- Chapter 9: Mayflies -
Aunt Kanae drove the group to Mount Narobu in just a few minutes, throughout which she gave a tour guide synopsis of the place which Yui found quite interesting. Kanae was just such a lively speaker, and full of little tidbits. Haruhi was still looking chipper, and occasionally chimed in with her own memories of the place. Yui, sitting in the back with Kyon on the other side and his sister scrunched between the two of them, was more than content to sit and listen to the two Suzumiyas. It made her wonder why, whenever she glanced over at Kyon, he looked like he was worrying about something. He kept glancing at Haruhi and his sister.
At a moment when everyone else appeared to be distracted by Kanae's narration, she leaned over Kyon's sister's head and softly asked, "What is it?"
He frowned. "Maybe I should send her back home."
"What? Send your little sister on a train journey by herself? Or are you thinking of abandoning us, too?"
"I know, it's crazy. I'm just worried that this isn't a good place for her to be."
"Don't be so tense. What danger is there here that she wouldn't also be exposed to at home?"
That made him look even more grim. "...You're right. Nothing. I don't even have any real reason to believe the time folds are only affecting people within shouting distance of Haruhi."
"Time folds?"
One side of his mouth curled. "Just a little Haruhi joke."
She didn't really get it, but she pushed out a chuckle so that he wouldn't feel abashed.
They parked at a cleared area of the nearby woods and piled out.
"Mmm, smell that crisp October air!" Haruhi inhaled heartily. "It's like crisp leaves and cucumbers, with a bright dash of sunshine!"
"I could do without the chill, frankly," Kyon muttered. He glanced balefully upward, as though wondering what possessed Haruhi to talk about sunshine when the sky was completely covered with grey clouds.
She couldn't really sympathize with his complaint. Everyone had dressed smartly for the weather: Yui herself was wearing a wool headband and a light jacket over a long-sleeved shirt, and Haruhi wore a blue-and-white hooded sweatshirt, hood off, with a loose-fitting t-shirt underneath. (It seemed to be Haruhi's gift, Yui reflected, to wear outfits that were both comfortable and sensible such that they looked even more comfortable.) But Kyon and his sister were in full-on winter coats; they just couldn't be uncomfortably cold like that. Even in what she was wearing, the air felt brisk and refreshing, not chilly.
"Alright, follow me, gang," Kanae said.
Yui strapped on her backpack and did as she said, while Kyon's sister skipped along ahead, humming a happy tune. "Stay where I can see you," Kyon warned.
"Oh, no need to worry," Kanae assured me. "There are no wild animals or sudden drop-offs on this trail. Not until we get a lot farther up, anyway."
Somehow, Yui got the feeling that it wasn't the environment that was worrying Kyon. It was like there was a special cloud hovering over him and Haruhi.
She also noticed that that overloaded backpack he had hoisted on his back was giving him real trouble. For the first hundred meters he was okay, but once the trail bent upwards he started to look like his burden was pulling him under the earth.
"Hey, Suzumiya!" she called. "Isn't it kind of a waste to have everything in that one backpack? I know they're not as big, but Little Sis and I have backpacks too."
Haruhi turned around and gave them all a thoughtful look. "Hmm, yeah. Kyon, distribute some of your load to Yui and your sister, okay?"
That was one order which Kyon was happy to obey. He set down the backpack and let his sister and Yui pick out what they wanted to carry.
After watching them for a moment, Haruhi stepped forward and reached in to pull something out. As she bent over, her hood shifted enough for Yui to briefly spot the shine of a necklace on the back of her neck. "Here," she grunted. "I want my water bottle with me."
"Thank you," Kyon said to her.
She just frowned as though mildly puzzled and resumed her course down the trail, Little Sis following after her. Yui didn't get the way she treated Kyon sometimes. Why couldn't she just admit she wanted to lighten his load a bit too, and accept his thanks? She never acts proud like this with me. She should know that she doesn't have anything to prove to Kyon, either.
She noticed Kyon smiling at her. It wasn't something she saw on him often. "What?" she said.
His smile didn't waver. "I'm just thankful you helped me out there."
"It's no big deal. You looked really weighed down."
"That's kind of what I'm getting at. Maybe you don't realize it, but you're a very considerate person, Ishigaki. Haruhi isn't even one hundredth that considerate. So it makes me happy that she picks out such good friends."
Yui blushed at that. Kyon was a genuinely decent guy, and you didn't get compliments like that from genuinely decent guys very often. Most guys were shy about expressing their feelings like that. She had thought Kyon was, too, but it seemed like he was opening up more. Maybe it was Haruhi's influence; she sure wasn't shy about saying whatever she thought.
