[SHnY] The Score of Haruhi Suzumiya, chapter two. By Henry J. Cobb
[The Haruhi Suzumiya characters and situations are the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. Other than that, he's blameless for the following.]
On Friday afternoon I left the girls playing dress-up in the clubroom. Suzumiya had already talked Miss Asahina into bringing her work outfit to school. What other humiliations did she have planned for the poor girl?
Well I had my own mystery to solve. This morning I had received a letter in my shoe box. "Come to classroom 1-5 after the other students have left."
When I got there I saw only one person. "Ryouko Asakura? Is this your note?"
"Yes." Our class representative beckoned me over.
"What is this about?"
"Haruhi Suzumiya has been too boisterous lately."
"You can't blame me for her behavior. If you don't want her talking in class then tell her yourself."
"I've got something here that will change her mood." She smiled and flipped up her skirt. There was a black leather sheath clipped to the side of her panties. She drew a military style combat knife from this.
"What?" I stood stunned.
"Oh, excuse me. Am I interrupting something? Do you two need some privacy?"
I turned to see Suzumiya standing in the doorway.
Asakura twisted my left arm behind my back and held the tip of her knife to my throat. "Stay back."
Suzumiya walked up three steps.
"You're killing him, Suzumiya." Asakura nicked my throat ever so slightly.
"Did you bring a second knife?" Suzumiya took another step towards us.
"What kind of question is that?" Asakura pushed me slightly to the side to get a better view of Suzumiya.
"It's just that if you stick your only knife into him, then you won't have anything left to defend yourself when I kick your ass."
"Take him!" Asakura pushed me forwards and moved to the side.
Suzumiya vaulted over me, pushing me down with her hands as she twisted around to deliver a kick. I landed hard on my back and saw Suzumiya's kick connect on Asakura's knife hand. There was a loud crack and the knife flew through the air to land with a clatter on the floor.
"Ow! You bitch! You broke my wrist." Asakura grabbed her right wrist with her left hand.
"Where did she get the knife, Kyon?"
"What?" I lay there stunned.
"You wouldn't have walked up to a girl who was holding a knife, so where was she hiding it?" Suzumiya grabbed my right arm and pulled me to my feet.
"A sheath on the right side of her panties."
"Thanks." Suzumiya flipped up Asakura's skirt, pulled out the sheath, then slapped Asakura's backside with the sheath to urge her towards the door.
"You're letting her go?"
"Do you want me to kill her, Kyon?"
"Can't you arrest her or something?"
"I'm not a cop. She can't fight like this and her own organization puts a high price on failure." Suzumiya watched Asakura walk away then put a finger against my lips.
From the corridor I heard Taniguchi's voice.
"Asakura, what happened to you?"
"I fell and hurt my wrist."
"Let's see if the nurse is still here."
Suzumiya waited for their footsteps to fade in the distance then leaned over and licked the blood from my neck.
I stood there and watched as she walked over to pick up the knife. She slid this back in its sheath then turned away from me to lift up her skirt and presumably clip this onto her own panties.
"So, Kyon, is it obvious?" She twirled around.
"Only if you know what to look for. Why do you want her knife?"
"I'll add it to my trophy case. Come on, I'd best escort you home."
My sister weaseled herself into our homework session that afternoon, but Suzumiya didn't seem to mind.
My mother was beaming as if she'd won the lottery when she brought snacks over. "Kyon, Haruhi's been so generous with her time this week, why don't you treat her to lunch on Saturday?"
"Mom, I don't think I can afford."
"I think you can, Kyon."
"Mother, does he have any plans for Saturday?" Suzumiya used the term so freely. She had already weaseled her way into my family, right in front of me.
"No, Haruhi. He just sits around the house on Saturdays and plays video games."
"Then I'll borrow him for the full day. We can go sightseeing, if you don't mind?"
"Not at all." My mom decided the issue on my behalf.
I didn't have the heart to tell her about Suzumiya's habit of putting boys under flowers or her cold blooded reaction to my own near murder an hour previous.
