She was gone. Nagato Yuki had disappeared. Once and for all. Nothing remained.
But she'd only just come back to us!
"No!" I shouted with impotent disbelief. This can't be happening!
I ran to the spot where the two Nagatos had been in the room, ripping myself free from Asahina-san's hold on my arm. I looked around frantically for something, anything! There had to be something left! Some sort of clue she had left behind to help me, like she always did.
This couldn't be the end, it just couldn't!
I collapsed onto my knees, hands shaking uncontrollably. I felt nothing. I couldn't understand.
It's all wrong! I can't understand!
WHY?!
Against the screaming in my head, I suddenly started hearing Asahina-san's frantic sobbing. Koizumi was saying something, but I couldn't make sense of anything he was saying. I couldn't make sense of any of it.
My trembling fingers felt the ground on which Nagato had stood, like a blind man, I searched for something familiar, something that would tell me where I was and where I was to go from here.
She couldn't be dead… could she?
Maybe if…
She…
What if…
I suddenly knew exactly what I needed to do, who I needed. Only one person could help save Nagato. Only she had the power to bring Nagato back.
I stood up on shaky legs, determination slowly returning with my sense of balance. Nagato was gone, I'd seen it with my own two eyes. She was… dead. And there was only one thing I knew in this world that had the power to save her. The power of God. If she had been the start of this whole mess, she would be the end of it as well. My alpha and omega. My little walking, talking Deus Ex Machina. She could fix – she would fix this. I would make her if I had to.
I turned around, beginning my slow and unsteady march towards the door, towards my goal. That was when Koizumi grabbed my arm, and I finally heard him.
"– just happened? Is she… gone… for good? Do you have any idea –"
"No. I gotta go," I mumbled. I pulled on Koizumi's hand, but his grip around my arm only tightened.
"Huh? Where? What's going on?" Koizumi looked genuinely worried. No stupid grin. Good to see that stupid mask come off occasionally.
I could properly feel my legs again. Koizumi was making me think again. His hold on me drove the shock and confusion out of my mind by steering another emotion to take their place: anger.
"Let go. I gotta go," I said sternly, once again pulling on his arm.
Koizumi held on tightly, his brows furrowing in determination. "No, wait. Tell me what's going on. Where do you intend to go, after" – he pointed at the spot where Nagato had stood without taking his eyes off me – "seeing this happen? Just what are you thinking?"
"I'm gonna get her back. I'm gonna save Nagato."
"How?"
"Haruhi."
That single word caused Koizumi to squeeze my hand so tightly I lost circulation to my fingers for a second time that day. But I pushed through the pain like an ox.
"You… you can't," Koizumi stumbled with his words for a moment, a chill in his eyes and voice that would have horrified me under normal conditions because it had never happened before. He must be in shock as well. But right now, all I felt was anger, a deep irritation at the obstacle holding me back. "You can't go to Haruhi. She mustn't find out about us, if she does, the repercussions could be disastrous. We have no idea how she will react."
"I know. Now let me go!" I shouted at him.
"No, I can't in good conscience. Nagato is… was my friend too, but we can't jeopardize the whole world just for her sake. None of us can be that important."
"Let. Me. Go!"
"Does she really mean that much to you? Would you really risk everything for her?"
No more words, I'd had enough. I needed to do something. Even so, what happened next almost shocked me as much as it probably did Koizumi.
The sound of my fist cracking against Koizumi's cheek was deafening, silencing all sound in the room: Koizumi's incessant nagging, my deep, agitated breathing and even the distant crying of Asahina-san.
Koizumi's grip on my arm loosened as he fell backwards onto the ground. He sat there on the ground, eyes wide with shock, holding his cheek tenderly. If the circumstances were less dire, I might have laughed at the incredulous look on his face. Now I just stood over Koizumi, breathing hard, my anger and energy spent after the blow. The anger was gone now, at least for a moment, as I looked at Koizumi with deep disbelief.
"K-Kyon-kun?" Asahina-san's weak voice wafted through my hazy brain. I turned to look at her, seeing an equally stunned and frightened look in her deep eyes.
"I – I'm sorry," I muttered, turning my head down, averting my guilty gaze from her.
"No," Koizumi said weakly, "There's no need… I guess you really are a true friend. I only wish you would be as willing to save me if something ever did happen to me."
And I'd thought I had been shocked before. I just punched you in the face and now you're… I can't believe it.
I looked at him, sitting there, massaging his cheek, but with a smile on his reddening face. It was a genuine smile, one of those rare ones he ever gives. It was so sincere, I almost gasped in surprise.
"Go. Save our friend. Hnh, if Nagato-san truly has disappeared, I doubt Suzumiya-san would go long without noticing and giving pursuit in any case," Koizumi said, removing his hand from his injured face, waving a goodbye with it as he continued smiling at me. "If anyone can save Nagato-san and stop Suzumiya-san from ending the world as a result, it's you. Good luck."
"Koizumi, I…"
Damn it, you jerk, you're almost making me cry here.
"Kyon-kun," Asahina-san said softly, instantly drawing my attention to her beautifully tear streamed face, "Do it."
I held my mouth shut tightly, swallowing away my deeply touched thoughts. I looked at both of them and nodded. "Okay… thank you."
"Hey, we're the SOS-Brigade, through thick and thin," Koizumi said earnestly.
"We stick together, no matter what," Asahina-san said, nodding her head vigorously.
I couldn't take anymore, so I turned and ran out of the room, through the corridors, jumping down a flight of stairs, streaming through doors and the yard out into the streets. Invigorated by the fighting spirit of my comrades, I made it all the way to the familiar place where we had met for our first Brigade scavenger hunt, from where Nagato and I had once left to go to the library together. It was only there that I realized something that filled me with a great deepening sense of dismay.
I still had no idea where Haruhi lived.