I wish my boyfriend was open with his feelings like that. I could even forgive him for forgetting White Day, if he'd just once say something to me like what Kyon just said.
Kyon had already moved on, leaving her no chance to respond. Which was just as well; she probably would have forced out something trite and embarrassing. She hurried along after the group.
Not that she needed to try too hard to keep up. They all were being careful not to leave behind Kyon's little sister, after all. As energetic as she was, her legs were too short to provide a real race for an experienced mountain climber.
Oh, what am I thinking? I've been on plenty of hiking trips, but I've never tackled an actual mountain! Suzumiya's fanciful exaggerations are rubbing off on me.
She noticed Aunt Kanae dropping back to come alongside her as they ascended. When she glanced over at her, Kanae's broad face beamed an equally broad smile. "How's it going, kiddo?"
"Uh, fine!" She didn't mean to be nervous, but it threw her off that Suzumiya's aunt was confronting her individually. "It's good to be in the great outdoors."
"Definitely." Kanae took in a hearty breath. "So, you get along pretty well with Kyon?"
"Mmm, yeah. I mean, this is really only the second time I've gotten to hang out with him, but he's easy to get along with, I think. He's real steady, and easygoing."
"Then you guys aren't actually friends?"
"Mnn. Friend of a friend. I mean, I'd like to be his friend, but we don't have any of the same interests or anything, so we don't have any excuse to hang out. Besides, my boyfriend wouldn't like it."
"Well, kiddo, you can't let your boyfriend tell you who you can have as friends."
"Oh! No, no, it's not like that – honest, your niece would never stand for something like that going on with one of her friends!"
Kanae laughed. "Yeah, I guess that's true. So, you have a boyfriend. Does Kyon have a girlfriend?"
"No, he... well, he has a thing for Suzumiya, you know?"
"Mmm hmm."
There was something about that muted response, like Kanae already knew what she just said. Yui clammed up; it really wasn't her right to be telling Kanae about Kyon's personal feelings anyway.
"So why isn't he Haruhi's boyfriend?"
"I really don't know," she answered, maybe a bit too quickly.
"Okay. I'm more interested in hearing about you, anyway. Haruhi keeps saying you're some sort of adventurer."
"Oh, you know... Suzumiya always dramatizes like that. I'm into archaeology, so she calls me a tomb raiding adventurer."
"An archaeologist..." Kanae nodded. "I see. It's starting to make sense now."
"Hey... You're asking all this stuff for your book, aren't you?"
"Well, of course, kiddo. When Haruhi has a request for her favorite aunt, I always give it my best. If she wants me to write about her and her friends, I can't just plug your names into her stories. My little Haruhi won't be satisfied with that. I have to know what you guys are really like."
That was pretty exciting. A real author, putting her into a real book. "Well, the first thing you have to know is I haven't actually been on a dig yet. Of course I hope to do that one day, but still. I did find those two samurai swords, though! Well, me and Kyon and Yuki Nagato. They gave me all the credit for the discovery, though, so I've already got a little fame in my field, even if I didn't completely earn it. My point is, I've got the knowledge, but not the experience just yet. Not that that bothers me, because it just means I have most of my career, the best of my career, ahead of me!"
"So those swords are your only discovery so far. But you've looked at existing archaeological finds, probably?"
"Oh, yeah." In the back of her mind, she was aware that she was babbling a bit, but she couldn't help it. It wasn't every day that someone showed this kind of interest in her archaeological doings. "I go to a local museum at least once a month, just to check out if they have anything new and to look at the old exhibits again, and whenever I can I get my parents to take me on a trip to see a new one. People tell me I'm a little obsessed with this stuff, but it's all so amazing! I mean, people's lives are wrapped up in these objects and documents from centuries ago. Lives which were totally different from our own in the most basic cultural premises and moral values, and which can still teach us today! It's like these ancient people are still alive, in a way."
"Yeah."
Yui paused, caught off guard by the seriousness voiced in that one word. "Hey... This isn't just about your book, is it?"
"Not just," Kanae agreed. "Have you given any thought to why Haruhi invited you on this trip?"
"Well, I'm her friend. A close friend. I mean, I guess I'm not her best friend, not that I wouldn't want to be, but..."
"That is part of it, kiddo, but I think there's something else. You remember what Haruhi said when I drove you guys over to my place? She wanted a way to deal with death."
"Oh. I kind of forgot about that. I figured she was just making conversation. Suzumiya talks about weird stuff sometimes."
