Chapter 39
Horizons Change
Where there had been a single rose, in the huge, marble-floored lobby of a New York skyscraper, there were suddenly millions. The landscape was bathed in an orange light from the sun which was either rising or setting over the horizon. It was difficult to tell if it was the beginning or end of the day. More important was the huge black stone tower ahead of them.
"Konata...?" Kagami said. It was like she had come out of a trance. "What is this? What the hell did you do?"
"I swear, I didn't do this... I think," Konata replied. "There's something weird about this place, though... I'm getting a strange feeling."
"Are you okay?" Tsukasa said.
"You don't feel anything?" Konata looked over at her, but she shook her head.
It wasn't a bad feeling. Actually, this place had really positive vibes. And towers were usually significant. People rarely built something like that for nothing, and usually in games there would be something really good if you made it to the top. Once you were standing there with the whole building towering over you ominously, you just knew something was going to happen.
"Wait... This is the same thing that happened back in Topeka..." Kagami was staring up at the clouds. They seemed to be forming rings around the Tower, and the Tower itself was stretching up above them... "Is this where everything was leading?"
"This isn't like the one that was in our world, is it? It might have things inside," Tsukasa said. "Maybe we shouldn't go in."
"It's too quiet for that, it's nothing like that one was. We should check it out." Konata was gazing around, and all that she could see were the tower and all those roses. They stretched on forever.
The rose from New York was the Tower in this world.
"I suppose there's not much else we can do," Miyuki said.
Tsukasa turned to Konata with a questioning eyes. Konata always knew what to do in these situations. She'd helped them when they'd ended up in Haruhi's world, after all. She had been part of that organization. Kamina had told her even more about it, about when he'd worked with Konata and how she was so capable in any situation. Konata would be able to make it through whatever was ahead, of course she would.
Kagami stood up. "Fine. I don't think there's any way back."
"This is just our first universe we're taking on together," Konata said. She grinned, but really she just hoped that this was the end of the road. The feeling the Tower gave her was an indescribable sensation of peace. It reminded her of home, where she desperately wanted to be right now. Her story was supposed to be
a collection of short scenes, all about regular daily life, light-hearted stuff that everyone could relate to. Or at least that was what she'd told the publishers for the magazine. They ran some short manga series, if she could just get this one in, who knows where she would get to next? Her own anime series, a whole franchise for her characters?
Imagine that. Izumi Konata, a world-famous mangaka. It could happen.
She'd based the series off of herself and her friends - slightly altered, not entirely true to life. It was artistic license. Besides, it made the characters more believable, people could relate to them. That was a good selling point.
She hoped it would be. It had been a while since she'd contacted the publisher. Not getting any feedback was just unbearable. She couldn't take this much longer. Please, just accept it, or say you hate it, anything. She held the publishing agents in almost religious esteem.
Konata had put her heart and soul - not to mention most of her memories of high school - into this manga. To tell the truth, if they were going to reject it, she didn't want to hear anything about it. Let's see - the storyline? There was none, to tell the truth, that was part of the appeal. But she'd showed some strips to her friends and they'd liked them. The artwork was good. She hoped it wasn't too blatantly ripped off of one particular artist. She'd tried to make her own style, but that was hard. It was all influenced by one person or another. Overall, she was satisfied with the effort.
And then, a few days later, it came. The letter. They'd liked it. Her own work was going to be published in Newtype! She rushed to the phone, calling everyone she knew, insisting that she hadn't been wasting her time trying to do this. It was too good to be true. Kagami couldn't even believe that Konata had accomplished for something with her life. She'd thought Konata was going to live with her dad until she was thirty or so.
"I can't believe
we're actually going through with this," Kagami said. She had her arms folded and was surveying the area around them.
"Nothing's going to happen. It'll be fine," Konata said. "Besides, do you think that anything in there could really be as bad as what we've already gone through?"
Konata looked again at the tower, reaching up to the sky. Every video game instinct she had was telling her that this was the end of the journey. After all, once you went up to the top of a tower, all you could do was turn around and go back, right? It was a dead end, technically, but there was always something important at the top. Like a final boss...
"Let's go," Konata said. "I'll lead the way. And, um, be careful."
There were rows of windows all the way around the tower, on each floor, and a balcony several stories up. Her eyes moved down each row to find the door at the tower's base. A breeze went past, blowing her black hair all around her and making waves in the sea of roses, but there was no other sound or movement.
A road led up to the door, paved with light-colored cobblestones. The tower was growing larger as they approached, no longer seeming like some slender thing reaching up but a huge, wide pillar. They stopped just before the entrance.
"Kona-chan... Are you sure we should go in there?" Tsukasa was staring up the flight of steps that led to the door. "I still don't like this."
Konata hesitated, then turned to her. "I told you. Everything's going to be fine... You've been okay all the way up to this point, right?"
"Y-yeah..."
