- Chapter 3: Subjugation of the Meek -

My reaction was pretty much immediate. We got through the usual hello-and-nice-to-meet-yous all right, but all the while my head felt like a kettle left to boil for too long. I had no idea why Goro Mishima was dating Sasaki, but whatever the reason, he was using her. That's what people like him did with people who have the ability to create closed space.

As soon as an opening came, I took hold of Sasaki's arm and said to her in a soft, urgent voice, "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

She smiled at me as though nothing unusual were happening. "I'm right here."

I emphasized: "Alone."

Her smile didn't change, which was starting to freak me out. More than I was already freaked out by Goro Mishima being her boyfriend, I mean. "You can always call me up."

"Right now."

Before she could deflect further, I pulled her by the arm, such that she had to either scramble off her bike and let it clatter to the sidewalk, or go down with it. The former option was elected. As she stumbled onto her feet, I kept pulling, dragging her with me to a nearby convenience store. Haruhi and Mishima were both staring at me in disbelief, but thankfully neither of them tried to stop me. Mishima wasn't bold enough, and I guess Haruhi was just caught off-guard, or maybe too curious about what I was doing to interfere.

I didn't let go of Sasaki when we got into the convenience store, but kept pulling her along towards a back aisle.

"What are you doing?" For perhaps the first time in my experience, Sasaki sounded upset – even indignant. "That was just about the rudest thing ever! And right in front of your girlfriend! What do you expect her to think of this?"

My girlfriend? Oh right, Haruhi and I were holding hands when Sasaki first saw us. But I had no time to explain that, and the explanation would have sounded stupid anyway. Without responding to Sasaki, or letting go of her arm, I pulled out my phone and used my thumb to select from my contacts list.

"Koizumi here. And how is your outing with Miss Suzumiya progressing?"

"Quick, answer this one question: If I'm inside a convenience store, can Goro Mishima use his power on me while he's standing outside on the sidewalk?"

"As I've told you, Mishima is something of a savant. We honestly don't know the exact limitations of -"

"Your best guess, dammit."

"...If there are more than two or three other people in the store, he most likely would find it very difficult to get a fix on you. I'll be over directly to lend you assistance."

"Thanks. Bye."

I hung up.

Sasaki was looking much calmer now, just like her usual self. "I see," she nodded. "You know about Mishima being an esper, and you're worried that he used his power to persuade me to be his girlfriend."

I was so shocked, I let go of Sasaki's arm. "You know that Mishima is an esper?"

"I've been going steady with him for over a month. Of course I know."

It was an effort to do anything more than gawk now. "You mean... he told you? About the mind control power, too?"

She smiled and dipped her head to the side. "Kyon, this is what people do when they're in a serious relationship. They share each other's important secrets. Our current situation is a perfect illustration of why that is. Imagine how upsetting it would be for me if this were the first I'd heard about Mishima being an esper."

She did have a point there. But I still couldn't imagine, if I were an esper, that I would just straight out tell my girlfriend about it. I'd expect that to be the end of our relationship. It would be almost as bad as if I told Haruhi how the rest of the SOS Brigade had been having all these adventures without her.

So why the hell would someone as sketchy as Goro Mishima tell his girlfriend this?

"So, you're okay with this?" I pressed. "It doesn't bother you, having a boyfriend who could take control of your mind at any time?"

"Give me some credit, Kyon." She shook her head at me, still smiling. "Don't you think I'd notice if I were doing things that I don't really want to do, and that I could put two and two together and figure out that Mishima was making me do them?"

"Well..." I guess it was true that, however powerful an esper he was, Mishima couldn't control her mind 24/7.

"And do you really think he'd have told me about his powers if he were going to try that?"

I regrouped. "Okay, so maybe he isn't using his powers on you. But he must know that you can create closed space, and things like that."

"Of course. I told him all about that."

"He would have known before you told him. He must have some sort of plan for you... that's why he wanted to be your boyfriend."

She cocked her head at me. "Oh? Is that why you're with Miss Suzumiya? Because you want to exploit her powers?"

