Chapter 13.
Those eyes would be able to undo me in any situation. Ambar eyes, lit up in hot white, capable of killing with a certain "evil eye" ... those eyes have the same intensity as Haruhi's eyes... it must be because they share the same unknown and mysterious nature. Haruhi-Ni undresses me with that killer's gaze having me at least a meter away from her, knife risen for a second time.
"You won't do it... you don't have what's needed." She tells me, immovable. I despise admitting it, but she's right. "Lower the knife, we both know you won't use it against me."
Damn it... this time I'm really ruined... we all are thanks to my indecision. Without having a very clear picture of what will happen next, I lowered my hand.
Forgive me... I failed everyone... forgive me, Haruhi... after all, it seems I'm not worthy of you choosing me.
And is it like this how everything will end?
"It's really a relief that you became aware of everything and took us out of that closed space..." Koizumi tells me. We are both seated in the posterior seat in Arakawa's black taxi. We travel on a highway, but I can't recognize it, I can only see the concrete and the illuminated sky in bright white, like it was covered with clouds extremely charged with the sunlight. "I know you don't like talking about it, but... what made you react?"
"You're right... I don't like talking about it."
The esper laughed and turned towards the window.
"I think that I know somehow... we all know. It was evident from long time ago. The people that know say that love isn't something to say, it's simply something to feel. However, it would've been a big lack of judgement having it suggested to you before now. But now that you know it, or better said, that finally accepted it, there exists no problem that I express my theory."
"What theory could fit in here...?" I respond. "You, yourself, had just expressed it, it's not something to say."
"You're right. I only want you to know that I'm very happy for you both. Frankly, I believe it couldn't have been any other way... and I feel this time we really have a chance to win. Even so... if I die in what comes soon, I'd like if..."
"Enough! No one will die today, I can assure you... and if you want to ask me to name my dog after you or something like that, forget it." I tell him with a strong voice, but without being able to avoid smiling.
Koizumi appeased his gesture and leaned relaxed against the back of the seat:
"It's exactly the response I expected from you... it's a true pleasure to have you as my friend, I hope you feel the same about me."
"This is a new opportunity to save the place I come from, and I can have it thanks to you." Asahina expresses to me while we walk together on the river's streambed in our locality, in the park. The time is undefined, no one else walks here besides us. The sky is just as white and bright. "This time I'll give all I've got, I won't be afraid again... and that is also thanks to you."
"Thanks to me?" I ask. It's simply impossible to talk with this girl and not being in a good mood.
"You had just overcome one of the most difficult battles: you faced yourself and your ideas and feelings, with such courage that despite yourself, you accepted the truth and had the aplomb and responsibility to bring us all back. That's simply inspiring." She stopped a moment and put her hands together behind her back while raising her face towards the tree tops. "Being very honest, I feel great envy for Suzumiya right now... but at the same time, I feel very happy for how everything ended. When I met her, I thought that she really was a capricious girl to whom life had given her a power simply too big to control... but with time, I began to think that in reality, that power was given to her because she had an enormous potential... and you are that which can make that so immense potential be well directed. History books talked about it, but I never imagined things to be this way."
"History books?"
"Classified Information."
"The flux of data that is occurring at this moment is of great interest to the DIE. Even for me it results a mystery that an affluent of data so impressive is happening while it mixes with the noise that Suzumiya Haruhi and you produced since some time ago."
"Noise?" I ask in the face of Nagato's explanation. Curiously, it doesn't seem so confusing now. We are each at a side of her little coffee table, in her apartment. I believe it's the first time I see the interior of this place during the daylight.
"The noise produced among humans that you called "love." Very frequently, between parents and their offspring, less usually in relationships without blood relations. Extremely atypical in the type that Suzumiya Haruhi and you have developed. The information that is being produced during said phenomena is overcoming the levels of analysis of the DIE, and our interest centers in the fact she could have the key of the auto evolution that we have followed for so long."
"It would be such an event if you could implement it in our lives." I respond to the alien. Generally, when we talk of feelings or emotions, she looks as confused as me when she talks about her technicalities. This time, she doesn't seem to unaware of what I tell her either.
