Melody in Memory
Disclaimer: I do not own Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu.
September 2007
"Are you sure he is doing an out-of town work, Mom?" Haruhi asked dubiously, narrowing her eyes at the question.
Suzumiya Shizuno smiled at her daughter's doubt. "Yes. I saw him left early this morning."
"You are not joking with me, are you?"
"No, Haruhi."
"Then tell me about his expression when he left."
"His expression?" her Mom said, puzzled. "He was irritated, I think."
"How many bags did he bring?"
"Two, I guess."
"What time did he leave?"
"At around five."
"Did he eat breakfast?"
"I believe so," the older woman answered loyally. "I saw some plates he must have used left on the tables this morning."
"Okay.. I believe you, Mom," Haruhi murmured, and ate her rice ravenously. She had somehow gotten a big appetite abruptly. "I'm just checking."
For the next two weeks,the Suzumiya residence was just going to be occupied with two women sharing the same last name – Haruhi and her Mom. Suzumiya Hankuro, the head of the family as well as Haruhi's Dad, was apparently out of town to do some urgent works. This event did not occur all that often, and when it did happen, Haruhi was truly and sincerely grateful to God for the peaceful moment she was going to have. The devil, the source of every misfortune, the god of evils, and the heartless demon was out of town and her house, after all.
"Hey, Mom," Haruhi picked up an egg from the dish plate. "Since he's gone, do you want to do something fun tonight?"
"Something fun, eh?" her Mom's lips twisted a rare smile. "What do you have in mind, Haruhi?"
Seeing that the older woman showed a sign of interest, Haruhi got excited. "I can even skip school today so we can have fun, Mom! How about that?"
"Skipping?" The older woman gave a scolding look at Haruhi. "I don't think so.."
"I'm just kidding Mom." Haruhi smiled. "I know you hate it when I do that."
Her Mom did not answer but just smile in return. Haruhi's heart lit up at the sight of that warm, gorgeous smile which could undoubtedly melt down any men's heart even in her old age. With the smooth white skin and the hourglass body she had, her Mom was a beauty, and it was just unfortunate as to how the charm was masked by the years of being patience and holding back angers, which, needless to say, caused by her Dad. It eased her as to how relief and carefree her Mom seemed to be with no worry of her Dad being around whatsoever. At least for these two weeks, they could enjoy their life.
The thought of asking her Mom again to leave this house crossed Haruhi's mind, but she quickly withdrew it as to not wanting to destroy this happy morning they were scarcely having. It felt like a long time ago since they last had a fun conversation like this one. It actually hurt a little that they rarely got the mood to speak freely to each other like this, but circumstances indeed affected how the conversation between them would be formed. Today, neither of them was burdened or troubled. None of them had the bad mood; none of them spoke in fear in their own house like usual. Freedom was what they were having.
"So..," Haruhi started. "What about a nice dinner with our own favorite meals? I will help you cook it, too!"
"A nice dinner home.. That's not a bad idea," her Mom put her chin in her hand. "Are you sure you don't want to go out for dinner instead?"
"Eating out? Now that you mention it…"
"But anyway Haruhi," the older woman cut her line, smiling. "It's time for you to go to school."
"Right, I almost forgot!" Haruhi picked up her bag and rushed to the front door. "See you, Mom!"
--
Haruhi was already up on the roof when Kyon came to her, telling that he had a class meeting for this break.
"A meeting?"
Kyon shrugged. "We are discussing about that haunted house I was talking about, I guess."
"..Okay then."
"I'm leaving now then," Kyon said, opening the door to go back in.
A minute later, Haruhi was left all alone on top of the school building. She was in such a good mood today that for the first time in high school she answered the teacher's absence call at her in spirit. Leaning her chins in her hands, her thoughts flashed back to her morning conversation with her Mom.
A nice dinner, eh.. I'd love to treat Mom's dinner, too..