"This just looks dangerous. I really think that we should... I mean, you could get us back to New York if you wanted, couldn't you, Konata?" Kagami said. "Maybe we shouldn't go in without the others. It'll be safer."
They all fell silent again. Konata put a hand against the tower, leaning on it, inspecting it. It was made out of brick, but other than that it reminded her of the black marble in the Eclipse headquarters. And now that she actually touched it, she could feel its power. It seemed in tune with hers. Anything she wanted could be possible right now, she was more in control than ever. If she wanted to go back to New York, she could create the door right here and now.
Actually, she could go back home right now. It would be just as simple.
"Everyone back home must be worried about us... But we'll see them again soon," she said.
"What do you mean?" Miyuki said.
"This is the last part of the journey," Konata replied. "After this, all of us are going home. Let's not waste any time. We can do this."
She climbed the stairs up to the door. She heard the footsteps behind her as her friends followed her. They would be home soon. She could start a new beginning in her life, she'd see her dad and Yutaka, and everyone else she'd left behind, she could explain everything to them... She'd be back in
her old world was just a barely-remembered haze in her memory now. Konata could no longer remember how many years it had been since she'd started working for Eclipse. It had been only one year after she'd started that she'd gone full-time. Now that world wasn't even her "home world" anymore. She had no home world.
She'd attended so many high schools that she couldn't even remember the name of the one she'd used to go to. Her body didn't change much. Just like her mother had, she'd stayed childlike all the way into adulthood, like she'd just stopped growing in her early teens. She could keep on going to high school for years to come.
Of course, doing the same thing all the time got boring, so Konata often mixed it up a bit. She might become a fantasy hero in some old-fashioned world, kind of like the MMOs she used to play all the time. Or she'd go into space, travel between different planets, that kind of thing. She took the high school missions whenever she wanted to slow down for a while and take it easy.
Kagami, Tsukasa, Miyuki... they'd been good friends. She'd never forget them. And she was sure they'd never forget her, either. But they all thought she had died, and in a way, the old Konata had. She could never go back to a completely ordinary life, not after experiencing what was out there. She'd begun to think of everyone back home as being dead too, in a sense. She had about as much hope of seeing them again as if they were. She knew she could look at a copy of a Lucky Star manga whenever she wanted to, but she never did. It would be too much. Better just to leave it all behind and not remind herself of the few good things she'd given up on.
Right now, she had some options. She'd just finished cleaning up some alien invasion that had happened someplace where it wasn't supposed to - she was almost sure that world had been K-On, that one anime that Kyoto Animation had made after Lucky Star, but she wasn't sure. Now she had a choice between a few options. She could go to an alternate earth in a primitive age and slay a few dragons that were threatening a human settlement, or she could sign up to become a Gundam pilot to add some extra strength before they got overwhelmed...
Her dad had liked that show.
There were always thousands of missions open, and hundreds that sounded appealing to her. As long as she kept taking these missions, she could suppress all those memories. Besides, she had a job here. Whenever she felt this way, all she had to do was remind herself of where she would be now if she hadn't joined. And that was nowhere. What kind of normal, single-universe occupation would be right for her? Nothing. This was what she had.
It wasn't bad. She loved this job. It was only common sense that she should give everything else up and become a full-time Eclipse member. She could contribute something important and valuable this way. Throughout the years, she'd met new people in the Organization, and she had so many friends. It wasn't as if she were alone. Quite the opposite. She had more friends and acquaintances than she'd ever had back home.
Why had she started thinking about home now? How many years had it been? Too many. This was no time to consider her life's direction. There were people who needed her right now more than her old friends ever had, people whose very lives depended on her completing her missions. As far as options for her life went, there had been
nothing impressive inside, once they had entered. All that they found was a small corridor, a staircase leading up to the next level of the Tower. It ran around the outer circumference of the structure, and as the entrance closed behind them all the light was coming from those windows running along the side. It curved around, and from here it was hard to see just how long it would go.
"That's probably all the way to the top," Kagami said. Her voice echoed in the unadorned stone room. "Great."
The staircase itself was only wide enough for one person. They'd have to go single-file. Konata stepped forward to take the lead.
"We're going all the way up there?" Tsukasa said. She watched the passage as if something could come down it and attack them at any moment.
"I'll take the lead," Konata said. A sword appeared in her hand, inside a scabbard with a strap that she put over her shoulder. She drew the blade out, which erupted into orange flame. It added a bit more light to the passage. "We'll take it nice and easy, alright? It's going to be fine."
Kagami went second, with Tsukasa staying close behind. Miyuki came last, keeping a careful watch on their back. The stairs didn't go up very far at all. Before they knew it, they were to a landing with a door leading into a room in the center. Konata turned around to the others, and Kagami nodded while reaching into the bag at her side. They opened the door...
Nothing. The room was empty. There was another exit on the other side.
