Chapter Three
As I walked in my door, my sister was immediately there to tease me about my date with Yuki-chan. She ran up to me and smirked in that oh so irritating fashion that I often equated with Koizumi. That Cheshire Cat grin that made me want to drive a nail through her head.
"Sooooo? How was your date with Yuki-chan?"
"It went great. And call her Nagato."
"There's someone on the phone for you. Don't ask. She told me not to tell you who it was."
"Did she just call?" I asked. My sister nodded.
"About five minutes ago."
"Hello?" I said, answering the phone quickly.
"Hey, Kyon. It's been a pretty long time since we've really talked. Yuki is so beautiful. I'm so happy for you two." Sasaki said cheerfully.
"Hey, Sasaki. Listen… Sorry about Yuki-chan's behavior this morning… She's just…"
"Oh, no. No need to apologize. I can understand her distrust of me. After all, I represent a threat to her and your entire Brigade.
"But I just wanted to tell you that I have no intention of interfering with your relationship or with your Brigade. I'm sorry about what my friend did to Yuki on that mountain, and about making her come down with that fever." Sasaki continued. I sighed.
"It's fine. I'm not really angry. We lived through it, so there's no need to hold grudges. So, did you just call about that?"
"No. Kyon, I'm worried. I ran into you on purpose earlier today. My friends are planning something. I'm not entirely sure what.
They've been trying to convince me for months to try to steal Suzumiya-san's powers so that I can have them. I've refused every time. I don't want to be a god. I have no interest in that kind of power. But that so-called time traveler keeps telling me that I don't have the right to refuse…
"I'm scared. I spoke to the older Asahina-san, and she told me where I would find you and Nagato-san today. I think my friends are planning to take Suzumiya-san's powers on their own. I know at least that Suou-san could come close to doing it, even if she needed to borrow extra power from her allies and the Sky Canopy Domain…"
"Hold on, Sasaki… I have enough to keep in my head just with my Brigade's bizarre back stories. Go a bit slower!"
"Okay. Let me start from the beginning. You may or may not remember all of it as I tell it, but I'll try. Kuyou Suou is an alien, or rather, a humanoid interface like Nagato-san. You may have met her on one or more occasions."
"Wait! Is she that gloomy, creepy looking girl?"
"Well… That's one way to put it… Perhaps not the kindest description…" Sasaki said sheepishly.
"Anyway, her master is the Sky Canopy Domain. It's a non-physical being similar the Data Overmind, but completely separate. While the Data Overmind identified Haruhi as 'God', the Sky Canopy Domain apparently identified me as God, and so, it sent Suou-san to monitor me and assist me.
"But she has said on several occasions that the Sky Canopy Domain has given her orders to try to transfer Haruhi's powers to me. And recently, she let slip that the Domain has now said to do it 'by any means necessary. If your Brigade fights to stop it, I think you might succeed, but…"
"Say no more, Sasaki. I appreciate this. I'll make sure to call Yuki-ch…"
"Oh, don't worry. She's already on the line with me. Nagato-san. Thank you for your patience…" Sasaki said. Yuki then spoke.
"I have heard, processed, and comprehended what the one known as Sasaki has said, and assessed the threat level. In accordance with the level of power the one known as Suou-san has, I have sent a report to the Data Overmind that we will require immediate assistance by interfaces with a higher clearance level than I currently have.
"The one known as Emiri Kimidori is of higher standing than I, and there are several in the general vicinity that are even higher than she. They are known as Overseers, and they watch and manipulate our movements in the Data Overmind's stead. I have been at least temporarily released from the requirement that I follow their commands that I might better blend in with the Brigade.
"However, these are dire circumstances, and we must not hesitate. I have contacted the other members of the Brigade save Haruhi Suzumiya, and our various organizations are… How you say… Putting our heads together… Actually, Kyosuke…" Yuki said, breaking her monotone, proving to me that she had not been rewritten. I had been afraid for a moment that the Data Overmind had deemed her too dangerous in her current state and rewritten her or some sci-fi shit like that.
"I-I do not understand that phrase. Were people to attempt to put their heads together, they would die since their craniums would be fused, and no human has, thus far determined any manner of fleshcrafting."
"Yuki-chan… It's just an expression… It was meant to imply that the people involved are pooling their thoughts…" I said, thinking that it was cute how she was mistaking common expressions. She was becoming so much more human than when I first met her.
"Please excuse me for a moment. I'm glad I could help, and I will hope for your success. Have a good night, both of you." Sasaki said, hanging up.
"How does Sasaki know your number, Kyosuke?" Yuki asked suspiciously. I sighed.
"I told you. She and I were friends in middle school, and she helped me study. Of course she would know my number. She's been to the house on multiple occasions…"
"Is Sasaki her given name or her family name?"
