Nagato's apartment was silent at night. Only one light was on, that of the living room. Inside, two figures were sitting inside the kotatsu.
After Suzumiya returned with her second in command, the Brigade started to head back home. She told them every detail she had collected, and they took the information as well as Kyon. However, they were more nervous. This time, all responsibility fell on them, and Suzumiya was not the source. So they were back at square one. They swore to collect more information before they all returned to their respective homes.
Kimidori placed her hand on Nagato's arm once again. The former was performing an endurance test, one of the many tests of the maintenance exam. Sitting down was tiring. More than that, there was an innate sensation of worry that something was going on. With the tests, she couldn't use most of her abilities.
"Quite odd." Kimidori suddenly spoke as she got up. "Your body is in excellent condition. However, I detect a spike in unknown data on your hand. Peculiar."
"The idol's material didn't originate from Earth. I sent my analysis to the Overmind." Yuki moved her hands, strengthening and releasing her grip. "Was this enough?"
Kimidori helped Nagato up from the ground. "Are you talking about your analysis of the entity? Or is it about your extraordinary maintenance?"
"The former. I do not like it." She confirmed.
"The Overmind's voice was one. Regardless of our allegiances, we must observe the entity to its fullest extent. After we observe how it interacts with the typhoon, we'll get new orders. So until then, I'm afraid we can't do anything. Are you perhaps worried about your friends?"
Nagato nodded, staring out of the windows.
"I am currently observing how the Sky Canopy Dominion reacts to this entity, so I only know the basics. But you have interfaces backing you up. Do not…"
Kimidori trailed off, her vital systems detecting pressure shifts on the environment.
"Low atmospheric pressure on a sector of interest. The entity is acting up near the location of Haruhi Suzumiya. Are your micro drones still in place?" Kimidori took the lead of the conversation, knowing that her subordinate would act on her own.
"Yes. I cannot reach them. The radio signal is bouncing on the entity. Radar and RDF doesn't penetrate either."
"Manipulation of radio waves is a low data manipulation skill. If you had used your own body to create the microbots… Never mind that now. We don't know the extent of the entity's data manipulation. If we were to teleport, we might never come back." Kimidori turned to Nagato. "I will relay this information and perform the subsequent tests. Go, you can still reach them with your speed."
The night was chilly, with a humid southern wind that spirited away any warmness left in the body. The moonlight was sparse, the clouds that had been creeping up in the evening being strong enough to hide it. Nevertheless, a few houses away from Kyon's residence, Koizumi and another agency member stood vigilant.
"A being that lives in the troposphere, huh?" Arakawa, the old ESPer that usually acted as a driver, leaned back on his car. "I can say that when I woke up this morning, I knew something was wrong. But to think that we're breathing some sort of conscious being, it sounds ludicrous."
"You're not the only one. However, Nagato wouldn't make up anything that unbelievable." Koizumi rubbed his hands before blowing hot air into them. "We need to find a way to either seal it away or destroy it. As long as it is passive, we have room to act."
"If it were something created by Miss Suzumiya, we would be able to do something about it. But here in the normal world? I'm not so sure. I'm not as adept in using my powers as you are, but I'm afraid our usefulness is limited." Arakawa observed Kyon's house in the distance. "Miss is still asleep. Her powers seem stable at the very least."
"And may it stay that way. This situation will be a test for her; I'm hoping that no closed spaces appear. But, regardless, we must stay focused."
"Your trust in her is commending. And if you place your trust in her, so shall I." Arakawa patted Koizumi's back. "You're doing a fine job; don't you forget that."
The young ESPer nodded, thinking of everything they had accomplished so far. However, this situation wasn't like what happened on Christmas in Tsuruya's mansion or the recent fight against Fujiwara, Tachibana and Suou. Something completely alien was happening, and he didn't know what to do. Their only hope right now lay on Nagato, and relying so much on another party was stressful.
"If things go south." Koizumi started. "We should have a backup plan. I don't want Suzumiya getting in the crossfire again. I have something in mind, but with the typhoon, it might prove tricky."
Arakawa pondered, crossing his arms. "Well, it all depends on the typhoon. At the moment, it will take four days until it makes landfall. The situation might become untenable beforehand. If we have to get her out of this living air entity, we might have too little time."
"I thought as much." The Brigade's vice leader always had a plan. And even now, he had one. It was risky, but it could be triggered at any point as long as he was near Suzumiya. "We'll discuss this when Mori arrives."
"Mori? I thought she had a night shift at her normal job." The senior ESPer wondered out loud.