"I'm not with Haruhi, and more to the point, I'm not Goro Mishima. He -"

I heard the convenience store door clatter, and turned to see the man himself walk in. "Forgive me for intruding, but Miss Suzumiya is getting tired of waiting, and quite frankly, I don't trust Kyon to resolve this efficiently." He walked straight up to me and looked me in the eye. "So let me ask you this: Have you considered the possibility that maybe, just maybe, I might simply like Miss Sasaki, or even be in love with her, and that I might enjoy spending time with her?"

If I had considered the idea of you being in love with anyone, I wouldn't be standing here right now. I'd be rolling on the floor laughing.

For Sasaki's sake, I kept that thought to myself. Instead I pointed out: "I see you're not pretending to not know me anymore."

"That was for Miss Suzumiya's benefit."

"Forgive me, Mishima, but that's not strictly true," Sasaki cut in. "When I told you I was going to introduce you to Kyon, you didn't say anything about already knowing him. And Kyon is hardly what you'd call a common nickname, so you wouldn't have assumed he was some other Kyon."

So, Sasaki had told Mishima what was going down. I guess that was all part of her practice of sharing secrets with your significant other.

"One step ahead of me as usual," Mishima chuckled. "It's no wonder I love you."

Please, stop. I'm almost choking on bile here.

"All right. The truth is, I didn't want to spoil the whole introductions thing, and it is important that I be introduced to Kyon as your boyfriend. I thought Kyon would be tactful enough to follow my lead and start things over fresh between us."

"Don't try to pin the blame for this all on Kyon," Sasaki returned. "I appreciate your wanting to protect me from whatever ugly history you two have between you, but that doesn't justify lying to me."

"...You're right. I apologize." He nodded at me, and managed to sound sincere when he said: "To you, as well."

"I think you have a much bigger lie to apologize for," I retorted.

"Okay, that's enough," Sasaki cut in. "Mishima apologized, and you've kept Miss Suzumiya waiting too long as it is."

A glance outside confirmed that assessment. Haruhi was standing with her arms folded, glaring through the store window at us, though in all honesty I'd have to say that the bulk of her wrath fell on my shoulders.

"Don't worry, I'll cool her down," Sasaki said, strutting back for the door. "Just follow my lead, both of you."

With a glance at Mishima, I followed her. I guess Mishima hadn't really ever given me any reason to distrust him. It was only Koizumi's word against him. The part that had my hackles up was, I just couldn't buy his dating Sasaki as being a coincidence. That was just too absurd to even consider. Still, if Sasaki wanted me to holster my weapons for the moment, I could hardly refuse. I had to trust that she had a better view of the situation than I did.

"Sorry about that bit of drama," she said to Haruhi after we stepped back outside. "Kyon had heard some bad things about Mishima, almost none of them true, but he was worried that I was being taken advantage of. Mishima and I just needed a couple minutes to straighten things out."

Haruhi blinked. "Huh." Her arms still folded, she looked from Sasaki to Mishima, quietly scrutinizing, and then from Mishima to me. "I guess it is the gentlemanly thing to do, taking action when a lady's honor may be in danger."

"Thanks," I said, but that remark had me worried. Haruhi would never credit me with being a gentleman. The fact that she said that could only mean that she didn't believe she was getting the whole story.

Sasaki's eagerness to smooth things out between me and Haruhi also had me wondering. I mean, I appreciated the gesture, but it wasn't like her. Sasaki was a nice person, but I had a hard time thinking of another instance where she'd gone out of her way to do something for someone else's benefit.

"While we were waiting, Miss Suzumiya told me a little bit about the work you do in the SOS Brigade," Mishima said.

Work? I guess you could call some of the things I do in the SOS Brigade work. I don't know what you would call what Haruhi does in the SOS Brigade, but "work" is definitely not it.

"It's very interesting. Since we're all together, perhaps we could try one of those searches for the paranormal?"

Haruhi scowled. "Those are for the SOS Brigade only! Civilians lack the necessary training."

I was dying to ask exactly what training we had gone through, but I had no more desire to team up with Mishima than she did, so I kept my mouth shut.

"I see," Mishima sighed. "Well, that's a shame. Sasaki and I spotted this most impressive mansion earlier. At least five stories high, early 20th century furnishings, and the only light on is in a room on the top floor... It seemed like just the sort of place the SOS Brigade might want to investigate."

