- Chapter 3: Making Camp -

"This looks like a good spot," Haruhi announced to the camping collective as she came to a large clearing surrounded by thick woods. "Let's start making camp."

"What, here?" Taniguchi looked around in disappointment. "Why can't we take a spot by the lake?"

That got a good chuckle from Tsuruya. "There are no camping spots by the lake, silly! Just the cabins, and you have to rent those weeks in advance. I stayed there with my family once."

Apparently not giving a damn about the adventures of the Tsuruya clan, Taniguchi just stared ruefully at the campsite. I spoke up for him: "You mean we've got no choice but to camp right in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but woods so dense you can't walk through them without getting stuck by thorns, covered in rashes, and crawling with all kinds of insects?"

"What other choice could you want?" Haruhi beamed at me. You would almost think she was glad to hear me complain. "This is what real camping is all about: pitting yourself against the untamed wilderness, with nothing but your wits and your friends to back you up!"

"And your gear," Chisuga put in, who was already pulling equipment and supplies out of his pack.

Come to think of it, he was the smart one in the group. Why were Taniguchi and I still bearing the weight of our packs when we'd finally been given the chance to set them down?

Not that said weight was bothering me anymore. My pack was still light as a feather. As I set it down and started opening up pouches, I called, "Hey, Koizumi. Mind giving me a hand here?"

"I'd be glad to." He came and squatted down in front of my pack, then said in a slightly lower voice, "Though I gather from your tone that there's something you need to tell me."

I nodded. "I think Haruhi's using her powers. When she gave me that little pep talk earlier, the weight of this pack dropped to about two grams. And we don't seem to be missing anything, so..."

"I see." In accordance with the official reason for his nearness, he started pulling things out of the loaded pack. "Tell me, are you merely being coy, or have you genuinely overlooked the most obvious explanation for the sudden ease with which you bore this pack?"

I frowned. "You mean... Nagato?"

"No, your guess of Miss Suzumiya seems quite reasonable. It is the specific manifestation of her power that I am referring to." He hefted a full water bottle. "These objects all feel like their expected weight to me. Is it not simplest to assume that rather than making them lighter, Miss Suzumiya made you stronger?"

"That's crazy." I pulled out the cans of bug spray. "She's never used her power on me. She wouldn't."

He smiled. "Because she likes you the way you are?"

"Because she doesn't use her power on people. I'll admit Haruhi doesn't have the strongest moral standards, but that's a line even she won't cross."

"It's a break from her pattern, certainly, but I think it's a logical one. Usually, if you or I were to wish for someone to change, it's because we're having a conflict with them. But Miss Suzumiya doesn't want to change her opponents; she wants, instead, to defeat them. Thus, in general she would not use her power on people." He cocked his head. "You, however, are a special case. Miss Suzumiya would never wish for your personality or the essence of who you are to change. She would, however, wish for you to reach your fullest potential.

"Recall our first baseball game, where you drew clean-up batter because she wished it. You had not done anything that might lead her to believe you to be an exceptional ball player. She nonetheless wished for you to deliver an exceptional performance."

"But I didn't," I pointed out. "She wanted me to be better, but she didn't use her powers to change me."

Koizumi shook his head. "I am not so certain of that. There was a rather amazing catch you made, if you remember. More to the point, Miss Suzumiya's powers cannot force you to perform at a level beyond which you wish to perform. You made no effort in that game until closed space became a threat. Therefore, however much ability Miss Suzumiya gave you, you did not make use of it. This time, you immediately rose to the challenge she set for you. And you succeeded, because she wished for you to succeed."

By this time I had discovered that the weight of the items in my pack all seemed normal to me, not just to Koizumi. Whatever Haruhi had done, it was meant to get me to the campsite and no further.

Apparently noticing this, Koizumi smiled. "Don't think of it as her changing you. She merely gave you a helping hand, an opportunity to be the best you could be."

"Frankly, that's terrifying," I returned. "I don't want the burden of having to be at my best. And at the least, this means Haruhi's powers are active again."

"That is a concern, but hardly unexpected. You made Miss Suzumiya very happy by going above and beyond with the White Day festivities. She seemed pleased with the story you contributed to the literary magazine, as well. As I've told you, strong positive feelings seem to enhance her powers."

