- Chapter 10: The Summit -

When I came out of this trip's latest Haruhi-spawned fever dream, the first thing I became aware of was my sister in front of me. She came to a halt, throwing her arms out to her sides, and said, "Who-o-oa... That was w-e-i-r-d."

I froze. I was afraid to say anything. My sister had been with me in that vision, but I couldn't be sure that meant she had experienced the same thing. After all, that couldn't have been a time fold, right? It was like something out of a fairy tale written by a ten-year-old girl. And if it wasn't a time fold, there was no reason to assume that anyone but me had experienced it.

"Hey, Kyon? What do you think I would be like as a princess?"

And now there is. "Probably the same as you are now, except you would have to wear a heavy tiara," I answered.

"Aww, that's not what I mean! Would I have been the prettiest princess there is?"

"You should be a lot more focused on your intelligence than your looks. Come on, we've got to catch back up with the others." I pulled her along. Honestly, with how bad my sister's manners had become, hearing her worrying about something as trivial as being pretty was enough to make my teeth grind. No matter how cute she was, no one was going to like my sister with that attitude.

"I know what you'd be like as a prince. You'd be the grumpiest prince ever."

"No doubt due to having the most disrespectful princess ever as my sister."

Could it be a coincidence? Had my sister just happened to contemplate being a princess in the same moment that I was having a vision where she was one? I doubted it, but my sister sure didn't seem too upset for someone who had just jumped from one reality to another.

We came across Kanae sitting on the side of the path. A stroke of worry hit me. I hadn't seen her in the vision, but that didn't mean she wasn't caught up in it. "Are you okay?" I asked.

She waved a hand at me. "Oh, don't worry about me, honey. I don't have as much energy as I used to. Just a minute's rest and I'll be right along."

I could not imagine Haruhi's boisterous aunt being this unperturbed by an experience like that medieval fantasy. It was starting to look like this was one piece of Haruhi's weirdness that had affected me alone. I was going to give Kanae a nod of acknowledgment and move on, but right then my phone rang. The caller ID said Itsuki Koizumi.

I had a suspicion that I would want privacy for this call. I told my sister to stay with Kanae and keep her company, then ran on ahead before she could form a coherent protest.

"Yo," I answered the phone.

"Well, thank you very much for that little tear in the fabric of reality."

A lump formed in my throat. "So you were caught up in it?"

"Certainly, your highness."

I groaned. "That means my sister was, too. Not to mention Ishigaki, Tsuruya, and Sakanaka." And Haruhi and Miss Asahina, though they at least were experienced in that sort of thing.

"I hadn't thought of that." The irritation was suddenly gone from Koizumi's voice, supplanted by concern. "Have you checked on them?"

"Just my sister. She seems fine for now. I'm looking for Ishigaki and Haruhi right now. I guess I had better call Tsuruya and Sakanaka."

"Let me and Miss Asahina handle that. We want to assuage any fears and suspicions they may have, and for Sakanaka at least, getting an unexpected phone call from you is likely to accomplish the exact opposite. If Misses Suzumiya and Ishigaki ask questions, try to dismiss it as a shared hallucination brought on by the mountain atmosphere."

Good grief. "Honestly, how many times do you think Haruhi is going to buy that insane – Wait a minute. How did you know we were hiking up a mountain?"

"Miss Suzumiya mentioned your plans in a text to me yesterday evening." After a moment's hesitation, he added, "But also, Mr. Shingen Chisuga has kept me up-to-date."

"Chisuga..." Haruhi, Ishigaki, and I had all met him before. He was an esper who joined us on our camping trip half a year ago. Oh, and Haruhi once told me that she would like to have sex with him. I'm not his biggest fan. "He's stalking us?"

"Discreet surveillance is a better term for it, I think. I'm only telling you this because I want to keep the lines of trust between us open."

I told him in no uncertain terms that he would do a better job of that by not spying on us in the first place.

"I assure you, I had no say in the matter. Besides, this is to your own benefit. Chisuga can act as backup if the situation with Miss Suzumiya becomes a crisis. Moreover, isolated as you are, it is not unlikely that a rival faction may attempt to assassinate Miss Suzumiya. I know you are her dashing prince, but I don't believe you're capable of handling the sort of killers that may come her way. Indeed, I am confident that the Data Integration Thought Entity and the time travelers have set up their own surveillance on your little trip. I am merely the only one who has chosen to share that information with you."

"Alright," I said. "Then I guess as a fair trade, I should tell you what I saw in that vision."

