A/N: This chapter is subject to future editing and changes. Future chapters are also not guaranteed.
This... this is what I get for chasing things. This is what I get for wandering about and going into things I shouldn't go into. It's all the same... just like three years ago... I haven't changed at all... I haven't changed at all... how foolish!
Just go to hell...
"It's remarkable that you aren't dead, though. I blame the time traveller."
What are you talking about? I died just now. I saw a giant UFO and then I was blasted by a laser.
"It wasn't a laser, but that isn't important."
Yeah, whatever. The thing is, I died. All because I went out looking for aliens. You'd think I'd learn from my mistakes. My parents would be so disappointed in me.
"Vice president, open your eyes."
How am I supposed to open my eyes if I'm...
Wait. I'm not dead yet?
I open my eyes, slowly sitting up. I feel cold and my head is in a daze, but I'm certain none of this is what it feels like to be dead. Not that I would know what being dead feels like.
Kneeling next to me like a Buddha statue was Nagato, still in her school uniform with my coat folded on her lap.
We're still in the park. Nagato and I, sitting and staring at each other, and Suzumiya lying on the ground next to me. No UFO in sight. The storm that had brought me here in the first place was nowhere to be seen.
"Hey! Hold on, what happened!?" I immediately shout. Nagato winced a fair bit.
"Quiet, please," she said, voice in a whisper. "Whatever you want me to explain can we do it somewhere more private? My apartment is just over there."
She pointed at a nearby apartment building. Yeah, that's really not far... but something about the idea of going to the apartment of a person that just fired a laser at me is not appealing.
"Like I said, it wasn't..." she stops herself, shaking her head. "Please, just follow along." She stands up, still holding on to my coat. "And could you bring her with you? We shan't leave her out here alone."
What. I just saw a flying saucer float above your head, you tried to kill me, and now I'm expected to follow you and also carry Suzumiya with me? I should be running for my life right now!
Noticing that I'm not following her, Nagato looks at me like she just tasted something sour. "You know, if you still want to keep a low profile you shouldn't just stand below a UFO landing site. Who knows? I might call the mother-ship to come back."
She spoke in a lighthearted tone, but I was less than amused. Regardless, I picked Suzumiya up, carrying her upon my back, and walked to Nagato cautiously as she led the way.
For about a minute we went in silence. I didn't feel like talking. As much as I would normally have questions in my mind, all I wanted to do by that point was to leave as soon as possible.
Nagato kept glancing back at me every few steps. I hadn't seen her so flustered since I had first joined the literature club.
"You seem rather ravenous, by the way," she commented. "I'll take it you haven't had dinner yet?"
I'm sorry, but that is completely out of context; lacking in contribution to the situation in any way. I ignore her attempts at small talk.
"Maybe we should get something to eat on the way," she continues. I don't really feel like carrying Suzumiya into a restaurant. No thanks. No comment.
"Mm... do your parents know you're out so late?" she asks.
I'd ask you the same. Except I wouldn't. No comment.
We arrive at the apartment building without another word. Nagato brushes her pass against the sensor at the door. We headed in the elevator together, when Nagato tried once again to start conversation.
"You must be cold," she says.
Congratulations on your detective skills. I'm hungry and cold and I have no idea where my parents are. I'm also tired. And I'm carrying a girl on my back, while another girl who nearly killed me just asked me to follow her to her apartment. I think I'm probably less than happy about this whole situation.
"I'll make some warm tea," she concludes.
That's a nice gesture, but I think you could also start with giving me back my coat.
It's odd, though. I don't know why I feel so cold in this time of the year. It might have something to do with the laser. Or... I think it was more like a freeze ray.
Nagato only shook her head. Apparently it isn't a freeze ray either.
The elevator stopped at the seventh floor, and Nagato led us to the room numbered 708. Opening the door she walked inside, glancing at me to see if I was doing the same.
Skeptical as I was, I made sure that there were no obvious traps inside before I walked in.
It was at this moment I felt a stir from the previously limp body behind me.