"No, I've made that mistake before too, but Haruhi doesn't bring up something like that unless she's serious about it. She wants to beat death. And you – and me – we both have spent a lot of time confronting death. I had cancer, and you study dead people's remains."
"Ahhh..." She couldn't think of anything to say. She hadn't seen that connection until now.
"I don't know where Kyon falls into it yet. But I'll bet he's gotten up close and personal with death at some point, too."
"But... not his little sister, right? I mean, I don't know her well at all, but what could someone her age have done that has anything to do with death?"
"Nothing that I can think of. Maybe she's here to represent hope, or something."
"Okay, so what can I do to help?"
Kanae turned to her and smiled warmly. "Honestly kiddo, I have no idea. That niece of mine is a real mystery. The longer I know her, the more I realize that I don't really understand her."
"She seems pretty easy to understand to me," Yui protested.
"I'm sure she does. But that's because you two are friends. You're mostly looking at your common interests, and assuming that you see them in the same way. It's different when you're family, and you have to see things that she doesn't want to share with you."
There was an awkward silence. The dirt scuffed under their feet.
"Oh, I don't know why I say things like that sometimes. Listen, kiddo, don't worry too much about all of this. I just wanted you to be aware of what's going on. Enjoy yourself, okay?" She trotted off to the other side of the path.
Yui released a sigh. There was never a dull moment with Haruhi around – and who would want it any other way? Okay, so things got scary for a bit on that camping trip when the samurai swords went missing, but for the most part, Yui loved anything that made you feel alive, not just going through life day-by-day, but reaching out and grabbing hold of life, leaping onto it, and riding it like a wild stallion.
She could tell that Haruhi felt that way too, only she was better at knowing how to go about it. That was why she'd happily go along with whatever Haruhi had in mind for this trip, even if it was something as off-putting at first glance as death. She knew Haruhi knew what she was doing. Besides, even if she did take things in a crazy direction, Kyon was around to diffuse the situation. He really was a -
"...prince turned away another prospective bride?" Sakanaka asked.
"No way!" Yui contemplated dropping her scrub brush to convey her astonishment. "You mean Lady Mikuru Asahina?"
"That's the one." Sakanaka smiled, pleased at her reaction, but continued wiping down the palace floor with her rag.
"I saw her coming in. She's stunning! I'd kill to have her figure, and her face – you just don't get a cuter face than that!"
"Her personality is mega cute, too!" Tsuruya chimed in, dusting off the furniture. "She's so shy you can hardly stand it, and she's so nice to everyone."
"Not to mention her lovely voice. I hear she's sung leads in opera productions. How could Prince Kyon not like someone like that?"
"I think it doesn't have to do with not liking her," Sakanaka said. "He seems to like most women well enough, and some of the staff say he did go pretty gaga for Lady Asahina. I think..." She lowered her voice. "Well, I think he just doesn't want to get married yet."
"What?!" Yui hissed. "How can you say that about Prince Kyon?"
"I don't mean that he's abrogating his duty," she hastened to amend. "He probably hasn't even consciously thought that he doesn't want to get married. It's just that he's not enthusiastic about it. Don't you get the sense sometimes that he's thinking 'There must be more to life than getting married, having children, and all the other little responsibilities of being a prince?'"
"Honestly, you're imagining things." But Yui felt like she knew what Sakanaka was talking about. Prince Kyon had this look on his face that was becoming more and more frequent. A look of strange, regal weariness that she didn't think she could ever understand.
She didn't want to believe it, though. Prince Kyon was a great guy, who was kind to everyone and listened to everyone, and all of his subjects were earnestly hoping to see him happily settled down with the right girl. To even think that Prince Kyon might not do that, or even want to do that, was... Well, it was profoundly, unbearably sad. It was something absolutely no one could possibly want.
"Well, I sure hope I am," Sakanaka admitted, though with a hint of but-I-really-think-I'm-not. "Hey Tsuruya, didn't you say you were going to get the new girl working in the kitchens to help us out today? Where is she?"
"Yup, I sure did!" Tsuruya grinned. "She's running a little late, but trust me, once she's here, we'll be done with this room faster than you can blink!"
"Don't change the subject!" Yui objected, fighting back her curiosity about this new girl and what made her so fast. "It's awful to say things like that about Prince Kyon when he's probably just holding out for the perfect girl!"
"Bwah hahahaha! Oh, the perfect girl! Ha ha ha, that's great!"
"What's so funny?"
Sakanaka wasn't laughing either, but she said, "I think what Tsuruya means is, you can't get any more perfect than Lady Asahina. If Prince Kyon thinks she's not the right one for him, then he must have weird taste in girls."