"She tagged in since I personally asked for her. She's one of our most reliable members, and in this situation, I don't want to slack." Koizumi explained, a bitter smile replacing his frown.
"In any case, she's running late," Arakawa mentioned, his breath turning into vapour in the cold night. "You can enter the car if you want; I didn't close it. You can rest there until she replaces you."
"I appreciate the offer, but I won't overburden you. With everything that's happened today, I don't want to risk a closed space expanding too much."
Nobody said anything afterwards, enjoying even the slightest moments of peace they could face. There was something pleasant about the quiet city, only distant sounds making its presence known. Ignoring their situation, Koizumi found tranquillity in the starless sky, no worries to confront in the endless space. If it wasn't a cold night, he might have even enjoyed it.
His hands were failing to keep warm, so he shoved them into his jacket. There was something inside them. It was the note that girl, Kawahara from his class, gave him. She wanted him to read it at night, a bit weird for a love letter. But he remembered a couple of extravagant love confessions. So it wasn't the weirdest one by far—however, a note he could handle.
The note was barely two lines long. He didn't figure that was enough to kick his system into overdrive.
Prophet of the Phony God, Mother of Abominations, the First Follower
Enjoy the night air before it carries you to your death
"What is it? A love confession?" Arakawa didn't have enough time to continue. A gust of wind quickly dropped the temperature to the negatives. Koizumi covered his eyes as dust, and fallen leaves were too keen at throwing themselves at his eyes. A sour, rotten smell made its presence known to both ESPers.
"That smell..." Arakawa moved away from the car.
"They got me." Koizumi stepped on the middle of the street, crumbling the note back into his pocket. "The smell is even worse now. Watch my back."
Arakawa complied, but his movements were stiff. His physical state wasn't the best, something he didn't mind when using his powers in closed spaces. But here, in the real world, the senior didn't feel so sure. For this reason, he preferred to take a secondary role, like a chauffeur or a butler. He'd be the perfect supporting role so that his fellow, younger colleagues could rise to the top. Sometimes, however, he felt too inactive. Koizumi worked himself too much, dealing not only with closed spaces but Suzumiya herself. Mori used to skip her job to be the first responder to a closed space. Lately, things had become quiet along with Suzumiya, but the pressure remained.
The wind picked up speed, strong enough to budge the streetlights. Koizumi didn't see anything. Arakawa did. Leaves and dust were dancing on a spiral, shaping a long figure four or five metres in height. An ordinary gust, if it wasn't for the wind phasing and morphing, the debris shaping into several appendages. It was a wind spider of some kind, with a nucleus of leaves and appendages that sprung out of it. The sound of wind hitting the ground and the house walls was gentle like it purposefully avoided it in order to conserve energy. It was utterly still, like a cat hunting vermin.
All of a sudden, the wind snapped. The air ducts of a nearby house snapped in two, the ventilated air twisting its way into the air creature. It wanted air. At least, that's how Arakawa saw it.
"President." The older man didn't move, holding his breath. "Enter the car."
Koizumi didn't look back. The overpowering rank stink told him all he needed to know. The street was narrow, the usual residential street, and the car was barely five steps away. Whatever Arakawa was watching over, it wasn't good.
His steps were slow and deliberate. It took a few long seconds for him to face the car, stealing a glance at the formless being on his right. He didn't dwell on it. The air mass shifted as he moved, observant without eyes. Koizumi opened the door to the co-pilot seat, carefully moving inside it and going to the driver seat. He sighed in relief and gestured to Arakawa to come inside.
And with that sigh, the air creature moved. Arakawa didn't have time to react as a sudden wind pressure shoved him to the ground. Wind bursted into the car. Dust and debris blinded Koizumi for less than a second, the air forcefully entering his nose and invading his throat. Even in the tense situation, the ESPer moved quickly, opening the driver's door to his back. He didn't have time to turn as he launched himself out of the car, snapping the door shut with a kick.
"Arakawa!" The old ESPer closed the co-pilot's open door with that single signal, trapping the creature inside it.
Koizumi coughed out dust and dirt out of his throat, watching the trapped air flailing inside the car. The carefully maintained leather seats were ripped open by the concentrated air, blowing foam rubber all over the vehicle. He didn't want to imagine what would have happened to his skin if he remained even a second more.
"President, are you okay?!" The senior rushed to his side, barely fazed by the pain in his back. "You're bleeding, here."