"So you want me to knock it off, and try to take her enthusiasm down a peg?"

"Oh, no. The agency might wish that, but it only warms my heart to see you making Miss Suzumiya happy."

Screw you and your warming heart.

"However, we should keep our wits about us, and be prepared to prevent our guests from taking notice of Miss Suzumiya's powers." He turned to help out Chisuga, who was attempting to pitch one of the tents. I belatedly realized that I'd neglected to ask him about whether Chisuga was one of his co-agents.

Oh well, I'm sure I'll get another chance.

It took a lot of stretching, struggling, and grumbling under our breath, but eventually Taniguchi, Yanami, and I managed to pitch the other tent.

Haruhi surveyed our completed task. "You guys should take more pride in your work. Look at this. It's all crooked. You only have two of the poles anchored correctly, and that one pole looks like it's going to bust out of its sleeve." We had nothing to say to that. She shook her head. "Okay, this can be the boys' tent, and that one will be the girls' tent."

"The boys pitched both tents," I said. "Shouldn't we at least get to pick which tent we use?"

She raised a brow. "Is that why you did such a shoddy job with this one? You know Kyon, there's an old trick for dividing up a piece of cake fairly between two people: Have one person cut the cake in two, and the other choose which piece they get. The idea is that the person doing the cutting will split them as evenly as possible, because otherwise the other person will just leave them with the smaller piece. It's the same principle here. The boys pitch the tents, while a girl chooses which one they get, so the boys will do the best job possible with both tents."

Except you didn't tell us that was how it was going to work ahead of time.

"If you're unhappy with the tent you've made, than take it apart and pitch it again. Besides, the girls are doing all the work on the fashion show rehearsal, and we're going to be making the best sashimi you've ever had. It's only fair that the boys should do some work, too."

Fine, but you still could have told us ahead of time.

"Don't just glower at me like that! If you have a problem, speak up! This is a special trip for the SOS Brigade, so I want to make sure everyone's happy. I can't do that if you don't tell me what's wrong."

Well, that sure put me on the spot.

I guess my complaint was a little petty. The tent wasn't perfect, but it was fine. We didn't need a palace. Maybe we didn't even deserve one. Even if we didn't know ahead of time that Haruhi would be choosing the tents for us, we still knew the tent we were pitching was going to be used by either the girls or ourselves, so we should have done the best we could do. Besides, what alternative was there? Was I going to demand that the girls, Miss Asahina included, be forced to stay in the shoddy tent? I knew Haruhi liked to bicker as much as I did, and I hated to disappoint her, but this was one argument I'd have to concede.

"No problem, nothing's wrong!" Taniguchi chimed in before I could say anything. A nervous, suspiciously happy grin was on his face. "We were just wondering when the fashion show is going to be."

Haruhi looked annoyed by the inquiry. "The fashion show is on Monday. We're having the fashion show rehearsal Saturday afternoon."

"Terrific! We're all looking forward to it, aren't we?"

"Sure," I said. Ordinarily even I would have voiced a bit more enthusiasm than that, but Taniguchi's exaggerated cheer was off-putting.

Yanami, meanwhile, just nodded his head slightly, as though imitating Nagato.

Haruhi regarded the three of us with disdain. "Whatever. We're not doing it for your benefit." She turned and walked off. "Make sure you get your sleeping bags and stuff set up in there. Hey, Yui! Wanna help me with the fire pit?"

Once she was safely out of hearing range, Taniguchi turned and socked me in the arm. "Hey, what did I tell you about fighting with Suzumiya? If she complains about you to the other girls, it makes it harder for any of us to get any action!"

I shoved him back with one arm. "We weren't fighting. That's just how we talk."

"Yeah, well, it makes me nervous. Can't you at least pretend to be happy with her orders for a couple days?"

If I act happy with her orders, Haruhi will figure something is dreadfully wrong.

But I just said, "Yeah, okay." I had no intention of getting on Haruhi's bad side anyway. The effort it took to get back on her good side was one I never wanted to repeat.

For about fifteen minutes, the group had some relaxation. We finished loading our sleeping bags and stuff into our tent. We sat back and enjoyed the fresh natural air. We chatted while munching on granola bars and dried-up fruit. It felt pretty good to be away from everything, from school, from responsibilities, just sitting and being with friends.

