So this is it. I mean, I only found out about this a few days ago, but Haruhi is the whole reason Yuki, Ryoko, and Emiri are even here. They, along with the espers and time travelers, have been hiding the fact that they even exist from Haruhi. And now Itsuki Koizumi has revealed that he is an esper, even giving direct proof. This was followed by Ryoko explaining that she and Yuki are aliens. No, it did not escape my notice that she left Emiri out of it, and yes I wonder why.

Haruhi, on the other hand, seems to still manage to be skeptical. She gave Ryoko a look that was just short of a glare. "What are you trying to do?"

Ryoko looked confused. "What do you mean?"

Haruhi jumped up. "This is serious, Ryoko! Why would you even consider making light of a situation as serious as this? This is what I've been waiting for all my life and you... you're just gonna make fun of me?"

Ryoko waved her hands defensively. "No! No! I'm not! It's true!"

"And I suppose Emiri is a time traveler then!" Haruhi is clearly overreacting, as I'm sure you could guess. She's almost yelling at Ryoko, which I hardly think would be deserved even if she really was mocking Haruhi.

Emiri raised her hand. "Um, I'm not a time traveler."

In the silence that followed, I decided to clear my name as well. "I'm not an alien, an esper, or a time traveler."

Haruhi turned on me for a second before relaxing. She glanced back to Koizumi and Tsuruya. "Uh... is Ryoko telling the truth?"

Koizumi's smile didn't leave, but it did change a bit and give away that he was uncomfortable with the spot he was put in. "Well, I don't-"

Tsuruya put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile. "I say, if Ryoko says she's an alien, then she is." She looked to Yuki. "However, she can really only speak for herself."

Ryoko looked like she had just been scolded, but she nodded. "Yes, you're right." She also looked over at Yuki. "You can, uh, tell them if you want to." She smiled, embarrassed.

Yuki closed the book she had found in spite of the distinct lack of bookshelves in the room. "A lot of choices you left me with..." She looked up at Haruhi, a flare of determination showing in her eyes, and Haruhi gave a nervous and hopeful response. "Haruhi... no matter what anyone says or tries to convince you of, I am a normal Human being."

I thought I heard Ryoko's blood freeze in her veins, and there was a sudden chill in my own body to match. Haruhi must have been expecting a confirmation instead of a denial once Tsuruya practically told her that Ryoko was an alien. Yuki's eyes turned to Ryoko, fixing her with an icy glare. Sitting on the other side of her from Yuki, I can feel all the effects of this terrifying position.

Yuki didn't stop staring, and nobody else moved. "I don't know why you would even suspect something like that, but I believe you may be suffering from either delusions of grandeur or an extreme case of disassociation from reality."

Ryoko's reaction was close to what you would expect if she had been suddenly impaled on a large icicle. I could feel the couch shaking from her trembling. Haruhi looked from Yuki to Ryoko and back again, desperately trying to figure out what was going on. Behind her, still seated, Koizumi and Tsuruya's smiles had finally gone. You know what? I changed my mind. Please go back to smiling.

Haruhi's eyes passed over the petrified Ryoko, skipped past Emiri, and then straight past me. She turned suddenly, looking to Koizumi and Tsuruya. "Koizumi! The SOS Brigade was never officially disbanded, and as your leader it is your duty to tell me whether or not Yuki is in fact a real alien!"

Yuki stood up defiantly. "Haruhi! You want the truth, you can get it from me!"

Haruhi turned on Yuki. "Then tell the truth!"

"I already did! I am Human! Ryoko is Human! We are all Human!"

Yes, they're yelling at each other. Yes, we're all aware of that fact. Yes, we would like them to stop. But Ryoko is frozen, Tsuruya and Koizumi are to wary of Haruhi to stop her, and Emiri seems content to let herself be left out of the whole thing. I'm not getting up because I value my life. And no, Haruhi isn't taking Yuki's constant defiance very well.

"If she's not an alien, then why do Koizumi and Tsuruya agree with her?"

"They didn't take a side either way! A moment ago you thought she was mocking you and now you're insisting that I confirm her story! You're just so hypocritical..." She lowered her voice, not that it kept anyone from hearing. "...I knew you would never change."

Yuki was getting dangerously close to becoming violent again, and like before, Haruhi was oblivious. "As opposed to you! You used to be so quiet and nice, but... what happened that made you change like this?"

"I changed because I didn't want to live the rest of my life acting out whatever part you thought I was meant for in your dream world!"

"D-dream world...? What are you talking about?"

