Volume 9 - The Dissociation of Suzumiya Haruhi

by Tanigawa Nagaru

  “Oh yeah, this is one of the difficulties as well. They have no interest in cooperating too.”

  After hearing Tachibana Kyoko’s voice that sounded like she is about to cry, Fujiwara laughed in an irritating way.

  “That is obvious. You talk about cooperating? I am not going to stoop as low as to work with the people in this time frame. I only came here after considering that I might be able to contribute to this time frame. Turns out there isn’t much to expect.”

  Listening to his kind of tone, if Tachibana Kyoko does get angry I will help to chip in a few words as well. He continued.

  “It doesn’t matter whoever it is. Whether it is Suzumiya or Sasaki, if we only consider the natural occurrences, there will be no difference at all. Individual humans do not have great value. The power of extracting the time, the power of changing the universe, we just have to take note of these. As long as the power exists, it doesn’t matter whose hands it is in.”

  “You should think so too right?”

  Kuyoh did not give any response to the time traveler. Her fluffy hair having no sign of movement in the slight breeze from the air conditioning, she remains dazed beyond imagination, sitting on the chair, feeling as if she doesn’t even know where she is. Is this fellow really in front of me? Even if she is sitting in front like this, her presence is now thinner than the word thin can define and is nearing zero. Don’t know if I should say that she lacked thickness, I think even the electronic monitoring system at a construction site has more life than her.

  Just as the atmosphere is once again threatened to be enveloped by silence…….

  “Hmph! You all are really……!”

  Tachibana Kyoko whizzed up and snatched the first word.

  “Stretch your hands out.”

  She had her gaze upon me with seriousness.

  “Instead of using words, it would be easier to just let you experience it for yourself. In that case you will care about what I say. Just a while will do. Stretch your hands out.”

  Just as if she wanted me to look at her hand, she stretched out her smooth and supple hands.

  Just as I wanted to check if I am drowning, pondering whether I should hold onto her hands as well, Sasaki touched me with her shoulders.

  “Kyon, please just follow Tachibana Kyoko-san’s instructions.”

  I stretched out my right hand. Tachibana Kyoko’s moisturized fingers held onto my palms and proceeded with a further request.

  “Close your eyes. It will be over in a minute.”

  I reminiscenced this familiar feeling while I followed her instructions. My lightly closed eyes can sense the brightness of a light, the ears that became more sensitive due to decreased sight picked up sounds that are not noise but that of classical music. This piece should be by Johannes Brahms.

  But……

  “You can open your eyes now.”

  The emergence of the voice of Tachibana Kyoko matches the time when the background music disappears.

  I slowly opened my eyes.

  I could see Tachibana Kyoko with a smile, holding onto my hand. There is only Tachibana Kyoko.

  My surroundings are in complete silence. There is no Sasaki, no Kuyoh and no Fujiwara. Other patrons and staff had disappeared elsewhere. Just like a mass disappearance, just like Mary Celeste, everything disappeared in the blink of an eye.

  Tachibana Kyoko and I sat at the same spot on the table, still holding onto each other’s hand.

  “What……”

  My eyes started moving by themselves. In the ambient lighting of this café, there is only the two of us left in this empty shell. What exactly happened here? Just when I wanted to say that, I suddenly felt a sensation of having experienced this before, and at the same time recalling it. A clone of the same place, nobody around…

  “sealed realities……”

  “So this is how Koizumi-kun calls it.”

  Tachibana Kyoko let go of my hand and whizzed herself up.

  “Although we cannot exactly describe it as a visit, but why don’t we take a walk outside?”

  Tachibana Kyoko, like a fish in water, invited me outside.

  My heart thought that just sitting down would not help much either and so I agreed. I haven’t been to a sealed realities for a while already. In fact, I had only come twice, once with Koizumi and the other with Haruhi. This is the third time, and it seems a lot like the one Koizumi sent me to by cab.