The sound of a door creaked open made Haruhi jumped in surprise. She looked back to see who was coming and again found the same figure she saw yesterday marching from inside. In a smooth motion, Nagato Yuki slowly walked over to the fence, carrying a book in her left hand, and an acoustic guitar in her right's. The petite girl gazed at Haruhi for a second, and approached her afterwards.
"A guitar," was what she muttered at first.
A couple seconds later, seeing that Haruhi did not react but look blankly at her, Nagato added, "Try." She offered the guitar in her right hand.
Haruhi was still a little hesitant but after a confirmation nod from Nagato, she took the acoustic guitar in the end. She stared at the wooden instrument for a good minute before laying her hands on it. The guitar had a surprisingly smooth texture, and it even looked shiny under the sunshine. The strings themselves were glimmering under the sunlight, giving them a dazzling look. Overall, the guitar's colors were brown and yellow, somewhat resembling that of Nagato's eyes.
Haruhi was still standing in wonder of the musical thing she got in her hands when she noticed that Nagato was by now sitting with her back on the fence, eyes fixed on the book she carried from before. On her right hand was a pencil which she was using to do something in the books.
Then to Haruhi's surprise, the girl slid the book to her side almost soundlessly. Almost instantly, Haruhi read the title. 'Easy Way to Learn Guitar.'
"Uh," Haruhi muttered awkwardly, feeling a bit shy all of the sudden. She never got such kindness or attention from anyone else before. Let alone a schoolmate. "Thank you, Nagato-san."
Nagato gave a little nod which Haruhi would definitely miss if she did not look at the purple-haired girl.
Admiring the guitar in her hands, Haruhi positioned herself so that she could hold the guitar properly. This was not the first time she touched the guitar – she worked at a music store after all-, but this definitely was the first time she ever got the chance to play it. She knew how to operate the keyboard, the speaker and all, but guitar was somehow the only instrument she had not the chance to play with. She had seen a lot of people on TV hold the guitar, and now was the time for her to imitate them. When she was satisfied with the way the guitar glued on her, Haruhi strummed the strings of the guitar with her fingernails.
Haruhi got excited afterwards, and tried to strum it a little bit more, and this time putting her left fingers on some of the frets. She was really fascinated by the sound produced by the guitar, and even though she knew she was not playing it right, she kept playing it. After a moment of self-satisfactory feeling she gained from the rare musical instrument she ever got to play in her hands, Haruhi realized how clumsy she must seem to be and muttered an apology, "Sorry, Nagato-san," she said, blushing a little in embarrassment. "This is my first time so I was too excited."
"…"
Nagato, Haruhi noticed, had not moved her glance from her direction even once ever since she started messing around with the guitar. The purple haired girl blinked, then shifted her gaze to an empty space on the roof.
" I didn't expect it to be able to produce such a graceful sound.." Haruhi mumbled softly, more to herself than to be heard.
Nagato glimpsed at her for a second, but giving her mute reply as usual the two of them sat in silence afterwards. Aside from the nature's activities, the only audible sound was the noise coming from Haruhi's motion of strumming and picking onto the guitar's strings. While Haruhi was doing that, Nagato was emotionlessly staring at the sky, most likely lost in her own thought.
"Hey," Haruhi pointed all of the sudden. "Can I see you play, Nagato-san?"
The purple haired girl glanced at her, and nodded quietly. Haruhi gave the guitar to its owner, and the petite girl slipped the instrument between her arms smoothly. She started with a simple picking of what sounded like an opening up a song, then moved to a more complex-sounded music. Her left fingers danced skillfully between the frets, and moved in graceful motion each time she did so. For a moment it seemed like the music was jamming out hard and rock, but it changed rapidly to a more mellow state, and on to something like jazz that Haruhi gave up to guess the song's genre in the end. Still, tough, the music composed was one body, despite its various changes. Haruhi listened and stared in amazement ; it seemed to her as if all possible options to do with a guitar was being done by Nagato at that moment. All in all, it was not hard to see how deft a Nagato Yuki was with a guitar.
