A/N: Thanks again to everyone who's given me feedback on this story. Onward to chapter five, wherein Miss Asahina wishes she'd brought a sports bra.

By the time Haruhi and I got back to the lounge, Miss Asahina was fast asleep on the couch. Koizumi had covered her up with a blanket, much to my chagrin, and gave me an apologetic shrug.

I noticed several more blankets folded up on the table. "What's this? You expecting us to just sleep in here?"

"That's right."

Quick response!

Koizumi stood and placed a blanket on the couch where he'd been sitting. "I know the risk of another attack is low, but I'd still feel more comfortable if we stayed together for the rest of the night." He took a blanket for himself, and paused. "Of course, you don't have to. I'd just feel better if we were all within sight of one another."

Yeah, I don't think that's going to fly. If anything, Haruhi will—

"Fine."

Say what?

She rolled her eyes. "Grow up. In situations like this, it's best to stick together."

With that, she laid down next to Miss Asahina on the larger couch, and before I knew it, Koizumi had taken the smaller one. Sharing a room with Miss Asahina and Haruhi? I wouldn't have it any other way, but it felt... odd.

I shrugged it off and took the last blanket. Koizumi pulled his feet up as if offering me the other end of the couch, which I walked directly past on my way to the recliner.

"So I hear you called Tachibana?" I asked, spreading my blanket out. "What'd she say?"

"She seemed eager to help. However, she hasn't been in touch with Miss Suoh or Fujiwara since the incident in April. She did say she still talks to Miss Sasaki, though."

That was probably good news. If she'd kept in touch with the Kuyoh or the sneering bastard, she'd be a bit harder to trust. "I don't want to see that guy's face again, anyway. Go ahead and leave him out of it."

"Duly noted. Judging from what Miss Kimidori said just before taking Miss Asahina's TPDD, we can assume his is probably missing as well."

I thought back, but I couldn't remember exactly what she said. I'd been too focused on what was happening to Nagato.

"She said 'These time travel devices are far too dangerous for me to let them continue to exist'. Then she released what appeared to be some sort of shockwave. My guess is that it continued to spread beyond this island, eliminating any TPDDs that happened to exist in this time. Miss Asahina seems to agree with my theory."

The only other time traveler I knew was the sneering bastard, so I guess that's okay. Serves him right. I hope he's freaking out about being stuck in our time right now.

"Hey, who are you guys talking about?"

Haruhi had gotten comfortable on the couch, but she was still eagerly listening to our conversation.

"Oh, there are other aliens, time travelers, and espers besides the ones on our side," I said, reclining back in my chair. "If we're lucky, we might be able to convince this other alien girl to help us get Nagato back. She's a little weird, though."

Her eyes narrowed. "Okay, so what does Sasaki have to do with it?"

Can't you just go to sleep? A normal person would have passed out ages ago.

"I'm afraid it's rather complicated," Koizumi said. "For now, I think it's best if we get some rest. You've had a lot to take in today."

Haruhi sat there for a minute, then rolled over. "I guess," she said. "Good night, then."

I'm not really a fan of slice-of-life romance anime, and this is exactly why. They're completely unrealistic.

If real life were anything like they'd have you believe, I would have already ended up in some sort of embarrassing situation with Miss Asahina, followed by a cheesy romantic moment, and by the time we left the mansion in the morning, we'd be a couple.

Unfortunately, even though reality was a lot less exciting, I was still having a lot of trouble trying to fall asleep. Sure, I was exhausted, and the recliner was more comfortable than I'd expected, but without anything to distract me, I kept replaying the day's events over and over in my head.

Haruhi rolled over on the couch, and for a few seconds, we made eye contact. At least, I think we did. It was hard to tell. What little moonlight was leaking through the curtains didn't give me much to go on. Either way, I rolled onto my side and closed my eyes.

You can imagine the kind of nightmares I had that night.

