April 20th. Sunday Noon. Harbor District.
"You sure this is the place?" Haruhi asked and stared at the building in front of us in disbelieve. Our surroundings were a significant step down from the neighborhood of the hotel we had checked out of earlier today. This was an industrial district…every building looked like a warehouse or a factory, the sounds of engines and such echoed everywhere, and furthermore you had the sounds of the ocean waves along with the cries of seagulls. A cab had just dropped us of at a 'Traveling agency', it was once of the contract listed in my book. A smuggler that would get us to out of Japan with no paper trail. It was a man guaranteed by Koziumis organization…but right now I had my questions about their standards.
"This is it," I confirmed after glancing over my contract book…the building we stood in front of looked more like a restaurants employees entrance than a traveling agency…
We walked into the…'traveling agency', straight into a waiting room of sorts, there wasn't much more there than an unmanned welcome desk and a sofa. The room looked partially worn down, I think I saw the paint on the wall chipping away at places…
"This is who we'll be trusting to get us out of Japan?" Haruhi asked and glanced around, probably seeing some disturbing details that I wasn't noticing…
"Yeah…it's not that bad," I said and approached the welcome desk. I rang the bell and in a short while in came a hefty man with a sizable and ungroomed beard, dressed in a wife beater that showed off his full sleeve tattoos.
"What do you want?" He asked harshly and looked as us with the same suspicion as if a couple of toddlers had just walked in.
"Kyon, I don't like this, let's just go," Haruhi whispered firmly, grabbed the sleeve of my jacket and took one step back.
"Just relax, Haruhi," I said calmly, "My associates recommended him…I'm sure it's fine."
I turned to face the man.
"I'm sure you remember me, I called you earlier today. We're a couple of Koreans who would like to return to our country without too much of attention or paperwork, " I said, trying to sound confident despite the fact that I know nothing about what I'm doing.
I handed him our Korean passports, he accepted and examined them.
"So…you're Hyo Seomun?", He said to me and then turned to Haruhi, "and you're Hana Won?"
"That's right," she said.
"And just now I heard you call him Kyon?"
"It's a nickname," she said without missing a beat.
"And he called you Haruhi?" he asked.
"I misspoke," I mumbled after a short and awkward silence.
The man gave us an examining look.
"Guess you did," he said uninterested, "And you want to return to your native Korea?"
"Yes...we're legal as you can see, but we'd rather go back without too much of a…you know, attention," I explained to him
"I understand," he said and further examined our passports, and then picked up what looked like a schedule ledger from a drawer in the desk, opened it and glanced over the pages, "Normally I wouldn't take in a couple of kids but since you have that phone number you're probably alright…not many are trusted with it…well…I have a boat leaving for the Jeollanam province in Korea, making a stop at the Jeju island, it has an modest cabin available, and it leaves tomorrow morning., Would that work for you?" He asked and named his price, which was lower than I was expecting.
"That would be fine, and we can afford that" I said, a bit concerned about what this man would classify as 'modest'…If he applies the same standard to his cabin as he does to his office, we're in for an unpleasant boatride...
"Let me explain how this works then…" The man said and rubbed his beard, "Officially no passengers are supposed to get off on Jeju, we're just dropping of cargo, but if you were to sneak away then maybe I would lose the papers showing you were ever on board in the first place, none of my business if passengers sneak away at some port random port…. And if you get caught there then you have these passports proving that you're citizens. As for the paperwork, then as far as my paperwork goes you were never even on the boat to begin with."
"I see…sound fair enough," I said…Even if it's convenient for us, it's still unnerving how casually he agrees to smuggle people. Maybe this is a bad idea…
"You know…" The man said and examined some paper he had on his desk, "You kids could be attracting more attention to yourself by going this way. These passports look legit, you should be able to just book a flight or take one of the ferries without a problem."
"Maybe," I admitted, "but it's important that there's no trace of…us going back to our homeland. Absolutely no paper trail. And I'm hesitant of talking the public routes."
"I see…I think you're just being paranoid but it's your money…" He said like he didn't really care and gestured us towards the door, "Be here at eight tomorrow morning. It won' be a comfortable ride but I make it a point to guarantee the safety of my passengers, I make my business on my reputation. I also want to make it crystal clear that, while It's none of my business if you disembark on Jeju or Jeollanam , once you're out you're on your own."
"Yes, that was more or less what I was expecting," I said, "one more thing, is there a hotel nearby?"
"Turn left once you're out the door, end of the block."
"Alright, thanks," I said, turned around and Haruhi and I walked out the door.
"Is this your idea of a safe escape?" Haruhi accused once we were out, "How do you know he won't sell us to slavery, or take us somewhere else than Korea?"
"My associates guaranteed him," I said despite no being completely convinced myself.
Haruhi gave me a skeptical look. We kept walking onwards to the hotel the man had suggested, dragging our traveling cases along.
"Do you even know where Jeju is?" she asked.
"Sure…it an island south of Korea," I said.
"Do you know anything else about it?"
"Uhm…I think it's a self-governing province…other than that, no," I said.
"Why do you keep talking us to places you know nothing about?"
"I'm pretty sure they have an airport there…maybe we just take a flight from there, the main point it to leave Japan."
Once we found the hotel we immediately saw that it was many leagues bellow the hotel we had stayed at last night, judging by the lobby and its exterior.
"Do you have two-person room with separate beds?" I asked the man at the desk, who was the polar opposite of the clerk that had greeted us yesterday. Unclean, unshaved and really just…unpleasant.
"Separated beds? Not many couples who check into here ask for that," he said and chuckled.
"…well, you got one?"
He handed me a pair of keys and named his price. I handed him the small amount he asked for. We found our way to our room as quickly as we could, this wasn't a place where you linger without a good reason. The beds were separate, but there was only about half a meter between them, and they were much smaller than the beds we slept in last night. And there was some smell…I didn't recognize it, but I didn't like it at all. The walls were covered with an ugly green wallpaper that had lost its color in some places and the brown carpet had some particularly suspicious spots. At least there was a television…
Haruhi put her bag on the bed further from the door, sat down, took a look around and made a heavy sigh.
