August 31st
Chapter 2: Adventure
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The Obon festival was at its decline and the nagging feeling of déjà-vu has finally left Kyon. As did Haruhi, who was with an incredible speed dragging Mikuru in the direction of goldfish scooping pavilion.
"Should we join them?" Itsuki offered with a smile that anyone not knowing him as much as Kyon would take for genuine. "Maybe a contest?"
"Thanks, but no thanks." The only person that was holding Kyon's attention at that moment was Yuki.
Yuki's condition was bothering Kyon a lot lately. After meeting her a few times the "pattern" of Yuki burned into his brain with maddening clarity: glasses, school uniform, short dark hair, unblinking stare. The first time that pattern was shattered was right after a fateful encounter with Ryoko Asakura. The second time was a few days ago, after their not so fateful visit to a public pool.
But at the moment Yuki looked plainly sad, which in a scope of her character meant that something the size of a Data Integrated Entity recently died and had to be mourned over. So Kyon decided to use a tactic tried and used countless times in fiction and real life for cheering up emotionless girls and other brooding or moping people.
"Hey, Nagato, want to grab something to eat?"
Her response was a blink and a finger point towards a festival stand.
"You want to buy a mask? Sure, I'll…"
He didn't finish, as she already took off and made it half the way to the stall. From that point on he could only helplessly watch as she selected a rather unnerving blue mask, paid eight hundred yen to a smiling shopkeeper and put the mask on.
And, much to Kyon's uneasiness, she proceeded to wear that mask for more than half an hour after that, up until return of Haruhi and her command: "Take it off, it's creepy."
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They managed to get to the street, after Mikuru's observation of not seeing anything dangerous and Yuki's assessment that area was within acceptable safety parameters. Slightly out of breath after using the stairs, as power seemed to be down in the whole city, Kyon finally decided to start a very unpleasant, but unavoidable conversation.
"Yuki, how many people have died?"
"At the moment of power outage, various sources indicated a casualty rate of approximately six hundred."
Well, if Kyon's goal with that question was to bring Mikuru to tears, he sure succeeded, but he continued, doing his best to ignore the gasp and subsequent sobs.
"So, if we somehow find Haruhi, what's going to happen? Will she bring them back? Or this all doesn't matter if time is reset?"
"Allow me to answer that," Itsuki cut in with a rather theatrical gesture. "As we all know Suzumiya-san, with all her unimaginable power is thankfully still unaware of it. She is also most likely to be unaware of the amount of destruction her creations wrought. And so-"
"We need to keep moving," Yuki interrupted, and Itsuki had to continue his tirade while keeping pace with the rest of the group.
"And thus, the moment she learns of the horrors of the monoliths, her subconscious mind will reject this part of a time stream, and we will be back in August 16th."
Itsuki finished with a triumphant smile, and Mikuru smiled back to him through the tears.
…well, just look at that. I am now a bad guy who upsets Mikuru, and he is the savior…
"Wait just a moment there Koizumi. All this time you were implying that Haruhi was just a spoiled child who turned back time because she didn't have enough fun on her vacation. But now, seeing all this, how can you still defend her?"
Kyon pointed at one of the destroyed buildings, but Itsuki's look was stern."Suzumiya-san is a good person, despite what you might think of her in view of recent events. Once we find her-"
"Contact," Yuki said, and brigade members stopped.
How it got that close, Kyon couldn't remember. Maybe it was hiding in a shade of a fallen tree, or floated from a rooftop of nearby building, that didn't really matter. What did, however, was that it was less than twenty meters from them and looked a lot like a miniature plump version of a creature they've seen emerging from the monolith.
To be fair, unlike its larger variant, this floating iron beetle didn't look threatening at all. Sure, it had very sharp scissor-like pincers that it opened and closed with faint clicking, but they looked decorative more than anything. It also seemed to regard the group with an aura of curiosity, not menace.
Then it exploded from inside, spilling its oily green innards on the ground. Kyon instinctively stepped away from Yuki, who was now surrounded by faint multicolored aura, spewing techno-gibberish and generally looking like a person to get away from as far and as fast as possible.
The empty husk managed to hang in the air for a few seconds, then it was violently thrown by some invisible force against a nearby wall, shattering on impact. Yuki's aura faded and she proceeded along the street.
"Yuki… overkill much?" Kyon voiced an opinion of the rest of the group. Not that he cared about the beetle in any way, but then again, he didn't expect for the creature to actually bleed.
Yuki stopped and turned her head slightly. "It hated us."
"Us?"
"The living. They all hate us, consider us inferior species. From the lowest scouting drone to beings they worship as gods, a culture of hatred and disdain for flesh. So I killed it."
She turned away, but Kyon caught a glint in her eye he didn't like one bit.