Koizumi touched his bloodied nostrils as Arakawa offered him a handkerchief. The sudden jet of air must have ruptured some blood vessels in his nasal cavity.
They both stared at the car, silently, slightly moving side to side from the eldritch wind inside it.
"They know who we are," Koizumi stated, not moving his vision from the door. "This air entity is not the only player. It's perhaps their weapon."
"What? Who's they? How can they know about Miss Suzumiya?" The old ESPer replied, agitated, his eyes glued to the car.
"I don't know. They called her 'The Mother of Abominations', with me as its Prophet. An odd title for Suzumiya, but the attack we suffered is too much of a coincidence."
"A third party is involved," Arakawa muttered. "So the appearance of this gas entity is no coincidence. And the creature we've trapped, perhaps some sort of manifestation of it?"
"It's likely. Were you breathing in that whole exchange?" Koizumi asked.
"I'm not sure; with this awful smell, I might have stopped."
"The moment I exhaled, I believe it attacked," Koizumi said, circling the car. "If the outside is not safe, we won't have many options. Not as long as there's a group using this air as a trump card."
"I believe we should contact Miss Nagato as soon as possible," Arakawa affirmed, noticing a single light in the distance. "But by the looks of it, the cavalry has arrived."
Koizumi removed the bloody handkerchief from his nose as he saw a motorcycle heading towards them. The vehicle was oddly silent in the middle of the night. There was only one person who could be riding it, and that was Sonou Mori, one of the most capable members of the Agency.
"Bad news," Mori said as she stopped the bike right beside them. When she removed her helmet, she continued. "Somebody is getting in our way."
Koizumi was more accustomed to an elegant and perfect maid that was a little bit too good at her job—watching Mori on a bike with a leather jacket and helmet contrasted with his mental image of the perfect maid.
"Oh, we know. We have even more bad news here." Arakawa commented, pointing to the car.
"What the? What's going on in there?" Mori was about to ask, but Koizumi's bloody state stopped her.
"Let's start with the pressing matters," Koizumi said, turning to the Mori. "Somebody out there is confronting us.
Mori put away her helmet on the bike and answered. "So you received a threat as well. I found this on my locker." She pulled up an opened envelope. "I didn't think much of it until the Tamaru brothers contacted me. They have received similar letters."
Koizumi took the envelope and read out the handwritten letter.
Mother of Abominations, Conqueror of Passion, Bringer of Demise
Does the Whore of Babalon deserve worship?
When the clock hits midnight
And your God is blind
Wind will sweep away your heretical cult
And you'll realise that wind is eternal, cyclical, and merciless
"A threat," Arakawa muttered.
"Perhaps it's some other Agency splinter group?" Mori added, taking back the note and letter.
"No, it's doubtful. All of them gathered around Tachibana. I've talked with her on previous occasions ever since our clash. This is not her." Koizumi contemplated all possible options, but none of them made sense. "The Whore of Babalon… Is it perhaps a mistake? Whoever wrote this might have thought of the Whore of Babylon. A biblical reference in this oddly religious threat."
"I thought so as well, but everyone else received the same text. And it's handwritten, so it was deliberate." The ex-maid answered.
"We need to investigate this. Whoever did this has attacked us." Koizumi looked back at the car. "The air entity must be part of their plans, and that creature in the car... It reacts to breathing, or perhaps to the warm air we exhale."
"This is new." Mori modestly replied, looking around the car. "Completely new. The car isn't sealed; it will escape when it finds the A.C. ventilation duct."
Arakawa and Koizumi exchanged looks, prompting an answer from the latter. "So we're on borrowed time." The former mentioned.
"If only it appeared in a closed space, we would be able to act." The ex-maid muttered, fighting the urge to bite her nails.
"Hold on." Mori and Arakawa turned to their president. "According to Nagato, the influence of this entity only goes as far as Nishinomiya extends. Like a soap bubble separating us ever so slightly from the world. It's not fully enclosed, but as long as it is a different dimension..."
The young ESPer closed his eyes, concentrating his sensory abilities. There was something deep within his discomfort. That bitter and haunted knot inside of him was hiding something. The image of that dreadful idol appeared on his mind. How it wanted to show its smile to hide its half-finished body. So he had to look past it. Look past the troubles inside him, stirred up and amplified by that putrid smell. If Suzumiya had given him these powers, it was for a reason. It wasn't to make him exciting or make him unique. No, it wasn't either to be a simple pawn or loyal subject. He was but another part of Suzumiya's powers, a muscle with one objective; to keep those powers in check by stabilising her emotions. And he could not perform his duty as long as this entity existed.
