Volume 4 - The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi

by Tanigawa Nagaru

  Now this was scarier than the feeling of pain and seeing blood flow non-stop out of your body.

  Damn it, I’m about to die.

  As I wallow in regret for not having written a will, I felt someone appear above me. That person lifted me and picked up the needle-gun that Nagato made that had dropped to the ground.

  A familiar voice, yet I could not remember whose, spoke,

  “Sorry about that. I have my reasons for not rescuing you right away, but don’t hate me for it. After all, it was painful for me as well. Anyway, we’ll take care of the rest. No, I already know what to do now, and you will as well. So go get some sleep for now.”

  What’s he talking about? And who was he talking to? Do what? And who’s taking care of what? The images of Asakura’s fatal strike, the bespectacled Nagato supporting herself with her arms while kneeling on the ground, the two Asahina-sans, and Haruhi in a different school uniform had all now been fused together…

  I gradually fell unconscious.

  Chapter 6

  Swish, swish

  A swishing sound whisked past my ear.

  As I slowly regained my consciousness from the darkness, my mind began to think groggily.

  Maybe it was a dream. From what I can recall, it seemed like a very interesting dream. Usually when you wake up, you would find a dream interesting for about five minutes. But when you begin to brush your teeth, the details start to become blurry, and by the time breakfast is ready, you’ll have forgotten about it completely. By the time you realize it, all that’s left in your mind is the impression “that sure was an interesting dream.” I’ve already gone through this experience many times.

  There were also times when I’ve had dreams that were hardly interesting, but the details were crystal clear, and remained etched in my mind for quite some time. Maybe those were dream-like experiences, just like that night when I was trapped in the Sealed Dimension with Haruhi, an experience that had really occurred, but had subconsciously been treated as non-existent.

  That was the first thing I thought of when I opened my eyes.

  The ceiling was white; I wasn’t in my own room. The translucent orange sunlight dyed the walls, which were as white as the ceiling, all sorts of colors. I wondered if it were morning or evening.

  “Oh my.”

  For a mind that had just started to become clear, this voice sounded as pleasant as church bells would sound to a faithfully religious person.

  “You’re finally awake. Seems like you were sleeping quite comfortably.”

  I turned my head to find the owner of the voice. There sat the fellow on a chair next to my bed, using a kitchen knife to slice the apple in his hand. Swish swish- The apple skin smoothly peeled off and hung downwards.

  “Normally I would say good morning, but the sun’s setting right now.”

  Koizumi Itsuki revealed his gentle smile.

  Koizumi placed the sliced apples into the tray and placed it on the table by the bedside. He then took another apple from a paper bag and smiled as he said to me,

  “Thank goodness you’ve finally woken up. I was really at a loss for what to do. Ah… Your eyes look quite confused. Do you recognize me?”

  “I was about to ask you that. Do you know who I am?”

  “What a strange question. Of course I do.”

  It was easy to tell which Koizumi this one was just by looking at his uniform.

  He was wearing a navy blue suit and not the black gakuran.

  It was the North High uniform.

  One of my arms was placed outside the blanket. On top hung a bag with some fluid injected into it. I looked at that thing and asked,

  “What day is it today?”

  Koizumi revealed an expression that, for him at least, was one of astonishment.

  “Is that the first question you’ve asked after waking up? It seems like you have an idea of your own situation. As for your answer, it is now past five in the afternoon on the 21st of December.”

  “Twenty-first huh…”

  “Yes, today is the third day since you went into a coma.”

  The third day? Coma?

  “Where is this place?”

  “A private hospital.”

  I took a look around. It was an impressive single-bed ward, and I was sleeping in the bed. For me to actually check in to a single-bed ward, my family must be quite rich, and I never realized.

  “A friend of my uncle happens to be the warden of this hospital, so you get special treatment when you check in here.”

  Turns out my family isn’t rich after all.

  “Well, thanks to the intervention of the ‘Organization,’ you can stay here cheaply for a year with no questions asked. That said, I’m relieved that it only took you three days to wake up again. No, no, it has nothing to do with money. My superiors basically tore me apart for allowing something like this to happen to you while under my watch, and I even have to prepare a letter expressing my remorse.”

  Three days before the 21st would be the 18th. What was I doing on that day? …Ah, I remember. I was near the verge of death due to massive blood loss, and so they sent me to hospital… No wait, something wasn’t right.

  I anxiously looked at the hospital gown I was wearing, then placed my hand on my right abdomen.

  I could feel nothing. Normally a wound would feel numb, but it hardly even itched. It would be impossible to recover from such a wound in three days, unless someone patched me up all the way from scratch.

  “What was the reason for my hospitalization? Because of my coma?”

  “So you’ve forgotten. Well, guess I can’t really blame you for it, since you took quite a heavy knock to your head.”

  I touched my head. All I could feel was my hair, there was no bandage or any protective netting on it.

  “What’s amazing is that you didn’t suffer any external injuries nor any internal bleeding. Your brain functions were working normally as well. Even the attending physician was baffled. They didn’t know what was wrong with you.”