  I walked beside Tachibana Kyoko and watched how naturally the electronic sliding glass door opened. This is like how it is usually too. I don’t know what the theory behind it is, but for some reason, there is electricity in this world too.

  Walking outside, the first thing I did was to look up at the skies.

  The rain has stopped. Wait, there is not even a cloud. The sky is not in a shade of gray. It seems there is no sun too, the light looks like it is part of the sky. The entire world seems to be enveloped in a foggy radiance.

  “Walk for a bit.”

  Even though the entire street has nobody at all, giving me the vibes of a ghost town, it did not really have such a huge blow on me. This is exactly as how Koizumi had described.

  The difference is……

  I had previously entered two sealed realities, both of which are covered in darkness. Although it could be because it is night, but I still remember the sights in that world with clarity.

  However, this world is filled with creamy whiteness: milky white on top of a rarely-seen radiance. Compared to the sealed realities in my memory this seemed much more cheerful.

  There is an even bigger difference. No matter how one turns his or her head, there are no lifeforms around. Those huge and alienate lifeforms can’t be missed by the eye so easily.

  “Hehe” Tachibana Kyoko turned her head back. “Hm. You are right. There wouldn’t be such things around here, and they do not even exist at all. This is my top recommendation. This is a good place right?”

  Grayish-white monsters, rash and destructive-prone lifeforms, are the result of Haruhi’s subconsciousness.

  “There are no Avatars here, and there are no signs of them appearing. This is what my five senses are telling me. This sealed reality does not have anything that will threaten its existence.”

  “Isn’t this a sealed reality?”

  “It is a sealed reality? It is the same kind of dimension as you know.”

  Tachibana Kyoko seemed very happy to tell me this and continued.

  “It is just that the creator of this world is different. This is not a world constructed by Suzumiya-san.”

  Other than Haruhi who has the ability to create such a world……

  “Yup. It is Sasaki-san. This is Sasaki-san’s sealed reality. But, we do not feel any sensation of being closed at all. Let’s put it this way, it is like the same dish made by different people. The personality and character of the person will affect the taste right?”

  She sounded like a housing agent selling this property to me as she said the following.

  “I just felt that this place gives a very comfortable feeling. You can feel the air of stability and friendliness right? How do you feel? There and here, which side lets you feel more secure?

  “Wait a moment.”

  If I have to chose between living in either of them, I would chose none.

  “You meant the space created by Sasaki-san? What is the reason? When is it? Why are there no Avatars? Why does this world exist?”

  “No reason at all.” She continued with a more relaxed tone. “This world is not a time-limited toy model. It always remains this way, existing ever since it started. Yes, since four years ago. The reason there are no Avatars, is because there is no reason for them to exist, because there is no need to destroy at all.”

  No matter how hard I look, I am unable to find a bird flying in the sky. All my ears can pick up are absolute silence.

  “This is a very big difference. Sasaki-san did not have any thought of destroying or recreating this world. For Sas
aki-san’s consciousness, the outside or inside remains unwavered and is stabilized. This is indeed an ideal state. Even if she is unsatisfied with the reality, she would never attempt to reject the reality but let everything go with the flow.”

  The only thing I can hear is the voice of this teenage girl.

  “I will ask you again. Which do you prefer? A god that may accidentally destroy the world, or a god with general knowledge that may not do anything, but does not attempt to destroy it either?”

  I suddenly felt like defending Haruhi for a bit. Actually she has plenty of general knowledge. Just that a screw becomes loose once in a while. At the end of all of it, she is still a normal woman. Although I do not know how she was in the past, the current Haruhi already knows how to live within the reality. Although she complicates things sometimes, she would never cause UFOs to rain from the sky.

  One thing that can definitely be confirmed is that she will no longer recreate the world.

  “You sure are confident of yourself. I feel that the things Suzumiya-san thinks subconsciously are things that nobody knows. Not even Koizumi-kun nor the time traveler.”

