The Realization of Haruhi Suzumiya
Original Author: Nagaru Tanigawa
Fan Fiction Author: NagatoYuuki13
Chapter 8
… So I guess it's over, huh.
After that brief battle I had with Nagato, or, as I would rather call her, Ms. Emotions, Nagato came back to her own self. Thank God that was over with because that was seriously my limit. I sighed as usual and looked at the still sobbing Nagato. If I wasn't in this kind of situation and she was just a normal girl, as a guy I would accept it as an invitation. But I digress from my jokes. I'm still speechless how Nagato kept all of these emotions in her… Well, actually, that's not it. The real thing to be speechless about is Nagato having a split personality. That is something. They say that split personalities are created in the sub conscious when a person doesn't want to deal with a problem, and that seemed to be the case here… Except it wasn't in the sub conscious, was it?
Hell… I would probably be creating something like that, too in her situation. Scratch that. I would probably create a hundred split personalities because I cannot possibly handle that, and I'm just a human! Still… Despite her capacity of holding all that in, Nagato's still a frail girl, just like any human girl. This will probably the only time I will thank that screwed up President because with all of the trouble he caused, Nagato probably won't open up as soon as she did and we probably would have had to deal with a bigger problem.
I looked at Nagato who has just stopped sobbing.
"Are you alright now?" I asked, looking at her slightly red eyes.
"Yes." She answered monotonously, but yet not in monotone... I don't know how exactly to explain that, but I'm just going to say that it's Nagato's way of talking now. Either way, though, I'm glad she's back.
"How about that alter-ego of yours?"
"She is also doing well. Our conditions have been compromised. I am in full control of this body"
"Compromised, huh… Then there will be chance where she might go on a rampage, again?"
"It is possible…" She paused and looked at me. "… In the certain conditions"
"Certain conditions? Like what?"
"You will soon understand." She answered. I haven't heard that in a while… But the way she said it, she sounded like she meant something that I'm not expecting… But I won't worry about it for now.
"Okay then." I smiled. I'm so glad this is over. But now… "How in the world do we get out of here?" I forgot about that part… Shamisen didn't explain this part to me.
"That will be easy." Nagato said nonchalantly. "We will force our way out."
She emphasized the "force" in monotone voice… Oh geez…
"Um… Nagato…?"
"Escape code activated. Location set…. Speed set… Safety precautions… Disabled."
Wait… What? That last part scared me… "Nagato… What do you mean by disabled?"
She gripped my shoulder, which hurt by the way. "Hang on." She simply said, and that was it. I didn't have time to think, we just… Boomed. We were travelling so fast that my thought process stopped. The next thing I knew was that the white shiny floor was kissing my face with my feet up in the air… Or is it the other way around?
"We have arrived."
Yeah. Thanks captain obvious, and by the way, that freaking hurt. "Why did you turn off the safety precautions?" I asked while trying to recover from my position.
"… Nothing."
"Nothing?"
"Just because…"
"Just because... What…? Ah never mind… Thanks." My only guess is that she thought that humans received thrill from danger, which isn't far from the truth, but I've received enough thrill for today to be quite honest.
"There's no need." I heard some clapping from a distance… Also some laughing, and that laugh is a very familiar laugh…
"What was that Kyon?" Haruhi shouted while laughing her ass off, and she isn't in her "Super Sa*y*n" mode "You guys doing some comedy routine?"
"That was quite an impressive landing." Koizumi said, sarcastically, while clapping.
"Yeah… Thanks for the warm 'welcome back' or 'congratulations' guys…" I said. What a light hearted group I have here.
"But we were surprised." Koizumi suddenly said. "We were honestly thinking you were not coming back."
"Why?"
"It has been two weeks since you went in that dimension."
"Two weeks?" I exclaimed. We were just in there for forty-five minutes! … Or at least to me it was.
"The time in the void does not match the time in this dimension." A familiar old man sounding voice said… To be more specific, a familiar talking cat's voice.
"I guess you like that form better, Shamisen?" I asked the cat that was on Haruhi's head.
"Quite a bit." He licked his paw and jumped off Haruhi. "But I guess my other form maybe a little more presentable." He transformed.
"I don't mind either way. But anyway, as you were saying…"
"It is as Itsuki Koizumi says. It has been two earthly weeks since you have gone on and faced Nagato Yuki in that dimension, and to be quite honest, you were lucky."