"This place…you're trying to even out our budget after our last hotel?" she asked and stared at one of the aforementioned spots as if she was staring at a dead rodent.
"There aren't a lot of good hotels in this district…" I said and sat down on my bed.
"I'm surprised this is even allowed to be opened," Haruhi said in disgust.
Haruhi and I were pretty much on downtime for the rest of the day. We did almost nothing other than watch TV and look for info on Jejo from a brochure Haruhi had taken from the Traveling agency while I wasn't paying attention. The only time we left the room was to gate takeout from a nearby fast food joint. Before I knew it was evening already.
"One thing that's been bothering me…" Haruhi said gingerly while she was scraping the bottom of her take-away box, "other than that whole you-being-john-smith business…our families, aren't we leaving them behind?"
"They've been taken care of…I've been told the people after us are not after them anyway…"
"But," Haruhi said firmly, "Still, some people are in danger, there is a conflict going on, and we're just running?"
"It's what we were supposed to do," I said and shrugged, "we're not really fighters, we just need to stay out of harms way until this is over."
"That sucks," Haruhi declared, crossed her arms and leaned back into her bed, "just to run and avoid all the action."
"If you'd seen the action, you'd be glad not to be a part of if," I said.
Haruhi didn't answer, just gave me an unconvinced look and turned her attention back to the TV.
She's right, but in a way she can't know about…I do feel bad about leaving everyone behind like this…completely abandoning Asahina, letting Nagato work hard to shelter me and leaving Kozumi to fight his wars while I run…It just doesn't feel right, even if I know hiding it's probably the most sensible thing to do. For now. Doesn't stop the feeling of guilt from tearing at me.
We didn't talk much after that…we both needed a cool down period from each other I believe…we ended up going to sleep early as we foresaw a long day ahead of us tomorrow.
April 21st. Tuesday evening. Jeju Island, A bar at an unspecified hotel.
The evening of the following day I found myself sitting at a hotel bar in Jeju, reflecting upon past events. Haruhi was still in our room, so I had some peace to collect myself.
The cruise to Jeju had been brief but extremely uncomfortable, it also had been uneventful. It was actually sort of anticlimactic, someone had spotted us sneaking in but after we showed him our passports, we just got off with a warning for trespassing and were sent on our way. After that we had just went though the motions…checked into a hotel, had dinner, stayed inconspicuous…the old routine
What was highest in my mind right now was where my family and the SOS brigade were…we're really running away now, and if something happens to any of them… for some reason I was inclined to have a drink. Just anything to take my mind of this. Of course I shouldn't really be drinking, I'm not nineteen years old yet…but Hyo Seomun, my Korean alter ego, is. I had one drink, just to try it. Another one, to take the edge of. And then another, and….
It's bizarre how a simple piece of glass with a thick bottom can become absolutely fascinating once you reach the bottom of it often enough. If you drink if quickly, which I've mastered, you even get to see the subtle yet entrancing interplay between the ice and the glass as they reflect the especially tacky lighting this bar has. Funny how much these decorations need to be distorted to become even the slightest bit appealing.
It was at the height of my fascination with this phenomenon that it occurred to me that maybe I've had a bit too much. I reluctantly pulled my eyes from the glass and took a look around. I immediately regretted it. The bar was tropical themed, lazily decorated with tacky bamboo and out-of-place palm trees and…is that a figurine of a Hawaiian dancer at the other end of the bar? I leaned down, rested my chin on the revolting bamboo wood, and stared at the figurine…why is it smiling so brightly? She's just playing a Ukulele and wearing a hula skirt…such an easily impressed simpleton. There was even Ukulele music playing at the bar, which had long since lost its camp-value and was now just and endurance test…do you want that next drink enough to sit through this crap for a few more minutes? So far, I'm enduring.
"Are you alright, mister?" Said an intruding voice coming from above me.
"I am fine," I declared and lifted a hand without taking my eyes of the hula dancer for even a second, "now leave me, for I am in the middle of my thoughts."
"…sure you are," I voice said, and I heard footsteps moving away from me. Good riddance.
For a while I stared at my surroundings, cursing the interior decorator that had chosen to torment me so, but it didn't last long. I can only turn my mind of for so long before the trivial stop distracting me, and then what I'm left with is what I was trying to forget.
My friends. My family. I had left them behind. I had turned tail and ran when things got though. It was as simple as that. All their lives had been uprooted without warning and what's my response? Feeling to Korea. Is that really all I can do? It feels like I should be doing so much more but at the same time it's hard not to feel completely helpless with enemies like these…was I doing enough just by talking Haruhi out of harm's way? Or am I choosing her safety over the safety of the others? Bah…I don't even know if I'd really make a difference if I were to return…
"Barkeep!" I called out and raised my head, "My senses seem to be returning to me, please serve another drink before they do."
The bartender gave me another drink, but this one had far more ice than the previous drinks had…a subtle hint? You think you can use such cheap tricks on me? If it's a game of wits you want then I'm…you know…never mind.
Once I was halfway thought the drink I could hear a growl that I would've recognized anywhere, it's one of those things that's permanently burned into the back of my head. Haruhi had taken the seat next to mine without making the slightest sound and without me even noticing her.
"…How did you do that?" I muttered confused, "You were like…a cat…I didn't even see you!"
Her answer was a standard disapproving glare. Haruhis basic move no. 9. A great opening play. It's a bit predictable, but you just don't mess with the classics, right?
"How many have you had?" She asked sternly and crossed her arms, she's going straight for the offensive. Activate Attack-mode
"I don't know, I'm testing the theoretical upper limit, all I know is that I'm getting closer to it," I said and took another sip.
"Just look at you," She said hotly, "common, I'm cutting you of and talking you back to our room."
"I'd come with you, but I don't think you'd respect me in the morning," I said, practically radiating charisma like some sort of…charismatic….reactor…thingy…
"I won't," she said flatly without missing a beat.
"Oh…you're good!" I said, this sharp exchange is just the intellectual stimulation I needed to distract me from…things.
"You've had your fun, common," She said, grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the bar. Once we were at the stairs she let me go.
"Seriously," She said and walked ahead without me, "getting drunk while we're supposed to be saving our money and staying under the radar…what's wrong you?"