Anyone who had to look at Haruhi to know that her eyes had just lit up didn't know her at all. "Well, it sure sounds like it might be. Why don't you tell us where it is, and we'll check it out?"

"I'm afraid I didn't get the address." He glanced at Sasaki. "Did you?"

She shook her head. "I'm sure I can find it again, though."

Mishima smiled – not a look I was used to seeing on him. "She's very good at retracing her steps," he said.

Haruhi's jaw tightened. "Hmm... well..." We stood there, awkwardly waiting while she mused for longer than I'd ever seen her muse about anything: About six seconds. "I guess it would be kind of silly to have you go there and come all the way back just to give us the address..."

"Exactly," Mishima nodded. "So it's best just to forget about it."

The guy practically had Haruhi eating out of his hand. I didn't know why he wanted me and Haruhi to go to this mansion, but it couldn't be for anything good. "We can't go without the rest of the SOS Brigade, anyway," I pointed out. "They'd never forgive us for leaving them out."

"What are you talking about?" Haruhi demanded. "We practically have to drag Mikuru along when we go to scary places, Nagato doesn't care where we go so long as she can read, and Koizumi will just be glad that we had a good time."

Coming from Haruhi, that was a surprisingly accurate read of the rest of the SOS Brigade. Though I doubt it was coincidence that that read also suited her purposes.

"And did you hit your head and lose your memory or something? We've already gone to a mysterious mansion without the rest of them, remember? With your sister's friend Miyokichi and that other friend of yours."

"Taniguchi," I filled in.

"That's right."

That's right, my foot. Just admit you don't remember his name. "That's all the more reason. We can't leave them out of this sort of adventure twice."

"If it makes sense once, it makes sense twice," she dictated.

"And weren't we going to my house? Are you just going to blow that off?"

She made a face like someone who has been waiting in line for a not particularly good movie for over an hour. "Just hanging out at your place all afternoon? We can do that anytime."

Excuse me. I thought you said it's always really exciting at my place, and you wanted to know why I took so long to ask you over again.

"If you want to just go to your place, fine. I'm going to the mansion." She thrust a finger at Sasaki and Mishima. "Lead the way, you two!"

"Absolutely," Sasaki said, giving her a salute, and started pedaling. Mishima promptly took off after her, and Haruhi followed.

I guess that didn't leave me any choice. I couldn't leave the two girls unprotected in Mishima's hands. I sighed and followed after.

Damn it. What's taking Koizumi so long to get here?

I quickly became isolated from the rest of the group. Sasaki and Mishima were on bicycles, and rather than riding circles around us footbound travelers, they pedaled on ahead, stopping at each intersection to look back and make sure me and Haruhi weren't falling out of sight. And though I tried to walk side-by-side with Haruhi, so that I could sound out exactly what her suspicions were with regard to my altercation with Sasaki and Mishima, she insisted on keeping such a vigorous stride that I quickly ran out of breath just trying to keep up. I considered calling for her to wait up, but something about the set of her shoulders and the way she resolutely kept her face forward, not glancing back at me even once, told me any such plea would fall on unsympathetic ears.

Add in our mysterious and unknown destination, and I was starting to feel like a fish on a hook being reeled in.

Mishima eventually cycled back to come up beside me. "You look irritated," he commented. "Even by your standards."

I wasn't in the mood to spar words with him. And thanks to Haruhi, I didn't really have the breath for it, either. "What's your... plan here?" I panted.

"So you trust me enough to expect an honest answer to that question? It seems you're finally making some progress."

I didn't waste any breath answering that.

"That said, I thought you could have figured this out on your own. I saw how much your behavior of a few minutes ago upset Miss Suzumiya, and I decided to supplement Sasaki's little white lie with a little adventure to get Suzumiya's mind off the issue." He gave me a condescending look. "Did I really need to explain that to you?"

Yes and no. If this were Nagato or Koizumi I were talking to, the explanation he just gave would have been the one I immediately jumped to, and I wouldn't need to ask. But Mishima? I wasn't so sure he was interested in keeping Haruhi in a good mood.