"Mm... w... what...?" Suzumiya gradually opened her eyes. "Wha...? Let go of me!"
"Whoa!"
I feel a force like a bag of bricks smash against my back and soon find myself on the floor.
I hate you all. I hate you all. I hate you all.
"What do you think you're doing!?" the now awakened and angered girl spat. I suppose her reaction to all this is fairly normal; it'd be nice if she could be normal in less violent ways. "Where am I!?"
Nagato rushed over to lift me up from the ground while speaking to Suzumiya in a voice like a nurse trying to calm a furious patient. "It's okay... please don't shout. This is my apartment."
"Yuki?" Suzumiya looked at Nagato for a moment. "You have a lot of explaining to do! Both of you!"
"Certainly... but please, keep it down or you'll disturb the neighbours," the reserved girl says, still trying to keep everything in a hush-voice as she closes the door behind us.
For a moment I was surrounded by darkness and quiet. It was comforting in its familiarity, however brief it was. It had to end, though, when Nagato switched on the light, illuminating the room.
The room itself was... definitely high-end for an apartment. It was fairly spacious, with expensive curtains and a large balcony outside.
The furnishings were all things I'd say were fairly pricey, too. A sizeable bonsai tree in the corner, a polished bookshelf far more impressive than the one in the literature clubroom, a small glass dinner table with a bowl of fresh flowers in the middle. These were all fairly normal things you'd expect in a decent home.
Then there were things that one wouldn't expect to affordable or even conceivable to be placed in a normal household, but things one could expect from Nagato's scientific mind: an armillary sphere, a high powered telescope on the balcony, a scale model of a nuclear power plant. Suzumiya and I ended up finding ourselves staring at a long fish tank which was inhabited by starfish, angelfish, jellyfish, cuttlefish eels, turtles,...
It's like Nagato lives in a museum.
"Interesting creatures, aren't they?" Nagato comments over our backs. From her reflection on the glass of the fish tank I see that she's placing a set of tea onto the table. "Aquatic life. Quite common on Earth; a planet which has water covering three quarters of its surface."
I'll take it you don't see a lot of fish where you come from. Or water.
Nagato gives a half-smile. "No, not really."
Suzumiya glances between us like we're plotting against her. "What are you two talking about? You know something that I don't, Kyon! Tell me what it is!"
Let Nagato explain. I'm still not too sure about the situation myself.
We sit down at the table, with Suzumiya next to me, and the two of us across from Nagato, who placed a tea cup in front of us and filled each cup.
Suzumiya next to me kept squirming and fidgeting, increasingly restless and agitated at Nagato's pace. Nagato was acting slower than usual, taking her time filling the cups, and then taking the time to drink cup of tea down in several slow sips.
"Could you hurry up?" I say, voicing Suzumiya's impatience for her. To be honest I don't want to overstay either, so I want this over with quickly myself.
Nagato seemingly ignored me, though. When she finished her cup of tea she closed her eyes and started to breathe in and out. Meditating.
This is a waste of time...
Finally, Nagato opened her mouth to speak. "It seems that the other two have elected to have me ousted first..." Looking at us, after another painstaking pause for thought, Nagato explained. "I think you must have worked it out by now, but I'll state it anyway:
"Yes. I am an alien."
The truth came out at last. Actually, I don't think Suzumiya had found out about it yet, since I hear (or rather, I don't hear) a noticeable stunned silence from her direction. As for myself... I knew something was up for a while now. It doesn't surprise me in the slightest.
I down my cup of tea in a single gulp. Nagato kindly refilled it.
"You know that's not funny, right?" Suzumiya says. She sounds more annoyed than excited. Nonetheless, the budding doubt in her mind of Nagato's true nature has been watered.
"I'm not trying to be funny," Nagato says, slightly perplexed. She turned to me, somehow expecting me to say something.
Leave me out of this. This is your problem. You deal with it.
"Well if you're an alien, tell me where you're from," Suzumiya says, unconvinced.