"That time fold, you mean," he cut in before I could continue.

"How did you -"

"You're not the only one who can communicate with Miss Asahina."

"Wait a minute. How could that have been a time fold? Miss Asahina told me time folds are pieces of the future, but if anything, that medieval setting belongs to the past. And it certainly wasn't a very realistic past."

"No, what we just lived through was undoubtedly a glimpse of the future. Not a certain future, perhaps, but the future nonetheless."

"It couldn't be. Even forgetting for a moment the little details like medieval castles and me and my sister being of royal blood, you and I were meeting Haruhi for the first time in that vision."

"You forget Miss Suzumiya's ability to alter reality. This past December, from what you've told me, reality was altered so that Miss Nagato was a human, Kouyouen Academy was co-ed, and Miss Suzumiya and I met all of you for the first time. And then in January, Miss Suzumiya brought us into a pocket dimension where you and her were private detectives, and again, we all met for the first time. What is there to prevent the same thing from happening a third time?"

Considering how traumatic the first two times were for me, I would hope to every deity with a gram of mercy that we never even come close to there being a third time. He did have a point, but... "What possible reason could Haruhi have for changing the world to that?"

"It is logical to assume that these time folds are trial runs of changes Miss Suzumiya is making to the future, and that the reasons for these changes all revolve around preventing your death. Have you died in any of these time folds, or seemed as if you were about to die?"

"Yeah... Somebody shot me through the chest." Damn, that feels weird to say out loud.

"There you are. Perhaps Miss Suzumiya thought she could prevent your death by moving our lives into a world where guns don't exist."

"Changing the entire world just to get rid of one gun? That seems like serious overkill, and besides, couldn't someone still kill me with a bow and arrow? Or a sword, or a spear? Not to mention all the diseases you have to worry about in a world without vaccines and modern sanitation. I have a bad feeling about that blood she was coughing up."

"Miss Suzumiya does not always take the most logical approach. But perhaps she had something more subtle in mind. Why exactly did this person shoot you?"

"He was trying to kill Haruhi. I... just happened to be in the way."

"Hmm."

Oh, I don't like the sound of that. "What is it?"

"I'm thinking over the question. Perhaps... Perhaps if you were killed because of your proximity to her, Miss Suzumiya would want to prevent your becoming close to her."

"She shouldn't have put us in the same castle, then."

"I expect that, however much she might wish to avert your taking a bullet for her, Miss Suzumiya would not be willing to sacrifice being near you. Thus, she instead configured your stations in life such that you would never be willing to enter a relationship with her. Note how she put Miss Asahina in a much more advantageous position in that respect." I could hear the smile in his voice as he added: "Of course, it seems to have worked out between the two of you despite her manipulation. Perhaps your concerns about princely propriety were overridden by how fetching Miss Suzumiya looks in ragged maid clothing."

I considered throwing back at him that, while it was of course impossible for me to not notice her attire, I spent almost the entire encounter looking strictly at her face. But I didn't think that would help my case. Damn Haruhi had to have that beautiful face in every single universe, it seemed.

"Or perhaps you are simply fated for each other."

"That 'fate' stuff is nonsense. Do I really need to remind you that I only met Haruhi in the world without paranormal beings because I remembered her from this world?"

"Simply because you had not met by December of your freshman year does not mean you would never meet."

He was getting ridiculous. This line of discussion was pointless, anyway. "Listen, I understand that these time folds are a big problem, but I'm at a bit of a dead end here. Yesterday Haruhi got her aunt to agree to write a book about us, and she seemed pretty damn satisfied that that was all it would take to make us so memorable that we would never really die. If even that's not enough, what am I supposed to do to get Haruhi to knock this off?"

"Quite frankly, you're in a much better position to know that than I am. I am not in close proximity to Miss Suzumiya, either physically or in matters of the heart. You are. All I can tell you is that no closed space has been forming."

"Great. So I'm stuck by myself in the trenches, while you get to relax comfortably by the sidelines, complaining to me about a bit of medieval cosplay."

"Yes," he admitted. "I apologize for my curtness. However, you should not be so despondent about your spot in the trenches. Many of us would envy you the opportunity to spend an entire weekend away with your special someone."

"My sister and I aren't that close."

"Ah, it's a pleasure to hear you've become so quick-witted. But in all seriousness, you should be more appreciative of the quality time you're getting to spend with Miss Suzumiya."

Good grief. "If you're so jealous of my love life, why don't you try having one of your own? You've got Kyoko Tachibana's phone number any time you want a date."

