I stood still and fixed my gaze upon the girl in her suit uniform that was slowly approaching.
I stood still and fixed my gaze upon the girl in her suit uniform that was slowly approaching.
Suzumiya Haruhi.
I’ve finally found you.
I involuntarily smiled, this was because it wasn’t just Haruhi that I’ve found.
Walking beside Haruhi and chatting with her was a guy in a gakuran uniform. Carrying a smile that I can never stand watching was none other than Koizumi Itsuki. Now that’s a surprise addition.
So these two have now gotten so close that they’re now going home together after school. Yet Haruhi doesn’t seem to be quite happy, her expression has remained as when I first saw her at the beginning of the school term. She would occasionally give a quick reply, and then turned her gaze back to the tarmac with a scowl on her face.
It’s the girl from before. Before she even thought of creating the SOS Brigade, everywhere she went in school, she carried the expression of a martial arts master who was desperate to find a worthy opponent in order to showcase her abilities. That expression brought a sense of nostalgia for me. That was the Haruhi who was bored with the mediocrity of everyday life, and working hard to find some excitement, yet never realizing she could manifest anything she desires.
Anyway, there can always be time for reminiscences, but not now. The two of them did not seem to notice me as they slowly approached me.
As hopeless as it may sound, already I could not stop my heart from beating quickly. If I were to see a doctor now, the two-beat rhythm coming from within would be so loud that he would have to take his stethoscope off. The weather was freezing and yet I was sweating. I only hope that my trembling legs are just a part of my imagination, I was sure I’m not that cowardly.
……They’re here. Haruhi and Koizumi have now arrived before me.
“Hey!”
It took me a lot of effort just to get my voice out.
Haruhi lifted her head and exchanged glances with me.
Her black stocking-filled legs then stopped walking.
“What is it?”
Her gaze was as cold as a freezer’s. She scanned my whole body with that gaze before moving her eyes off,
“What do you want with me? No, I should rather ask, who are you? I’m not the sort of character to let anyone say ‘Hey!’ to me. If you want to flirt, go somewhere else, I don’t have any interest in such activities.”
As I was already mentally prepared, that didn’t come as too much of a shock. As expected, this Haruhi didn’t know me.
Koizumi stopped as well and looked at me with a cold stare. From his expression, I don’t think he’s even seeing me, let alone knowing who I am.
I turned and spoke to that Koizumi,
“Is this the first time we have met?”
Koizumi shrugged his shoulders lightly and said,
“I believe so. May I ask who you are?”
“Are you a transfer student in this school?”
“I was transferred here this spring…… How did you know I’m a transfer student?”
“Do you know anything about a group that calls itself the ‘Organization?’”
“‘Organization?’ What are you implying?”
His inoffensive smile was the trademark smile that I was familiar with. But the look on his eyes betrayed a sense of alert. Just like Asahina-san, this guy doesn’t know me.
“Haruhi,”
Haruhi’s face twitched and glared at me with her large black eyes,
“Who gave you permission to call me by my name? Just who on earth are you? I don’t remember asking for the company of perverts or stalkers. Get lost already, you’re in the way.”
“Suzumiya,”
“You’re not allowed to call me by my surname either. How did you know my name anyway? Are you from East Junior High? You must be from North High, I can tell from that uniform. Just what is a North High student doing here?”
Haruhi snorted and then turned around,
“Ignore him, Koizumi-kun. Just pretend he never existed. There’s no need to waste time on this impolite fellow, he’s just an idiot anyway. Let’s go!”
Why was Haruhi going home with Koizumi after school? Could it be that Koizumi has taken over my role in this world? Though that thought had crossed my mind for a while, but I wasn’t frantically thinking of that then.
“Wait!”
I grabbed hold of Haruhi’s shoulder as she turned to avoid me,
“Let me go!”
Haruhi turned her arm and swung my hand off. Her face was now full of anger, but that level of fierceness wasn’t enough for me to let her go now, or else all those hours standing here would be meaningless.
“You sure are annoying!”
Haruhi bent down and elegantly gave a low kick.
A pain emanated from my ankle, it was so painful that I felt like I was about to suffocate, though not enough for me to crawl around on the ground. After finding my balance, I said disconsolately,
“Just tell me one thing,”
I took out my last ounce of courage. If this doesn’t work, then I’m out of ideas. This was my last hope - I then threw out this question,
“Do you remember the Tanabata festival three years ago?”
Just as she was about to leave, Haruhi stopped once again. Looking at that long dark hair of hers, I continued,
“On that day, you sneaked into your school and drew shapes on the school field with white chalk.”
“So what about it?”
Haruhi turned with a furious look on her face,
“Everyone knows about that already! Why are you mentioning this for?”
I chose my words carefully, trying to finish it as quickly as possible,
“You weren’t alone in sneaking into school that night. You were with another guy who carried Asahina…… A little girl. It was with him that you drew the patterns using white chalk. The patterns were a message for Hikoboshi and Orihime, which roughly meant ‘I am here……’”
I wasn’t able to complete my sentence.
