The festival of red and green lights that darted around the closed space was joined by the pale blue light of the Celestial. The nearby's pond water reflected all clashes and bursts of energy that got in the way of the gas entity. Koizumi, however, was too focused on the Prior. She had sunk to the bottom of the artificial pond, the ripples of the impact mellowing down for quite a while already.
Koizumi had been observing the whole ritual from afar, waiting for the right moment to strike. He didn't expect to be pulled inside a closed space by some unknown force. That's what he wanted to believe, that it hadn't been Suzumiya.
Looking down at a small island in the middle of the pond, no bigger than five metres square, he noticed a figure grasping at the rocky surface. The Prior wasn't displaying the absurd durability from their previous encounter, nor any will to fight back. Koizumi was cautious, staying in his relatively secure position for a few minutes before acting.
"I must commend you. There was no way I could have beaten you before." Koizumi floated down to the small plot of resurfaced land. "Now, I'm afraid you have no chance."
"I don't understand." The Prior crawled on the rocky beach, laying down as she stared at the sky above. "A god… my neophytes… how…?"
"How does it feel to not have any answers, cultist?" Koizumi landed next to her, a few metres of distance separating them. "Too shocked to act?"
The cultist stared in awe at the Celestial, rocking its body and swinging its arms at the gas entity. Like a child seeing snow for the first time, she was about to weep in shock and joy if her eyes still existed.
"This isn't our realm, is it? I feel it all around me. The giant's power is being drawn from an incredible source. Kawahara never told us Babalon could control such a thing."
"You underestimated Suzumiya. As well as the rest of the Brigade." He held his breath, loosening up his tie. "Now tell me. You chose Suzumiya for her powers, but they were never the objective. So spare me your monologue about pets and language and tell me this: What drove you to do this?" Koizumi observed the air battle above them; the scales tipped towards the ESPers after the Celestial joined.
"Well, Prophet. You wouldn't understand even if I could explain it." The Prior admitted. "But picture this. If Babalon told you to do something, you'd do it happily, wouldn't you? And if you had never seen her for years and years, you'd do anything in your power to get her back. I was given that chance. So if it's for the relatively simple task of bringing back a beast, I would."
"So you lured people with the premise of saving the world, and then enslave them after showing… whatever God you pray to. And all of this because, somehow, this gas entity would make your God happier." Koizumi held back his words, glaring in disgust at the Prior's figure.
"Happier? No, emotions can't properly describe it. Ninlil-Shu would have prevented the vanishment of our God. Though, I suppose, I could see another reason. If our world had enough energy to free and empower Ninlil-Shu, it could do it as well. Do you understand, Prophet? Babalon's ejecting an absurd amount of energy. Whatever she's doing now, it's even stronger than before! Kawahara never told us she could do such a thing. If we knew, then…"
"That's not her name." Koizumi snarled, his powers glimmering for a moment. "And I'm not a Prophet. Get it through your rotten head already."
"I'm not the one who needs to accept it. You and I are more similar than you realise, we've followed the same steps. Why, let me guess. You instantly knew your powers came through her. The aberrant is drawn towards her like bees to honey. And look upon this spectacle! What else could she be but a God?"
"Shut up." Koizumi approached the Prior's resting body, staring at the void of her head. "I'm tired of your monologues. What else is there in your cult? You are a Prior, so there's someone above you. And if you don't worship the gas entity, what do you worship?"
"You're not going to get anything out of me." She remained still on the rocky surface, her limbs completely dead. "Whether I failed or succeeded, the test has been successful; we know Babalon can be used to bring Gods back to our reality. More will come. And they will not be as merciful as I was. Because you cannot fathom the kindness I extended to you. Stopping me is the worst mistake you, no, the worst mistake all of your little friends have committed. That boy, the Automata, the Wanderer of Time, you and your cult... And Babalon. You've all crossed the Rubicon, so I hope you're ready for the legions."
"It's you who has stirred up a wasps' nest Because we won't be caught off-guard again." The Prior didn't react as Koizumi grabbed her robes.
She, however, laughed. "Go ahead, kill me. My fate was already sealed ever since I landed on this godforsaken island. Perhaps ever since I saw Ningirsu, my destiny was written in ink."
"You sure love the sound of your own voice." Koizumi lifted her, forcefully making her sit. "If you want to talk so much, answer my questions."
