Part 3, Chapter 14:

I wondered if we'd truly know if the world ended. I did keep waking up before my alarm. Maybe the espers had already slacked on their job, creating a world in which I was robbed of a few extra sweet minutes of sleep.

Sure, it sounded outlandish, but I wouldn't have put it past Haruhi to want a world where I was slightly more annoyed in the morning than normal when my sister dragged me out of bed.

Naw, I was exaggerating. I didn't think so low of Haruhi to believe she'd mess with my sleep.

I was feeling a little tired today regardless. Not quite under the weather, but not my perky self, either. I should have had my mind on this afternoon's meeting with the… Kouyouen Brigade. Any time I imagined Sasaki and Haruhi in the same room though… Ugh, it wasn't harder than telling Haruhi the truth, but I could only handle so much in such a short time span.

It was only Thursday too. The weekend couldn't come soon enough.

Haruhi looked beat in the morning too, but she was still probably behind on sleep. Still, I was glad to see her. She wanted to be here, in spite of it all, and I couldn't help but feel a little optimistic.

My tired morning greeting was met, however, with a muffled grunt, as Haruhi's head lay on her desk, cradled in her arms. I don't think she realized it, but her hair was a little rumpled. It took me a while to realize it, but she must have forgotten her omnipresent headband.

Good grief, she must have been seriously tired.

I knew better than to open my mouth about her appearance however. I wondered if Mikuru could help her in the clubroom later, before we left to meet up with the Kouyouen Brigade. Ah well, not that big of a deal, anyway.

I let her sleep some more. I could do with the time to focus on the knowledge the teachers were sure to hit us with before long.

Haruhi didn't show signs of stirring until near lunch, and I know I wasn't the only one worried about her. I saw Itsuki nonchalantly walk past the classroom a couple times during break as if making sure she was okay. I didn't get a text myself, so I assume she wasn't causing too much trouble in her sleep. I know she was getting texts occasionally because I could hear her phone buzz.

When the lunch bell finally did ring, Haruhi slowly lifted her head and rubbed it with one hand. "Ugh. Staying up all night sucks. I will never do it again."

I raised my eyebrow at that, "You enjoyed it that last day of summer vacation."

She made a face, "Ugh, when I had to skip the first day of the new semester to help you slackers finish homework? Yet another bad day. No more all night parties, seriously. I can't believe I somehow convinced the school to let you all turn your stuff in a day late. It was a miracle."

I raised my eyebrow, "You know how silly that sounds, right? Coming from you?"

She scowled and stood up, "I'm going to lunch." She took a few steps away, "And say hi to Yuki for me too."

I watched her retreating form. She didn't have the best comeback in the world, but I shook my head. I could have retorted, but I laughed more in my head to imagine how Itsuki was going to explain that her hair was so mussed without offending her. Probably safer than me teasing her either.

"Not sticking around for lunch? You are so busy lately, Kyon. Saving the world, I bet. But, I guess your rumor was true, Taniguchi," Kunikida said, as I grabbed my bag. "He really is dating that quiet, spacey girl that's in that club. Then again he is known for hanging out with-"

Taniguchi leaned back, shaking his head, "-weirdos. Your loss, buddy, letting a girl like Suzumiya get away. Then again, maybe it's nice not having someone shout all the time."

I put my bag on my shoulder, feeling a little of the cold from outside creep in, "You are seriously going to piss me off. Do keep your opinions to yourself." I had to bite back quite a few other comments. I wasn't going to get into it here. I didn't have the time for it today.

My voice must have carried more vicious bite than I had planned, because Taniguchi looked a little stunned and recalcitrant almost immediately, like he hadn't expected my response at all. That didn't surprise me. His ranking system rankled me, now, especially since he was now talking about my friends like they were things to be caught.

Kunikida stepped in and gave a smile, "Sorry, Kyon. Taniguchi meant no harm. Right?" He jabbed Taniguchi's side with his elbow.