Hey, I remember this coming up before. Maybe someone will explain it for me this time. Yuki was quick enough to go straight to it. "You live in a fantasy world, Haruhi! You think the whole world revolves around you and keeping you happy, but you know what? It doesn't! The world isn't a fantasy land filled with magical characters for you to find! The world is a cruel place that loves to tear the people you love away from you when you least expect it!"

Okay, that was a bit much. That and Haruhi wasn't deterred in the least. "We all saw what Koizumi can do! We have proof that espers exist now! Why can't you just admit it!"

"I refuse! I refuse to be your silent, shy character! I refuse to be your alien! Why can't..." She stopped, almost sounding like she had suddenly calmed down. "Is it too much to ask... to just... be your friend?"

Haruhi blinked a few times, taken aback. "Yuki... that's all I ever wanted." She stepped closer and, much to Yuki's surprised, hugged her. "Yuki, I can live with that then... if that's all you want. I always want to be your friend."

Tsuruya sighed. "Aww, they're hugging!"

Ignoring the comment, or possibly because of it, Yuki got over her shock and slowly returned the friendly embrace. "I... I'm sorry... sorry I yelled at you..."

Haruhi stopped her. "Yuki, we're going to have a conversation, and it would be embarrassing if we had it in front of everyone. Can we both agree to do this later on?" Yuki let go and backed up, suddenly self-conscious. She nodded and backed away. Haruhi smiled at her quick victory, then noticed everyone else staring. "Oh, lay off, would ya?"

"Haruhi..." Yuki spoke softly, calling everyone's attention back to her. "Can you... promise me that... you only ever wanted for me to be happy?"

Haruhi looked surprised, but answered immediately. "Yuki, why would I ever want any of my friends to not be happy? All I ever wanted was for all of us to be happy. Well... and maybe find an alien or two..."

Yuki seemed content with that answer, though Ryoko suddenly snapped back to reality at that last bit. She waved her hands frantically in her defense. "Woah! Hey! Okay, fine! Fine! I'm not an alien, but, uh... I used to be?" She made it sound like a question, but it only served to confuse Haruhi.

"What do you mean? You used to be an alien? I don't..."

Ryoko laughed nervously. "Um, well... I guess Yuki was right, though. I am completely Human. However, I did used to be... well, not Human."

Haruhi briefly looked to Yuki, who simply shrugged, before reaching over and picking Ryoko up in a large hug. Haruhi was saying something through this, but it was mostly unintelligible and her face was buried in Asakura's chest, so the whole this was somewhat muffled.

Eventually, Koizumi decided it was time to move on and broke the silence. "Miss Suzumiya, I believe it would be a good idea to return to the surface now. It's getting late, and the city looks absolutely amazing at night if you have a high enough vantage point."

Dropping the blue-haired former alien, Haruhi turned to Koizumi. "High vantage point? Like what? What do you have in mind?"

He just smiled, probably glad to get everything moving in a different direction. "Well, I was thinking we could find a spot somewhere on the Eiffel Tower."

So, he said that, and the next half hour or so was pretty much just Haruhi talking for the sake of talking. She used a lot of words and didn't really say much, but during that time Tsuruya led the whole group of us back out of the underground tunnels and up through the building. No, I didn't catch any of what Haruhi said on the way out. I kind of tuned her out.

When we stepped outside, I finally realized that we had been down there for quite a while. It was dark, but seeing as we're in a big city there were still plenty of lights everywhere. Koizumi was at the other end of the group from me, but I'm sure he said something to Haruhi. It was quiet, and he gave a tiny frown once she had walked past him. I realized what the problem was when he started to rub his temples. I guess being a super-powerful esper in a large city can give you headaches from time to time. Who knew?

I was about to follow everyone else when something caught on my arm. I looked down to see Emiri tugging me in a different direction. "I need to find Kuyou and make sure she's doing alright." Without waiting for me to respond, she called over to the others, who had already started walking away. "Is it okay if we go off on our own somewhere?"

Everyone stopped and looked back at us awkwardly. Emiri, what did you just get me into? Now they all think we're going to run off to some mushy hotel and... okay, well, at least Haruhi thinks that. Still, word goes around for a bit and they'll be speculating all sorts of things about us that I don't want them to.

Haruhi smiled. "Sure! You guys know where to find us! The Eiffel Tower!"

Koizumi chuckled. "Yeah, I don't see why not. Go ahead."

While Yuki just shrugged, obviously having nothing to say, Ryoko nodded and answered for both of them. "Have fun, you two! Oh, and don't get lost!"

Then Tsuruya added her bit. "Yeah, have megas fun! It is the city of love, after all." Beside me, Emiri turned red. Tsuruya just laughed at her embarrassment.