"Well, so what if he does? I mean, who are we to call his tastes weird, or even judge them at all?"
"I didn't mean it that way. It's just, with all the amazing women he's met, don't you think -"
"Hey, what's with all the talking? I thought we were cleaning in here."
They all turned to look at the new arrival, a striking, fierce-eyed girl in clothes that were ragged and tattered even by scullery maid standards. They didn't step over the lines of decency, but it was as if she didn't even care about her appearance, though her long hair was beautifully done up in braids and hair sticks, and the yellow ribbon was a nice touch, in Yui's opinion.
"Heya, Haruhi!" Tsuruya waved, even though the girl was standing barely two meters away. "We were just chatting about Prince Kyon and how he just can't seem to find a girl who -"
"That doesn't matter!" the new girl interrupted. "All that silly gossip is just a waste of time and brain power. We're here for one reason, to clean! So let's get to it." She set down a cleaning bucket, full of soapy suds, with a pronounced clack against the floor for emphasis.
"Um." Despite herself, Yui couldn't help but feel like the new girl was like a head servant or other figure whom she needed permission to address, making it a struggle just to speak up. "We should introduce ourselves first, shouldn't we? I'm Yui Ishigaki."
"I'm Yoshimi Sakanaka." The girl bobbed her head. "I'm pleased to meet you."
"I'm the great Tsuruya! Butcha already knew that, rights?"
"Hmmph." The new girl surveyed them with disinterest. "My name is Haruhi Suzumiya. I have no interest in ordinary cleaning agents." She drew herself up, statuesque, cleaning rag held high above her head like a holy talisman. "I seek a soap that will scrub away even the most ingrained stain with a single wipe, one that will form a never-ending lather that I can wield until every last dwelling on the face of the earth is sanitized and sparkling clean!"
A stunned silence fell.
"...Was that a joke?" someone said. Someone male.
Yui looked to the source of the voice, just a meter behind Suzumiya, and saw... "Your Highness!" she breathed.
Suzumiya was not nearly as astonished. She just turned to Prince Kyon (who Yui now noticed was accompanied by the court jester, Itsuki Koizumi) and scowled. "Of course that was a joke! You seriously thought there could be someone with a cleaning obsession? What are you, an idiot?"
Yui gasped, astounded that Suzumiya would say such a thing to someone she had just met, and doubly astounded that anyone would say such a thing to Prince Kyon. The prince himself was so taken aback that he seemed unable to form a response.
Not so Itsuki Koizumi. "Not an idiot, but a prince, my dear lady. Just as -"
"Then he's an idiot prince, obviously," Suzumiya returned. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm in the middle of an introduction here." As if to further prove her boldness, she turned her back to Prince Kyon as she again addressed her fellow maids. "As I said, my name is Haruhi Suzumiya. I have no interest in ordinary humans. If any of you are gods, witches, or mermaids, please come see me! That is all."
She stood there, beaming with pride before the speechless maids. Prince Kyon muttered, "That's even crazier than the first introduction," but Suzumiya seemed not to hear him.
Koizumi broke the awkward silence. "Well, I suppose we should introduce ourselves as well. I am Itsuki Koizumi, humble jester to His Royal Highness."
"Humble nuisance is more like it," Prince Kyon sighed. "Okay, my name is -"
"Prince Kyon, I know," Suzumiya interrupted.
Yui put a hand to her mouth. "Ulp." The prince wasn't supposed to know people were calling him that.
Indeed, he was already frowning. "Kyon? Why would you call me that?"
Suzumiya blinked at him in mild puzzlement, then jerked a thumb towards her companions. "That's what the girls here were calling you."
Yui wanted to hide under a rock now.
"Well, I don't like it," Prince Kyon said. "That's a dumb, childish diminutive. My name is -"
"That doesn't matter!" Suzumiya snapped.
A very, very large rock.
"I know what your birth name is. I don't live under a rock, you know. Kyon suits you much better."
The prince was a patient person, but he looked like he was reaching his limit with this girl. "You realize you're talking to a prince, don't you?"
"Yeah, so?"
"So, a little more respect would be appropriate."
"That's ridiculous. I'm supposed to respect you just because you were born into a certain family? I don't care how many idiots profess that 'ancestry is all' nonsense; if you want me to respect you more than other people, you'll have to do something impressive yourself."
