AMATERASU Chp. 5: Truth and Fear
.
She had done it. Her plan worked.
She was alone with the riddle, the mystery, the enigma.
"KYON!" She loudly scolded him, "Keep on the lookout. No goofing off!"
"How can I goof off with you here?" He muttered. Hmmpf.
They were alone in the middle of a field, in the middle of Shikoku. Only a single week ago, it was struck along with a hundred others in Japan, amongst 1000 worldwide, by a mysterious wave of crop circles, even in places where nothing grew. This was amongst many hundreds of strange events now happening daily. Koizumi and Asahina were increasingly anxious. It was almost as if when she made her resolution, heaven and hell had open up and someone responded to a prayer.
She deemed that before things died down, that they would try to study the fields themselves up close. There, with their cameras, they would catch a glimpse of the unknown.
The teams split up and the pair of them went straight toward the largest one. It was a mysterious symbol, showing a solar system with no earth, torn into a rice paddy field.
She looked closely at Kyon. He was fidgety. That's not normal. Does he think its a bad idea to be paired with her?.
"Whats wrong?"
"Nothing, its just that, I tal...," Hesitation? "...never mind."
"What. Tell me!" She must know.
Anything she could learn meant something.
He refrained.
"Its nothing...nah it doesn't-"
SMACK
She backhanded him with her fist. His eyes shot wide. She was acting in a way he had never expected, not once in his life.
She herself had eyes like lamps, astonished, but awoke from her moment of surprise at herself to talk to him, to command him.
"You'll tell me...NOW!"
He was surprised by her quickness to violence. Slowly he responded.
"It was about the toothpicks. Koizumi was wondering why they changed color. That should have never happened." like a deus ex machina, she thought.
"Hmm. That was strange wasnt it?" She said, holding back her astonishment and elation
at what had happened. Suddenly a pang of guilt. She should not have hit him. It might have ruined her chance, her one opportunity.
The truth was starting to come her way.
.
They continued rounding the fields. Their presence together caught the attention of a number of passerby with interest. A young couple who wants to see the circles? Strange place for a date.
Things remained quiet, since Haruhi did not want to talk till she knew it was right, bugged by her own behaviour and what it might have done.
The hilltops were the best place anyone could go for a view of the whole place below. Endless green and yellow, a haven for fecundity, filled the scope of vision of the pair. Not that they cared, not one bit.
Well, maybe a little, explaining why they stared out. The sun was falling and the day was leaving with it. Night is just a stone's throw away.
As they sat down on the grass, she looked sideways with a glance. The boy beside her was blank. She memorized his outline. Though he was plain, his stoic nature was better than she thought before. Kind of heroic.
She ran through all the words in her vocabulary, created an approach, and scolded herself for her poor interaction earlier. She's not ruining her chance to communicate here.
It's time.
"Kyon?"
"Yeah?" A complacent tone, veiling his earlier worrying, covers his voice. His eyes were shut.
"Do you...know...anything strange? Any secrets? I could tell you one. I actually met a man once. He went by a strange name. He told me to go to the school we're in, North High. Thats why I didn't go to a better place."
His eyes started to stretch open, like slowly realizing something he didn't want to.
"How about... you tell me a secret?"
He started to appear solemn, a tad anxious.
She caught him.
"Nah, there's nothing interesting."
"Are you sure?..." She used a voice that was different from her normal ways. She was silent like a predator. A spy. A stalker.
A statue of crystal.
Kyon's lips opened, and words came that obviously were of poor choice, words chosen in a frenzy of disorganized cognition. "Well, I used to believe in everything you did. I too did believe in time travelers, aliens, esper psychics, and that Gundams would one day exist."
A reasonable output on unreasonable subject matter. Great.
"Idiot." Her eyes glared. This moron missed the context of her words entirely. It was a clue into something. Maybe he once thought like...
His face had steeled itself in annoyance. She bummed him out essentially.
A moment of silence. Then a second. Then a full minute, Each passing in ambiance. The suns rim touched the mountainside.
She started again.
"I wish that as a brigade we could be more honest with each other. Its not like we're just a military team. We're family Kyon."
"Well thats not good, that makes you like my sister." How sardonic.
"Hmmph!"
A moment of more tension sliced across them. She spoke again.
"Well, its not so bad. Maybe if I were your sister, I could rely on you sometimes."
"You don't think I contribute already? Are you trying to praise me?"
"Well you're not THAT stupid."
He chuckled to himself. She could bet right there he was having an inner monologue. Psycho.
Keep going, she told herself.
