Asakura pulled the car into the auto shop garage and stopped the engine. Nagato was out the door immediately, walking into the building and closing the door behind her. Asakura jumped out after her, turning to the rest of us and giving us the signal to wait in the garage. She may have meant us to stay in the car, but there was no harm done either way.

Emiri shoved at me until I opened the door and got out, helping her step out afterward. Haruhi jumped out, slamming the car door shut behind her and walking over to a trio of chairs set up in the corner. I led Emiri over to the chairs as well, helping her sit down. I took the third chair, hoping to get a good rest. I should know better.

Haruhi groaned loudly and leaned back. "Emiri... What's wrong with Yuki? Really?"

Emiri shook her head, frowning. "I don't know. She's grown emotionally a lot since high school, and she's better at expressing herself now. Maybe she blames you for something that happened back then, and she's just now showing you how she really felt."

Haruhi was silent, so I took the opportunity to speak. "You were something of a control freak in high school. Maybe she didn't actually want to be there..."

I was interrupted by Haruhi shooting up out of her seat. "Are you crazy? The SOS Brigade was the best thing that ever happened to any of us! There's no way she's angry about all the awesome adventures we had!"

I was going to say something, but Emiri beat me to it. "It's exactly that attitude that would make me hate being there, knowing that you thought I was having fun and wouldn't hear any evidence to the contrary."

That was essentially the same thing I was going to say, just she said it better than I would have. Haruhi was taken aback, looking shocked that anyone could possibly not have enjoyed the SOS Brigade's activities.

She shook her head. "What do you mean?"

Emiri explained. "She was really shy in high school. When you barged in and claimed her clubroom, she only let you take it because she didn't want to make any trouble. If she had been as expressive then as she is now... she just might have thrown you out the door."

Haruhi fell silent again. After a few moments, she sat down. "Fine then... Does Yuki talk about me to you and Ryoko."

Emiri stared blindly at the floor. "The only member of the brigade that she actually ever talks about anymore is-"

Haruhi interrupted. "Let me guess. Kyon, right?"

Now she sounded somewhat angry. I don't like being this close to Haruhi when she's getting angry. It makes me feel like I'm in danger. I'm struggling not to instinctively cover my face to try and protect it, because that might make her even angrier.

Emiri sighed and continued where she left off, correcting Haruhi in the process. "No. She only ever talks about Miss Asahina. It usually sounds like there was something going on between them."

Haruhi perked up at whatever mischievous thoughts this particular wording planted in her head. "Something going on? Like a relationship?"

Emiri's eyes went wide and she held up her hands defensively. "That came out totally wrong. It's nothing like that. No, what I meant to say was that it sounds like Miss Asahina had been mistreating Yuki through high school. And that might explain why Yuki never spoke up when you abused Miss Asahina."

Haruhi stood up, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at the green haired woman. "I did not abuse Mikuru! We played fun dress-up games together!"

Emiri, unable to see Haruhi's glare, just clasped her hands together in her lap and frowned. "I had expected you would have grown up some since then, but it appears not. Maybe that's why Yuki isn't happy to see you."

There was a loud sound like a clap, and Haruhi drew her hand back. Emiri rubbed her cheek, her expression somewhat soured beyond a frown. I had no choice at this point, stepping between the two in an attempt to protect Emiri.

"Haruhi, stop! That was completely uncalled for."

Haruhi was losing it. "Did you hear what she said to me? She has no right to talk to me like that!"

At times like this it's actually better to act like you might be convinced to side with her. Might as well give it a shot. I mean, otherwise she'll probably just tear me in half or something... I don't think she can really do that, but better not to test her.

I glanced behind me at Emiri before turning back to Haruhi. "Maybe you're right, but you should find out from Nagato first. Don't take it out on Emiri either way. What she said is something you have to consider though, at least from Nagato's perspective. You don't know what she's thinking, so you should at least try to find out."

Haruhi shot me a glare that said she wanted to stomp me, but then it softened. She backed away from me, crossing her arms. "Fine, you win. But I'm not going in there until Ryoko says it's safe."