The instant she let me go I realized just how much her support was needed for me to make it all the way up to the third floor. I sat down on the lowest step of the stairs and buried my head in my hands so the world would stand still.
Her footsteps got more distant before finally they stopped. My sense of hearing told me she would be at the second floor now, but my senses are not to be trusted right now.
"Are you coming?" She yelled, her voice echoing though the stairway, the laws of physics conspiring against me to magnify her voice, which needed no boost to begin with.
"Haruhi…" I said, "use your indoor voice…"
"Get moving!" she yelled, with what was clearly her outdoor voice.
"No listen…" I said and laid down on the floor, "I don't think I'm gonna make it…but you can just leave me here, we've had a good run."
After an all too brief moment of tranquility on the hotel floor, her footsteps found me and stopped just a few steps short of my face.
"Get up," she demanded.
"Get down," I said.
"You're not being clever," she accused.
"You're not being nice."
"I'm trying not to be nice to you right now," she said crossly.
"Well then, mission accomplished," I muttered.
There was a brief silence after that…after a minute Haruhi bent down, grabbed my shoulders and lifted me up, placed one of my hand over her shoulders and dragged me up the stairs.
"You are surprisingly strong," I said after she had pulled me up to the second floor.
"and your weakness comes as no surprise," she said and grunted as she soldiered on up the stairs to the third floor.
"You have yet to see the full extent of my strength!" I declared.
"…Kyon, seriously, how much did you drink?" Haruhi said with partly concerned, partly unnerved out voice.
"Enough to make you absolutely ravishing to my eyes, my dear," I said in my best attempt at a Spanish accent.
She pulled me over the last step with unnecessary roughness.
"Idiot."
Activate Tsundere-mode.
Somehow she managed to open the door to our room without letting me go. She dragged me in and casually let me go on my bed like she was getting rid of her coat.
"Your services are appreciated," I said as the softness of the bed consumed me.
She didn't respond. I lay face-down on the bed and couldn't see anything around me, and I was afraid to look up in case the earth would begin to move in ways that it shouldn't.
After a while, as I was drifting off to sleep, I suddenly heard Haruhis voice, coming from her half of the room.
"Why did you do this? I must've cost a lot and this is no time for drunkenness!", Haruhi accused, "I thought I were just going down for a snack…"
"I've earned the right to smell the roses along the way." I said.
"What are you talking about," Haruhi asked, her mood getting fouler with every syllable.
"My family has been uprooted, I've been turned into a fugitive and my friends are…probably having a bad time," I said, finally letting some of my anger getting though. I wasn't directing it at her, just…at everything, "I just want to…get things of my mind."
"Being an idiot solves nothing!" she shot at me.
"That remains to be seen," I said, lifted my hands and defiantly pointed a finger upwards.
"If you being an idiot would solve our problems, we wouldn't have any," she said.
"…you win this round, Suzumiya-sama," I grudgingly conceded.
"But my family was uprooted as well! You don't see me drinking away my senses," she said and I could hear her stand up from the bed.
"Maybe you should," I said.
"I won't!" She snapped at me. I was taken aback by the genuine anger in her voice, as opposed to the annoyance I'm used to, "I'm not going to behave like some useless fool while my family is in danger! Even if all we're doing is running and hiding we can at least take it seriously!"
My jovial spirit was broken by that outburst…she's right. Of course she is. This is no way to act…all the thoughts I had been suppressing for the entire evening came back, an unstoppable flood of bad thoughts. After a while of trying to sort through it all in an attempt to find a response to her outburst, I heard her lie down in her bed with unnecessarily rough and dramatic movements.
"Haruhi…" I said gingerly though my drunkenness, speaking seriously for the first time for the entire evening.
"Good night, Kyon," She said, in a firm tone that clearly meant that the conversation was over.
April 22nd. Wednesday Morning. Room 3-12
The next day I woke up with the feeling that all the contents of my stomach wanted out. Before I was even properly conscious I rushed to the bathroom, stuck my head in the toilet bowl and evicted my stomach.
"Was it worth it?" I heard Haruhi say disgusted after I had sat there hunched over the toilet for a while. She was leaning on the doorway with her arms crossed. She was wearing her yellow pajama pants and a matching tank top. Her mess of a hair and the dull look in her eyes told me I had finally woken up before her. So that's how far I had to go to accomplish that…
"I regret nothing," I lied half-heartily and had a second eviction.
"Serves you right," she muttered, lazily stumbled into the bathroom, approached the mirror and began tying her hair in a bun.
I flushed and sat down in the corner of the bathroom, my stomach still wasn't happy and my head was still disoriented…I think I've had my fill of alcohol for a while now. The way I feel, it might be a while before I try food again.
"Haruhi…about last night…" I began.
"Kyon," She said firmly and stopped my incoming explanation, "you're not really going to go into that discussion first thing in the morning?" Haruhi said, tied the final knot in her bun and reached for her toothbrush.
"It's just that…"
"You were being an idiot," She said. Or at least that's what it sounded like. It was hard to tell, she was brushing her teeth while she spoke, "the problem is solved when you stop being an idiot. Alright?"
"Yeah, sure…" I conceded and fought of another wave of nausea by concentrating on sitting perfectly still.
It was at that moment that I noticed a golden chain around her neck...she just woke up and doesn't have her bracelet or her ring …did she sleep with that necklace? Huh…I shouldn't stare, although that tank top is a sight for sore eyes…
"So, were you planning to do anything other than sitting in the corner of the bathroom all day?" she asked me once she was done brushing her teeth.
"We'll see," I said, closed my eyes and leaned back. It wasn't comfortable by any standard but somehow, standing up and walking to my bed simply didn't seem worth it.
She did ask a rather important question though. If I weren't incapacitated, what would we be doing? The only plan we had so far was to sail to Korea. The big question was what we were going to do now. I'm pretty sure we could go to mainland Korea without much difficulty, then find an airport and fly far away from here without any problems, now that were out of Japan with no paper trail. I would use the airport here but somehow, it just feels too close. I'm not taking any chances.
It's sort of funny…four days ago I was fleeing from a conspiracy, and now I'm spending a day hung over on a bathroom floor. What an unpredictable life I lead.