"I'll come by at nine a.m. to pick you up, Kyon, and I'll have you home before sunset."
"Can I go along with big sister Haruhi?"
My mom looked between my sister and Suzumiya. She seemed to pick up some sort of secret message before replying, "No, Dear. You get to see enough of her every afternoon. They need some time to themselves."
I escorted Suzumiya to the door and leaned in to whisper to her, "Why are you doing this?"
"Do you feel safe wondering around the city on your own?"
"Not anymore."
My sister greeted Suzumiya at the door on Saturday morning, but found her insistence for tagging along politely declined.
I waited until we had traveled some distance from my house on my bicycle before speaking up. "Thanks for not parading my sister around to become a target."
"I suspect that she'll be used as a hostage against you at some point anyway. Just give me a call and I'll come running."
"How did you know that I was in trouble on Friday?"
"Let's see if you can't work it out for yourself before our club meeting Monday."
"Will I get a prize?"
"It would certainly impress me if you did."
Suzumiya had me pedal all over the neighborhood that day and then treat her to lunch using the extra allowance my Mom had given me.
When we got back to my place I had to walk the bicycle the last few blocks, because my legs were too worn out to pedal anymore.
She made no move to enter my house as I was locking my bicycle up on the porch so I asked her, "What was the point of all this?"
"This date? It established a pattern. Now you'll be available every weekend. See you in class Monday, Kyon."
On Monday morning Asakura came to class with her right arm in a cast and sling. Taniguchi of all people volunteered to pass out the handouts for her. He even fed her when she pretended to have problems using chopsticks left handed. I don't think he realized her true agility.
Haruhi returned from her lunchtime patrol with news of a mysterious transfer student. She ran off after classes to find this person.
Fifteen minutes later she walked into the clubroom with a puzzled expression on her face.
This was a new one for me, so I decided to ask, "What happened, Suzumiya?"
"I couldn't find that new transfer student. They said he'd already left the classroom when I got there." She sat at the table across from me.
Asahina had just brought Suzumiya's teacup over, when there was a knock at the clubroom door.
"Yes?" Suzumiya paused with the cup half raised.
A boy in a North High uniform entered. I suppose girls would have considered him handsome, except perhaps for his sleepy expression. "Hello Miss Suzumiya, sorry for the delay. My dream had been a little unclear as to the exact route here, so I got a little lost. I'm Itsuki Koizumi, nice to meet you all. My special power is dreaming, so I hope you won't mind if I take a nap. Just put the application next to my bookbag and wake me up when it's time to go." He sat down next to me, and rested his head on his crossed arms on the table.
"Uh, do you want some tea?"
"Is it decaf, Miss Asahina?"
"Uh, no."
"Never mind then. It just keeps me up." He closed his eyes and was soon lightly snoring.
"What a diligent worker." Suzumiya beamed at the sleeping newcomer, then rose and walked to the blackboard. "And now our five man band is complete."
"A band?" I asked, "Are we supposed to play instruments or something?"
"Each of us has our own instrument. That is how I was able to tell Miss Suzumiya that you were the one in danger, Kyon."
"What?" I looked over at Nagato, who had put down her book.
"When I heard the piano tempo building up, I knew you had to be in danger close by and I pointed Miss Suzumiya back towards your classroom. Then her guitar joined in against Miss Asakura's oboe."
"And these other two?" Suzumiya asked her.
"Mr. Koizumi has a drum set and Miss Asahina uses her own voice, either humming or singing nonsense syllables. I'm sorry, I didn't mean that you are doing it, Miss Asahina. That's just how it sounds in my head."
"No, that's fine, I think?"
"And yours?" Suzumiya asked.
"The electric bass guitar." Nagato blushed. "I know it sounds silly."
"No, not at all." Suzumiya had written down on the blackboard the names Haruhi, Kyon, Yuki, Mikuru and Koizumi, along with the instruments Nagato had named.
"No wonder you found a room all alone. It must be torture sitting in the classroom each day surrounded by the sounds of all the other students."
