Author's notes: For those who haven't been keeping close tabs on my profile page (not that I think anyone has; posting updates there is a "just in case" thing), after this chapter I'm taking a single-installment break, since it's unlikely that I'll have a good opportunity to post a chapter on Christmas Day. I've just started work on chapter 12, so you can rest assured that falling behind is not an issue. So enjoy the chapter, and I'll see you all again in January 2022!

- Chapter 6: No Political Solution -

For a few moments Nagato and I just stood there, looking at each other. Just the mutual awareness between us – she knowing I was there, I knowing she was there – was hypnotising. I had never appreciated before how much it meant to be able to interact with another person. Other-me shuffling papers as he did his homework was audible.

Then Nagato turned and walked out of the room. I followed after her.

I realized that talking to a person that no one else could see or hear would make Nagato look pretty foolish at best, certifiably bonkers at worst, so I kept my mouth shut until we got outside. Nagato walked with her eyes ever forward, just as if I weren't there, but I got the feeling that she wanted me to follow her, so I didn't worry about it.

She got about half a block from my house before I spoke up. "Nagato. Earlier today, when I approached you in the classroom... could you see and hear me then?"

I know, it was kind of an irrelevant question. My first question should have been "Do you understand what I'm doing here?", or "Where are Sasaki and Mishima?", or even "How do I put the world back to normal without making Haruhi dead again?" But I just had to know why Nagato hadn't paid any attention to me before.

She nodded.

"Then why?" I demanded. "Why did you just ignore me when I needed you?"

"I had no instructions to interact with you."

You have to be kidding me. "You're telling me that that Other-me was right about you? You don't do anything but what you're told?"

She didn't answer. Not even a twitch of her eyes so far as I could detect.

"No, that can't be true," I sighed. "Even if you're a different Nagato than the one I know, you're as dedicated and caring as she is. I can see it in your eyes."

There was a brief, inquisitive flicker in those eyes as I said that, but she didn't say anything.

"Besides, I shouldn't be judging you like that asshole did back there. But... you don't need specific orders to interact with anyone else, right? Why am I different?"

"You are an unrooted, transient artifact of a branched plane of existence. Across all spectrums, your information can only be perceived by data-based life forms. Therefore, you can have no impact on this plane of existence."

Okay. Really didn't follow much of that at all, but that last part was clear enough. "So why are you talking to me at all, then?"

Silence.

Kind of an awkward silence, in fact. It had to have been at least two minutes before I felt brave enough to speak up again. "Nagato... You sound like you understand exactly what I am, and what I'm doing here. So, tell me. Can you help me get the world back to normal?"

"The world is normal."

"From your perspective, yes, but -"

"No errors are detected in this plane of existence. Continuity is intact from the first data explosion centered on Haruhi Suzumiya forward."

Good grief. "What I'm saying is, I want the world back to how it was before Haruhi was killed and I was turned into this... ghost thing." Nagato said nothing, and I realized that even though she knew exactly what I was, she might not know how I got here. I tried again: "Look, the way I remember things, I took part in the Day of Sagittarius III duel, the SOS Brigade won, we had lots of other adventures, and we all moved on to our sophomore year. Well, except Miss Asahina. I want the world to be that way again."

"...Not possible."

It actually hurt to hear that. Even though... "It has to be possible. We undid a change like this before – or I guess, we'll undo it later, from your perspective."

"On a purely technical level, Haruhi Suzumiya's power could change the world according to your preferences. However, there is no way to guide her usage of her power."

Yeah, but you were able to convince her to let you use that power long enough to change the world according to your own preferences. Better table that option for now, though. Nagato may not be headed down that path this time, and I'd rather not give her any bad ideas. "What about time travel? Can't Miss Asahina take us forward in time to when the universe was altered, so we can stop it?"

Nagato just blinked.