"Careful... We'll take it slow," Konata said. Even so, she didn't feel like they were in danger. There wasn't anything that could pose a threat to her, anyway, she was feeling like she could handle anything. And would anything here even try to harm them? It didn't seem like it would.
Tsukasa muttered something, like she was reassuring herself of some little fact. "None of us have numbers... So it means that nothing can..."
"Huh?" Konata said, looking back over her shoulder.
"N-nothing... It was nothing."
"So how tall do you think the whole building was? If we have to climb all the way to the top of this thing with nothing happening, that's just a hassle." Kagami had lowered her guard without drawing a weapon. She stared ahead at the exit on the other side.
"I couldn't even guess how high this will be," Miyuki said. "It seemed big even compared to some of the New York buildings."
"And if there's nothing at the top?" Kagami said. "We've taken enough wrong turns already.
"There won't be." Konata continued across the room, her eyes moving over the walls, the ceiling, back to the way they'd come from, and seeing nothing. But there was something about this place that was just so impressive, and it wasn't anything physical. It was in the air.
They reached the other side of the room, opened the door which was much like the one they'd come in by, and saw a staircase leading further up. Everything was the same - the windows, the bare black walls, the steps. On this side of the tower there was less sunlight, but Laevateinn was still burning in Konata's hand to reveal the way forward.
"Let's just hurry," she said.
"This is quite an odd architectural design..." Miyuki said. She was counting quietly under her breath as they climbed. They reached the next landing. "...Nineteen," she finished. "It seemed like the same length as the last one."
Nineteen, Konata thought. Probably not a coincidence... but what did it mean?
Something in the next room made her stop, something that she saw right after opening the door. The room had no furniture, much like the last one, but something was lying in the center. A red spot on the black floor.
Putting her sword back into its sheath, Konata walked over to the small band of red cloth and picked it up. It was a brigade leader's armband, according to what was written on it in permanent marker. It was the same kind of armband that Haruhi
always wore whenever they met in the clubroom. Konata had joined several weeks ago, yet another mysterious transfer student, this time coming from a high school in Tokyo. The usual story. She'd been prepared with a backstory in case anyone asked about her family, gotten an apartment, furnished it to her liking - plenty of manga, a PlayStation, a fairly nice TV, memorabilia from plenty of her favorite anime as long as they weren't Suzumiya Haruhi.
Haruhi had wanted aliens, time travelers, espers, and sliders. Konata was just there to fill in that fourth category. She'd told Kyon about it according to Eclipse's guidelines. He could know about the alternate universes, just nothing about being a fictional character, and nothing about where Konata had really come from. She'd broken the news to him last, after all the others had revealed themselves. He was a little downcast - her obsessive otaku nature had always bothered him, but he'd at least liked to believe that she was otherwise a normal human.
This was all as she'd wanted it to be. Konata was to attend North High for all three years. It was the assignment she'd always dreamed of, and the best part was that it was going to end up being her longest, as well.
It wasn't something that could be done overnight like her earlier assignments had been. This required a full-time commitment. It was why she'd left home in the first place... It was for once-in-a-lifetime opportunities like this. It had been worth it, right?
Haruhi had taken a liking to her right away. All Konata had to do was be herself. She saw life in terms of video game and anime plot structures, classified real people in terms of character archetypes. She was getting a reputation as being nearly as eccentric as Haruhi herself. Once she had actually approached the brigade (on her own free will, much to everyone's shock) and stated an interest in finding aliens, time travelers, and espers, she'd been accepted without hesitation.
Club meetings were held almost every day. Sometimes Haruhi would get too bored and wouldn't show up, and so everyone would leave early. Other times she'd have some kind of plan that Konata was all too glad to be a part of, especially if it involved exploiting Mikuru's amazing moe factor in some way. Weekends they'd usually have some sort of get-together to look for supernatural phenomena around the town. Every couple of nights, Konata would go off-universe and actually find something like that. Just for some fun and training.
She was particularly glad to have put a stop to Endless Eight fairly quickly. She'd always thought that was a pretty cheap thing for Kyoto Animation to do, repeating the same episode eight times... And in reality, it had repeated far more than even that. Nagato had told them that those two weeks had repeated four times, and so Konata had later made a casual suggestion of how they could finish up their summer vacation together. Things were back to normal in a flash. Nagato probably had no idea what could have happened otherwise.
December was approaching, so Konata was waiting to see if she'd get any special instructions from Eclipse. Thinking back to what had happened in Disappearance - which had been a great movie, she thought - it seemed like that was right up her alley. If reality shifted into some alternate dimension, that was exactly where being a slider came in. It wasn't all just fun and games. Her real purpose here, like the other club members, was to
prevent the end of the world.
Even after just climbing a few stories up the Tower, Konata could tell what this feeling was. The Tower was the center of all universes, it was everything that existed all at once, and just by being here she could tap into that power. Haruhi's power was the same as hers, and if Haruhi had ever been here, who knows what she could've done?