"It could be extremely beneficial. The mistakes that I've experienced along the time in contact with Suzumiya Haruhi and with you, have been product of a bad canalization of the information obtained from you both..." She stopped momentarily, like reflecting on what she'd say next. "From the moment I met you both up until today, I thought that errors continued accumulating in my database... however, the supposedly erroneous information was, in reality, what you called "learning" ... very similar to the one I acquire with the reading of your books, but recrudescent and harder to interpret. And among the things I've learned from my connivance with you all is gratitude. That feeling you express when you have the chance and which Suzumiya disdains when doing things without any interest to receive something in exchange. Thanks for everything, personally I have the wish to stay all the time I can with you all before reincorporating into the DIE."
I turned in my chair... the seat of always, the second to last before the end of the row and I leaned my back against the window, looking at the seat behind mine and its occupant. Haruhi, with her chin supported on her right hand, looked through the window flooded with the white light from the exterior sky. Only the two of us were in the classroom.
"What are you thinking?" I ask her.
"In the curious way that everything resulted at the end." She responds with her voice charged with melancholy.
"Yeah... from so many good catches, it had to be me... even today I keep the hope that our encounter was a coincidence."
"Probably... I have another theory... I think if it wouldn't have been you who talked to me first... I had kept on discharging everyone else... one by one... until finally, one day, I would've found you irremediably."
"I'm not so sure about that... I'm the most normal of the guys, there's nothing that makes me special and different from the rest."
"Stop being so stupid for a moment." She tells me turning towards me. "Anyone that would've had to get involved in my projects would've ended running away without thinking twice, or would've ended agreeing with me without refuting just for fear."
"At least you admit you are frightening."
"That's one of the things why it had to be you... you don't concentrate only in one part of me... you didn't stay with the impression that I'm pretty, or hateful, or any other thing... you accepted the whole package..." While she says that, she's seated in the very small folding chair with the yellow megaphone in her hands and the arm band with the legend "Ultra Director" in her left arm. I, at some meters ahead of her, hold the video camera negotiated for Asahina's work.
"How do you know I can't be like that with other people?" I ask her.
"From the way you treat others... there are things you don't accept from Koizumi, other things you'd like to change about Mikuru, although you don't express it, and even things that you prefer ignoring about Yuki. Although I don't like admitting it, you know me better than my own parents or even myself... and even knowing all the flaws and problems of character, which I know aren't just a few or small... you didn't leave. On the contrary... You stayed and accepted the challenge... Don't you remember?"
With that said, we were in the bench under the shelter from the tree of jacaranda near my parents' house. I repeated the same words from that day in which Haruhi discovered the truth about her power:
"I'll do it despite yourself. Whether you like it or not, I will remain by your side, without caring if you throw me out, insult me or hit me..."
"With all that... do you really think it could've been someone else?"
"And what if it was you at the beginning whom looked for me and found me and not the other way around?"
"Do you remember I can make wish come true...?" She tells me smiling. "I wished someone arrived, accepted me and stayed with me always... someone like that John Smith I met in middle school... and that one could only be you... we were created in this world for some reason I don't know yet, but the fact we are together proves it must be this way."
"It sounds too... cheesy..." I respond while I raise the umbrella we share under the rain, that far winter day.
"Then, if that's it..." She snatches the umbrella and takes off running. "You can still regret it!"
She turns around and sticks her tongue out to me while putting her finger under her right eye.
I wouldn't regret it... if life gave me the opportunity to repeat the last two years, without any doubts I'd make the same mistakes... I would only do it faster.
The pleasuring sensation of emptiness began to disappear. The white light that surrounded us was becoming less intense at each instant and a blinking after, I could feel the crunching of the debris under my feet. Haruhi and Nagato had done the miracle, and not only had they brought us back to our dimension, they brought us inside the closed space created by Haruhi-Ni, barely an instant after our first battle had ended... the power of these two girls together simply transcends time and space...