The song being played by purple haired girl stopped all of the sudden, and Haruhi saw Nagato paused and stretched her fingers for a while. Haruhi was about to compliment the genius girl of her guitar skill when the latter started playing again abruptly. This time, it sounded strangely familiar to Haruhi's ears.
"Are you.. playing the melody I used for my song yesterday?"
Not looking up from where her fingers were dancing, Nagato answered, "Yes."
Haruhi was engraved with adoration at the moment, thus decided to listen further. The lullaby flowed softly and a little bit sadly, vibrating a mellow tone for its listeners. There was a somewhat warm feeling inside Haruhi's heart the more she heard Nagato's play, and slowly Haruhi began to hum. She got
the words in her brain, but for some reason she just wanted to hum today. The pretty lullaby coming from the guitar was too worth it to be missed today, she decided. The petite girl stole a glance at her as if questioning whether why Haruhi did not sing, but continued playing the guitar afterwards.
On top of the school building, the two were lost in their world of music; Nagato playing the guitar flawlessly, and Haruhi humming the tone gracefully. The music brought them together, united their feeling, making them trapped in the joy of music. After a couple rounds of that song, the short haired girl gave a slight improve to sign its coming end and finally, the song ended.
"That was beautiful," Haruhi claimed.
Nagato's response was as usual, a stiff nod. She then offered the guitar back at Haruhi, who happily accepted it this time. She slipped the instrument between her arms, caressing the wooden surface carefully. Next they sat in silence again, mutely appraising and enjoying the feeling of satisfactory they got after doing some music together. It was the first duet for the two of them, too.
Haruhi stared the guitar in her arms silently, stroking the body gently with her hands. The silence in the air was not awkward or anything, but she just could not help but to express the thought in her head. "Nagato-san," she muttered, breaking the silence. "Haven't you heard about me?"
Nagato looked at her questioningly, but answered, "I have."
For a second, a feeling of pain invaded Haruhi's heart. "I see."
Haruhi was prepared to receive more words regarding that topic from Nagato, but all she heard was nothing but the gust of the wind. The purple haired girl was unbelievably and utterly, quiet. At first Haruhi thought Nagato was only a little bit shy, but it was more likely to think that it was her natural personality to be so.. silent. Judging from the way Nagato brought herself- the way she walked, talked and looked at people - it apparently was not a shy factor. Haruhi was pretty sure that this petite girl could turn somebody furious into plainly afraid by her cold stare, or heartless words spoken using her impassive expression. Harsh words would always seem harsher spoken from a quiet person, that was a fact. Nevertheless, it almost seemed as if she would not speak a word if no one asked her first. She was just simply.. quiet! Haruhi was at lost at vocabulary to describe this girl.
But sometimes, Haruhi thought, not often, the skillful girl could actually be pretty talkative, like yesterday when she explained things. In order to trigger her to speak more, a yes or no question was definitely out; it should be a more why and explanation-demanding questions. But naturally, Haruhi knew that the topic of music was probably the best one she could think of to bring the quiet girl to converse more.
Then as if to betray her conclusion, Nagato spoke first. "For how long have they been informing lies?"
Haruhi was shocked at the straight forwardness of the question. "It's.." she paused, looking at Nagato. "I don't know. I don't bother to keep track of it."
"…"
"How did you.. know?"
"..A nice person will just not ignore man's scream of injustice." the short haired girl stated emotionlessly.
Haruhi was left speechless for a moment as the confusion took place over her brain. When she realized that Nagato was talking about the day they battled the gang, she looked at the quiet girl dubiously.
As if SHE did scream that time.
Despite the sarcasm, Haruhi found herself resisting the desire to laugh at that ironic moment, and decided to rest her gaze at the purple haired girl's amber eyes as sternly as she could. It often confused her as to how Nagato was able to explain her answers without straight-forwardly answering them. Haruhi could ask her to explain her answer further, but she could pretty much guess what the latter would say. Somehow, even if they just met two days ago, Haruhi could sense what kind of person Nagato was, and she was sure it was vice versa. There was even no need for the quiet girl to declare that she did not mind being with one rumored-delinquent such as her, for Haruhi was aware of it herself from the moment the petite girl answered her question. Beyond their knowledge, there was already a strong, unspoken understanding formed between the two.