"Wait... That's Haruhi's. So does that mean she was here?" Kagami said. "Or maybe she still is... Maybe you're right, this might really be the end."
"It's not Haruhi's," Konata responded. She turned it over in her hands as she spoke. "I figured having my own handmade armband made my outfit at the cafe a bit more authentic... This is definitely the same one."
The writing was in black permanent marker. The handwriting was a bit messy, but still carefully printed. She remembered when she'd made this. After using it so much, she was easily able to recognize it as the one she'd made. At first she hadn't wanted to believe that, but it was true. Somehow, this had ended up in this Tower, even though she'd never been here before. Who had brought it here? And why?
"But what does that mean?" Tsukasa asked.
"Who knows?" Konata said. She thought a moment, then decided to leave it there where she'd found it. "Maybe we'll find out... But we have to keep going now. We're onto something."
On the next few floors, there were even more objects. All of them were things Konata recognized well. A sword covered in green slime that she realized was the one she'd used on her very first training run in the mountains. There was a torn jacket covered in blood and bullet holes... She'd been wearing it when she'd died the first time. A school desk like the kind that they had in Ryoo (it was probably the exact one that Konata had used, she realized).
How any of these things had gotten here was beyond her. The armband seemed easy enough to get here, but the desk? What was the purpose of it, anyway? And the sword she was almost sure she had given back to
Jason Ellis, the exchange student from America, and Konata's first experience resembling a romantic relationship. She wasn't going to tell anyone what was going on. She'd decided that was the best way to do it - it would be something special just between the two of them.
Konata was the first one out of all her friends to ever actually have a boyfriend. She used to tease Kagami about it all the time, how they were both single and alone. Tsukasa and Miyuki didn't really seem to care, but Kagami had some kind of self-esteem issue or something about it. And actually, Konata couldn't see why she'd never made it with anyone. And, to be honest, she wasn't sure how this had all started with Jason.
He'd been lost on that first day. Konata had been the first person he'd talked to, and it had turned out that they were in the same class, and then he'd joined them at lunch - just to meet some new friends at a new school, nothing more than that. It had been interesting to meet someone from overseas. He talked a lot about how things were different here in Japan, like how his old school back home didn't even have uniforms and how there wasn't as much public transportation. Konata had never been interested in America all that much, especially considering how she'd probably have to improve her English by a lot in order to visit, but hearing him talk about it, it sounded so...
And after that, it had kind of started out slow. They talked at school a few times, eventually Jason had started joining them if they stopped somewhere in the city after school. Then he and Konata started going places by themselves.
Kagami'd probably just be jealous if she found out any of this. It wasn't even like they were all that close yet, it was still developing. But the event flags had been triggered. Things were accelerating. At times, Konata wondered if Kagami was picking up on any of it, but she never said anything. It was just a look she'd sometimes give the two of them, like she was trying to read what was going on. Konata wasn't quite sure what to do if Kagami found out about this on her own...
And her dad? Konata knew she couldn't tell him. He was still so overprotective of her, he didn't even like any mention of the word "boyfriend." No need to upset him, either. So she'd just keep it low. She'd told Jason that's what she would do, and he was fine with it.
Besides, once he went back to Vermont, it wasn't like they could keep in touch as easily. Their relationship didn't have much of a chance to get too serious. Not that Konata didn't plan to make the most of this while she could. It was too much fun. It was even better than a dating sim, it was real and there was so much more to it than a game could ever have.
Maybe she would visit America sometime. She didn't have a clue how the exchange program worked, but she liked to imagine that she'd be able to cram some English and maybe take a year there. The schools sounded fun. Especially the no-uniform thing. And she liked the American versions of Valentine's Day and Christmas a whole lot more.
This was exactly the kind of scenario that would happen in a game or something like that. It was good that she'd gotten to experience this before her high school career ended and she was forced into the real world. No matter how long this lasted, or what the outcome was, she knew she'd never forget
about this one. Just another object she recognized on the floor several stories up. It didn't look like much, just a basic handgun like the kind that might exist in her own time and universe. That's why she'd used this model. It was so unassuming.
"This is..." Konata stared at it.
"What is it, Konata-san?" Miyuki asked.
Konata looked up at her. "This is the murder weapon from when I left home."
"Y-you mean this is the one that you..." Tsukasa said. "How did all of these things get here?"
"I don't even remember what I did with this. I got rid of it pretty quick. I didn't want to hang onto it..." Konata said. It had only been three or four days into her assignment in Fire Emblem that she'd decided to just ditch the thing somewhere, and she couldn't even remember the universe where she'd thrown it away.
"They were looking all over for someone who had a gun like this," Kagami said. "The wounds on your body... or whatever that thing was... that was the only real evidence they ever had."
"Did they ever arrest anyone for it?" Konata asked.
"Nope. Yui told me once that they had a few suspects, but there wasn't enough to convict any of them."