I was in there for almost two hours. It's strange to feel a sense of security because of your proximity to a toilet…it's not a feeling I enjoy. I'm not sure what Haruhi was up to…she did bring me bottled water but she didn't say much, other than asking me how my penance was going. Everything has to be a punishment with that girl…
Once I had gathered myself I stumbled out of the bathroom, into my bed and buried myself in the sheet. After two hours on the cold marble of the bathroom floor, my bed felt like a cloud.
I spent the longest time lazily lying in bed. It wasn't until around five that, at Haruhis insistence, I finally got out of bed.
She didn't stop there. Oh no…she insisted that we'd go out for food and maybe a walk 'if she felt like it'. I don't know if she wanted to punish me by dragging me around town hung over or help me by providing me with fresh air…somehow, I think it's both.
Around seven the two of us were walking through a public park on our way back to the hotel after eating at a decent restaurant. Getting some food in me had actually helped my stomach quite a bit, it was now willing to cooperate with the rest of my body.
"Haruhi…last night…I just wanted to explain." I said as we were passing though the center of the park.
"If you must," she said crossly.
"I just that I hate how we had to leave everybody behind…it's been nagging at me for days now and it was getting worse and worse…I just wanted to forget about it."
For a full minute, Haruhi did not respond at all, just kept walking without even looking at me.
"What a stupid thing to do," she muttered, "drink your worries away? Did it work for even a second?"
"Not really…" I said.
"Then don't do it again, I don't even understand where you'd get such a stupid idea-"
Suddenly, a bright light filled my eyes and a heavy impact hit my chest as if I had been struck by an invisible sledgehammer, triggering an explosion in my chest. I staggered back and gasped for air but the instant I breathed in I felt like a knife in my chest had been twisted. I feel to the ground slowly as if the entire world was coming to a halt. The only things I felt was a strange tingling sensation all over my body and an unbearable pain in my chest, and then a blunt impact of my head hitting the ground.
As I lay there on the concrete I felt a wetness spreading across my back, the eerily familiar sensation of lying in a pool of my own blood. With much effort I raised my hand and ran it across my torso, immediately finding a wet spot on the left side of my chest. As I tried to get a feel for the wound I felt an even greater pain just by touching it, instinctively gasping in agony, the sharp and sudden breath followed by a pain that felt like my lung was being torn apart. The only sense I hadn't been robbed of was my hearing. I could hear what sounded like electrical surges in the distance, but other than that the street was deadly quiet.
Time really does slow down, every part of your brain goes into overdrive, even if I can barely think straight because if the pain…it this what people mean when they say their entire life flashes before their eyes? Is it some sort of mechanism to give people a little extra time to evaluate their lives before they move on? If it is my thoughts are nowhere near as profound as I would've hoped, the only things going through my head are 'If this is it, what will be the last thing I'll see?', and an indescribable dread that followed that thought. I didn't hear a scream or as much as a shout from Haruhi… My cheek touched the cold pavement as I turned my neck to the left, hoping that my sight would return so I could see whether or not Haruhi was lying alongside me. With agonizing effort I managed to stretch my left hand out, quickly finding a thin and frail arm that I instinctively recognized as Haruhis. She wasn't moving…I tried to say something but my breath gave away.
My sight returned after what seemed like an eternity. Haruhi was lying next to me, eyes closed, mouth slightly open and every muscle on her face completely relaxed, like a child sleeping in its crib. Her chest was moving so she was breathing, her clothes were spotless, all of the blood spread over the street was from me...my vision was turning black again, not from the brightness but because of the numbness that was spreading across my body, and this time I had a feeling my sight wouldn't return.
Strange. With all the thoughts that you'd think be filling my head, there isn't much going through my mind other than 'So this is the last thing I'll see', Haruhi unharmed and at peace, as if she was completely harmless and there wasn't a thing wrong with the world around her. Even if it isn't what I would've hoped to see in my final moment, it means that one of the last things I feel is relief, however irrational, so it can't be that bad. Still, I can't accept this conclusion…it can't end like this. Relief is not the only thing I feel…there's also pain…fear…regret…
As the world was turning completely black I felt the touch of a small hand spreading its fingers over my chest. I turned my neck to look up and despite my blurred vision I could make out the unmistakable silhouette of my guardian angel hunched over me. I was going to say something clever like 'we've got to stop meeting like this' but my lungs wouldn't let me.
From her hand I felt something like an electric pulse spreading though my body. Breathing stopped being agonizing and the world stopped getting darker, although it didn't get any brighter. The pool of blood I was lying in stopped growing. After a few seconds of her healing tried to speak.
"…what…" Was all I managed to utter.
"Time travelers tracked you," Nagato said, "I detected the projectile the instant it pierced the pigment layer of your skin via the nanites. It was too late to teleport you, so I relocated some of your organs before the bullet entered your rib cage and I reduced its spin and velocity as much as I could in the split second it passed through you. I also made Suzumiya unconscious, her seeing this could have undesirable effects. Additionally I locked this scene from bystanders."
"…But…where…"
"The time travelers were camped in a building not far from here, I located them based on the trajectory of the bullet and incapacitated them," Nagato said.
"…that noise…was…that…"
"The strength of my offensive data manipulations may have been…excessive," Nagato said.
My vision was getting clearer now. I could finally see her face…her eyes were just as dull as the last time we met, and they were completely fixed on the hand she held over my wound.
Suddenly the electric sensation coming from her palm stopped. The pain was still intense and breathing was still hard…she wasn't done. Nagato stared blankly at her hand for a second before she slowly stood up, took a few steps forward and glanced over her surroundings.
"The Domain," She said, "My data manipulation requests are being blocked. The strength of the offensive manipulation and the medical manipulation was too intense…They've located us."
"…blocked…how…"
"There are three of them interfering and overriding my requests," She said and turned around to face me, "I am outmatched."
"Assumption-Correct," said an all too familiar voice coming from behind me. I turned my neck and saw Kuyo Suo, now suddenly standing in the middle of the street that had been empty moments before. She was dressed in her black dress as always, and had a cold and calculating glare fixed on Nagato.