Maybe he read my thoughts on my face, because he continued, "I usually don't waste my time on the brand of trivial adventures that your SOS Brigade deals in, but I have no more desire than you to see Haruhi Suzumiya destroy the world. Even less so, now that I've met Sasaki."

"Save that romantic bull for her. I'm not interested."

He shook his head. "It's neither bull nor romantic. Sasaki has helped me truly see that if this world is destroyed, there is almost certainly no other world that we can fall back on." His voice took on a familiar petulant whine. "And I don't care what sort of smart remark you might have to say to that."

He pedaled off, catching up to Sasaki again.

I guess his explanation clicks. People like him and Koizumi probably have a whole bunch of adventure scenarios that they can pull out at a moment's notice like that. There's no reason to think he was planning to use it ahead of time.

Damn. This would be so much easier if I could pin down a concrete reason to suspect Mishima. Without that, all I can do is hope that he's not leading us into a trap.

For a little extra assurance, I texted Koizumi, letting him know we were moving and the general direction we were headed.

After a few more minutes of walking, we came up to an imposing mansion with thick stone columns and ivy growing all over. The sun was setting, adding to the moribund look it already had.

"Here we are," Sasaki announced, her tone suggesting that she saw nothing unusual or exciting about the mansion and was perfectly content with that.

Personally, I was voting to go home now. I don't believe in haunted mansions of themselves, but if Haruhi wanted something exciting to happen here, then something exciting would happen here. Given the vibes I was getting from her right now, that exciting something might involve my head being removed and stitched on to a half-rotted corpse. I could see Haruhi appraising this piece of work with folded arms and a big grin: "Well, it isn't exactly stylish, but now he's finally got a body that matches his brain!"

Haruhi surveyed the mansion, then turned towards us and flashed a smile that seemed only to confirm my fears. It was the sort of smile that seemed to say she would love to see all three of us in great suffering. "Well, what are you all waiting for? Let's go!"

"Right," I said. "Let's go home."

"What's wrong with you?" she scowled. "We've done just this sort of thing before, remember?"

That sparked an idea. "Exactly. Been there, done that."

"They're not that much alike, even from the outside." She turned around and started climbing the gate. "I already told you, go home if you want. I don't care."

Well, that obviously wasn't an option. I hurried up the gate after her.

I noticed Sasaki was also climbing up. "I'd rather you didn't come," I told her. "This might not be safe."

"Mishima wouldn't have recommended it to us if it weren't safe," she said. "Stop worrying about me and just worry about Suzumiya. You've ignored her in favor of me too much this evening as it is."

Maybe she was right. Even assuming Mishima did want to trap us, there was no reason to think he would do it now, and with something so blatant as a haunted mansion. Haruhi's temper was a more realistic threat. And all potential threats aside, much as I hated to admit it, being on her good side was important to me.

As we landed on the other side of the gate, Mishima's glasses fell off his face. As he cursed and Sasaki bent down to help him recover them, I ran to catch up to Haruhi, who was already pushing open the front door.

"It's unlocked?" I said in disbelief.

"Spooky, isn't it?" she murmured.

Once the heavy doors closed behind us, encasing us in a heavy darkness, I said, "What's with the attitude all of a sudden? Ever since we bumped into Sasaki and -"

"But we didn't just bump into them, did we?" She thrust an accusing finger in my face. "You planned this!"

I knew Haruhi too well to assume this was a logical deduction. "What the hell makes you think that?"

"A hunch. But it's true, isn't it!"

Haruhi's intuition is just way too powerful. "Even if it is, so what? You got to see Sasaki again, meet her boyfriend, and go on a spooky adventure. Aren't you happy about those things?"

She headed up the nearest staircase. "I'd be happier if you were telling me the truth," she huffed. "Maybe you're not actually lying about anything, but you're not telling me the truth."

I followed her up; with my eyes adjusting to the change of lighting, the fading sunlight coming through the windows was more than enough to make out her figure. "Maybe I'd be happier if I were telling you the truth, too. But you don't seem to believe me when I do."

"What nonsense are you blabbing now?"

"For starters, you still think I have a crush on Sasaki."

"No, I don't."