"Fourth planet from the star," Nagato said, without pause. After a pause, she clarified, "Mars."
Suzumiya's expression became even more doubtful.
To be honest, I'm not sure if Nagato really is from Mars. I'm sure that scientists have already disproven the likelihood of life on Mars long ago. Hence Suzumiya's reaction.
"That's stupid," Suzumiya said in disgust. "Here I thought you were going to give me a decent explanation... turns out you're just treating me as a joke. "
Nagato sighed, shaking her head. "You believe me, right?" she asked, turning to me.
I wanted to say 'no' to spite her. After everything I just saw tonight having Nagato as an alien was something I wanted to refuse. However, seeing everything I just saw tonight simply made it impossible to deny.
I kept my silence.
As much as Suzumiya next to me acted cynical of Nagato's story it was hard to just ignore what she had seen. Even if she didn't see the UFO or the laser, the fact that Nagato was underneath the storm cloud's centre and her other weird habits were enough to warrant her a degree of uniqueness.
"If you were going to pretend you're an alien you could've made up a more believable story," Suzumiya complains. The very fact that she would complain at all is proof that she is still interested in the topic, rather than dismissing it as useless talk as she would our classmates. "Mars is incapable of sustaining life."
"It is," Nagato agreed. "Hence why I'm on Earth. "
"Let me guess..." Suzumiya said, already making a face of snide disbelief of whatever Nagato has yet to say. "You're planet is dying and you're part of an invasion force that's going to wipe out all puny Earthling humans and colonise Earth as your new home?"
"Yes." Though there was a pause it was not even a microsecond longer than her usual pauses. That lack of extra hesitation was just a little jarring.
Nagato spoke the way a university professor would give a lecture on quantum mechanics being utilised in plant photosynthesis. "To be precise, our planet has long ceased to be able to sustain its local life. I think it'd be around the time of the midway between the Cambrian and Ordovician periods that everything started dying out. At such a time the dominant intelligence on the planet is not too different from homo sapiens on modern Earth.
"The first of the intelligent beings attempted many things to prolong their stay on their native planet, and ultimately failed and fell into chaos and ultimate extinction. All traces of their civilisation lost, they were succeeded by a breed of unrelated life form which had adapted to the conditions which their preceding race found uninhabitable. They soon realised the doomed state of the planet, but they too failed to truly solve the issue.
"The above cycle repeats itself for almost the entirety of the time between the original intelligent Martian species to the present. Each new successor living off of borrowed time and dying off due to their inability to adapt to new conditions... and now with the core of our home planet long dead and nearly no atmosphere left we are inevitably the last possible generation of Martians... far, far ahead in evolution, and yet so far behind in our potential solutions, we are as alien to them as we are to you.
"It's amazing to think that in the long time between the original crisis and now that it would've been so easy to just migrate sunwards. All those that came before us were blessed with more time and resources, that they could simply try to push the problem to the future. They all fancied themselves as pacifistic and harmonious, and saw it wrong to take a planet that was already inhabited by native terrestrial life. It is for this reason alone that, even though it was completely possible for our predecessors to have lengthened their species lifespan that they ultimately chose to die out. How ironic that the Romans named our planet after their own deity of warfare.
"However... we are different. We are desperate. And I shall admit... we are the most savage of Martian life to consider itself 'intelligent'. But it is that savagery that kept us alive, and allows us to adapt. Because we are not as blinded by harmony or guilt or cultural restrictions, we are able have moving to this planet as an option. In doing so we are not stopped by remorse of brutalising local life nor regret of leaving our home planet.
"It is not the strongest species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change."
Finishing with a quotation Nagato soon fell into silence like a toy that ran out of batteries. She refilled her tea cup of tea and started to drink hers quietly in the intervening silence as she waited for our replies.
Suzumiya was still making a face like she was trying to say, 'that's all so stupid', but her resolve was faltering. The idea of a for real alien being in front of her was just too attractive to her, such that she would jump at the opportunity, especially with all the evidence that was piled up. And the fact that Nagato smiles when she's joking, but right now she's sitting there like a Victorian doll.
