Here is another manga chapter for you all.
The full name is Get in the Ring, so don't confuse this chapter with the horror movie Ring.
I don't own Haruhi Suzumiya.
The Ring
The Sports festival, a time where everyone person who goes to a school anywhere in the world must participate in a form of sport. The classes of the entire school are split into two teams, red and white. The score as of now was that the red team had 182 to white's 294. The members of the SOS Brigade were also split such as the Asahinas and Nagatos were in the white team, leaving the Kyons, Koizumis and Suzumiyas in the red team.
"Go white team!" Mikuru cheered with her brother waving the white flag. "Do your best out there!"
"Hahahahahaha!" Tsuruya-kun laughed watching it. "Keep cheering Mikuru-chan! This is too funny!"
How does he find it funny, I will never know.
Haruhi was watching the mascot cheer and had a sly smile on her face.
"I love it! Mikuru-chan is going to win us the MVP award!" Haruhi said.
"We don't have one." Kyonko told her.
"Yeah I guess its ok but look at the state of our team!" Haruki forcibly made Kyonko turned to the score board. "We're the ones losing here!"
They had forgotten that the Suzumiyas are sore losers. If they were going to lose, they would have come up with a strategy that would halt the other team from winning. Though, it didn't help when all of the red team was way too relaxed.
"Kyon!" Taniguchi called out. "We're celebrating the loss of the game! I mean look, we're already beaten!"
Taniguchi stupidly said it when the Suzumiyas happen to be right next to the Kyons. They could feel a strong fiery aura behind them. It was in that instant that Haruki ran up to their team with all his vigor.
"Put that down moron!" Haruki shouted at him. "The games aren't over yet!"
"Oh come on Suzumiya-kun." Taniguchi-chan came up. "We're meant to have fun out during a sports festival. We don't have a chance as it stands so may as well have fun while we're at it."
Haruki could feel his annoyance rising. The Kyons could feel it from where they standing. The Taniguchis ate happily, completely forgetting everything about the fact that they were in a competition. They could have at least watch what they say when they are around the Suzumiyas.
The screams and cheers continued on as the white team member, Yuki Nagato become first place at an amazing speed which can be considered sonic speed at the 100 metre dash. This was putting the white team even further in the lead.
Please don't you your alien powers like that.
"Nagato-san looks good in gym shorts." Taniguchi-kun randomly blurted out.
"Sicko." His sister said.
"Come on at least be serious!" Kyonko joined in.
Kyon sighed and walked to the Haruki, thinking that he needed to calm him down. Once he did, something happened. Kyonko could feel it as well. Everything suddenly turned within them, as in left became right and up became down. They instantly knew that something was wrong once it happened. Kyonko turned to her brother wondering what was going to happen next.
"What was that?" Kyon asked.
"I don't know." Kyonko answered but she soon noticed the bandana on his head. "Why do you have a white bandana?"
"Same goes to you." Kyon pointed at the bandana on her head.
"Don't relax just yet." Haruki shouted.
The twins turned to the problematic boy and saw his sister next to him.
"Haruki-nii is right!" Haruhi nodded. "Now we have to make sure we stay ahead! Keep the visor down even after we win!"
"I think we're pretty safe where we are right now." Taniguchi-chan said to them.
"Don't be a fool!" Haruki shouted. "You never know when something will happen so we're going to keep on going!"
"White team, fight!" The Suzumiyas shouted.
The Kyons immediately picked up what just happened. The Suzumiyas have done it again and now things are going to get a lot more annoying for all of them. They didn't waste any time to meet up with at least the Koizumis and Nagatos. The Asahinas didn't join them. They were probably kept busy with their team.
"Looks like you notice as well." Itsuki said to them.
"How can't we?" Kyonko retorted. "We've all switched teams!"
"We're the only ones who noticed again?" Kyon asked.
"It appears so. It's just like summer vacation. Whoever is close to the Suzumiyas are the ones who will notice."
"But this is a game as well so is it anything like the baseball game?"
"No." Itsuko answered. "It's different this time round. When the Closed Space appeared that time it grew as their stress at the score board kept going. In this case, it's growing as time passes."
"In other words?" Kyonko asked.
"Their stress isn't increasing from losing."
This meant that avoiding the Closed Space is not possible anymore. This was getting more and more annoying than before.
"This is only speculation but their stress is from how disappointing the festival is rather than losing." Itsuki suggested. "I don't know the cause but their emotions is continually getting complex."
"I don't understand what you're saying." Kyon said.
"It is a proxy war." Yukihiko said and gained stares from everyone who didn't know what he was saying. "Within the human race, they recent conflict but they continue seek it out due to their nature. It cannot be determined on what are the Suzumiyas motives. The match that is happening now must be redirected to its original purpose. It is needed to avoid the current situation."