"Yes, you do."

She seized my tie and yanked my face up to hers, so that my entire view was swallowed up by the menacing gleam of her eyes. "No. I. Don't!" She gave my tie an extra jerk, briefly throttling me. "And I don't care that you used to have a crush on her, either!" She released my tie and shoved me away from her in one motion. I didn't fall down the stairs, but only because a miraculous blind grab with my right hand caught the railing. It was enough to make my heart give a couple extra hard poundings. "Your ancient history is of absolutely no interest to me, do you understand?! None!"

She headed up the next flight of stairs without waiting for a response from me.

Maybe Koizumi was right. Further encounters between Haruhi and Sasaki could only make things worse.

Certainly it was only going to make things worse if I kept running my mouth like I just did. What was I thinking?

I hurried up the stairs after Haruhi. When we reached the third floor, there were no more stairs in sight, so we headed down the hall.

"Look, Haruhi..." I began, without any certainty of where I was going.

"Just forget it, okay?" She sounded annoyed, but much calmer than she had just a moment ago. "I don't care about any of it, and I don't want to talk about it anymore. I order you to forget it."

Okay. I guess that's official confirmation that I've blown it again.

The floorboards creaked under our feet, just enough to make me afraid the floor might collapse under one of us.

"Let me take the lead," I said.

Haruhi glanced at me, shrugged, and let me step ahead of her. If one of us was going to fall, better it be me. Haruhi probably thought the same.

"Hey," I suddenly realized. "I think we've left Sasaki and Mishima behind."

"Just as well. Amateurs would only slow us down."

That was pretty cruel, not to mention illogical. But I still wasn't enthusiastic about having Mishima for company, and if we went back to get them that would drag out this adventure even longer, and I'd rather have it over as quickly as possible. Fumbling through this place in the dark was genuinely creepy.

"Ow!" I stubbed a toe.

"What is it?"

I squinted, wishing we had flashlights with us. "I think I found the stairs to the fourth floor."

"We're almost at our goal, then."

"Our goal?"

Her response was heavy with disdain for my inability to keep up with what was going on: "The room on the top floor. The one Mishima said is the only one with a light on." She made a humming sound. "Hey, Kyon... Doesn't this place seem kind of strange to you?"

Well, obviously.

"I don't mean the obvious. It just doesn't seem natural for a building like this to be in this kind of neighborhood. The other buildings in the block are all the same age, but this one is completely different. You wouldn't expect an old mansion like this in an area like this unless it were a historical landmark, and I didn't see any signs or anything."

"I guess that's so. Why are you just bringing this up now?"

"I'm just getting a strange feeling, is all."

I was about to suggest that might be a clue to get out of here, but she was already heading up the stairs, so I hurried up to get ahead of her again.

We were silent until we hit the fifth floor. "I still don't see a light," I commented. In fact, it was even darker on this floor than on the others, thanks to the lack of windows.

"The light was visible from the front of the house, so it must be coming from a room on the right side of this hall."

Great. I could barely make out the hall, much less the doors. I walked up the right side of the hall, running the back of my hand against the wall to feel for a door. I tried not to think about the possibility of my hand brushing against a large spider in the darkness.

My hand went over some light bumps, then hit a depression, indicating a doorway. While I groped around for the knob, Haruhi bumped into my backside. "Watch it," I muttered.

"That wasn't me."

For a moment I froze, cold fear running through me. Then: "Oh, ha ha. Why don't you make ghostly wailing sounds while you're at it."

"Well, I have to do something to keep this place exciting. There's nothing going on here yet."

And don't I hope and pray that it will stay that way.

I found the knob at last. The door opened with an unfriendly creak. Inside it was pitch dark. "No light in here," I said.

"It might be coming from a secondary room, like a closet or something. We should at least go inside and take a look."

There wouldn't be much to look at without light. But I did as she suggested. Wouldn't be much good arguing with her, after all. And as it turned out, there was a tiny bit of light in the room, coming through a single window. Moonlight. It was strange that the sun had already gone completely down.

"Kyon!" Haruhi gasped, and grabbed my arm, pointing. "Look!"

