“Tsuruya-san…” Still locked in a udegarami position, I wriggled out a sound.
Tsuruya-san looked me squarely in the face, as if I were a complete stranger to her.
“Hey, how come you know me? By the way, who are you? Mikuru’s acquaintance?”
I saw something I least wanted to see. Cringing behind Tsuruya-san, Asahina-san gave me a closer look, and shook her head furiously.
“D…D…Don’t know him at all. E..Eh. He must have confused me with somebody else…”
Feeling as if I received the scorecard of complete failure for this year, just when my tenth year was drawing to a close, my eyes grew faint. I would be silent to anyone attacking me with any words, but Asahina-san’s words were the biggest shock to me, ever since my cousin, who I had a crush on when I was young, eloped with another boy.
Surely I did not confuse her with anybody else by calling Asahina-san Asahina-san, unless this Asahina-san was an Asahina-san from some other time. … Oh, I got it! There was one way to find out whether this Asahina-san is actually the Asahina-san I knew, right?
“Asahina-san.”
I pointed my free hand to my own chest. I can only say I lost my mind. My mouth moved itself with the following line,
“There should be a star-like birthmark somewhere around here on your chest. Do you have one? If you are okay with it, let me check—”
I was hit with a full-force punch.
By Asahina-san’s fist.
Asahina-san, dumbfounded by the line I spurt out, turned redder by the second. Tears welled in her eyes, and in a slow, novice-like motion she blasted a right straight punch to my face. “…Urgh” a sobbing sound escaped from her throat as she ran off.
“Hey, Mikuru! Ah, whatever. And you, young lad, keep your otaku stench in check! Mikuru-chan is pretty timid, you know! If you dare to do anything to her again, you’ll feel my hair-standing fury!”
Giving me an unwelcomingly tight final grip on my wrist, Tsuruya-san picked up the bag and calligraphy set on the floor, held them to her chest, and ran off chasing Asahina-san.
“Hey, wait a bit— Mikuru—”
“…”
Watching them, stupefied, a cold wintery wind blew inside my head.
That’s the end to it all, no doubt.
Could I survive tomorrow? If news that I made Asahina-san cry spread around the school, there would be more than a few guys who would come attack me. If the situation were reversed, I would do the same as well. Maybe I should prepare my will.
I was gradually pushed to my wit’s end. I called Haruhi’s cell phone, only to hear the operator’s “the phone number you have dialed is no longer available.” I had no record of her home phone number, and her name was erased completely from the namebook. I considered going off to her house, but on second thought I hadn’t even been there before. It was unfair considering that Haruhi had been to my house, but it was too late to think of that now.
Disregarding the disappearance of Class 1-9, I went to the staff office to ask whether Koizumi or Haruhi was taking sick leave somewhere. The result was flat negative. There was no student in any class with the name Suzumiya Haruhi. There was no transfer student in this school or coming to this school with the name Koizumi Itsuki. Or so I heard.
I had come to a dead end.
Where could the leads be? Was this a Where’s Haruhi game organized by Haruhi? Was it a game with the goal of reaching where the disappeared Haruhi had gone? But what was this game for?
I thought as I walked. Thanks to Asahina-san’s single punch, my head cooled off a little. There was no use burning my ass off. In such a moment, I needed to be calm. Calm.
“Please, I beg you.” I murmured.
There was only one destination now. It was the final foundation, the final absolute defense line. If this were to fall, then all would end. Game over.
The literature clubroom, located at the clubroom block normally referred to as the Old Block.
If Nagato wasn’t there, what could I possibly do?
I slowed my pace deliberately, and inched towards the clubroom taking all the time I needed. After a few minutes, standing in front of the old and worn wooden door, I put my hand on my chest, confirming my heart rate. It was far from normal operation, but it was a lot better than at lunch break. Probably my senses had gradually gone numb after too many hits from the string of anomalies. I was driven to the corner. There was no path ahead of me except to barge into the cloud of darkness, with the worst-case scenario in my mind.
I skipped knocking on the door, and threw the door wide open.
“…!”
And then I saw.
A petite figure sitting on a makeshift chair, with a book spread at a corner of the long table in front of her.
It was Nagato Yuki, staring straight at me through her glasses, with her face written all over with surprise, her mouth popping open.
“You’re here…”
I muttered a sigh of half resignation, half relief, and closed the door behind me. Nagato did not say anything as usual, but I couldn’t loosen myself and rejoice. The Nagato I knew did not wear glasses, ever since the incident with Asakura. However, the Nagato here had the exact same glasses she had worn some time ago. I thought about it the second time, but Nagato just looked cooler without her glasses. That was my preference.
Moreover, that expression just didn’t match. What was with her face, like a female Literature Club member caught off guard by a male student dashing in, someone she didn’t recognize at all? What was with the surprise? Isn’t it characteristic of Nagato to be furthest away from such emotions?
“Nagato…”
With the lesson from Asahina-san fresh in my mind, I managed to suppress my about-to-pounce upper body, and walked to the table.
“What?”
Nagato replied without moving an inch.
“Tell me. Do you know me?”
She tightened her lips, and pushed the bridge of her glasses. Then came a long period of silence.
