I awoke what seemed like minutes later, although I have no idea of how long I was really unconscious for. After trying to wrestle my mind back to life, I remembered that the last thing I'd seen before had been a bird's-eye view of the city. As I lay there, for a moment I thought that this was impossible- how could I have been teleported directly above the city, and survived the drop down?

That's when I remembered what Koizumi had told me about "closed space".

I dragged my eyes open and looked around. It was the city we lived in, alright. The only difference was that everywhere was dark and gloomy- it had been a sunny day, yet in this bizarre alternate dimension, the sky was mostly grey with only a small tint of blue. There was a weird melancholy aura around, and the streetlamps glowed with an unearthly light. Yeah, it hit all of the requirements for closed space, alright.

There was, however, one thing that confused me. Closed spaces were, according to Koizumi anyway, pocket dimensions created through Haruhi's unbalanced emotions. Whenever Haruhi got severely irritated or pissed off, the spaces would form and serve as a way for her to let out her aggression.

Then, as if on cue, I heard a moan from the ground. Looking down I saw Haruhi, sprawled out and grimacing.

"Ah...Haruhi!" I knelt down and lifted her head up with my arm, trying to...well, I guess I don't know what I was trying to do.

"Kyon..." She murmured, opening her eyes. She looked as though she was badly hurt. "Where...are we? What happened..."

"I don't know..." I replied. This was a lie, of course. I was having flashbacks to the time before, when Haruhi involuntarily trigged the creation of a new world, taking only me with her. This was when I got worried. How could Haruhi have possibly created this world, when we'd gotten here through a portal summoned by the creature from before?

"This is like before, isn't it, Kyon..." Haruhi whispered. "That world...with those giants..."

I snapped out of my daze.

"Yeah. It is. Only we're not in the school anymore." I wasn't sure how she remembered this now, when she hadn't mentioned it at any time before.

"No...we're not..."

She sat up and started to look around. Something was weird. She wasn't her usual self, that's for sure. Instead, she seemed sad and depressed, as if her emotions were being drained away.

Suddenly, I heard a loud crash, and jerked my head up to see the glistening blue body of a giant Celestial above us, its huge arm embedded in one of the buildings lining the high street.

"Haruhi...Haruhi, we have to go, now!" I yelled, grabbing her hand and trying to drag her to her feet. She didn't move.

"Kyon...I..." was all she managed. My eyes flitted between her and the Celestial, and finally I decided to grab her and haul her up onto my back. As I did, the giant tore its arm from the building and raised it again, before swinging it like a flail and smashing in half a building on the other side of the street. The debris fell like a meteor into the middle of the road, forming a small crater.

Luckily, I had already taken to my feet and was running, with the melancholy Haruhi on my back, down the street. I had no idea where I was going, but I did know that I had to get the hell out of the area and to somewhere safe. I crossed countless main streets that were blocked off by giants, and when I tried to head to my house, I saw most of the district destroyed within seconds.

Eventually, I made it to the park that I had met Asahina in so many times, found a bench and took Haruhi off of my back. She managed to sit herself down on it and simply stared forward, her eyes blank and empty. I watched her for a few seconds, and seeing no response, decided to stare up at the equally blank sky. I wondered if Asahina and Nagato were alright. I remembered that they were able to communicate briefly with me the last time Haruhi and I were trapped inside closed space, and wondered if they'd be able to do so again. I hoped Miss Asahina was alright, as she seemed the most powerless out of herself, Nagato and Koizumi. In fact, if Koizumi was anywhere, he should have been-

That was when I hear my phone beeping. A message from Koizumi.

"Hey. Something went horribly wrong. Can't figure out what but the other Espers are here with me. We're trying to destroy the Celestials."

"I wish you'd have come earlier. There's something going on with Haruhi, it's like she's all emotionless. What should I do?" This was my reply. I had to wait a few minutes for another reply.

"Keep calm. Make your way back into the city. Do you remember where you came in? Head there."

I couldn't believe he was actually telling us to go into the beehive of giants that we had spent so long escaping from. I hadn't caught my breath yet.

"Kyon...who was that..." Haruhi said. I jerked my head up, to see her staring at me, the blank look still on her face. I was surprised to hear her speak, but relieved that she wasn't totally comatose.

"Koizumi. Listen, Haruhi...we need to go back into the city centre. Can you walk?" I said, not expecting a yes.

"I think so..." She replied. With that, she stood up and extended a hand down to me. I sat staring at her in confusion for a moment, then shook myself out of it and took the hand. She nodded, and we started off running back the way we came.

