I awoke with a jolt, kind of like the feeling you get when you think you're falling in a dream. In fact…to me, it seemed like I had been dreaming the last expanse of time, and I was only now coming out of the dream. First things first, I noticed that I was on what felt like a load of rocks- I soon realised that the way they were chipped meant that they were actually broken paving stones. I rubbed my eyes and, as they slowly came back into focus, I realised that everything was significantly darker than before. And the fact that I was on ground meant that…

"Oh, he wakes up! Finally. Morning, sleeping beauty."

The voice…it was so horribly familiar that I felt like going back to sleep.

Koizumi.

"Man, I thought you were gonna sleep all day. Well, at least this time were could all assemble…"

I looked up and saw him, kneeling down to lend me a hand. All around us, buildings rose up, trees bloomed, the sidewalks extended out alongside the roads…it was dark all around us, but I could tell where we were- in Closed Space.

"Koizumi, what the…what happened to Haruhi? And Ayumu?" I yelled, looking around furiously. Scrambling to my feet, I desperately began to search through the rubble I had woken up in, hoping to find some sign that they'd been transported here with me.

"Kyon, Kyon…they're right here." He said, smiling. They were right next to him, unconscious but thankfully still alive. "I dug them out before you woke up. I had a bit of time to spare."

"T…time?" I wondered. "But we…we're trapped- Why would we possibly care about time?"

"Trapped, Kyon?" Koizumi chuckled, in that sly way that never fails to piss me off. "What do you mean? You've never been in Closed Space before? Come on, Kyon- don't you remember your romantic alone-time with Haruhi in here?"

I gritted my teeth. In any other situation, I would've slugged him.

"Listen, I can't really talk right now. Something big just showed up…I've gotta go take care of it." Koizumi said, looking towards the darkened sky.

"Something big…you mean like a Celestial, right?"

"Something like that. It looks like this'll be the end of the whole mess…I never thought it'd be as simple as destroying a Celestial. It is pretty big though…" He stopped for a moment, as if he'd forgotten something. A second later, there was a loud explosion as the building to the left of us collapsed.

"Huh, looks like it's already attacking…" Koizumi murmured. "I have to go. Just wait here, okay? Soon as the Closed Space comes down, this whole thing is over. Although I guess you already knew that."

I knew this…in theory. Of course, you've all probably realised that I was very, very confused. I had no idea what was going on, so I just had to put my faith in Koizumi for the time being.

"Oh, and one more thing." Koizumi said, surrounding his body with a purple bubble of energy, "Don't look directly at the Celestial. We're not sure…we think it's unstable, somehow. That thing's taken a few of the weaker ESPers down already- we're not sure where it came from, but it must have taken some amazing power to create…"

And with that, he shot off into the sky, kind of like a superhero I guess. He hadn't really done anything to save us, though. Well, except digging Haruhi and Ayumu out of the rubble…I would probably have left them there for a little while, cruel as that sounds. Maybe I was kind of warped from the frenzied events that had happened to me since the school concert. Man, that seemed far away by now…

Another explosion and the buildings on the other side of the street collapsed into the ground. I leapt over the rubble and knelt by Haruhi and Ayumu, in case…I don't really know, I guess. Maybe I had a bad feeling about Koizumi's last words. "Don't look directly at the Celestial," he'd said…

Then, the roar came. Deep and echoing, it felt as though my eardrums would burst while listening to it. It accompanied a vast earthquake, and I saw the street once again split in two. Panicked that the entire Closed Space was collapsing again, I felt my head instinctively jerk upwards, towards the fluttering lights of the ESPers.

And that's when I saw it. A giant, glowing mass, composed entirely of spirals, all interconnected. It looked like a psychedelic mess of shining bubbles, ripping a hole in the sky, and the sound billowed out of it like some sort of horrid insect, echoing within my head. I saw the ESPer bubbles going towards it, then bouncing off with large, multicoloured energy bursts. That was when I realised that the thing actually seemed to be breathing…it was alive. And the more I stared at it, the more I felt as though my head was going to tear apart.

Yet I couldn't stop looking at it. I think I saw something behind it…as if there was something behind the huge sea of spirals that I couldn't perceive, couldn't grasp…I heard the thing- whatever it was- scream, a horrible, high-pitched noise like an out-of-tune guitar…

Then I passed out.

Author's Note: Well, it's been a while since the last update- I was originally going to upload the rest of the story in one big update, but real life plus lack of inspiration took its toll. Rest assured though, the story is coming to a close- conclusion will be written and uploaded soon.

Thanks again for reading.