"We really thought the worst. Everyone was certain there was a serial killer out there somewhere," Miyuki said. "I was scared to leave home, except to go to school. After I heard what happened to you, it seemed like it could happen to anyone."
And really it had just been Konata the entire time. She was the "murderer" everyone had been afraid of. Since, for some reason, she hadn't wanted to keep on living in her own universe. Sure, having to live a double life had been taxing on her energy, but that seemed like such a lame excuse now. She'd only made everything worse for everyone.
Nobody touched the gun, nobody wanted to pick it up and examine it. Konata recognized the model well enough. There was no proof that this was even the exact same one she'd used, but she didn't doubt it was. Not after all the other things they'd seen. There was something strange about this Tower, alright...
"How far up do you think we are?" Konata said suddenly. "It can't be that much farther to the top of this thing. Don't stop now!" The sooner they were away from this room, the better. The sensations she got from each level were a bit different, but this one was the most negative of them all.
As they headed to the next flight of stairs - nineteen steps, it was always nineteen - Miyuki stared out through one of the windows set into the outer wall. Her eyes moved down to judge a rough estimate of the distance to the ground.
"Goodness, I didn't think that this tower could be that high... Is this even possible?"
"I'm sure it is," Konata said. This wasn't just a regular building, and no matter what it looked like, it wasn't just made of these dark stone bricks. There was a lot more to it than that. It could be as high as it wanted. But she wouldn't tell the others, not when Tsukasa already seemed exhausted.
A tattered flag bearing the insignia of the Crimean army. Her black school uniform from Gekkokan, back when she'd been Murakami Emiri. An Evoker, the pistol-looking thing that she used to summon her Persona. Appropriately enough, the floor above that just had a tarot card, creased and slightly dirty. The Star. That had been the Arcana for Pandora, but the card itself... Was that the one they'd found at the Waystation? Wait... there was something about that world, the desert, the caves, and Tull...
Then, several floors later, there was a photograph. A picture that had been taken of all four of them in front of a building somewhere, wearing the red winter uniforms and smiling. A yellow building, with a silver plate over the glass doors. Diamond-shaped grates covered an air-conditioning unit. Konata recognized this building well; she'd know it anywhere. The Kyoto Animation headquarters.
"That's strange. I don't remember going to Kyoto with you, Konata-san," Miyuki said. She held the photo in her hands, and stared at it. "Of course, we went there on our senior class trip, but that was after you..." Her voice trailed off. She didn't need to finish the sentence, they all knew what she meant.
"Right..." Konata said. She was feeling a sharp pang of regret. "I remember..." She hesitated, realizing how strange it sounded. "I remember seeing the episode of our show where we all went on the trip together. I was kind of looking forward to going, but I decided I'd rather just leave for my... new life."
"It was a good trip," Tsukasa agreed. "I wish you could've been there. I missed you so much..."
"But if it never happened the way it was meant to, how can the picture exist? It could never have been taken," Miyuki said.
"No... It still could have," Kagami said. "I mean, the four of us aren't the only... four of us, I guess. There's other versions of our world. I'm sure there's a world out there where nothing went wrong. Right?"
Konata nodded. She remembered what Kagami had said about the last world she'd been in before ending up in New York. The other version of Lucky Star. Their personalities had all been different, but that was just one world out of millions and millions where they must exist, in countless variations. There must be one where they were all just
ordinary high school students. Konata equated that with being a prime target for some kind of strange event, or being a target for some kind of interesting plot to form. But there was no romance. No supernatural events. Not much worth writing home about - or writing a manga about, either.
Still, Konata had the perfect otaku lifestyle and she loved it. She had a job at a cosplay cafe to handle all the expenses, and she bought just about as many doujinshi as she could carry each time Comiket came around. There was no pressure to join any after-school clubs, and her grades always pulled through, so that left a lot of free time to enjoy all her hobbies. And then there were the friends she'd managed to make since coming to high school.
It hadn't even taken her that long to meet them. She'd known them since early in her first year, in fact. Two unique flavors of moe, and an absolutely ideal model of a tsundere. Kagami may deny it, but she was a perfect fit for that label. Right down to the hairstyle, in fact. And Miyuki, well... Nothing needed to be said about Miyuki. Flawless in every way. A perfect body with just the right amount of clumsiness.
But no romance. In fact, after nearly three years of high school, none of them had ever had a boyfriend. Things didn't always work out the way they did in dating sims, she supposed.
Oh, well. If there was nothing interesting going on in her high school career, at the very least Konata had a lot of freedom and very few worries. Who knew what she was going to do after she graduated, since there were virtually no careers that she felt motivated to pursue... But that was still in the future. Just like cramming for a test at the last minute, she'd deal with that issue later.
Kagami always told her about how she should put more effort into her studies, but she just didn't see the point. Science, math, history... none of it was interesting to her. And when it wasn't interesting, she just couldn't focus on it. It was practically impossible.