The taller of my classmates seemed to be shaken from his stupor and said, "Yeah, of course. Sorry Kyon, I didn't mean to be a jerk. Seriously, I am sorry about that, man." He scratched the back of his head, looking honestly chagrinned, and I took pity on him.

"No worries. Sorry myself. It has been a hectic week. Speaking of, I got to prepare for finals. I guess that's been weighing on me." I patted my bag, trying to cover for my uncharacteristic rudeness. Maybe Haruhi was rubbing off on me. Nah.

Kunikida waved me off, "No problem. Best of luck with that." He smiled amiably, and I nodded, not willing to continue the conversation further for fear of another stupid comment.

I didn't let their comments keep me from going to visit Yuki in the clubroom at lunch. It was a quiet place we could be together safely, and I did want to review my notes. They've been a mess this week and I need to organize them.

When I got to the room, I opened without knocking. It was lunch after all. Unfortunately, Mikuru was in the clubroom anyway. Fortunately, she was not in a state of undress. She was standing near Yuki, both of them looking my way, as if wondering who was coming in.

After the moment I had stood in the clubroom, I recovered and smiled back at Mikuru, who was giving me a cute, kind smile back. "Hi, Kyon. I didn't mean to interrupt. I was just, um, talking to Yuki about some, um, time stuff."

I raised my eyebrow, halfway to my seat at the table across from Yuki. "Oh? Need me to leave? I know it's harder to talk around me." Those mental triggers were worst around the uninitiated like Haruhi and myself.

She shook her head, "We were about done."

I nodded, "Find anything out?"

Mikuru shook her head, before frowning with an adorable look that would make any uncommitted man swoon. "Well, the, um, Data Integrated Thought Entity hasn't been able to detect any temporal shifts since the end of the summer. There have been a few, um, packets of information, but no actual shifts since summer. Which means that that person, Fujiwara, hasn't made any exchanges either." She shook her head again, looking back up at me, baffled, "If he hasn't been making any changes, and my organization won't make any changes, then I wonder what will cause the paradox."

I nodded, sitting down and slowly unloading my bag as I thought about this, "Who exactly is this Fujiwara person?"

Mikuru shook her head a third time, "Honestly, I'm not… Well, I think I've guessed some of it. I know I am supposed to avoid them. They are using time travel that is not condoned by my, um, superiors. But…"

I motioned for her to continue as I unpacked my lunch. I wouldn't eat until Mikuru left, that would feel a little rude, but I wanted to hear what she wanted to say.

Mikuru's consternated smile echoed her tone, "Well… I am not supposed to think about things much, but Yuki says that his time travel basically works along the same set of rules as mine." I glanced at Yuki, who nodded, "So… I think he might be a fugitive from another future that never happened. I am told not to contact him, nor that I should listen to his words, but there are no, um, directives that specifically prevent me from interacting with him, like there would be for anything that might affect my future. Not unless they are so buried that I am not allowed to read their triggers in my, um..." She trailed off, probably to avoid saying some forbidden word.

I nodded, "So… that means that your superiors don't think that you can change anything drastic in your own future by interacting with him? That's good, right?"

Mikuru sighed, "Yeah, something like that. Or maybe I was supposed to interact with Fujiwara at some point, and they couldn't prevent it. But I can't imagine they planned for this." She motioned to the clubroom, then vaguely in the direction of the classrooms. I

asked, "You mean, telling Haruhi?"

She nodded, "Yeah. I shouldn't… well, I shouldn't have helped. I shouldn't have told her anything. So many of my directives are to prevent that sort of thing… but I…" She scoffed, "Well, when we left the summer and I was allowed to talk to the future for all of one day, before they abandoned me…"

She sighed again, "Well, I'd rather stick with my friends than remain loyal to my mysterious, distant superior that had already seemed dead to me before the last week of the summer vacation. I got to see the future long enough to know it was closing off from me, probably forever."

I winced internally, but some of it must have shown on my face, as she waved off my sympathy, "Oh don't worry. I've had my fill of being useless and mopey about a lack of a future from the summer break. Crying about it just gives me those terrible memory headaches, you know? At least this time it probably isn't caused by Haruhi." She paused, smiling fondly at the little monolith Haruhi had on her desk, looking genuinely pleased, "I don't have to blame a friend, you know?"

