- Chapter 12: Trustworthiness -

"Damn it, Haruhi, pick up!"

As I closed up my phone, my face felt like it must be beet red. Everyone was watching me, and my frustrated exclamation had been not only useless, but nonsensical. The phone hadn't rung, thanks to the shitty service out here again, which meant not even Haruhi almighty could answer that call.

"You could try reaching Koizumi and Taniguchi," Ishigaki suggested. She fiddled with her index finger. "Though it is sweet that you thought of Suzumiya first..."

Good grief. I thought of Haruhi first, but not because I'm particularly worried about her. I thought of her first because she's the person best able to lead us out of this crazy mess. About the only other person here who can be a leader is you, and you...

I have to admit, I expected too much of you, Ishigaki. You have so much energy, and you got so excited on our little archaeological expedition, I started to think that you and Haruhi are two of a kind. But you aren't, at least not in the way I thought. You're an adventurer, but only so long as it's reasonably safe, and everything goes according to plan. When you saw that someone had taken that sword, that became more than you could deal with.

That's the difference between you and Haruhi. During the remote island mystery, and the mansion incident, Haruhi was worried, maybe even afraid, but she didn't fall apart. She still took charge of the situation.

That's why my instincts made me stupidly call her first when Miss Asahina was kidnapped by that Sneering Bastard and his allies. That's why, when I was alone in a world that had been altered by Nagato, I knew that once I found Haruhi, everything would be alright. And that's why I called her now, when we're being confronted with the completely nonsense combination of an alien abduction and a stolen samurai sword.

If only phone service was working...

Then I noticed Nagato was reaching out her hand, palm skyward, towards my phone. "Let me," she said.

I wasn't sure what she intended to do, but I handed the phone over to her without even thinking about it. If I couldn't trust Nagato, who could I trust?

Nagato took the phone in both hands and turned her back on the rest of us. I addressed the remainder of the group: "Okay, I have to ask, just to be sure. Did anyone here take the sword, as a joke or something?"

The only replies I got were shaking heads. Which only made sense. Ishigaki had too much respect for this stuff to do it, and Chisuga and Yanami didn't even seem to have a sense of humor, much less prankster aspirations.

"I can't even imagine someone in our group doing that," Ishigaki said. "It must have been another visitor to the camp site."

It sounded like she completely believed it, too. Too trusting for her own good. I could easily imagine Tsuruya taking the sword and laughing her head off at the rest of us. That said, I couldn't think of when she might have had an opportunity to sneak back to the cave, take the sword, and sneak back. In the few hours that had passed between our discovering the swords and now, the only one of us who had ever wandered off by himself was Chisuga.

Wait. If Koizumi were launching one of his schemes to distract Haruhi, and Chisuga was one of his fellow agents, why not take the sword?

But Chisuga was shaking his head in response to Ishigaki's suggestion. "I had a very good look around the area when we climbed the tree earlier. The only other tents I saw were on the shore of the lake and in the rental sites. Those are too far away to have observed our discovery of that cave."

"What are you saying, then?" Ishigaki demanded. "That the sword was stolen by aliens?"

"Merely that the odds of someone else finding the swords by chance are very low. It could be that the swords were hidden here by someone who stole them from a museum, and after successfully fencing one of them, the thief returned here to retrieve and deliver it to the buyer."

I hadn't thought of that. That made Haruhi's decision to hold off on reporting the swords even more foolhardy and irresponsible.

Not that it mattered. "Whoever took the sword, we need to -"

"Here." Nagato held out a hand to me. Balanced in her open palm was my phone.

I snatched it from her, brought up Haruhi in my contacts, and tapped my foot impatiently as it rang.

"Hello?" Haruhi answered.

"It's me. We've got a problem. One of the two swords Ishigaki found is gone."

"Mmm, good twist. So is this connected to -"

"This isn't part of Koizumi's stupid mystery scenario!" I snapped. "Some lunatic out there is carrying a samurai sword, and for all we know he could be headed right for you and Tsuruya!"

There was a pause. "Okay."

"This isn't a joke!"

"Okay, calm down. Get everyone back to the campsite. Safety in numbers, understand? I'll contact the authorities. If someone shows up before you guys get back, we can knock them down with the fishing net's pole and then get them in the eyes with the bug spray."