Then Haruhi returned with Ishigaki and put an end to all that. With two sharp claps of her hands, she barked, "Alright, everyone! We've got just a couple hours before nightfall, so we need to start getting dinner ready and scout the area for any supernatural beings. I know that some of you are guests, but this is still an SOS Brigade trip, and it's the SOS Brigade's duty to find aliens, espers, sliders, and time travelers!"

Right. They knew what they were signing up for when they came within five feet of Haruhi Suzumiya. The fact that they never joined our little group is no excuse.

"I need three of you to help me with the fishing, and the other six to split into pairs and search the area in three different directions." She bent down, reached into a bag, and pulled forth a bunch of little strips of paper. "I've marked three of these blue, for the fishing group, and the others red, green, and purple. Line up and draw yours!"

Shingen Chisuga went first, and drew red. Nagato then went, and drew green.

Koizumi drew red. He turned to Chisuga and smiled. "I guess we're together."

He grinned back. "It is always a pleasure, my friend."

"How boring," Haruhi grumbled. "The two friends together. C'mon, Mikuru, let's see if you can mix things up a little."

She nodded, and raised a hand, fingers daintily curled, towards the slips of paper in Haruhi's fist. She plucked one and looked at it.

"Ahhh... Ah..." She swallowed, and weakly held up a blue strip. I guess for all her talk about overcoming her fear, she'd still been hoping against having to fish. She had the sympathy of everyone present.

Well, except for the one utterly clueless person present. "Alright! You're going to have fun with me, Mikuru! Okay, next!"

It was Yanami's turn. He picked a strip, nodded quietly at it, and put it in his pocket. Just before he did, though, I saw, with a deep feeling of misgiving, a brief flicker of green.

"Hmmph. Another one partnered with their friend." She sighed, and raised the fistful of strips anew. "Well, we've still got one more chance to make this interesting. Your turn, Kyon."

There were two blue strips and two purple strips remaining. That gave me a 50-50 chance of ending up in Haruhi's group. Ordinarily. With Haruhi's powers all keyed up, some of the draws might not be random. She'd gotten Miss Asahina in her group, like she wanted. Maybe now I'd see what her intentions were with regard to me on this trip.

Other than that, I had little interest in the drawing. The only other people who hadn't drawn yet were Taniguchi, Ishigaki, and Tsuruya, and I had no particular interest in being paired off with any of them. And neither fishing nor scouting sounded particularly exciting or particularly painful. I picked a strip with no hesitation whatsoever.

It was purple. So, it looked like Haruhi really was trying to keep some distance between us. She just nodded at my pick, like she'd expected it.

Taniguchi rubbed his hands and drew blue.

"Hmm." Now Haruhi looked a little interested. "So it comes down to the final pick. Who does Kyon go with: Yui or Tsuruya?"

Geez. Melodramatize it, why don't you?

Yui Ishigaki chuckled pleasantly at Haruhi's remark, though. She grasped one of the two remaining strips, paused for a moment, and then pulled it out and held it high above her head. It was purple.

Taniguchi gave me a thumbs up. Why, I have no idea.

"Alright! Finally, a promising matchup! Tsuruya, that means you're with me and Mikuru!"

And Taniguchi. ...Wait. Did Taniguchi just get put in a group of himself and the three best-looking girls on this trip? Damn him.

Haruhi checked her watch. "Everyone meet back here in two hours. Move out!"

There was no sense in questioning Haruhi's orders, and in all honesty everyone but myself and Miss Asahina looked pretty content with them anyway. As everyone started to head out with their assigned groups, Taniguchi caught me by my shoulder.

"I'm counting on you, buddy," he whispered. "Tell her nothing but good things about me, alright?"

I averted my eyes. "Fine, but she's going to think it's pretty weird when I don't say anything for two whole hours."

"Ha ha, classic." A forced grin was plastered on his face. "Seriously, don't let me down."

With that, he ran off.

Geez. At least he's got back his self-confidence.

I turned and saw Ishigaki standing expectantly. "We should get going," she said. "You must know how she hates it when people just stand around."

I nodded, and followed after her. She sounded assertive without being bossy or domineering. That was a refreshing change from Haruhi.