"Lucky? How?"
"It is unpredictable how time will flow once you are in there. In your case it's two weeks. For others, it was a year or two."
"And why didn't you tell me this beforehand!" I snapped a bit…
"I didn't want to give you any more burden as it was." He said simply. Well… I couldn't beat that logic. If I was him, I would have done the same thing, because honestly, going back a year after… I will miss my graduation and will have to repeat my school year… But something about that is bothering me… I'm not sure what it is…
I looked around and see no evidence of the fight. The walls were perfectly white with the green neon lights flowing horizontally. The floor had no cracks on it. There wasn't any of my blood present… Everything was just perfectly back the way it was.
"It took us exactly two weeks to repair this area… No in fact the whole base." Shamisen said.
"I thought you guys could just snap your fingers and clean the mess up."
"We are not what you humans called deities, John. We also have our limits; especially your group's arrival destroyed most of the equipment and platforms of the place."
"Ah…" I scratched the back of my head. "Our bad… We were kind of trying to save your daughter."
"Hm… Touché." We laughed at each other. I looked at who is present here, and noticed that Ms. Kimidori, Asakura, Ms. Mori, and that President bastard is missing here…
"Ah, if you're looking for Ms. Mori, she went ahead and did her part time job today. She has been missing quite a lot of work… Luckily 'The Organization' took care of the reasons." That's nice of them. "Ms. Asakura and Ms. Kimidori are just in the previous levels, finishing up the repairs… and as for the President…"
"You mean the bastard? Yeah. What happened to the guy?"
"We gave him the punishment that he has will equally balance his actions." Shamisen said in a serious tone.
Punishment huh… "… Did you terminate him?"
"No."
"I see… Well… Wait what?"
"We did not terminate him."
"Wait… Why? I mean… Yeah, why?"
"Due to his contributions of stopping Nagato Yuki's rampage, we eased his punishment by a tiny fraction?"
"Did you turn him into barnacle or something?"
"No, but we did strip him off of his abilities and gave him the responsibilities of living as a normal human being."
"So basically, you turned him into a normal person?"
"Yes, that is correct." He paused and looked at me. "Were you expecting something more severe?"
"To be frank, I was, but I won't go into detail about it." As humans, normally, we would punish someone like that in a severe extent. But he did help out bring out Nagato's emotions, so I'm thankful for that in a way. I guess I could let him off the hook for now. "How long are you going to leave him like that?"
"For the rest of his life span," he said flatly. "If we let him live longer than human's life span, which is in average seventy to eighty years for males, it would probably be a threat to our procedures."
So you really made him like us… "Well, I guess that's fair enough…"
"And John…"
Stop calling me that… "What?"
"Thank you." He bowed his head a bit.
I confused for a second. "For what?"
He looked at Nagato. "If it wasn't because of you, we wouldn't be able to figure out what we were missing in our evolution… To able to have a natural empathy for others, and just based on data, is truly something we were missing… And-"
"Wait." I put my hand up. "I don't need that." I smiled.
"However, if we don't properly…"
"I'll just take that 'thank you,' and leave it at that."
"… I understand." He smirked. "Well then, I shall send you back home."
"Wait!" Haruhi shouted. "Can we take the long way?" She looked at Nagato. "I have to talk about something with Yuki."
"A reasonable request." Shamisen affirmed. We started to walk towards the huge white doors… I remember Koizumi busting through that thing… Now it looks like nothing happened to it.
As we were waking, I approached Koizumi. "Hey, have you checked my house recently?"
"If you are wondering about your sister, she's doing just fine. With Ms. Asahina and Ms. Tsuruya around, she was not feeling a bit lonely, or, at the very least, did not appear to be." He said with his smiling face.
"How about school?"
"Ah, about that... Ms. Asakura took care of the discussion about your absence. Unfortunately, I am not sure what reason she gave for it…" Knowing her, she'll probably say something like 'He was stabbed by a stranger and had to rest at home to recover.' "As for Ms. Kimidori and the President, they resumed in participating in the student council activities. Although, their absences were questioned, the teacher didn't bother them about it." I bet Ms. Kimidori took care of that.
I looked back at the two girls. Looks like Haruhi was really asking for something. "What about those who weren't affected by the incident? You know… Everyone forgetting Nagato?"
