Author's Notes: This fic is going to take one more break following this chapter. I'm not, though, because the reason for the break is that I've had a White Day special brewing and I'd like to get it out this year, on White Day. A bit fastidious, maybe, but there it is.

The upside is that you're sort of getting two chapters in one with this chapter. I wrote it as two separate chapters because there is a cliffhanger that I rather like midway through it; I had this cliffhanger planned since before I started typing this fic. Looking it over, though, I realized it didn't make much sense to have a single meeting take up two whole chapters. So if you want to do me a favor, pause when you reach the horizontal line and pretend for just a moment that you have to wait two weeks to see what happens next. :)

- Chapter 11: Where Does the Answer Lie? -

"Based on everything you've told me, I believe I've puzzled out what happened to the two of you."

Infuriatingly, Koizumi chose this moment to pause for a sip of Miss Asahina's tea.

"Well, what -" I began.

"Well, spit it out already!" Haruhi cut me off. "Why isn't Kyon dead?"

Good grief. Why do you think I'm supposed to be dead?

Koizumi set his cup down. "I am afraid that Goro Mishima – with help from his associates – has put one over on you. Killing Miss Suzumiya was never their plan."

"How do you know that?" I demanded.

"Because I know Mishima is not a fool. He knows that it is impossible to kill Miss Suzumiya under normal conditions."

I leaned across the table and hissed at Koizumi, "Haruhi isn't supposed to know about that stuff."

He smiled. "Don't you think I know that? I'm the one who told you that, in both dimensions. But that ship has sailed for you, especially after what Miss Suzumiya did to Ryoko Asakura."

I flinched.

"You didn't really think she wouldn't figure it out after that, did you?"

"Yeah, Kyon," Haruhi huffed. "Do you think I'm stupid or something? Even some of the stuff you've just been telling Koizumi makes it pretty obvious. I don't know exactly what it is, but obviously I'm not just a normal human being. So, Koizumi, am I an immortal god or something, reincarnated in the body of a Japanese woman?"

My, don't you have a modest self-image. "Haruhi, it's really better that you know as little as possible about this."

"Don't be so uptight. This is just a dream anyway, remember? None of it really matters."

She kept bringing up the claim that this is all a dream. It was like she was trying to convince herself.

"I'm afraid Kyon is essentially correct," Koizumi said. "We don't have time to discuss your true nature at the moment. The point is, Mishima certainly knows that you can only be killed while within an equal but opposing closed space."

...Oh, right. That's why Fujiwara needed Kyoko Tachibana – so that Kuyoh Suoh could bring Haruhi into closed space and kill her. If Kuyoh Suoh could kill Haruhi just by luring her into a mansion and shooting her, they wouldn't have bothered with Tachibana at all. Why am I overlooking all these obvious contradictions?

"But if they knew they couldn't kill her, then what was the point of that whole charade?" I asked.

"Classic misdirection. Mishima kept you so focused on the threat of Miss Suzumiya being killed, you didn't even think to act against the real threat."

"Which is...?"

"I cannot be certain, but I assume it was the fifth person in the room when you and Miss Suzumiya saw each other fade away, the unidentified young man. Otherwise, what purpose would there be in Kuyoh Suoh's bringing him there?"

Once again, I felt like slapping myself in the face. Haruhi pointed out that chubby young man to me, and I never once stopped to think of why he was there. Seeing Haruhi "die" must have completely knocked out my reasoning and deduction skills.

"Yeah, I'd been thinking he must have had something to do with me turning into a ghost," said Haruhi, Miss smarter-than-me-at-everything. "But how did he do it?" Her eyes widened with interest. "Is he a... slider?"

Koizumi nodded. "As always, Miss Suzumiya, you have a truly astounding gift of intuition and insight."

I'd ask someone to shoot me now, if I weren't so damn interested in this slider. "So sliders really do exist?"

"Evidently. We hadn't been able to confirm any before, but they'd always been theorized to exist, given that Miss Suzumiya wished for them to exist in the same breath as she wished for aliens, espers, and time travelers."