The Prior chuckled one last time and said. "My purpose, fulfilled." With that, gas and black tar started to ooze from her body. Koizumi had to take flight as her robes became attached to the ground below. Then, like steam had reached critical mass, gusts exploded out of her torso, leaving only a trickle of black sludge draining towards the pond.
"Woah! What are those?! Those red orbs are destroying that swarm of air animals! They must be predators, right?! I think those attacked us before, didn't they? Kyon? Are you listening?" Haruhi had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, marvelled at the battle going before her eyes. "And that green alien keeps talking. How do I get up…? Oh, Mikuru, what are you doing there?"
If Asahina was worried about her integrity before, now she was crying her heart out. She babbled about how the mission failed and how she was going to get demoted or thrown out of her job.
"Yeah, that sounds like Mikuru. Is she a sacrifice or something?" Haruhi asked Kyon, looking down at the pentagram before her eyes landed on Asahina and then on the green cloud above her. "I see. That thing wants to eat you."
"Please, don't bully her right now," Kyon muttered, getting up from the ground.
"Fine, party-pooper. Mikuru, come here. Standing on the bullseye is not a good idea." Haruhi tried to enter the ritual circle, only to be stopped by the invisible wall.
"If it were that easy, I would have done it before." He thought out loud.
"Well, at least we have three out five members. So now we can start having fun, right?"
Asahina lost balance, dropping to her knees and inciting a reaction in both Haruhi and Kyon. She clutched her throat before hastily using her hands to cover her mouth and nose. No longer breathing, Asahina's eyes stared at Haruhi, searching for help.
Perhaps controlled by Haruhi's will, the Celestial's hand approached the middle of the field. Its fingers were long and unearthly, not glowing in the same intensity as the rest of its body. They wrapped around the summoning circle, grasping its wall with ever-increasing strength. And like Ninlil-Shu itself was being attacked, the world shook as a mind-shattering wail pierced everyone's ears.
The immobilising screech made everyone except Haruhi drop to their knees in pain, the Tamaru brothers falling from the sky along with the remaining air monsters. The Celestial used its free hand to grab the two ESPers as quickly as they fell, placing them on the ground.
"Are you okay?! What's wrong?!" For Haruhi, nothing out of the ordinary was happening. They fell to the ground suddenly, with no explanation whatsoever.
Kyon couldn't even hear his own thoughts, let alone whatever Haruhi was saying. "Asahina, get her!"
Haruhi stared at the descending cloud mass, its intent clear. Then, pushing through the Celestial fingers, she entered the ritual circle. Asahina didn't register the brigade leader rescuing her until she saw herself besides Kyon.
Yet the screech continued. Haruhi looked around frantically, trying to find the rest of the Brigade to get them out of there. This was supposed to be a fun adventure for everyone. Instead, what was occurring couldn't be any worse. They were separated, panicking and injured—a nightmare.
But a nightmare was still a dream, which meant it was unpredictable. A few mosquito-like robots hovered in front of Haruhi, which, while odd, could only mean one thing.
"Suzumiya." Nagato's voice came out of the microrobots. "Do you hear me?"
"Yuki? Where… No, it doesn't matter. What's going on? Why's everyone like this?"
"High-frequency pitch. You seem immune to it." Her voice was neutral even in this environment.
"It's coming out of that thing, right? But it's gaseous, so the giant can't touch it." Haruhi observed the giant shifting its pose, trying to hold the clouds to no avail.
Nagato was silent as she came up with a plan. "I recommend a state change. Lowering the temperature could prove successful. However, I do not recommend any human in the vicinity besides you."
"Okay, so… How do I get them out?"
"The same way you brought them in," Yuki answered.
Haruhi glanced at Kyon and Asahina, in pain from the screech. "I… I don't know how I did it. My body just did it on its own. Oh, I know! Can't you come here and help?"
"You are the only one with the power to destroy the gas entity. My presence would only hinder you."
"But…" Haruhi was too worried about everyone to get her head straight. "I don't know how to take everyone out. It's like there's a wall stopping me, I can't mould the dream like I want. It's frustrating."
"…very well. Itsuki Koizumi is 200 metres away from you. Bring him here, and I'll guide you."
The Brigade leader nodded, the Celestial already tilting its whole body and arm to reach the faraway pond. Then, it slowly brought it back to the middle of the field, unbothered by the gas entity.
Koizumi wasn't fairing much better than the rest of the Brigade or the Agency. Nagato's bots moved quick, entering his ears for some long seconds. Then, the five microbots headed off in different directions. Each moved to one of the incapacitated ESPers, while one moved to the struggling Koizumi, who crawled towards Kyon and Asahina.