Just then, said blunette opened the door into the garage and shut it behind her, leaning back against it and letting out a deep breath. "I say we give it an hour or two before anyone tries going in there."

Haruhi frown. "She's really not happy to see me?"

Asakura nodded. "Yeah, you could say that. It might only be part of it though. I did clean her room this morning, so..." She noticed the red coloring on Emiri's normally pale face. "What happened to you?"

Emiri shook her head. "Didn't see where I was going. Bumped something stronger than me."

She wasn't very good at lying, but in all honesty she almost wasn't. Nearly every part of her statement was correct, just in a different sense. Asakura wasn't so easily fooled and turned crossly to Haruhi with her hands on her hips.

"You slapped her, didn't you?" Haruhi nodded, but hesitantly due to her situation. If Asakura was mad at her too, this whole visit would be over very quickly. Asakura, however, turned to Emiri. "What did you say to her?"

It probably wasn't my smartest move, seeing as I still don't know what I'm dealing with really, but I couldn't let Emiri take this by herself. I stepped in. Call me an idiot if you want.

"She gets slapped and you want to know what she said? Aren't you concerned or something?"

Before Asakura could deliver some sort of retort, Nagato bumped the door opened and wandered over to the car. She briefly looked at us, then shook her head and opened the car door to retrieve her CD. As she was leaving again, she mumbled something barely audible. "Just came to get my music. You can all go back to being idiots now."

"Wait! Yuki!" Haruhi ran over to her, hoping to keep her from leaving. "Come on, you've got to talk to me."

Nagato only turned her head slightly, her eyes fixing on Haruhi, then moving over to Asakura, then to Emiri. She sorta skipped over me and went back to Haruhi. She turned back away from us and, pulling her cap down a bit in the front, she sighed. If you ask me, it sounded like she was giving in.

She opened the door, but didn't walk through just yet. She looked back at Haruhi. "Yeah... I know. Just not right now."

After she left again, Asakura clapped her hands together and smiled. "Well, that went a lot better than I expected. We're still not sure what she actually thinks of you, but at least she doesn't blatantly want to murder you. Let's get out of this garage. There's a kitchen inside and I can make a pretty good sandwich."

Haruhi glanced back to Asakura. "A sandwich? Anything else?"

Asakura shrugged. "Well, I can cook pretty good, but we're not really well stocked here... unless you can convince Yuki to share her stuff."

Emiri nodded and stood. "Yeah, me and Ryoko live at our own places, but Yuki lives in the building here. She's got all her own food, but she might not want to let us have any."

Haruhi understood what they meant. "And all you've got that isn't hers is sandwich material."

Asakura opened the door and ushered us in, smiling. "Exactly. Come on then."

Emiri reached out her hand, so I took it and helped her indoors. On the other side of the door was a small office-like room. A few chairs were set against the wall in the area in front of a large desk. The desk itself had all sorts of things on it, including a computer, some photos, clipboards, a CD player, and an abacus.

Asakura spread her arms out as if she was presenting the place to a potential buyer. "This is where Emiri works. She does all her amazing blind girl stunts here"

Emiri nodded to her. "Yes. Please don't touch anything or I might never find it again."

Haruhi eyed the computer. "Do you, like, have a Braille screen or something?"

Emiri, who was still attached to my arm, laughed at this idea. "No. Yuki's suggested I get one, but every time I go to the computer store I can't seem to see any." Asakura and Haruhi had a good laugh at this, then Emiri pointed to the keyboard. "Braille keys though. I've memorized the keyboard, but it does help me catch spelling mistakes."

Once the blind jokes had cleared, I pointed at something else on the desk. "So what's with the abacus?"

Emiri let go of my hand and felt her way into her workspace. She picked up the doohickey in question and showed it to me, a big smile on her face. "I got this in the mail as a Christmas present ten years ago. I haven't seen the person who gave it to me since high school. We haven't talked much until just recently..."