I was standing on the roof of the hospital with Nagato, and it was just starting to snow. I looked up at the sky, and above us was another Nagato, dissolving into light particles that transformed into snowflakes as they fell. I'd looked back down, and the first Nagato was gone. When the snow finally stopped, I woke up.

I wasn't sure what to make of it, but it disturbed me.

In the end, I'm not sure how much sleep I actually got. The sun was just coming up, and a cursory glance at my phone told me it was a couple of minutes after five.

The door opened, and Koizumi walked in. I hadn't even noticed he was missing.

"Oh, you're awake," he said in a low voice. "I was actually about to wake you up. Did you sleep well?"

I don't know. I'll tell you once I'm done.

"I just got off the phone with my associates. They should be here to pick us up within the hour. If you want to get washed up, now's the time."

Fighting the urge to fall back asleep, I sat up and rubbed my eyes. Any chance they could give us a few more hours? I don't know how some people can function on four hours of sleep, let alone whatever I got.

Once the girls were awake, the four of us split up to shower. The mansion didn't have any spare clothes lying around, so we were forced to change right back into the clothes we'd been running around and sweating in. It pretty much defeated the purpose of showering in the first place.

Realizing this, I made my shower a quick one, and ended up being the first one out. Girls tend to take longer showers anyway, and it wasn't hard to imagine the same rule applying for Koizumi. I ended up taking a seat on the main staircase to wait for the others.

Koizumi joined me a few minutes later. "Oh, you're already done?" he asked.

"Yep."

An awkward silence.

"So," I said, "what's the plan for today? I take it we won't be going to school." I doubt they'd call my parents or anything, but we'd have to fix things quickly if we didn't want classes to get in the way.

He sat down next to me, a bit too close for comfort. "I'd like to contact Miss Suoh as soon as possible. Miss Tachibana should be calling soon to let us know whether or not she was able to track her down."

"And you're sure we can trust her?" I asked, leaning away from him.

"Not entirely, no. But with Miss Suzumiya powerless, there'd be no reason for her to become hostile."

Uh huh. And even if she is able to take the powers back, what's to stop her from just keeping them for herself?

He looked away. "That's the big question, isn't it? But as long as we can get Miss Nagato back, things can't end too badly."

Now that you said that out loud, I'm sure they'll only go from bad to worse. Keep in mind that if we don't get Haruhi's reality-warping abilities back, you'll essentially be powerless, too.

Koizumi looked down the hall, and I saw a rare, genuine smile on his face. "If that were to be the case, I think I could live with that."

Haruhi and Miss Asahina emerged a few minutes later, and we all headed down to the pier to wait for our boat to arrive. As we got closer, I noticed something odd. Haruhi, ever vigilant, beat me to the punch.

"Are those scorch marks?"

A short distance down the pier, there was what appeared to be a large, vaguely circular burn on the concrete. It looked like a rocket had taken off, but there was no way we wouldn't have heard something like that.

Miss Asahina ran a finger along the mark, but nothing came off. "Maybe it was already like this last night?" she suggested. "It was dark when we got here, so it's possible we just didn't see it."

"I would have noticed," Haruhi said. "Look, there are even some cracks. Even if it was pitch black, I would have felt that when I walked over it."

Then where did it come from? Kimidori had appeared inside the mansion, not outside. I'd just assumed she'd teleported or something, but now that I thought about it, she'd left through the door. Did she actually have some kind of spaceship? The thought was too bizarre to even entertain.

Miss Asahina interrupted my train of thought. "Look, something's coming!"

Off on the horizon, a boat was approaching us. As it got closer, it became clear that it wasn't just a speedboat like I'd been expecting. It had a black, inflatable tube around the edge, and it skipped from wave to wave like one of those high-speed boats the coast guard might use. Great. Last time, we'd made the trip on a nice, luxurious ship, but it looked like they were aiming for speed over comfort this time.

As the boat pulled up to the pier, I recognized Mr. Arakawa behind the wheel.