We took the path heading towards the west side of the lake; I noticed Nagato and Yanami were headed towards the east side. The path looked like it hadn't been cleared in months. We were constantly pushing branches out of the way and dodging thorns. I suppose that's what you get when you pick a campsite with no rental fee.

I was thinking of how best to start talking to her about Taniguchi, but she decided to initiate the conversation. "So... you're the guy who's totally smitten with Suzumiya."

Good grief. I should have seen this coming. "Believe me, nobody's smitten with her."

"Really?" She looked at me with wide-eyed surprise. "So you haven't been doing pretty much all of the SOS Brigade's menial labor?"

"Yeah, but -"

"You didn't put on a reindeer costume and perform just because she asked you to?"

"She didn't so much ask as -"

"And you didn't -"

I thrust a hand in front of her face. "Okay, hold up. I get what you're doing."

Her lips subtly curled into a smug little smile. Seriously, where did I get the impression that this girl is shy?

"You're really only seeing one half of the picture. Haruhi is a completely different person when she's with the SOS Brigade. When that Haruhi tells you to do something, you do it, whether you like her or not. I don't even get the worst of it. If doing humiliating things for Haruhi makes you in love with her, then Miss Asahina is the one with the biggest crush."

Her smile didn't change one bit. "You don't have to be ashamed about it. She likes you too, you know, even if not as much."

"Oh, really." It was becoming clear what kind of girl I was dealing with. No matter what I said or did, Ishigaki would insist that I was in love with Haruhi. I decided to play along a bit. "So she talks about me a lot, then?"

"Huh? Oh, um... yeah. All the time."

I gave her a steady look.

It took her less than three seconds to break. "Okay! Pretty much the only time she talks about you is when we ask her about you. But that doesn't mean she doesn't have feelings for you!"

"Sure." I chuckled at her blind optimism, and resumed walking.

She hurried along after me. "She's just proud, that's all! Like today on the bus. She really is sorry that she told you to go sit with someone else. She just doesn't have it in her to go up to you and apologize."

"She doesn't need to apologize." Not for that, anyway. For a million other things, yes. "If I didn't want to sit with someone else, I could have just told her no. She wasn't ordering me."

"Even if it wasn't an order... She shouldn't have pushed you away. She shouldn't treat you like... like..."

"Wait a minute." I turned back to her. "Did you tell Haruhi to apologize to me?"

"Um, yeah. I mean, I told her she should."

It made sense now – those sour looks Haruhi was giving me on the walk to the campgrounds. It wasn't that Ishigaki was vilifying me. It was that she was taking my side.

I heaved a sigh. "Look... I know you mean well, but things between me and Haruhi don't work the way you assume. She's never going to apologize to me, and I don't need her to."

"But... It could bring the two of you closer..."

That's the last thing I need. "I don't think so. Besides, you're Haruhi's friend, not mine. You shouldn't be taking my side against her."

"I'm trying to help both of you," she objected.

I sighed again. "You want to help me?" I resumed walking. "Believe me, the best way you can help me is to be a friend to Haruhi. She really needs friends," And the more friends she has, the less time she'll spend riding me. "...and part of being a friend to Haruhi is that when she says that Kyon is a stupid jerk, you agree with her. Got it?"

"...I think so."

Clearly, Taniguchi had been mistaken in thinking that Ishigaki would just go along with whatever opinion Haruhi voiced about men. Which reminded me, I should have a talk with Ishigaki about him.

Before I could even think of how to broach the subject, though, I was halted by Ishigaki standing in front of me, her face beaming up at mine. "You'd really do anything for her, huh."

Good grief. She makes Haruhi look like a great listener. "You're missing the point. Haruhi is at the end of her first year in high school, and she's just now making friends. Trouble with her friends might be more than she can handle right now."

Her brightness dimmed substantially. "What do you mean, she's just making friends now? What about the SOS Brigade?"

Whoops. I couldn't very well tell her the real reason why Nagato, Koizumi, and Miss Asahina were in the brigade. "You know Haruhi. Having fun with people who aren't even her friends comes natural to her. She..." Something caught my eye.

"What?" Ishigaki prodded.

"There's someone down by the water." And though it took me a few seconds to place it, I recognized that someone. We'd only met once, but those glasses with tiny rectangular lenses, and the shrewd eyes behind them, were unmistakable.

Goro Mishima.