"Probably," Haruhi said, decided to wrap the topic off. "By the way.. Kyon mentioned you are a genius," She paused for a moment, and strummed all the guitar strings once. "Did you really learn to fight that good by books alone??"
Nagato gestured a yes from the motion her head was doing.
"That's amazing.. "
"It is far from perfect for it has weaknesses," Nagato admitted abruptly, sounding a little anxious. It seemed like the topic interested her to the point she spoke up more.
"It really has one?" Haruhi asked, not convinced.
"A few," Nagato replied bluntly. "First, I cannot master anything with this extra advantage I possess."
"Really?" Haruhi said, incredulity filling her tone. If the girl claimed that the martial art skill she possessed did not quite fit the terms of 'mastering', then she would definitely fear what Nagato would be like when she got the grip on it.
"Yes. Mastering something means that you truly have put your heart and minds into it. Abilities alone are not enough," the purple haired girl explained. "In this case, I do not own the ability to put my heart and minds into something I just.. naturally learned."
I know she can talk a lot.
Haruhi smiled at her random thought. "I see your point," she said, nodding her understanding. "What are the other weaknesses?"
"The other one I have discovered is my inability of learning specific topics." Nagato muttered softly. "For examples, cooking and music."
"Are you serious?! You can't learn cooking and music with that ability of yours?"
"…" Nagato paused briefly, looking thoughtful in the moment passing before saying, "I must try the way normal people do it."
"That's interesting.." Haruhi mumbled under her breath. "So that means you learn guitar without relying on your special skill, right?"
The purple haired girl nodded.
Seeing the familiar nod coming back from Nagato, Haruhi raised her eyebrows slightly, feeling amused. She had come to realize that if the reply coming from Nagato was nothing but a head movement, the question either be a yes or no question, or mundane for the genius' attention. Or other reasons she just had not yet discovered. Haruhi made no attempt to reply this time, and had begun messing around with the guitar.
She opened up the book Nagato slid to her, scanned the details of the pages as maximal as she could, and noticed the handwriting of Nagato on the book. It was a tiny, neat handwriting which revealed the creators personality greatly. The purple haired girl had noted 'important' on some of the information, and in some of them also added a couple sentences as to how to understand the lesson better. The book would indeed assist a great aid, but Haruhi felt unease troubling her heart.
Haruhi closed the book in her left hand, and stared in the guitar. She wanted to learn how to play guitar properly, with the right basic. An idea suddenly flickered in Haruhi's brain, causing the latter to feel so stupid for never thought about it sooner. Nagato could of course be her teacher! The idea seemed really reasonable for her, seeing how skillful the girl was with guitar. She could just ask her questions without having to ask her personally to be her teacher.. but if she just asked questions, she doubted she would improve fast, for she did not know her capability of autodidact in music. But if she did want to have a teacher..
Then she had to ask. For help.
And the horrible fact was of course - Suzumiya Haruhi had never asked somebody to help her in almost anything.
She had always been really stubborn, refusing to give up and requested somebody's help when it was even most needed. She shooed away every offers of helping, and determined to do it by herself, without anyone else. The very thought of begging had annoyed her to the point where she thought she
was being the weakest person in the world for asking aid to solve a mere, simple problem. For Haruhi, asking for help would be too much insulting to her pride.
"Hmm.." Having been by herself for most of the times, Haruhi was used to be lost in her own thought in the middle of something. It would continue that way for the rest of the break had she not heard the sound of bristling skirt caused by Nagato's attempt to shift her position. It snapped Haruhi back to the present, reminding her of somebody who was presence beside her.