"I haven't heard much about that lately besides from our neighbor. He was quite worried about the lack of activities in our club room. It's a little amusing." He chuckled. Shouldn't he be happy about that? As for Ms. Zaizen, one of the ENOZ club members, I guess she had too much to worry about besides us, which was understandable since she is in a band.
"Well, I guess everything is back to normal…" I'm still wondering what the girls are discussing back there. I guess Nagato put a sound barrier between them and us because we could not even hear their footsteps.
I looked down on our dear home planet. Now that they mentioned that we were away for two weeks, I feel kind of homesick. I can't wait to see a blue sky… Wait… I'm getting a little too dramatic about this. I just wanna get home and rest my tired body. Oh wait… My clothes are still tattered, and so are Nagato's.
"Hey Shamisen, can you do anything about these clothes?"
"Oh yes. It slipped my mind." He pointed at me and changed the space-like suit into my normal school uniform. As for Nagato, she'll probably change into her uniform once she's done talking to Haruhi.
"By the way, Shamisen…"
"Yes?" He turned his head around.
"How did my sister react when she saw you?"
His reaction… Is priceless… Or should I be mad about it?
He jolted and immediately turned his face. "Wh- why do you ask?"
"First of all, why that reaction?"
"That is unimportant."
"Just tell me what happened."
"Nothing has happened in your household."
"Shamisen."
"I will use my right to not say anything that will be used against me."
"… Fine. Just make sure nothing happened that will make me punch you… Or not give you food for the rest of the week."
"… Understood." We both started laughing after that. We reached the place where Ms. Kimidori took us when we started. "We shall depart from here." And from that, we have arrived at our usual meeting place, at the park. I looked around... It's already afternoon.
A flash of light appeared from Shamisen's direction and he took his cat form. "I shall take my leave here."
"Alright. Say hi to Ms. Asahina, Ms. Tsuruya, and my sister for me."
"I will." He took off.
"I will also take my leave. I have a few discussions with the organizations I have to attend."
"Alright."
He waved and went towards a black taxi. Mr. Arakawa peeked out the window and gave his gesture of greeting, and we waved back.
"Okay, Jo- Kyon."
"You were about to call me 'John,' weren't you?"
"It doesn't matter." She looked at me with her irritated face. "Anyway, take Yuki back home. I'll leave now."
"Wait, do you want us to walk you?"
"Are you kidding?" Her eyes turned gold. "I'm a freaking super human. I can kick the ass of whoever tries harass me," she energetically said, but something was off. "I'll see you guys in the clubroom tomorrow!" She waved and ran towards the horizon.
"I guess it's only us two, huh?"
"It seems so."
"Hey Nagato, I still have a fraction of the powers you gave me right?"
"Yes, but you only will only be able to use once."
"I'll take it." I put out my hand and materialized a bike. Yeah… I'm that lazy that I used the last of my amazing powers to create a bike. Even Nagato gave me a confused look, which made me chuckle a bit.
"Wanna ride?" She nodded and we left the park.
As were going through the road, I looked back at Nagato, who was hugging my stomach to hold on, and thought of a couple of things. What if we failed to save Nagato… What kind of world would she have created? Would it have been the same as that altered time frame that she suggested to change the world into? Or would it have been a world without Haruhi and the Integrated Data Thought Entity? Or just the same world with "me" in it? Either way, I probably wouldn't want any of those. One reason being is because without the Entity that Nagato's in right now, we wouldn't have the same Shamisen. But I digress from the jokes. I wouldn't want any other world than the one I'm in right now… That's just a single proven fact in my book, because I've explained it once before, and I won't repeat myself.
Anyway, there was one thing that was bothering me.
"Hey Nagato."
"…Yes?" She sounded meek when she answered.
"What were you and Haruhi talking about?"
No answer. "Hey Nagato." I looked back… Is she asleep? Ah whatever. I understand. I'm exhausted, too. It's just that I have to drive that I can't fall asleep, and a quiet ride with Nagato isn't bad…
We arrived at her apartment building and saw Asakura standing by the sliding doors.
"Welcome back~" she said cheerfully.
"Hey."
"Oh my… She looks exhausted."
Yeah. Thanks Captain obvious. "By the way… What did you tell our homeroom teacher?"
"That will be revealed to you tomorrow." She giggled. Great…
"Whatever… Anyway, can you open the door for us?"