"Miss Tachibana holds little interest for me professionally, and none whatsoever romantically."

I did my best imitation of Koizumi: "You should give her a second look. Personally, I think she is charming."

"I hope you've enjoyed your little joke. Just be aware that if these time folds get much worse, they may suck in people who do not even have any relationship with the SOS Brigade, causing a major panic and public expose of the paranormal. Worse, the enemies of the SOS Brigade may be drawn into a time fold with an advance look at our most closely guarded secrets. On top of which, there is of course the question of what drastic measures Miss Suzumiya may take to protect you from death. With her powers, there is virtually no limit to what she will potentially do. I strongly urge you to ease her mind on that count as soon as possible. Good luck."

He hung up.

Somehow, I couldn't feel as worried as Koizumi was. I just trusted Haruhi not to do anything too catastrophic, at least, so long as we did our part and gave her the emotional support she needed. She wasn't going to destroy the whole world or deliver our secrets to our enemies over a trifle, or even over a bout of depression like the one she was facing now. Only a potential catastrophe could push her to that, and I had no intention of letting a catastrophe come anywhere near her.

I'll admit, though, while I was satisfied that I had rattled him a bit, it annoyed me that he had coldly shut down the idea of a romantic relationship with Tachibana, just as he had done with Nagato when I suggested her on our camping trip. At this point I was feeling so fed up with Koizumi's unwillingness to take an interest in any girl other than Haruhi that it was tempting to tell him that if he liked Haruhi so much, he should just ask her out himself instead of grousing about my interactions with her and making jokes at my expense. But whenever I thought of doing that, my chest felt painfully tight.

"Hey, Kyon, wait up!"

There are some four dozen or so people who now call me by that unwelcome name. Of those, the person who I would least expect to ever say the sentence which I just heard is the one who in fact did just say it.

I turned around and saw, to my astonishment, Haruhi and Ishigaki jogging up the trail towards me. Against all probability, I had somehow ended up far ahead of them. I suppose disorientation from that medieval vision probably had something to do with it, but even so, it was a bit hard to believe.

At the least, it took them just a few seconds to reach me. "Look, Kyon. I'm glad to see you showing some energy and enthusiasm for once, but you shouldn't be racing ahead of the rest of the group. This is a group expedition, not a race! Okay?"

I sighed. "I wasn't trying to race anyone. I was looking for you two; I thought you'd shot on ahead."

"See, I told you," Ishigaki nudged Haruhi. "He must have passed us while we were looking at the mayflies!"

"Then why didn't he see us?" Haruhi pointed out. "There's only one route up, you know?"

I admitted to the two of them that it was a mystery. Okay, so to me it wasn't entirely a mystery; I had to have passed the two of them while we were all caught up in that time fold. But I had no idea why they would have stopped or slowed long enough for me to pass them, so it wasn't entirely a lie, either.

"Hmm." Haruhi frowned at me. "I guess what's important is that we found each other. Yui, would you go check on my aunt and Little Sis? I want to have a word with Kyon."

Uh oh.

Ishigaki didn't seem to sense the danger, though. In fact, she looked exceptionally pleased with Haruhi. "Sure. Take all the time you want. You guys just shoot me a text when you're done, and I'll make sure we stick to a leisurely pace until then."

"Thanks."

"No problem!"

As Ishigaki started back down the trail, Haruhi had her back to her, and just before I turned to head up the trail, I caught Ishigaki giving me a wink and a thumbs up.

Good grief. I think she just completely misinterpreted the situation.

Actually, that was for the best. For one thing, it assured me that whatever she had been talking about with Haruhi in the time when the two of them were separated from us, it hadn't been the time folds. If it were, Ishigaki would have had to realize what Haruhi was going to talk to me about.

Haruhi started walking up the trail, and I followed beside her in silence. I would let her take the lead on this one. I know, I know... like I had a choice.

She didn't let me stew in my sweat for long. "Yui told me you apologized for your behavior at the train station yesterday."

That caught me a little off-guard. I had been starting to think she had forgotten about that one. At the least, it wasn't the subject I expected her to lead off with.

"I suppose, in light of that, I can let you off the hook for that," she continued. "Just so long as you understand that it's unacceptable to treat my friends that way! Got it?"

"Well, obviously. I didn't mean to make her feel that she wasn't wanted. That's why I apologized to her."

"Well, good. It was nice to not have to tell you that you're supposed to do something for a change. Hopefully this means you're learning to be proactive."