  Tachibana Kyoko clasped both her hands together behind her body and turned around to face me.

  “Because even I don’t know, and that is why I am feeling uneasy. But there would be no problem if it is Sasaki-san. You would know if you look at this place. There are no elements of instability at all.”

  The smile she revealed is sprinkled with generous amounts of cuteness.

  “And so I believe Sasaki-san is the true holder of the power. The reason for that is as above. For Suzumiya-san to become this way, someone must have made a mistake somewhere to cause this.

  The superpower of unknown origin held by Haruhi, bestowing upon Koizumi his esper powers, attracted the attention of outer-spatial origin, according to the words of Asahina-san, considered as the mysterious cause to the major time quake.

  If all these things occur on Sasaki as well……? What would happen to the influence of the current SOS Brigade?

  Totally unimaginable.

  In order to chase away this unthinkable thought, I shook my head about.

  “So,” I finally regained my voice. “What do you want me to do? Do you want me to transplant the powers from Haruhi to Sasaki? How is that possible?”

  Tachibana Kyoko looked at me seriously for a while before breaking into her jovial laugh.

  “It is not impossible. As long as you are willing to assist us, we can do it. It would be possible if Sasaki-san and you are agreeable. We only wish for so much. Isn’t it simple?”

  She made a leap backward.

  “Let’s return to the café. Our union for today shall end here. And I believe you need some time to reconsider.”

  Talking about that, what exactly were we doing? We were originally sitting on the chairs at the café, and suddenly came out here, what exactly does Sasaki and the rest see us doing?

  Just when I wanted to raise this concern, Tachibana Kyoko is already briskly making her way back where we came from. Thinking about it, a guy and a girl existing in this empty world together is indeed a bit problematic. Although it is not time to mind such stuff, but I do not wish to stay too long either. This place is really too quiet. If there are Avatars around, there would at least be some buzz to speak of and help to divert some attention away. What exactly happened? Why am I actually missing such things? Is my mind alright?

  After the teenage girl’s body entered past the electronic glass sliding door for a few seconds, I am back in the café as well. Heck, I cannot even smell a hint of coffee anywhere.

  “Sit down quickly.”

  Tachibana Kyoko returned to her original seat: between the trio, and put her hand on the table. I also returned to that seat still with my body temperature.

  “Please close your eyes and stretch your hands out.”

  If I open my eyes, what exactly would I see? I thought about this while putting my hands on hers and closed my eyes, focusing all my attention on my sense of hearing.

  Tachibana Kyoko applied some slight pressure on my fingers……

  And immediately let go. Right at that instant, my sense of hearing returned. No, it should be that the world is revived.

  Johannes Brahms playing in the background, slight pitter-pattering sounds from the rain outside. The rich aroma of the coffee beans, as well as the human flow, gushed into my five senses altogether. I opened my eyes.

  Sasaki raised her eyebrows and said.

  “Hey, you are back…… There should be nothing wrong with saying this right?”

  I took a close look at the surroundings. Fujiwara calmly supported his cheeks with his hands, Kuyoh’s sleepy face shows no response, Tachibana Kyoko in the middle of the two of them is moistening her throat with the ice water. I then raised my previous query to Sasaki.

  “What was I doing just now?”

  “Nothing much.” Sasaki turned her wrists over and took a look at the watch. “You two only closed your eyes for ten seconds, Tachibana-san and your hand constantly grasping each others’ the entire time.”

  She used that hand to touch her lips.

  “So, what did you see? That supposed subconscious world of mine?”

  “Hm.”

  Although not very willing, I still nodded for confirmation. If it isn’t a hallucination, it could be considered a look. But in the ten seconds through Sasaki’s eyes, both Tachibana Kyoko and I did not disappear. This is a point which I cannot understand.”

  “Any thoughts about it?”

  “Not really.”

  “I thought so too.”

  Sasaki laughed jovially.

  “How embarrassing. It felt as if you peeped at my inner thoughts.”