Haruhi grabbed my collar with her right hand and pulled me over. Being dragged by a terrifying force, I involuntarily fell forward, and knocked my forehead into Haruhi’s head, which was hard as a rock.
“Ouch!”
I looked at her in protest, and her eyes also looked back with ferociousness. Her piercing gaze now shot right into my vision. That was a nostalgic gaze, Haruhi’s exasperated face was just as nostalgic as well.
The girl looked at me with a perplexed face, her veins were close to bursting as she asked,
“How did you know that!? Who told you!? No, I never told anyone. That time……”
Haruhi suddenly stopped, her expression then changed dramatically as she saw my uniform,
“North High…… Could it be……!? What’s your name?”
I was having difficulty breathing as my tie was being grabbed tightly by her. Such a savage girl. No, now’s not the time to indulge in memories of Haruhi’s amazing power. My name? Should I tell her my real name, which she has never heard of, or should I tell her that stupid nickname that everyone has gotten used to calling me?
No matter which one it was, it would have no effect on this girl before me. I don’t think she has ever heard of those two names. In that case, there could only be one name that I can use,
“John Smith,”
Though I tried to say it calmly, it’s difficult when I’m being lifted up by the neck. Can’t you see I’m having difficulty breathing……. Just when I was thinking of that, the strong pressure before my chest was lifted at once.
“……John Smith?”
Haruhi released my collar and looked stunned as her hands stayed there in mid-air. I’ve rarely seen her like that. Suzumiya Haruhi looked as though her soul has been taken by the grim reaper, as her mouth was wide open.
“So it’s you…… You’re that John Smith? The strange high school student…… Who
helped me…… In East Junior High……”
Haruhi suddenly tripped. Her long dark hair covered her eyes, and just as she was about to fall, Koizumi grabbed hold of her on time.
The link has now been connected.
What do mean ‘helped you!?’ You practically had me do everything…… But I wasn’t going to waste my time arguing with her. That’s it, I’ve finally found some clue! In this completely altered world, there was one person, and the only person, who shared the same memory as I did.
So it is you.
That person was none other than Suzumiya Haruhi.
If this Haruhi has seen me three years ago in Tanabata, then this world three years on could be traced back to that point in time. Not everything “disappears without a trace.” When I traveled back to three years ago with Asahina-san, and returned to the present with the help of Nagato’s power, that part of history did indeed exist. I don’t know what went wrong in the process, but at least three years ago, this world was the same world as the one I had known.
Just what went wrong? Why was I the only one with the original memories?
I guess I’ll think about this later on.
I looked at Haruhi, whose jaw was widened as though she had seen one of the wonders of the world, and said to her,
“I’ll explain everything. Do you have time? Because it’s a long story……”
As the three of us walked shoulder to shoulder, Haruhi spoke,
“I’ve seen John Smith twice. Not long after that, as I was on my way home, I heard someone shout behind me, what did he say…… Ah, yes! Something like, ‘Please take good care of the John Smith who would shake the world!’ What does that mean anyway?”
I’ve never said such a thing. After making sure Haruhi was out of sight from the track field, I went and woke up Asahina-san and rushed towards Nagato’s apartment. Could there be another John Smith? But just what the hell was that John Smith talking about?
It sounded as though he was trying to give some hint to Haruhi.
“Was that John the same John you saw in East Junior High?”
“He was too far, plus it was dark at the time. I can’t remember either of their faces very well. But his voice sounded like yours, and he was wearing North High’s uniform.”
Things seem to be getting more and more complicated. Just when I thought I had things linked up, the details didn’t fit.
We looked for a coffee shop nearby and went inside. I had wanted to go to the usual coffee shop the SOS Brigade used for their meetings, since it was a reunion of the SOS Brigade members after all. Though it was a bit far from where we were.
“This other you that I knew studied in North High, and on the first day of school, she said the following……”
Before our orders even arrived, I began my story right away. Before the cafe au lait cooled down to the point that you could drink it all in one gulp, I had told her the compressed version of everything that has happened so far, without holding back. Things like an alien, a time traveler and an esper coming together in the SOS Brigade and our club room being the Literature Club’s room.
I especially told her in detail about my time traveling adventure during Tanabata, as I thought that was the most important part.
I gave Haruhi a general picture about how she was potentially a god, a time distortion, and an evolutionary possibility, as neither of these theories were confirmed. I only told her that she had an incredible power hidden within, and how this unknown power could even change the world.
Just these was enough to make this girl very interested. She constantly went into deep thought, and then finally said,
“How come you could read the alien language that I thought up? It is true that those symbols meant ‘I am here, come look for me.’”
“Someone translated that for me,”
“You mean that alien?”
“To be precise, a Living Humanoid Interface created by the aliens in order to interact with humans; I remember that’s how she puts it.”
