It would have been cruelty to let Emiri lose Kuyou after just finding out that Ryoko didn't have long to live. I think... I don't know, God maybe? Someone or something guiding our lives must have realized that. I was beginning to wonder if there really was some higher power watching over us. It sure would explain what had happened over the course of the past hour or so.

The heart monitor beside me beeped steadily as Kuyou's chest rose and fell. Emiri sat on the other side of the bed, resting her head beside Kuyou's on the pillow. The room was small, dark, and quiet. It was almost a depressing atmosphere, save for the fact that Kuyou was still alive. The doctor even had the confidence to tell us that she would make a full recovery.

Both of them were asleep, turning what could have been a depressing place into a place of peace. If being here right now is serenity, then I hope it lasts a while. I almost wish it would never end, but there are some things I want in my life that I can't get here. No, not excitement and adventure. I honestly never wanted that.

Emiri started to stir. She gently lifted herself off the bed and brushed her hair out of her face. "I should... call the others. They need to know where we are."

I gave her a reassuring nod. Remembering that she couldn't see me, I gave her a verbal response. "That might be a good idea. I don't know how to get back from here." I remembered something else as she was getting her phone out of her pocket. "What are you going to say about Kuyou?"

She gulped, her fingers running across the top of the cellphone in uncertainty. "I... dammit. I guess I don't have a choice." She turned red. "Oh, uh, I'm sorry, I-"

I stopped her. "It's okay. Go ahead. Call them."

She nodded, wiping her eyes. She fiddled with the phone for a few seconds before putting it up to her ear. She suddenly made a distressed face. "Long distance? Wha...? Ugh, Yuki left her phone in Toronto!" She sighed and held the phone over the bed. "Here, you call Ryoko. I couldn't talk to her right now."

I accepted the phone, calmly letting her know that I have no idea what Ryoko's number is. "Do I just mash numbers until it comes up? How does this work?"

"It's in the contacts. There's only about six names, so it shouldn't be difficult."

Ah, right, contacts. Now I just have to figure out how to work this thing. I'm not going to bore you with how long it took me to get it done, but I eventually got it to dial Ryoko's phone. I held it up to my ear and listened to it ring a few times before someone picked it up. It wasn't who I had been expecting.

"Hello? I'm sorry, Ryoko Asakura can't talk right now! She's kind of-"

I interrupted. "Haruhi? What are you doing on Ryoko's phone?"

She responded with far more anger than I was prepared for. "You! Where's Emiri? Why didn't she tell us there was something wrong with Ryoko?"

This conversation needs to not happen right in front of Emiri right now. "Okay, wait. Hold on a second." I held the phone away from my mouth, speaking to Emiri. "You stay with Kuyou. I'm gonna go out in the hall." Once I was in the hall outside the room, I spoke back into the phone. "Okay, go. What's wrong with Ryoko?"

Haruhi swore a few times, mostly directed at me. "Koizumi was showing us the Eiffel Tower and she started coughing, and she collapsed, and then she couldn't breath, and she coughed up some blood! Where's Emiri? I want her to explain what's going on! Where is she?"

I tried my best to calm her down, trying not to freak out myself. "Emiri and I were meeting a friend of hers named Kuyou. We're at a hospital now because Kuyou was hit by a car. Where's Ryoko right now?"

She took a few seconds to answer. "I... um... I didn't... uh, she's... Tsuruya called an ambulance, so she's on her way to the hospital. They got here just before you called. Um... did you say Kuyou? As in Kuyou Suou?"

"You know her?" Although, according to what Emiri told me, I shouldn't be surprised that Haruhi knew Kuyou. She was a member of a team of aliens tasked with observing Haruhi, so they had probably been near her at some point.

"No, I just guessed her name! Idiot, of course I know her!" She took a moment to breathe. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. Is Kuyou going to be alright?"

"Yes, Haruhi. She'll be fine. Are you guys on your way to the hospital?"

She let out a sigh, obviously growing very tired. "Yes. Arakawa came with the limousine. Yuki looks really upset... I... I should go."

"Okay. I'm going to talk to Emiri, and then I'll be waiting by the front for you. Got it?"

"Um..." She was thinking something, and I half-suspected I knew what it was. She lowered her voice, likely because she didn't want the others to hear her. "This... was this my fault?"