"I will pull you all to the real world. Koizumi will use his powers to make up for the lack of microbots. However, you will need to give me the push needed for this to work. The space you're in is a oneway tunnel, which will only break once that giant disappears. But, if you give me the push needed, I will be able to accomplish this task."
"I… Okay, I'll try." Haruhi wasn't sure if that made sense. "Let me help you, Koizumi."
She pulled him up, and though Koizumi's pain was too great, he was able to mutter a quick thank you. Once the three of them were together, a red aura enveloped them all. Haruhi noticed the others had similar auras, though of a grey-blue colour. The gas entity suddenly rushed towards the Brigade, like a pseudopod desperately reaching for food.
"Now." Nagato's voice appeared for one last time.
The Celestial threw its body on top of the field, granting Haruhi the time she needed to concentrate correctly. And when she closed her eyes, imagining everyone back in Kyon's house and laughing, a soothing calm came over her body. Then, when she looked again, the field was empty. No humans around, not even those unconscious cultists. Only her.
"Alright." Haruhi looked at the Celestial, who placed its hand on the field. "I'm already bored of you."
Haruhi sat down on one of its fingers before the Celestial got up and faced the swirling mass of cloud morphing above the city. The giant was barely tall enough to meet the gas entity toe to toe.
"Stop hiding in the clouds. You wanted me to come here, so come out already." The Celestial placed its hand on its shoulder, and Haruhi jumped into it.
When she did so, enthalpy and entropy simply stopped functioning. Particles suddenly ceased their vibrations. In the blink of an eye, the whole closed space reached a temperature of zero Kelvin, absolute zero. Haruhi had snapped the laws of thermodynamics in half like a dry twig.
The gas entity's cloud-like form dropped to the ground like hail. All around the city, ice chunks the size of cars descended into the ground, destroying everything in their wake. Accompanying them was a soft rain of air, raindrops of oxygen and nitrogen first liquefying and then solidifying into snowflakes.
"Where are you? I can still hear you." Haruhi talked to fill in the void, the coldness somehow not affecting her.
A chunk of dark ice floated in the air, apparently unaffected by gravity. Haruhi didn't need to be a detective to know what that was. The nucleus, the entity's centre, was a piece of ice ten metres in height. Nevertheless, the Celestial pressed on, moving towards the exposed heart of the gas entity.
The Celestial stretched its hand, placing it below the ice nucleus. Haruhi begrudgingly hiked down its arm, taking quite a while to reach the hand. She observed the ice, taking a look around the vast shard. While it was dark from a distance, from up close, you could see that there was something inside it.
"Oi." Haruhi tapped the ice. "Come out."
Nothing answered.
She knocked this time. "Come out before I get mad."
Once again, silence.
Haruhi glared at the ice before it was suddenly cut in half by her powers.
"I'm giving you one last warning."
This time, deep inside the ice prison, something wailed.
"Stop." Its voice appeared inside Haruhi's head. It was old, tired and decrepit, rasping the edges of her brain.
"Gee, finally. You've been banging my head all day, and now you want me to stop? I'm here, right in front of you. So what do you want?" Haruhi peeked inside the ice again but saw nothing.
"Nourishment." It answered.
"You cannot be any vaguer even if you tried. You injured many people at my high school and made my Brigade quite upset. I don't appreciate this if you can't tell. Because you brought the typhoon towards Japan, didn't you?"
As much as Haruhi tried, she couldn't see inside the ice. So perhaps she was wrong, and the gas entity had escaped.
"Yes."
"Can you answer with more than one word? Cause you're annoying me even more."
"No."
The ice block was instantly shaved, slowly becoming spherical and smaller. Haruhi had run out of patience and was bent on getting whatever was inside the ice out. The nitrogen-oxygen rain had stopped, sound no longer being able to wave through the emptiness of the closed space. The ice in front of her was no longer odd and eye-catching but an obstacle to be removed. Because of it, she had to see everyone suffer. In a sense, it was frightening. A being with so much power was encased inside the ice, and she was getting it out.
But behind that fright, there was dullness.
Kyon wasn't there to complain and do it for her. Koizumi wasn't over-explaining a mundane task like cutting ice. Asahina's innocent curiosity wasn't there to drive her. And Nagato's stoic devotion to every duty wasn't there to inspire her. If there weren't a deeply instilled sense of dread in her mind, she would have fallen asleep right there.