Oh... I get it. I gave that to her. I remember it now, but I didn't expect her to keep something like that for so long. Of course, Asakura and Haruhi are right here with us, so I'm not really comfortable with letting them know that Emiri is practically fangirling over something I gave her.

I just smiled, focusing on something else she said. "Another blind joke already? You really don't have a problem with those, do you?"

She placed the abacus back in it's spot on the desk and nodded in my direction. "Of course. I get free reign over blunette jokes that way."

I looked over to Asakura, who smiled while shaking her head. She grabbed Haruhi's hand and dragged her into the back room through a doorway behind the desk. "Come on! It's sandwich time!"

Emiri stepped around her desk and placed her hand back in mine. "You recognized it, didn't you?"

"Of course I did. I had no idea it would have lasted this long, but I know it's the one I sent you." It occurred to me right about then that we were technically alone now. "Hey... about what happened earlier..."

She shook her head. "I told you. I should have paid more attention to where I was going. I went somewhere I shouldn't have much faster than I should have. It's not the first time."

I sighed. "While I admire your ability to make it sound like something completely different happened without actually lying, I still don't think Haruhi should have hit you. Either way, I'm talking about what happened in the car."

She stopped moving suddenly, barely even breathing. She only managed one sound. "Oh..."

I continued. "I didn't understand most of it, but I understood that it was you in that... what was it? A dream? A vision?"

She nodded, though she didn't look happy to be talking about it. "A memory. I... It was a memory I was sharing with you."

"Right. I could sense a lot of strong emotions, and that something bad had just happened. It was in a tattoo parlor, right?" She nodded and indicated that I should keep going. "The person you were talking to was a friend, but I couldn't tell who." I was hoping she'd fill in the blanks, but it seemed like she had other ideas.

Emiri frowned, looking down at the floor. "I'd rather not..."

"Well, then why did you show it to me? How did you even do it?"

She looked around like she was trying to find a way out of this. "Um... I would have to show you. The reason I can do that... I would have to share another memory for you to understand. Otherwise... if I just tell you, you won't believe me."

I gulped, definitely louder than I intended. I wasn't sure I wanted to go through that again. It wasn't painful or anything, but it was disturbing. However, no guts no glory, right?

"Okay then. Let's do it."

She nodded solemnly. It really didn't look like she was happy about this at all. She looked straight into my eyes and placed her hands on my shoulders. "First, I want you to know that what you're about to see doesn't change anything for the rest of us. I hope it doesn't change anything for you either. Can you... can you promise that you won't let it change what you think of me or the others?"

What others. Whatever. I'll find out. "Alright."

She smiled, somewhat sadly, then she pressed her head against my chest. I can't say that's quite what I expected. Then... everything went black.

I found myself looking out a window, a blue and green planet far below me with white swirling clouds floating through the atmosphere. There was a faint reflection of pale green in the window, telling me that I was Emiri Kimidori once again.

I turned to look beside me, seeing five other girls also looking down at the planet. Looking down at myself, I realized that I was also a teenager like them. We were being sent down to this planet to observe something... absolutely amazing. There would be others around us, but they had different jobs. The six of us were a team, and we would watch out for each other. I was in charge of the team, and they all trusted me.

Time sped up, fast forwarding through the next three years. Only slowing to normal speed to show a few moments of importance. The first one gave a flash of dissatisfaction with it as I was forced to delete one of my team members, a pink-haired girl. She had started acting strange, and we didn't have the time or resources to fix her properly. Absolute deletion was the only option.

Time slowed to normal again, showing another deletion. This girl had white hair and silver eyes. She fixed me with a betrayed look even as her body dissolved, her deletion carried out by our lavender-haired member at my command. It was then that I realized the fear and anger on her face. Was that there with the last one? I hadn't even thought to look.

Again, time returned to it's normal pace. I saw my second in command, the one with lavender hair, chasing our fourth member down. Like the two before her, she had started to crave freedom. This time I didn't feel the dissatisfaction of the first time, or the guilt of the second time. I felt sad. Those three had wanted freedom, and had all tried to escape their missions to achieve it. I found myself craving freedom as well, but I refused to let it take hold. It wouldn't take over me.