Something about tests, though, could motivate her enough. She had perfected the delicate art of the all-night cram session to a point where she could go over everything she missed during her in-class naps and pull through with an A or a B on the test, thereby saving her grade. Maybe it was the only way she was staying in school.
Maybe she got it from her dad. He was just as much of a slacker as she was. Since her mom had died so many years ago, she'd never had much of a responsible parental figure in her life. That could've changed things.
But why concern herself with that? For now, everything was perfect. She'd really not have it any other way. All she wanted to was continue
on, up to the next floor. The end had to come soon. The tarot card was from just a few days ago, there couldn't be much more left.
"We really need to find out where all of these came from," Miyuki said. "Wouldn't it suggest that someone was waiting for us?"
It wasn't something Konata liked to consider. She still didn't see the purpose of all these random little things. All they did were bring back memories, some of them much less pleasant than others. And that photograph was especially weird - it wasn't even from her life, technically. All it did was remind her how much she wanted to be done with this...
Up nineteen more steps. Konata paused for just a moment to check out the window and saw the dizzying height that they had reached. It would be hard to believe that they had gone up so far, but nothing was hard to believe right now. She reached a landing, with yet another door.
They'd all been expecting this eventually.
Haruhi turned at the sound of the door opening. Konata's eyes met hers. Konata found she couldn't say anything. What was there to say? She didn't look like she was in any trouble, in fact, it was as if she was annoyed that someone had barged into her private room. This one had windows set into the walls, and the balcony was here overlooking all the roses. It was brighter than the other rooms had been with the sunlight coming in.
"You... You're not Flagg..." Haruhi said. She was dressed in her school uniform. That and the yellow hair ribbon made her recognizable.
"Who?" Konata managed to say, as awkward as it was. This wasn't really how she imagined her first meeting with her favorite character would go. She stepped into the room, which had no furniture. "No, we're not... Um... What are you doing here, Haruhi?"
"How do you know my name?" Haruhi seemed to be examining them, but she kept her distance at the opposite side of the circular room. Her tone had become accusatory, and she pointed a finger at them. "You couldn't be the ones he was talking about... Who are you? Why are you here?"
Konata figured her best bet was to get Haruhi's attention, and the best way to do that would be... "My name is Izumi Konata. These are Kagami, Miyuki, and Tsukasa... I guess I'm what you'd call a slider."
As she hoped, Haruhi's interest piqued at the mention. "You're from a different universe? What are you here for, anyway? If you're... Then..." She seemed to be thinking quicker than the words were coming to her. "You know about my power?"
"You know about that?" Kagami blurted out. "I mean... You're not supposed to..."
"Flagg told me everything about it." She kept on mentioning that name. It must be whoever brought her here, but... Well, of course she would've come willingly. It was Haruhi's most basic nature to go with someone if they were from a different universe, especially if he had proved it by bringing her here. "Don't act so shocked. I'm in complete control of it. I'm supposed to be making sure the Tower isn't destroyed. He said that the world would end if it fell. Actually, he said all the worlds would be destroyed."
"So you're not in any danger?" Konata said.
"Why would I be?" Haruhi said. "Um... Konata, was it? It's great that you came to find me, but I need to stay here."
"That's odd..." Miyuki said. "I thought that Nagato said that if Suzumiya-san ever learned about her power, there was a high risk of destructive energy being released. At least, her explanation went something like that..."
"Wait... You don't mean Yuki, do you? How come she knows about it? She never told me anything!"
"Flagg never told you that your entire Brigade knows about your power?" Konata said.
"No... Actually, he said they were all normal and that I was better off just leaving them behind," Haruhi said. "You're saying that all of them know about me?" The surprise in her voice was genuine.
"Of course. And they were traveling with us until just recently," Konata said. "Nagato's an alien. Asahina's from the future, and Koizumi is from an organization of espers. It's all because you wanted them to be."
"Didn't Kyon try to tell you about it once?" Kagami asked. "I mean, I think I remember..."
"You're right... That wasn't too long ago, he did mention that - "
Without warning, the door behind them creaked open. A voice said, "So you've already arrived. You're just in time."
The man was dressed in a denim jacket and worn leather boots. His black hair hung down to his shoulders. His eyes were fixed on Konata, not in a menacing way but as if he'd been expecting to see her and was pleased at her arrival.
"You know them, Flagg?" Haruhi asked him.
"Indeed I do," he said. "In fact, I've been looking for Konata in particular. I'd be so grateful if you could offer your help. We need all we can get."
"What do you mean?" Konata asked. "I don't understand what all of this means."
"Haruhi and I arrived here just a couple days ago. Before we took control of the Tower, there was another person here," he said. "The Crimson King. And if we hadn't shown up when he did, the entire Tower would've fallen. And, Konata, maybe you've already felt it. Do you know what would happen if the Tower fell?"
She did. A thousand worlds dying at once. She could see that eye emblazoned on the side of that building, watching over just one such world. "It would have been the end of all worlds. There would've been nothing left."