"Well...its not like you're that bad...you do work hard, at least as long as someone stands over you."
"..."
"Whats wrong?"
"Ah its nothing. Well, I just feel different right now, why I don't know. We've never talked before like this."
He looked calmer. Good.
"Well, then I believe its time to change that. We as a team, ah- family, must."
He tensed, and then calmed. He's not as markedly stubborn. Or...
She was pacing her words. She could bring his guard down. A voice inside told her that if she says it right, she would find exactly what she searched for.
"Kyon, whats your view on relationships?" She knew this might tense him up, but it would also distract him.
He was genuine in his words, or so it seemed.
"Well, we're a bit young. We could be starting out now, but I think that its more of a college thing."
Civil words, coated in diplomacy.
"Why not...just have one now?"
He thought for a moment. Had he rehearsed talking to her?
"Hmm. Haruhi, not that I'm not interested, I just don't feel like it.
Under her breath, "...Lazyass idiot."
Not a smart choice to say...but she couldn't stop herself, nor the blush caressing her.
He made that same dumb face. Another thought? Bet its perverted or something.
That window might have closed for now, but there was business. She thought to steer it in a more effective direction.
"How about just being friends?"
"Sure, why not?"
Ah. Hmm. Maybe this...
"You think we'll ever find those aliens?"
"Oh yeah."
"How about the time travelers?"
"Gotta be somewhere." Complacent.
"Sliders?"
"Bet there's one right nearby."
"Hey kyon, what do you usually do on Tanabata?"
...
Absolute, pure, complete silence.
His eyes had shot wide open. What is this?
He looked sick, as if he was in a great bind that pressed on his gut.
He jittered as he talked.
"Ah,...not much. I usually just played games. I once had an obsession with Maple Story-i think it started on a tanabata. Heh, heh...just being a lowlife, never did go out with family or friends, maybe once i'd go with Sasaki, or travel-"
He stopped there, in what seemed to be thoughtful panic.
She was coming close.
"Travel?" A suspicious face crept upon her.
"Yeah!"
"During a school year?"
"Well, sure!"
"Where?"
"Ah...places."
"What kind?"
"Boring ones, you wouldn't care."
And a tiny key hit a lock traveling across the universe.
"...At what time?"
...
Silence.
He was frozen, shocked, broken.
"uh...huh..." he looked to her, making eye contact, then turned away..
The cat got the dogs tongue, and curiousity was on her side.
"Well?" Her voice was colder. She glared.
He remained quiet, his determined face came back.
He's serious about something. Maybe...
Ah, I get it.
He's being silent to not be dishonest.
She would stop the charade now.
"Kyon, you're trying to stay quiet so you can't lie to me, right?"
He was quiet.
"Don't lie to me."
Her face twisted in fury. She looked away.
No, Kyon. Don't you do this to me.
Her face darkened.
Anger, boiling rage, seething and about to pop, this volcano's gonna blow.
She glanced back.
"I haven't lied once-"
"You're lying now."
"I've not lied-"
"Yes you have-"
"-No I've NOT!"
"YOU'RE LYING NOW!"
Quiet.
Fright struck him. Nothing in this world was as terrifying as her in that instance. She embodied the essence of darkness, wicked, evil.
A devil incarnate.
She stood up and stared him down, and he was visibly shaking, his stoic defenses cut through like a blade of a wakizashi into him.
"No Haruhi, I have nothing to say-" POPFF "-AHH!"
Without warning, she pounced on him, bringing the taller boy to the ground. He was flat on his back. He attempted to grapple with her, but Haruhi's strength was monstrous, herculean, beastly, this girl was an abomination. She punched and attacked, yelling in the boy's face.
She was on target, she was close, the truth was in reach. She could reach an answer, she felt it.
And it drove her insane.
"WHAT DO YOU KNOW! TELL ME! YOU KNOW HIM!"
"WHO-" "TELL ME NOW!"
"I KNOW NOTHING-" "TELL ME!"
"-AHH-" "-NOW-"
"-IM NOT-""-SAY IT-"
"-NO!" "KYONNNNN!"
"I-"
And the magic words came:
"-JOHN SMITH! I AM JOHN SMITH!"
.
Thunder struck.
The birds were singing.
The wind blew.
Her face was still, ice.
His face was blank, stone.
Another, quiet, serene moment passed.
She stared into his eyes. She stood up, still she stared. Even backing away, she was transfixed.
It finally hit her.
"You're...him."
He stood up. An expression signifying that a grave event occurred was splashed on his face.
His cell rang.