Haruhi raised her hand to greet him. "Mr. Arakawa! It's good to see you again. Hey, is it true that you're an esper, too?"

He gave a slight bow. "Indeed I am, and Ms. Mori as well. I apologize that we had to keep it from you for so long."

"So do you fight those giant monsters too, then?" she asked, stepping down into the boat.

I tuned her out and got myself situated into one of the seats. Miss Asahina sat down on the opposite side, giving me a weak smile. At least we didn't have any luggage; the boat was cramped enough as it was.

Once everyone was sitting down, we pulled away from the pier. Immediately, I realized it was going to be a bumpy ride. The more speed we picked up, the less time we spent actually touching the water. Our seats were designed to absorb most of the impact, but there was no way this kind of boat was meant for long-distance trips. I was already starting to feel seasick.

On the bright side, the constant bouncing did have some perks...

Miss Asahina had her eyes shut tight, and even Haruhi was looking a little nauseous, which was surprising. She's the last person I would have expected to succumb to motion sickness. Maybe her powers were somehow responsible for her apparent invulnerability to such things.

"Kyon!"

Huh?

Haruhi moved to sit next to me. "I was trying to get your attention, but it's too loud," she said. It was true; between the engine and the sounds of the ocean, it was hard to hear each other talk.

"I wanted to know more about the other aliens and time travelers and espers. What are they like? And what does Sasaki have to do with it?"

Do we really have to talk about this now?

"Well, the time traveler's an ass," I said. "As for the others, I think the alien is easy to manipulate, but she's too weird for me to tell if she's evil or not. Her names' Kuyoh Suoh, or Suoh Kuyoh, I'm not sure which."

Haruhi grinned. "And what about the esper?"

"She's alright. I wouldn't say I trust her, but she's probably the most innocent of the three. Her name's Kyoko Tachibana."

"A girl, huh?" Haruhi sat back and brought a hand to her chin. "Does she fight those monsters like Koizumi?"

I grimaced and looked down at my feet. She'd trapped me. I couldn't really explain the difference without first telling her about Sasaki's role. But, I guess it's probably better for her to hear it from me than to let Tachibana use whatever pitch she's probably preparing.

"Not really. See, Koizumi's powers are tied to you, but Tachibana's powers are tied to Sasaki. Her group seems to think that Sasaki originally had the ability to change reality, and somehow, it got transferred to you by mistake."

She looked just as confused as I'd been when I first heard the same thing.

"What? So she doesn't have powers, but there are still espers linked to her? Does she still make closed spaces?"

She—... Huh. Come to think of it, I'd never thought to ask why Sasaki can still create closed space if she doesn't have any powers. Is closed space just some sort of side-effect that never goes away? And if it is, does that mean Haruhi's going to keep putting the world in jeopardy every time she has a bad dream?

"Yeah, she does," I said. "Hers is just one big closed space, though. It covers the entire world, and if you ask me, it's pretty boring. Nothing ever changes in it."

Haruhi seemed to lose interest after hearing that, and moved on to asking Miss Asahina a bunch of questions about the future. I couldn't help but smirk as she became acquainted with the phrase "Classified information".

At one point, Koizumi got up and moved to mess with some kind of briefcase behind Mr. Arakawa. I couldn't really see what he was doing, but he was only there for a few minutes before coming back and leaning in to speak to us.

"We'll be meeting with Miss Tachibana at our usual café."

Wait, you mean you actually have a phone that works out here?

"That's great!" Haruhi said. "No offense, but I can't wait to meet some people who still have their powers!"

He smiled. "Well, she still hasn't gotten in touch with Miss Suoh, so we may only be able to meet with Miss Tachibana."

Haruhi's eyebrows shot up. "What about the time traveler? Isn't he going to be there?"

He better not be!

"Relax, he won't be," Koizumi said. He turned to Haruhi. "Fujiwara was behind an incident last April, one that could have ended very badly if we had failed to stop it. Things got out of hand, and... Well, to say the least, it's best if we don't see him for a while."