As soon as I opened my eyes, I could see the SOS-Ni Brigade reunited at some meters from us, Haruhi-Ni looked at us with incredulity, the expression of her footmen wasn't very different.
Us five let go of our hands, but we weren't the only ones in that place. Behind our backs was the whole SOS Battalion, even those that had stayed as backups in the quarters... Asahina (adult), Mr. Arakawa, even Suou was again enfolded in her Kouyouen uniform and again she looked like just another rock in the background. As if all had been prey of an Epiphany, they seem to have complete conscious of what they were doing there...
"It's impossible..." Asahina-Ni mumbled with her contorted face... "I killed that bastard!" She yelled while pointing at me. "I watched him stop breathing! I made sure his heart stopped beating!"
"And no one can breathe under water..." Koizumi-Ni added, as if his deduction were the brightest in the world... idiot.
"The corruption in the data base of my dimensional variant exceeded the limit of restoration..." Nagato-Ni said, blinking in confusion.
"Then well job everyone!" Haruhi-Ni complemented with her voice charged with sarcasm.
Kyon-Ni rummaged among his clothes... he must've noticed that the survival knife wasn't with him any longer, but in the magnetic case that Fujiwara had gifted me. Except for him and for Haruhi-Ni, the other three looked tired, wounded and uneasy... we weren't even dirty... the advantage was ours this time. Trying to embolden herself, Haruhi-Ni began to speak like this:
"You really have managed the unthinkable... this time things are getting very interesting...!"
"SHUT UP!" Haruhi ordered ahead of us. Even the sea surrounding us seems scared in the face of her aplomb. "This isn't a game anymore."
Haruhi-Ni swallowed saliva full of nervous while retreating her step.
"Kill them..." She ordered, trying to hide her fear.
She took the hand of Kyon-Ni and tried to reach Asahina-Ni to get them out of the esplanade with the help of her TPDD. To her disgrace, our own Asahina (small) appeared in the precise moment, giving a well certain punch to the abdomen of her counterpart, taking her out of the reach of her brigade leader when throwing her several dozens of meters against one of the constructions.
She requested the assistance of her alien then, whom immediately created a pair of energy fields, one protecting the girl with the purple headband and another one around herself, who was already being attacked simultaneously by Nagato, Kimidori, my old professor and Suou among other interfaces. The combined power of the aliens forced her to raise her hands for the first time since I've met her... I must make a special mention about Suou's power... I'm not saying it was greater than the other interfaces, she simply looked different and seemed to manage to disconcert Nagato-Ni.
Koizumi-Ni already flew at that moment, close to a dozen of espers came out to his encounter and again he tried to search for refuge in the sea waters that surrounded the Gunkan-Jima. I admit that Mori strongly got my attention, she looked like a dancer while she flew with elegancy and did quick and accurate attacks against the idiot.
Asahina (Adult) got close with serene steps to Haruhi and I and touched our shoulder. We reappeared an instant after inside one of the buildings around the esplanade where the fierce battle developed.
"Please, Suzumiya..." The adult version of our time traveler began. "Stay here while the battle ends." She turned towards me then. "I will try to get you as close as possible to them..."
"Understood." I responded. "Please, take care of Haruhi while I take care of it..."
"I don't need a sitter..." Haruhi reclaimed.
"I know... I just don't want you to pointlessly expose yourself."
She reluctantly took my advice and I assented to Asahina (Adult) to get me close to my objective. As I utilized more and more the TPDD, the more familiar I felt with the dizziness and now it didn't affect me. My feet touched the ground of the esplanade and only then I could see the true dimension of the battle that was developing in the island. Koizumi-Ni, up high in the sky, wasn't getting any mercy from the espers of the two agencies, who without a qualm, distributed all kinds of shots of energy; it's the first time I saw him so vulnerable while wasting the almost unlimited resources he had. Asahina-Ni, mustering the last energy he had left, indiscriminately dispatched every time traveler who crossed her path... I must admit she's an impressing fighter, despite the exhaustion and the frank disadvantage, she was whom looked the most difficult to submit. Nagato-Ni, at several hundred meters from where I am, lays immobile with a knee on the floor while she tries by any means to defend herself from her multiple adversaries, all this while she protects Haruhi-Ni. This time I don't have at my reach the camouflage that Kimidori put on me last time, so it's completely based on my cunning to get close to them and... do what I must do.