"Defeat-Inevitable-Fight-Pointless"
"Your projections are faulty," Nagato said, turned around and mirrored her opponents glare, "You have only blocked my requests, The Domain is not in full control of this space."
"Stalling-Futile-Retreat only…..viable option-Leave them…..To us."
There was a short silence while the two interfaces stared each other down.
"No," Nagato said.
Out of nowhere, a second bright flash filled my eyes and in the same instance someone grabbed my shirt roughly. I then felt a sensation unlike anything I ever felt before. It was as if I was completely still in zero gravity while the world moved at light speed around me. The world around me was a blurry mess of colors and the sounds I heard were indistinct and chaotic. The only thing I could think of to describe the sounds would be excessively autotuned whales trying to rap. That is of course just an estimation.
The pain I was feeling intensified during the few seconds this went on. When it finally stopped I was more disoriented than I've ever been in my life. I could tell we we're in an alley…somewhere…hidden behind a small concrete stairwell. I was sitting with my back to a wall and my rescuer was still holding my shirt tightly, and Haruhi was sitting next to me still unconscious and blissfully unaware her surroundings. After the world stopped spinning I finally realized who had swooped in to save me.
"…Kimidori," I managed to mutter.
Emiri Kimidori gave me a deceptively kind smile, ran her fingers softly across my jaw and slowly lifted it, carefully pinning my head against the wall and preventing me from muttering anything more.
"Don't speak," she said like a concerned nurse would advise a patient, "You should not have been teleported with your injuries. Your left lung is severely damaged, your blood loss is considerable, two ribs have been broken and a few of your vertebra have been damaged. And that's just the biggest if the remaining problems Yuki didn't get to fix. If not for Yukis intervention before the bullet struck, You'd be dead, and if not for her medical manipulations after the bullet passed through you, you'd also be dead."
I tried to speak despite her advice, but couldn't overpower her and move my jaw. I must be weaker than I thought…then again, maybe I'm underestimating her strength…
"I said don't speak," she said and giggled, "But I can guess what's on your mind. That Yuki girl, right?"
My instinct was to nod, and I made a futile attempt to do so.
"Her retaliation for your attempted assassinations and her efforts to heal you were disproportional and easy to lock on. She got herself into this," Kimidori explained.
I mumbled a stern objection though my teeth.
"Relax," Kimidori said with a compassionate smile, "Her safety is not a concern now, and even it if were the domain is unlikely to attack one of our interfaces with nothing to gain. With you two gone they have nothing to fight over."
I didn't answer… Kuyos strategy seemed to rely on Nagato backing down without a fight so I guess Kimidoris theory holds…but how close were we to breaking the fragile peace between the entities?
"Our concern now is the Domains continuing pursuit of you and Suzumiya," Kimidori said and glanced at Haruhi, "I'm not sure why I was ordered to assist Yuki, she doesn't seem to have this under control…teleporting you only bought us time. I tried to hide my trail but the Domain will probably be able to estimate my target position within a radius of 15km or so. Re-teleporting with you so fragile is not an option, even moving you with conventional means would be dangerous, you need medical attention."
Kimidori let go of my jaw and reached into a purse she had around her shoulder. She took out of it a small tablet.
"I can't use data manipulation to heal your remaining injuries because with a search radius of only 15km even the slightest manipulation will allow the Domain to pinpoint your exact location, these specialized nanites will heal you much faster than you would normally but…" She drifted of and stared at the tablet with slightly embarrassed smile, "They're not as subtle as data manipulations, They will agitate nerve endings."
"…You're saying…It'll hurt?"
"You should not be awake for the process, they're designed to induce a coma. Also, they do not fight infection or replace blood loss so you need to get to the nearest hospital. I have a contact here, via the Organization, that should be able to heal and hide you," She said and placed her hand close to my mouth, holding the tablet between her thumb and index finger.
"…where…are we?"
"We're on Kyushu. It was the only place where I knew I could find a doctor that would hide you within the distance it was safe to teleport you," Kimidori explained patently.
"…we're back…in Japan?"
"For now, once you recover you should leave," She said and leaned forward, now holding the tablet even closer to my face.
"…but…how could…the time travelers…"
"Find you?" Kimidori finished for me, "As far as we know, you haven't made any slip-ups that would allow them to track you down yet, a logical conclusion would be that you made some mistake after you left Jeju that allowed the Time Travelers to backtrack your trail, determine that you stopped in Jeju at some point, found out about a specific place you visited during your stay and set up an ambush. It seems likely that you got caught because of a mistake you never will make. These days are really interesting for time travel, the paradoxes keep piling up."
Kimidori giggled softly, officially crossing the line from morbidly endearing to just…morbid.
"Just take the pill," She insisted kindly, "I will handle this from here, I'll place you in good hands."
At that point the world began turning dark yet again. I bit down on the pill and swallowed. I felt a tingling feeling pass down my throat and that was the last thing I felt before the world turned completely black.
April 25th. Location Unknown.
When I woke up the world was a hazy blur. Before I could take in any of my surroundings I fell asleep again. For the longest time I kept waking up and fading out again without even realizing where I was or what had happened. All I knew was that moving and breathing still hurt. After falling asleep several times I finally woke up conscious enough to take a look around. I was in a hospital bed with an IV hooked into my arm and a heart monitor connected to my chest, and on my left were monitors and instruments showing my vital signs. After I noticed those things I thought I was in a hospital but…once my vision became clearer I saw that opposite me was an entire wall covered with bookshelves. I glanced over the room…looks like I was in somebodys study.
At the other side of the room were two leisurely-looking wooden reading chairs with velvet covers, and in one of them sat Haruhi hunched over a table, sound asleep. Her hair was a feral mess, her clothes were wrinkled…but despite all that she had the same peaceful look on her face as she did the last time I saw her.
Shortly after I woke up a man came into the room. He had an expertly groomed beard and hair to match, squire thick glasses, and despite him being dressed casually I immediately got the impression that this was a doctor. It was just the way he carried himself…can't explain it.
"I see you've finally woken up," He said enthusiastically and approached the bed to examine the monitors next to me, "Good thing to. I was getting worried that your coma would drag on, and not just for your sake, your fiancée wasn't handling your condition well…like one would expect."