"Sure." She walked cheerfully towards the door while I parked my bike. When I carried Nagato, I keep forgetting that she was this light… We entered the apartment, and the manager spotted us… I thought I heard a whistle from him, but I couldn't care less right now.
It was a silent elevator ride. Asakura went off first to her room, and waved us good bye… And a wink. That girl…
Ah shoot… I wonder if the door's going to automatically open for us, because I don't have the keys. I don't want to wake Nagato up either. She's too sound asleep anyway.
I approached the door, and, coincidentally, Ms. Kimidori was just going out.
"Oh, John. I wasn't expecting you to come this early."
I thought you would know already. "Well, no one did either. I was surprised Asakura knew we were going back."
"Well… She is Ms. Nagato's back up after all." She smiled.
"I guess so." I laughed a bit. We didn't talk after that. There was still an awkward tension between us, I guess. She just helped me set up Nagato's futon and left. I stayed for a few minutes to make sure Nagato's comfortable. She's sound asleep with her soft-looking mouth slightly ajar. Oh God… What kind of temptation have you given to me now? Do you want me to kiss her or something? As much as I was tempted to, I chose not to. I left her with a pat on her forehead and left the apartment. Hopefully she won't wake up soon, because she needs to rest.
I started to ride my brand new bike home. I thought back before the rescue mission started… Man, that was sure a traumatic experience. Getting attacked by a pseudo-Nagato, everyone forgetting Nagato, embarking on a journey to save her and almost getting killed by her due to her malfunctioning… Well, actually, screw the term "malfunctioning." It was due to her emotions spilling out. It's like adding another bomb to Haruhi, except, with Nagato, it was more of a person trying to comfort someone who has lost their important other… Which, in that case, was apparently me. I'm still wondering why, however.
Now that I think about it, this whole journey was something that made realize Haruhi her power… Now that she knows about it, I'm wondering what she'll do with it. I hope she won't create another Earth right next to this one because even though it defies the laws of physics to have a planet that close, that will be terrifying if you ask me and anything is possible with Haruhi's powers. Speaking of Haruhi, though, I wonder what they were talking about back up at the Entity. They seemed pretty serious about something… I hope it's not about me or any surprise events.
I reached home and the first thing I see is Ms. Asahina at the door waiting for me. Those puppy eyes… Oh how I've missed them.
"… Kyon-kun…!" She said slowly running towards , while sobbing. She gave a hug.
"Uh… Ms. Asahina…!" I felt my face grow like a red bell pepper. Luckily, though, it was dusk, so it wasn't visible.
"Oh…! " She said while suddenly letting go. She sniffed a couple of times… How cute! "I'm sorry…! I was just… I am just glad that you came… Home safe…!" She said while smiling and sobbing at the same time.
"It's great to be back." I smiled with glee. Oh how nice it is to be greeted with such sweetness. I noticed that Ms. Tsuruya wasn't with her. "Where's Ms. Tsuruya? Isn't she with you?"
"Huh?" She said while wiping her tears. "Oh yes… She went ahead of me. She said she had some family business to take care of…"
"Ah… I see." Well I sort of understand. She does have that grand estate… And she's probably the next heir so they're probably trying to arrange things early.
I looked up… It's the full moon…
Ms. Asahina took a cab after a few minutes of chatting with me. I guess she was about to leave when I got there. What timing… I went inside the house and guess what? There wasn't any greeting from my own sister. As I stepped in to the living room, however, my sister was sitting with a boy around her age. He had silver hair… with orange highlights… Wait…
"Ah! Kyon-kun~" My sister said cheerfully. "I didn't know you were coming home today!"
"… Of course you didn't." I said as I was trying to focus on who the other kid was. "Who's your friend over here?"
"Ah. Oh! He's my friend from school. He missed a month worth's of work so I'm letting him copy my notes a bit." She said with a wide smile on her face. Suddenly, the kid stands up… Where have I seen that smile before…?
"Nice to meet you. I am Shiratora Ken." He bowed. Of course you are. And I am Albert Einstein the second.
"Nice to meet you, too." I gave him the look of no treats for a week. That Shamisen… I just figured out where he goes when no one's at the house. With my sister, that is. Geez… Sneaky bastard. I'll have him explain everything to me later. But for now I let them off and do their homework because I am exhausted. Emphasis on "exhausted."