As for me? I really don't care about the content of this conversation. Can I have my coat back? It's quite cold and I'd like to go home now...
Interrupting the long silence, the doorbell rings.
Nagato stands, giving us a small bow. "Excuse me." She strides out of sight to answer whomever it is at the door.
As soon as she's out of sight Suzumiya leans into my personal space. "Hey Kyon...!" she 'whispers'. "Do you think she might be telling the truth? I mean... it's stupid for it to be so easy... but it kind of fits together."
Gee. Fits together how?
"Like... her standing beneath the storm thingy tonight... and her weird pauses all the time; maybe she's calling her Martian friends during those pauses!"
"That's a nice hypothesis, but it's flawed," I reply half-heartedly. "Messaging can't travel faster than light according to relativity, and at light speed messaging still takes a couple of minutes to get to Mars, not to mention the time back. Nagato's pauses would have to be a lot longer than half a second for that to work."
Though I'm not denying Nagato is an alien from Mars. I'm sure she is.
Suzumiya face twists in inner turmoil; conflicted between accepting the evidence hinting that Nagato is an alien and not accepting it for its dumb obviousness.
Nagato then walks back towards us, which made Suzumiya jump in fright since we weren't even sure she had answered the door yet; we hadn't heard any talking in that direction. Soon, though, it's confirmed that the door was answered as a second figure walks in behind Nagato, which made Suzumiya jump a second time.
"Asakura!" she shouted. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh? Didn't Kyon-kun or Nagato-san tell you?" Asakura asked with a pleasant smile. "I live in the same building as Nagato-san." She holds up a large pot. "I heard that you hadn't had dinner yet so I brought something to eat."
I should run, now... my mind tells me. The number of aliens in the room has just doubled.
I don't run, however. I can't find the will to. Simply put, now that food was actually literally on the table and steaming hot out of a pot in front of me I suddenly feel like I should resolve my hunger and cold issues first and foremost.
And so the four of us sat around a table in silence save for the tapping of chopsticks. Asakura's cooking was phenomenal, sure, but the air was still heavy. Not one of us revealed our thoughts to the others; though I was sure Nagato and Asakura could communicate non-verbally or even telepathically.
There was still something nice about it all, though. A small part of me felt like, for once in a long time, I was enjoying myself. It was a feeling I kind of liked... sitting together around a table to eat a home cooked meal together. A completely ordinary (if nerve-racking quiet) dinner as a group. Perhaps it was simply that I was no longer feeling so hungry, and that the unnatural cold started to go away.
It turns out that Suzumiya hadn't had dinner either, since she ate just as much as I did. If she were enjoying the meal as much as I secretly was, however, it certainly didn't show. In fact, I could notice her expression growing darker with each bite.
When we finished Nagato silently picked up the dishes and took them to the kitchen to wash them. The rest of us continued to sit wordlessly.
"Asakura...?" Suzumiya asked, a scowl on her face. I think I hear her mutter 'this is so stupid' to herself before continuing. "Are you... like... Yuki...?"
"You mean a Martian?" Asakura smiles in her natural and delightful way. "I sure am. Only, I'm actually born on Earth and I've never been back to Mars. Technically that makes me an Earthling like you I suppose."
Suzumiya's scowl worsens. Evidently the ease at which Asakura admitted her alienness is offputting for Suzumiya. "Then why didn't you tell me earlier?" she snarls, crossing her arms. "I said at the start of the year, didn't I? I asked any aliens to come to me."
Asakura giggled in a girlish way. "I remember that. It was quite surprising, so much that I was a little worried that you'd caught on to me. Besides... I wasn't going to just blow my cover and announce to the class, 'hey, I'm actually from Mars!' right then and there for your sake."
Suzumiya muttered angrily. She's more or less reverting herself back to the grouchy, constantly irritated Suzumiya our class was introduced to at the start of the year. "Then why reveal it now?"
Asakura pursed her lips in thought for a moment. "Nagato-san?" she turned back to the house owner.