I reassured her, though I'm not really certain that I told the truth. "No, this isn't your fault. It's not anyone's fault. Listen, I'll see you in a few minutes. We can talk more then, but right now I need to tell Emiri what's happening."

"Okay..." She hung up, and I closed Emiri's phone.

Opening the door, I stepped back into the room and quietly handed Emiri her phone. I had to nudge her shoulder with it to get her to notice. She took it and put it away, then waited for the sound of me sitting down. Unfortunately, I wasn't going to be sitting down. I still had to explain the situation to her, but I was having a hard time figuring out where to start.

The words came out before I could stop them, which may have been for the best. Is was actually probably the best thing to start with. "Did you know Haruhi was aware of Kuyou? It sounded like they knew each other."

Emiri looked surprised for a moment, then she gave a more thoughtful look. "Well... I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, though I didn't know that. Strange... if they knew each other Kuyou would have told me, I think." She pulled herself back, offering me a small smile. "Why did Haruhi answer Ryoko's phone?"

I let out a long sigh, and may have hinted to what happened in doing so. Her smile disappeared before I could even start, but she did let me explain. "Haruhi answered because... Ryoko collapsed." Emiri started to stand up, but I put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. "She's in an ambulance on her way to the hospital. Probably this one, so we'll be able to visit her. Everyone else is on their way here, and I'm going to go meet them down at the entrance. I need you to stay in here and keep an eye Kuyou."

"But..." She started to protest, but stopped herself. She swallowed, clearing her throat. "Ah... is it because of... that?"

I nodded. "I think so. I'm afraid all we can do for her now is wish..."

Emiri stepped closer to me, wrapping her arms around me and burying her face in my shirt. I didn't realize what she was doing at first, but it soon became apparent that she was using me to muffle what she was saying. I guess she was doing that because she didn't want her crying to wake Kuyou. It would have been loud had she not used me essentially as a silencer.

When she was done she turned her head to the side, taking deep breaths. "I don't want to lose her. I don't want to lose anyone ever again. I almost lost Kuyou, and now..."

I put my arms around her, trying my best to comfort her. "I'm sorry this is happening. I really am. But there's nothing we can do." Except there is something I can do. Something Ryoko doesn't want me to do.

There's still time. I could go tell Yuki what's happening to Ryoko and why. If Ryoko is right, Yuki could then transfer the sickness onto herself. Ryoko would live, but Yuki would die, and Ryoko is sure Yuki would do it if she knew she could. I have been, you could say, forbidden from passing this information along.

And I can believe that, if she knew, Emiri might take it on herself.

I gently guided her back to the chair beside Kuyou's bed, then moved back to the door. "I'll get someone else to come up here and keep you company. Maybe... Tsuruya?" She nodded. I figured Haruhi or Yuki might make things a bit awkward right now. "Okay, well... see you soon."

I stepped out the door and headed down the halls. I should note that the hospital is rather quiet, seeing as it's the middle of the night. All the doors are closed and the lights are turned down low. There aren't very many doctors or nurses walking around either. Overall, it's actually a bit creepy.

After finding a stairwell and going down about three floors, I found myself wandering the halls on the ground floor. Not much better, but theoretically an improvement. It might have been a good ten minutes before I found the entrance, and that's not because I'm terrible at finding my way around. Emiri and I came here with Kuyou, who entered at the back. I'm heading for the front, where I haven't actually been before. Sure, there are directions on the walls, but they're all in French. I have a hard enough time with English.

Eventually I did find the front entrance. It seemed everyone else had gone to find wherever Ryoko was, as only Koizumi remained. He was sitting on a bench near the front desk, rubbing his temples. It looked like a curious nurse thought he needed attention, but he reassured her with a smile. He then went back to uncharacteristically not smiling.

I walked over to him. "Too many people around?"

He looked up and smiled, then sighed and nodded. "Too many minds thinking too much. It's why I stay underground most of the time."

"Why don't you just move to the middle of the country or something. Where there aren't so many people."

He laughed as he stood up. "You'd be surprised how much thought animals put into their daily lives. Although, I admit hearing the thoughts and translating them are two different things. I find it fascinating how two people who speak two different languages thinking of the exact same thing make it feel like two completely different concepts. Language in the mind is something I have been working on writing a book about, in fact."