I didn't change. I just took of my jacket and slammed face-first on my pillow and laid down. As soon as I closed my eyes, I began to dream. I can't believe how fast I fell asleep. Anyway… Where am I? I was just surrounded by whiteness and I see in the distance is a really dark hole with spots of light. Is that space? Oh no… Not again… I went towards it to see what was going on and if I had to go through things again, but in my surprise, nothing happened. It was just the vast space. I guess this is just a normal dream. Well... Not really anymore since a golden figure came out of nowhere.
"… What is it, Haruhi?"
"It took you a while!" She shouted. "I was waiting for a couple of hours for you!"
"How was I supposed to know that you were waiting for me?"
"I don't know! You have Yuki's power."
"Yeah, and I used the last of it to make a bike."
"…" She had a disappointed look.
"Yeah… That's what I used it for. So what?" She smiled and laughed uncomfortably afterwards, which made me embarrassed a bit. "Shut it…"
"Hah… That's so like you…!" She continued laughing with tears coming out of her eyes. It's not that hilarious you know.
"Okay! I get it. What do you need?"
She stopped laughing right away. "Nothing. I'm just staying here."
"Huh?"
"You heard me."
"Wait… Why?"
"You'll find out soon enough~" She smirked and poked me on my forehead. Next thing I knew, I was awake. It was… Eight o'clock? Crap! I'm gonna be late!"
"Hey you!" I shouted at my younger sister's room. "Wake up! We're gonna be late!"
"… Huh?" She said groaning.
As we both struggled to get off our asses and get ready, I noticed a car screech in front of my house. It was Mr. Arakawa's taxi. I wonder what the rush was. I washed my face and hair, put on my uniform, my teeth, and rushed out of the house . I see Koizumi standing by the gate with an unusual tense look on his face. I wonder what's up.
"Hi there." Koizumi said, with also an unusual tone of his voice. Almost as if there was something extremely wrong.
"What's up man? Do you have a cold or something?"
"No… Although I wish that that was the case." He reached for the door of the taxi. "Let's talk about this on the way, shall we?"
"Sure…" Now he's got me nervous.
"We might have a predicament here." He immediately said once we closed the doors of the taxi.
"Okay, shoot."
"Did you have a dream last night with Ms. Suzumiya?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"What did she say?"
"Well… I asked why she was in my dream, and all she said was something like 'you'll see soon.'"
"I see. So that's how it is..." He put his hand on his chin.
"What's how it is?"
"Ms. Suzumiya seems to have lost her powers."
"…What?"
"It is as you've heard. Approximately early this morning, around four o'clock , the whole Organization felt the sudden change in reality."
"Wait… Hold on a second. How does that have to do with the fact that I had a dream with her in it?"
"You should know by now. You're our only direct line to her and it was just a guess of mine that you'd have a dream."
"I see… But hold on… Haruhi lost her powers? What the hell is going on?"
"That has yet been discovered. The Organization is looking into it."
To be honest, I don't think that'll help. The world didn't change again, did it?
"We'll see when we get to the school what the hell is going on." I said.
When we arrived at school and exited the taxi the first thing I saw was Nagato standing by the gate.
"Nagato!" I shouted, calling to her. She looked at me and she nodded. Yeah. She knows what's going on.
"We shall discuss it lunch." She replied, sounding a bit more serious than her usual monotone voice.
"Got it."
I rushed to the homeroom to see if Haruhi was there. I opened the door and saw her right at my face.
"Whoa Kyon! What's the rush?" She said with her usual energetic tone of voice. But something was off. That "usual" is not the usual who has gone into a rescue mission in space. Based on the look on her face, it's almost like… "Hello, Kyon!"
"Uh? Yeah?"
"No members are allowed to slack off, especially in front of me!"
… Okay? That's sort of normal. "Uh yeah. Sorry. Anyway, can we talk after this period? We need to talk about something…"
"Kyon taking the initiative to talk about something…? That's a start! Although it might be something stupid, but it's a big step! Sure!" She had a big happy smile on her face. One won't be surprised if it was just a normal week Haruhi if she just smiles like that, but there is something wrong here! It's almost as if the whole thing about rescuing Nagato didn't make an impact on her.
… Or maybe it's something else…
The first period was over and the short break started.
"Okay Haruhi." I started while turning back to her. "What have we done for the past two weeks?"