"Sorry, uh-" Haruhi murmured, realizing she must have been spacing out because Nagato was now looking at her without blinking. "I was thinking about.." she hesitated for a second, but continued, "learning guitar."
Nagato eyed her intensely for some seconds as if trying to spot some dishonesty factor, but then stayed emotionlessly afterwards.
"…"
Embarrassment filled Haruhi's thought utterly, and she struggled to keep her demeanor controlled. After a while of self-debate which resulted in victory for her innate music ambition, Haruhi declared in a low voice, "I need to find somebody who is capable to be a teacher."
The other person, seeming to be perceptive from the way her eyes glimmered, was undisturbed as always and unsurprisingly did not bother to give a response.
"I was thinking..," Haruhi stuttered, heat began to rise up in her body as she felt nervous. Apparently a simple question of help meant a thousand times more nerve-wrecking for her. "That if it's not a bother, can.." she halted for a while. "..Can you teach me, Nagato-san?"
Haruhi sighed in relief as she managed to avoid the word she hated the most to come out of her lips. She looked at the purple haired girl, and seeing that the girl did nothing but blink on her, Haruhi could not help but started to sweat. If her request were rejected, then she would bear a self shame on her mind for the rest of her life.
An hour it felt like for Haruhi, but in reality ten seconds later Nagato answered with a nod.
To even more surprise for Haruhi, the short haired girl twisted her lips to a smile, as if reassuring that she did not need to say anymore to confirm the help coming.
Haruhi had already seen the smile for more than twice now, and she always thought that the purple haired girl must have gotten a lot of friends –not to mention admires- had she smiled more often to people. She had not seen the petite girl outside of lunch time, but she just got the feeling telling her that the girl did not smile too often to any people. Somehow seeing the quiet girl had made her see a bit of her introverted self, only from a different perspective. In fact today and yesterday counted as the day Haruhi spoke the most to other –in this case meaning Nagato - than her usual routines (family, Kyon, people at work).
Haruhi grinned, more because how funny it seemed that they could both smile and converse somewhat friendly to each other. No matter how and where you looked at it, at the first glance they were completely two different persons; one a trouble maker delinquent, the other a respectful, prodigy student.
Who would ever guess that the probably most intelligent girl in this school would agree to help ME at her second day of school?
Happy, Haruhi returned the smile. "When will we start then?" she asked, eager to start right away.
The quiet girl took her time of retorting, but said, "Anytime."
Haruhi pushed her brain to think. If she wanted to learn guitar, now would be the best time to do it since her Dad - who always strangled her with the perilous manner of his - would not be in town. She got two weeks off without her Dad starting today, which meant that she would pretty much have her usual time of guarding her Mom to do nothing. Then she would also have the free times around weekends when what she usually did was being on standby near her Mom in the house since her Dad would sometimes be at home as well. With the way things were now, she could always move around independently without time limit for these two weeks. Moreover, she could even invite Nagato to her house, seeing that her father would not be there to horrify the guest.
She had to use these two weeks as useful as possible.
"When will you have time, Nagato-san?"
"I am free after school." Nagato stated the information emotionlessly.
"You mean everyday?"
"Most of the days."
"Hmm.."
To Haruhi's surprise, Nagato stood up abruptly. "Inform me when you are done thinking."
"Okay," Haruhi nodded, still a little bit surprise at the sudden, ghost-like movement done by the petite girl.
"…" The smaller girl took a step forward, but turned back and inquired, "Do you want to take the guitar with you?"
Haruhi' s eyes widen. "Can I?"
The quiet girl gazed at Haruhi for a moment before answering, "Yes." Without any more words, Nagato then strode past Haruhi, off to the door where she smoothly opened it and took the stairs back down.
For the next five minutes before the lunch bell rang, Haruhi was left alone with the guitar and its guide book, thinking.
I want to say thanks to Roxius who beta-read this fic, and to zakura who gave me a review -thank you so much for the support.
And also, thank you all for reading, and I hope you still like it; the climax have not yet come after all. Review is really, really appreciated..