"Let me get this."
He lifted the device to his ear. The sound of alarm in a voice came through. It was Koizumi, she could hear.
Kyon's eyes darted around, to her and back. "I'll be there."
Without warning, he ran down the hill, not once looking back to her.
She didn't give chase.
She was too astonished.
That was why he was so familiar, that first fateful day.
That tone of voice.
That outline.
She knew now.
And Kyon ran to the others, to warn them that their worst fears were upon them.
Two things fell that moment. The sun, and the greatest secret of their lives.
Haruhi knew.
.
.
Darkness, absolute pitch black. Thats what i see.
I could sense a slight echo in my head. It got louder.
The sound turned into a throb. It felt like my skull had been bashed into with a pipe.
My hearing got better, and i could hear myself. I'm hyperventilating.
HUHH-HUHH-HUUH
It felt like I had been kicked inside out, my lungs seizing and stomach burning.
My muscles were moving and i could sense my arms. I motioned to reach my front. Huh?
Tension, a buckling, a chain?
%^&*.
Im handcuffed.
Good god.
"Hah."
I was in a room where I could not see the outline of a doorway, not a single lightleak.
Was I underground?
Slowly the situation's gravity started to crawl into my thoughts.
I'm kidnapped.
By who?
One thing to consider is what happens to a society when it is told that there is a god who lives in a body, and wants to rule the world...
They cry blasphemy.
Or is it heresy?
Well thats what the religious people would think.
The nationalists would be whining she is a foreigner.
The racists would bitch about her being of a lesser race.
The communists would say she is against the rights of the people.
The anarchists would scold the fact shes in charge at all.
And thats what would happen, and did. Over half a planets worth of people are angry that they are ruled over by a japanese girl who likes weird things.
Somewhere was surely a sexist pig who hated her just cause a woman was in charge.
Maybe...
But something else...
What else justifies this?
.
Time passes swiftly when the only means of keeping time is your own heart, and each beat is the same as the next.
Why the hell did this happen?
Hmm...
An idea...
Could this have had something to do with my parents death?
And how exactly did they know I was home?
They would need to have been observing me for a while.
BIMMMMMMMM
The sound of steel, clanking loudly. Is it?...
The door opens, light seeps in from an orange mercury lamp, and a tall man walks in.
His face is completely new to me. Rough, but not scarred.
"Morning, shithead." His voice was forward.
My heart started racing, and my eyes were wide. I breathed faster.
I was in a state of terror, I've not felt like this since...
"You feel that ache in your stomach?"
"Yeah. A little."
And his left foot slammed directly into my gut.
"Good, now it hurts a lot right?"
I could say nothing. I could only writhe.
"Ahh...hhuh...hhuh...hhuh." I felt like passing out, but that would probably justify a greater beating.
He seemed most happy now that i was in the state he wanted me to be in.
"Alright. Let me explain some details. I'm nobody, I ain't telling you my name, and I don't have a just and righteous cause. I'm here for something purely for the act of attaining good fortune."
"A mercenary?"
He smirked, "you could say that."
"Do you want money?"
He laughed, and quieted, "a good call, but money ain't everything. You see..."
His eyes turned away.
"I want power."
Power? As in political power?
He turned back, annoyed.
"No you idiot, I want POWER! You know, spiritual power, the kind I could be worshipped like a living god with!"
That means...
"You want to be like Haruhi...?" I asked, but with a tone of knowing rather than questioning.
"Bingo, fool. Seriously, you're so #*$()!& stupid. Why the bitch took a shine to you when there's over 3 billion guys to choose, she must have bad taste."
This guy...where the hell does he get off...?
"You really think she'd give away her power?"
"No, I think she'd use it to pay for your life. That's the common plan, you are a hostage, no different than anybody else's..." this guy is a wackjob, and not too original.
"And don't think it won't work. I'm not alone, I've got followers."
Out of the corner of my eye, a second man was present in the doorway.
Were there really more?
"That Nakagawa fool recruited us over 6 months ago. We are espers but we don't hold any loyalty to the Goddess. This is for someone who would not waste the power. The pair of us killed the third one assigned with us to watch the house. No doubt they are searching for us as I speak."
This guy was serious.
"Anyway, I'm making a phone call, gotta make the ransom demand."
He walked away and into the doorway. It closed.
It was dark again.
What have I got myself into?
Wait.
This was out of my control in the first place.
.
Nakagawa, not in his standard jovial mood, held in his hand a recording. It was a flashdrive that contained the contents of the call that had been made to the local emergency services dispatch.