With that, they all turned and left me with Emiri. While I'm really fine with this alone time, and I wouldn't mind more of it, I do have a problem with what's going to be going through Haruhi's head. There's gotta be an easier way to be in love.

Then, without warning, Emiri started to drag me off in some random direction, and by random direction I mean straight out into the middle of the road. I was being pulled in a strange direction at a speed I was unprepared for, so I didn't really see what happened, but I gathered from the sound of tires screeching and a horn or two honking that Emiri pulled me across in front of a few vehicles.

She stopped, and I took the moment to look around. We were just on the other side of the road. "Geez, Emiri... you sure know how to make yourself noticed." If that's how she crosses the street, I don't want to go to the other side of the river.

Emiri looked up, or at least she tilted her head up so that I could stare into her eyes. "When we were in the airport, I set up a meeting place with Kuyou. She'll have been waiting there for hours now."

She's been just sitting there for hours? "Why didn't you say so? We should get going. Will she even still be there after this long?"

Emiri shrugged. "She is very patient. She won't stay there so long as to be a detriment to her own health, however, so yes we should get going."

Detriment to her own health? Well, I suppose it depends on where she's waiting. Although... I think I heard somewhere that night air can be bad for your lungs if you get too much. Don't know what that means, though. If the place she's waiting at is dirty or dark, or there's some of the more questionable people wandering around, then we really don't want to keep her waiting. All I can do in the meantime is hope Emiri knows how to get there from here.

"Um... we might need to get a map or something."

Thank you, Emiri, for reading my mind. This time, I pulled her along. She told me the name of the place so that we didn't just walk past it while we were looking for a place with a map. As luck would have it, we did walk past it a few blocks down the road. It was a small diner or cafe or something, so I can't imagine what would be detrimental to anyone's health in there.

When we went inside I figured Emiri would want me to locate Kuyou for her, so I scanned the interior for the short woman with long dark hair. I found her at the back, sitting at a small round table and reading a menu. Something Ryoko told me earlier came to mind, so I decided to ask Emiri about it.

"Hey, uh... is Kuyou deaf?" Emiri gave me a glare, so I reworded the question. "I mean, um, how's her hearing?"

Emiri sighed. "Yes... she is completely deaf. That's why we communicate the way we do. She doesn't talk much either, but I know she can. We use sign language the way we do to keep our conversations private even in public."

"So... why don't you just use that memory share thing?" You'd think it would be that simple in their situation, wouldn't you?

"No." Emiri's answer was definite enough. "I cannot allow that for the same reason I can't allow Yuki to get into my memories. If either of them found out what really happened to their husbands..."

At this point, we were standing right beside Kuyou's table. Maybe it's a good thing she's deaf. Of course, Emiri wouldn't have known we were standing so close to her because she's completely blind. These ladies are plenty of fun.

"Sit." This isn't a crowded or busy place, but it still had enough noise to nearly drown out Kuyou's quiet request. Emiri definitely heard it and complied, so I did as well. Staying quiet so that I could barely hear her, Kuyou spoke. Granted, she spoke in sign language with Emiri holding her hands. I guess I'll just sit here...

I have no idea what they're talking about. For all I know, they could be planning world domination or trading cookie recipes. I'm not in this conversation, and they might as well be speaking Portuguese. No chance of listening in. I suppose now might be a good time to think over everything that's been going on, right?

Let's see... I'm in Paris with Emiri, and she's absolutely lovely. Haruhi finally figured out how to keep Yuki from killing her, and Yuki might be a little unstable. Ryoko has cancer and could die literally any time, which could make Yuki even more unstable now that I think about it. The best part of this being that Yuki's the reason Ryoko is dying, as well as the reason Emiri is blind and Kuyou is deaf.

Koizumi told Haruhi that he's an esper, and if I caught everything that was going around, he's the only one who still has powers. All the other ones lost their powers while his grew. Could he have absorbed their powers or something? How do esper powers even work? What even are they? It's not exactly the area I studied in school. Anyone want to help me out here?

Well, okay, so there's that one they have imprisoned. Kyouko Tachibana. If I understood it correctly, she still has powers. Could that be why they've locked her up? Just for still having powers? I'm probably reading too much into this and seeing stuff where there isn't anything, but I wouldn't mind knowing why she's in there. Of course, I also wouldn't mind if someone explained what espers actually are and what they do. That one's gonna be bothering me for a while. I can tell.