"No, Kyon, it's worse than that. Most people don't have music. Miss Tsuruya has the Shamisen, and there is another sophomore girl who has the harp, and that's it. When I'm in the classroom I hear only my music and the rest of yours faintly in the distance. Not even my grandfather has music."
"So when did this start?" Suzumiya asked.
"When I woke up at the end of the Golden Week of my first year of middle school. I thought the hospital was playing the music over the intercom, but it followed me home when my grandfather picked me up to clear out my parents' things. If only it had started a week earlier, I could have saved them."
Suzumiya's face went white. She stared at Nagato for half a minute, then swallowed and said, "You poor thing. But don't worry, you're among friends now. We'll look after you." She put down the chalk, walked around the table and shook Koizumi by the shoulder.
"What?" He looked up sleepily.
"Your dreams, did they also start at the same time?"
"Yes." He looked around. "Do you have the application form?"
"Oh! Sorry." Nagato went to the bookshelf and pulled out a form for him.
Suzumiya turned to Asahina. "Mikuru, what were you doing during Golden Week three years ago?"
"I went with Miss Tsuruya and her family to Paris. I didn't understand the people or writing there, and nothing happened."
"I see, I see. Well, Brigade dismissed. I'll see you all here tomorrow after classes."
"Brigade? Is this the army?" I asked.
"Well it's something of a secret army. The Save the World by Overloading It with Fun Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade or SOS Brigade. But it's all top secret, so don't tell anybody."
I certainly had no desire to do so, but one thing was bugging me. "Miss Nagato, how do you know Miss Asakura?"
"She was the only one from my middle school to visit me in the hospital. She told me about a vacancy in her apartment building and helped me move in. I've been going over to her place to fix meals since her arm was injured."
"You don't mind that she tried to kill me?"
"She said that was a misunderstanding, and promised that she wouldn't do it again."
As she rode on the back of my bicycle, Suzumiya leaned down and said, "What does Yuki hear in you, that I don't see in you, Kyon?"
"Assuming she has any such power, perhaps she just listens to people important to her?"
"So why just one other student at our school? Another martial artist? That could be very useful to know. My trope insight tells me that you will be important to me, but also that you're nothing special. A plot token, but not an especially powerful ally."
"If you just want a trophy boyfriend, then how about Koizumi?"
"Fu, fu, fu. You're not getting off the hook that easily, Kyon. The enemy already has you down on their list."
"So what was the great Earth-shattering event that happened to you during Golden Week three years ago?"
"I attended a baseball game with my family. There was so many people there. Fifty thousand people. Then I looked down at the field. I knew nothing about baseball and even less about the two teams, but suddenly I saw which players would be important. When I went home I saw a hero in the mirror. I tried sharing this with some boys in middle school. The ones who took me seriously, or at least pretended to do so, well you heard what happened to them. But this time it'll work out better, probably."
I was not reassured. "What about Miss Asakura? On Friday you said that some sort of organization would do away with her, and yet she returned to classes, and seems to be on good terms with both Taniguchi and Nagato."
"I said that her organization would deal with her if she failed. What does it mean that she's still around?"
"It means she hasn't failed."
"You are a smart boy, Kyon. Perhaps you'll last longer than the others."
"Well, what good is she now that she's blown her cover?"
"I was quite aware of her nature, if not her allegiance, when I entered the classroom at the start of the semester. She's the one who's been rigging the draw to keep me in the seat behind you. So go on, Kyon. What additional value does her organization gain from having me know that she works for them?"
"The only thing I can think of is that now she can speak for them."
"Excellent. An A+ observation. The last question on this pop quiz is why should they need to send messages to me?"
"Either you have something they want or you can do something for them."
"I knew I made the right choice when I picked you, Kyon. I could tell from her body language that she was being very careful to not hurt you. Therefore there was no cost to calling her bluff."
"If you knew it was all fake, then why did you break her wrist?"
"A wrist is the price for pulling a knife on me. A neck is the price for pointing a gun at me. We've reached your home, so time for your tutoring. We can discuss this further tomorrow."
-HJC