As gentle and patient as Prince Kyon was, Yui wouldn't have been surprised if he ordered Suzumiya beheaded at that very moment. What she'd just said was practically treason, blasphemous even. But while Prince Kyon still looked very annoyed, the primary competitor for that emotion was not outrage, but interest. "Okay, so I'm not really better than anyone else. But you should respect everyone enough not to insist on calling them by a name they don't like. How would you like it if someone called you Suzy?"
"That's totally different! 'Suzy' is a mockery of my family's name, something that only a childish bully would even think of calling me." Though Suzumiya had been looking Prince Kyon right in the face ever since the argument over his name had started, somehow when she said that last phrase it seemed like she was looking at him with much greater emphasis. "Whereas calling you Kyon is just using the most appropriate name available. Your given name is bold, majestic, and stuck-up. It's the complete opposite of you in every way, basically."
It was subtle, but Yui noticed that Suzumiya had actually thrown in a compliment there. Prince Kyon didn't seem to pick up on it, though, not that she could blame him with how belligerent Suzumiya's tone was.
"And how did you manage such a thorough assessment of my personality?" he retorted. "Seeing as we've known each other for all of two minutes."
She blinked. "Really? It feels like... Haven't we met somewhere before?"
"I don't think so." After a moment of silence, he added, "And even given what you said about my station, I somehow think you would remember if you had met the prince of your kingdom before."
For a few seconds they just stared into each other's eyes, as though Suzumiya were still looking for the answer to his seeming familiarity, and Prince Kyon were waiting for the conversation to progress of its own accord. Sakanaka had gone back to wiping the floor, apparently determined not to get caught up in a conversation that might lead her to the palace dungeon. For a kitchen maid to make such sustained eye contact with the prince by itself was utterly brazen. Even Tsuruya was careful enough not to make any comment, though she was watching the standoff and inexplicably giggling at it. Yui supposed you could put her own behavior somewhere between Sakanaka and Tsuruya's; she knew she should be working, but couldn't help but be fascinated by the little drama taking place.
"I've got it!" Suzumiya snapped her fingers. "Have you ever gone around disguised as a peasant?"
"W-what?" Yui didn't think she'd ever seen Prince Kyon turn such a bright red. She wouldn't be surprised if her own face was a similar shade; had that girl actually just said what she thought she did?
"Well, it's nothing to be ashamed of," Suzumiya said, shaking her head in a smugly condescending manner. "Princes and princesses, and even kings and queens go around incognito all the time, to get away from the pressures of palace life, and sometimes to elude deadly assassins!"
"A-are you crazy?! Those are just stories! I w-" Prince Kyon took a step backward, sharply enough that his calf hit Suzumiya's cleaning bucket with an audible rap, and fell on his backside. The overturned bucket poured suds across the floor – which, since Prince Kyon's behind was now on that floor, presented a rather mortifying problem.
One which Suzumiya was apparently oblivious to. "You idiot!" she screeched. "Look at what you did!"
"I'm sorry," he muttered, sounding as though he were struggling not to vent at her over his humiliation, or her utterly unhelpful rudeness. He got to his feet, grasping the seat of his pantaloons to prevent them from clinging to the contours of his rear, and started stumbling away, presumably to change into something drier.
"Where do you think you're going?" Suzumiya demanded. "You've got a mess to clean up here!"
Prince Kyon stared at her. "But... I'm a prince."
"I could have sworn we just went over that." She thrust a finger at the puddle of suds. "When you make a mess. You clean it up! That's the responsible thing to do. Being a prince doesn't mean you're released from all obligations!"
"Well, of course not. But I also have an obligation to maintain the dignity of my position. I can't just -"
"Are you implying that our profession is undignified?"
He struggled for a moment for a reply, then sighed. "Can I at least change my clothes first?"
"Do I look like I'm stupid? I let you do that, you'll slink away and never come back, and if you're unlucky enough to bump into one of us again, you'll just claim you got called away to some important affair of state."
"Just how low is your opinion of me? Besides, you don't really want me working beside you with wet pantaloons, do you?"
Koizumi chimed in, smiling, "Actually, I suspect that is exactly what all four of the young ladies want. Particularly as the job will require you to do a lot of bending down on your hands and knees."
Yui blushed at that. She didn't have a crush on Prince Kyon or anything, but he was a prince. It was hard not to be at least a little tempted at the thought of seeing the shape of the royal buttocks.
The prince scowled at his jester. "Okay, just for that, I'm ordering you to clean up the mess for me."
"No, that's cheating!" Suzumiya ruled. "It's your responsibility, so you have to do it yourself! Ugh, enough of your annoying stalling! Fine, you can change your clothes. While you're at it, take this bucket and refill it with the stuff you spilled. And get back here on the double, or... or your jester has to kiss all four of us!"