"…My fiancée?" I muttered.
The man raised an eyebrow, walked over to Haruhi and grabbed her hand, lifting it up so I could see it.
"The nurses at the hospital are strict about visiting hours, only family members of patents in critical condition are tolerated outside of the waiting room after official visiting hours…she insisted on being in your room at all times so the nurses asked her what relation she was, and she told them you gave her this ring," He said and waggled her hand a bit for emphasis, "You aren't suffering from memory loss, are you? Do you recognize this girl? Do you remember giving her this ring?"
I stared at her hand…she had moved her silver ring to her ring finger…My head to far to murky to process this…
"She's not easily forgotten," I muttered and rubbed my forehead, feeling a stinging pain in my chest as moved my hand.
"That was the impression I had of her," he said with a bright smile, "And you remember giving her the ring?"
"…yes."
"Excellent," he said and carefully put her hand down without her reacting at all… "I must say, she reminds me of my first wife, so full of energy and determination…I feel I should warn you, picking a young woman like this is much like adopting a tiger cub; she may be cute now, but she'll grow up."
"Thanks for the warning…" I said warily and stared at the completely unresponsive Haruhi, "…is she okay?"
"She's fine," He said and glanced at her, "I just gave her a sedative...she had barely slept for forty-eight hours."
I felt a small pang in my chest when I heard that…I just now noticed the bags under her eyes…
"forty-eight hours you say…what day is it?"
"It's noon, April twenty-fifth."
"I see…anyway…I take it we aren't in the hospital anymore?"
"No," the man said, "at the request, and the expense, of the woman who brought you in I discretely faked a transfer request to another hospital once you were stable enough, yesterday, and had you moved to here to my home were I've set up the equipment needed to monitor recovering patients. You're the latest in a long string of people who end up in my hands when they prefer to stay under the radar. You're also one the few that particular girl has brought in, most of whom sleep of injuries most people would not survive. I was hesitant to take in a gunshot victim but the woman who brought you in was insistent."
Chills went down my spine when I heard that…who is this man? Hiding critically injured people for a price…and what's this about people sleeping of injures they shouldn't survive? What kind of practice is he running…
"How bad was it?" I asked.
"In a way, it's both awful and miraculous," the man said and ran his fingers across his beard, "I was told you had been recently shot but most of your insides were far too intact for that to be possible, even if you did have severe damage on your left lung and some of the surrounding bones and tissue, I looks more like you got impaled with a spike…but based on the entry wound on the left side of your chest you would not have survived if you didn't have dextrocardia, your heart would've been pierced."
"Dextowhat?"
"Don't tell me it's never been diagnosed before," He said with a concerned look, "your heart is situated to the right, instead of being on the left were it usually is," He pointed at my chest at the apparent location of my heart, "We couldn't help but notice while you were being prepared for surgery…It's the inherent risk of operating on patients without having a history, every now and then you run into a nasty surprise. But I studied your heart after the surgery and your condition is actually quite interesting as you have no obvious signs of the defects associated with dexocardia, your heart appears to be completely fine…just in the wrong place, which as it turns our was the right place. No pun intended."
"…I understand."
I'm pretty sure my heart used to be on my left side…you don't really memorize these things but surely someone would've noticed…is this what Nagato meant when she said she had moved some of my organs before the bullet passed through me?
"In any case, much like the other people I've taken in before, you're recovering far quicker than one would expect and with no signs of complications…but you should still take it easy for a while now," the doctor said.
Must be the nanties…as for taking it slow, I'm not sure that's even possible, didn't Kimidori say that the domain had located us within a radius of 15km? Are we still within that radius? And we've been here for days…shouldn't we keep moving? Get out of Japan again?
"I should leave you now, you both need rest, but there is one more thing," the doctor said, walked over to the bookshelves and picked up a box that was there.
"This came in the mail, it was addressed to you," he said and handed it to me, "I don't know much about the people I've associated myself with, other than they pay well for results and staying out of their affairs ensures repeat business. You can open that once I'm out, but stay in bed and try to go to sleep again. My daughter will check up on you later, and your lady friend should wake up soon."
Having said that he left the room and closed the door behind him. What he had handed me was a small cardboard box. I opened it as soon as he was out of sight. In the box were glasses resting on a piece of paper…I picked up the glasses, instantly recognizing them. These belong to Nagato. Something was written on the note…
Our efforts to hide your location have failed. The Domain has erected a detection bubble around you with a radius of 15 kilometers, programmed to react to your DNA and give the Domain your exact location the instant you pass through it. An unnoticed escape is impossible. I will speak to you once your condition improves and explain the situation further.
I don't fully understand that, but it doesn't sound good…Detection bubble? They're just making these words up as they go along, dumbing their concepts down for me to understand…Why did she give me her glasses? Come to think of if, even if these are clearly her glasses they're just a bit larger than I remember them being…large enough to fit me perfectly. I put them on and looked around.
The room looked the same, but the instant I glanced out the window I saw it. A huge blue transparent half-sphere loomed over the city. I wasn't sure how far it reached, but it included more skyscrapers than I could count… I couldn't see how far up it went but I swear I saw a jet within the sphere, it didn't have the blue hue that things outside of the bubble had…I took of the classes and put them on the window shelve along with the box, the instant I took off the glasses the sphere became invisible.
Well...that turned very bad very fast…My chest still hurt like hell, guess I could as well rest…luckily I was still weary enough that I fell asleep as soon as I lay down and gave in to the sleepiness, despite the overload of questions and worries that were on my mind.
When I woke up again it was dark outside. The room was still brightly lit…I looked to my side. Haruhi, having apparently moved one of the reading chairs, was sitting by the bed with her eyes on a book she was holding...I could see its spine, it had the title "Introduction to Cardiology." I glanced up into her eyes…they were slightly shut and she had small bags forming below them…a worn-out Haruhi is not a pleasant sight. After a few moments of staring into her weary eyes, they finally met mine and instantly widened.
"…Kyon?" she yelled startled and dropped the book on the floor.
"Hey there," I said weakly.