"Right. Right."

"And Kyon, listen. You shouldn't get so worked up and crazy over these things. Whoever stole the sword probably just left to pawn it somewhere. This isn't the movies. Got it?" She hung up before I could answer.

You know the situation is deadly serious when Haruhi is preaching that real life isn't like fiction. And despite her confident words, her voice had the same unsettled quality as it did after we found the "murder victim" on the remote island. My confidence that Haruhi could sort this all out was declining.

"Wow, Nagato," Ishigaki breathed. "You really got his phone service back! How'd you do that?"

"She's a programming genius," Yanami murmurred. "She can do anything with any sort of computer."

"Not true," Nagato corrected. "My skill set is limited by both my understanding and the feature set of the hardware."

"We don't have time for this." I grabbed Chisuga's flashlight from him and led the way down the return path. "We've got to get back to the campsite."

"Wait, what about Asahina?" Ishigaki called after me.

Oh, right. The rest of them don't know Miss Asahina has really been abducted. They think she's hiding out in the woods by herself somewhere.

"Koizumi didn't tell me anything about his plan, so I don't know where to find her," I answered, still striding forward, trusting that the others would follow. "He probably has her somewhere near the campsite, anyway."

I knew the lie couldn't hold up for long, but I really couldn't see a good alternative. Everything had been happening so fast, I hadn't had a chance to even come up with a decent idea of how to look for Miss Asahina. Like Koizumi said, our best chance was...

"...Nagato."

She pulled up alongside me, maintaining a rapid stride even as her arms continued to hang limply by her sides, and her book was still held in one hand.

"Thank you for helping me get a call through to Haruhi. You really took a weight off my mind." I hung my head a little lower. "I'm sorry it took me so long to say that."

"You are welcome."

I paused before moving on to the main thing on my mind. "You've been scanning for Miss Asahina this whole time, right? Have you picked up any sign of her at all?"

"None. There is interference."

Huh. "...Is that normal? For you to not being able to find someone due to interference, I mean?"

"No."

"So, we're looking at a deliberate effort from Asahina's kidnappers to prevent us from finding her?"

"Perhaps."

"What do you mean, perhaps?"

"There are other purposes for the information which constitutes the interference. Concealing Mikuru Asahina's location may be an unintentional side effect."

Sometimes I think asking Nagato something just complicates the whole question.

I had to face facts: Not only did I have no idea where to look for Miss Asahina, I didn't even know whether I could look for her. If she'd been taken into outer space, it's not as if I could go up and search through the stars. Even if her kidnappers weren't aliens, their hideout was probably...

Wait a minute.

We were out in the middle of the woods. If humans had kidnapped Miss Asahina, there were any number of places they could have taken her, but for their own convenience, they'd probably have a tent. After all, they'd done the whole aliens charade and blocked off Nagato's scanning abilities. Why bother hiding in a dank cave or a thorny bush? Chisuga said he saw tents on the shore of the lake and in the rental sites. Making camp at a rental site would leave an unnecessary paper trail, so the only logical possibility was the lakeshore.

I made a right angle.

"Hey," Ishigaki called after me. "The campsite is in this direction! Look, you can see the fire."

"I know," I answered. "I just remembered that old friend of mine we saw fishing in the lake. I have to warn him." Warn him that I'm going to tie him up and leave him in that cave Ishigaki found with the spiders and centipedes if he's harmed a single hair on Miss Asahina's head, that is.

I felt proud of myself. Even though I still had no reason to believe that Miss Asahina's abductors weren't actual aliens, I was already basking in the thought of how grateful Miss Asahina would be when I singlehandedly rescued her. Maybe she would even reward me.

"I'll go with you," Chisuga volunteered, and caught up with me in three strides. "It isn't good for any of us to wander off alone, even for a minute."

Someone up there really is having a good time dangling romantic bliss in front of me before snatching it away, aren't they? Now that Nagato's decided she wants to be just friends with Yanami, maybe she and I can go on a date before she gives me the "just friends" line. Hell, why not have Tsuruya invite me to meet her in private? Then she can say she wants to talk to me about Haruhi.