"Huh?" Haruhi blinked. "What does my wishing for them to exist have to do with it?"

I rested my stressed-out brow against my fingertips. "Haruhi, we really don't have time to explain all -"

"Damn, it's freezing in here!" She adjusted her sash around her neck. "Mikuru! Bring me some tea already!"

Attention span as short as ever, I see. "Haruhi, we can't drink anything, remember? We're 'ghosts'."

"Mikuru's a time traveler, isn't she? She should be able to make tea that ghosts from other dimensions can drink, like fifth-dimensional tea."

"Fifth-dimensional tea? That doesn't exist."

"Mikuru, I want fifth-dimensional tea pronto, you hear me?"

Miss Asahina quivered. "Um... I... I don't have that in stock. I only ha... ha... hah -choo!" For such a cute and petite girl, Miss Asahina was having some massive sneezes. She readjusted her now undoubtedly very damp face mask. "I only have teas for non-ghosts."

"Well, pick some up next time, got it?" She rubbed her arms furiously. "Damn it, what happened to the space heater?"

"We never finished the movie in this world, so the electronics store never gave us one," I pointed out. "You'll just have to tough it out." I couldn't help but rub my own arms, though. "So Koizumi, even if this guy was a slider, how does that explain our ending up in an alternate dimension? I thought sliders went from dimension to dimension themselves, not pushed other people there."

Koizumi shrugged. "Have you a better theory as to how you ended up here?"

"Slider capabilities are indeed configured towards personal travel," Nagato spoke up. "While sliders can alter the dimensional coordinates of other individuals, they cannot do so without producing errors. Third parties subjected to the transdimensional power of sliders lose the integrity of their transdimensionally, spatially, and chronologically specific structure. This makes it impossible for them to return to their point of origin, even with the aid of a slider."

Haruhi gaped. "You mean Kyon and I are stuck here forever?"

I sighed. "I really did not follow all of that, but does it explain our becoming ghost-like?"

"Indeed," Koizumi said. "I believe it also explains why both of you believed the other one to be dead. When the slider's power was used on you, you fell completely out of sync with your specific structure. You both still existed, but during your transitional phase, you were at a different set of dimensional and chronological coordinates than the rest of existence – including each other. Therefore, from your perspective, Miss Suzumiya had faded out of existence, and Miss Suzumiya, from your perspective, Kyon had faded out of existence. Once your transitional phase was completed, you both landed in the same location, though perhaps at slightly different times."

So one of us must have wandered off before the other popped up in this dimension. "Wait a second. That tells us why we're in a different dimension, but we've time traveled, too. We were in September of our second year at North High, but now it's December of our first year."

"We have a theory that would explain that, but without having met a slider before, we have no way of knowing if it's accurate. Miss Nagato, perhaps you could tell us...?"

She still wasn't looking up from her book, but she answered. "There are an uncountably infinite number of pathways between dimensions. However, certain forces tend to push trans-dimensional travels into chronological alignment with branch points."

"Ah. Yes, that adds some details we were not aware of, but it essentially fits with our theory."

"It's a real theory in my time," Miss Asahina added in. "We call them Bastian forces, after the scientist who discovered them."

"Of course," I sighed. "Anyone want to explain it to the idiot in the room?"

Koizumi took out a pad and paper and began sketching. "Perhaps it would be best if you think of the voyage between dimensions as being like the voyage of a ball in a pachinko machine designed so that every play is a winner."

"Come again?"

He was drawing a pachinko machine. "This pachinko machine has slats installed on the bottom row. Thus, there is no way for a ball launched to the top of the machine to reach the hole at the bottom. Do you understand?"

"Everything but how this relates to our traveling in time."

He drew two perpendicular lines below and to the left of the pachinko machine. "In our analogy, the y-axis represents the dimensions. You went from dimension 10 to dimension 2. The x-axis represents time. At a glance, it seems possible for you to land in dimension 2 at any point in time."

"But if the ball lands on any of the slats, it's going to just roll into the nearest cup?"

"Exactly. With the cups representing branch points."