In the midst of the near darkness, there were two sinister slits of light. A pair of cold, soulless eyes looking at us like a demonic executioner viewing his 165th and 166th victims of the day.

Worse, I recognized those eyes.

"Haruhi," I whispered. "Get out of here, now. Don't stop for anything."

"No—exit..." said a voice that sounded ready to lay down for a century of sleep. "Jurisdiction—mine."

Haruhi rattled the door. "Huh? Kyon, is this one of your dumb jokes? It won't open!"

How about that. For once, she actually did what I said. And of course, the one time she did, she didn't get what she wanted.

"Only—two... need five..."

As that horrible entity continued to speak, the space around us seemed to "pop".

"Wha- How did...?" That was Sasaki's voice.

"Damn it, Kuyoh, can't you give us some light in here?" Goro Mishima whined. "I can hardly see a thing."

"Light—not a difficulty."

The room immediately lit up. I saw what I now expected to see: Sasaki, Mishima, and Kuyoh Suoh. The data entity from the Heavenly Canopy Dominion, a data organism different from Nagato's Data Integration Thought Entity. The entity that had once tried to kill Haruhi.

But Haruhi didn't know that, and had never even properly met Kuyoh Suoh, so she of course saw nothing wrong. "Oh, I get it," she nodded. "You guys snuck ahead of me and Kyon and waited to surprise us, huh? It gave us a pretty good scare, I'll admit. But who are these two?"

"Two"? ...Oh.

I had overlooked a sixth person in the room, a chubby young man with his arms folded, leaning against the back wall of the room. Another member of Kuyoh Suoh's new team, it seemed.

"What's going on here, Mishima?" I demanded.

He shrugged. "Surely you've guessed. Fujiwara may be out of the picture, but there are still plenty of people out there who would love to have Haruhi Suzumiya's power. And Itsuki Koizumi won't be coming to save you two this time. I've taken steps to ensure that."

Sasaki crossed her arms. "And I guess you've made me into the fool here, huh, Mishima. Kyon even warned me, and I just couldn't see through you."

"For what it's worth..." Mishima adjusted his glasses as he focused his gaze entirely on her. "Among my reasons for wanting to be your boyfriend, your ability to be a vessel for Haruhi Suzumiya's power comes in a very distant second."

"Unless you let both Kyon and Suzumiya go, that's not worth anything at all."

"I'm not worried about that. Once you have Suzumiya's power, I'll just have you change the world so that you don't remember any of this."

"That's what I thought," Sasaki sighed. "I'm open to suggestions here, Kyon."

I appreciated her willingness to help, but I didn't see anything she could do that would make a big difference, or wouldn't put her in danger. "Haruhi, listen to me," I said. "That door will open for you. You just have to believe it will."

The funny thing is, I actually expected Haruhi to take me seriously. "Huh? What sort of cornball line is that? If this is some skit you're all putting on, Kyon, someone needs to write you better dialogue."

"Enough talk." Mishima made a sharp gesture. "Now! Kill Haruhi Suzumiya!"

There was no time. Kuyoh Suoh raised a hand, and I darted in front of Haruhi, shielding her body with mine.

What a worthless gesture. At best, I'd be reduced to ashes just to buy Haruhi a couple seconds of life. But it was all I could do in the time available.

"Aaaaaah!"

Glancing over my shoulder, I saw that the gesture was even more useless than I had thought. I'd stupidly assumed that Kuyoh Suoh's attack would work like a laser beam, coming in a straight line from her to her target. Anyone who'd had as much experience with humanoid interfaces as I did should have remembered they could alter data without being on a direct path with it. Before my eyes, the particles of Haruhi's body began to separate and fade, starting on the outer edges of her face, her hair, her clothes, her fingers, and proceeding inward.

"Haruhi!" I made a grab for her, as if I could somehow hold her dissolving body together with my bare hands.

Her eyes were wide with fear. "Kyon! What's happening to -"

Her words were cut off. My hands grabbed at nothing but a dissipating cloud of pollen that had once been the leader of the SOS Brigade.

I screamed her name with all the strength I had in my lungs. The name of the person who had brought color and excitement and meaning to my grey life.

My scream went out as one more worthless gesture to a void of nothingness.