It was quiet in the room as we all silently contemplated this. She shrugged, "Anyway, I've taken enough of your lunch time, Kyon, Yuki. See you this afternoon!"

We said our farewells. I didn't know what to add, and sometimes, it wasn't necessary. I think if I learned anything from Yuki, it was that sometimes it is more important to listen than to talk.

I ate my lunch quickly as I gazed over the gaps in my notes, filling in a few spots I remembered, and making notes to look up some other things later. I ate one more bite of my food, before leaving about a third of my food behind for Yuki. I learned she didn't eat lunch before I started coming.

She claimed it wasn't necessary. I asked if she didn't like eating food. She denied that, stating that food was satisfactory to her, but not necessary. I told her to eat some of my food. I could always pack more food in the morning if I needed to. She then started to eat some of my food.

It pleased me to see her eat in that rapid adorable pace, but I am sure she thought it some strange human thing that I must offer some of my food to her. Ah well.

The bell rang before I could get much further than one and a half subjects. I sighed, and packed my things, heading to class.

Haruhi was back, and she seemed a little more alive after eating something. Even so, we were quiet. There wasn't much to say that I'd want to discuss in front of others, and I didn't really want to engage my other classmates. I focused on my notes, and trying not to get too distracted by thinking about the meeting.

Still, class was over before long, and the group of us was heading to the train station. Technically, we weren't supposed to wear our uniform around the town outside of class time, but most of us were so heavily bundled up after classes, it wasn't like much of our clothing showed. And Yuki always wore her school uniform and no one ever hassled her for it.

The meeting place was the same old train station cafe, a convenient place that was roughly between North High and Kouyouen Academy. I don't know where Fujiwara went, obviously not the all girls academy, but maybe he didn't even go to school. Mikuru said she thought he might be from a time-plane that no longer existed. Who would have built him a cover story to insert him into class?

The five of us walked into the cafe, apparently lucky enough to have beat the Kouyouen Brigade. We all sat on one side of the largest booth they had, assuming the their group would get there soon. We didn't talk much during the ride and walk over. Maybe we were all pensive, but personally, I was just cold enough that I didn't want my teeth to chatter in the cold, just for some idle chatter.

Four of us ordered a drink. Yuki just ordered a water. That wasn't like her. She usually got something more than water. I don't even know if I've ever seen her drink just water.

A little concerned, I asked, "Is it because of…" I glanced around the room a moment, trying to spot the reason she'd avoid a drink in front of the Kouyouen Brigade. I trailed off, not quite sure where to end.

Yuki nodded, "If Kuyou Suou accidentally triggers a forced transposition of data, I do not want to risk any material damage. I will not drink."

Haruhi made a noise and I looked over at her to see her eyebrow was raised. The seating arrangement had Yuki furthest into the booth, followed by me, Mikuru, Koizumi, then Haruhi on the outside. She seemed to insist on being on the outside, but I couldn't fathom why. Maybe she wanted to be able to make a speedy getaway.

Haruhi asked, "What happened?" clearly indicating what Yuki last said.

I blinked, trying to think back. Wait, did we never tell Haruhi what happened the first time we met the Kouyouen Brigade?

Itsuki looked a little chagrined, and Haruhi answered, "You told me the basics, but you didn't say anything about Yuki being forced to do something. What was that, you mentioned 'Kuyou Suou'? Isn't that their alien? She is hard to perceive, right? Also, what happened to Yuki?"

I nodded, "Yeah, and she did something on accident, trying to communicate with Yuki. It… well, it was somewhat painful to Yuki at the time, but after that, their alien was easier for us to see and understand, though she's still a bit of a mystery."

Itsuki nodded, "She did apologize, I remember that."