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Despite heavy conditioning, air in the batting center still felt heavy and bore traces of sweat. Not that it matters when you are bombarded by heavy balls at high-speed, but now, sitting on a bench next to Yuki and waiting for Suzumiya to finish her practice the smell was starting to get to him.
"Ha!" Haruhi exclaimed and a split second later, the latest ball she parried hit the plaque "Home Run". She span in place, faced Kyon and grinned. "Did you see that?"
"Yes, Haruhi, you are the greatest player ever," Kyon said with as much false sincerity he could muster and resisted an urge to slap his forehead in frustration.
…how is it possible for her body to hold so much energy? How?...
Haruhi returned to her activities and Kyon's thoughts found another direction. If he was frustrated, idly waiting for an hour, then how is then Yuki had felt? Thousands of repetitions of the same two weeks, including this hour, waiting for Haruhi…
"Hey, Nagato," Kyon said without turning to her, "you noticed time was looping before Asahina-san said anything, right?"
"Yes."
"Then why didn't you do anything then?" He glanced at Yuki now, but despite his expectations, her expression wasn't anything out of the ordinary.
"My job is to observe."
"I see…"
He didn't see her point, of course. In fact, Kyon firmly believed that if Yuki warned them earlier they would have had better chances of breaking the time loop.
But naturally, Kyon didn't want to blame her for anything or try to wrench information about endless iterations – that would only make her upset and ultimately get them nowhere.
"Yes! I did it again! Go me!" Haruhi, lit from all sides by flashing lights, struck a pose and pointed her bat at the ball shooting machine. "Bring it on, foul beast, no matter what tricks you pull, I'll always hit you in your weakest point, the "Home Run" plate!"
Kyon sighed.
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So far their track through the blasted city was more or less uneventful. A few times they had to change streets either because of rubble blocking their way or Yuki's directions to a safer area. The city seemed to be completely deserted, even stray animals left the streets. From few short conversations they had along the way, Kyon learned that evacuation had started early in the morning, long before the first monolith activated.
The condition of brigade members, as far as Kyon could tell, was pretty satisfactory. Or at least so he thought until Itsuki stopped and said one of the most outrageous and insane phrases one could say in their current situation.
"This is where we part ways." He turned and looked in the direction of Haruhi's apartment. "Nagato, I trust you to cover the school and ensure protection of Kyon and Asashina-san. Can I count on you in this matter?"
"Yes."
It didn't escape Kyon she said it too quickly, and he knew Yuki pretty well to tell when she was lying.
Yuki's issue had to wait, though. Despite not liking the esper very much, and barely tolerating his overdramatic speeches at times, a fate of walking alone for ten or so blocks left to Haruhi's place was a fate Kyon wouldn't want for his worst enemy.
"Look, Koizumi," he said, in a tone that is usually used to stop suicide jumpers. "I'm sure you want to get to Haruhi as fast as possible, but it's really only half an hour difference. You-"
"That's not the case, not that at all. They are… calling for me." A corner of his mouth twitched and he sharply turned away.
"Itsuki, you are making no sense, who are calling? The monsters? What the hell is going on?" Kyon shouted and immediately regretted it.
…yep, I managed to upset Mikuru again. Just great…
"No, no, no, not the monsters, of course not the monsters." Itsuki didn't turn back, so Kyon couldn't see his face, but he could tell the esper was smiling again. "The other members of our organization. We are holding a… meeting, yes, a private meeting at the apartment of Suzumiya-san. Excuse me, I don't want to be late."
He started walking away.
"Let him go," Yuki said simply, but Kyon knew that he would be stopped faster than he would take as much as one step towards Itsuki. He watched esper walking around one of the piles of rubble and caught one last glimpse of his face – a twitching face locked in mad glee.
"What… happened to him?" Kyon whispered.
"His neurological parameters have changed since yesterday," was an emotionless answer.
"Oh, really now, Nagato. You knew it, didn't you? And you held it all inside, just as always, because you are to observe. Well tell me, what is going to happen next? I'm going to start vomiting blood and you are going to tell me that my body changed since yesterday, huh?"
"Waaa…" Mikuru collapsed on her knees, crying. "Please, don't fight, we can't fight right now…"
...what am I doing? I shout at Yuki, I upset Mikuru... It's just not right...
Feeling ashamed, Kyon sat on the nearest block of debris and stared in the direction Itsuki had left. Mikuru's sobs quieted down and silence took hold.
There was a faint clicking sound, and Kyon sprang to his feet and frantically began searching for the source of the noise. Despite his expectations of appearance of another mechanical monster, the sound originated from a bike parking rack across the street, where Yuki was searching for a serviceable transportation. Mikuru was still sitting at the middle of the street and Kyon helped her get up.
"So, Yuki… need any help?" Not that Kyon really expected he could be useful to her in any way, but he needed a way to start a conversation somehow.
"No."