And as the ice reached a metre diameter, that lack of motivation dropped her guard. The temperature rose to 100 Kelvin reasonably quickly, and it started to climb steadily from there. The ice wasn't melting, but the pool of air on the ground soon boiled and evaporated. And like that, whatever was inside the ice did as well. It broke through the ice, expanding upwards before descending upon Haruhi.
When the smell of stale, acidic air entered her nose, it was already too late. She wasn't sure what had happened, but her eyes were failing.
The giant, the ice, the city, it had all disappeared.
Instead, she found herself somewhere dry, near the sea. It was a semi-desertic region that felt like the Earth, but it was in no way terrestrial. There was no moon in the sky; only a vast emptiness lit up by the occasional star.
"What happened?" Dreams were random and confusing, yet she questioned her reality even now. "It entered my head, no?"
The sand below was rough, composed of small beige fragments that resembled bone. The sand grains were sharp, sticking to Haruhi's loafers as she trodded the untouched waste.
Vegetation, if it could be called that, was scarce. Half a metre tall claws sprouted out of the sand, branching into several long red structured that expanded in every direction besides downwards. It had no leaves. It would resemble a dead bush if it wasn't for the sticky, tar-like substance that covered its branches. Whatever it was, it was sucking her heat like a wasp basking in the sun.
Far in the distance, she saw the light. She could only guess they were rows and rows of streetlights. Like an old medieval city had decided to adopt the wonders of electricity overnight. Its streets were tiny and cluttered, not following a pattern beyond the form of the buildings that composed it. Were they really buildings? No light emerged from the tall structures of the city. Much like the vegetation, it shot up from the ground as if it was pure malaise, resembling wide obelisks rather than your usual apartment block.
"Okay… I want to wake up now."
In the silent frozen hell that she was walking on, the sound of rushing sand shut her mouth tight. Nothing was around her, but the sound came again. The sterile sand vibrated in accordance with the noise, ripples coming gently in her direction.
And all Haruhi could think of was that it was a dream; nothing could hurt or scare her. That, if something happened, she would awake in the real world. Regardless of her thoughts, her body didn't feel the same. And it only wanted to do one thing. Run.
The proboscis of an unknown creature leapt out of the sand, knocking Haruhi to the sandy surface. It wrapped around her right arm, pulling it below the rough sand and slamming her body against it. Her panic only inflated as she sank deeper and deeper while she struggled to get her arm out. The creature yanked once again, burying Haruhi up to her waist. And with one last pull, she found herself falling.
Her body impacted against a wet, slippery surface. The fall felt eternal. Yet she could see the sandy roof no more than 100 metres above. Her screaming had lasted so long that her throat felt sore.
So when she saw the dead, disembowelled creatures around her, only a mute shriek came out of it. Black blood oozed out of their hairless bodies, with many eyes pruned out of their white and pinkish corpses. Animals they may be, yet what remained of their bodies were so mutilated that it wasn't possible to make a correct identification. Not that she would want to do one because the immense sense of revulsion and disgust was so strong that her throat seized up. Unable to puke or yell anymore, Haruhi struggled to get up and run out of the pile of death, falling and sinking deeper into the massacre. Somewhere out there, there was an ocean. The sound of waves was the only thing that gave her the slightest hint of hope. Crawling, almost swimming in the mass of abhorrence, she closed her eyes to avoid observing the depraved ritual killing.
When her arms finally touched land, her whole body smelled of death.
Unlike herself, the sea was calm, but its water was gelatinous and putrid. It didn't look like the composition of that concoction could even let light through, only reflect it. And when her hyperventilation ceased momentarily, she saw the light in the distance. Orange and weak, like a lure from a fisherman. With that, she could see the shapes of structures that came out of the sea, reaching the faraway ceiling. It had to be the city she saw before, its buildings so tall that only their tips came out of the ground.
Haruhi was so infatuated by the odd geometrical shapes that she slipped on the rocky surface. There, clinging to the ceiling, she saw it. The creature that had pulled her into the sand.
"Babalon."
That name rang on her head, an instant headache invading her head. She got up from the ground, slipping momentarily as she tried to find a way out. But behind her were countless bodies, and in front, there was an ocean that hid unspeakable horrors below its dark surface.