"Oh right! You missed everything since you were in America."
… America?
"It's fine since it's for scholarship reasons, right? Although it wasn't nice of you to leave your sister at home, you know? Luckily, Mikuru and Tsuruya was nice enough to stay with her. There was this kid with gray hair, too. He seems to be the boyfriend of your younger sister." She had a big grin after that. "Well, as long as you keep in contact with the SOS brigade if you decide to go there after next year, then it'll be fine."
"… Right…" I didn't want to say anything about that… Something is definitely wrong here. It's like the Universe flipped on its side or something. "… How has Nagato been?" I tried my best to subtly insert that.
"Oh Yuki? She's been sick after the party… So she took a sick leave. We visited her a lot, though so don't need to worry. She kept asking how you were doing, though. Since when did you two get so close? Anyway, no inter-relationships allowed in the club, got it? It will interfere with work!"
"… Right…"
"Hm…? What's wrong, Kyon?"
"Oh no… It's nothing…"
"Hm… It must be jetlag, right? Don't worry. You'll get over it in no time!"
"Yeah… Thanks…"
Despite the fact going from West to East doesn't create jetlag, I didn't argue about it.
… What the hell happened to Haruhi? It seems like she lost all her memories about our conquest and her powers. No… It is that way.
I headed to the club room, hoping Nagato would be there. Luckily Haruhi wasn't going to be there today. The ENOZ group wanted her help on something.
I knocked and heard Nagato's voice.
"Come in." She said.
I opened the door and saw Ms. Asahina, Koizumi, Nagato, Ms. Kimidori, Asakura, and the bastard President inside. The only one missing is Shamisen and Miss Mori, although I don't expect her here in the first place.
"It seems like everyone's realized what's going on." I said.
"Yeah." Everyone said in unison.
"I have applied a time stopping program in the proximity. It will last for about half an hour." Ms. Kimidori said.
Not that that would make a difference. "Okay, then can anyone take a guess in what's going on?"
"I am responsible of Haruhi Suzumiya's memory loss" Nagato said.
"…What?" I said surprised. "Why…?"
"She has requested it directly."
"Don't tell me that that your conversation yesterday."
"It was." What…? "Even though suggested against and provided the logical reasons I should proceed through her requests, Haruhi Suzumiya insisted on going through the procedure of altering her memories into things that had never transpired. Of course, I had made them into reality except in our memories."
"So you really made me go to America…?"
"Yes." Wait… Why do I even care about that?
"Wait… That's not what I wanted to say… So are you responsible for her powers being gone, too?"
"No."
"… No?"
"We were wondering the same thing." Ms. Asahina suddenly said… Wait… I looked over to where she was standing, but she was asleep on the Haruhi's seat. "Hello everyone," said the adult version of Ms. Asahina. "We sensed a change in reality in this time period as well. It was almost like an Earthquake."
"I am not capable of doing such things. I am only capable of recreating it."
"Wait… Then how did you take away Haruhi's power before? You know. Two years ago?"
"I did not remove it. I designed that world as if Suzumiya Haruhi was never granted such abilities."
Oh right… She never had those powers until five years ago… "Then it must be one of you guys!" I turned towards the other three from the entity.
"My abilities do not go as far as taking away someone else's ability," Ms. Kimidori said.
"I can't do anything anymore. You know that," the bastard said.
"Geez, Kyon." Asakura started. "Don't go accusing people like that. Ms. Suzumiya will likely punish you for it," she said jokingly.
"Look this isn't time for jokes, Asakura." I said seriously. "I'm pretty sure it isn't the Sky Canopy Domain people because they have their own problems with Sasaki and all that. So I'm sure it must have been someone in this room!"
"Geez, John. Why are you so pissed off?" Haruhi said.
"Because, Haruhi, someone stole…!" Wait… What? My right hand suddenly started to glow bright, and, second later, a feminine figure started to form in the light. It was a girl with glowing hair and golden eyes with a signature frowned face. The face of our beloved leader. "Haruhi…?"
"I can't leave you for a second, can I?"
"But how…?"
"I told you that you'll find out soon enough what was going on."
"Ms. Suzumiya!" Koizumi called her.
"Don't need to be so concerned Koizumi. I wasn't going anywhere."
"Haruhi." I started.