"W-what?" Yui said, caught off-guard by this latest dose of impropriety.
"Gladly," Koizumi smiled, probably just joking again, but it was enough to make Yui feel sick.
"Yeah, me too!" Tsuruya chirped. "And if Ishigaki doesn't want to do it, can I get two instead?"
Prince Kyon didn't waste time trying to figure out if Suzumiya and Koizumi were both serious. The threat prompted him to take off at a run for his chambers.
"Bwah ha ha ha!" Tsuruya was clutching her sides. "Oh wow, that was great! How'dja know that would get him motivated, Haru?"
"Hah, I didn't! I just figured that this way, even if he weasels his way out of it, we'll still score a win!"
"Have you two lost your minds?" Yui demanded. "What do you think would happen if a steward were to walk in and see you kissing Koizumi, not to mention arguing with and insulting our prince?"
Tsuruya sheepishly grinned and scratched at the side of her face with a finger. "Heh heh, I guess I did get carried away."
"Oh, who cares?" Suzumiya plopped down in an armchair that was definitely not intended for servant usage. "This job stinks, anyway."
"You were just arguing you with Prince Kyon that being a maid is dignified!" Yui said.
"Dignified, yeah, but it's also boring."
"You did just a minute ago embarrass a prince into tripping over your wash bucket and landing in a pool of your suds," Sakanaka pointed out, still diligently wiping.
"Like I told him, there's nothing special about princes. I wish I had a job where I could meet people with magical powers and radiant auras that they hide behind mortal guises."
"Are you going to help us out, or just lounge there?"
"I'm waiting for Kyon to bring back my bucket. I can't wash anything without soapy water, can I?"
Suzumiya was certainly an unpleasant and obnoxious individual. Yui couldn't imagine that she had many friends, if any. Even Tsuruya was bound to get annoyed with her before too long if this was how she acted all the time. Tsuruya acted ridiculous sometimes, but at least she always meant well; she didn't regard her peers with contempt, the way Suzumiya did.
But Yui had something more important on her mind. She hadn't paid close attention to it when it happened, but Sakanaka mentioning how the bucket was overturned brought her mind back to it. The way Prince Kyon had reacted to Suzumiya suggesting that he had gone in disguise – the suggestion had hit home. It was unlikely that he had met Suzumiya before, but he had at some point hidden among commoners. Yui was sure of it. It even fit with what Sakanaka was saying about him wanting to escape the responsibilities of being a prince. Something like that might offer him an escape, if only for a little while.
"I'm back," Prince Kyon panted, lugging the bucket full of soapy suds with obvious strain.
"Geez, what a weakling," Suzumiya said, not bothering to keep it under her breath. "Can't you even handle a bucket of water without grunting and struggling like that? Never mind, at least you got back here quick enough." She hopped off her armchair, snatched up her washcloth, and pointed towards the spilled suds. "Now, start sponging up there, while I scrub clean the spots over here."
That, Yui noted with annoyance, set herself up right beside Kyon. Which meant that instead of putting Prince Kyon to work cleaning the spill, Suzumiya could have just rubbed the spilled suds over the dirty spots that were right there. All that badgering was just so she could have the satisfaction of reducing the prince to common mopping up.
Prince Kyon must have realized that, too, but he just cast Suzumiya a bitter glare and got to work. She really had browbeaten him into submission.
As he soaked up the spill, Prince Kyon asked, "So, were you really serious about what you said before, about gods, witches, and mermaids?"
"Are you a god, witch, or merman?"
"No, but – Wait, so it's both mermaids and mermen you're interested in?"
"Why not?"
"...No reason, I guess. But you shouldn't be looking for witches. They're evil, and dangerous."
"Those are just malicious rumors. I'll bet real witches are shy, reclusive women who wish people would stop cruelly hunting and killing them so that they could share their wonderful and helpful magic with the world. It must be so frustrating, having to stay hidden from everyone, never being able to show the magical things they can do."
"Then what do you plan to do when and if you find them?"
"Make friends with them. I'll bet you can learn all kinds of fun things from them, like mixing potions, reading Latin, talking to animals..."
Yui didn't think she had ever seen Prince Kyon so raptly attentive. He had been awed by Lady Asahina, but with this girl, he was wholly intrigued, maybe even fascinated.
He couldn't have... fallen in love with Suzumiya, could he? That would be an unbelievable tragedy. As if Prince Kyon weren't reluctant enough to get married as it was. A prince couldn't marry a commoner, could he? Yui didn't know of any law against it, but at best it would bring on a whole bee's nest of controversy.