I told them everything about Nagato Yuki. At first glance she seemed like an extra gift from the Literature Club to the brigade, but she’s actually only set up as an expressionless quiet bookworm. I then told them about Asahina-san. The serial-cosplaying mascot, as well as our public relations officer and the brigade’s exclusive tea-lady was actually a time traveler from the future. It was her that I traveled back with to the Tanabata three years ago, and it was thanks to Nagato that we managed to return.
“So that means that John would be you, right? Then I’ll believe you, since nothing bad would come from that. So you were engaged in time travel then……”
Haruhi looked at me with eyes used to examine a time traveler and nodded her head.
Aren’t you being a bit too trusting? I never knew you would believe someone so easily. That time when it was just the two of us looking around town for mysterious stuff, you treated my story like trash when I told you in that coffee shop.
“That other me is an idiot, but I believe you,”
Haruhi leaned forward and added,
“Because believing is more fun!”
I was familiar with this very bright smile which was like a hundred flowers blossoming. This was the smile Haruhi had when I saw her smile for the first time. It was the million watt smile she had when she suddenly thought about setting up the SOS Brigade during English class.
“Since that day, I went and investigated everyone from North High. I even infiltrated there for some time, but I never did see anyone who resembled John. I was angry with myself then for not remembering his face properly. But now it makes sense, since you hadn’t even been enrolled at North High three years ago……”
There were two versions of myself back then, one was me living as a carefree junior high schooler, the other one was me being frozen in time with Asahina-san inside Nagato’s guest room.
I might as well bring in the ordeals of this wonder kid here,
“In that world Koizumi is an esper. You’ve helped me a great deal, but you’ve also given me a lot of trouble,”
“If that’s true, then that’s pretty incredible,”
Drinking his tea elegantly, Koizumi said with a half-suspicious glance.
I turned once again towards Haruhi,
“Why didn’t you come to North High?”
“No particular reason, really. I was only interested in North High because of that incident in Tanabata. But by the time I entered high school, John would have graduated already, not to mention I wasn’t able to find him before. Besides, Kouyouen has a higher university entrance rate, and my home-room teacher at junior high kept nagging me to enroll there, so I simply followed along just to shut him up. Actually it doesn’t really matter which high school I go to, really.”
I decided to ask Koizumi as well,
“What about you? Why were you transferred here?”
“You ask me why, well, my answer’s pretty much the same as Suzumiya-san’s. I simply went to where my academic abilities led me. Besides, now I’m not saying North High’s in any way bad, but Kouyouen was just so much better in terms of campus facilities.”
True enough, North High doesn’t even have air conditioning.
Haruhi sighed and said,
“The SOS Brigade, huh? ……Sounds like fun,”
All thanks to you.
“If what you said were true,”
Cutting in was Koizumi, he had now toned down his grinning smile and said with an amused look,
“Judging from your story, there exist two possibilities,”
Now that really sounds like something Koizumi would say.
“The first would be that you have entered a parallel universe, in which you have arrived from your world to this world; the second would be that the whole world has been changed except for yourself.”
I’ve thought about that as well.
“Yet, no matter which one it is, there are still questions to be answered. If it’s the former, then where did y
our counterpart in this world go to? If it’s the latter, it’s puzzling as to why you are the only one who remained unchanged. Unless you happen to possess some incredible power, then that would explain a lot.”
I don’t, and this I can guarantee.
Koizumi made his annoying trademark gesture by shrugging his shoulders gracefully and continued,
“If you have entered a parallel universe, then you must find a way to return to the world from where you came from. If it’s the world being completely altered, then you must find a way to restore the world to its original form. No matter which possibility it is, in order to resolve this, you have to find the culprit behind all this, since it’s possible that the culprit would know how to return things to normal.”
Who else could it be besides Haruhi?
“Who knows? Maybe it’s some invader from an alternate universe using Earth as a gaming platform. There might even be some evil mastermind that would appear in the future.”
I could tell at once that he was making up all of this as he went along, since it was obvious from his tone that Koizumi was bullshitting. Yet Haruhi didn’t notice this at all, and her eyes even glimmered as she said,
“I’d sure like to meet this Nagato-san and Asahina-san. Oh yeah, I’d also want to have a look at that club room. If it was really me that has changed the world, then maybe we would remember something if we were to meet. Don’t you think so too, John?”
Yeah, that’s right. I had no reason to object. If this girl really was behind all this - or at least that’s what I think anyway - then maybe it could trigger something within her, and even Nagato and Asahina-san would be able to remember me. Once the alien and time traveler had returned to normal, then everything else can be resolved easily. Hang on, did she just call me John?
“You said you’re called Kyon, right? John sounds better, since it feels more like a person’s name, not to mention it’s a very common Western name. Just who gave you that Kyon nickname? It doesn’t sound as though people respect you at all.”
Volume 4 - The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi Page 8