And while I hide among the debris to not be seen by my prey, a scene at the distance catches my attention:
Having momentarily left out of the fight her adversaries, Asahina-Ni again has a hand to hand with our tea angel... once again, there's no disappearances, and the island seems to shake at the beat of their blows. It looked like a just battle until in an agile movement, Asahina-Ni places both hands over the neck or our Asahina (Small)... indignant I noticed she was using a nervous stimulator, provoking her that horrible pain to our agent from the future while trying to strangle her... I felt the impulse to go help her, but a soft hand on my shoulder stopped me.
"No... your mission is another one..." Asahina (Adult) tells me, hidden next to me.
"She's going to kill her..." I responded.
"She won't. Watch what will happen next..."
I did as she indicated and I turned towards the contestants... what I saw was simply amazing...
Despite the unimaginable pain that had Asahina (Small) on her knees, he firmly took Asahina-Ni's wrists... little by little she began to get up, changing the triumphant gesture of her opponent for a face of absolute incredibility... she was defeating her even in the face of such a torture! When she was completely erected, she separated the hands of Asahina-Ni from her neck and gained momentum. The forehead of Asahina (Small) impacted Asahina-Ni's face with such a force that even at the distance that separated us I could hear her nose break. Asahina-Ni fell on her back and reincorporated half way, trying to contain her nasal hemorrhage with her left hand.
"BITCH!" Wow... I had never heard a bad word in the delicate voice of Asahina (Small)... she truly must be angry... and she didn't have enough with that...
The next moment, and without giving her the chance to recover, a Mikuru-Beam dragged the crashed girl at least the distance equivalent to a football field, until a building stopped her. I doubt that killed her, but without any doubts it will keep her at the margin some minutes. Trying to avoid surprises, Asahina walks towards the construction, a moment later, Fujiwara and the other users of the TPDD unite with her.
Assenting in conformity to Asahina (Adult), I bespoke to her again the safety of Haruhi and following my improvised technique of infiltration, I continued searching my objectives. Meanwhile, I hear something like a blast in the sky, similar to one when a steel rope that supports bridges had snapped. Turning towards the sky I can see that the green bubble that cover the idiot had finally been destroyed and Koizumi-Ni is left at the mercy of the attacks from the other espers... give him a lesson, he deserves it...
At some few hundred of meters, I can see Haruhi-Ni, anxious, back to back with Kyon-Ni, guarding I don't get close... her back is towards me, vigilant, my counterpart sees me... but he doesn't tell on me... he's really helping me... despite having the backup from him, I can't get close enough without getting hurt by the energy shield that Nagato-Ni imposed on them... there must be another way...
I turned towards the part of the island where the aliens fight... of course! Once Nagato-Ni is defeated, there won't be protection for this pair of impostors... it's a unique opportunity among a thousand...
"Asahina! Koizumi! Attack Nagato-Ni!" I yelled at my brigade partners, catching their attention, but at the same time revealing my position.
Just as I expected, Koizumi began to throw energy attacks from his position in the sky, while Asahina materialized herself as close to Nagato-Ni as her energy field allowed it. They're going to submit her... and when that happens... this steel will perforate her heart... I must do it... for everyone here...