...why was she lying back then? It is either because she is not sure if she can protect us, or we are not going to the clubroom. I guess it's pretty easy to find out...
"We are going to school, right?"
"Yes." Yuki then whispered something, and a lock chaining another damaged bike opened.
Despite Yuki's monosyllable answers Kyon decided to press the issue. "Do you think we will find Haruhi there?"
"I don't know."
"I see," Kyon lied and looked at Mikuru. She opened her mouth, as if about to say something, but didn't and shook her head, muttering her usual "classified information" thing.
"Asahina-san? Is something wrong?"
She managed a faint smile. "No, it's nothing like that. You are right, Kyon-kun, we should get to school as soon as possible."
"This one's integrity will hold," Yuki said, detached a mostly undamaged bike from the rack and passed it to Kyon.
…riding a bike with Mikuru behind! Finally, my wildest dreams come true!...
And for a moment Kyon forgot he was in a half-destroyed city, surrounded by untold mechanical horrors.
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"Kyon, you are late, and you are going to receive a penalty," Haruhi declared with grave seriousness.
"But… I'm fifteen minutes early, Haruhi! I don't deserve it! Spare me!" Kyon lamented. His sarcasm was noticed only by Itsuki, whose smile became a bit more real for a moment.
"Absolutely not! You arrived after us all, and you are going to be punished, oh yes!" Haruhi gazed to the sky, thinking of some unimaginable torment to plunge Kyon into.
"So, did you all come on your bikes?" Kyon asked, mostly to distract Haruhi and it had the intended effect – she snapped back to reality, and her expression brightened up.
"No, only you and Koizumi-kun did, so we are going to have a race!"
She ran to Kyon and sat behind him on the bike, hugging him tightly and whispering, "I still remember about the penalty" into his ear. Well, he would certainly prefer Mikuru in her place, but he didn't really mind. What he did mind, is that she then screamed, "Yuki, come sit behind me" and "To the public pool!" at the top of her lungs. Momentarily deafened by Haruhi's loudness at close range, Kyon missed the start of the race and had to begin with a handicap.
The race itself was pretty hard. Sure, they didn't have to avoid any glass-carrying workers or shopping carts full of groceries, but with Haruhi's shouts, "Turn here!" right before the mentioned turn, the fact they arrived to the pool without any deadly traffic incidents was no less than an act of divine intervention.
"Aw, Kyon, so tired already? We are just getting started," Haruhi chirped, patted Kyon on the back and skipped happily to a ticket sales booth.
Kyon fell to the ground, trying to get some air, and it occurred to him that this was probably the closest he was ever to actually dying. It certainly felt that way, anyway.
"You need help?" Koizumi was helpful as always, a trait of him Kyon would like to see as little as possible.
"I'm perfectly fine." He refused a hand and stood up, still panting a little but feeling much better and oxygenated than a minute ago.
Hauhi waved to them from a distance, tickets in hand. "Come on, you slowpokes! We are supposed to do summer-time activities in the summer! Time never gets back once it's spent!"
…of course, she would want me to lose, no doubt about it. I just hope that was my entire penalty…
Like a condemned criminal, Kyon started walking his last mile to a pool entrance.
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They were getting close to a school, and the level of destruction around them intensified. Monoliths had been moving extensively through the area, paving their own streets that usually went perpendicularly to the existing ones. Kyon speculated that the pyramids were creating something comparable to crop circles.
Road intersections were entirely another thing. The buildings around them were mostly intact and at the center of each junction ominous dark obelisks of various sizes had been erected by the invaders. Yuki ordered to avoid some of the larger ones, so the trip took longer than Kyon expected.
It's hard to keep a complex conversation going while riding a bike, so the three remaining members of SOS brigade were mostly quiet. Kyon's thoughts kept returning to Koizumi and his sudden strange change in behavior, and as for the others, he couldn't tell.
Finally, they reached the bottom of a hill the school was on and decided to take a break. Kyon sat on one of the undamaged benches next to a closed electronics store and stretched. A sheet of paper on the ground attracted his attention and he leaned in for a closer look.
In a recent hour, a few cargo planes flew overhead at low altitude, distributing pamphlets over the city, and this was one of them. On top of the pamphlet in gold stylized letters was printed a maxim: "THE EMPEROR PROTECTS".
"Hey, Nagato," Kyon called out. Yuki was kneeling beside their bike, whispering something to gears in a transmission and looked rather busy, but Kyon decided to ask anyway. "Isn't the prime minister supposed to be the leader of the nation?"
Mikuru picked up another pamphlet and began reading from it. "I-in times of crisis, when all hope is lost, the Holy Emperor preserves. The Imperial Guard is here to protect you, citizens. Pray, and salvation will come for you…" She looked around helplessly. "But we haven't seen any soldiers yet, have we?"