In addition to being a third wheel in my romantic fantasy, Chisuga was someone I didn't want witnessing the weirdness the SOS Brigade dealt with behind the scenes. Still, I didn't have any good objection to his reasoning. So I'd just have to pray that he was actually a member of Koizumi's agency. Damn my past self for repeatedly failing to confirm that with Koizumi.

Even with the flashlight in my hand, it was hard blazing a clear path to our destination. Up close, I'm sure moonlight was reflecting very clearly off the lake, but from where we were, thick leaves and branches blocked all view of it. It made me want to take a chainsaw to this whole damn campground so that once and for all, we could all move freely without stumbling through brush and thorns and branches that swing at your forehead from out of the darkness. As it was, I could almost be glad that Chisuga was there, because I felt like he would stop me if I started heading the wrong way.

Then at last, the light from my flashlight reflected off of something. A blotch of white, with wings of mysterious light blue. Like... a dress.

"Miss Asahina!" It was impossibly lucky, but there she was; I'd found her. I ran towards her, forgetting all about Chisuga. "Miss Asahina! You escaped! Or... did they let you go?"

She wasn't saying anything. She just stood there, holding something in her hands. As I got closer, I could make out what it was.

The missing samurai sword. "So they took that, too," I said. "How did you get it away from them?"

She was still mute, just looking at me with an almost hostile expression. It was as if she couldn't figure out how to respond to my unexpected presence.

I couldn't even imagine what she had gone through over the past few hours. "You're going to be okay," I told her, reaching my hands out towards her, wanting to clasp her in a reassuring embrace, but moving slowly so as not to frighten her. "Let's get back to -"

I broke off, silenced by bewilderment, as Miss Asahina drew the sword from its scabbard. Then, gripping its handle in both hands, she raised the sword, and swung it at my head.

I had just time to shut my eyes and clench my teeth. Not even time to shout "What the hell kind of way to die is this?!" at God.

The force of impact made me stumble backwards a step, almost losing my footing. I heard the sound of metal cutting into flesh and bone. I dared to open my eyes enough to take a peek.

There, out of nowhere, stood Nagato, having caught the blade of the samurai sword with her bare hand. Her blood dripped out between her fingers. I was totally unscathed. The whole picture was like a replay of our deadly encounter with Ryoko Asakura.

Except that the one holding the other end of the blade was our own sweet Mikuru Asahina, mind warped and rearranged by alien abductors. Or could she be an evil clone created with DNA samples they'd taken from the real Miss Asahina? If so, I wondered if she'd still have the star-shaped mole in the same place.

Whatever she was, after straining against Nagato's grip for a moment she trembled like a frightened puppy, moaned out, "Ohhh...", and collapsed to the ground, releasing her grip on the sword as she did so.

I scrambled over to where she fell, shining the flashlight low so that I could find her and see if she was alright. Please, let her be alright. "Miss Asahina? Miss Asahina!" I knelt down and gave her shoulder an unhelpful shake.

"...Kyon?" She hadn't lost consciousness, but she looked dazed. "Oh... Kyon, I'm so sorry... I didn't mean to..."

"It's okay," I assured her, then turned back to the SOS Brigade's resident alien. "Nagato, I... I guess you saved me life, again." You might think having your life saved would become old after a few instances, but it didn't. My heart swelled with the same relief and gratitude it had that first time Nagato saved me from Asakura. "Thank you."

She gave a slight nod of acknowledgment.

"Can you tell what's wrong with Miss Asahina?"

"Nothing," a new voice broke in, "Mikuru Asahina is perfectly fine now. Exactly the same as she was before we took her."

My head spun in the opposite direction to look at the newcomer. Not that I hadn't already recognized his voice. "Goro Mishima." So he was behind this.

He nodded at me, as if we were just bumping into each other on the street. "First of all, before you jump to the most natural – but as it happens, wrong – conclusion, I was not trying to kill you."

"I guess I'll take your word for it." That was sarcasm, if you couldn't tell. I used a tone of voice that made sure that Goro Mishima could tell.

"Oh, I never expected you to do that. Rather, Miss Yuki Nagato shall testify on my behalf." He adjusted his glasses with one hand. "I told you yesterday that I was not worried about Ms. Nagato because she is forbidden to interfere. At that time I had only a rough idea of what I was going to do, and once I fleshed it out, I decided it was necessary to make sure she wouldn't interfere. We have a device which we can use to interfere with Ms. Nagato's senses, and we employed it to prevent her from locating Mikuru Asahina. The moment you encountered Ms. Asahina, we turned it off, knowing that Ms. Nagato would race to her location and do whatever was needed to safeguard your life."