The door to the cafe opened, but Yuki spoke up to confirm Itsuki, and added, "The transfer was compulsory, but no data was actually damaged or stolen. The Quantum Macrospatial Cosmic Entity was able to better assimilate its… understanding of both ours and human perception, and, I believe, is more able to incur coherence on human spatial planes."

"Actually, Kuyou told us she prefers the term Sky Canopy Dominion." Smiling before us, having come in just a moment before, was Sasaki, behind her trailed the two girls. Fujiwara wasn't in sight. Sasaki continued as Haruhi stood up, "Whatever happened last time, she's since been more coversant than she used to be. I am Sasaki, by the way. I presume you are Haruhi Suzumiya?" As Sasaki finished, her hand and Haruhi's shot out in something that almost seemed synchronized.

Haruhi smiled tightly, as she answered, "I am. It is nice to meet you. I appreciate you helping out my brigade in my absence." They shook hands. "By the way, I decided that we should be called anchors, given that we seem to be who our groups is tied to."

Sasaki raised her eyebrow at that, "You know, I had given some thought to that myself, and liked the term 'focal' myself but anchor works." She motioned her head down the table, "What do we call people like Kyon then?"

Haruhi scoffed, "Boring." I was offended that everyone seemed to laugh. Even Yuki was smiling slightly. The moment passed and Sasaki started to slide down the booth.

"Wait!"

Everyone paused, looking at Haruhi, her other hand up in a pausing motion. Haruhi looked confused as she scanned our faces.

Finally, after two seconds, she finally asked, "Did Kuou Suyou sit down? There's… something..." She pointed to the bench opposite of Yuki. Yuki hadn't been watching the exchange, and she was staring at that same booth spot. I blinked.

Kuou Suyou was sitting opposite me and Yuki, there as she always had been. I must have looked surprised, because Haruhi was grinning like she won a prize as she noticed the alien girl too.

Sasaki gave a small low chuckle, "Ha, to be expected from what I've heard of the legendary Miss Suzumiya. Yes, that is Kuou Suyou. How did you notice?"

Our brigade leader turned back to Sasaki, answering, "My mind counted three of you when you entered, but after I stood up, I counted two. I also noticed that Yuki was staring at what should have been an empty seat. Elementary. She did sneak right past my eyes, though." Sasaki and Haruhi and the rest of us glanced again at Kuou Suyou.

Kuou Suyou wasn't paying much attention to us. She caught sight of her visage in the reflection from the metal napkin holder and appeared transfixed as Narcissus. I think she was just being spacey, though my second glance at her reminded me of her unearthly beauty.

Sasaki shrugged, "Good observation. Sorry, she's not usually one for greetings and social rituals."

Kyouko Tachibana spoke up from behind, "If she bothers to show up at all. She loses track of time constantly." The taller, more biting of the Kuyouen Brigade spoke up from behind, looking sour. "Looks like you are finally in the loop, Suzumiya. How refreshing honesty must feel between friends, am I right?" Sasaki had started to slide down the booth, though I could see her wince a bit at the barb from Tachibana.

Haruhi face carried a sharp smile, still offering her hand to Kyouko Tachibana, "Honesty and trust is something friends share, not demand." Haruhi's gaze darted to Sasaki before returning to Tachibana. "Maybe you'll learn that one day." If there was anyone I wouldn't want to try to get into a verbal sparring match, it would be Haruhi. She doesn't pull punches.

That said, Sasaki winced again. I don't think Haruhi's blow was meant for her, but she was too smart to miss the bite. Tachibana, none the less, got the message. Her snide grin dropped a few degrees and she shook Haruhi's hand. This was about the level of hostility I was expecting, still, I wish I was wrong in my guess.

Sasaki spoke up as the girls separated and started to sit down. "Fujiwara was supposed to join us, but he was late, so we decided to come ourselves so as to not leave our hosts waiting." She paused, considering, "And for what it's worth, I am… beginning to believe that there is some reason to doubt that my usual perspective about the world may have missed some details that otherwise be apparent to others."

She tilted her head, and added, "After all, Newtonian physics was abolished as law once Einstein postulated his theories of relativity and while they are incomplete, they still stand today."

