- Chapter 9: A Long Way To Go

So, here I am in the future. Is it really different? Of course, it is. Not enough for me to say you should be worried or more concerned than normal. If anything, I think people are even less interesting now than they were in your time, but sure. A lot has changed. I can't really talk about it, though, because (as I'm sure you know by now) it's classified.

After a short stay at the classified Bureau of Temporal Displacement, I found myself transferred into the classified custody of a young couple. They seem nice, and they had the advantage of having already taken in my classified little sister, who I now came to know. She is pretty nice, as the specter of Haruhi had told me, so things were more-or-less back to normal.

When things had seemed to be settled, a book arrived in the mail for me. It had the oddly familiar bookmark with a note stating a rendezvous at a park. This park was no different from any other park I've ever been in: fancy architecture within a tree garden. Walkways, fences, water fountains, and the odd proof that artists never tire of being self-indulgent freaks at conspicuous locations.

A young woman approached, and at first, I didn't recognize her because of the difference in clothing style, but then I realized it was Mikuru. She strolled along in her plain tunic and khakis like anyone else, looking for all the world like an ordinary resident until she spotted me, at which point she became excited, and she cheerfully approached.

"Hey, Miss Asahina," I said.

"Hello, Kyon," she answered.

I sighed, thinking that even in the future I couldn't get away from that nickname. Although, now that I had a little sister, the nickname seemed to make a lot more sense.

"Looks like you got off easy," I observed, not really sure what all the trouble was about.

"Yeah," she admitted, "mostly I just have to wear this tracker." Having said that, she showed me a convincing-looking necklace, adorned with an oddly shaped medallion. It was mostly circular, but had a kind of sophisticated design that was oddly familiar. When I really looked at it, it kind of resembled the SOS Brigade logo.

"You've gotta be kidding me," I said.

"I know," she added. "Weird, huh?"

"It's like we never left the SOS Brigade," I commented casually.

Mikuru took a long breath and said, "Kyon, I apologize for what happened and what you went through." I was about to object to this, but she firmly stated, "Please. This is all part of my plea agreement."

"Okay," I said, not really sure I wanted to know why this was necessary.

"I was angry and bitter, and I had intended to return to the past..." She thought for a moment and corrected herself, "I mean, the further past. That is, I was going to try to encounter you from the time just before the school festival and take you away."

That got my attention. Mikuru wanted to abduct me? I couldn't wrap my head around it.

"I was going to try to convince you to run away with me," she continued, "and that seems to be one of the odd temporal iterations that I had created in this intention." She then sighed with relief and looked down, embarrassed. "Well, that's about it," she added. "I have some exams to get to, so I'll see you later."

"Well, good luck on your exams," I said.

She chuckled and said, "Silly Kyon. Luck has nothing to do with it."

"Later," I said.

"Later," she answered, happily strolling away.

I guess I had been a little too eager to get to this rendezvous, because I seemed to have arrived quite a bit earlier than the note indicated. That's one nice thing about the future. Getting around isn't a problem. Nowadays, people have a lot more difficulty in their heads than with their feet. It gave me a lot of time to think about things, and to wonder where we had gone so wrong in the world.

I know I said this stuff is classified, but seriously. Time travel is nothing to these people. It's this big secret, but it's a really badly kept secret. Just like how they were all freaking out about the huge temporal rift created by Haruhi. That was supposed to be a big secret, but everybody knew about it.

Eventually, some genius came up with what they began calling the "Bill and Ted" method of getting around the Haruhi temporal rifts. Basically, they would put messages meant for the future into a kind of time capsule in the hope that some future person would relay that task to whenever they did eventually get around the temporal distortion. I believe the more official term for it is "temporal risk mitigation investments."

Suffice it to say that we have to have a lot more regulation when it comes to markets and business. It's actually all controlled by the government, which is not all that different from your time, but it still pisses me off somehow. I guess I could go on and on about politics, but I doubt we'll ever get that right.

Another big secret that everyone seems to know about is the fact that they have a strange fixation with cloning Haruhi Suzumiya. Last I heard, there were roughly two million of those clones going around. Seriously. But, why would someone want to clone Haruhi? I don't know all the details, but some scientists got it into their heads that they could use her clones to create new universes.

Aside from the fact that I can't seem to get away from Haruhi, it irks me that people would actually do something so irresponsible. They talk about it in hushed tones of wonder and admiration, and I just sigh and pinch myself in a vain attempt to wake up from this weird dream.

The problem with all this Haruhi weirdness is that if they do succeed in creating new universes, those universes themselves would most likely then spawn their own Haruhis and their own universes and so on. You would increase the number of universes exponentially. No telling what kind of cramp that might give the cosmos, if that makes any sense. The other, more disturbing thing about it is the fact that we ourselves might be the result of a universe spawned in that way. Just thinking about that possibility makes my head spin.

I'm so glad that there's another me looking after the real Haruhi in your time. I can't imagine what life would be like now had all that weirdness just exploded into the world without any restraints on it.

That kind of life isn't for me, but I can't imagine what life should be like. Naturally, the moment I start thinking this way, I see Yuki.

"Kyon?" she flatly asked.

"Yuki?" I answered.

I stood and went to her, and we greeted each other with a kiss. That seemed to confirm that it was her.

"Good afternoon," she said.

"Seems like such a long time," I said, thinking about everything that had happened, recently.

"Really?" she asked. "Seems like you left just yesterday."

"So," I asked her, "did you just arrive?"

"Arrive?" she asked.

"Yeah," I replied. "I just assumed you time-traveled like I just did."

Yuki then looked at me with that unreadable expression on her face. I think it's her way of showing confusion.

"Don't tell me you just waited the entire three hundred years," I said.

"I had a few things left to do," she explained with a familiar smirk.

With that, she reminded me of how android-like she is while also bursting the illusion of her being an android. I know she isn't an android, but it's rare that she ever shows the world her true personality. At least, I really hope it is her true personality. I really don't want to go through life thinking that she is an android. Not that I would have a problem with her, even if she was.

The thing about people is that we are all really just data interfaces for some higher-level function of some kind. I've never been too clear on what higher-level data amounts to, but really. Who cares? The important thing is that we are all basically the same.

Thinking this way started me to wonder about Yuki. Does she sometimes get jealous? I think so. Somehow, I doubt she would have stayed in this universe in the first place if she hadn't experienced something similar to that. She would never admit any of this, I know. Her personality would not permit it and if she was an android, she wouldn't see the relevance in explaining it.

And where did this personality come from? Is it the real Yuki or just a character that she puts on? I really don't know. Somehow, I doubt it makes any real difference, but maybe that's just the Yuki side of me talking. To me, this strength of will and unwavering (if sometimes strangely inconsistent) determination defines the ideal woman. I don't think it's just in my head, either. I think her data is building into a set that I might term emotion, myself.

As I started to notice that we had been walking for a while in silence, we slowly approached another water fountain. We stopped for a few minutes to take in the view.

Something about fountains makes me feel sentimental. I doubt I'm the only one, but I wonder if Yuki gets like that, too. What would I feel like if I had waited for her for so long? I know that it would pain me enough that I would expect her to make up for all that time, somehow. This was just typical Yuki, though. She always finds a way to make me feel even more indebted to her.

"So, what was it like being by yourself for three hundred years?" I asked.

She tonelessly replied, "I was starting to enjoy it before you showed up."

- Fin