The assassin's moral dilemma... good place and moment to feel it, right? On one hand, I have the enormous responsibility to procure my world and the people in it that I love... for Koizumi and his organization, which without its backup, we definitely wouldn't have come so far, and Haruhi wouldn't have integrated so well the way she did it despite the forecast of her so voluble personality, next to him, Tachibana, who in the beginning I felt as an enemy, but who in so many ways has demonstrated a big team spirit, the same as her organization... for Asahina, whom I'd protect with my life without doubting it an instant, and her adult version, whom although sometime seemed manipulating and little deserving of trust, right now had absolutely gained all my respect... even the bastard Fujiwara didn't seem such a bad person after all... and although without a doubt he'll go back to whatever plans he had before becoming our ally, perhaps we'll give him the opportunity to try it. And if there was someone among all these people that deserved my support, gratitude and trust, that was Nagato. Besides Haruhi, she's the one that has gone through the greatest difficulties. She's been the only one, besides Haruhi and I that has had to lose her family, and I believe that from out of the five, she's the one that's matured the most, becoming more human every day... perhaps she'll never get to completely be like us, but the fact she's refining her personality gives me a great satisfaction... on her side are the other interfaces whom we all respect, even the spooky Suou. On the other hand, it's my spirit on its own. What will happen with me if I'm successful? It has never crossed my mind to do something so terrible as to kill... lying makes me feel guilty, I need to reach levels of stress very elevated to try to hurt anyone or anything, I didn't even feel strong enough to leave Shamimasen on his own... and today I'm asked to kill this girl... I simply feel it's too much for me... I wish I had the courage to do the right thing...
While I reflected on that, a gigantic blue hand made itself present again, Haruhi, from some undetermined point in the island, formed again a celestial, only this time she concentrated in breaking the energy field that protected her counterpart and mine. Haruhi-Ni did the proper, erecting one of her orange celestials to face the other light titan. This panorama really became so unreal that I began to feel dizzy... it must end soon... I don't have a family anymore, but I still must protect them from this world ending... I must also procure the girl that I just discovered I love...
It was that last thought that broke my indecision bubble... Kyon-Ni without a doubt would open a breach for me, allowing me to reach the girl with the purple headband, I only needed to wait until Nagato-Ni was bowed down... once that requirement was obtained, everything would be in my hands...
An impact brings me back again from my daydreaming, at some hundreds of meters on my right. Koizumi-Ni hardly falls from the sky. He reincorporates with difficulty while the other espers land around him... however, he doesn't fly again, he stands in the middle of his opponents and raises his hands like if he was being aimed with a fire arm. He's been defeated, the two agencies took him in custody and they don't seem to have any intentions to hurt him. I'm glad.
At the other side of the island, Asahina-Ni woke up with soft slaps given by Fujiwara. Waking up, she notices she doesn't have her TPDD anymore and looks with fury badly contained at her antagonist. One by one is falling...
And while the two light titans hit each other mercilessly, what didn't seem possible a pair of days ago occurs. The field that protects Nagato-Ni bursts open, along with the one that protects Haruhi-Ni. Looking at their situation, I can see Nagato, immovable, standing in front of her counterpart, firmly holding her by the neck...
"Submit." That's her order. With a cold and inexpressive voice... but with a barely perceptible proper accent of hate.
Nagato-Ni didn't respond. She simply lowered her face, making it known she didn't have anything else to do or say.
Haruhi-Ni, seeing her last defense fall, lost concentration, allowing her celestial to fall and dissipate... it was my turn to act.
That day of filming the horrible movie we made came to my memory, when we were in Tsuruya's house... when I almost slapped Haruhi for the abuse she did against Asahina. Thinking in retrospect, if it wouldn't have been for Koizumi, only God knows how things would've ended. That memory comes to my mind, because I think about what Kyon-Ni expressed to me: that he never had the courage to try to correct her, to get her out of the monumental mistakes she was making. If truly the way to avoid the dead of millions of people –among them, people I love and I appreciate– it through one dead, I will kill whoever is put in front of me happily... perhaps Kyon-Ni was right and it's in part my responsibility. So, I will fulfil my duty.
Like in a déjà vu, I ran towards Haruhi-Ni, who had her back turned on me. Once again, I raised the knife as high as I could over my head, Kyon-Ni saw me getting close, but faked not seeing me and turned around, trying to leave Haruhi-Ni open... forgive me... damn it, this is horrible! It's the same face, the same body... even the same genetic code of the girl I love! Given the growing silence due to the cease of the battles around us, my steps on the run must've been more than audible to my objective. I was about to reach it; less than five meters were left... and then she turned towards me... she looked at me...