For that matter, they haven't seen any other people, living or dead since the time they left Nagato's apartment and the city was starting to feel very unnatural to Kyon. Questions were piling up, but the only person who could answer them was Yuki, and if she could become even more distant and emotionless, she sure did since Koizumi's departure.
"Nagato-"
Yuki stood up, glaring at Kyon with such intensity that the words stuck in his throat.
"Kyon, have you rested enough?" He managed a nod, so Yuki continued. "Good. Then let us proceed to school grounds"
…h-hey, Yuki, you can't scare me like that! No matter what, when we get to the clubroom we will all sit down and I will keep bugging you until this all craziness starts to finally make sense...
Carrying a bike with them, the trio walked up the hill to the gates. As expected on the last day of holidays, the school exterior was in pristine condition, signs of minor repairs hidden under a layer of fresh white paint. Emperor's pamphlets littered the school yard, and in the center of it, a lone figure stood. Humanoid in shape, crooked in posture, it was draped in torn dark robes and leaning on an ornate bladed staff.
With a yelp, Mikuru grabbed Kyon's arm and hid behind him, trembling. This was pretty understandable given that despite standing more thirty meters away from them, the figure was pretty damn horrifying.
The figure focused its gaze on Yuki, two horizontal slits of baleful green fire.
"Ancient beyond known time, he had forgotten his name," Yuki said in flat monotone, her eyes completely blank. "Necron Lord and General, Proxy of the Deciever, Darkslayer - those are his names now. He calls and I obey. He speaks and I listen."
"Yuki, snap out of it!" Kyon tried to reach out for her, but his hand literally hit an invisible wall and Yuki took a few steps forward.
"The false God is gone, and a new one takes its place. My service has ended and he deems me worthy. I am to make a choice and I…"
Yuki stopped and her posture slumped. Life returned to her voice but she didn't turn back.
"I am... so tired…"
She broke into a running start, and with inhuman agility dodged a crackling energy beam the monster fired from his staff. Her left hand shifted into a curved glowing blade.
…was it always like that for her? Just watching, unable to do anything?..
The necron lord span the staff and scattered sheets of paper rose in the air, blocking Kyon's view. Yuki avoided another emerald beam and stabbed into the cloud of pamphlets.
Suddenly, in a blinding flash of light, the lord appeared less than ten meters away from Kyon, and for a moment he caught a glimpse of the creature's face – an elongated metallic skull. The skeletal ribcage of the lord was damaged where Yuki hit it, tiny black scarabs pouring out of the wound.
The iron skeleton hissed and charged at Nagato, his form sequentially becoming translucent and solid again. She fell back closer to the school, leading the creature away from the gates. Another beam missed and Yuki counter-attacked, violently throwing her opponent to the ground and tearing off the staff, along with the arm that held it.
…for more than four hundred years, the same two weeks of summer…
Then, the monster laughed, an echoing, metallic, insane laughter. Yuki attacked again, vaporizing part of the asphalt her opponent was just on. The necron phased back, picking up his staff and spinning it around once again.
From the tip of a staff, energy streamed in all directions, clinging to objects like a fuzzy green lightning. The floating sheets of paper froze in the air, and Yuki's motions lost all speed and grace.
…not belonging to yourself, just helplessly watching…
Still laughing, the monster thrust the staff forward, impaling Yuki through the chest and raising her body up in triumph. Blood streamed down the shaft and the necron turned, displaying his trophy to Kyon. From behind the monster, the central section of the school wall exploded outward, revealing the monolith hidden inside. Debris showered downward, and then stopped, caught by sinister energies.
…and all she ever wanted was to be free…
The laughter was suddenly cut as Yuki's glowing sword elongated and pierced right through the skull and down the ribcage of the creature, slicing the necron almost in half. The staff shattered and the stasis aura dissipated, releasing the trapped leaflets and debris. Yuki stood up, blades still sticking out of her chest and, although it was too far to tell for sure, smiled.
…to be free…
The crystal at the top of the monolith blazed, and massive amounts of energy streamed down in a wide arc, turning Yuki, her opponent and most of the yard into sickly green vapor. The invisible wall collapsed, throwing Kyon and Mikuru backwards and thus saving them from a narrow beam one of the smaller projectors near the top of a pyramid fired.
"We are getting out of here!" Kyon rushed to the bike, dragging Mikuru with him. The monolith turned slightly, bringing another projector into a firing arc, but they were already behind a low wall surrounding a school. It fired nevertheless, punching a hole through a wall but missing its intended targets.
"Ok, get on the bike, we can still make it!" Kyon straightened the vehicle and Mikuru silently complied, clutching him desperately.
Kyon started in high gear, swerving dangerously but quickly managing to bring the bicycle to speed. As he plunged downhill, both wings of the school collapsed, burying Yuki's final battlefield under tons of concrete and releasing a cloud of dust into air.
And then there was only silence.
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