Besides, Prince Kyon marrying Suzumiya was an even worse outcome. It was obvious that Suzumiya would never appreciate Prince Kyon's good qualities, and if she was being this mean to him now, imagine how much worse it would be after they had been married a few years.
Lost in her worries, Yui was no longer paying much attention to Suzumiya and Prince Kyon's conversation, except for the general impression that she was explaining to the prince some of her techniques for searching for witches. That changed when Suzumiya broke off into a loud, hacking cough.
"Are you okay?" Prince Kyon asked, looking ready to run and fetch the nearest doctor if she just gave the word.
"I'm – caff! – I'm fine!" she said, recovering. "The musty air in here just gets to me sometimes. Whew."
But when she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, it came back smeared with blood.
"Whoa!" So lost was Yui in her little fantasy, she stumbled and almost fell flat on her face. She recovered her balance and took a breath to steady herself.
"That was really weird." That little daydream had run embarrassingly long, and felt strangely real. Actually, it was more than just feeling real; for a minute there, she had forgotten who she was. She had honestly thought she was a maid living in some cliched medieval European castle.
If it weren't for the fact that no one else had noticed the least thing wrong with her, Yui would have said that an episode like that was a sure indicator of mental problems, maybe schizophrenia. And, what a weird fantasy for her to have. Kyon as a prince, with a good chunk of the episode focusing on his marital prospects! She wouldn't blame her boyfriend for jumping to the wrong interpretation if he knew.
Everyone else was pretty much their usual selves, minus the setting, but Suzumiya was a very notable exception. What she had thought in the daydream was true; that Suzumiya had been rude, bossy, and self-centered to an obnoxious extent. Yui would never have become friends with her if she had acted like that in real life.
So why was I imagining her that way? Sure, Suzumiya is a take-charge kind of person, but she always puts the good of the team first; she would never abuse her authority just to satisfy her own personal desires the way kitchen maid Suzumiya did. And yeah, I know I've laid into her about the way she treats Kyon, but I can tell she does care about him. I mean, I wouldn't be trying to get them together if I didn't think that deep down, she feels for him the way he feels for her. She wouldn't humiliate him the way she did in that daydream.
It was all just nonsense, she decided, and picked up her pace.
She was half-consciously looking around for her companions, who she'd lost sight of during the daydream, and spotted Haruhi standing in the middle of a large outcropping.
"Hey, Suzumiya!" she called, happy to see her friend being her usual, non-obnoxious self.
But Suzumiya didn't say a word, or even look in her direction.
What's she so focused on? She jogged over.
"Hey," she said, as she approached. "What's up?"
Haruhi still didn't glance at her, but apparently heard, because she raised an index finger and pointed just in front of herself. "Look."
Yui looked, but while there was a halfway decent view of some trees in the distance, all she saw close at hand were bugs flitting about. She was about to say so (phrasing it a bit less crudely, of course) when Haruhi stated, in a tone that seemed strangely lost:
"Mayflies."
Yui looked over the bugs again. "Oh." She wasn't sure what else she could say. She really wasn't into bugs at all.
"Do you know what the scientific name for mayflies is? Ephemeroptera. It's Greek, for 'living but a day'."
"Interesting." It actually was interesting, but without any knowledge of her own in the field, it was hard to come up with a good response. The hollow, lost tone in Haruhi's voice was also rather intimidating.
"Of course, they don't really live just one day," Haruhi continued. "They usually live at least a year as nymphs. It's when they finally molt their way to adults that gave them their name. Once they break out of that last chitinous outer layer and spread their wings, they've only got a day left to live. One day to finally fly, after all those months being wingless nymphs. One day to find a mate, to have sex, to lay eggs, to have children that will carry on when you're gone."
"Sounds like a pretty exciting way to end your life."
"Yeah, that's what I always thought, too." She sighed, but that was the most liveliness she had shown since the conversation started, so Yui took it as a positive sign. "Way more exciting than the way humans go, just wasting away in an old folks' home, your mind deteriorating a little bit more each day. But lately I've been thinking..."
"Yes?"
"A day really isn't enough to fly to all the different places you might want to see."
"Mmm." She nodded. "That's true. Right away, I can think of a bunch of different places I'd like to visit before I die, none of them a day's flying distance from each other."
"And what if..." Haruhi reached out slowly, as if to touch one of the mayflies, but it flitted away. "What if you find a mayfly who you want to do more than just mate with? Someone who understands you, and you want to fly together with him everywhere the winds blows, and to all the places the wind is trying to blow you away from, and have all kinds of adventures and make lots of interesting friends?"