Miss Asahina sobbed and buried her face against my chest. Meanwhile, I glanced back at Nagato. She nodded at me. "What he says is consistent with known information. 18 seconds before Mikuru Asahina attacked you, the interference which prevented my locating her abruptly disappeared."

I guess that was a bit too perfectly timed to think it might be coincidence. "Fine, so you weren't trying to kill me. What the hell did you do to Miss Asahina?"

Mishima blinked. "You haven't guessed that? I thought that was by far the most obvious part. I temporarily asserted control over her mind. No special trick to it..." He pushed his glasses down his nose to give me a significant look. "It's just something we espers can do."

...Koizumi included. That's what you're telling me, isn't it? "Then why all this absurd drama? Why did you make Miss Asahina's disappearance look like an alien abduction? Why make her try to kill me, if you didn't even want me dead?"

"We certainly couldn't have Miss Suzumiya catching on to the existence of espers, now could we?" He smiled. It was an attempt to lighten the mood, but I didn't care for it. "If you like, I can give you the apparatus we used to create the appearance of aliens and show you how it works. It's just a light projector and some sound recordings played over speakers. The sort of thing low-budget filmmakers would use. Perhaps the SOS Brigade could use it in making their sequel."

Yeah, right. I'm no scientist, but even I know that light projectors can only project onto a surface, and those lights were definitely floating.

"As for Miss Asahina trying to kill you, I needed to make her do something that you couldn't possibly dismiss as simply hypnotism. I think you'll agree, taking a samurai sword and using it to remove your head from your shoulders isn't something a stage magician could make Mikuru Asahina do."

No, it was not. And Nagato wasn't contradicting anything Mishima was saying. Was even the Data Information Thing ignorant about the espers' full abilities, or did Nagato know, and just didn't realize that Koizumi had never told me?

"There are limitations to the esper ability to influence minds," Mishima continued. "The esper has to be close to the person, usually within a couple hundred meters. You can only control one, or in the cases of some espers, two people at once. You have to have some familiarity with the person, so you have a rough idea of how their mind works. And it won't work if the person is consciously resisting your influence.

"Taking all those limitations into account... think for a moment of all the times Itsuki Koizumi may have used this power on you or on those close to you. I understand that Haruhi Suzumiya promoted him to deputy chief of the SOS Brigade. After you were the one who had been slaving away at her every command, and the one who gave her the idea for starting the group in the first place. Seems a bit odd, doesn't it?"

I didn't say anything.

"You look like you've taken a punch right in the gut. I'd like to say I'm sorry, but I won't insult your intelligence. Fact is, you need the wake-up call. You won't be able to protect Miss Suzumiya if you aren't on your toes. I won't ask you to trust me – although, honestly, why shouldn't I? I just gave you a big clue about how much Itsuki Koizumi has been conning you, for free. But here's all I'm asking." He stepped forward, took a slip of paper with writing on it out of his pocket, and handed it to me. "That's my private phone number. Any time you want a second opinion on the information you're getting through your Brigade mates, you can call me. I'm trusting you not to give that number to Itsuki Koizumi."

I scoffed. "You realize Nagato probably memorized that number in the two seconds it took to pass between our hands, right?"

"I'm not worried about Yuki Nagato knowing it. Or Mikuru Asahina. See, I'm not the SOS Brigade's enemy, so I don't have secrets from them. Just keep it away from Itsuki Koizumi." He turned away. "I'll be hearing from you."

As he walked away, I was actually calm enough to consider all the things he'd said. Mainly, though, I thought of all the reasons that a person might want to keep something like the power to control people's minds a secret from his friends.

Mishima didn't get very far before I heard a crashing through the brush, and an uncharacteristically disheveled Koizumi came into our midst.