As I watched the girl with short lavender hair chase down the girl with long black hair, I remembered that those three had been on a number of missions before. Older models... yes, that's what they were... they had been shown to have numerous flaws leading to this type of behavior. Me and my second in command are newer than them, so all those problems have been ironed out. We should be able to last at least a good four or five hundred years before something goes wrong.

The chase below us turns around a corner and out of sight. I turn to the only other one on the balcony with me. She has long blue hair, and she happens to be a brand new model. We've been guaranteed that all possibility of malfunction is completely out of the question. We were also told that she's been given the most advanced emotion simulating software, making her blend with the people of this planet more smoothly than the rest of us.

Whether this would prove to be true or not, I determined then and there that I would not let her be deleted. She hadn't lived long enough... it just wasn't right. If something did happen, I would have her disabled. We would reactivate her and place restrictions on her capabilities, confine her to our base of operations, even go so far as to deceive all those around us into thinking she had left the country. We would not, no matter what, delete her. I would later make it clear to both her and my second that my decision applied to both of them, and myself. Deletion was tantamount to murder, and I would not allow any more of it.

We were eventually forced to carry through with this course of action, and much later I found out that my second hadn't actually succeeded in deleting our fourth member that night. Over time, I felt something eating away at me from inside. There was a sense of guilt at what I had done to the first two and then there was... a different type of guilt. For some reason, I felt guilt at letting our fourth member live. I had seen her, how she had changed after severing her up-link. She was not faring well, numerous glitches appearing. The people around her couldn't tell, but she was in constant pain. She had been online for too long.

Speeding forward through time again, we had to leave the high school and go out into the world. Just the three of us now, and we had a new mission objective. We were to go and wait for her to find us, the one who we had observed for three years.

Then one day, we woke up to find our up-link gone. The Data Integration Thought Entity... was gone. No explanation. No warning. It was just gone. All it had left behind was us. Other Interfaces may have been online elsewhere, but we were far away from any of them and had no way to contact them. We soon found out that the Entity had left us a parting gift. We were now fully human. Patience had paid off. Now we had freedom.

Beyond that, we soon found the ability to share thoughts, dreams, ideas, and memories with each other. Not long afterward, my second fell in love with a man who lived nearby. Through her interactions with him she learned, and so did we, and so did he, that this ability worked with normal humans as well.

Speeding time forward, I found myself standing on a steel girder. I looked down at the ground far below, realizing just how dizzyingly high up I was. I was about to back up when I realized how precarious my position was, only a few feet on either side before a very definitely deadly drop. Rather than looking down, I looked forward. Ahead of me I saw a man. He was sitting there, his legs hanging over the edge, enjoying his lunch break. Remembering why I came here, I stepped toward him...

"STOP!"

She shoved me away from her hard.

My eyes snapped open and I fell back against the wall. My head was swirling, trying to make sense of everything I had just seen. I looked at Emiri, standing in front of me with sweat pouring down her face. I wanted to ask her what it all meant, but... where to even begin?

Asakura and Haruhi rushed into the room to see a sweat-covered Emiri, her arms stretched out having just shoved me away from her. It took a moment for it to register with my mind what they must have been thinking.

Asakura shouted at me. "What the hell do you think you're doing!"

There was literally nothing I could say here, which is why I'm glad Emiri answered for me. "Asakura, wait! It was my fault! I... I was the one who went too far." She looked back to me, helping me stand up straight again. "I'm sorry... are you alright?"

Asakura still eyed me suspiciously, but she walked back into the other room. Haruhi followed shortly after. I was about to start asking Emiri what I had seen when, out of nowhere, she reached up and kissed me.

Author's Notes: I must let you know that I never read the manga. I'm going off the anime and filling in a few gaps by making stuff up. I do, however, know enough about Sasaki and all those other people... or some of them... so I don't count them as off limits. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I want to see all your reviews about speculations on what I'm up to and where this story might be headed. I love that type of review.