Those eyes would be able to undo me in any situation. Ambar eyes, lit up in hot white, capable of killing with a certain "evil eye" ... those eyes have the same intensity as Haruhi's eyes... it must be because they share the same unknown and mysterious nature. Haruhi-Ni undresses me with that killer's gaze having me at least a meter away from her, knife risen for a second time.
"You won't do it... you don't have what's needed." She tells me, immovable. I despise admitting it, but she's right. "Lower the knife, we both know you won't use it against me."
Damn it... this time I'm really ruined... we all are thanks to my indecision. Without having a very clear picture of what will happen next, I lowered my hand.
Forgive me... I failed everyone... forgive me, Haruhi... after all, it seems I'm not worthy of you choosing me.
And is it like this how everything will end?
Without being able to avoid it, my legs lost their strength and I fell on my knees weakly holding the handle of my weapon.
"You're worth nothing..." She tells me... "Not even because your life is in danger you have the courage to end what you started... you had a lot of courage to keep your little girlfriend away from the fight, but you don't have it to try to bring me down... Is it maybe that your world is worth so little to you and the people that live in it...?" She looks at me with those eyes full of disdain, the same Haruhi had when I just met her. "If everything is worth so little to you... just die and let me finish what I started... I will take your insignificant life, the same you have no intentions to fight for... and the life of my other self, who seems to mean nothing to you in reality."
"What...? How dare you?" I ask her vexed and suddenly out of myself while I turned towards her. "You have no idea what she means to me... You can't even imagine what I could do for her...!"
"What would you do? Stay on your knees like an idiot in front of your executioner while she raises her hatchet which with she will decapitate you? You can't do anything against me!" She begins to scream at me while I notice how her excitement grows. "You can't because you're an idiot and so weak that you let my appearance affect you! Only because I have the same face of the dumb ass you are sleeping with, you can't gather the courage to kill me! What's wrong? Are you afraid to imagine my corpse every time you see her naked? You are so ordinary you disgust me! Nothing as insignificant as you have the right to live! AND I HAVE THE POWER TO DECIDE WHETHER YOU LIVE OR NOT!"
Her last words hit deaf ears. She can call me weak, an idiot, ordinary and every pejorative adjective she can imagine, but not her... Did you want a piece of me? Here you have it!
Haruhi-Ni's eyes almost left their orbits when seeing me suddenly getting up and raising for a third time my weapon over my head. This time it's not surprise... it's legitimate terror... she seems to regret everything she just told me and without being able to contain her fear, she clumsily backs down. She pressed the precise button: to put into question what I feel for Haruhi. She mustn't have done it... the time has come to face the consequences.
Human tact is simply incredible. I could clearly feel how the blade goes through the clothes fibers, how it softly sinks into the skin and slightly stops on the bone... probably the sternum or a rib, to later penetrate the tissue of the cardiac muscle which responds with a spasm in the face of such a violent intrusion... there's a strong splash of blood that has stained my hand, arm, part of my neck and face. Haruhi-Ni's amber eyes, more open if it's possible, looked at me with something that goes beyond absolute terror while she gets her own ration of blood on her face... however, she is surely surprised not to feel any pain at all... because it wasn't her chest I crossed.
With a pull as strong, I recover my knife. When doing it, Kyon-Ni heavily falls on his back, while Haruhi-Ni extends her arms to receive him. Yes, it was he who got the stab... it was his heart I perforated.
Like in slow motion, Kyon-Ni falls into Haruhi-Ni's arms, who kneels to cushion as much as possible the fall of my counterpart. She can't speak, she doesn't even know what to do while she sees my other self breathe with bigger difficulty every time and lose his vital force little by little...
"No... not you... you can't die..." She tells him while putting her left hand with force over his perforated chest, as if with that the wound would close. "You can't die! I prohibit you from dying!"
While Haruhi-Ni continues giving orders to the one who's dying in her arms, the rest of the members of the invading brigade are freed... they begin to slowly walk towards her brigade leader.