  “But…,” Koizumi continued,

  “We witnessed how you fell down the flight of stairs. It sure looked horrible back then. To be honest, I think our faces all went blue. The sound of you crashing to the ground was so loud that I wouldn’t have been surprised if you’d fallen unconscious for good. Would you like to know what happened?”

  “Go ahead.”

  Accordingly, as I was walking down the stairs of the club room complex, maybe I tripped or something, I just tumbled downwards and landed with my head on the ground. Wham! I then stopped moving.

  The way Koizumi described it sounded as though it really did happen.

  “Things were pretty chaotic after that. We had to call the ambulance and get an unconscious you to the hospital. Suzumiya-san’s face was all pale, and it was the first time I ever saw her look like that. Oh, the one calling the ambulance was Nagato-san. It was her calmness that saved your life.”

  “How did Asahina-san react?”

  Koizumi shrugged his shoulders and said,

  “She reacted the way you would expect. She grabbed hold of you and cried as she kept calling your name.”

  “So what time on the 18th did all that happen? Which stairway was it?”

  I fired my questions in quick succession, since the 18th was the day the world changed drastically and I went into a state of panic.

  “You even forgot about that as well? It was right after noon, just after the SOS Brigade had finished its meeting. It happened just as the five of us were about to go out to buy something.”

  Buy something?

  “You don’t even have memory of that? Are you sure you’re not faking your amnesia?”

  “It doesn’t matter, please continue.”

  The smile on Koizumi’s lips became gentle.

  “The agenda for the meeting, hmm, was for what to do on Christmas Day. Suzumiya-san said there was a party for little kids near her place, and the SOS Brigade would make a guest performance the
re. This was so that Asahina-san’s Santa costume could be put to good use. She would dress up as a gorgeous Santa girl and hand out presents to the kids. This merry event was all organized by Suzumiya-san.”

  Here we go again; that girl can be so reckless!

  “Yet, it wouldn’t be realistic just to have a Santa girl. So Suzumiya-san decided to let one of the members dress up as a reindeer and carry Asahina-san into the scene. In the end we had to draw lots… Who do you think was the lucky winner? Do you remember now?”

  I have absolutely no recollection of it at all. If one could remember something that doesn’t even exist in his memories, then he is an impressive liar. He would need to be checked in to another hospital. Though it was useless telling Koizumi about this.

  “Never mind, just know that you were the lucky one. As we had to make a reindeer costume for you, we had to go out to buy some materials, and it was when we were walking down the stairs that you fell.”

  “Now that sounds really stupid for me.”

  Hearing me say that, Koizumi raised his eyebrows.

  “As you were walking at the back, no one really saw how you fell. We only saw you falling from the side like this,” Koizumi demonstrated by deliberately letting the apple tumble off his right hand before catching it with his left, “You basically tumbled over and over.”

  Koizumi continued to peel the apple skin.

  “We quickly rushed towards you, who had become motionless. Suzumiya-san said she felt there was someone at the top of the stairs. She saw someone’s skirt just at the corner there, but it disappeared thereafter. I found it strange as well, so I did some research. At that time, there was no one else in the building besides us. Even Nagato-san shook her head. That girl just disappeared like a phantom. We’ve been waiting for you to wake up all this time so we could ask you who it was that pushed you…”

  I didn’t remember that. At that moment, I was sure that would be the most appropriate answer. It was just a normal accident. I was careless, all I could say is tough luck for me. I guess I’ll leave it at that.

  “Only you came to visit me?”

  Where was Haruhi? I had wanted to ask, but in the end didn’t. Yet Koizumi still chuckled and said, “You’ve been looking around all this time. Are you looking for someone? Don’t you worry, we’ve been taking turns looking after you. Before you opened your eyes, there was always someone by your side. I think it’s about time for Asahina-san to arrive.”

  I was unsettled by Koizumi’s gaze; he looked as though he was meeting a friend that actually believed his April Fool’s joke, and was lost for words. What was he trying to insinuate?

  “Oh, nothing really. I was just feeling envious of you. You could say those were envious looking eyes.”

  Why are you saying this to a patient that has knocked his head?

  “While we regular members have to rotate to watch over you, the Commander sees it as part of her responsibilities to worry about the safety of her members…”

  Koizumi elegantly peeled off all the skin from the apple, then sculpted it into a rabbit shape before placing it on the tray on the bedside table.

  “Suzumiya-san has been here all along, since three days ago she has never left this place.”

  I turned towards the other side of the bed where Koizumi was pointing.

  “…”

  And there she was.

  Wrapped tightly inside a sleeping bag was Haruhi, her mouth slightly agape as she snoozed away.

  “We were all worried about you, both her and I.”

  He sounded so sad; it felt like some soap opera.

  “You should’ve seen how distressed Suzumiya-san looked… No, we’ll leave that for next time. Anyway, isn’t there something you need to do right now?”

  Why does everyone like to order me around!? Asahina-san (big) was like that, now even this Koizumi… But, I didn’t begrudge them. And I couldn’t care less if all those apples sliced by Koizumi were an offering to some deity.

  “Yeah,” I said.