Okay, let's check this stuff off. Yuki, Ryoko, Emiri, and Kuyou are former aliens. Koizumi is an esper. Haruhi is some sort of super-powerful being who can decide how the world works. Koizumi's organization are all former espers. That leaves Tsuruya and myself as normal Human beings. Also, somewhere out there, Mikuru Asahina is a time traveler and Kyon is another normal Human.

Then again... Koizumi did say that they had a time traveler down there as well. No one bothered to look in. When Emiri and I first met Tsuruya, she indicated that they had some sort of regular contact with Miss Asahina. Could it be her down there? Would Koizumi do that to her? Or am I reading too much into it?

Come to think of it, something else is bothering me too. Let's see if Emiri can have two conversations at once. "When you called Kuyou earlier... how did that work?"

There was a moment of silence, and I figured she was finishing her sentence or something. Then Kuyou gave a small laugh. She answered instead of Emiri. "My phone has a feature that translates spoke word into text."

I should have figured something like that, but I guess better safe than sorry. So, I guess Emiri is telling Kuyou what I say. I guess now is a good time to let them know something important that could be... very important to them.

"Okay... Emiri, there's something I need you to translate for me. Can you do that? It'll be important for you both to hear this."

Emiri turned to me. "We were in the middle of a conversation. I told her what you said the first time because I knew she would think it was funny."

I shook my head. "This is important. I wasn't sure I wanted to tell you, but this is one of the few opportunities when I even can. It's kind of really important."

Emiri's face turned into a scowl. "Whatever it is, it can wait. I don't get to talk to her much, and there's a lot of things to tell her, so please stop interrupting."

Wow, didn't see that coming. That was a bit more hostile than I expected from her. I've been told off, haven't I? Screw it, this is important. "Ryoko is dying."

That's all. They need to know so that they aren't caught off guard when it happens. I won't tell them that it's because of Yuki, and I definitely won't tell them that Yuki is also the reason they're blind and deaf. Ryoko didn't want Yuki to know, and I can't control what other people do with information I give them.

It took Emiri a second or two for it to sink in. Her hands stopped moving, and Kuyou seemed to realize I had said something that stopped her. She looked to me in confusion, probably just as annoyed that I interrupted as Emiri had been. A few moments later, Emiri's hands started moving again. She started relaying the message to Kuyou, and pulled her hands back when she finished.

Emiri slowly turned back to me, and I could see that she was starting to cry. "How... why do you know that?"

"She told me. Ryoko told me so that I could keep you safe once she was gone."

I looked over to Kuyou and saw that she had her face buried in her hands. Emiri wiped away some of her own tears. "I knew she was sick, and that it was bad, but I didn't realize how late it was. Is there nothing that can be done?"

"I'm sorry. She said that she was told she wouldn't live to see this year. It's a miracle she's managed to hold on this long, and keep acting normal too."

Emiri reached over and grabbed Kuyou's hand. "She was going to join us again in a few months. She just wanted to see us all again." She started to sign something to Kuyou, who signed something back in response. Emiri stood up. "I need... some fresh air."

I stood up and followed her outside, making sure she didn't bump into anything. She stopped outside and waited for me to catch up, then turned around and hugged me, burying her face in my shoulder. I just stood there, letting her cry on my shoulder for as long as she needed.

"Why wouldn't she tell us? Why would she keep it from us for so long?"

I just held her, not having anything to say. There's nothing else I can say. I don't know what to do here... why do I keep having to tell Emiri stuff that makes her cry? This is stupid. Why can't the world be just happy and nothing else?

Kuyou stepped out beside us and watched us for a few moments. "I'm going home now. There's no good reason for me too stay anymore."

Emiri nodded, crying even more. Kuyou started crossing the road, and it felt like Emiri knew she wouldn't be coming back now. Did I just cause that? Now what happens when Emiri starts thinking that Kuyou won't be rejoining the group because of something I said? Nothing can ruin your day like the thought of someone close to you dying, I guess.

I leaned down and whispered to Emiri. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault."

"I know. It's nobody's fault." Although it's technically Yuki's fault... or Haruhi's?

The relative silence was cut by the sound of tires screeching and a horn blaring. Time seemed to slow down for a moment as Emiri pushed off of me and turned around. She rushed out into the street, kneeling down beside Kuyou.

That sound of Emiri wailing will likely haunt me for the rest of my life.

Author's note: I think this is the longest chapter of this story. So, let's look over it so far. I blinded Emiri, deafened Kuyou, gave Ryoko cancer, made Yuki unstable and somewhat over-dramatic, and gave Koizumi a headache. And no, when I say headache, I don't mean his wife. How do you think incredible amounts of mind-based power would effect you in a major city full of people thinking all over the place? Also, how do you like the ending I came up with for the chapter?