The proboscis descended upon her again, vehemently taking hold of her arm. Haruhi was quick enough to dodge it and incited by fear and terror, she threw herself into the sea in hopes of reaching the faraway city. The water was thick, like a sludge of decomposed meat and algae. If she sank to the bottom, she wouldn't get back out. But if that thing got her, everything would end.
"Babalon."
The voice spoke again as the tentacle grabbed her legs and pulled her out of the sea like a plucked chicken.
"Where is Ninlil-Shu, Babalon?"
Haruhi did not attempt to answer as she tried her best to remove the slimy tentacle from her legs. It was intense, frothing a black sludge that dripped into her head. But above, she could see the creature it connected to, that who spoke in her mind. Immense and outlandish, covering the whole underground world and further. If it had a head or something resembling it, she couldn't find it. Its intent was obvious; it wanted her. She was too small for food and too insignificant to be of use. So whatever it longed for, it couldn't be something she understood.
A second wind came over her and, making use of her athletic ability, she managed to remove one leg from its grasp. And then, as if reeling from shock, the tentacle dropped her.
The fall was once again quick yet eternal. Haruhi was sure she would have woken up already in any standard scenario. Yet her vocal cords endured, so she screamed as she impacted the ground once again.
Luckily this time, there weren't any dead bodies around her. Rather, Haruhi was back with the blue giant on the football field. Yet the ground was sticky and warm, like the world itself was a living being.
"Please, wake up." She told herself, watching her blood-covered hands. Her head started to hurt even more, and she found a nasty wound in the back of her head. Its existence found, she immediately felt feeble.
Her legs buckled as she stood up, coughing the same black ooze she had been plunged into before. Something was inside her. She knew it all began because of that gas. But that didn't fix anything. There was no way to get it out of her system.
Air flew around in a spiral like she was inside a tornado. The gas entity was getting stronger and stronger. So much so, that the buildings of the closed space started to shift and tremble against the hurricane winds that sprouted out of Haruhi.
On cue, the nearby pond suddenly bursted with activity. Creatures poured out of it, crawling and bloating. Then, above in the sky, the same air creatures that attacked the Brigade flew and laughed. And the ground creaked and split open to reveal formless and mutilated shapes rupturing the world.
"Babalon. Where's Ninlil-Shu?"
The being from before had followed her. At the very least, its influence did.
"None of this is real. Go away." The giant above curled up, mimicking Haruhi's movement. "All of you, go away. Get out of my body and go away. Please."
A prisoner in her own dream. Without the Brigade, what was she after all? Just a speck of dust in the corner of an old house. Unrecognisable from the rest of the dirt particles around. So why did these nightmares follow her like moths to the light? She just wanted to wake up already, go back with her friends. No more blood and deaths, no more horrible landscapes, no more dread. Why couldn't it all go away?
A little voice in her subconscious answered for her. "Since when do I give up against adversity?"
The giant moved on its own, something inside Haruhi controlling it.
The Celestial raised its fist towards the skies and slammed it against Haruhi's body. The impact threw her to the ground, but she felt no pain from it. Instead, she puked a green liquid that quickly boiled into gas. Without Haruhi thinking it, the liquid froze, and the giant punched once again. Breaking into even shards, the Celestial punched again and again, until the shards became crystals and then particles. And without another thought, the particles of energy and matter that compossed the gas entity broke down into hydrogen. Any normal particle would have released a tremendous amount of energy, but not this time. It disappeared from the closed space, against the laws of physics. Another swipe, and it broke down into protons and neutrons. With one final swing, the electrical charge of the subatomic particles was willed away from existence, and with it, Ninlil-Shu.
Kyon was the first to land on the wet dirt of the football pitch. The typhoon raged around him, wind and rain impacting him from every angle. His headache had immediately stopped, and the dread he had felt the whole week had disappeared. They weren't in the closed space anymore.
But that wasn't the first thing that crossed his mind. It was the air. It felt fresh and reinvigorating, like he had been holding his breath underwater and escaped out of it at the last second. And out of that lake he had appeared from, the clean mountain wind nuzzled and warmed him. The gas entity wasn't poisoning the city anymore.
"You're back." Nagato's calm voice spurred him up.
"Nagato! You're okay!" Kyon held back the urge to hug the frail alien before giving in and doing it anyway. "I was thinking the worst when I saw the state of my house." He quickly pulled back. "Where are the others?"
Nagato didn't answer, a slight hint of red appearing on her cheeks momentarily. In any case, she didn't need to answer as Asahina suddenly fell between the couple.
