Chapter four
I guess there was nothing else to be said for the rest of the day.
When I left Haruhi, I headed straight for home where I did the rest of my homework for the night and went to bed. I didn't sleep, mind you, I just lay in bed staring up at the ceiling. I'd been doing a lot of that lately because of this whole thing. It made me worried something was wrong; other than the fact I was now living in an unknown dimension where my life is completely normal and god wants nothing to do with me.
But besides all that.
No matter what, I couldn't shake off the feeling there was something I was missing. Something important or vital to my situation. Too bad anything too important wouldn't be in this time frame with me. If only I had some kind of clue or even an easy riddle to help me. Then I remembered Nagato's book.
I glanced over to my tiny bookshelf, scanning the surface. Sure enough, it wasn't there but it did give me a great idea. It didn't matter which time frame I was in or who I was with, Haruhi was still Haruhi and by their logic Haruhi was still controller of the universe. Which meant she had to be under surveillance all hours of the day, like in the past. Right? Just go along with it and say you understand.
I smiled thinking about my next plan of action. It was simple, in a perfect world, I just go find Nagato and ask her to fix things. Or even Koizumi might be able to help if I find his homeroom class at school. Miss Asahina could even send me back in time from angering Haruhi if I found her. Miss Asakura being in our classroom reassured my theory that everything would be alright.
With that thought dancing through my mind, I lay back against my pillow and tried to sleep.
It was a failed attempt.
Haruhi wasn't at school the next day, much to my lack of surprise. Haruhi had a way of disappearing when things got to be too much for her, much like a small child would. Since no one was questioning me about it, like they normally would, I took the time to do my research; starting at lunch when Taniguchi and Kunikida gathered at my table to eat.
"Taniguchi, still know everything about every girl in the school?" I asked casually before taking a bite of my rice cake. I was sick of eating them, but my little sister was an expert at them and thus I was stuck with them for the rest of my days.
"Of course I do," Taniguchi replied, almost offended. I should have known he'd be the same old Taniguchi no matter what the circumstance was. "Why? Finally have your eyes on a girl besides Suzumiya?" He was teasing, but thankfully he had nothing to back up his claim like he otherwise would have.
"Hardly," I said sipping at my orange drink. Carbonated juice, one of the strangest things ever invented. "I was just wondering if you could tell me about two girls in particular."
"What for, Kyon?" Kunikida asked, curious as always.
Luckily, I'd thought up many excuses during my lack of sleep, "I'm interested in joining a club and there is one girl I noticed hanging around who might have the information I'm needing to join. The other girl can help me also with another club I was thinking about joining." I had remembered that at one time, before Haruhi's ludicrous brigade formed, both Nagato and Miss Asahina had been in actual clubs. I planned to use them to my advantage.
"You're going to join a club?" Kunikida asked, mimicking the obvious.
"I was just trying to get information for future reference," I stated finishing off my drink. "The first one is a girl named Yuki Nagato. She's in the literary club, a freshman student, she's kind of pale compared to other students, almost white I would say. Normally wears glasses but switches for contacts now and again," that was kind of a lie but it would work for now. "She's not very social but she'd know all about the club."
"Hm, Nagato huh?" Taniguchi said, deep in thought, as though going through the files in his mind.
"The other is another girl named Mikuru Asahina. She's in the calligraphy club and I'm sure you'd remember her. She has radiant orange colored hair, a third-year student and very cute. She's kind of shy but really nice once you get to know her," I could go on forever talking about her but the looks they were giving me told me to back off.
"Nagato and Asahina," Taniguchi said, going back into his train of thought.
"You want to join a reading or writing club?" Kunikida asked, almost shocked.
"I just want to check them out," I said biting into my rice cake, which had no flavor at all.
"I guess I could understand that. I could also understand if you only were interested because of these girls," he said with a faint smile, "are becoming a womanizer, Kyon?"
"You've been hanging around Taniguchi too much," I commented deciding I was done with my tasteless lunch for the time being.
"Don't insult me like I'm not here," Taniguchi said out of his trance. "Sorry Kyon, but neither one of those girls sound familiar." I found myself just staring at him for a long time; it must have scared him because he continued, "the only third-year students I know with orange hair are the geeky girls who spend their time playing chess in the back lot. None of them are considered very cute and they're not in the calligraphy club. There's the red head girl on the track team but she's not shy one bit.