That was about as close as you could get to high praise from Haruhi Suzumiya, so I took it. Maybe she was getting better at positive reinforcement.

"Hmm, I've always been a good teacher, but I guess maybe I have been getting even better at some aspects of it. As someone once said, life is learning! Anyway, there's another thing I wanted to talk to you about."

Uh oh. Here it comes.

She gave me a piercing look. "Was it really Yui's idea for you guys to watch a non-Disney movie?"

Huh? "I, uh..." I scratched the back of my head. "Why are you asking me that? Don't you trust Ishigaki?"

"Generally, yeah. But if you hadn't noticed, she has a soft spot for you."

I didn't buy that. Ishigaki was simply a nice person. If anything, she had a soft spot for guys in general, but even that seemed like an unfair judgment. She just was friendly and polite to her friends and to her friends' friends, behavior that was somewhat alien to Haruhi.

"So, I want to know if she's willing to go so far as to lie to me to shield you. Were you the one pushing against watching the movies I told you to watch?"

I really didn't think it appropriate to answer that question. I'd be either telling Haruhi that her friend had lied to her or telling her that her friend had defied her will. It was basically betraying Ishigaki's trust.

"Look, I'm not going to give you a penalty or anything if you did it. I just want the truth."

"What for? Can't you just trust your friend, and not worry about trivial things like who put the movie on?"

"Kyon." She hugged her arms. It was pretty brisk out, and it seemed the wind got harsher the farther we went up. I don't know how she could survive it in just a sweatshirt, with no coat. "This is going to drive me nuts, you know? Yui took your side against me, and that's fine, but I have to know how far she's willing to go for you. I have to know if I can trust her completely."

"All you need to know is that Yui Ishigaki is a good friend," I retorted. "And you must already know that, or you wouldn't have put up with her standing against you."

"But... right now... with everything that's happening on this trip..."

"That doesn't change anything. And Ishigaki never took any side against you. She just did what she thought was right."

"I know that."

Well, of course she knew. She and Ishigaki already made up this morning. So why was she talking about this with me? Did it maybe have nothing really to do with their being friends? Maybe, Haruhi wanted to remain friends with her either way, but still wanted to know if she could be trusted to tell the truth?

Dammit. I didn't want Haruhi to suffer over this. But I wasn't going to give her a second opinion on what happened in the movie selection process. That would do the reverse of what Haruhi was asking for: It would tell her that she could only trust her friends so long as she had me as a mole.

"Haruhi." There must have been something in my tone of voice, because she immediately looked over at me. "If you want to know if putting on that movie was really Ishigaki's idea, just ask her. She'll tell you the truth, I guarantee it."

She snorted. "You're telling me she'll tell the truth about her lying?"

I had to admit, conceptually it did sound a bit silly. "The circumstances are different between then and now. Even supposing Ishigaki would lie to you so that we could hurry back to watching the movie, she wouldn't lie to you if she knew the truth was important to you. Friends lie to each other sometimes, but true friends always want to be truthful to each other; they won't lie for no good reason. And Ishigaki is a true friend."

I wanted to add more, because Ishigaki wasn't Haruhi's only true friend. But I didn't know if I could rightfully add all the members of the SOS Brigade to that list, and Haruhi would smell something was up if I mentioned everyone else and left them out.

"Then..." Haruhi let her hands fall to her sides, and relief was sighing out in her voice as well. "If she says something to me, just between the two of us, then I can always believe that it's true."

"Why, did she say something to you earlier, when we were separated?"

"None of your business." But she didn't say this in a defensive manner. It was more like the self-satisfied tone of a child who is keeping a secret. And I could certainly live with that. "I'm just glad I brought Yui on this trip. ...One more thing."

"Yeah?"

"I want you to let Aunt Kanae interview you for her book."

"Aren't you already telling her everything she needs to know?"

"I'm only telling her things from my perspective. To get everything there is to know about us into her book, she has to know how you feel about things."

Things?

"You know, how you feel about your sister, and Yui, and the SOS Brigade. I want a full perspective on all those things."

"Of course." For no particular reason, I reached over and grasped her hand, holding it in mine. "That's what we're here for, right? To add our lives to the annals of eternity."

"...Yeah." She gave my hand a responding squeeze. "And you've really got to tell her everything, got it? That includes all the deep inner secrets that you've never told anyone! The stuff you'd die of embarrassment if anyone found out about! Hold nothing back!"