"Kyon! Miss Nagato! You've managed to get Miss Asahina away from Mishima's clutches?" I didn't feel like answering such an idiotic question, but I guess Nagato may have given him a nod, because after a moment he continued, "I headed for Mishima's camp as soon as I brought Taniguchi back to ours, but no one was there. I saw nothing else to do but return to our camp, but then I thought I heard voices, so I..." He paused, finally taking note of the look on my face. "...I suppose you're wanting an explanation."

I held Miss Asahina closer to me. "Actually, I think it's pretty obvious. Espers have the power to control people's minds."

He assumed a pained look on his face. "That's... not how I would describe it. We can only influence people to do things which they have in some way considered doing. For example, Goro Mishima was only able to make Miss Asahina approach the 'alien' lights because she was curious about them. He simply refined her curiosity into an irresistible urge. It isn't really mind control."

"Mishima just used this power to make Miss Asahina try to cut off my head with a sword." I took a deep breath. "So, are you saying that Miss Asahina wanted to kill me even before he started playing with her head?"

"Not precisely -"

"Then that sure as hell sounds like mind control to me!"

He looked startled, as if just now realizing that this wasn't something I was going to let him just brush aside. "Kyon, you must understand. Even after you told me that Mishima had a plan to discredit me, the Agency wouldn't give me clearance to tell you espers have this power. They feared you would never be able to trust me if you thought I might use paranormal power on your mind."

"They were right."

"Surely, though, you can't think I would actually do such a thing to you, or anyone in the SOS Brigade. You know me better by now."

"What the hell do I know about you?" Forgetting about comforting Miss Asahina, I shot to my feet. I was vaguely aware of her clinging to my leg and continuing to sob apologies. "All I know is what you've told me, and apparently that's pretty much nothing! How old are you?"

"What?"

"The Agency wouldn't have to limit themselves to teenagers when sending people to keep an eye on Haruhi. Faking the credentials needed to get into North High would be nothing to them. You could be in your thirties for all I know."

"Regardless of my age -"

"I don't even know why Haruhi forms closed space. I've always just taken your word for it. For all I know, you've just been using it as a threat to get me to do what you want."

He seemed ready for that one, which only disturbed me the more. "If that were so, wouldn't I use it more often? I've told you, Miss Suzumiya has all but stopped creating closed space."

"How about Chisuga? Is he really your friend, or another member of the agency sent to spy on Haruhi?"

"I can't reveal the identities of my fellow operatives without their permission, anymore than I can reveal to them anything you've told me in confidence."

I have no idea who he was trying to fool with a claim like that. I'd never told him anything personal, and definitely not anything that I wasn't okay with the Agency knowing. Even if I had, why should I just take his word for that, after he'd been hiding this from me? He could take control of any one of us at any time, even...

"One more question." I was trembling. "Did you write those love letters that Haruhi and I got before White Day?"

He blinked. "I thought I explained this to you. The last thing I, or anyone in the Agency, would want is to risk a romantic relationship between you and Miss Suzumiya."

"Because it would make her more powerful than ever. And you wouldn't want that..." I was speaking through gritted teeth, but I couldn't hold my fury inside anymore. "...unless you had a way of making her do what you wanted!"

For a moment I heard nothing but insects. Miss Asahina had got up to stand beside me, and was looking at Koizumi with dawning suspicion. Nagato, as usual, was silent. Koizumi was stricken, looking like a man who's just been caught sticking his hand into someone's safe. His casual outdoor wear, and the bits of shrubbery still clinging to him, made it even more impossible to maintain his usual air of sophisticated cool. I certainly didn't feel sorry for him, though.

He still was the first to find his voice. "Kyon... you can't really believe..."

"Why the hell shouldn't I? You're the one who's always telling me I shouldn't trust you!"

"Surely you can at least trust me over Goro Mishima. Can't you see that he's trying to build up suspicion towards me?"

I'd had enough of this. "Mishima didn't force you to keep this a secret from us."

I headed back towards the campfire. Miss Asahina and Nagato followed along beside me, the latter carrying the samurai sword with her. If they hadn't, I would have grabbed them by the arm and pulled them along. I knew now that it wasn't safe to leave them alone with Koizumi. Belatedly I remembered that Chisuga had been with me, but looking around I didn't see him anywhere. Hopefully he'd already headed back to camp. If not, I couldn't afford to go looking for him again right now.

The question that popped into my head earlier came back to me. "Nagato. Did you know... about Koizumi's mind control power?"