"And yesterday was a major branch point, because in our universe, Kyon fell down the stairs and went into a coma," Haruhi suggested.

More likely because Nagato rewrote the universe so that everything was normal. It's a branch point that was created using Haruhi's power. That probably has a stronger magnetic pull than anything else.

"Okay, so that explains how we ended up here," I said. "Could you explain why Haruhi and I are such jerks in this reality?"

"I would not be so quick to judge your own character," Koizumi said. "But I believe that any difference in our two realities proceeds directly or indirectly from one branch point. When our two dimensions were still one, Ryoko Asakura decided to take unauthorized action to provoke a response from Miss Suzumiya. In our dimension, that action was to become your girlfriend. In your dimension, from what you tell me, she tried to kill you instead, and Miss Nagato saved you."

"That's it?" Haruhi frowned with dissatisfaction. "That's the whole reason why this idiot turned on the SOS Brigade and Nagato was willing to let him get killed?"

Honestly, I found this as disillusioning as Haruhi. But... "It makes perfect sense if you think about it. Taniguchi stopped hanging out with me because I was dating Asakura, so he didn't make the comment that made me come back to the SOS Brigade after that argument we had. Nagato never saved my life because Asakura never tried to kill me in the first place, so I never saw firsthand what an amazing person she is."

"You couldn't see that without her saving your life? Wow, you're even dumber than I thought."

I feel incredibly dumb about it myself. But... "If you heard how your counterpart talked to Nagato yesterday evening, you wouldn't so quick to call the kettle black."

"Huh?" She turned to Nagato. "Yuki, what did she say to you? Is that why you wouldn't follow my orders before?"

I cleared my throat, wanting to keep us from getting sidetracked. "Anyway, because of that, I didn't get to know Nagato, and I wasn't as nice to her as in my universe. Maybe that made it easier for me to quit the SOS Brigade. I didn't have as much to keep me in the group. And because I quit, you guys never finished your movie, so you never got Shamisen."

"Shamisen? We're talking about Yuki being treated badly by both you and me, on top of suffering the humiliation of losing to the Computer Club, and not getting invited to spend time with them like she was in our universe, all while having to face the loneliness and isolation of being a secret alien visitor, and you're worried about a cat?"

"I'm worried about getting us both home in one piece."

Haruhi ignored me. "Yuki, what did the other me say to you yesterday?"

Suddenly I regretted bringing it up. "Nagato, you don't have to answer that."

"Don't listen to him, Yuki. You can tell me."

Nagato still didn't look up from her book, reciting Haruhi's words as if she were reading them off the pages: "Yuki? What are you doing here? ...I don't want to talk to anyone right now. Go away. ...Don't tell me what my duty is. Go away. ...I don't want that filthy traitor back in the SOS Brigade. 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. ...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."

Haruhi looked at her, eyes wide as the risen sun. "I really said that?"

"Haruhi..." I struggled for something to say.

"Of course I did." She bit the words out, as though angry. "You wouldn't lie with Kyon standing right there, knowing what I really said. I mean, what she said."

That was an uncommon show of common sense by Haruhi. And there was that same tone she had the morning this all started, when we were talking about what happened to Haruta, Inokuchi, Yamamoto, and Nozawa: guilt. And this time it wasn't even really her that did it.

I mean, an alternate dimension version of her wasn't really her, was it?

"Yuki, listen to me." Her voice softened, along with her eyes. I got the feeling that, if she weren't in ghost form, she would be putting her hands on Nagato's shoulders right now. "You can't hold me responsible for what the me in this dimension says. We're not really the same person."

Good grief. You chew me out for supposedly being unconcerned about Nagato, and now all you care about is passing the blame. "By that logic, you aren't her brigade chief, and that's why she wouldn't obey your orders. That also means you can't kick her out of the SOS Brigade."

"Hmmph. I guess that's true." She suddenly smiled. "I knew you wouldn't really betray the SOS Brigade. If it were your Kyon that Asakura was trying to kill, you'd have dove right in to stop her, wouldn't you have?"