"Um… H-her given… Her family name is Mitsukuri… I-if it's really bothering you that much, I can…"
"I-it isn't bothering me!" Yuki said emphatically, unwilling to admit that she was jealous of Sasaki.
"Yuki-chan… Do you mind if I come over?" I asked. Yuki made a noise of assent and I excused myself, hanging up and going downstairs, putting on my shoes.
If I kept riding my bike this much, I won't have to worry about the annual national fitness exams. I bombed the exam last year. Maybe this year, I'll manage to pass. I've been working a little bit on my fitness, but really it's never been that important to me. I should care more, but I never have. My sister ran out and stopped me.
"You're going to see Yuki-chan again, aren't you, Kyon?"
"Stop calling me Kyon! And that's Nagato to you."
"But you call her Yuki-chan…"
"She's my girlfriend. Of course I call her Yuki-chan… I gotta go, though. See ya later… Tell mom I'll be back late."
"Bye Kyon…" She said with a smirk as I walked out the door.
"Yuki-chan? You in there? Hello!" I called loudly. I had been knocking for three minutes. Yuki-chan had a nice apartment, but it wasn't big, and it was nearly empty, so she didn't have a lot of things to move around.
"C-come in…" Came a feeble voice from inside, and I heard the door unlock. I opened the door and walked in to see Yuki sitting on the floor just like the other night, her body racked with tremors. She wasn't crying this time, but she looked scared. She looked up at me, with a haunted, empty look in her eyes, her hands gripping her head as if she was trying to get the damn voices out of it.
She struggled for a moment and stood, staggering over to me, manifesting a long, serrated combat knife in her hand just as Ryoko had done that time, and she looked into my eyes with a slightly mad look that made me sure that she was about to try to kill me.
And if anyone could succeed, it would be Yuki, and unlike last time, there would be no Yuki to save me from Yuki… Maybe Kimidori would save me, but after I hit her like that and yelled at her, I was pretty sure that she would just let me die.
"D-d-don't… Worry, Kyon… I-I am not planning to harm you… Rather, I w-w-w-want you t-t-to kill me…" Yuki said, her voice seeming to stagger like a malfunctioning computer. She seemed more like an android now than she had earlier. Her voice was even slightly more robotic than it was earlier.
"Yuki-chan, I'm not going to kill you. Whatever is happening, we can work it out to…"
"NO! Kimidori said it earlier! I only have a 0.00011439% chance of being saved! I-i-if you kill me though, I-I can at least kiss you one last time before I'm gone…"
"Alright…" I lied, taking the knife from Yuki's hand, and holding it over her heart. I pulled her head closer to mine and kissed her for as long as I could. Then, I pulled away and held the knife up in the air.
Yuki shut her eyes tightly, actually looking frightened of dying, despite the fact that she had said she wanted to die. I plunged the knife down, stopping just before I stabbed her, hearing Yuki shriek in shock and fear, sure that she had just been stabbed in the chest.
"Yuki-chan… Calm down. I'm not going to kill you, and I'll never forgive you if you kill yourself. You're scared right now. All that 35% shit… Right?" I asked. She should know that I could never kill her. It was unfair of her to even ask such a thing of me. But then she looked at me with the same eyes she had the other night.
Those terrified eyes, that uncertain look that proved just how unprepared she was to be human. If there was one thing that I felt I had to help her with it was learning what it meant to be human. She had come so far, and yet she still had so far to go.
There was a character in a manga that I had read called Fate Averruncus. He had said to the main character 'there's nothing more unsightly than mediocrity'. Now, I would never say that Yuki-chan is mediocre. But she still has a lot to learn about humanity and how to live like a human.
"You're wrong! I can't go on like this! It hurts… It hurts every time I'm alone! Every time you leave my apartment, every time we part ways and I know I have to go back to this empty, lonely apartment! I can't live like this! Please, Kyon! Please kill me so I don't have to suffer anymore!" Yuki begged. I hated seeing the poor girl like this. But I couldn't kill her.
"Is that all that's been bothering you, Yuki-chan? You should've told me sooner. C'mon… Pack some stuff up and come back to my house. You can stay there for a while until you're feeling up to being on your own…
"I'm sure my sister will keep you endlessly entertained with embarrassing stories about me and my parents will go on and on about how beautiful you are and how lucky I am to have someone like you.
"Then my sister's friends will come over and tease me about having a girlfriend then they'll ask you how you could possibly love someone as mediocre as me. Then my friends will come over and they'll go on endlessly about our runaway romance…"
"What? No. I-I could not possibly impose upon your hospitality like that. I am certain that I will learn to be happy living alone. I am sure that I am not the only human who has ever lived alone."
"No. But you're probably the only four year old who's ever lived alone…"
"I have indicated previously, Kyon. Though I am officially only four years of age, I have been programmed to have the mental capacity and emotional stability of a seventeen year old."
