Chapter two

Have you ever had a time in your life when you just can't remember what you were doing before you got to where you were? One minute you're doing something and then all of a sudden you're doing something else and don't even remember your body doing it. Everyone has their own theory on this take of life, my favorite (that makes more sense than you'd like to think), was one Koizumi would state proudly like he always did. He'd probably blame it on a skip in the space time continuum caused by 'Miss Suzumiya'.

Yeah, it makes perfect sense. Haruhi got so pissed off at me that she just changed time. I guess for now I could believe it, since I had no scientifically plausible explanation. After all, I was just in the brigade room in a fight with Haruhi, and now I'm here; walking up this stupid hill to school with my pack slung over my shoulder. I was still confused, but I'd ask Koizumi about it later.

"Hey Kyon," Taniguchi said the second I'd arrived to my locker. Did those two just wait for me to get there or something? "How'd it go yesterday?"

"Same as always," I said slightly annoyed as I switched shoes.

"Nothing exciting?" Kunikida asked on my opposite side. They always had to sandwich me between them for some reason; like if they didn't I'd run away.

"No, nothing exciting," I said backing away to head off to class. "Even if anything had happened, you wouldn't believe me." I was humoring them now.

They followed behind me, for once, going to class also. "Try us," Taniguchi offered and I thought I just might. I was feeling daring, after all, that morning; avoiding obvious death from the great Suzumiya god will do that to you.

"Well I survived a jump in the space time continuum," I said with a half shrug. I knew they wouldn't believe me anyway, and judging by their fits of laugher, I was right.

"You can be so weird at times Kyon," Taniguchi said putting an arm around my shoulder. I shoved it off once we got to the class; no need to have Haruhi freaking out on me over Taniguchi. Yes, she would do that one of these days. "After school did you want to come over? I have this cool new game that's made for more people and Kunikida sucks at everything."

"Thanks for the offer," I said before Kunikida could defend himself, "but I'm pretty sure I have things to do after school." I didn't bother to explain what happened the day before and all the damage control I had to make up for with Haruhi.

"That's too bad, maybe next time then," Kunikida said going over to his seat; Taniguchi did the same, leaving me to deal with the dragon myself.

I sighed looking over at my seat by the window, directly behind it was Haruhi's desk; with her perfect access for my daily torture. She was there today staring blankly out the window looking kind of bored. I figured this was Haruhi's body language for 'I'm ignoring you today' since often times she's all a glow waiting for me to arrive.

Not today.

I walked over either way and set my stuff down, taking what I needed out, while I took my seat. I could feel by body grow slightly tense as I waited for something. Anything from Haruhi that would lead back to the afternoon before; but after waiting a good ten minutes I assumed she'd forgotten all about it. Maybe, like the last time we survived a disaster, she woke up this morning thinking it was all a nightmare.

"Hey," I said casually turning around. I wasn't sure what she wanted me to say but I figured if I kept up conversation things would go well. Too bad nothing came to mind so I had to wait for her to respond. If I spoke out of turn she might get mad, and I didn't need Haruhi's wrath any more that morning.

She just barely turned her head (I'd guess half a centimeter) in my direction, a look on her face that could only be described as confused and bitterness. "What?" She asked snappily, not a surprise at all, she was still pissed.

This was the hard part, thinking of what to say to that. I just blurted anything out of my mouth, "I wanted to apologize." I thought that was a good way to start the morning.

"For what?" She asked looking even more annoyed than before, which probably would make any normal human being annoyed also, but this was how it was on a daily basis with her so I was use to it.

"For yesterday," I said trying not to actually bring it up. Maybe it all had been a dream and she really didn't realize it. Either way, I didn't want to bring up the entire event; half the class was watching me.

"What are you talking about?" She asked raising her voice just enough to get us even more noticed.

It must have been nothing but a dream to her and I didn't want to make a scene, "nothing. Never mind," I said turning back in my seat, jumping when someone stood over it. I was shocked, and somewhat freighted, when I saw a blue haired beauty standing there. Not one I need to see there though.

"Is something the matter Kyon?" Ryoko Asakura asked in her usual charming voice. The problem was, it sent shivers down my spine.

Here, let me explain the situation.

A couple months ago, when the brigade was first formed, Nagato told me that she was an alien interface. To keep in lemmas terms, she told me that the entire universe was like one giant super computer. Everyone and everything was just data and her organization (her included) could manipulate it at will in anyway they chose. They have laws, sure, but they can still do whatever they want; and the one with her finger on the delete button? Haruhi Suzumiya of course. According to Nagato, Haruhi is the computer's owner (in a way) and if she gets mad enough she can simply change or alter anything she wants.