"The other girl, Nagato, doesn't sound familiar at all and neither does the literary club. I know we use to have one a long time ago but all the students graduated so they shut down the whole thing. Maybe she was in it but got kicked out because there wasn't enough members."
It made sense. Haruhi never wanted the brigade, never made the brigade and thus for there was no reason for Nagato or Miss Asahina to make themselves known to the other students. The fact Miss Asakura was in the classroom was proof enough Nagato was watching Haruhi, but not doing any hands on work herself. Unless Miss Asakura was flying solo, which could very well be the case.
Ugh, if anyone out there knows what's going on, please tell me so my life can just get back to normal.
"…but if you're interested, I know a few other girls who can help." Taniguchi said, breaking through my own train of thought.
"What?" I asked dumbly.
"You're not even listening to me," Taniguchi said annoyed, "I'm giving you gold here and you're just dozing off. You are as bad as Suzumiya," he said rubbing at his temples.
"Sorry," I half apologized, "would you happen to know about any transfer students?" I asked, almost sounding a bit panicked. Not to say I wasn't but still…
"Transfer students?" Taniguchi asked looking over at Kunikida, like that was his department.
"There was one new transfer student a month ago," Kunikida said trying to remember, "she was kind of cute. She's a senior student though," he added.
"What about male transfers?" I tried, only to gain strange looks from the both of them.
"Kyon, don't tell me you've gone to the dark side," Taniguchi said overly dramatic like always.
It took me a minute to realize what dark side he was talking about, "what? No way, I'm just looking for someone," I retorted, offended by his proposal.
"Who?" Kunikida asked, and their eyes were on me. I'd thought things carefully through with the female I was searching for, any guy could be looking for a girl, nothing suspicious about that. Another male though, and it got tricky.
"He was someone I knew in the past, and I heard he was transferring here," I lied. It was simple, it was true and they seemed to buy it. "His name is Itsuki Koizumi. Kind of tall, brownish colored hair; he doesn't say much but when he gets started you can't shut him up." I tried to describe.
Kunikida went back to searching in his mind's file cabinets for anyone who fit Koizumi's description. On average, the human being will look down if they're remembering information and look up if they're trying to picture something. Since Kunikida was letting his eyes wander between the two now and again, I could only imagine what he was searching for. "Sorry Kyon, it doesn't ring a bell."
I let out a disappointed sigh, "thanks anyway," I said as they started to gather up their things and fix the desks back. I figured everything was literal with Haruhi's sense. She didn't make the club, she didn't want to hang out with a time traveler, alien or esper; therefore they didn't exist.
Not around me at least.
As I sat there in silence trying to file through my own mind cabinets, I realized it was a lost cause. I couldn't remember where Koizumi originated from before getting transferred; I knew where Nagato use to live but wasn't sure if she'd still live there or show herself to me otherwise. It was with that thought that I looked over at Miss Asakura who was chatting amongst her friends.
I stared for a while before dragging out a sigh and standing up. As luck would have it, the bell rang and I had to take my seat once more. After school I would have to pull a Haruhi and talk to Ryoko Asakura. Hopefully, this time, without almost losing my life in the process.
When the bell rang to leave and go home, I had almost forgotten what I was going to do. Only after I stepped out of the class did I remember, and quickly go back in fear Miss Asakura would leave. She didn't though, and even after all the other students had vanished, she remained. Her excuse was to clean the room, but I'm pretty sure it was because she was linked to it; or something like that anyway.
"Did you need anything Kyon?" She asked in a chirpy voice that reminded me a lot of Miss Asahina.
"Yeah I did actually," I said setting my stuff down. "I wanted to know how I can get in contact with Nagato." I said it so simply and so plainly, she almost ignored my request.
"Do you think you passed today's pop quiz? I hope I did," she was avoiding me now. Dampening some paper towels, she turned to the black board to wipe away the chalk stains.