"Right. This Tower is the pillar of all existence. And obviously we couldn't let it fall. He'd already done so much damage that it would be hard to reverse it without the help of someone special. Like Haruhi... or yourself. Surely you know what you are by now."
"She's...?" Haruhi could barely form the words. "You said there weren't any others like me!"
"I'm... sorry," Flagg said. "I couldn't risk getting your hopes up in case it didn't go as planned. This is such a delicate situation that I wasn't even sure she would be able to make it here."
"You're probably right about that," Konata agreed. "We've been on the run lately. It seemed like we might not ever find a way out."
Konata was sure that she'd seen Flagg before. Why couldn't she place it? There was something about his face, and his entire manner. Where had it been, and when?
"I had originally planned to bring both of you here. That was until a few days ago, when you went missing, Konata. It was also around that time that I realized the Crimson King was about to finish what he'd started, and I had to act quickly," Flagg said. "There was no time to explain anything, we had to move immediately. I guess you ended up finding out she was gone, and you came to look for her?"
All this time... She'd assumed that if Haruhi was gone from her world, something must be wrong. That had been partly true, but Haruhi wasn't the problem. She was the solution. They'd had it wrong the whole time.
He continued speaking, not needing an answer from her. "So you understand now. You're probably the two most important people in all of existence right now, and it all depends on you. We'll find a way to stop the damage that's still being done to the Tower, and restore everything that's already been done. We don't have much of a choice at this point."
Haruhi nodded. "I was going to tell you once you got back, it was just recently. Something else happened. I'm not sure what. The Tower got even weaker."
Lines of concern appeared on Flagg's brow. "Not good at all... I thought you would be able to handle this alone, and you've done brilliantly so far. But it looks like we need someone else. You arrived just in time, Konata."
"What about us?" Kagami said. "What do you expect us to do?"
"You three have been though a lot lately, but it should be easy for Konata to find you a way back home," Flagg replied. "I'm sure you'd be grateful for that. However, she and Haruhi should stay here just a while longer."
Konata thought about it. She looked over at the others, then to Haruhi.
"You guys can go on ahead, then," she said. Her head was spinning, she could hardly believe this. "I guess this is just what I need to do."
"What do you mean?" Tsukasa said. "You said you were going to go back with us! We were going to have a normal life again, or at least we'd try to..."
"I will. It's just... We knew something was going wrong back when we started this, and I knew I'd have to fix whatever it was. This is it. I have to do this, otherwise we might not even have a home world to go back to. Don't you understand that? Haruhi was never in trouble."
"Eclipse..." Miyuki said suddenly, contemplatively. "They were looking for us. We still don't know what they want."
"And, believe me, I've tried to figure it out," Flagg said. "It seems you know about what you're capable of now, Konata. Eclipse was only using you, and what they wanted I can't be sure of... With power like yours, all kinds of destruction would be possible. Who knows how many worlds they would eliminate, just to cut down everything to a more manageable size? What I want isn't total destruction, it's simply control. You'll be in control too, Konata. The three of us."
Konata's mind was working. It didn't seem right, yet... Eclipse had taken away her membership and left her stranded in Haruhi's world, without much explanation. And Miyuki said that they were all on a wanted list. But Eclipse also tried to protect the balance, she had saved people when she worked for them.
There were too many worlds to protect all of them, though. So if they did 'eliminate' enough of them... They could protect a couple hundred, or maybe a few thousand. They'd say it was for the best.
"If we take this Tower, then it'll all be under our control. We can get rid of threats with a wave of the hand, and create new worlds however we want. Doesn't that seem like a much better solution?"
"You're right..." Konata mumbled. She could see other worlds in her mind right now, and she could feel the space available for her to reach out and affect them. Any world she wanted, really. This might as well be the control room for all existence, and she and Haruhi were the keys to operate it. She could finally put all this power to good use, there was now an important reason for her to have it. She looked over at the others. "Um... I really am sorry about this, guys. But... it's just the last thing that needs to be done."
Flagg smiled. "You made the right decision, Konata. I'm willing to let you have a second chance."
Wait... second chance... So she had met him before... And now the details were coming back to her. As vivid as the first time that she'd experienced it as a dream. The pink petals shriveling as they fell off the trees, the clouds moving over the sky turning everything below them dark and grey, and the pair of burning red eyes in a featureless face covered in shadows, attached to a figure wearing worn-down boots...
And then she'd seen him again as her consciousness had faded, after releasing all that power to restore her world after the attack. The details of that had grown so hazy that she'd nearly forgotten them, but now they all came back in a rush.
In a single quick motion, she raised her blade, a meter-long line of flames, to point at him. "I'm just wondering, what's your plan after we restore the Tower? What are you going to do then?"
"Konata? What's going on?" Haruhi stared at her in shock, though she couldn't hide how impressed she was at Konata's weapon.