I guess this wasn't exactly the same situation I faced the last time the universe was altered. If any of Kyoko Tachibana's beliefs were true, Sasaki was a natural wielder of Haruhi's power, whereas Nagato had only borrowed it. Undoing a change Sasaki had made might not be as simple. Also, if I understood the cure we used on Nagato correctly, we couldn't undo the change until after it had happened, or we'd create a paradox: since the change had never happened, there would be no reason for us to time travel and prevent it from happening. And since the change didn't happen until after Haruhi was killed, using that cure was basically signing on to Haruhi being dead. There had to be another way.

Hell, even if there wasn't another way...

I pushed that train of thought out of my head. I really did not want to know how far I was willing to go to have Haruhi be alive. "Dammit." My breath smoked in the cold air. "Dammit, Nagato, there has to be a way. I can't live like this, not being able to do anything about anything. I'm a member of the SOS Brigade. Even if I don't have superpowers like you and Koizumi, I should be able to do something to stop the world from falling to pieces. Can't you just take me to Goro Mishima and make him release whatever hold he has on Sasaki?"

Nagato just blinked again.

I guess it was a pretty stupid suggestion, the sort I could only produce in a rage of frustration. Even an idiot would have prepared for such an obvious move, and Mishima was no idiot. He could have changed the world so that Sasaki favored his way of doing things, or erased all her memories of me, or any number of other things that would ensure that I could never get Sasaki to change the world back.

This was getting me nowhere, and Nagato didn't deserve me venting my frustration at her. "Okay, let's forgot about my problems for a minute. How are you doing in this reality?"

No immediate answer.

"Does the other me always treat you like that?"

She gave me a blank look. She didn't seem to understand my question.

"I mean, those things he said to you... they were pretty mean. Doesn't that bother you?"

"What he said was true." Nagato turned her face back towards the street ahead. Her voice was perfectly cool and indifferent. "I acted according to my responsibility to the Data Integration Thought Entity."

"Yeah, but that's because you believe in your mission. You're not just a robot. And a real friend wouldn't call you one, no matter how angry he got."

Another silence followed.

I scratched the back of my head. "You do... You do have friends in this reality, right?"

She looked at me.

"I mean, I know you're not really the socializing type, but you have people who care about you? There's Haruhi, Koizumi, the guys in the computer club..." Oh, wait. If we lost the video game duel with them in this reality, then they wouldn't have had any reason to invite her to join the computer club, would they. So...

"I have no friends," she stated. As if she were reporting the number of cicadas she caught in the SOS Brigade's contest.

"I see." For a moment that was all I could say. But I was damned if I was going to leave it at that. "Well, as long as I'm stuck in this reality, I might as well help you find some."

"Some what?"

"Some friends. Come on, let's go to Haruhi's house."

Nagato followed me when I turned off the route to her apartment, but she asked, "Why?"

"I know you two haven't become close yet, but in my reality, by September of next year, you and Haruhi are pretty good friends. Well, maybe 'friends' isn't the right word, but just as good. If the Haruhi from my world heard your Kyon talking to you like that, she'd have booted him right out of the SOS Brigade, and that's after she gave him a beating that his grandkids would remember. I'm betting that if you two just have a heart-to-heart, you'll both start to feel that connection between you."

There was a faintly studious expression on Nagato's face, like she was working out a puzzle. Maybe it was partly her glasses that made it look that way, though. "Why do you want to help me find friends?"

"Hmm? Well, you seem like you could use some, that's all. Do you not want to?"

She didn't answer. I was starting to appreciate how much more expressive Nagato had grown since I first met her. Still, if she didn't want to do this, I'm sure she would have said something, or at least stopped following me. No news could be safely counted as good news.

I was definitely feeling better with Nagato on my side. Maybe it was because making contact with her brought me one step closer to solving this puzzle. If nothing else, through her I could communicate with Koizumi, who might be able to offer a solution. Maybe it was because I knew that if I could count on anyone, I could count on Nagato. Or maybe I just figured that, if I was stuck in this world and this ghost-form for the rest of eternity, it was a comfort to have at least one friend.