"Sure." It wasn't like Haruhi would be able to ever prove I had secrets I wasn't telling her, right?

I was a little surprised Haruhi still wasn't confronting me about the time folds. But I guess, since they fell into the whole can of worms with aliens, espers, time travelers, and sliders, she was pretending it didn't happen for now. Which was fine by me. I wanted to tell Haruhi everything at last, but not right now, not in the midst of this weekend's morbidity. Although I had the feeling that that, too, was going to be just fine in the end. Once Kanae started writing her book, Haruhi's anxiety would fade, and we could get back to what qualified as normal in the extraordinary world of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Shortly after that Haruhi pulled her hand free from mine to text Ishigaki that we were done, which I thought was more than a little rude, but I let it go. I didn't want the others to find us bickering when they caught up.

We shouldered our packs and made the final trek to the top in good spirits. Haruhi and Ishigaki were making lively conversation, and everyone was still enjoying having my sister around, minus myself of course. Kanae was slow and steady on her feet but boisterous, which I was coming to see as her usual mode.

Haruhi and Ishigaki hit the summit first. "Oh, wow!" the latter cried, holding a hand over her eyes. "That is a great view!"

"Yup," Haruhi agreed. "I've always loved coming here, since I was a kid."

I had to sign on with their opinion once I got a look. The sun was high, lighting up the whole landscape such that every brilliant color could be seen. The patches of civilization looked like distant fairy tale villages.

"It's magical," my sister gasped.

"Yeah," Haruhi said. "But... Once you've got here, the only thing left to do is go back down, right?"

"Once you've had your fill of it, yeah," Kanae said, taking an appreciative breath. "Come on, let's break out the snacks."

I set down my heavy pack with a grunt of relief. At least it would be a bit lighter going down, since by then we'd have chomped down most of the food. My sister and Ishigaki helped me distribute the treats.

"But," Haruhi persisted. "What if you never get your fill? What if you love it so much that you want to stay up here forever?"

"Huh?" my sister said. "Wouldn't you starve then?"

"Exactly! You… You would have no choice." Haruhi's head hung low, a definite melancholy in her voice now. "You'd still have to go back down, no matter how much you want to stay. The happiness just can't last. You win it, just to lose it in the end."

For a moment, no one said anything. My sister because she had no idea what Haruhi was talking about. Everyone else, because we knew exactly what Haruhi was talking about.

I had to break the spell. This wouldn't be like that endless summer we went through; there would be no second chances or 15,532nd chances to get Haruhi to stop the madness. If this kept up, everyone Haruhi knew would be getting caught up in these time folds. Worse, eventually Haruhi might settle on a future she liked, and rewrite all of reality in order to get it.

I had to say something. Anything. Worst case scenario, I would just make myself look stupid.

"Even if it ends," I said, without even thinking about whether what I was saying made any sense, "...you'll never lose it. Because you can remember it."

"Huh?" Haruhi cocked an eyebrow at me. But at least that was a sign of life. It was a sign that I'd caught her interest.

"I'm never going to forget this trip. I'm not going to forget the fun we had here, or the time I spent looking for you and Ishigaki, or the sight here from the top of this mountain, or even how annoying it was carrying that heavy pack up the whole way. And so, even though it will all be over in a few hours, it will still be with me, and in a way, I can have it happen all over again any time I want. Just by remembering it."

Haruhi looked like she was struggling with my words. "That... That's fine so far as it goes, but one day you won't remember it anymore! You won't remember anything anymore!"

"Well, at that point it won't matter, right? Once you can't remember anything, you can't want anything. I'll have this moment for as long as I want it."

"And even after we don't remember this trip anymore," Ishigaki chimed in, "...other people will. Here." She pulled a tool with a wooden handle and a metal pick out of her pack. "We can carve all our names into a rock, and bury it here. It will be our own artifact, and centuries from now, people can dig it up and say, 'This is where Haruhi Suzumiya, her aunt, and her three friends had their fabled journey to the peak of Mount Narobu!'"

"Because they'll all have read about it in my book," Kanae added. "And that adventure will live on for them, too."

"I..." Haruhi struggled for words, gazing at all of us with astonishment. "That's... I..."

I smiled at her. I won't pretend we pretend we had provided her with any great answer to the problem of death - certainly I hadn't - but we had shown that we were willing to face it with her. And if there was one thing that made Haruhi stronger, it was the support of other people.

"I just... Thank you, everyone..."

Kanae gave her a hug. "Of course, honey."

It seemed like we were starting to get through to her.