"Rendor Forsythe, right?" Konata said.
He lowered his head and gave a small laugh. "You recognize me... It's just one of my many names."
"You were already the most powerful person in all existence when you were in charge of Eclipse. You're just trying to move up, aren't you?"
"In basic terms, yes," he replied. He raised his face to look her in the eye, and she couldn't remember if his eyes had been that color before or if she was just imagining it now that she remembered how he had appeared to her before. "Put that away, Konata. It won't do you any good here."
Nobody moved.
"Whatever you may believe, the Tower truly is in danger. You could still help us restore it, and nobody would be hurt. Of course, if you still want to say no, then..." Flagg was grinning. "What happened to your world was nothing. Just imagine what could happen."
"It was you?" Konata said.
"What's he talking about?" Haruhi demanded, but nobody acknowledged her.
"You've already figured out that I was Forsythe the entire time. You needed that extra push to activate your full potential, and I gave it to you. And weren't you able to use that to set everything right again?"
"You were willing to put thousands of lives at risk so that I'd have the potential you wanted."
"And even if you hadn't been able to repair those damages, what then? It was a small price. You of all people should know how much that counts for in the grand scheme of things. You should be grateful. Look at what you can have now."
"No... This isn't right. I won't do this."
"What did you do to her world? You said we were trying to save the world!" Haruhi said.
"I never said this would be easy, Haruhi. Sacrifices have to be made. Everything will be worth it at the end."
Haruhi shook her head. "No... This isn't what you said. What else have you been lying about?"
He was still smiling. "You'd really trust them over me. Wasn't I the first one to tell you the truth? Without me, you'd never have learned about what you really are. You would have lived out the rest of your boring, ordinary life never becoming anything more than just another face in the crowd."
"Haruhi... You just need to trust me on this," Konata said. "We can't let him take control."
"I... don't know..."
It had to be done, and Haruhi just seemed to confused now to do anything about it. Konata rushed forward, stabbing the blade directly into Flagg's chest - but he didn't bleed, and the fire didn't seem to burn him. He seemed barely surprised by it. She heard Miyuki let out a gasp. It made her temporarily aware that her friends, the people who she always wanted to keep safely in her own normal, safe world were here with her. But that awareness only lasted a second. In the intensity of that moment, it seemed to only be the two of them. Everything and everyone else seemed to fade away.
"So that's the way it's going to be," he said. "I expected more from you."
"I think you underestimate how powerful your Tower really is. But maybe you were right... There's just a few things that I need to use its power to change. Starting with you."
"Are you sure this is what you want? Think of what I could give you. I'm willing to let you have as much as you want, if you only give me what I need."
She met his eyes for just a moment. His red eyes stared into her, and she believed what he said. He knew something about what could be done with the Tower, if she did just go along with him -
She could be the most powerful being in any universe if she stayed here. Everything could go according to her design. She'd quite literally become a god if she wanted to - she already had power, but this could focus it into a precise direction. She could shape reality consciously. Maybe even more than a god. The ultimate reward. Limitless in what was possible, with no boundaries of what she should or shouldn't do, only what she wanted.
Concentrating hard on everything else she could think of, everything out there that she really wanted, she drove the sword in up to the hilt.
And, as if he had never been there, he was gone.
It was marked with a long silence, and Konata still stood in place with her sword piercing through the empty air. Her breathing was heavy, and her heart was pounding in her chest. Finally, realizing that it was over, she stood up straight, and lowered her blade towards the floor. She stared straight ahead.
"I can't believe you actually did that..." Kagami said softly. "What about all those things he said?"
"But now... what happens?" Haruhi said. "I still don't know if that was the right thing to do..."
Konata stared at the ceiling. Then she shook her head. "I don't feel like anyone was ever supposed to be in charge of this thing. Not him, or anyone. Eclipse always said we were supposed to protect the balance, and I always thought that meant everything's supposed to go on its own will. The way it was all intended to be." She paused. "Besides, controlling the entire multiverse sounds like a lot of responsibility. I don't think I'm up to it."
Konata put her sword away, and as the flames were extinguished it became very dark. The sun had set now, and the sky outside the windows was a dark blue filled with thousands of stars. Everything seemed very still.
"So what happens now?" Kagami said. "This is the end, isn't it? We did what we were supposed to."
"Right," Konata said. She looked over to Haruhi. "So do you have any idea what's at the top of this Tower?"
"No," Haruhi replied. "I've never gone up there... I don't know, I just never wanted to. Do you think something important might be up there?"
"I've played a lot of video games. If you make it all the way to the top of a tower like this, there will be something significant at the top. It's just how things work," Konata said.
"I just want to be home..." Tsukasa's voice was tired.
"No time to waste, then," Konata said. "It's not like anything is holding us back."
She opened the door to the next flight of steps, which looked so ordinary and so much like the others. But even so, she knew the top floor couldn't be that far off.
"Let's finish this."