A moment later, Kyon-Ni's eyes, barely open, lose their light that was left. His chest doesn't swell up anymore with his respiration, his whole body lost strength and fell inert in Haruhi-Ni's arms.
"Didn't you hear me...?" She asks with her voice broken while lays the corpse on the ground. "You can't die! YOU CANNOT DIE ASSHOLE! COME BACK!" while she says this, she tries to massage his chest, like if CPR would work. "COME ON! COME BACK! COME BACK! COME BACK!" On the last of these tries, instead of massaging, she hit with force the chest of the deceased.
"He's dead." Nagato-Ni says. Although it's obvious, her leader doesn't seem to assimilate it.
"He's not..." She says hitting his chest now without any strength...
Then, she puts her head on his neck. She stayed in silence for some considerable time, for a moment I thought she had fainted. After, out of her mouth came a lament so long and pitiful that it made my skin crawl.
As soon as that happened, a small earthquake shook the island... the closed space was breaking. She closed the eyes of the boy and caressed his face with delicateness, one I believed she would be unable to express.
She stood up and walked towards me, she looked at me again with her eyes full of rage and pointed at me with her right index.
"You... You killed him! You'll pay for that! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU JUST DID! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU IN A WAY SO PAINFUL THAT YOU'LL BEG ME TO FINISH YOU OFF!"
"SHUT UP!" Without being able to hide my anger, my hand crossed her face with such force that my palm was left hurting. She shook in the face of such backhand. "I didn't kill him! It was you and only you...! and himself! Are you really that blind to not see it? He loved you in such a stupid way that he never put a stop to you! He allowed you to become this imitation of a person to simply not hurt you! He and you are the only ones responsible of what happened! He was who lacked any courage and didn't show any respect of what you meant to him!"
"How can you say that...?" She tried to respond feeling she didn't have any valid arguments.
"You say I'm lacking any courage?" I respond letting all my anger out. "I HAVE ENOUGH COURAGE TO AVOID MY HARUHI TO BECOME A MONSTER LIKE YOU!"
"He loved me!"
"Without a doubt...! But he was so stupid, that he never did anything to make you grow as a person... he confused your well-being with your caprice, he didn't trust you enough to show you the way... and there you have the result..." I said pointing at his body. "And he loved you so much... that he asked me to close this cycle... he loved you so much... that I, being a part of him, must also pay for his sins..." Haruhi had also arrived at where we were and planted herself next to me. I turned to her, although I continued talking to the girl with the purple headband. "His love was such... that he made me make the same decision for a second time..."
Haruhi-Ni was speechless. Her tears fell through her cheeks and without arguing anymore, she went back to the lifeless body of the person she loved most. She took him in her arms and cried for some seconds. The light earthquake from some minutes ago, increased in intensity and the waves collapsed with violence against the walls of the island. The moment of truth had arrived and the end of the whole problem.
"Take them out of here." I ordered Haruhi while holding her hands.
"What will you do?" She asked me doubtful.
"I have to make myself responsible for this."
"I'm not leaving you here..."
"Yes, you will... didn't you hear anything I just said?"
"You'll come back... right?" I didn't respond. Haruhi-Ni wouldn't let me abandon the closed space. That's what Kyon-Ni meant when he said that part of the responsibility was mine being both the same person. I finished him, I must take his place and stay here, whatever it is will happen. Haruhi seemed to understand... of course she understands, she's an intelligent girl... she got close to me as much as she could and whispered in my ear: "I wanted to tell you when we went back home... but I suppose it will be best for you to know it now..." She lowered her face for an instant and topped it off with her voice even lower: "I love you..."
"I already knew it..." I respond without being able to avoid a smile. "I mean... I love you too."
"Imbecile..." She gets away from me without turning her back on me. I moment after, colorful lights surrounded the members of the SOS battalion. Different colors for each person, and an instant after illuminating, they disappeared... she was taking them out of the closed space. A pair of minutes after, only the original members of the Brigade were left. A red light surrounded Koizumi, while Nagato shinned in violet and Asahina in pink. "We will be waiting for you in the club room. We will get our lives back..." Haruhi tells me while she herself shines in yellow lights.