Nagato stared back at her. "...I apologize."

"Hmm?"

"You both have acted as friends to me. You were correct to expect me to aid you."

"That's okay." I offered her a smile. "What's done is done, right?"

"If only that were so, " Koizumi put in. "But Miss Nagato's inaction in this case indicates that she will not, or cannot, act against the majority to aid us. That means we cannot trust her."

"Affirmed," Nagato said. "Consensus is presently being reevaluated in light of Haruhi Suzumiya's alteration of Ryoko Asakura's information. It may favor further observation and experimentation with the beings from the branched plane of existence. If so, I will be required to provide information and assistance."

"Um..." I scratched at the back of my head. "Then why are you telling us that?"

She didn't answer.

"I suppose the reason is, even knowing she is capable of betraying us, is there anything we can do about it?" Koizumi pointed out. "We are not capable of forcing her to leave the room, save through Miss Suzumiya's power, and I doubt that she could perform such a deliberate use of her power as she demonstrated on Ryoko Asakura unless the circumstances were similarly desperate."

"Nobody's forcing Yuki to leave the room!" Haruhi glared at Koizumi. "She's not going to betray us."

"How did Haruhi do that, anyway?" I said. "She can't even touch anything in this dimension, but she can totally rewire Asakura's brain?"

"It is most unexpected," Koizumi agreed. "Apparently, Miss Suzumiya can cross the dimensional boundaries with her power, even without her physical body crossing those boundaries. If she wanted to desperately enough, she probably could manifest herself physically in this dimension, and touch things in it just the same as I can. But that wouldn't solve your problem."

"Right!" Haruhi slapped her palms down on the table, but the lack of any physical contact gave the gesture none of the dramatic impact she was probably imagining. "How do we get back to our own dimension?"

I sighed. "Didn't Nagato say just a minute ago that we couldn't?"

"Miss Nagato is not exactly neutral on the subject." Koizumi's face was grim. "Unfortunately, even assuming there is nothing involved in transdimensional travel beyond our limited knowledge, the requirements for returning to your home dimension are quite steep. At the absolute least, we would need a slider willing to help you, and a resident of your dimension who arrived in our dimension without the loss of substance experienced by you and Miss Suzumiya. Without the former, you lack transportation; without the latter, you lack a road map. The slider would have no way of knowing where to send you."

"And you said just a minute ago that you don't know of any sliders, right?"

"That is correct."

Great. Goro Mishima screwed us but good.

"Hmm." Haruhi cupped her lower lip with two fingers. "But how could anyone cross dimensions without becoming ghosts, unless they were a slider?"

"Indeed, they would have to be a slider." Koizumi held up his hands. "Therefore, by my logic, to get back to your dimension you would need a slider who has traveled from your dimension to ours. And unless I've misunderstood you, neither of you know of any sliders in your dimension aside from the one who sent you here, correct?"

"Correct," I sighed. Screwed. But. Good.

"Oh! That's right!" Haruhi's face was the picture of sudden illumination. "And since this is an alternate dimension which only recently split off from ours, that same slider has to exist here, too! We just need to find him!"

"Right. Forgetting for a second that we also need someone from our dimension, what makes you think the guy who sent us here is going to be willing to send us right back?"

"Yuki can make him! She's got some pretty super alien powers, if you haven't noticed."

Great. Like we're a bunch of thugs. And the guy may not even have teamed up with Goro Mishima in this dimension, at least not yet.

"I believe there is another slider in this dimension who will be both easier for us to locate and more likely to be willing to help us than Mishima's ally," Koizumi offered. "However -"

"Wait, you just said that you don't know of any sliders in this dimension," I interrupted.

"I did. But from what we know about our two dimensions, I can extrapolate the theoretical existence of a slider not yet known to me."

...Does Koizumi never get tired of being inscrutable and obscure? I swear, if I weren't a ghost, I'd be strangling him right now.

"As I was saying, however, even presuming we acquire this slider's assistance, there remains the problem of finding a being who has made the journey from your dimension with his physical substance intact."