Walking back from the kitchen with another set of tea, having just finished with the dishes, Nagato answered, "It was getting too obvious." She looked directly at me as she said, "I was certain you were already connecting the dots several days ago. The fact that you saw the..." she paused for the right word, "'UFO' was just the final nail in the coffin, so to speak."
Eyes suddenly widening, Suzumiya turned to me, violently dragging my arm. "You what!? You saw it!? When!? Why didn't you tell me!?"
I only just saw it this evening! Give me a break! I don't even want to be in this whole thing right now!
"You'd have found out ultimately anyway," Nagato continued as she took her seat in front of us. "The other two seem convinced that revealing our identities is most beneficial."
"Who's this 'other two' you keep talking about?" Suzumiya asked. "You mean Mikuru-chan and Koizumi-kun? They know about all this too?"
Precisely.
"Exactly how does revealing your status as aliens help you, exactly?" I ask them. "I mean, maybe before I could still be in doubt about whether or not you were alien. The UFO might've just been a delusion from my hunger and exhaustion. Now we're fully aware of your origin we can broadcast it at my leisure."
Nodding, Nagato gave adjusted her glasses. "True... true..." closing her eyes for her timely pause, she said in a solemn whisper, "And to be honest, I originally didn't plan on revealing this information. I admit my first reaction was to try and permanently silence you."
And you acted on that first reaction.
"I failed at first due to intervention of unknown variables.." she gave a wry, weary smile. "You have the time traveller hindsight to thank for that."
The way she jokes about her genuine attempt to kill me sends new chills through my body.
"Still..." she continued, resuming seriousness. "I think we'd all prefer it if we can get a peaceful resolution. Asakura-san has brought up that you can be reasoned with first as..." she looked at us with a brief glimmer of contempt. "Living and semi-intelligent beings.
"Now as we've revealed the truth behind ourselves to you both, the following applies equally to you two, so listen carefully."
Suzumiya leaned forward, hanging on every word. She was completely engulfed in the conversation; by now she had dropped all her doubt that these beings in front of her were alien. As for myself... I listen as much as I should, but only so much.
"First, we don't want you to reveal our origins to anyone else. Too many people know already, and if any more people find out we may be forced to take extreme measures.
"Second, we don't want you looking any further into us; be it our actions, our motives, our technologies... as much as I would like to encourage reasonable curiosity and learning, knowing too much is truly dangerous.
"Third, we would like for you to attract less attention when associating with us. Attention will lead to people looking into our people, and will lead to people finding out things they shouldn't know."
"If you can sufficiently fulfil the above then I promise you that we are mostly harmless, and will not have any major impact on your daily life." She said the above line while looking at me. She then turned to Suzumiya, adding, "And I'm also willing to answer any questions you may have, so long as they aren't on sensitive topics. Does that sound fair to you both?"
In other words... I keep out of your business and you'll keep out of mine. That sounds fair to me. That's actually exactly the type of agreement I'd want in this sort of situation.
It's also exactly the type of agreement Suzumiya would hate.
"What!?" she yells, slamming the table with both her hands, standing up furiously. She kind of reminds me of that time I broke my promise to buy my sister a triple scoop ice cream when I wanted to bring her along for some pseudo-scientific time travel attempt. The sense of betrayal, of losing the exact thing one sought out to gain... that was what Suzumiya must be feeling right now. "You can't do that! You can't suddenly just announce that you're aliens and then tell me to not do anything with that information! I've tried so hard to find something exactly like this, and now that I have it you can't just lock me out!"
She smashes her fist against the table, punctuating her words as she speaks.
"And how can you expect me to just keep quiet!? I mean, you admitted that you're here to take over the Earth, right!? As a native Earth human shouldn't I be obligated to warn my fellow humans about it!? Do you think you can bribe me by telling me that you might answer what questions I have!? What if I want more than just answers!? What if I want answers to things you won't talk about!? Am I supposed to just nod my head obediently and keep waggling my tail!?"