"In other words?" Kyonko asked.
"He means that if we want to make it through this, the red team must make a sudden come back to taken down the white team." Itsuki explained.
This was giving the Kyons a headache. They, who were the red team, were losing and when that happened, the Suzumiyas had them switch them into being the white team. This meant that they are now the winners. But that didn't mean anything only that it was just a sudden change. They were still trying to make sense about what the Nagatos said about it being a proxy war. Whatever the case is, they had to find a way out of it.
Another relay race had finally come to an end and the winner of the race was the red team.
"No way…" Haruki said looking at the score board.
Red team: 380
White team: 362
"How the hell did that happen!" Haruki shouted from the top of his lungs.
Another race came to the end, the bread eating race that is, with Yukihiko Nagato of the red team winning the race. This was not making any sense at all. Kyonko quickly met up with Itsuko sitting under one of the tents.
"What going on Itsuko?" Kyonko asked. "Doesn't the Suzumiyas want to win these games?"
"We still can't tell if that is what they want." Itsuko answered. "We're going with the idea that they didn't want a one-sided match. Luckily for us, the Nagatos are on the red team which means that we'll be able to make this festival a very close match since we don't know what is causing their stress." Itsuko smiled at the girl. "Do you know you look good when you sweat it out?"
"You really don't have any self-control do you?"
"Hey, I love you after all." Itsuko then put Kyonko into a body hug.
Kyonko only sighed since she doesn't want to fight back right now. She just sat down and had a look at the rest of the white team. They look completely whacked, as if they just don't want to do this anymore.
"We're not done yet!" Haruhi shouted. "White team-!"
"Suzumiya." Taniguchi-chan called out. "We've done enough as it is. We can't keep this up anymore."
Haruhi was just about to put her into a chokehold until Haruki stepped in.
"Shut up!" Haruki said it in her face. "I'm not going to hear any of your whining! If you give up because you're losing, then you're all cowards! If you talk about leaving this team then I'm going to beat you to the ground! I want you all to show enthusiasm!"
All the members of the white team were taken aback by the speech. It was the reason why they were always isolated from the class. But it didn't mean anything to the Kyons since they want to find out their real motive. If the Suzumiyas wanted to win, then they would have flipped back to the red team by now. So what is it they wanted?
Kyon prepared himself for the next relay race between the red and white team. The gun went off and his anchor dashed off.
Kyon saw that the white team was slightly lagging behind but the anchor finally passed the baton to Kyon. Kyon made his dash off for the finish line but something seemed wrong. The members of the white team aren't cheering. They aren't even paying attention to what was happening. Kyon soon remembered what Haruki said.
I'm not going to hear any of your whining! I want you all to show enthusiasm!
Kyon had it play in his head and now he really hated it.
Damn it!
Kyon used all his strength to be first. He's not going to think about it anymore, he wasn't going to hesitate ever again. The white team turned to see Kyon doing everything to be first in the race. The line was soon taken down with Kyon first in the race. Haruki came up to him with a smile.
"Good work Kyon. We can make a comeback with this."
It doesn't matter if we win or lose but everyone hates to lose. It's human nature.
"Haruki, let's win this." Kyon smiled back.
"Of course! We'll walk away victorious!"
The red and white teams not prepared themselves for the next match. It was the cavalier battle. The Suzumiyas and Kyons took their place with Kyonko being the head point while Haruhi was on top, ready for it all as platoon 1 and Kyon with Haruki on platoon 3. On the red team was the Yuki was platoon 1 and Mitsuru was in platoon 2.
"It is now time for the final match, the cavalier race!" The announcer said. "It is a sudden death match! Last platoon standing will win for the team!"
The match starts. Out of nowhere, Yuki had already taken one of the bandanas of the white team, giving them the lead at such an amazing speed. Haruhi saw it and had a giant smile on her face.
"Looks like she's asking for a fight!" Haruhi smiled. "Bring it on Yuki!"
"No!" Kyonko shouted. "This way!"
Kyonko lead them away from one of the red team that was behind them.
"Keep it up Kyonko!" Haruhi praised her.
After going through the summer vacation, there is no way am I going to go through that again!
Haruki saw this and can tell that this was not going to be an easy match at all.
"Kyon!" Haruki called out. "We got to take down the real threat!"
"I'm behind you all the way!" Kyon said.
Haruki got Kyon to charge towards Yuki. Much to their luck, she wasn't paying attention to them at all, meaning if they go about this quickly and quietly, they would have taken one step closer to victory. They were able to avoid all the other platoon members and now they were on the clear path to one of the Nagatos twin. Haruki took reached his hand and was about to pull on the bandanna off her head.