Where does Miss Asakura come in?

Nagato was sent here on a mission to monitor Haruhi and study how she works. To do this, the organization Nagato is in gave her an assistant. You guessed it, Ryoko Asakura. Now Miss Asakura was a lot more socially programmed than Nagato, she was in our class for a while watching Haruhi trying to get something interesting to happen so she could report it back to their home base. Haruhi wasn't willing to be anyone's guinea pig though, and nothing out of the ordinary happened.

Until one day when Miss Asakura asked me to meet after school in our home room class. That was when she reveled to me what she was and what she wanted; and that she knew how to get Haruhi to react in a drastic way. How might you ask? Oh simple, by killing me. Her logic behind it was that my death would cause great grief to Haruhi and something big would happen.

To keep a long story short, Nagato saved me and deleted Miss Asakura who left with a smile. The story everyone was told the next day in class when she didn't show up? Her family moved to Canada. Think anyone bought it? Everyone did, if you excluded Haruhi, who thought it was perfect for a mystery. Needless to say we never found out the truth to Miss Asakura (according to Haruhi).

Maybe that was why her being here was frightening to me.

"Miss Asakura," I said astounded, trying not to make a scene. I glanced back at Haruhi with the corner of my eye but she didn't react in anyway. Turning my sights back to Miss Asakura I added, "how are you this morning?" Not exactly the first thing you would say to one of their more recent murderers.

She smiled though, like she use to do, "everything has been fine for me so far this morning. I can't say the same for you and Miss Suzumiya," she nodded in Haruhi's direction and I figured she was picking up some of Haruhi's hate vibes.

"Right," I said looking back at Haruhi again. She narrowed her eyes but pretended not to hear us. I was going to add something else, but our teacher came in and class had begun. Everything was normal for once, like the day before, I learned plenty and got homework done. Haruhi had kept quiet and barely spoke; she kept writing and I assumed it was brigade stuff. When lunch began Haruhi bolted off and I was left alone with Taniguchi and Kunikida.

We sat in the classroom, pushing three desks together to make a larger surface to eat on. They went on talking about school work and Taniguchi's new game, but I wasn't listening. I turned my attention out the window to the track where Haruhi stood. She was staring down at the ground, every once in a while kicking at the grain. "What is she up to now?" I asked myself out loud.

"Who?" Kunikida asked, both of them looking out the window also.

"Haruhi Suzumiya?" Taniguchi asked with the slightly snicker, "what about her? She always does this."

I found that kind of odd, since just about every lunch she harasses me or one of the others. "Yeah," Kunikida agreed, "she's always outside looking around. I wonder what she's looking for." It really wasn't a question; especially since Taniguchi would just roll off what he said.

"Aliens of course!" See what I mean? Taniguchi rolled his eyes, "she's not going to change anytime soon. That girl is crazy," he let the 'A' in crazy drag out, putting emphasis on the word. "I think she should just settle down with some guy who likes reading sci-fi novels, and they can have a beautifully strange relationship together."

"Is that suppose to be an insult?" I asked, somewhat annoyed by that since they always were teasing me about hooking up with Haruhi.

"How so?" Taniguchi asked with his dazed look on his face. Now they were just playing with me, I was sure of it.

"Do you have a crush on Miss Suzumiya?" Kunikida asked with the same look.

I just stared between the two of them wondering what kind of game they were playing, "no, I don't have a crush on her," I said shaking my head. "She's the one always wanting to hang out with me." I pointed out taking a bite of my rice cake. "I'm surprised neither one of you are urging me to tell you about yesterday." I didn't mean to even bring up yesterday to these two, but I might as well since they'd only ask later other wise.

"What happened yesterday?" Taniguchi asked with that same dazed look.

"Haruhi wanted to ask me to the dance, but we ended up in a fight instead," I explained with a half-witted sigh. "Before school she left that note in my shoe locker remember?" This game was getting old.

"She did?" Kunikida asked, almost amazed by that.

"You both were there," I pointed out but then got the idea that Haruhi must have erased not only time, but maybe the entire thing from everyone's memory but mine. It would make sense as to why no one had spoken of the event (especially Haruhi). Maybe she convinced herself it was all a dream and the others just have no idea either. "Never mind," I finally said finishing my lunch, casually glancing over to the other side of the room where Miss Asakura was talking to a few other students. "When did she get back?" I asked.

The two of them turned around to see who I was talking about first, and then Taniguchi replied with a, "who?" Clueless. As usual.

"Miss Asakura," I said pointing in her direction only a few second before letting my hand grab my rice cake again; I took a bite and waited their answer.