I was thinking of giving up, and find myself a monastery to retreat from this world, when a reply came.
“I know you.”
Nagato put her gaze somewhere around my chest. My hope welled. This Nagato might be the Nagato I knew.
“In fact, I also know a little bit about you. Would you listen to me for a second?”
“…”
“You are not human, but an organic android created by aliens. You had wielded impressive powers like magic several times, like the homerun-mode bat, and invasion to Cave Cricket Space…”
As soon as I started talking, a sense of regret gradually crept into me. Nagato was apparently making a strange face. Her eyes and mouth were open, and her gaze was wandering around my shoulders. The ambience around her read like she felt frightened to look straight at me.
“…That was you whom I knew all along. Was it correct?”
“I am sorry.”
Nagato’s reply made me doubt whether my ears were working properly. Why apologize? Why is Nagato saying this?
“I do not know. I know you are a student in Class 1-5. I see you from time to time. However, I know nothing except that. To me, this is the first time I’ve talked to you.”
The final foundation turned into a house built on loose, weathered sand, collapsed and crumbled.
“…So you’re not an alien? The name Suzumiya Haruhi does not ring a bell to you at all?”
Nagato tilted her head in confusion, savoring the word “alien” on her lips.
“Nope,” she replied.
“Wait a sec!”
Except for Nagato, who else could I rely on? I was like an infant swallow being abandoned by its parents. My only chance of keeping sane was through her doing something. If this went on, I would go crazy.
“No way!”
Oh no, I was losing my composure once again. My mind was in confusion, with meteor showers of the three primary colors flying around like crazy, I circled around the table, and approach
ed Nagato’s side.
The pale fingers closed the book. It was a thick hard-cover. I could not catch the title in time. Nagato stood up from her chair, and shifted one step behind as if to retreat from me. Her two eyes, like polished black Go stones, were rolling in hesitation.
I put my hands on Nagato’s shoulders. I lost my self-composure to look back to my recent failure with Asahina-san. I was totally focused on not letting Nagato go. If I hadn’t grabbed her like that, all my friends would have slipped through the cracks of my fingers, I feared. I didn’t want to lose anyone anymore.
With my hand feeling her body heat through the school uniform, I talked to her profile framed in short hair, as she was turning her face away from me.
“Please remember! The world changed when yesterday turned to today. Haruhi’s been replaced by Asakura! Who is behind this player substitution? Information Synthesis Thought Entities? Asakura was resurrected, so you must know something! You and Asakura are from the same mold, right? What is this scheme, huh? Even if you use big words, you should still be able to explain—”
Just like what you have done all along, I was about to continue, but I sensed the feeling of liquid lead spreading inside my stomach.
What was this reaction… similar to a normal person’s?
Nagato’s eyes were tightly shut, and a blush of red began spreading on her ceramic-like pale cheek. Moans, like faint sighs, escaped from her slightly parted lips, and I finally noticed the quivering of her delicate shoulders under my hands, like a puppy under chilling air. A shivering voice reached my ears.
“Stop it…”
I recollected. For some time now, Nagato’s back was stuck against the wall. In other words, I had forced Nagato against the wall without noticing. What had I done? I was behaving like a thug, wasn’t I? If anyone had witnessed this, I would immediately have my hands handcuffed behind my back, and receive judgement from the public. When viewed objectively, I was nothing but a bastard who attacked a meek female member when there were just the two of us in the literature club room.
“I’m sorry.”
Holding my hands up, I felt strength draining out of me.
“I didn’t mean to attack you. I just wanted to confirm something…”
My knees felt weak. I pulled a nearby folding chair to my side, and collapsed in it like some mollusk straight after landing. Nagato did not move at all, with her back to the wall. It could only be considered lucky that she hadn’t dashed out of the room.
I swept my eyes across the room one more time, and realized in one glance that this was not the secret base for the SOS Brigade. In this room were lines of bookshelves and folding chairs, and a desktop computer on top of a long makeshift table. The desktop was not the latest model Haruhi had snatched from the Computer Society using blackmail, but a model at least three generations older. Comparatively speaking, the processing power difference was like that between a two-horse phaeton and a maglev.
The Captain’s desk, on which a prism with the word “Captain” was written on it, was nowhere to be found, as expected. The refrigerator and the rack of various costumes were absent as well. No board games brought by Koizumi. No maid. No Santa’s granddaughter. Nothing at all.
“Damn it!”
I held my head with my hands. Game over! If this is someone’s psychological attack, congratulations on her resounding success! I would give her first honor. So who was behind this experiment? Haruhi? Information Synthesis Thought Entities? Some undetected new enemy of this world? …
It lasted for around five minutes. Struggling to lighten up my mood, I sheepishly lifted up my head.
Nagato, still plastered to the wall, fixed her ebony-like eyes on me. Her glasses were slightly tilted. My only thanks to the heavens were that Nagato’s eyes did not show fear or horror, but glistened like those of a sister who was reunited with her supposedly-dead brother on a downtown street by chance. At least it didn’t seem she was going to report the incident. In the midst of such panic, this was the only tiny source of relief.