"Got you now!" Haruki shouted.
Haruki's arm reached out only for Yuki to move out of the way from him and somehow turned to grab his bandanna off his head.
"No way!" Haruki shouted as he saw his bandanna in her hand.
"Looks like we're in trouble." Haruhi said as she saw her brother was taken out of the match.
"Go white team!" Haruhi and Kyonko turned to who was cheering.
They found that all of the white team was cheering for them. They were cheering from their hearts to get them to go. It seemed that Haruki's little speech worked.
"Kyonko, Suzumiya! You better not lose this game!" Taniguchi-kun shouted.
"You heard him Haruhi!" Haruki joined. "Go kick their asses!"
"Oh, we'll kick some ass all right!" Haruhi answered. "Come on Kyonko, let's get them!"
"No problem!" Kyonko answered.
Kyonko and Haruhi got prepared to have a faceoff with Yuki. They both charged at each other, aiming only for their bandannas. Yuki was in range and was reached for to grab her prize only for Kyonko to amazingly move them to move to the left, dodging her completely and Haruhi countered as her arm reached out and yanked the alien's bandanna off.
"We are the winners-!" Before Haruhi could finish, she felt something coming off her head.
"Now!" Mitsuru shouted as he pulled the bandanna off her head.
"Yuki was a decoy?" Haruhi was too shocked.
The red team had won the game on an amazingly high note. The Kyons quickly joined up with the Suzumiyas.
"Sorry we lost you guys." Kyon apologized.
"Whatever." Haruki said with a smile. "That was one hell of a match."
"No kidding." Haruhi smiled as well. "Good work there Yuki, Mitsuru-kun."
With the festival finally at an end, the teams all headed down and to gain their flags for the games they had won in. The Kyons though sat down on the hill looking down at the sports field. The Koizumis joined up with them and sat down.
"The white team did one amazing game back there." Itsuki said.
"I guess we did." Kyon answered. "So what happened to the Closed Space?"
"Completely gone. We found what they wanted. But now that I think about it, they probably wanted the thrill of battle."
"You made it sound like they were in a war." Kyonko said.
"Well, Nagato-kun did say it was a proxy war." Itsuko said.
"Please explain it in a simplified manner."
"Sports, studies, exams, this is all a constant war but in a different form. Just like the history about war. It may not have been human error but human nature that actually caused it. Although the consequence of losing human lives is in hindsight, it doesn't mean anything in to the Suzumiyas."
"You're not making any sense." Kyon said.
"Please forgive my sister talking about the merits of war." Itsuki said. "Look at it in another way. The Closed Space began to shrink when they were in a battle."
The Kyons sat down and soon remembered what Yukihiko said about human nature.
"But here's the thing." Kyon said. "The Suzumiyas team was falling behind. If you guys were correct, then we could have done our best while we were still the red team."
"Theoretically, yes but can the red team actually make a comeback without the Nagatos?" Itsuko asked. "After all, no one likes a one-sided match."
The Kyons wondered about it. It was quiet the uninformed reasoning. It was a battle that was on a seesaw. But at least it was a fulfilling match.
The white team was cheering again for the Suzumiyas for their greatest efforts during the festival. They got them to make a speech. They were a little hesitant but Haruki was able to say something.
"At least you guys gave it your all halfway through." Haruki said.
Please acknowledge our efforts in this.
Now for a quick explanation of the manga chapter.
It was the sports festival, the entire school was broken up between red and white, Nagato and Mikuru were the white team while Kyon, Koizumi and Haruhi were the red team. The red team was way behind in the game and they figured they celebrate them losing. Haruhi didn't like it at all. Suddenly everything just turned around, the red team became the white team and vice versa.
Kyon had no clued what to do and had no clue on why Haruhi felt that time. The red team suddenly made their comeback and were about to win. The white team was ready to give up only for Haruhi to put them back in their place. Kyon finally had an idea on what she was talking about and then began their comeback to win the games.
It was now a neck-a-neck match with the final game, the cavalier royale. The white team was now cheering for them to win the match. Haruhi had a match against Nagato to get the bandanna only to be a decoy for Mikuru to take it.
Haruhi only wanted to make the match a true battle between teams. Koizumi went into his full spiel about war and all.
It was a lot of fun to write this actually. The chapter itself was actually more entertaining than the Sign Returns.
Anyway, the next is The Sigh. This is going to be a really big pain because I have my eyes to make The Sigh one rather large change from how the actual work did. I'll give you a hint to what to expect. Kyonko.