As it was plugged in and run, the people in the room listened to it.
"Emergency services, how can we help you?"
"Yes I have to report a kidnapping."
"Can you tell me your name and the one of your missing person?
"No, I will not tell you my own name, but I will tell you this: the person who has been abducted is very famous. In fact, his importance is like the great Suzumiya-san, worldmoving. You know him as Kyon, the great and holy consort."
The dispatcher was tightlipped. That seemed like a tough statement to believe.
"Are you sure it's Kyon?"
"Yes. I AM the one who knocked him out myself. And I have a request that this call be recorded and given to the Interior Ministry ESPER defense force. It goes..."
They all listened closer.
"I am a humble man, who knew he was destined for greatness. Not that I have achieved so much, but what I will achieve soon. I will cloth the naked, feed the hungry, heal the sick, far better than the false goddess Haruhi Suzumiya, a trickster wench."
Indignance danced on their silhouettes.
"That is why...I demand that the power she holds be given to me. For that, I will spare his life."
They were silent.
"No calls have to be made, I will make all the necessary arrangements. She alone must come to the address I name and be willing to give her power freely. I wouldn't be surprised if you, Haruhi Suzumiya are listening, and that you are quite upset."
She stood, and was still silent.
"OH! Don't worry!"
She walked forward, her hand clenched around her chair.
"You'll get your toy back! I'm sure you'll be happy enough with him satiating your animal urges like a robot, you whor-"
"-"
CCCRRRRAAAASSSSSSHHHHH
Sparks flew, and the device was silent.
Her chair had cracked the machine in two.
They were speechless.
Haruhi, who had slammed her chair into the computer, was purely livid. Her breath seized.
From the side, Koizumi instructed an aide to clean the mess. Nakagawa mumbled..."My PC..."
She dropped the chair, and her legs collapsed under her.
As she fell to her knees, she remained furious.
This goddess had remained mostly calm these days, only to have this happen.
"We...are not going...to surrender...to that worm."
And bring about her most violent temper.
Asahina, who had watched this unfold, was shocked and in near catatonia. Haruhi's power had weakened, but she could still be a threat.
She remembered what happened before.
Before those images could flash in her mind, she chilled them in a flurry of headshaking.
.
Koizumi stood at his desk. It was a long mahogany crinkle-cut, akin to having been made in an older time, long before the age of industry reshaped all things fine into cheap trash.
His office here was a simple one of all-wood surfaces, fit for a politician. This was not his only office, not the nicest, or the largest, but it was the most meaningful.
It was closest to home.
On it were photos of many friends, some long gone, some dead, some brand new. At the center was the photo of the SOS brigade, taken before the fateful day when she found things out.
Happier times, better days.
A brisk and light tapping echoed through the hall.
It loudened.
She was here.
CLICK
The large wooden door opened to reveal a short girl, who never seemed to aged, and whose power was above all but the goddesses themselves, the highest of the angels of the IDE.
Yuki Nagato.
She was clad in was appeared to be a uniform for stealth operations. This plan was not to be carried out until late tonight.
"You didn't have to prepare yet."
"It was best to anyway."
She was looking straight at him. She held a weight in her eyes, unceasing passion.
Itsuki chuckled to himself. He could sense after all the years with her what Kyon did. She was determined.
This was the Nagato who cared, who had a cause.
Not to observe, but to act.
This abductor managed the impossible: he made ice burn. He lit Nagato's fury.
"I see. Follow me."
He stepped to the side and she glided closely, and they moved through a side door.
Out a second hallway, they walked together in a minimalist rhythym, soundless except for their shoes clanking and clapping against the marble floor of the corridor.
Through a bridge that linked buildings, they entered what turned out to look like...
Screens of the world.
People with microphone headsets.
Data of everything that's happening on the planet.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen...
This is a war room.
They were to meet someone important to the task at hand.
The pair walked to the center. No sign of...
A running hung distant.
Louder.
They turned.
"HELLO!"
She made it.
"WE'LL DO MEGASSA WELL! JUST TELL ME THE PLAN!"
.
7-31-10: There were two large chucks of text I removed that said basically that I had trouble with the OC in this, and that I'm having trouble making good enough ideas. There was a list of my ideas and a few more shoutouts. I leave the vocab.
Vocab:
Heresy means to corrupt a religion (making up your own religious ideas and putting in in another).
Blasphemy is to insult it.(Say anything bad about any religion, thats it.)
And just to throw it in, Apostasy is to leave it.(plain and simple.)
Wakizashi: Short sword