"Perhaps I may be of help in that regard."

At the sound of this new voice, I'll admit I flinched a bit in shock. I had to turn and look at the clubroom doorway just to reassure myself that I wasn't hearing things.

I was seemingly the only shocked person in the room, though. While Koizumi also turned to see who it was that had arrived in the clubroom, he just blinked, as though mildly perplexed. Miss Asahina stopped halfway to the table and made a "Hmm?" sound. Haruhi just furrowed her brow, as though she suspected someone was trying to pull one over on her.

Thinking it over in retrospect, their reactions made perfect sense. Though we all could see who was standing in the doorway, and we all had heard the voice, I was the only one who had heard that voice before, so I was the only one who could tell who it was that had spoken. To the rest of them, it was a bit of mystery.

"After all," the newcomer continued, "...I seem to have made a journey similar to what you describe. Of course, I cannot positively affirm that I have retained physical substance. I am hungry, but that could well just come from being in the habit of requiring food, rather than a confirmation that I still digest anything. And is not physical substance a subjective term, that can be defined in any number of ways? But by examination of my particulars, we should be able to come to some sort of determination, and my summary assessment of the situation leads me to the belief that I may be able to help."

We continued to stare for another moment of silence.

Miss Asahina was the first to break that silence, with a squeal, followed by a ceramic crash, presumably her dropping the teapot and/or a tea cup. "Eeek! A t-t-talking cat!"

"Wow! So Shamisen can talk in this world?" Haruhi's voice was suffused with delight. "This dream is the coolest!"

"Shamisen?" Koizumi turned to me. "When did Miss Suzumiya get a cat in your dimension? And why did she wish for him to talk?"

"Hold it... Just hold on a damn second, everyone," I managed. "This makes no damn sense. In this reality, Haruhi and I never got back together to finish the movie, so Haruhi never gave Shamisen the ability to speak. And in our reality, Haruhi took that ability away once we finished the movie. So no matter which Shamisen he is, he shouldn't be talking right now."

"Hmm. You overlook the possibility of a third dimension."

"Indeed he does," Shamisen said. "However, the truth of the matter is that I am from his own dimension. It is correct that that girl gave me the ability to speak. It may also be true that she later took that ability away."

"'May'? Do you mean to say that you are unsure if you ever lost it?"

"I am not in the habit of listening to my own voice. If my vocalizations are in the form of speech, or the non-lingual sounds usually produced by my species, it is all the same to me."

"But couldn't you tell when I didn't respond to anything you said?" I pointed out.

"That I had lost the ability to speak is but one possible explanation for that. Perhaps you were ignoring me, or you simply had nothing to say in response."

No wonder I've never missed being able to talk with Shamisen.

"That is so cute!" Haruhi squatted down in front of him. "I wish I weren't ghost-like, so that I could pick you up and pet you."

"That is just as well. While I am not adverse to your handling, I prefer the short-haired girl or the grumpy boy."

"Watch who you call grumpy," I warned. "You still haven't explained how you started talking again. Does it have to do with those information entities Nagato put inside you?"

"Perhaps. As I said, I am not even conscious of having stopped talking in the first place."

"But wait... If that was it, you would have started talking again a lot sooner." I put a hand to my face. "This is just making no sense at all."

"I don't know what these information entities you speak of are," Koizumi offered, "...but perhaps they were one factor, allowing him the capacity for human speech, and the journey between dimensions provided the trigger to get him actually talking."

Okay, that's a pretty damn random explanation. If only I could think of another one that fits all the facts. Not to mention... "That's another question. Shamisen, what are you doing here?"

"The small female you live with is not as diligent as you are about keeping my food dish supplied, especially while she is worried over your disappearance. I set off in search of you, to bring you back home."

Damn. I hadn't even thought about my being missing back in my own dimension. My family must be getting worried sick by now... Wait, by now? This is December, over eight months before I got sent here. How the hell does the timeline work in cases like this, anyway?

Koizumi smiled. "I believe what Kyon meant was, how did you figure out that he was in this dimension, and make the journey between dimensions?"