"I feel it." Koizumi declared. "It's faint, but… I feel it."
They both hesitantly nodded, taking hold of his hands and pouring their power into him.
"Nagato said we had side-effects from the existence of this being. Let's hope this is one of them as well." Koizumi placed himself in front of the co-pilot and raised his arms. "Arakawa, please open the door."
The old man gulped, placing his hand on the handle. The moment the lock was off, the door was swept open by the jet of cold air inside the car. It lunged towards the young ESPer, his body giving a warm, red glow. The pressurised wind scattered in all directions as a fireball instantly exploded inside it, Koizumi's hands smoking from the detonation.
"That was loud, too loud," Mori mentioned as she rushed to Koizumi's side. "Are you okay?" She swept away some of the leaves and dust from his clothes and hair.
"So far, so good. That felt too easy." His hands tingled, but they were already hardened by years of fighting Celestials.
"Don't sell the skin before you've caught the bear."
Arakawa was looking up. Koizumi and Mori imitated him. The air creature was reconsolidating, but it wasn't alone this time.
Haruhi's eyes suddenly opened, unsure of why she was even awake. Kyon's sister was sleeping silently beside her, not moving a finger. But she hadn't been able to shake off the distinct feeling of dread on the back of her head. And like that, she couldn't sleep soundly. So she tried to go back to sleep to no avail. And as much as she tried, Orpheus wouldn't take her back.
She got up, making sure not to wake the little sister and headed out of the bedroom. Perhaps a bit of water would help her. However, when she entered the second-floor hallway, she noticed light coming out of Kyon's bedroom. He had been asleep most of the time and wasn't even awake when she placed a cup of water on his bedstand.
She knocked on his door once before coming inside. He wouldn't be doing anything weird, hopefully.
"Awake so late in the night?" She slowly moved into his room, closing the door behind him and sitting on his swivel chair.
Kyon was resting on his bed, reading the book Nagato had lent him. He looked surprised when she entered his room. "What are you doing here?" He asked, rubbing his eyes.
"I'm taking care of your sister. You should be grateful." She replied, pursing her lips.
"Nobody had told me… well, I suppose that explains why I haven't seen my sis. Or Shamisen, for that matter." Kyon closed the book, putting it on his bedside table.
Haruhi spun on the chair as she spoke. "How are you feeling?"
"Well, weird." He found the strength to sit on the bed, not leaving the warmth of his bedsheets. "My muscles hurt, my head hurts, and my muscles hurt... On the bright side, I haven't slept this much ever since I was a baby."
"You've been out the whole day. It's normal." Haruhi stopped spinning, turning towards him.
"Well, what about you? I don't recall permitting you to enter my room."
"I don't need permission to enter your room. What is it? Do you have anything to hide? I wouldn't be surprised." Kyon's unamused expression forced her to continue sheepishly. "I can't sleep for whatever reason. It's not like I wanted to visit you. I just saw the light and entered. Happy with that answer?"
"I guess. Are the others here too?" He asked, his eyes dropping slightly.
"No, I didn't want to invade your household. With seven people here, it would be overcrowded." Haruhi looked at the bedside lamp, feeling an odd warmth irradiating from it. "They'll be back tomorrow, and you'll be better by then."
"Seven people? I may be sick, but I think your math is off."
"Shamisen counts as people in my book." Kyon raised an eyebrow at her answer. "Speaking of which, I haven't seen him all day!"
"I can't help you much with that. But he always comes back, so don't worry."
Seeing how Kyon shrugged, Haruhi leaned back on the chair. From there, her eye caught sight of something, the horrible idol that continuously laughed at nothing. She picked it by its head with a dramatic look of disdain.
"What's the deal with this scrawny looking figure?" Haruhi asked, furrowing her brow.
"Well, it's…." Kyon awkwardly shifted in place, unsure of what to say.
"I didn't take you for a collector. Actually, you aren't one. It's like, someone from ancient Sumeria tried to replicate a Buddha. But they tried to copy it so much it doesn't look like anything. So if it's Buddha, it lacks enlightenment. If it's Sumerian, it lacks one of those cool ancient beards, though. So it's just a cheap imitation. Whoever did this didn't even finish it." She inspected it more thoroughly before staring intensely at Kyon. "Where did you get this?"
"I don't know." He answered honestly, unclear on how to explain something he didn't even understand. "It just… appeared on my pocket yesterday. It might have been there on Saturday, but I didn't check."