That's a truly weird thing to think about, and I honestly wish I could say that it has never crossed my mind. "I gather you would have firsthand experience on the matter, but I find it hard to believe you'd have many people that would accept it as scientifically... real."

He nodded. "Not entirely feasible, I know. That's part of why I'm in France. A certain branch of the government here actually has a use for such studies. I've been subject to a few tests that have convinced them I am legitimate."

I followed beside him as he led me presumably to where Ryoko was staying, talking with him in the hope of gradually figuring out what it is he can actually do. "I suppose a government contract is one thing someone like you can go for. Hey, in any of those tests, did you happen to show them that floating energy ball thing?"

He shook his head, then seemed to think better of it and shrugged. "Well, I showed them, but we have no recorded evidence of it. All the equipment we had been trying to use just read static whenever I conjured one."

I lapsed into silence about until we were stepping into the elevator. Something occurred to me then, so I turned to ask him about it. "Since you live here, you learned to speak French, right?"

He laughed again, still obviously hiding how much of a headache he had. "Well, yes I have been trying to learn, but I usually rely on my wife in that area. I've managed three languages, but I'm pushing it trying for another. Meanwhile, she knows more than a dozen."

"So you get her to do a lot of the work for you?"

"Hardly. Like I said, I know three languages well enough, and English is generally the one used in business. Most of the French government officials I've met were more than happy to converse in English. And I take some amount of pride in the fact that I also speak Dutch, which my wife does not." He smiled jokingly. "She does do a lot of the work herself, but I think it's fair to say we're even in that regard."

The elevator doors opened, and he led me down more halls. I thought of another thing that had been bugging me. "Uh, your... your wife. She wants us to call her by her family's name. Does she do that with you?"

He gave a far more sober look than I had expected. "No, I call her by her given name, but for some reason she doesn't want to disclose what that is with you. I don't think even Haruhi knows it, and she seems to want to keep it that way. There's no fathoming her reason, but there will be respecting it."

I rubbed the back of my hand awkwardly. "So we're all just going to call her Tsuruya. I know that should feel normal to me, but I just finished having Yuki and Ryoko insist I use their given names and I think Haruhi even threatened me."

"I understand. Miss Suzumiya referred to me as Itsuki a lot in school. She doesn't seem to like being so formal all the time. Frankly, I don't blame her."

So that answers a few things, but... "So do you know why your wife dyed her hair when she came to Canada? Was there a point to that?"

He laughed. Again. "Oh, that? I know deep down she had a reason somewhere, but she told me she just felt like it. Oh, and that reminds me... hmm... I should probably let her tell you. She likely will at some point. Anyway, I take it you and Miss Kimidori are...?"

Oh, geez, I might as well. I mean, it's only been a few days, but... well, we did meet a lot in high school, so I know her a bit. Oh well, I want to know her better. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. It's barely in any sort of starting stages, but it looks pretty hopeful. I hope all this doesn't change her, though."

His smile faded a bit at the mention of 'all this'. "She is lovely and I wish you good fortune with your relationship. It is regrettable about Miss Asakura, but there seems to be little that can be done. Those three have lived quite depressing lives up till now, and it is sad that Miss Asakura appears to be suffering a great deal. Not only from physical pain, mind you. I could read her thought patterns just as well as anyone else."

I assume you mean just as well as you could read anyone else, because I couldn't read Ryoko's thought patterns at all. And I won't mention that Kuyou is the forth of 'those three'. "I still think it's creepy that you can read my mind, but what do you mean? How else is she suffering?"

He gave a sad sigh, and I have decided that it definitely is better when he's smiling. "She's been trying to hide it, and I think Miss Kimidori and Miss Nagato haven't even realized it. It was hard even for me to identify what it was. She's lonely, and she's been lonely for a very long time."

"Lonely? I don't understand."

"The three of them had each other, and that may have been enough for Miss Nagato and Miss Kimidori to get by, but Miss Asakura seems like she needed something more. Have you noticed how she is rather uninterested in having a romantic relationship?" I nodded, unable to speak under the weight of what I was just now realizing. Koizumi continued. "Indeed, I believe that she is in fact a very sad person. Most, if not all, of the happiness in her life has derived from her two close friends."

I figured it out, then. "Yuki was married..."

