Her winces didn't convince me entirely. "I will take care of this later. To answer your last question, I was unable to use conventional methods. The TPDDs, as you know, were all shut down, except one. The two other ways are dangerous; however one was already destroyed, as the rival faction had removed the time circuits and the flux capacitor from the vehicle moments after the first attacks."
Which beggars the question, what was the last method?
"Emergency Temporal Shift. Only done in the direst of circumstances, it physically removes a person from his or her own time to the past or future, forcing and pushing that person into the new time, and in the new time period also removing all foreign matter within a small spherical radius. This can only be done from my time due to the AirWeb satellites, which police the process." She chuckled lightly. "One of the side effects is that all non-organic material outside of the body, such as clothing, is removed during transfer."
Well, with a war on, you'd expect all the time agency members to escape like that.
She closed her eyes and held her heart, clenching my fleecy top tightly. "This is only possible for the holder of the Master TPDD." She opened them and gazed into my own pair. "That person is me, Kyon. Your message, via the esper Organisation, helped save my life as I escaped from the rival group. If they overwrite it, then no more TPDDs can be built."
"But, I thought you said you couldn't carry inorganic material." I blurted.
Indeed, I saw nothing else with her aside from her star-shaped mole on her left breast, though that was seriously organic.
Bad thoughts, Kyon, bad thoughts...
"That's right." She smiled. "The Master TPDD is inside me." She tapped the side of her head, then her heart. "Normal TPDDs are located solely in the brain, but the Master version contains a separate module embedded in the heart, linked to my life force intricately. Should I... expire... then with it goes the ability to create more TPDDs. If I am captured, then they will convert it to a Time Plane Construction Device, or Master TPCD, and that will guarantee the boundaries of our time zone. Neither is good."
"But… hasn't everything happened already? Shouldn't you know what happens to the world now?"
She shook her head. "Sadly, no. The two time quakes helped to seal off travel to the past, excluding the Master TPDD. Your current time has been sheared from the future, your future time plane in question cannot be traversed, and we do not know how it will end up. I'm sorry."
It made sense at least, but it was a shame to not know what would happen.
I then realised that not once she spoke 'Classified Information', as this all sounded highly detailed and sensitive information, though perfectly simple enough to understand by the layman like me.
"As you guessed correctly a while ago..." She smiled peacefully. "I am the most senior official of the Time Agency, hence my position is that of giving orders, and dictating what can and cannot be set as Classified Information. In terms of what I have told you, it is not so vital to the future, as I have not told you what materials or components the TPDD contains, nor how the entire process of time travel works." She leaned back into my bed. "Still, I don't see any harm in telling you these things, you only received one important piece, and you did the right thing, to ask the Organisation to protect the Master TPDD, and by extension, me."
She blushed fully this time, and quietened her breathing. We were both silent for a time, until I forgot who I was with for a moment.
"But, aren't you further in time than your younger self?" I scratched my cheek idly. "Shouldn't your future be already locked?"
"Yes..." She chuckled. "It's complicated, but again due to my status. I can't live in my own time, for fear that my death due to accidents or assassination attempts would immediately shut down the manufacturing of new TPDDs. I remain as the head of the agency, albeit in another time."
That must be hard for you, to be away from your family and friends in another place, which I also assume means you can't contact them because your position will be revealed.
She nodded, and tear globules were on the edge of her eyelids.
"That's the price of being the boss..."
I let out a breath I was holding.
"So, what now? Are you going to stay here?"
I already knew the answer before she spoke.
"No, sadly. They'll know that this is one of the few places I'll retreat to, and then you'll be in danger too."
That much was as per the usual for being around me.
"The Organisation by then is stronger too, and they have helped me thus far."
How? Their abilities don't work in the real world…
"Closed Space…" She smiled lightly. "They are able to generate it at will using all their strength combined. I've been hiding in that grey world for a week now, but moving from place to place so they can restore their own powers to do the same thing again."
That is quite impressive; the thought of Closed Space used as a shelter would be amazing. You have electricity and food, what more could you ask for?
"Some company would be nice…" She giggled. "But rarely some people come in to speak to me, so I'm not completely alone all the time."
No chance of hanging around here for long then?
"No, I have to go back, to help somehow from the shadows. The Time Resistance army is growing in strength, and trying to hack to new TPCDs to restore their old functions. The war effort also needs some boosting in numbers and strength, not to mention morale."
The words 'war' and 'effort' shouldn't belong in a sentence together, and neither should Asahina-san, either version, be involved in one. Her gracious smile melted my core slightly.
"I'm glad you still think enough of me to care..."
I sighed deeply. I've always cared for her, despite my disagreement with the way she handled things. Nothing could really change how I felt about her. As with everyone, I wished for her to be safe and happy.
"It pleases me to hear you say that, Kyon-kun..." She got up, limping, and giving me a warm hug as I sat. "I'm glad I still have you as a friend. It makes me feel loved by someone..."
I tentatively responded in kind, since I knew this would be the last time I would see her.
"Will we meet again?"
She pulled back and shook her head, her tears mimicking her younger self. "I-I'm afraid not, Kyon-kun..." She wiped them away with the fleecy shirt. "It would be too risky, and..." She didn't want to speak any more about that. "Remember I told you, there will be a time when you have to make a choice." She gave me a meaningful look. "Involving the future, and your choice would affect me too."
I recalled her saying the same thing to me, that time after all those silly tasks.
Only this time, I already made a choice. To save Haruhi.
I just didn't know if it was the right or wrong one...
"So, I have to go now..." She was checking herself via her ear. "It is nearly one hour since I arrived here in this time. I must leave before they can detect my presence outside of my usual timeframe."
I became fearful. Those injuries were already very painful looking, and she had problems just standing, fighting in a war would be far from her capabilities.
"Thank you for saying that..." She had on a knowledgeable grin. "However, these are only basic injuries, we can cure them easily. How, as you know, is Classified Information." She winked at me.
I smiled, it was good to see her so cheerful in spite of all these events.
"Five seconds..." She began to fade away, her body becoming translucent each millisecond. "Ah, by the way, Kyon-kun, my real age is -"
Her smile became invisible as, once again, my elder time travelling Brigade member and friend left this time, her subtle parting shot hanging in the wind.
That night, after playing with my sister and Miyokichi, I tried to fall asleep next to my sibling, but I had a lot of difficulty. Something kept on getting in and irritating my eyes, wetting my pillow and making me think it was my own sloppy drool.
I never found what it was, but my last memory before dozing off for the evening was hoping I could see Asahina-san again, one last time.
---
Author's Notes
A fairly epic chapter this one, written immediately after the previous. Given the lack of development on the elder version, I tried to fill in some of the gaps that may not have been apparent in the novels, and added some parts that I think make her more sympathetic.
I'm hoping that you would all find this a bit of a shock to read, but seeing as paranormal things are changing (i.e. being stopped), then this should have been one of them. Kyon's anger was very hard to get right (especially the previous chapter), seeing as we have had literally a handful of times, and even then it was only slight anger (at Haruhi no less). Trying to come up with a suitable anger at Asakura Ryouko or the Sneering Bastard was tough, but seeing as Kyon wished to punch him in the novels, I thought he should get his chance!
Lots of pop culture references here, easy to spot when you know where to look (time travel methods anyone?). Most of you spotted that 300 one, it was out of character for Kyon, but well funny after reading it again.
I foresee around four more chapters, then an epilogue. Be prepared…
- J