Upon opening my eyes, I instantly realized I was in a closed space. There was a terrible atmosphere and I couldn't breathe properly. I was still in my North High uniform, and the last thing I remembered was Koizumi telling me how he didn't give a damn about the world. I was standing on a deserted land, and a few steps away there were a bunch of abandoned buildings. I heard a strange sound coming from them, and I came to realize there were weeping sounds. Somebody was crying. I went into one of them and searched the rooms, but couldn't find anybody. I went on to another, and I started hearing the cry louder. I could feel I was getting closer to the person who was crying, and even understood it was a girl who was crying. After going up some stairs, I entered a room and in one of its corners my eyes met a sight I thought I would never see in my lifetime: curled down in a ball, her back against the wall, a Haruhi wearing plain clothes was weeping. I ran to her, asking:

"What happened?"

She raised her gaze to me and shook her head, tears still running down her cheeks.

"Haruhi! Snap out of it!" I screamed.

Haruhi stared at me like it was the first time she was seeing me, and finally seemed to realize her surroundings and her identity.

"Kyon?! What are you doing here?!"

"I… I don't know."

Why did I run up to her like this? Why did I still care?

My head started aching, and our surroundings changed out of the blue. We were in the literature clubroom, Haruhi was seated in her chair and wearing her uniform, and me and Koizumi were in our usual seats, playing chess. Strangely, Koizumi who sucked at games was winning. I felt awkward. Haruhi stared us down for a few moments, and then finally said to nobody in particular:

"So it was like this. I just can't believe it, it's just like a bad joke."

Unexpectedly, Koizumi answered:

"It couldn't be helped, right? It was the commander's wish, after all…"

"NO, I didn't mean it like this!!" Haruhi yelled and stood up, slapping her hands to her desk. "How could you do something like this, Itsuki?!"

Why is Haruhi calling Koizumi by his first name?! Wait, these replies… does it mean she know about what we did?!

"Of course I know!!! Did you think you could hide something like this away from me???"

Why is Haruhi able to read my thoughts?!

"It was exactly what you wanted, serves you right!" snapped Koizumi.

Haruhi looked outraged and yelled even louder, even though her eyes were getting teary:

"How dare you speak like this to me?! Just who do you think you are, Itsuki?! I never wanted something like this, it's just the fact that you betrayed me!"

She eyed me when she said "betrayed". I turned my eyes away. The building started to crumble.

"I will never forgive you, I will never accept it!"

"You'll the one who won't be ever accepted!!! Nobody gives a damn about you and there's nothing you can do! Not even a single person aside of us will ever love you!!!"

I was panicking, seeing Koizumi anger Haruhi to this point. I tried to accept the thought of my death and the vanishing of everything. There was no turning back. Haruhi started to cry but didn't stop screaming:

"NO, THAT AIN'T TRUE! EVERYBODY WOULD WANT TO BE PART OF THE SOS BRIGADE, SINCE I'M… A SPECIAL EXISTENCE, AFTER ALL!"

"Oh, really? Then why are people saying you are insane and ignore you? Why don't you have any other friends aside of us two? Asahina-san plainly hates you for the things you forced her doing, and Nagato doesn't even speak to you, that's how you appear in her eyes! You've dragged ////// by force and there's only me who came willingly, but you looked down on me! YOU ARE ALONE AND WILL BE ALONE FOREVER!"

"NO! THAT'S NOT TRUE! YOU LIE! STOP LYING TO ME!"

Haruhi went mad as she was trying to escape the avalanche of words and the pressure Koizumi was putting upon her.

"Koizumi, stop it! Stop it, goddammit!"

"Why should I? I'm sick of it! You should just shut up and obey me!"

Obey you?! Have you gone mad as well?!

Haruhi was screaming unintelligible things, fallen on her knees, as the walls were crumbling and the ceiling was about to fall down and kill us all. I just knew it in that moment: I wanted to live to see tomorrow!

"Haruhi, listen to me! You are not alone! I'm here, Koizumi is here as well! The SOS Brigade cares for you!"

I shouted as loud as I could, since the noise from the walls crumbling was overwhelming. Koizumi stared me down with anger.

"HARUHI! I FORGIVE YOU! I FORGIVE-"

The noise made my voice impossible to be heard, but I could see her raise her head for a second and look at me. Her face was all messed up, her tears were still falling, but I could see her force a smile to her lips. It was her most pathetic smile ever; I couldn't help not loving it. The building fell down on us and everything faded to black.

////// stands for Kyon's real name.