He gave a look of surprise. "That explains a bit. And Miss Kimidori has you now, so perhaps that's why she doesn't seem so lonely. It is, as they say, better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all."

I nodded in confirmation. "Loved and lost... I guess you could say that. Yuki's husband died recently." Though I'm going to refrain from elaborating. "Listen, Ryoko told me a bit about what's happening."

"She did? When was this?"

"When we were at the airport. She knows she's sick, and she was told by the doctor that she didn't have long to live. She wasn't supposed to last nearly this long."

He took a sharp breath. "I see... she held on just long enough for Haruhi to find Miss Nagato. It seems that she also managed to find someone to take care of Miss Kimidori."

I shrugged. "I guess so. Apparently the Data Integration Thought Entity saw fit to ensure Yuki had perfect health. The method they used, according to Ryoko, passes things that should be effecting Yuki off to the others. Ryoko told me that she thought it was why Emiri went blind."

"Oh my..." You can say that again. "And Miss Asakura will not recover?"

I shook my head. "It's lung cancer. She's been acting tough for a long time, but it's really getting to her. There's not much more she can take."

"I see. From what you've told me, I take it that this should logically be effecting Miss... ah, well, the former Miss Nagato." He gave me a questioning look.

He wants to know what her last name is now? Well, let him have it. "She married a guy named Matthew Benson. And she told me she preferred just to be called Yuki." It looked like he was testing how that sounded in his head. "Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, does it? That's why I just call her Yuki."

He smiled a bit. "Alright, well, anyway... are you worried that, if Miss Asakura passed away, this might transfer over to Miss Kimidori instead?"

"Very worried, actually. So is Ryoko. She's afraid that if Yuki finds out she'll take it all back, so she's told me to explain it to Yuki after she's... well... she wants me to convince Yuki to stop when she's gone, so the same doesn't start happening to Emiri. I might need help when that time comes..."

"Well, I don't know what I could do to help, but I can guarantee if I see you having difficulty I will gladly throw my wife into the mix. She understands people to an unprecedented degree and would no doubt be able to defuse the situation."

Just aim for Yuki when you throw. "Okay, so I have one more question now that I think about it. That dream you sent me; you said you planted it in my mind while we were still in school. I'm not going to bother asking how that even works. I'm just going to stick with asking how you knew to do it and why it was like that."

He stopped walking, and I realized it was because we had arrived at our destination. There was a closed door beside us, and no one was in the hall, so I guessed everyone else was inside already. It looked like Koizumi wanted this particular conversation to stay out here, though.

He peered through the window on the door as he spoke. "At the end of my second year of high school, Mikuru Asahina brought me into the future. She showed me events that would take place, and then told me what I had to do. Contacting you and getting you to bring Haruhi Suzumiya to Paris was essential in ensuring that what you saw does not come to pass."

"What exactly was it that happened there?"

He backed away from the door, closing his eyes. "Not more than a month from now, our sun will unleash a solar flare far larger than any recorded. It will be the beginning of the end for the star, but we won't have to worry about that. The solar flare will hit Earth directly, and the Human race will die along with every plant and animal on the surface. The cities of the world will catch fire and turn to ash and the oceans will boil and evaporate. Our atmosphere will be scorched off, and the planet will be left lifeless. According to the calculations I've made using the information I gathered from Miss Asahina, both the planets Mercury and Mars will be hit as well. Judging from the size and intensity, the flare will likely vaporize Mercury entirely."

Wha... what? He can't be serious, can he? "If Miss Asahina knew to show you that... does she still come from the future? When is she from?" Of course, I knew to keep my voice down.

He nodded, barely above whispering now. "That is a bit complicated, and better to be explained by her. But the reason she knew to show me was because the Human race continues after that point. That is why the dream was intended to bring you here to Paris. We needed you to bring Haruhi Suzumiya, remember?"

Her powers? "You need her to stop the flare. But aren't her powers gone?"

"Not nearly." He shook his head. "No, Miss Suzumiya's powers are as strong as ever. They are not currently functioning because she had lost her belief not only in the supernatural, but in herself. Not believing in herself, her powers have become dormant, and they will remain that way until her confidence is restored. That is why Miss Asahina will be joining us soon. Haruhi Suzumiya will not regain her self-confidence until the SOS Brigade is reunited."