Haruhi scoffed at that explanation. "Right, it magically appeared. But that does remind me, Kunikida told me he saw you out on Saturday."
"Well, yeah, I hung out with him. Something about preparing a meet-up with people from my old middle school class." Kyon yawned, rubbing his tired eyes afterwards. "To be honest, I'm starting to forget their names."
"A middle school reunion? That's tedious. I don't think I ever want to meet up with mine ever again." Haruhi placed the figurine back on the desk, realising something. "So you've been with… How was it? Ah yeah, Sasaki, right?"
Kyon laid down on his bed again, resting on his side. "Well, yes. The three of us were a group back in middle school, more or less. This whole thing was her idea. There were some other classmates as well, but I'm not a social butterfly."
"So one of them gave you that. Sasaki or whoever gifted it… they have terrible taste. It's something I would give my worst enemy to curse them." Haruhi propped up her legs and hugged them, the temperature in the room dropping all of a sudden.
"I'm telling you, I don't know where it came from. Somebody must have slipped it into my pocket as a joke." The chilly temperature made its way to Kyon. "Let's just drop the subject."
Haruhi held back any comment. Kyon wasn't lying; she could tell that. If somebody had pranked him, then perhaps Kunikida would know more. Tomorrow she could ask him. In the meantime, maybe she had spent too much outside her futon because it was freezing. So cold, she could almost see her breath forming up in front of her.
The windows rattled like a silent explosion had occurred a few kilometres away. The wind was acting up, crashing into the big screen door behind the curtains.
"What's wrong?" Kyon asked, his eyes closed a bit too much. "If you're cold, go back to sleep. I feel tired all of a sudden. I'd offer my bed, but I'm sure you're the type of person who kicks while asleep..."
"W-What are you even talking about as if I'd enter a bed with you." Flustered, she waited for an answer that never came. Instead, Kyon was suddenly out and cold, sleeping peacefully. "...Did you really fall asleep like that?"
She nudged his cheeks, but he didn't react at all. After all, Kyon wasn't the type to not respond to her provocations.
Sighing, she turned off the sole lamp on his bedstand, plunging the room into cold darkness. She moved towards the exit before stopping and looking back. The wind outside was violent, too focused on this house. The scarce moonlight was enough for her to see the curtains moving like the air was slowly seeping into the room. With that, she heard a low rumble coming from outside. At first, she thought the wind interacted with the leaves or pipes, making that soft noise. But after a few seconds, she began to hear it. It was a voice singing. But she quickly dashed that theory. It wasn't singing but calling to something in the room.
"Kyon, can you wake up…?" She muttered, standing in the middle of the room. "If this is a prank, I'm gonna be pretty mad…!"
When she muttered those words, she saw it. The idol, rotating to face her. Although she had picked it up before, it didn't have anything attached to it. So there was no way it could be someone else moving it.
But it was there. Still smiling, still staring.
The wind's melody continued, only it was not outside anymore. Shrill and strangely seductive, it made you want to stop and stay put until you could finally know where it was coming out of.
"...Ba…Balon..."
A chill ran down through her spine; her heart stopped like a hand had gripped it. The air was so cold, yet she couldn't help but sweat in fear. She looked around, but there was nothing there. There was nothing but the shadows that danced in the moonlight. Soon, however, there would be.
The melody resounded. It was so close; it could only be inside the house. And Haruhi thought she could hear it coming, something primal, something insane. Her animal instincts, forgotten in the wellbeing of the urban sphere, sprung back into action with a simple order.
Run.
Yet her feet were welded into the ground. She could run, but what about Kyon? She couldn't leave him there, at the mercy of that idol, of the melody, of whatever was singing it. But, above all, she was supposed to take care of him, so she would. And in that nightmare, she found the resolve she needed.
"This is a dream."
Facing all her instincts head-on, she moved towards Kyon's bed, entered inside and placed her back against his.
"This is a dream…!" She repeated like a mantra, the melody pounding against her mind.
And the sound changed, curdling into an intense sound of exasperation. It wanted her to leave. It wanted to see her. The voice couldn't burst into the room; it simply wasn't strong enough. So she had only to ignore it. That was the answer she created
She just needed to ignore it.
Ignore it.
…
Wind pressure pierced through the car's windows, shattering them in an instant. Some small fragments joined the airflow of one of the creatures while the biggest ones fell to the ground. More wind being had appeared, around four or five, rallying around the first air spider. They hovered a few metres above the ground, sharing wind pressure to lift more considerable debris. The ESPers backed off, grouping together behind Koizumi.