Haruhi interjected with a motion, "Exactly, like how Quantum theory is now the presiding understanding of how physics work. Most of its mechanics are invisible to human observation, and we are building bigger and better tools every year just to look at smaller and smaller particles in the universe. Each one gets us closer to understanding the underlying mechanics beneath our world. We've already found Up, Down, and Strange. Who knows what we will realize when we see Top, Bottom, and Charm, am I right?"

Sasaki seemed unimpressed, "Well, I agree that there is some merit to some of the ideas at it's core, it doesn't look like much will come of it from what I've researched. Studying objects that current science can barely observe the tertiary reactions of is like looking at rain and guessing that it is caused because the sky is sad. The mechanism is invisible, and likewise, beyond mortal understanding within quantum's viewpoint at this time. Even now, there has never been a confirmed break in Lorentz covariance in spite of nearly a century of research." I was about to interject when Sasaki concluded, blithely, "You might as well believe in quantum threads and the many-worlds theories."

I had no idea what was going on. I glanced around the table to see if anyone else followed. Yuki seemed her usual normal self. Mikuru was frowning cutely clearly baffled. Koizumi was wearing his usual bland smile, either because he was interested and didn't want to show it, or because he was confused and didn't want to show it. Tachibana's eyes met mine at the same time mine met hers. She looked just as clueless as I felt. She gave a little quirk of her eyebrow at me and motioned with her head, as if saying, "Can you get a load of these two?" but Haruhi responded before I could really convey much in response.

Haruhi asked hotly, "And what's wrong with the many-worlds theory? Relativity just barely as observable as quantum theory and, at the very least, it has found better understanding of the actionable forces seen in the universe than relativity has. Relativity can barely prove that neutrinos are massive and yet quantum has barely scratched the surface of its depth."

I think that Sasaki was about to retort, but the waitress had walked up and asked, nervously, "Um… would you three like to order something?"

Sasaki looked just a little miffed that she was cut off, but I was thankful myself. I really didn't want to see Haruhi and Sasaki fight over something as irrelevant as which is the best theoretical physics theory. Sasaki swallowed her retort to Haruhi instead, and said, "Sure. I'd like hot green tea."

Tachibana smirked, as if she were enjoying watching the girls fight, and said, "Same for me, I think. Gotta keep healthy in this brutal weather." She turned to the alien at her side, still staring at the napkin holder, "What about you, Kuou? Your usual of 'whatever I order you'?"

Looking at the lovely, if nigh transparent, Kuou Suyou, she seemed to escape from being transfixed by her reflection, and looked up. There was yet another silent gaps, but she was far more coherent this time. "I will _ what Target: Yuki Nagato' is having."

Suou's eyes were for Tachibana, but everyone else shared a glance, before looking at Yuki and her drink. Yuki's cold water sat before her, and she looked back at the waitress. Everyone was quiet, until Yuki interjected a few moments later, "She orders the water."

Tachibana scoffed, no doubt at the scene, and everyone relaxed a moment. I was still concerned with how Suou called Yuki a 'target' but at least everything was more relaxed.

The waitress asked, "Anything else you all need?"

Sasaki looked a little unsure, glancing at us then to Tachibana, "I don't know, should I order for-"

The restaurant door burst open, a blast of cold air welcoming a tall silhouette of a man. The door closed, and the man- Fujiwara, in fact- had a pile of paper crumpled into the crook between his arm and body. He had the largest, strangest smile on his face.

Author's note: Before anyone claims otherwise, I am not sure what exactly Haruhi and Sasaki are talking about either. I used someone a lot smarter than I to help me craft their argument. If you are a physicist, and it looks like the two have vague notions of some of the ideas of how some of theoretical physics works but appear to be mostly talking babble at each other, you probably are reading it right. Also, thanks for reading my story.

Anyway. I am planning on putting out one more longer chapter before the year ends, but after that I expect I will need another break from this story. I don't think it will be a six month long break, but the story will be on my back-burner for a bit while I line out the next big sections and write ahead again.