As we approached Haruhi's neighborhood, I started offering Nagato some tips. "Haruhi is pretty upset about losing the duel with the Computer Research Society and me leaving the SOS Brigade. So you have a good reason for visiting her. Tell her you noticed she's been feeling down and thought she could use someone to talk to."

If I came over to Haruhi's house with that line, she'd smell something rotten. But Nagato was such an enigma, nothing was unquestionably out of character for her.

"Haruhi loves to talk, and you're a great listener. You two will hit it off in no time."

It was hard to say whether this reassured Nagato at all. She was so damn stoic, she came across like she didn't even have a use for reassurance. She just set her face like flint and endured whatever came her way without shame.

I didn't want it to be that way, but you couldn't force Nagato to change. All I could do was support her as best as I could (alright, I admit I hadn't done an exactly exemplary job of that over the time I'd known her) and hope she would come around on her own.

We reached Haruhi's front door, and at my direction Nagato knocked. I suddenly worried if Nagato could successfully communicate her wish to see Haruhi if her mother or father answered the door.

Fortunately, in accordance with my original assumption, Haruhi herself yanked the door open. She'd looked better. Her hair was mussed like she'd just gotten out of bed, her eyes had a weary and frustrated glare, and she was dressed in baggy pants and a sweatshirt.

"Yuki?" Haruhi's voice was thoroughly surprised, but the weary and frustrated glare didn't go away. "What are you doing here?"

Nagato recited: "I noticed you have been feeling down and thought you could use someone to talk to."

Haruhi scowled at her. "I don't want to talk to anyone right now. Go away."

I wasn't expecting that, but I improvised: "Tell her it's the duty of the leader of the SOS Brigade to welcome her subordinates." If Haruhi had a weak spot, it was her pride.

"It is the duty of the leader of the SOS Brigade to welcome her subordinates," Nagato recited.

"Don't tell me what my duty is!" Haruhi snapped. "Go away!"

She slammed the door in our faces.

"...Okay. That was rude."

Nagato had no comment to add.

"I'm sorry about that. I really never thought Haruhi would ever take her frustrations out on you." On me and Miss Asahina, certainly. On Koizumi and Tsuruya, quite probably. On Ishigaki or Sakanaka, not out of the question. But on Nagato? In her own demented way, Haruhi always seemed to have a nurturing attitude towards the SOS Brigade's little introvert.

I scratched the back of my head. "Okay, maybe we'll try this one more time. Knock again, and this time tell her that you've thought of an idea that might get me back into the SOS Brigade."

It wasn't totally a lie. Haruhi apologizing for whatever horrible thing she did to Other-me and Miss Asahina would undoubtedly get me to rejoin, even if I knew Haruhi would rather let the SOS Brigade collapse than do that.

Nagato obediently knocked on the door. This time, Haruhi's mother answered. I mentally kicked myself for not preparing for this event when I had the chance. "Oh, it's you again." She gave Nagato a regretful smile. "I'm sorry that I don't know your name, but you're Haruhi's friend, aren't you?"

"She's not my friend," I heard Haruhi call from the direction of the kitchen. "She's just a girl in the club I run. Send her away."

I'm not sure which I want to object to more: Your saying that Nagato isn't your friend, or your talking to your mother like she's a maidservant. I swear, if I ever get out of this, I will never again take for granted my ability to be heard by Haruhi. Even if half of what I say goes in one of her ears and right out the other, that's still an improvement over not being heard at all, as crazy as that sounds.

"I have thought of an idea that might get the person whose name you said should never be mentioned back into the SOS Brigade," Nagato recited, without it being at all clear whether she was talking to Haruhi's mother or Haruhi herself. I suppose, technically, I hadn't specified.