"You don't need to play games with me," I insisted, "I know all about you and Nagato. You're aliens right? Or something similar to them, I can't remember what Nagato said exactly. Inner dimensional beings from space, you could say." She was quiet for a while, keeping to her work, so I went on. "You're both suppose to monitor Haruhi aren't you?" That time I knew I hit something because she seemed to almost stop breathing. "Look, I did something and Haruhi changed the time stream. I need to fix it," I was almost begging.
"I am sorry," she said turning just enough to show me her smile, eyes shaded by her bangs. "I do not know what you are talking about. Miss Suzumiya is just a normal high school girl like anyone else. Just like me."
I was frustrated now, I think, feeling a surge of adrenaline run through my veins. That feeling you get when you were expecting something and you didn't get it all the way because someone wronged you. Like disappointment, only fueled with anger. "That's just it though, you're not normal."
"Kyon, I think you should head home. It is going to rain soon," she said going back to her cleaning.
It was at that instant that something took over. It felt as though my whole body was being controlled by someone else. I reached down and grabbed my, rather large, text book and with full force threw it at Miss Asakura. The book soared through the air and as I did the thought hit me that she could be as she said she was. A normal girl. In that case, the book was about to- "look out!" I shouted.
I knew my cry wouldn't warn her in time, but inches away from the back of Miss Asakura's head, she spun around and knocked it away. The book flew to her right and out the window, shattering the glass all over the place. I stared for a long time, trying to process what had happened before slowly looking at Miss Asakura.
Her eyes were glassy and glazed over in a cynical way, narrowed just enough to be glared yet not to subtle. "You are trying to interfere with my mission," her voice was changed the same as her eyes, "I am not to tolerate such behavior from anyone. Tell me, are you an enemy here to destroy my networking to get to Miss Suzumiya?"
My mouth went wide open as I, yet again, stared back at her. "What?" He managed to breath with her words caught up to me. "I'm not trying to destroy anyone or anything. I'm just trying to fix-"
"You are vexing the time stream that was altered a few days ago, in hopes to return them to their rightful rhythm," she said with more emotion. Not as kind as she use to be, her voice was darker. It was then realized that this wasn't the same Ryoko Asakura as before. "You are correct, subject Kyon, in the fact I am here to monitor and maintain order, but it is not Haruhi Suzumiya I am to guard over. It is you."
I cursed under my breath as I took a step back, but the floor below me shattered like the glass in the window until the entire classroom was engulfed in darkness, with only Miss Asakura and myself left in the light. There was an inhuman wind that blew around us, chilling and uninviting. I wanted to hold myself to keep warm, but I was afraid it'd leave me defenseless.
"What do you mean you're suppose to watch over me?" I asked, having to shout above the noise of the wind. "I'm just a normal kid, I didn't do anything!"
"Wrong," Miss Asakura said as a loud crashing sound was heard. I ducked but there didn't seem to be anything broken. Then again, who knew where I was or what was going on. "It was because of you subject Kyon that Yuki Nagato was forced to delete Ryoko Asakura. The organization found it suitable since they felt your powers were keeping Miss Suzumiya at bay.
"When you made Miss Suzumiya angry, her emotions came out in a great fury and she rippled the continuum to a stand still, branching off into this world. You jumped onto this branch along with the new memories, and with it came this Ryoko Asakura. The organization felt it necessary to watch over you to make sure you would not do anything to harm this Haruhi Suzumiya or try to change the old time continuum.
"As it would appear, you are too forceful for your own good. For the wellbeing of yourself and everyone around you, you will have to be deleted." She said before throwing her arms down as those same glowing knife like hands appeared, same as before.
This scene looked familiar in too many painful ways, and I was too busy lost in thought to pay much attention as she ran at me. The strange this was, she moved faster than before and in seconds I would be sliced in half; and yet it seemed she moved in slow motion.
Haruhi ripped the time stream into another part? I tried to picture it as an actual stream. It's all flowing one way, things continuing like normal. Then one day, god or man comes along and cuts off to the side of the stream and makes another smaller stream. They both continue to move the same direction but now lead two different places. Not only that, but the fish and water skippers in the stream have to choose which stream to go down when they get to the fork in the middle. If they choose one, it leads to the ocean.
If they choose the other, it could mean death.