"I can muster some strength, but it's not enough to fly or summon a shield." Mori whipped off the cold sweat gathering in her eyebrows. "And the plasma balls I can summon are not enough to defeat them."
"I find myself on the same boat." Arakawa added.
"I underestimated its strength and its numbers." Koizumi replied, defeated. He tried to calm his breathing, but that only agitated him more. This fusty air and suffocating smell were horrible. The more he breathed it, the more he hated it.
The ESPers stood in silence. This fear, the panic they felt at the moment, was ridiculous. Ridiculous because it was utterly unknown, fearing something they could barely see. Koizumi, in particular, didn't have much experience with this type of fear, real fear. Because the moment they moved, it would attack them. And then, what? They couldn't defend themselves, not against that many.
And then, the wind rampaged against the pavement. All Koizumi could think was that it was testing their nerves, and as he thought of this, his muscles went rigid and tight like they were preparing to take a hit. Then, another wind current slashed a traffic signal right to his left, snapping it in two. With that, Koizumi realised it. It didn't know where they were. Their breathing was too calm, too controlled. It was casting them like a shark for a drop of blood.
It was a battle of endurance against a creature with seemingly endless strength.
"Unknown data forms." A soft voice, as it descended from the heavens, suddenly said. "Commencing extermination."
The air creatures suddenly lunged back, assaulting a figure at the end of the street. Light bounced and reflected as the monsters continued their assault, a sign of hope for the Agency. However, it took a while for Koizumi to realise that his lungs were screaming for fresh oxygen. And he only took their request as the debris of the creatures fell to the ground, unmoving.
"Thank God for the Aliens! I thought we were toast." Arakawa broke the silence coupled with a nervous laugh.
"Miss Nagato must have been aware of our plight. Otherwise…" Mori walked forward, reaching the battered car. "I hope you had insurance against hurricanes."
"My poor baby…" Arakawa accompanied her, staring in grief at the broken windows and ravaged seats.
"We were lucky this was the only casualty." Koizumi walked past them, heading towards Nagato.
The alien moved at high speed, reaching them in a few seconds. "Unharmed?"
"Besides my sore throat, we're alright." He took a moment to breathe and empty his mind before continuing. "This was basically a hit job. This entity's appearance was not a mere coincidence. It's either being controlled or with the same goals as this third group."
Nagato stared in silence before nodding. "Understood. I will take the necessary precautions."
"I will investigate as well." He took out the crumpled note. "A classmate, I believe it was Kazumi Kawahara, gave it to me. This third group probably told her to do it."
Nagato blinked a few times, the ESPer group waiting impatiently for an answer from the alien.
"Are you certain?" Nagato's words were weighty, even Koizumi could tell.
"Yes. Do you know something?"
"Kazumi Kawahara is a humanoid interface specialised in human interactions. Therefore, she has a protocol of non-intervention on matters related to Haruhi Suzumiya. That includes you."
"Is she rogue?" Mori pressed with a cold frown. "Why is she in the same classroom as Koizumi?"
"Possible. She's an emergency backup. I am not fully trusted due to the incident of December 18th. Regardless, she has few data manipulation privileges until the Overmind declares her a possible replacement. At the moment, Kimidori would be-" Koizumi raised a hand, stopping her explanation.
"Let's not switch topics. Are you absolutely sure that Kawahara's acting against the Overmind? Against Suzumiya?" The young ESPer stared intensely at Nagato, who returned his gaze in kind.
"It would explain the sudden spawn of the entity, but not its origin." Nagato looked at the three members, one by one, before continuing. "Unlike the Overmind, your group is small and loyal. This is why they decided to attack you."
"I figured." Koizumi muttered.
"Should we check up on Miss Asahina?" Arakawa offered. "Due to their circumstances, she can't be offered much backup from her group."
"Yes, take Mori with you." Koizumi turned to them. "I will stay with Nagato and protect Suzumiya. If she's willing, of course."
The alien nodded.
"Don't overwork yourself." The ex-maid asserted. "I'll come back, so you better go home and rest."
"Of course, I don't want to deal with your wrath." The joke didn't land, but Mori patted his shoulder as she walked towards her bike.
The air was still and stagnant as Mori and Arakawa rode off in the distance. Nagato glared at Kyon's house direction, dwelling on the new information gathered by her allies. Koizumi did the same, wondering about the near future and the sudden hostility of the world. If this were like this, how would they be when the typhoon's influence reached?