Haruhi evidently heard her, at any rate. "I don't want that filthy traitor back in the SOS Brigade!" she yelled, still not following the common courtesy of entering the same room as the person she was talking to. "If he should ever get a flash of sense in his head and want to get back into the SOS Brigade, you tell him he'll have to come over here himself and grovel before me! Even then, I make no promises not to simply laugh in his stupid, backstabbing face!"

Geez. The insults are par for the course, but for Haruhi to revoke my SOS Brigade membership...

"I'm sorry." Haruhi's mother looked like she was guarding the gate for a raging ogre's castle. She sounded like it, too; she was practically whispering. "She's just not in a very good mood right now. It might be better if you came back tomorrow."

"It might be better if she left now and never came back!" Haruhi's shrill voice came from the kitchen. "Being in the SOS Brigade does not give you the right to visit my home, or to suggest traitors to the club being brought back into the group! Do you hear me, Yuki?! Get back to your books and stop pretending you know how to handle anything in the real world!"

"Okay, we're done here," I growled, and turned away from Haruhi's door. "Come on, Nagato."

She followed without a word of objection or one bitter remark at my having dragged her here. She really was a trooper.

"I'm sorry I put you through that," I said.

"There is no need for concern," she said. "I'm fine."

Now that brought back memories.

"Well... If you're up for it, then, I know another person who is a friend of yours in my time. I don't know his address, and frankly, I hate to suggest him, but... Do you know where Tetsuya Yanami lives?"

"I know the names and addresses of every student registered at North High."

Of course. It makes sense that the Data Integration Thought Entity would keep tabs on anyone who might associate with Haruhi. Come to think of it, Nagato did know right away that there wasn't anyone named Yasumi Watahashi enrolled at North High.

"Well... Yanami is a good friend." Who kissed you on the lips once. Okay, so that wasn't exactly his fault, but clearly on some level he's interested in something other than friendship with you. You need a friend now, though, and with myself and Haruhi eliminated as options, he's the best bet. "You got to know him pretty well after you started hanging out with the Computer Research Society."

"I see." A pause marked only by our footsteps. "We'll go to his house, then."

Well, a new hope.

I had to kick myself for failing so colossally at predicting Haruhi's behavior, though. Maybe I had been wrong, all those months ago, when we took on the challenge from the Computer Club. Maybe Haruhi just wasn't ready to lose, back then. By her second year she had grown a lot; she could handle it now. But in this time that I had been relocated to, losing to the Computer Club seemed like it had really rocked her.

Speaking of which... "Hey, Nagato. How exactly did the SOS Brigade lose the challenge against the Computer Club?"

She turned and looked to me through clear lenses.

"What I mean is... In my timeline, you figured out that the Computer Club guys were using a cheat to disable the fog of war on their side. That still happened in your timeline, right?"

She gave a faint nod.

"So what happened? Why didn't you disable the cheat and win, like you did in my reality?"

"Not enough time."

"Why not?"

Nagato faced the street ahead, with a strange, heavy focus in her eyes, as though seeing that ill-fated battle play out before her again. "The Computer Research Society were swift and relentless. They took immediate advantage when Haruhi Suzumiya advanced her fleet beyond the protection of her allies, and annihilated her ship, achieving the conditions for victory."

Of course. I told Haruhi that that kind of recklessness would cost us the... "Wait, why didn't you or Koizumi tell her to stick with the rest of the fleet?"

"He did. However, Haruhi Suzumiya did not follow his advice."

...So that's how it is? I drop out of the club, and Haruhi immediately discards what little willingness to listen to sense and reason she had? Damn it, Haruhi, what am I, your babysitter?

Maybe Mishima and Sasaki's changes to the world were more than just a few tweaks. Maybe they had toyed with the very fabric of everyone's character. I mean, it was hard to imagine how I could ever be such a jerk as Other-me was, or that Haruhi could be so utterly hopeless just because I wasn't around.