"Yeah, I know. I'm gonna start explaining." You better. "You guys already know that I asked Yuki to alter the memories of everyone else but this group. The answer to that is pretty simple." Simple in your terms, yeah. For us? Not so much. "I didn't want anyone to be bothered by the fact that we were gone for that long without a reason." Okay… It was more normal than I thought.
"But why did you ask… Someone to take away your powers?" I asked.
"I didn't. I did that myself… And it wasn't taken away."
"Huh?"
"As you can see, I'm right here, John. Hello?"
"… Right…" Yeah… Typical Haruhi. "Then what happened to your powers? I mean… To you?"
"I asked Yuki to change the memories of everyone in a certain time because I wanted to make sure I did something."
"And that something is…?"
She grinned. "Koizumi!"
"Yes?" He said startled.
"I'm going to ask you to take care of this guy."
"…Eh?" Me and Koizumi said.
"Because he will be the container of my power for now." She said casually…
Silence filled the room.
"What?" Everyone, and I mean everyone, including the adult version of Ms. Asahina said, in unison.
"What do you mean by that, Ms. Suzumiya?" Koizumi started.
"You guys are my guardian angels so to speak, right? Since you guys think of me as a deity or something like that, right? You wouldn't want my powers to disappear with him, right?"
What's with that big responsibility your handing to him? And for some reason I get the feeling you don't trust me with your powers… No actually, the bigger problem is that I am being held responsible for it! What's with that? It's like telling someone that you're adopted for the first time and expecting them to accept it right away. Not that everyone has that reaction, but still!
"You have no problem with that, don't you John?" She winked at me.
Hell I don't. But… I don't have a choice in the matter, do I? "… Whatever…" I put my hand on my face after sighing… Whether that's a sigh of relief that she hasn't disappeared or a sigh of being stressed the hell out, I don't know.
"Then it's settled!" She said with glee with her hands on her waist. "Well, it's time for me to go for now."
"Where to?" I asked.
"You don't have to worry about it."
"Ah… Whatever… Just don't let yourself get in trouble."
"Oh come on, John. You know where I'm going already!"
"… Huh?"
"Geez…" She and my right hand glowed simultaneously. Oh… Gotcha. "Well, until next time guys!" And with that, she got sucked up in my right hand like a dust being vacuumed… Actually that was a weird analogy… Disregard that.
"… Well…" Ms. Kimidori started. "That was resolved rather quickly. I will dissolve the time freezing program and let ourselves be excused." She said gently and raised her hand. "We'll be on our way now." The President exited first without saying anything, and Ms. Kimidori went second.
"Wait." I stopped her outside the clubroom.
"Yes…?" She said somewhat awkwardly.
"You don't have to worry about what happened, okay?"
"Eh…?"
"It wasn't your fault that we were caught in the mess." I tried my best to talk to try to make her not worry about it anymore… I sense that she still has lingering guilt about the whole thing. I would, too, knowing that I was being controlled, but that was a thing in the pass. "Let's be friends again, shall we?" I wonder if I executed that okay… Knowing me, probably not.
"… I see. Thank you." She smiled, this time, I think, without any worry. "I'll see you later then, John."
"Yeah." Oh I almost forgot. "You, too, you bastard!" I shouted down the stairs. Ms. Kimidori giggled a bit.
"I'm sure he will appreciate your forgiveness."
"He better."
"Alright, then. I'll be excusing myself now."
"Alright." I went back to the clubroom. I noticed Ms. Asahina, the adult version, was gone. I guess that was her only business there. The younger version of Ms. Asahina was still asleep.
"I'll get going as well." Asakura said. "I better not hear any complaints from Ms. Nagato, okay Kyon?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
She giggled like her usual, psychotic self. "I'll see you guys later!" She said cheerfully and left the room. The only ones that were left were the normal members of the brigade, excluding Haruhi… Well technically she's here, but she's not really talking in my head.
"That was quite an interesting experience… In multiple ways…" Koizumi said after finding himself a seat across from me.
"I still don't get why Haruhi would do that, though…" I got the Othello board and Nagato went to her spot, which brought me a big, happy nostalgic feeling since I haven't seen her there in a while…
"Well… I think I understand."
"Oh yeah? Elaborate for me."
He smirked. "Well, if you think about it logically, let's first start of with this. What's the feeling you get after you achieve your greatest goal?"