  I really felt like drawing on her face. Maybe next time, I’ll have all the time to do that.

  I sat up straight and stretched my arm to touch that seemingly angry looking face of hers.

  Her hair wasn’t long enough to tie a ponytail yet. I quickly felt nostalgic about her long hair. As if to spite me, that short dark hair of hers began to move.

  Haruhi had woken up.

  “…Umm…hmm?”

  Haruhi moaned as she struggled to open her eyes, and by the time she realized who was pinching her face…

  “AH!?”

  She tried to leap up at once, but failed miserably as she had forgotten she had zipped herself inside the sleeping bag, and so she rolled and crawled about like an inchworm. Eventually she managed to get herself free, proceeded to point a finger at me and started cursing,

  “Damn you Kyon! Why couldn’t you notify me first before waking me up!? I wasn’t even mentally prepared!”

  Now that’s asking for the impossible. Yet seeing you yelling and cursing was more effective than any medicine for me.

  “Haruhi.”

  “What?”

  “Wipe your drool.”

  Haruhi’s face twitched for a while, she quickly rubbed her mouth, and then stared at me with that scowl of hers,

  “You… Are you sure you didn’t draw anything on my face?”

  I was tempted to.

  “Hmph. Well, don’t you have anything to say?”

  I gave her a reply that she would expect,

  “Sorry to make you worry.”

  “Well, I’m glad you are. After all, worrying about the well-being of the brigade members is one of the responsibilities of a commander!”

  Haruhi’s cussing sounded like heavenly singing. At that moment, a soft knock emitted from the door. Koizumi instinctively got up and pulled the door open.

  As the third visitor standing outside the door saw me,

  “Ah, ahh, aaahhhh…”

  She proceeded to make a series of frantic sounding noises. Standing there with a vase in her hands, was none other than the second year North High schoolgirl with her long hair, a cute child-like face, and a slim yet well-grown figure.

  “Hey… Asahina-san, hi there,”

  I wasn’t sure whether I should say long time no see, for me at least I couldn’t tell.

  “Sniff……”

  Tears started to trickle from Asahina-san’s eyes,

  “Thank goodness… Oh… Thank goodness…”

  I really wanted to embrace her like last time, who knows, Asahina-san was probably thinking the same thing. Though she seemed to have forgotten to put down the vase, and only stood there crying.

  “Aren’t you overreacting a bit? He just knocked his head and fainted. I knew all along that Kyon wouldn’t sleep like this forever.”

  A sense of gratefulness could be heard within Haruhi’s voice, and she continued without even looking at me,

  “As I’ve already mentioned before, the SOS Brigade works 365 days a year without rest. Nobody is allowed to take a day off. I’ll never accept a lame excuse like bumping one’s head and going into a coma for sick leave, absolutely never. Do you understand, Kyon? The price for going AWOL for three days is very high. You’ll be fined! Not just a regular fine, but an overdue fine on top of that as well!”

  Koizumi began chuckling, Asahina-san’s giant tear drops trickled endlessly to the ground, while Haruhi turned her face away. At first glance it would seem that she looked mad.

  Koizumi began chuckling, Asahina-san’s giant tear drops trickled endlessly to the ground, while Haruhi turned her face away. At first glance it would seem that she looked mad.

  I looked at them and then nodded my head and shrugged my shoulders,

  “All right then, including the overdue fine, how much do I need to pay in total?”

  Haruhi stared at me, the smile on her face was beaming so brightly that it was hard to believe she was mad a while ago. She really is a very simple
girl.

  In the end it was decided that I would have to pay the bill for everyone in the coffee shop for three consecutive days. As I pondered whether to terminate my existing time deposit…

  “One more thing…”

  There’s more?

  “Yup, I still haven’t gotten around to compensation for all the trauma you’ve caused. Ah yes, Kyon, for the Christmas party, you can dress up as the reindeer and perform some spectacular stunts for us. You have to play until you get all of us laughing! If it’s too boring, I’m gonna have to kick you to an alternate dimension! You’ll need to do that as well for the kids’ party. You hear!?”

  With a gaze as bright as the light from a prism, Haruhi once again began ordering me about.

  While I was now fully awake, it didn’t mean I could get discharged right away. After the doctor came to have a look at me, I was sent to be examined on all sorts of machines, it was so complicated and annoying that it felt as though they were trying to remake me into a cyborg. After spending a whole day on all sorts of body checks, I was going to have to spend the night in the ward again. For me, tonight would truly be my first night in the hospital, and since I’d never been in a hospital, I might as well experience what it felt like.

  Haruhi, Koizumi, and Asahina-san were just about to leave when my mom and sister came to visit me. Haruhi sounded very courteous as she spoke to them, I never knew she could be this polite, so it was kind of surprising.

  As I spent time chatting with my mom and sister, my mind was occupied with various thoughts.

  If things continued the way they were, what would’ve happened next? Nagato, Koizumi, and Asahina-san would just be regular human beings without any supernatural background whatsoever. Nagato would be a silent bookworm from the Literature Club, Asahina-san would be an unreachable beautiful upper classman, while Koizumi would be a normal transfer student studying in another school.