  “Sasaki-san”, Tachibana Kyoko put down her glass cup. “No matter how I think about it, I still think you are the most suitable. Can you look at this more positively?”

  “Hmm, how shall I put it……”

  Sasaki looked at me with her head slightly inclined.

  “Kyon, what do you think? That so-called mysterious superpower. Is it something that would be no problem even if I had it?”

  It is not something that can be determined to be good or bad, and why must you ask me?

  If we speak by intuition, even if Sasaki had that incredible yet strange superpower, it is unlikely that she would activate her powers just because of the unhappiness with the score in baseball, and not turn events in the movie into reality, not making August repeat endlessly, as well as not suddenly digging out a cultural artifact right? At the same time, she wouldn’t wear a bunny girl costume and replace an injured senior and perform on stage nor argue with the student council president.

  No, those things do not really matter. The root of this issue is that it is not only Sasaki that is involved here.

  I cast a glance of nonchalantness to the other side of the table.

  Time traveler Fujiwara and the other two.

  You want me to cooperate with them? There should be a limit to cracking jokes. That time traveler who laughed at Asahina-san’s name and that Asahina-san kidnapper. The other one is the person involved in the Snow Mountain incident, eventually leading to the collapse of Nagato.

  Things like this still have to be considered?

  Although I still want to remain good friends with Sasaki, if I were to work with this gang, not only will my body and soul not get tranquility, it might even move very far away from zero, right into the negatives.

  In order to express such a thought clearly, I took in a deep breath.

  “Sorry to keep everyone waiting.”

  Just when I wanted to open my mouth, the waitress came towards our table with four cups in a tray.

  Thus I paused for a while and fell into silence together with the rest.

  This happens during normal conversations, much less during talk about things like this. Things like this had better not be heard by people uninvolved.

  As silence enveloped everyone, t
he clanking of the cups and the plates are especially pronounced. The first cup of hot coffee appeared in front of Sasaki, then me, Tachibana Kyoko and finally Kuyoh……

  “Grab.” (!) Unfolding in front of our eyes is a shocking scene.

  Kuyoh, who had never moved since the start, actually reached out to touch the wrists of the female waitress.

  Kuyoh, who had never moved since the start, actually reached out to touch the wrists of the female waitress.

  I did not notice what time she moved her hand. In fact I could not even feel her moving. But Kuyoh is tightly holding onto the wrists of the female waitress, and what’s more the hand carrying the tray with the cup of coffee to be placed on the table still on it.

  She fixed her gaze at the front without any change in expression, not moving other than the one hand.

  “……Ah?”

  I opened my mouth wide like an idiot.

  What is even more shocking is the cup in the tray the waitress is holding onto should have spilled some coffee, but there is not even a drip of it spilled out. From the sound produced just now, the impact should have been pretty strong.

  Why……

  I immediately understood.

  “How may I help you?”

  The waitress revealed a gentle smile, not showing any sign of disgruntledness or uneasiness. From the eyes of others, this is a very normal smile. But what I saw behind that façade was a sense of coldness similar to that of an icicle. This is not without reason. For that person’s face is very familiar to me.

  “Emiri-senpai……”

  I produced a sound that sounded more like a groan.

  “…… What are you doing here?”

  “Hello.”

  With an apron covering the front of her chest, Emiri Kimidori-san is just like occasionally meeting one of the juniors in high school. And that is like the situation now: greeting each other nonchalantly. That tone that lacked sluggishness, it is unbelievable that an alien of unknown origin is currently holding onto the wrist of a living humanoid interface. Although I do not wish to use real life experience to confirm the strength of the grip of Kuyoh, it appears that it seemed much stronger than normal strength, and Kuyoh did not seem to bother about Tachibana Kyoko and Sasaki, who are staring in disbelief, and achieved a feat only non-humans can achieve: to not move any part of the body, including the girls’ school uniform, other than her hands.