What? You're giving me a quiz now? "Satisfied and ecstatic… I what I think I would feel."
"Right. But after that, what do you feel?"
"Well… It will be probably the same… Maybe there might be a downhill feeling from all the excitement of achieving that goal, but other than that, there's nothing else."
"Right. But…" He pointed at me. "What would you feel if you were in Ms. Suzumiya's shoes with those reasons?"
"Ah…"
"You get the picture now, don't you?" He opened up the Othello board box and laid down the game. He put down the first piece. "Ms. Suzumiya has achieved everything she has wanted. Finding out the existence of aliens, time travelers, and Espers was her overall dream. Plus, the cherry on top if you may, she found out that she was the most powerful being that controls everything in the universe. However after finding all that, what do you think she will feel?"
"I wonder…" I know already… Despite of having those powers, I kept forgetting the fact that she was just a normal person; a human being with bizarre interests. I remember the story of her melancholic confession about her middle school life. She was just a normal kid then. If she never went to that baseball game, I wonder how my life would have been… Of course there was always Sasaki as alternate person with powers, except Haruhi far exceed hers. But still. I definitely think that it won't be the same… With or without powers, Haruhi will be Haruhi. That egocentric, idiotic, and, extremely easily agitated is the brigade leader we all love.
Before I knew it, I won the Othello game. Ms. Asahina woke up just after and we explained everything that happened. Of course, we didn't mention about her adult version being here, but we explained just about what happened. She wasn't as flustered as I thought she would be, but I guess there wasn't really anything to be flustered about. Koizumi and Ms. Asahina left the clubroom while I stayed back in the clubroom with Nagato. Speaking of which, there was a small pile of books at her side. I guess she wanted to catch up on her reading. She still had a book on her lap and her posture is the same as when she was reading, but as I looked closer, her eyes were closed. She's asleep, huh…
"Well, I'll wait until she wakes up…" I put the heater next to her and near my seat. I slumped over and slept right away. I didn't dream or anything though. I think my mind was just too tired to do so.
When I was half awake, I heard something lightly drop right next to me. It was the books by Nagato's feet. I saw a pair of feet by it, too. It's Haruhi putting on a jacket on me again, huh.
"Don't worry I'm waking up." I said while rubbing my face.
"I see." A monotone voice said.
"Eh?" I looked over and it was Nagato getting ready to put her cardigan on me.
"…Eh?"
"Oh no. It's nothing." I feel like something like this happened once… Oh well. "Let's go to class."
"That will not be possible."
"Why?" She pointed outside the window. It was already dark. "Oh… Gotcha." I guess I didn't just take a nap. "Well… Let's go home."
She nodded. We exited the clubroom and saw Haruhi running towards us in the hallway.
"Hey!" I shouted.
"Oh hey, Kyon and Yuki. I was wondering why the lights were still on in the clubroom, but I guess it was just you two."
"Yeah… I fell asleep throughout the afternoon classes."
"I thought you went home. Oh well. Either way, you better get over that jetlag soon so you can participate in our activities tomorrow."
"Tomorrow? What's tomorrow?"
"That's right I haven't told you yet." Yeah. Since you "sent" me to America. "We are going to Tsuruya's mountain and light fireworks."
"New years passed already, though"
"Well… We thought of doing it again! I- It's not for you or anything!"
… She's so easy to read now… "Alright if you say so." I grinned. "I'll see you tomorrow then."
"Yeah!" She said enthusiastically. "Meet here. And don't forget, okay?"
I'm sure glad that I don't have to bring anything.
"Oh! Don't forget to bring your own fireworks, Kyon."
… Spoke too soon… "Right."
"Alright then!" She ran off.
"Why do I always have to bring something?" I said to myself.
It was a quiet walk to Nagato's house. Not that I mind of course. I'm still thinking of the insane things we did, and the bizarre thing that happened just recently in the clubroom… I have nothing to say about them anymore other than "unbelievable." Oh well…
"Here we are." I said to Nagato when we reached her apartment building.
"Yes."
She stood there.
"Is something wrong?"
"Be prepared."
"Eh?" After that, she went inside.
…What does she mean by "Be prepared…?" I really hope it's nothing insane again…
Author's Note: YES! I'VE FINALLY FINISHED THIS CHAPTER! Sorry it took so long. Epilogue coming up next chapter. Look forward to it!