Just be quiet will you? Give it a rest. She could easily just kill us now. Don't piss her off you moron.
Nagato, after patiently waiting for Suzumiya's rant to be over, bowed her head apologetically. "If it's any consolation... you'll find more interest in the other two. I think they'll be less secretive... if also less informed."
Suzumiya was about to make another speech about how that wasn't enough when the hitherto silent Asakura spoke up.
"Nagato-san?" she said, smiling intently but with a tone of seriousness beneath her pleasant demeanour. "You should tell them the full story."
"..." The short haired girl hesitated for a while, staring at Asakura with an almost hostile expression. Between them I could almost hear the sound of radio static. "Very well..." Nagato said, relenting and looking back at Suzumiya. "I can't say much on it yet... but we do take a certain modicum of interest in you. Again, though, it's best to ask the other two. They're more likely to tell you the details."
Suzumiya paused, evidently mulling it over in her mind. Her arms crossed and her face in a dreadful scowl, she finally mutters out, "Fine..."
Far from it. I think. Far from it.
"Thank you both for listening to the end, by the way," Nagato said as I put on my shoes. "It really does save us from having to resort to primitive brutality."
"Don't mention it," I say. "Really. Don't." I wait for Suzumiya to finish putting on her shoes too before turning back at Nagato. "Can I have my coat back now?"
"... Yes, of course," she says, as she hands me back the coat she has been holding on to this whole time. As she does so, she reaches into one of the pockets of the coat, and pulls something out of it. "You can give this back to the time traveller, by the way. Send my regards."
Suzumiya peers over my shoulder with grudging curiousity as I take hold of the bookmark. Did you have to say that in front of Suzumiya? Now she'll want to know what it is.
Putting on my coat I shove the bookmark back into the same pocket that Nagato pulled it out of. I promise nothing.
"Feel free to visit any of us any time," Asakura says perkily. "You can ask us anything so long as other people aren't around to hear us."
Whatever. Suzumiya heads out the door without a word, and I follow suit.
As I close the door I glance at Nagato one last time. It doesn't take her long to notice my gaze. She smiles at me. For once, though, something in her smile indicated that she wasn't in a joking mood. "About three years ago..." she says, barely more than a whisper. "I'm truly sorry."
Once again Suzumiya turns around, peering over my shoulder. Half curious, half annoyed that I know more than she does.
"Again... don't mention it," I reply. "Please."
I let the door close with a click, finally separating the two Martian girls from Suzumiya and myself. Heading straight for the elevator I ignore Suzumiya's glares and silent expectation for me to cough up.
Surprisingly, my bicycle (which I had all but forgotten up to this point) was at the bottom of the apartment building when I got out of the elevator, waiting for me. How convenient.
Suzumiya and I walk without sharing a word, and part ways with little more than a "I'm going this way" from each of us. I suppose she has too much on her mind to bother speaking with me. God knows.
By the time I get back it's already really late. Not that it makes a difference. Nobody's home anyway. I lie on my bed and immediately fall asleep.
I hope I never have to wake up.
A/N: This chapter ended up longer than expected because I just got a bit too excited in getting to completely reimagine the aliens of the Haruhiverse. I've decided to base them off of aliens in classic science fiction, by the most part; Darwinist invaders from the doomed red planet that see us the same way we see cattle, but not so advanced ahead of us that they are like God-figures like the Data Entity.
The issue is that it's hard to make time travellers or ESPers as interesting due to significant limits that exist for both that don't let the imagination fly as much, especially since I want to try and base them both too on older, outdated and cliché interpretations.
This chapter is also less different from its canon equivalent as I would hope, since my imagination is limited and biased by what I've already read, and the basic structure of the Melancholy's plot is still needed for now. It's extremely hard to find the correct balance between having things similar to the original Haruhiverse and creating something completely unrelated due to the interlocked nature of events in the Haruhiverse (due to time travel).
Anyway. I've been trying to make it increasingly obvious what the root difference in the universes are. Hope you guys are picking it up, but also hope it's not too obvious.