Her eyes remained forward, unperturbed. "Not in the sense that you now know it."

"Come again? Nagato... what do you mean by that?"

"The information manipulation which is unique to espers has no effect on data organisms. Paradigms unfamiliar to us are used. Therefore, though we could read the data emitted by espers, we could only learn of its effect through observation. Instances of this particular manipulation were not available for our observation prior to the manipulation of Mikuru Asahina's information during the appearance of the photonic projections."

"H-huh?" Miss Asahina stammered.

I translated: "She says she's immune to esper mind control, and she knew about it but couldn't understand it."

I think. Usually, in cases like this I'd ask Nagato to simplify her answer for me rather than just guess. But right now I'm not in the mood for asking more questions.

Not in the mood at all.

When we got back to the campfire, you'd think we'd be greeted with affectionate exclamations of relief that we were safe.

"Heeeyyyyyy, is that the samurai sword?" Haruhi broke out in a razor-keen burst of interest, shining her flashlight over the weapon in Nagato's hands.

"Yeah, that's it!" Tsuruya contributed before any of us who were escorting the sword could answer. "Wow, you really got it back! Did you overpower the thief and take it from him, Nagato?"

"You must have used your karate skills on him. I told you those lessons would come in handy!" She said in an aside to Tsuruya: "Kyon didn't believe me."

Taniguchi had a different take on the situation. "Wh-wh-why is she just staring at us like that? L-l-look, Nagato, I don't know what you think I've done, but -"

Good grief. "Nagato, put the sword back in its scabbard."

She did as I said. Actually, it was my fault; I had noticed that she was carrying the sword and its scabbard separately, but I didn't apply the common sense to realize that was a bad idea until I saw Taniguchi's reaction. My mind had been elsewhere.

"Where's the thief?" Tsuruya continued her interrogation, peering around us with curiosity. "Did you tie him up? Or did you only manage to escape with the sword?"

"There is no thief," I said. "That old friend I saw fishing took the sword, as a joke."

"What?" Haruhi exclaimed. "That's dangerous! I called the police and everything!"

"Well, you'll just have to call them back and tell them it was a false alarm."

"Hmmph. No need. They thought it was a prank call."

That figured. It would have been hard to explain the situation without bringing up the centuries-old samurai swords, and once you mentioned those, the whole thing started to sound like a kid's prank.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised that one of your friends has a lousy sense of humor too."

Yanami looked around warily. "So it's all over?"

"Wait a second," Ishigaki said. "Where's Chisuga?! Him going missing was the whole start of -"

"We're right here," Koizumi announced, as he and Chisuga came crashing out of the overgrowth. "The others got a little ahead of us."

Ishigaki sighed with relief. "Don't do that, okay?"

"I'm going to bed," I muttered, heading off to the tent. I'm sure Haruhi would still want to solve the alien abduction mystery, but I'd leave Koizumi to play D.M. or whatever role-playing gamers call it. Nagato could make sure he didn't try any mind control tricks.

But Koizumi's hand caught my shoulder. "Kyon, I understand how you feel, but we really should talk more."

"No more talk." I shrugged his hand off. "I've had it."

He didn't try to stop me as I stalked off.

Now, I did have time to cool off in the walk back to the campsite. I'd realized that maybe it was a bit alarmist to think Koizumi would use his mind control power on us. I mean, if nothing else, it would be careless. One of us could easily figure out what he was up to. But I'd also calmed down enough to realize something else:

Koizumi must have known it was Goro Mishima who took Miss Asahina all along.

First off, when I told him about Mishima's threat, he said he had an idea of what his plan was. So he definitely knew that Mishima might try to blow his mind control secret. And then, when Miss Asahina was abducted, Koizumi was bowing his head and concentrating. He was trying to counter Mishima's exertion of mind control. So he knew.

He knew, and instead of telling us what was going on, he tried to distract us with searching for Chisuga, biding his time until he could go off alone to Mishima's camp and rescue Miss Asahina himself, preventing us from finding out about the mind control. He'd put a fellow SOS Brigade member's life in jeopardy just so he could keep his esper powers secret.

Whatever else he had done, for good or evil, truth or lies, I couldn't trust Koizumi after he'd done that.