The Yanami home was a small, tacky looking place, all white walls and off-pink frames. Except for the doorbell, which was a brown monkey with the button for its naval.

"You don't really have a good excuse for visiting Yanami," I admitted. "But try telling him that you know his club cheated during the duel, and you aren't going to tell Haruhi, but you really want to know how they did it. Realistically, there's no reason why you would have to go to his home to ask him that instead of seeing him in school, and I know you could easily figure out how a cheat program like that works, but with any luck he'll be too ecstatic to have a smart girl his age visiting his house to scrutinize it too much. So, just knock on -"

Before I could finish my sentence, Nagato pushed the belly button for the doorbell.

It was a little thing, and it certainly didn't matter much, but using the doorbell instead of knocking was an independent action. Maybe the Nagato I knew was starting to come back.

A little boy answered the door. He had glasses, just like Yanami, but he looked about my sister's age. Probably about two to four years younger than her, actually. "Hello?" he said. He probably wasn't expecting to find a strange teenage girl at the door.

"Yuki Nagato," she introduced herself. "Here to see Tetsuya Yanami."

"Tetsuya's sick," the boy stated, perfectly matter-of-fact. "He caught the bug that's going around."

Dammit. I forgot about that. I guess there is a reason why Nagato wouldn't approach him in school.

While I struggled to decide what to do next, Nagato just continued standing at the door, as if Yanami's illness had absolutely no bearing on her request to see him.

If it had been one of Yanami's parents who had answered that door, they would probably have found Nagato's silent persistence rude and told her to leave, but the boy just shrugged and said, "I'll let him know you're here. Wait here, okay?"

He turned and went upstairs.

A thought hit me. "Hey, Nagato... You can see me because you're a humanoid interface, right? So why couldn't Asakura see me too?"

"She saw."

It took me a couple moments of struggle to figure out what Nagato had just said. "You mean... that whole time, she knew I was there, and she was just ignoring me, like you were, because she knew I couldn't do anything?"

She nodded.

My mind ran back over the past several hours, zeroing in on how I had stood in Asakura's way at my front door, and she had walked right through me. Suddenly the winter air seemed a lot more chill.

The boy returned shortly. "He says he doesn't know any Yuki Nagato," he reported.

There was an awkward pause. "I see," Nagato nodded.

"Goodbye." The boy closed the door on us.

Yanami's kid brother, of whatever, was a bit on the weird side, but I was more baffled by Yanami himself here. I mean, yeah, he probably hadn't been formally introduced to Nagato at this point, but he must have encountered her during the Computer Club's challenge to the SOS Brigade, if nothing else. Had she really not attracted his interest at this point?

Nagato wasn't stepping away from the doorstep. "Oh, uh, we can go now," I told her.

She turned and left, me following alongside her again.

"...I guess you can just go home now if you want." I scratched the back of my head. "I'm sorry. I didn't think it would turn out like this. I mean, I was trying to help, and now I'm afraid you've just gotten the wrong idea from this. I'm sure Haruhi and the guys in the Computer Club are still supposed to be your friends. It's just, the circumstances are different." I paused. "You believe me, right?"

"I believe your sentiment. I neither believe nor disbelieve your assessment of the situation."

I tried for a moment to parse that out, but achieved only the first tinglings of a headache. "I guess that's good enough," I concluded.

We walked in silence for a bit. The sun was already going down, another indicator of the abrupt change in seasons.

"Hey, um... Nagato? Could I stay over your place tonight?"

She looked at me. I wasn't even sure it was a question, but I elaborated: "I don't think I need any dinner. I mean, I haven't been hungry all day, so I'm guessing ghosts don't eat. I just don't want to be alone."

"Fine."

"Thanks," I sighed with relief. Not "relief" in the sense that I thought it was at all likely Nagato would say no. Just relief from the hellish day I had had in this altered universe, at knowing that at least, at the end of it I would have a friendly place to lay my head.