"Please, no more wind… Huh?" She took a quick breath before exhaling and taking a long, drawn out breath. Then, enjoying the air, her eyes fell on Kyon and Nagato.
"Oh… You're safe…" Asahina's voice choked up, her eyes shimmering with tears. She threw herself on Kyon and Yuki, hugging them simultaneously. "I was so scared! I thought everyone…!"
Asahina cried her heart out as Koizumi appeared not too far from them. He did the same steps, feeling the same relief from the clean yet raging wind around them.
"It looks like we're out?" He wasn't too sure of his own words. "I didn't think this was possible, yet here we are."
Koizumi flexed his fingers, confirming that he could no longer use his powers. Everything was back how it should be. But he knew that wasn't true.
"Took you long enough to appear." Kyon half-complained, still enjoying Asahina's embrace.
"Glad to see you're in one piece." Koizumi threw a genuine smile before it crumbled as he approached the group. "I have a lot of questions for you, Kyon. But we're not in the clear yet."
Kyon nodded. They were, after all, in the middle of a typhoon. Though it looked like Nagato had worked her magic to make it more bearable without disrupting the weather patterns.
Whatever Koizumi wanted to say, he was stopped by another slamming sound. Arakawa dropped to the ground not too far from them, followed by Keiichi and Yutaka Tamaru. Then, those three were quick enough to grab Sonou Mori before she also impacted the ground.
"What happened to your friends?" Kyon tried to wriggle out of Asahina's grasp, hoping to help the wounded Mori.
"It's a long story." Koizumi stretched his fingers. "It looks like I'm back to normal. No more flying for me. The gas entity is truly gone… at least until the closed space breaks."
"Wait, you had your powers here?"
Kyon's question was brushed aside as both Nagato and Koizumi locked eyes.
"It's gone." The ESPer suddenly said. "The closed space."
"Where's Suzumiya?" Asahina hastily removed herself from Nagato and Kyon, looking around the field. "Is Ninlil-Shu gone?"
Nagato turned towards Asahina, her eyes observing the time traveller top to bottom. "No."
"Nini what? The gas entity, right? Then Haruhi didn't kill it?" Kyon's panicked question managed to dislodge Nagato's eyes from Mikuru.
"Haruhi Suzumiya has destroyed 99.999% of its mass. Regardless, as long as Mikuru Asahina retains a fragment of the gas entity, it will never disappear." The alien turned towards Koizumi before facing Asahina again. "However, it is innocuous. I will do my best to remove it after the storm subsidies."
"What do you mean Asahina… Good grief, I'm going to need a full story about what you've been doing." Kyon sighed heavily, inspiring a giggle from Koizumi.
It was cut short as the whole Brigade became aware of a figure between them. Like the storm itself had stopped, the four of them became hyperaware of the situation.
"None of this is real. Go away, please." Then, blood trickling down her face, Haruhi suddenly fell unconscious as Nagato had suddenly rushed her.
"Shit." Koizumi and Kyon shared a glance, the latter apologetic while the former bitter.
"I placed her in a suspended state." Nagato stopped them from moving. "Unknown data around her body, plus critical damage around her head and torso. Do not touch her body."
"O-Only a few minutes have passed. What happened inside?" Asahina said as Nagato made Haruhi float. "We shouldn't have left her alone."
"Kyon," Koizumi started, biting the inside of his cheek. "I won't judge without knowing the situation, but this was very reckless."
"It was my decision," Nagato interjected, defending Kyon. "I misjudged the severity of the attack. I forced his hand."
"As I said, this isn't the moment to discuss this." Then, Koizumi walked away, heading towards his Agency companions. "Please, take care of Suzumiya. And, everyone… rest. It's been a tough couple of days."
"You too," Kyon answered, not removing his eyes from Haruhi. "She's going to be alright, right?"
"Yes." Nagato's quick reply barely reassured him, but he trusted her abilities.
"Can we… Can we move already?" Asahina was shivering, the rain and wind sucking everybody's heat away.
The fatigue of two days of continuous strain finally tipped over everyone. It was over. It had to be after this showdown. Yet, it didn't feel like they had won. Haruhi was injured, and Asahina was afflicted by whatever the gas entity had placed in her. Whatsmore, Koizumi and his Agency had been almost completely wiped out, while Nagato had taken Kimidori's offer, which she expected to not come for free.
And while Kyon had barely done anything of relevance, the last year of continuous hijinks had already acclimated him for what would happen next. This was a prelude, and it was in no way over.