"There is nothing difficult about that. I followed his scent trail to where he last was in his own dimension, and the way into this dimension was clear."

"Wow! So you're a slider?" Haruhi put her hands on her hips, beaming. "Who would have expected it? A feline slider!"

I struggled to restrain my impatience with Haruhi's jumping to harebrained conclusions. "If Shamisen were a slider, why would he have said he wasn't sure he could help?"

"Oh, fine. Spoil my fun, as usual."

It's reality that spoils your fun.

Koizumi looked interested. "Shamisen, are you saying that when the slider sent Miss Suzumiya and Kyon across dimensions, he left the doorway between dimensions open?"

"I know nothing of interdimensional travel, and what I experienced in the transition between dimensions was like nothing I had ever seen or smelled before, a doorway or anything else." As if losing interest in the subject, while delivering this answer Shamisen strolled across the room and hopped up onto Nagato's lap, interrupted her line of sight to her book. Nagato looked at him with surprise, or her equivalent of it. If it were anyone but Nagato, I'd have said she simply noticed he was there. "All I know is that it was clearly the way to where my housemate and that girl had gone."

He circled Nagato's lap before curling up in a reclining position. The view to her book was again open, but Nagato continued to stare at him.

"Hey, Nagato," I said. "He's real, isn't he? Not an illusion or a hallucination, or a ghost like me and Haruhi?"

"Confirmed. The cat is an artifact of a branched plane of existence, but has retained his transdimensionally, spatially, and chronologically specific structure."

I had no idea how it had happened, except that it must have had something to do with those information entities trapped in Shamisen's body, but I didn't care. "Koizumi." I turned on him. "That meets one of the two criteria you mentioned, right? If we just find a slider, he and Shamisen can get us back home?"

"Perhaps. As I said, we know too little of transdimensional travel to be sure there is nothing more required."

"I think I have an idea." I lowered my voice and glanced back at Haruhi.

She was fawning over Nagato and Shamisen. "He really likes you, Yuki! See how comfortable he is with you, even though you're not the same Yuki he knows? Why don't you try petting him? I can't do it myself because I'm in this intangible form. Go on!"

I guessed that was about as focused as Haruhi could get on any one thing. "Can we talk in private for a minute?"

"Very well."

We slipped out into the hall. No one seemed to be around.

"I fear this may not be beyond the limits of Miss Nagato's audio receptors..."

"It's not Nagato I'm worried about," I said. "In my reality, you trusted her with your life. You basically told me you'd take a bullet for her."

"That doesn't sound like me. And in this reality, Miss Nagato has proved she is willing to stand by while you are killed."

"I don't think her boss was giving her a choice. Anyway, it's Haruhi I'm worried about. Did you notice how she keeps saying that this is all a dream?"

"Of course."

"But at the same time, she's not acting like she really thinks this is a dream. It's like she's saying it is just to convince herself."

"An insightful assessment. Surely, then, you have deduced why she would try to convince herself of that."

"Not a clue."

Koizumi sighed, with an impatience he rarely showed in my reality. "Kyon, she thought she saw you die. Then you nearly died again at the hands of Ryoko Asakura."

"But I'm not dead. She can see that."

"And you think that because of that, it is possible for her to view all this as good fun? You underestimate the degree to which she cares for you, and needs you. Your death, whether actual or seeming, is a tremendous stress on her. My comrades have been battling some very unusual closed spaces over the past 24 hours, and I don't believe they are caused by the Miss Suzumiya of our reality. That Miss Suzumiya has been too weakened by your break with her to create closed space."

I could understand that. I'd been pretty wrecked by Haruhi's apparent death. I probably only got through it as well as I did because I knew in advance about all the supernatural stuff in the world, which offered possibilities, however unlikely, of making Haruhi alive again.

Still, I couldn't buy that Haruhi would continue to be traumatized after she learned I was still alive. It just wasn't in her nature to nurse old wounds. I mean, it took her all of five seconds to bounce back from that fight we had during the movie. Koizumi was barking up the wrong tree.

