Chapter Eight:

The blech! Of Haruhi Suzumiya

Koizumi and Mr. Arakawa wrapped that thing up in Taniguchi's bedsheets and dragged it to the lab. Thank god they did it, because there's no way in hell that I was going to touch that thing.

This was the first time I'd been in the laboratory, It was pretty small compared to the rec room, and there was barely enough room for everyone to fit inside. Their was a small amount of equipment in the room, a few microscopes, a Geiger counter, and actual computer, although it still looked pretty old. Koizumi and Mr. Arakawa lifted the bedsheets up and dropped it on one of the two operating tables in the center of the room, being careful not to make skin to skin contact with the body.

After informing us that they had taken a few anatomy classes, Asakura and Nagato decided to do the dissection, I was ordered by Haruhi to stay in there, since I was the only one with the flamethrower.

Like hell I'm going to part with this thing! If I had to watch that monster get opened up then so be it.

The thing on the table...

God it was so disgusting, smoke was still trailing off it's carcass and the smell of burnt flesh was stronger than ever in that tiny room.

I just wanted to puke again, and it seemed everyone else shared that sentiment.

As Nagato grabbed the scalpel and moved to open it, Koizumi stopped her,

"Wait, Miss Nagato!"

"Yes?"

"you should put some gloves on first!"

I'm so glad Koizumi pointed that out, I don't know what I'd do if I had to watch Nagato do this bare-handed...

I kept my eyes glued to Nagato's hands as she made an incision and began to open it up.

Ugh... I think this whole story should have been called "the blech! Of Haruhi Suzumiya"...

Nagato and Asakura both thrust their hands into the opening and pulled some horrible and misshapen object out.

"Heart" she said as she unceremoniously dropped the organ into a nearby tray.

Miss Asakura pulled out something long and stringy, intestines I'm guessing... you know what, this is making me seriously sick remembering all this, so I'll skip ahead to the important part.

Nagato pulled out a second heart, it looked like it was half formed.

"Heart"

"what the hell, Nagato! Why two hearts?"

Asakura answered my question,

"Well..."

pulling out the other heart she began to explain,

"well this is probably Taniguchi's, and this one... I'm guessing it was the dog's"

"I can gather that! But why does it look like that?" Haruhi asked, hefting the shotgun nervously.

Seriously where did she get that? As if the nightmares weren't bad enough, Haruhi had a loaded gun!

Nagato didn't say anything, she must have been thinking pretty hard about it.

If Nagato couldn't figure it out, I doubt anyone could.

"Oh my..." Asakura looked as if she had a light bulb above her head that she wished wasn't there.

"That's not Taniguchi's, it's imitation, this thing never was a dog at all..."

Imitation? how could anything do that?

"I don't know, but..." she trailed off and started digging.

She then pulled out what appeared to be a tiny head.

"Kami-sama..." Kunikida said in horror.

It was Taniguchi's head, or I'm guessing, an imitation of it.

Asakura was studying some blood under a microscope when Nagato pulled something Metallic out.

Everyone inched closer to get a better look. It was some sort of plate.

"It was not attached to anything" Nagato stated

"That's from his head... when we were dating he told me how he cracked his skull when he was younger, and they put that in him" Haruhi said.

He told her that in the fifteen minutes they were together?

"Then, I'm guessing that it can't replicate inorganic materials?" Koizumi asked.

"Correct" Nagato stated, still studying the plate like it was an LCD screen from a prehistoric bedrock.

The others began to talk amongst themselves while Nagato continued opening that thing up.

"...Kyon-kun?" It was Miss Asahina, she still had tears rolling down her face.

"Hmm? Oh, Miss Asahina. Are you alright?"

She nodded quietly,

"Yes... Do you think Koizumi-kun is right when he said there might be more of those things?"

Asakura had a grave look on her face when she interrupted the rest of the autopsy,

"Burn it right now." she said with nervously

"But why? We're learning so much!" Koizumi protested

"It's still alive!"

How the hell could it still be alive? It looked pretty dead to me.

"There's still cellular activity, if we don't get rid of it, it might revive itself and kill us all!"

"Now, Miss Asakura, be reasonable! Cellular activity still continues in many organisms after death, it doesn't mean anything" Koizumi made a pretty decent point, but I don't intend to find out if it's valid or not.

"That's what I thought too, but I've been watching this under the microscope for the better part of a half hour, and it's still going, have a look"

Koizumi darted over to the other side of the lab to look into the microscope.

Whatever he saw must have been freaky, because he gasped and cried

"Good lord!"

Nagato and Asakura washed their hands thoroughly after taking off their gloves and chucking it on top of the corpse. They also threw the microscope on top before the espers wrapped it up, which I think was a little over-necessary, but I guess it can't hurt to be cautious.

After they dragged it outside, far away from the outpost, the rest of us gathered outside and poured gasoline on that thing. I set it on fire, by the way, for a second time.

Of course I'd have to do it.

As we watched it glow in the morning twilight, Haruhi stood next to me with a guilty expression,

"I never meant for all this to happen, Kyon. I just wanted to see something amazing for once..."

Well you got it, anyway.

"Don't get me wrong, Taniguchi was among the biggest idiots I ever knew, but I'd never want him to die, especially not like that... you know that right, Kyon?"

I didn't answer her right away, and just stared into the fire. This whole experience really took a mental toll on me.

"...Kyon?"

I turned to look at her, she was downright miserable and scared. I didn't really think about what I did next, I just kind of did it.

I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and said,

"I know that, Haruhi, and I know we fight a lot, but I don't think you're a bad person at all"

"...Thanks, Kyon, you too..."

we stood like that for a few minutes, I'm surprised she didn't try to push me away or punch me. She had never let me do that before, of course I never tried either.

I was starting to feel pretty guilty too, I was the one who invited Taniguchi, so it was partially my fault he died.

"I would advise against physical contact"

We both jumped and broke contact as soon as Nagato spoke.

"I did not mean to alarm you, but you risk contamination."

Koizumi popped up as well.

How the hell does he manage to do that? He really freaks me out sometimes.

"I'm afraid she's right, I'd like to think not, but any one of us could be an imitation"

(A/N: that's all I've got for this story so far, I may update some day, but I make no promises