Why don’t you sit? I started, but realized that I had taken Nagato’s chair. Should I give her the seat, or should I unfold another chair? Oh, and she might not want to sit near me.
“Sorry.”
With one more apology, I stood up. Taking one propped up folded chair aside, I moved to the center of the room. Judging an ample distance from Nagato, I unfolded and sat on the chair, and continued to hold my head in my hands.
This was just one small literature club. One day in May, Haruhi dragged me here like a berserk industrial robot, and we met Nagato for the first time. The room I saw at that first encounter was exactly like this. At that time, this room was only equipped with the tables, the chairs, the bookshelves and Nagato. Since that time, miscellaneous accessories began to appear, all because Haruhi had announced, “From now on this will be our club room!” Among the accessories were a portable heater, a kettle, a clay pot, a fridge, a desktop…
“Wait.”
I removed my hands from my head.
Wait. What was here again?
A hanger rack, a water heater, a teapot, teacups, an old radio cassette player…
“Not these.”
Search for items that didn’t exist in the room before it turned into SOS Brigade’s den, existed afterwards, and exist now in this room!
“The desktop!”
The model was definitely different. Only the power cord crawled on the floor, so most likely it was not connected to the internet. However this was the only item that caught my attention. It was the only answer to the “Spot the Difference” game. (translator note: Referring to the game to catch differences between two pictures.)
Nagato was still standing. Her eyes were fixed on me for a long time, as if I were worthy of full alert. But when I turned my face towards her, her gaze immediately dropped to the floor. Taking a better look, I could actually see a blush of red again around her cheeks. Hey… Nagato. This isn’t you! You never let your eyes wander and your face be reddened in confusion!
Maybe it was futile, but I pretended to be unperturbed as I stood up, in an attempt to not alert her.
“Nagato,”
I pointed to the back of the desktop.
“Could I play with this for a bit?”
Nagato’s expression was first shocked, and turned little by little into perplexity, as her eyes darted between me and the desktop a few times. She inhaled deeply.
“One moment.”
Clumsily she brought her chair in front of the desktop, pushed the switch on the main unit and sat down.
To boot up the operating system, it took as long as it took to cool down a hot can of coffee, just purchased, to a temperature cats could drink. After a sound resembling a squirrel’s nibbling of tree roots finally came to a stop, Nagato swiftly operated the mouse, which I guessed was to move or delete files. Maybe there was something she didn’t want others to see. I understood her feelings. I wouldn’t want anybody to see the MIKURU folder either.
“Here you go.”
In a small voice Nagato said without looking at me, left her seat and stood guard at the wall.
“Sorry for the trouble.”
Settled on the seat, I quickly peered into the screen, and used all the techniques I could muster to search for the MIKURU folder and the SOS Brigade site file. The sense of futility weighed down my shoulder.
“…Not here.”
Despite everything I had done, I couldn’t find the connection. The proof of Haruhi’s existence was nowhere to be found.
I wondered what data Nagato had hidden earlier, but I could feel a surveillant gaze shooting from behind. The atmosphere was like she was poised for pulling the plug immediately as soon as the not-to-be-seen data was about to be discovered.
I stood up from my seat.
The computer probably didn’t contain any hints. What I really wanted to see was neither Asahina-san’s photo gallery nor the SOS Brigade website. I was hoping to see a hint message fro
m Nagato displayed, just like the time when Haruhi and I were imprisoned in the Sealed Reality. My hope was shot down mercilessly.
“Sorry for the fuss.”
I apologized with a tired voice, and turned to the door. I’m going home. Then I’m going to bed.
Then something surprising happened.
“Wait.”
Nagato pulled out a coarse piece of paper from a gap in a bookshelf, and stood in front of me hesitantly. With her eyes looking around the knot of my necktie, she spoke.
“If it’s fine with you…”
She held out a hand.
“Take this.”
The paper handed to me was a blank club sign-up form.
Well.
I should at least be thankful that I had already encountered all sorts of absurdity by now. Otherwise, I would, without a doubt, be running around looking for a counselor.
Examining the situation, either I had become nuttier than a fruitcake, or the world was completely off its tracks, but now I could almost cross out the former possibility. I am always the sober one, and I acknowledge myself as the levelheaded tsukkomi commentator towards everything under the Sun. Hey, I can butt in a comment even to this incomprehensible world, like this: Nandeyanen?/What the heck?
“…”
I grew silent, Nagato-style. In many ways, it turned a little cold. There was a limit to all my faked courage.
Nagato had turned into a bespectacled book-loving girl. Asahina-san had turned into a foreign senior. Koizumi had never transferred to North High, probably still studying somewhere else.
What on earth was this?
Did it mean I was to start over from the very beginning? If so, wasn’t the season off? If it were a reset, it should have returned to the very beginning… which meant returning to the first day of high school life, didn’t it? I had no idea who pressed the reset button, but changing only the environmental settings while keeping the time flow intact was just plain confusing, you know! Look at me now, completely disoriented and bewildered. I had thought that role was reserved only for Asahina-san!
And where was that other girl now? Where was that dumbass, getting away with her comfortable life, while I was out in the cold, in such a place?
Volume 4 - The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi Page 4