"Of course you will... nothing is impossible for Nagato and you."
I watch her smile one last time and she leaves me there.
Gunkan-Jima violently shakes due to the now immense earthquake that's hitting it. Without any type of eagerness, I sit in front of the now defeated SOS-Ni Brigade. Haruhi-Ni supports my other self in her arms. Next to her, also seated on the ground, Asahina-Ni cries while caressing the hair of the fallen one with sweetness. Koizumi-Ni doesn't have that idiot's face of always, he seems more absent... like if he would've suddenly understood everything that happened. The inexpressive alien of the group also looks sad, and she does have motives to be.
I feel how water falls from the sky. For a moment, I thought it'd be rain, but looking up, I discovered it was residual water from the monster waves that hit the island, product of the earthquake itself. While the closed space collapses around me, my improvised companions seem resigned about their destiny, I suppose they knew sooner or later this would happen... I hope Haruhi can transcend this... of course she will, she's a great person and I was only the catalyst to free the potential she had... now that power has been released, she can continue on her own... Grow more Haruhi! You can make your own effort to better the world...! and with all and that thought so altruist, there's something that saddens me... I hope I'm not forgotten... I hope my classmates can earn me some type of transcendence... I should've asked Koizumi to name any pet he could have after me.
"Why are you sacrificing like this?" Haruhi-Ni asks, taking me out of my thoughts.
"Because I love her. This isn't a sacrifice."
"What do you mean...?"
"A sacrifice is something you do when you don't love, eager to gain a benefit or great good... I wish with all my heart that she has a long and happy life... if for that I must offer my life, I will happily give it. I'm not doing something I don't want to do; therefore, I'm not making any sacrifices."
"Kyon (Ni) always said that kind of things."
"I wish you would've listened to him."
"Nothing will be left when the closed space falls." She warns me.
"I know."
Without being able to change the dejection expression that overflew her face, she turns again towards the guest in her arms. And she closes her eyes. That was the end. The island literally broke in two making one half sink in the sea. Nagato-Ni and Koizumi-Ni kneel to not fall, since with the movement of the ground it is particularly difficult to continue to stand.
The only thing that I have left are my memories, the ones from my friends and classmates, from the ridiculous club which I belonged, and of course, from Haruhi. I had a good life after all, perhaps a little short, but they say that life isn't measured in years lived, but in what you've done with them. I believe that in that sense, I have an advantage over several people.
And to think that everything began with a crazy dream. The sound of the waves breaking is simple deafening. Before realizing it, I'm totally soaked, by now, there isn't a stone unturned amongst the buildings in the island of Hashima, in the prefecture of Nagasaki, which after this end, will be completely intact in the real world.
And when the last support of the island falls, I can see the gigantic wave come towards us. They ignore it, and I wait for it without any fear. I close my eyes concentrating in those memories of the first night Haruhi and I spent out of the closed spaces, where the softness of her skin and the aroma of her hair became more real than ever... that one which memories I knew would bring quietude to my soul at the moment of my death.
Chapter 13.
End.
Author Notes: Is a strange feeling when you finally got to the end of a story, specially if that story is yours. Like see grow your children and realize that even you wanted them to be the way you planned, they are just better than you expect. And now, almost seven years after the first publication of this chapter, I really feel happy and nervous as that very same day. Thank you for reading this story, and with only one update left, I'll be waiting for you reviews. See you!
Translator Notes: Here it is guys. Who saw this coming? Did anyone feel a little bad for Haruhi-Ni? I did a little, hehe. I can't believe Kyon stayed behind. I suppose there wasn't any other thing for him to do. I'm not going to lie, I was very sad at the end of this chapter... I'm sure most of you are feeling the same. Next chapter is the epilogue. We'll get to find out if Haruhi is able to move on from this. I'm sorry it has taking me longer than usual to have the chapters out. Between school, work, and my family, I've been extremely busy. I will do my best to have the epilogue out very soon though, before December starts, hopefully! Until then!