"Well..."
"But you can't," she said, the last word choking in her throat. "Because you've only got a day. There were all those wasted years before, when you didn't have wings, but now that you've got them and you've found someone and you have the power to do all the things you'd barely dared to dream of doing, and things that you never even imagined were possible, you just don't have the time."
It was obvious by now that Haruhi wasn't just talking about mayflies. "But you at least have the time to do some of them, right?" Yui offered.
"Well, yeah. And I used to think that was enough. But now... it's all too good. I don't want it to end, ever. It's not even enough if Kyon and you and Little Sis and Aunt Kanae, and my parents, and Yuki and Koizumi and Mikuru and Sakanaka and Tsuruya all stay alive until I'm gone. I don't want to go in the first place!"
"Hey, take it easy." She put a reassuring hand to Haruhi's back, but was afraid to do anything more, like grasp her shoulder, for fear that she would pull away. "We're young. We've got plenty of time."
"What does it matter how much time we've got? It's still finite! One day my time will run out, and your time will run out, and then we'll both be dead forever. All the amazing things we did when we were alive won't even matter anymore. We'll be dissolved into the vast pit of non-existence, for centuries upon centuries."
Tears were starting to twinkle in Haruhi's eyes. It gave Yui a choking feeling in her chest. She wished...
She wished she could be Haruhi's best friend.
Not just because she was the most amazing girl at North High, though of course there was that. Not even because there seemed to be fun and excitement wherever she led, though there was that too. To be honest, those were the two big things, but there was one other thing. Something she hadn't noticed until she and Haruhi had been friends for a few weeks.
Suzumiya was aware of things. Things that were right out there in plain sight, but which most people never thought of. Many of those things were wonderful, even miraculous, and Yui was glad to have Haruhi to point them out for her. And some of those things were grim and terrifying, and Yui wished she could reassure Haruhi about them. Not that she thought she was stronger than Haruhi – she definitely wasn't – but because she was maybe a bit more stable than Haruhi.
But she couldn't be Haruhi's best friend. Not that there was any real competition to overcome; she didn't think Haruhi thought of Sakanaka or Tsuruya as her best friend either. She didn't like to presume, but by her figuring, if anyone was Suzumiya's best friend, it was Kyon. And he would have to forfeit that title if, as Yui hoped, he became Suzumiya's boyfriend. The problem was Haruhi was just so amazing, it was intimidating. Yui couldn't even imagine calling her by her given name, the way Kyon did, and the way Suzumiya herself did with her.
But she did think she knew what to say in this situation. "Pit of non-existence?" she said. "No such thing. Everything that's alive leaves a mark that stays around long after they're dead. And there are always going to be people like me to dig up that mark, study it, and find out everything there is to know about whoever left it."
"But not everybody's remains get found," Suzumiya pointed out. "There are civilizations where thousands of people lived, and archaeologists only find the remains of a few dozen, at best."
"Well... yeah. But the more important you are, the more likely you'll leave something behind that will last, and the more people will want to preserve it. I mean, there's not much hope that centuries from now people will be looking at anything that once belonged to Yui Ishigaki. But if even Ramesses II's granddaughter leaves a tomb that people are looking at over three thousand years later, then there's no way that Haruhi Suzumiya is going to be forgotten!"
The corner of Haruhi's lip curled, ever so slightly. "...I guess that's true."
"Of course it's true. Come on; the others are probably waiting for us." As she turned to go back up the slope, Yui yielded to her impulse to reach up and clasp Haruhi's shoulder.
Haruhi silently let Yui guide her for a moment, and then she reached up to clasp Yui's shoulder in turn.
Author's notes: Ramesses II's grandaughter's tomb refers to a real-life, relatively recent discovery by Japanese archaeologists. I wanted to use something that Ishigaki might actually have on her mind, so I did a bit of research.
Whew, this chapter was a handful. I actually wrote several hundred words from Kyon's perspective when it hit me that not only was this not in keeping with the formula of even numbered chapters from Kyon's perspective, odd numbered chapters from another character's perspective (an arbitrary motif which I intend to drop the moment it threatens to interfere with the story), but every single scene in this chapter would work better from Ishigaki's perspective. Of course this meant that for the last scene, Ishigaki would have to be present instead of Kyon as originally planned, which meant that the interactions between the two characters would have to be considerably different, but that turned out all the better too. I love those eye-opening moments of revelation in writing.
All that did mean that I had to rewrite those first several hundred words, though, and this chapter ended up being twice as long as usual to boot. Hope you all appreciate my efforts! And thanks for reading.