THE PLOT, IT THICKENS - enjoy :D

Self Reflection

I woke up.

There was cold hard bitumen underneath me, and I heard the slight buzz of a streetlight to my left. It was eerily silent. All that I could hear, my eyes shut, was the streetlight, and the scampering of tiny paws of a dog, or cat to the right.

Without opening my eyes, I felt my chest. No odd protrusions there. Everything was just as it seemed. I finally opened them, and checked visually. Nothing about me had changed.

Weird. What exactly happened then?

More importantly, where am I right now?

I finally picked myself up from the road, and looked around. This was my street! I was, in fact, standing in front of my own house. Dusting myself off, I walked to the front door, before I heard footsteps approaching. I turned around, to face…

"What the hell are you doing at my doorstep?"

I turn, and see a young girl, about my age, dressed in simple grey sweats and sneakers, a plastic bag in one hand. Her hair is tied in a ponytail, and she has a glower of suspicion upon her face.

I hesitated, realising what might be happening now. "By any chance…do you belong to a club you wish you hadn't joined in the first place?"

"What?"

"In school. A club. Set up in a literature club room?"

She didn't move, but I could see the brain behind those eyes working.

"…Yes. What about it."

"Do you happen to have the leader as a…" I thought for a moment. "Boyfriend?"

"…Yes. So?"

"Oh god." One last question to confirm. "Is your nickname Kyon, or some derivative of that?"

"…How do you know so much about me?" She slightly turned to a more aggressive stance, one leg ready to kick me with a sharp uppercut.

"…Because I'm…your gender opposite self. Look, can you smuggle me inside your house, and then I'll tell you everything."

She didn't look like she was going to move. "Alright, fine. Your club is made up of 4 people including yourself, all of which have special powers except you. You have an esper, time traveller and alien –"

"Alright, fine." She walked past me and unlocked the door. "I assume you know how to get to my bedroom then? And that there's a window?"

"Yes…?"

"Then go underneath it. I'll chuck down a rope or something."

I sighed. Excellent. I was breaking into my own house. This was a first. Well, it wasn't TECHNICALLY my house, but it was close enough. I snuck around the house, taking care not to step in the brush and leaf litter, and made it to the backyard. It was much cleaner than mine. Probably she could be bothered mowing the lawn. Eventually the window above slid open, and a knotted bedsheet tumbled down. I grabbed it tightly, and started climbing up the wall, reached the top, and tumbled into my – well, her – room.

It looked almost exactly like mine. Except, hers was much tidier, and had all the tiny details a girl has in her bedroom.

Including stuff in her wardrobe I probably shouldn't have seen, as she quickly slammed it shut after she caught me looking inside.

"Right then. I'm assuming this has something to do with parallel universes or something?" She made me sit under the window, for fear of the carpet getting dirty. With good reason, of course.

"I guess? I don't know how I got here. Besides, I haven't told you my side of the story yet."

"Well, I can guess. You either a) pissed off your version of Haruki, b) got your version of Yuuki to go on the blitz again, or c) met, along your unfortunate path, some anomaly or something that managed to send you along here, correct?"

This girl was smart, just like me. I liked that for once I was dealing with a rational human being.

"Yeah, I guess. Except I didn't do the first 2 parts, for sure. Judging by your response though… I guess the events that occur to each of us is the same. Closed spaces, giant things destroying the city, Yuki deciding that she wanted to be more emotional?"

"That all happened, yeah." She sighed, and glanced at the clock. Apparently it was 10:30 PM.

That reminded me. "Right, what time and date is it?" I asked, looking down at my watch. Of course, it was wrong. It had reset. Probably didn't take well to the whole changing dimension or universe thing.

"11:30 PM, July 10th, Saturday." She replied, scrabbling around on her desk, presumably for some school work or something.

Woah. That meant I had been out cold Friday night, and all of Saturday. Or was that just how changing dimensions/universes worked?

"Right. Thanks. Just about time to hit the hay for you then?"

"Yeah. You better get some sleep too." She disappeared into the bathroom, presumably to brush her teeth or something before bed. She came back out dressed in an overlong shirt and shorts and threw me a blanket and a pillow. "Here. I can't get you a futon or anything, but at least you can sleep with that."

"Right…" Assuming that my sleeping place was where I was sitting, I put the pillow underneath my head.

"Tomorrow I'll get together with Itsuko. She'll hit you up with some clothes, and a place to live maybe."

"Cool. I'm assuming she's the esper?"

"Yeah."

"Then, you have a little brother instead of a little sister...and you're called…" I thought for a bit. "Kyonko?"

She made a sour face. "Yeah, that's right."

I sighed. "Right then." I found it slightly weird that I was still attracted to her, even though technically she is/was me. It was weird in itself that I was living with "myself", as it were. I threw the blanket over me, and lay there on the floor for a while. Eventually I heard a muffled, "Hey?"

"Hmm?"

"How's your girlfriend?"

"Haruhi?"

"Yeah."

I hesitated for a moment. "Can we talk about this in the morning?"

There was a pause. "Okay." I heard a rustle of blankets and sheets, and then all was silent.

The next day, as I arrived into class, there was a huge commotion in the classroom. I noticed an absence of my favourite brown tousled hair. Oh well. I readjusted my hair, making sure my ponytail was still done up, and strode across the room towards my chair.

"Who died?"

"Was it in that car crash yesterday?"

"Geezus…"

"Never thought it would happen to someone in this school…"

I sat down at my allocated seat behind Kyon's. Strange. He should be here by now. I looked down at my watch, then stared lazily outside the window. They were probably talking about junk again. Soon afterwards, the homeroom teacher came in. "Oi! You lot!" The class immediately hushed down.

"Alright, everyone, move to the auditorium." He said in a subdued voice. The class shuffled out the classroom, myself following. No way, it couldn't be…

All the different classes were converging into the school hall. Koizumi-kun found me first. He sombrely put a hand around my shoulder, and said quietly, "You might want to brace yourself."

I entered the auditorium, and there, on the stage, was a white coffin…

And a photograph of Kyon.

I screamed. Louder than I ever had before. All the students around me clutched their ears in pain, but I didn't care. I thrashed out, angry tears of despair squeezing out of my eyes. I stamped the floor, kicked the chairs, punched the wall, in a murderous, desperate frenzy. Koizumi-kun eventually managed to restrain my arms behind my back, while I bawled out desperate wails of horror, shock and sorrow. When I had calmed down, Koizumi-kun gently led me out of the auditorium, with the rest of the Brigade now following.

Takahashi looked close to tears. His face was all screwed up and his mouth was trembling. "He…he's gone. They…he's gone." He ducked his head down, attempting to stifle his tears, soon becoming uncontrollable. Mikuru was attempting to control her own sobs; Koizumi was acting as stoically as possible, and Nagato let a single tear be shed from her left eye. I let myself be steered by Koizumi to the infirmary.

How…but…I'm all powerful…aren't I?