"Did she go somewhere?" Kunikida asked and I just shook my head. They had no idea, apparently, so random thoughts started buzzing through my head. The theory I got was that it was quite possible Nagato needed a partner for her mission. Maybe it got to be too much for her to handle on her own so she recruited Asakura again. Maybe she got the bugs worked out this time, or maybe it wasn't even the same girl. There could be a whole warehouse in space made of Nagato and Asakura models ready for launch.

Okay, I was getting ahead of myself, but that's how it goes in the movies. Right? Either way, it seemed no one remembered her leaving. Maybe I wasn't the only one who escaped some kind of inner dimensional phenomenon.

"Sorry, thinking of someone else," I lied and finished my lunch.

The rest of the day after that had gone a little better. Haruhi still was keeping quiet taking the cold shoulder to a whole new level. For her, it was normal. Ryoko Asakura just kept on acting like a normal girl and no one questioned anything. Now I was starting to sound like the weird one on campus. I ran through various scenarios in my head about how I'd ask Nagato and Koizumi about the whole thing. I was sure one of them knew what was going on, or at least had some mind blowing theory about it all.

When school was out, Haruhi just got up and left as casually as possible. I figured she just wasn't having a good day, then again how was I to know? She barely said three actual things to me all day. I packed my things at my own pace and made my way to the brigade room. I passed by several other students, who gave me weird looks like they had no idea what I was doing; kind of weird since I was in the cultures hall every afternoon.

I was probably early like usual, which meant sitting for who knew how long until someone showed up. When I did reach the brigade room, however, I noticed that the plaque above the door was missing. Maybe Haruhi decided she didn't like it or wanted a new one; maybe the wood working club just wanted it back for what ever reason. I just let out an annoyed sigh and headed inside hoping Haruhi would give Nagato and I some time to talk.

Needless to say, Nagato wasn't in the room.

The room wasn't even in the room; it was like someone had gone through the brigade room and stripped it of everything. The table was there, but Nagato's bookshelf was gone, Miss Asahina's kitchen set was missing, all the games had vanished, Haruhi's head desk and computer was gone also. I could feel my mouth fall open in shock, and confusion, as I just looked at the barren wasteland that use to be so lively.

"What's going on?" I asked even though no one was there. The room was so dead, it was eerie and it was at that moment I knew something was definitely wrong. I considered waiting around for Nagato or Koizumi to appear, even Miss Asahina would be nice. Someone had to know what was going on.

Maybe not though.

I slowly moved into the ghost of a room, trying to figure out what had happened. Maybe I wandered into the wrong room by mistake or maybe Haruhi was taking this whole thing to a new extreme. Whatever the reason was, I wasn't liking it. I glanced out the window, for whatever reason, and spotting our fearless leader leaving the school.

"Haruhi!" I shouted turning and running out of the room. I didn't even bother grabbing the bag I'd dropped when I arrived. I had to find out what was going on and she had an answer. I threw my morals aside, racing through the halls until I had finally broke through to the icy bitterness of the outside world. "Haruhi!" I called out again, and this time she heard

She turned around giving a dazed look at first, but it was soon replaced by anger; the same anger I knew very well. She faced me, crossing her arms over her chest as I approached. You think after climbing up that hill every morning I would be use to physical exercise, yet I found myself panting as I stood before her.

"What's going on?" I asked first, and typical Haruhi had to mess with my head.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said deepening her frown.

"Don't play games," I demanded, in no mood, "what did you do to the brigade room?"

"Brigade room? I don't even know what that is or where it is," she said sizing me up.

"Yes you do," I accused, which made her more mad (what didn't?). "The brigade room is empty and you've been ignoring me all day. Can't you let one fight go?"

"What are you talking about?" She raised her voice and emphasized every word like I was deaf or something.

"We had that fight yesterday," maybe. Maybe she'd forgotten. "Over the school dance. Listen, let's just forget it ever happened and go talk to the others and-"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" She snapped, cutting me off. I stopped and just stared at her, waiting for her to explain. Thankfully, she did. "You're Kyon right? Everyone calls you that," she started. "I don't know who you think you are talking to me like this, but I really have no idea what you're talking about. I didn't even know you knew my name, let alone stalk me."

"Stalk you?" I gapped, "you practically force me to follow you on a daily basis."

"No. I don't." She said matter-of-factly. "We've hardly said more than a 'hello' to each other in the past. You seem familiar, sure, but we have class together so that's probably why. Now then, if we're done here, I have things to do." She let out a huff and spun back on her heel to storm off.

In Haruhi language that means 'it's done'.

I just stood there completely awestruck.

What was going on?