"You…" She murmured, stood up and stared blankly at me for a few seconds before exploding into anger, rose from her seat, grabbed the arms of my bed and leaned over me, "…what the hell happened!" She yelled, "I thought we were safe! And then suddenly I saw a bright flash and then woke up in a hospital waiting room with a note taped to my hand saying you were in critical condition!"
"Well…uhm…"
"The doctor said you'd been shot, he said you almost died! How did this happen!" she yelled into my face with a fierce scowl.
I didn't answer, just stared back. I wasn't really making any point with my silence, I was just far too groggy to deal with this barrage of shouts. She stared into my eyes for a few moments and gradually the anger in her face melted away as her expression softened, eventually turning into a sorrowful look. Her grip on the arms of the bed loosened.
"They said you would've died if your heart wasn't on your right side but…" She finally said, while fighting a sudden lump in her throat, "…Your heart has always been on your left side."
"…why are you so sure?" I said.
"Don't change the subject!" She snapped at me, her cheeks turned scarlet, "I suddenly wake up back in Japan, and not only are you seriously wounded but your heart has moved. What happened? And don't tell me you can't say!"
"I really can't." I said weakly.
I think I've never seen Haruhi so frustrated…
"The woman at the desk in the hospital said some girl brought me in while I was unconscious, who was she?" Haruhi said sternly.
"She was…a friend. She swooped in and brought us here," I explained.
"And she arranged for you to get transferred to this Doctors home?" Haruhi asked and gestured at her surroundings.
"I guess she did," I said.
"You don't know?" Haruhi said with a troubled look.
"No, I was…out," I said, made an attempt to shift myself, only to feel a sharp pain in my chest and feeling even less comfortable for my effort.
"Don't," Haruhi ordered and extended her hand, leaving it hanging just over my chest, "The doctor said you shouldn't move because of your stitches."
I looked at her hand. She had her fingers spread and on her ring finger was a ruby on a silver ring…I stared at it for a few seconds, and then looked back at Haruhi. By the deer-in-headlights look in her eyes I could tell she had caught me staring at the ring. She pulled her hand back like she had been burnt and sat down in her seat.
"So…" I said cautiously, "I missed our engagement?"
"The nurses at the hospital were giving me crap about visiting hours," Haruhi lectured hurriedly, "and when they asked me how we were related, I just discreetly moved the ring and told them you gave it to me. I never said we were engaged, but they left me alone after that. Call it a lie of omission."
That's completely unreasonable…
We were both silent for a minute after that explanation. I was just trying to piece the events of the past few days together in my head, Haruhi was staring down, and I heard soft metallic clinging sounds, the sound of her toying with her bracelet.
"Why would these people try to kill you?" She finally asked without looking up, with the tone of a young child that simply doesn't understand why bad things happen.
I didn't have an answer ready for that…she's not blaming herself for me getting attacked? No…I don't think she would…I also don't think I can explain to her the real motive…
"These aren't nice people," I muttered.
Haruhi looked up with a strange expression.
"That's the reason?" She asked confounded, "Just that they 'aren't nice'? That doesn't explain anything! Why did they do this!"
Again, I can't answer that…
"I never thought it would go this far," I said
She just stared at me with a miserable and weary expression.
"…I'm getting the feeling you're in way over your head," she murmured and rubbed her temple.
"That's fair to say," I admitted.
"And what's with you and going into comas anyway," Haruhi accused, crossed her arms and frowned at me, "I hate this, hanging around just waiting for something to happen like some useless side character."
"That's ridiculous," I said calmly and managed to raise my arm and place it on her shoulder, "As if you'd ever be a side character."
Haruhi just went through a few days of waiting around not knowing if I'd wake up. But from my perspective, among the most recent memories in my head are thinking that she could be seriously hurt, and then thinking I'd never see her or anybody ever again. Put a simple moment like this in that context and suddenly it gets easier to appreciate what you have. Even if what you have is the girl shouting at the coma patient.
She didn't appear to notice my gesture at first, and for a moment if felt really weird…I'd go as far as to call it awkward. After a moment Haruhi grabbed my wrist, carefully pushed my hand back so my elbow would rest on my bed and then leaned forward, rested her chin in her left hand and began running her right hand through my hair quickly as if she was trying to straighten it out.
"You really are a mess right now," she said absently.
"You also look like you missed your beauty sleep," I said, copying her tone.
Her hand stopped mid-swipe.
"I don't want another nasty surprise like this, the agreement was what you'd tell me everything and that includes lurking danger, you got that?" She said and looked me in the eyes with a stern, but at the same time exhausted, expression.
It easy enough to just nod in agreement but…there is another lurking danger I'm not telling her about. The Domain seems to have us right where it wants us. Just running isn't going to be enough, we need to do something more to get out of this…keeping her in the dark about this isn't a good idea.
"Haruhi…" I said and gestured at the glasses, "put them on."
"What?" Haruhi said and raised an eyebrow, "Why? Are these yours?"
"Just do it," I said, reached for the glasses and handed them to her.
She accepted them and after examining them suspiciously for a moment she put them on. At first she just stared at me skeptical, but when she looked up and saw outside the window…
Her eyes widened behind the glasses, she reflexively stood up the instant she saw and stared out. After a while of staring her knees gave away and she fell down in her chair with her mouth gaping.
"What…" She murmured, completely stunned, "What…is that? Some kind of magic?"
"No," I said, "It's just technology…it's advanced, but it's really just…science."
"This…it's amazing," she said, completely mesmerized by what she was seeing, "just look at it, it's absolutely massive! And nobody can see it? This is so weird!"
"Yeah I guess it's sort of majestic…in its own ominous way," I said.
"Have you been keeping stuff like this from me!" She accused and pointed out the window, "this is exactly what I've been looking for! This is fantastic!"
"…you're insane," I murmured. Despite the slight annoyance, it's kind of nice to see her act this way again. More like herself. Even if it means her acting like…well, herself.
"But what…" she said and turned her eyes to me., "What is this? What does it mean?"
"It means we're trapped."
She turned her attention back outside
"Trapped?" She repeated, "You mean we can't leave this…what do you call it…dome?"
"Sphere," I corrected, "and yes…We can't leave."
"Then what do we do?" She said and stared up at the sky.
"I…I honestly don't know…to be honest, this doesn't look good."