The trip was surprisingly uneventful, but the noise was still at a deafening volume, and I imagined that unless the ESPers picked up the pace, the entire city would be destroyed by the Celestials. I started wondering what would happen if the Celestials ran out of things to smash, then decided it wasn't a soothing thought and cast it out of my head.

We managed to make it into the city without any Celestial sightings, but as we were making our way through the streets and entered the main square, I heard my phone beeping. It was a message from Koizumi. Two words.

"Look up."

I did so, only to see the giant blue arm of a Celestial casting a shadow over us. I was ready to grab Haruhi and make a desperate dive out of the way, but a stream of light ripped through the arm just in time, causing it to fall harmlessly to the ground a short distance away.

"You took your time..." I muttered, as the glowing bubble containing Koizumi floated in front of our eyes and landed. The bubble disappeared, and Koizumi walked out.

"Sorry about that." He said, the annoying grin still on his face. "It took us a while to get organised and so on, we really weren't expecting something like this to happen so we hadn't prepared."

"Weren't you supposed to always be prepared for these kind of scenarios? Your ESPer society or whatever?" I replied. A second later, I saw what was left of the Celestial fall to pieces as several more light streams ripped through it.

"We weren't ready for Ayumu-or rather, the creature disguised as her- to attack in the way it did. We're fine with the closed space that Haruhi creates, but this...there's something else lurking in this particular space. It hasn't shown itself yet, but we know it's here." Koizumi explained, looking around him in case of any more giant sightings. One poked its head around the side of a building, but was quickly set upon by ESPers, who ripped it to pieces.

"Yeah, we also think that this closed space was actually co-created. It's a product of the minds of Ayumu and Haruhi."

"So Ayumu can created closed sp-" I began, then saw the flaw. "Wait, Ayumu...don't you mean that creature's mind?"

"No, I mean Ayumu's mind. That creature just used an image of her body to disguise as her- her mind is being held prisoner somewhere here, and we're pretty sure it's being manipulated somehow..." He suddenly stopped, as if listening for something, then continued at a faster pace." Kyon, listen, because I'll have to go soon, and I can't spare any more time texting you or talking to you. The agency I work for thinks that the creatures, the beings behind this whole thing, exist far beyond our perception. Beyond the perception of any being in this universe, or, well...what used to be the universe. All that exists is this closed space now."

"What? The universe is..." I stuttered.

"It's complicated. I'll just leave you with this- beware of the spiral. Any spirals you see, you stay away from them, and don't look at them. Make sure you don't look at them, ever. You need to get Haruhi somewhere safe, she's in no state to do anything right now." He began to float into the air, shrouded in his purple bubble.

"Right...wait, you know what's wrong with her?" I said. Haruhi had stayed blank throughout the entire encounter, staring into space.

"We have an idea, but...I can't spare any more time. My colleagues need me- Celestials are appearing all over the place. Head down this street just ahead- I'm pretty sure there's a spot there that's safe. We're going to keep trying to contact Nagato- we think that if this closed space was co-created, there's a chance she may have managed to protect herself. After all, it's not like Haruhi had all the say in who crossed over to this universe or not."

And with that, he said goodbye to us, and shot off into the sky, joining with several other streams of light that I saw passing overhead. The horrible feeling in my stomach was getting worse and worse- the end of the universe had worried me enough, but this could mean the end of everything- even reality. Ugh, it makes my head spin even looking back.

So I did the only thing I could think of to do. I grabbed Haruhi's hand and began to run down the street that Koizumi had pointed at, praying for no more Celestials to appear until we reached the safe spot that he'd spoken about. As I ran, I thought about the last time it had been just Haruhi and I in a closed space. Back then, we had gotten home by...well, I'd managed to convince Haruhi that the old world really wasn't that bad after all, but I didn't think that tactic would work in a universe created by two people rather than one, especially with Haruhi the way she was. The only hope I had now, unless I could somehow get Haruhi back to her normal, annoying self, was Koizumi and the agency.

I continued down the street, but as I went further, I saw that it was getting brighter. Far from the dark, grey dullness of the sky, the light ahead was almost blinding. It looked like I was walking straight into a lamp powered by every power plant on Earth. This confused me even more, because I knew that there was no light at all like that when I had woken up in the street earlier, not even a tiny glimpse. Holding Haruhi's hand tighter (As much as I hate to admit it), I walked forward, before finding myself at the edge of a huge crater. As my eyes slowly became used to the light, I looked into it, and saw the strangest sight of my life.

It was a globe, as tall as one of the buildings, covered entirely in spirals.