"So, what is this idea you have?" he prodded.

"It's pretty simple. You and I know nothing about finding sliders, but we have someone on our side who has a proven track record of finding supernatural people and things."

"Ah. Of course." He nodded. "And have you hit upon a way of getting Miss Suzumiya to search for sliders?"

"Well..." I hadn't thought quite that far. "We could just ask her, right? I don't like telling Haruhi more than necessary about her powers, but..."

"Mmm. Please recall that it is unlikely that the ghostly Miss Suzumiya can work her powers in this dimension unless the situation is desperate, as it was when Asakura attacked you. And in her current disconsolate state, it is unlikely that the Miss Suzumiya of this dimension will be receptive to the idea that aliens, espers, time travelers, and sliders exist."

Right... My brain is not on the ball today.

"Don't be ashamed. You've triggered an idea. Though asking Miss Suzumiya to find a slider directly is unlikely to work, we can ask her to repeat the search which led her to Miss Nagato, Miss Asahina, and myself."

"What are you talking about?"

"The search for SOS Brigade members, of course." He held out a hand. "Think over how it all began. Miss Suzumiya was interested in finding aliens, espers, time travelers, and sliders. Four groups of supernatural beings. She then recruited four SOS Brigade members. One from each group... except for sliders. One alien. One esper. One time traveler." He held an index finger right in front of my face. "And you."

I shrugged. "So Haruhi is inconsistent. That's not exactly news."

"Not inconsistent. Perhaps it was Miss Suzumiya's wish that we have exactly five members."

That was truer than alt-Koizumi knew. Haruhi pretty much said that was the exact reason why she made the recruitment exams for the SOS Brigade so tough.

"And, obviously, it was her wish that you be in the Brigade. She wished for you to be in the Brigade badly enough that she was willing to let go of one of her favorite supernatural groups. She gave up sliders so that she could recruit you instead."

"Alright. So she grabbed me instead of a slider. How does that help us?"

"In your dimension, it wouldn't. But in this dimension, you have quit the SOS Brigade, thereby leaving one seat open in our council of five."

He stopped there, as if what he was getting at was now obvious. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of my again needing him to spell it out for me, so I stood there running over the implications of his observation in uncomfortable silence for a moment.

Only a moment, though. "You're suggesting that this world's Haruhi get a replacement for me?"

"It would only be on a temporary basis. There's no need to get so upset."

"I'm not upset," I pushed out in a neutral tone, though I could feel the strain in my voice. Koizumi looked like he could hear it, too. "It just surprised me a little. But yeah, I guess that would work. Haruhi wouldn't even apologize for what she did to Miss Asahina to get me back in the Brigade, so why wouldn't she be up for replacing me altogether?"

"Not altogether. As bad as things are between your counterparts in this dimension, I do not believe I could convince Miss Suzumiya to give up on you entirely, even if I wished to. Rather, I intend to propose to her that if she recruits a replacement for you, it will likely make you -" He abruptly stopped and reached into his pocket. "Excuse me a moment."

He pulled out his phone and took a couple steps away to talk into it. I sighed and tapped my foot. I really hope he wasn't going to finish that sentence the way I think he was. I mean, I can live with it so long as it gets Haruhi to do what we need her to do, but if Haruhi gets the idea that I can be manipulated like that, I would – I mean, Other-me would -

Actually, you know what? Other-me deserves whatever he gets.

"Well, can we contact Kyon? If he simply does what he -" Koizumi was talking more loudly all of a sudden. "What? Are you certain? Well, of course she hasn't wished for doppelgangers or clones, but -" He paused and sighed. His lowered his voice again, but I was actively listening now. "Alright. It happens that I've been working on a contingency plan. It's a long shot, but do all you can to pinpoint her, or we won't have a shot at all. I will be in touch."

He hung up and turned to me.

"It seems I was mistaken about Miss Suzumiya being unwilling to give up on you."

"What's going on?" I demanded.

He looked at me with stone eyes. "Miss Suzumiya has again withdrawn from this world into closed space. And this time, she has not brought you with her."