"You're joking, right? You have the mental capacity of Einstein, Tesla, DaVinci and Sophocles combined…
"You've explained bizarre mathematical and physics equations like they're just fireside reading. Anyway, I'm not giving you a choice. I'll pack your stuff, tie you up and drag you to my house if I have to, but you're coming. No complaints…"
"I-if I really must do so… Th-thank you, Kyon… I still do not quite understand why you're so kind to me… I am…"
"It's because I love you, Yuki-chan. I don't know when I started falling for you, but it must've been a while ago… Now hurry up…"
Yuki hurried through the apartment and packed up a bunch of clothes including her school clothes, a few weekend outfits, underwear, socks, and a violin, viola, flute, cello, and piano. I was fairly sure that she could write the book on all of them and show up Mozart, Bach, Beethoven and Pachelbel all at once.
On the trip to my house, Yuki explained that her suitcase was a tesseract, or an object that was larger on the inside than on the outside. Her instruments were beautiful and looked like they had been made by some of the greatest masters in the world. I wasn't terribly surprised. After all, Yuki had the ability to manipulate data. So why shouldn't she be able to make instruments.
"Sis! I'm home!" I called, walking into the house with Yuki in tow.
"Hey, Kyon! Oh! Yuki-chan is here! You on another date with Kyon?"
"No… K-Kyon has invited me to stay here for a little while…" Yuki muttered nervously. I have to say that my little sister looked extremely excited, but she gave a short and sarcastic quip about how desperate I must be.
"Lemme carry your suitcase for you! You sleeping in Kyon's room? Kyon, you'd better hide your porn magazines…"
"Natsuki! That's…!"
"I-it's alright… You can try to carry the suitcase if you want to…" Yuki said quietly, secretly wishing Natsuki luck with that endeavor. Natsuki grabbed the handle and struggled to pick up the suitcase but found that it was far too heavy.
"W-what's in here, Yuki-chan!? A concrete block?"
"A piano, a violin, a viola, a flute, and a cello and some clothes…"
"Ahaha! Yeah, good one…"
"I did not expect you to believe me. Would you like to see what is in the suitcase?" Yuki asked. Natsuki nodded excitedly, and Yuki reached down to open it and pulled out the instruments, placing the grand piano in the front hall along with the bench for it. Natsuki marveled at it for a moment before speaking again.
"You play piano, Yuki-chan?"
"A little bit. I play many instruments… Playing helps to calm me down…" The little alien said meekly.
"Play something for me!"
Actually, I sort of wondered just how good she was as well. I was about to find out. Yuki sat down and stretched out her fingers. Suddenly, I noticed that she had a sixth pointer finger on each hand. I had read the Hannibal Lecter Series… Polydactyly, it was called. I didn't doubt that she had full use of her sixth digit on each hand. She stretched out her hands and began to play the Piano Quartet by Gustav Mahler. She played for a while before she stopped
"Would you like me to play anything else? Violin? Piano? Viola?" Yuki asked. Natsuki thought for a moment.
"Violin!"
"Okay…" Yuki said, pulling her violin out of the extradimensional space, opening the case and rosining the bow, testing it and tuning the violin before beginning to play a slow, melancholy tune that even brought tears to my eyes before the tune slowly became more upbeat and cheerful, becoming faster and faster until her bow began to blur on the strings and smoke started to come off the strings, so hot were they getting. Then, she finished the song with a long, wistful note.
"Wow! That was really awesome! Yuki-chan, how did you learn to play like that?" Natsuki asked excitedly. Yuki blushed slightly and bowed.
"I-I guess I just practiced a lot. I've learned a number of instruments in my spare time. Playing is my third favorite thing to do."
"What are your first and second?" Natsuki demanded. Yuki blushed.
"Spending time with my friends and reading…" I looked at her, surprised. "What? Y-you of all people should know that I love spending time with you and the rest of the Brigade… You, Haruhi Suzumiya and your friends value me as more than just a source of data. That is more than I can possibly say for any of the other interfaces… However, I need to speak with you in private, Kyon… I-I will teach you to play violin later, Natsuki-san…"
"Just call me Natsuki…"
"Very well, Natsuki…" Yuki said, taking my hand and kissing me before leading me up to my room, where she took the suitcases into the room and shut the door behind us. She then began muttering something in an incomprehensible language and a digital pattern spread across my walls.
"I have soundproofed and isolated the room in space. It would not do for Natsuki to eavesdrop on us, or for anyone to listen in."
"So, what did you need to tell me?"
"I lied to Natsuki so that she would not be suspicious. I have very little interest in talking." Yuki said, advancing on me I want to take the next step with you. I gasped. I had no idea she was going this way.