I crossed my arms, signaling for Koizumi to stop before he said anything else. I didn't want Haruhi to know the finer details.

"Oh, really? I had no idea."

After that, Haruhi got quiet.

By ferry, the trip had taken around seven hours, including a brief stop to change ships, but this thing got us to the mainland in less than two.

My legs shook with a vengeance as I finally stepped off the boat. We were in a small shipyard, probably one the Organization owned. Up ahead, I could see a familiar black car waiting for us.

"Right this way," Mr. Arakawa said. "We've prepared transportation to take you to your respective homes, so you can change clothes."

"Wow, you're really on top of things," Haruhi said. "Is this all part of your organization, too?"

Koizumi smiled and opened the car door for her. "We're fortunate to have plenty of connections. We may not be able to use our esper abilities right now, but we still have a wide network of people who are willing to lend a hand."

That's funny, you made them sound pretty dangerous last night. I hope you're not just trying to win Haruhi over to your side.

The ride was mostly quiet. Koizumi sat in the front seat, which left me crammed into the back with Haruhi and Miss Asahina. Guess who I got stuck next to.

We stopped by my house first. My family was already out for the day, so I didn't run into any interference as I changed into a fresh set of clothes. I'd started to absentmindedly put on my school uniform before realizing I could wear whatever I wanted.

Next was Koizumi, who lives in a modest house not too far from Miss Tsuruya's. I sort of wanted to go inside and check things out, but we didn't have time. I can't imagine what sort of parents or home life a guy like him might have.

Scratch that. I don't want to know.

After a brief stop by Miss Asahina's apartment—she lived alone, no surprise there—we headed for Haruhi's house. I'd only been there once before, but it had been a memorable visit to say the least. Suddenly appearing in her bedroom like that... Looking back, it felt ten times more dangerous than the Asakura incident. At least I hadn't had to meet her parents. Anyone capable of raising a daughter like her had to be completely insane.

Once we were all changed out of our pajamas, Koizumi gave Tachibana another call. I guess she's skipping school, too. That's probably for the best. She still somewhat poses a threat to the Data Integration Thought Entity, and if you think an alien overmind might come after you, it's best to avoid the places it'd look first.

"Oh good, so you're already in the area?" Koizumi said. "We're on our way now. I—"

He paused, and the slightest look of tension leaked into his smile. "Oh, I see. That's fine. I guess it really doesn't make a difference at this point. See you soon."

He hung up and tucked his phone into his pocket. What was that all about?

"Oh, it's nothing," he said. "Just esper-related things. Nothing you'd be interested in, I'm sure."

"I would!"

Well of course you would, Haruhi.

For a second, Koizumi actually seemed surprised, like he'd been caught in a lie, but he quickly recovered. "It's nothing, really. I'm sure this meeting will be interesting."

And what was that supposed to mean?

Haruhi leaned forward, gripping Koizumi's seat. "You bet it will! How could it not be? If they don't want to help us get Yuki back, I'll make them help us."

Doesn't she realize she fell for his bait?

We arrived at the café a few minutes later. As I got out, I felt a strange sense of nostalgia, even though it hadn't been long since our last visit. As the others got out behind me, I realized,

"This is where I first tried to tell you the truth."

Haruhi stopped for a moment, then shrugged. "Oh yeah, I guess it is. You know, if you'd been more serious about it, I probably would have believed you."

Liar.

She led the charge inside, and with a sigh, I followed. It wasn't until we got inside that I realized just what Koizumi meant about this meeting being interesting. As soon as I stepped through the door, an unexpected voice called out to me.

"Hey again, close friend."

A/N: I'm not sure why, but I wasn't particularly happy with this chapter. If you noticed anything specific, I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know. I've been learning Japanese in my spare time, and I think my rate of 120 Kanji per day is starting to fry my brain. :'D