Haruhis gaze finally broke away from the window and she sat down again, leaned on the arm of my bed and glanced over the instruments showing my vital signs.
"You don't need to tell me that," she muttered crossly.
There was a brief silence after that. I put the glasses on again and took a better look at the sphere…it was still the same as before, huge and daunting.
"So these people have us trapped by…science?" Haruhi asked after a while.
"You can put it like that, yes…I need to talk to some people before I know what we can do about it but for now…we can't really do anything."
"I hate that," Haruhi muttered and resumed staring out the window, "just waiting around before was bad enough, but with something like this hanging over me…I'm not sure I'll be able to sleep!"
"Just have the doctor sedate you again," I helpfully suggested,
"What do you mean again?"
"…never mind."
"Okay…Anyway, how are you feeling?" Haruhi said absently a minute later, leaned back into her seat and picked the book she had been reading up from the floor, "think you'll be good to go soon?"
"I feel alright actually…I have this warm fuzzy feeling flowing though me," I said
Haruhi gave me a strange guarded look.
"It's probably the morphine," I said and shrugged.
A few minutes later the doctor joined us. He reviewed my vital signs and examined my stitches. Once he was done he insisted that Haruhi would sleep in a bed they had prepared for her in their guestroom instead of wearing out her back by sleeping in chairs yet again. She conceded once the Doctor assured her that I wouldn't slip back into a coma and he and Haruhi left. I guess that means tonight is the first night in a week that Haruhi and I don't share room together…now there's a strange thought.
As I was drifting of a familiar shape approached my bed.
"…Yuki?" I muttered surprised and half-asleep.
"There isn't much time, put on the glasses," Yuki said, reached for the glasses on the windowsill and handed them to me. Without giving it any thought I accepted the glasses and put them on. I glanced outside and then I saw it. The blue sphere was still there, but there were three bright lights moving through the city, each hastily going from window to window on its own far from the others, systematically entering every window of the surrounding skyscrapers quickly and efficiently.
"The Domain agents have detected my presence within their sphere. I have teleported copies of myself across multiple locations, we have a few minutes before the risk of them locating the primary instance of me becomes too great."
"I…see," I said and kept staring at these lights moving across the city. They really weren't wasting any time…"What happened? What is this?"
"The situation is more complex than it appears," Nagato said.
Hearing that phrase from her was enough to give me shudders...it looks plenty complex from where I'm standing.
"How so?" I asked, with a due sense of dread.
"This sphere is based on nanotechnology. According to our understanding of the Domain, they should not be capable of deploying such a sophisticated detection bubble," She said.
"…wait, what? What does that mean?" I said.
"It means that either the Domain has gained the ability to reverse engineer IDSE technology, or a faction within the IDSE gave them the technology or even deployed it for them."
"Can't you tell who did it?" I asked, I didn't think this sphere could possibly get more ominous but it's not the first time my expectations will have been completely blown away these past few days.
"With the distortions due to the global barrier, it's not possible to determine conclusively who deployed the bubble," Nagato said.
"…which would be better?" I asked.
"Both options have significant negative implications, " Nagato said, "if the Domain is capable of reverse engineering our technology with such proficiency the IDSE is at an greater disadvantage that previously though. If it was a faction within the IDSE then our internal conflicts have turned belligerent and an escalation is inevitable from there."
I swallowed. I swallowed hard. These far superior beings don't sound so different from your typical ambitious state...but what am I in that analogy? If we go by a warring states period analogy then I guess I'm a samurai sworn to a Daimyo that is simply cannot coexist with any of his neighbors. Add onto that the fact that honor prevents me from abandoning even a losing battle and becoming a ronin. Being a good guy is such an inconvenience sometimes. At the very least I'm headed for a spectacular end.
"Then…what's the next move?" I asked, hoping beyond hope she would have a clear answer, "Will the other interfaces join you in driving them off or…?"
"Bringing this bubble to the attention of more interfaces is inadvisable," Nagato said, "There is already distrust and tension between the factions. Bringing this to the attention of the whole of the IDSE with the inconclusive information I have now will add onto those. I must investigate this further before the IDSE can be notified of this."
"You mean we're on our own?" I asked.
"There are more IDSE interfaces located here, under orders to follow me. You must stay hidden while we investigate."
"And how do I do that?" I asked, letting a hint of the annoyance that was building up in me slip though. There's just nothing going my way these days…but I'm trying to hold back, I have no right to lash out at Nagato.
"The Doctor has connections to resourceful groups active in this area," Nagato said after a short silence, " ask him to set you up and arrange a meeting, they may be able to hide you long enough for me to conclude my investigation."
"But…why is it so important to find a definite answer?" I asked. I was still trying to hold back my anger but the idea of staying in this trap while the IDSE sorts out their differences is not appealing.
"No matter how the Domain obtained this technology, we must proceed with extreme caution. If it is a faction of the IDSE, we must get a decisive strike against them early on, and if the Domain can reverse engineer our technology, we must focus all our resources to shift ourselves over to different methods. Presenting the IDSE with inconclusive evidence and varying solutions will intensify the internal strife. Presenting them with indisputable evidence and a clear solution will result in effective action."
Well…there's a mouthful…
"The Domain agents are getting close," Nagato said.
I looked out the window. Indeed, the bright lights were combing through buildings considerably closer than before, just a few blocks away.
"Wait!" I yelled, "I'm still hurting here, how am I supposed to move like this?"
"Your injuries have mostly healed. Much of the pain you're feeling is due to the remaining medical nanites. They should leave your system soon, the pain will drop significantly once they do."
"I see…"
"I will teleport all remaining instances of me out of the sphere. The Domain agents can determine which instance of me is the primary one, but they cannot distinguish you from other humans. If they could, they would've already located you. They cannot find you unless you penetrate the bubble," She said, and with those parting word she disappeared into thin air. The lights stopped where they were floating, stood still in midair for a while and then slowly flew up and in a few moments they were leisurely circling around over the city, like vultures observing a starving herd.
I took of the glasses and stared at the empty night sky instead. Even if it was a lie, it was peaceful. I've had about all I can handle for now, and what's worse is that I'm beginning to think this will get worse before, and if, it gets better.