“Yuki, attack Mikuru-chan!”
At Haruhi’s command, Nagato knelt in an odd manner and turned into a black mage with a cat on her left shoulder. No matter how one looked, the cat just looked too heavy. It was good that the cat obediently clung onto Nagato’s shoulder, but Nagato’s whole body was tilted to one side as a result. She even tried her best to keep her balance to prevent the cat from falling off. She maintained this unnatural stance while waving her wand towards Asahina-san,
“Take this.”
I believe incredible beams would be emitted from Nagato’s wand in this scene, right? “…Kyaa!”
Asahina-san yelled as though suffering from excruciating pain.
“And, cut!”
Haruhi shouted satisfactorily, and I stopped the recording at once, while Koizumi placed down the reflector board he was carrying.
“I want that cat to talk. He is the cat of a magician after all. He needs to at least say something mean.” Now this is ridiculous.
“Your name is Shamisen. Hey, Shamisen! Say something!” How is he supposed to talk? No, actually, I beg you, please don’t speak.
Perhaps my prayers were answered, as the cat with the ominous name Shamisen didn’t start speaking Japanese, but instead licked his tail and totally ignored Haruhi’s command. This was natural, but I still breathed a sigh of relief.
“Everything is going according to plan.”
Haruhi reviewed the footage taken today and smiled happily. It’s as though her depression this morning never happened at all. It was good that she cheered up so quickly, and for once I was impressed with her.
“Kyon, you’re in charge of looking after the cat.”
Haruhi folded her director’s chair and gave me this unreasonable command, “Take good care of him when you bring him home, because we still need him for further filming. Tame him well! Teach him a trick by tomorrow, like jumping through a fire hoop or something.” If the cat can obediently cling onto Nagato’s shoulders, then I guess it should be clever enough for that, right? “That’s it for today, tomorrow will be the final day of shooting! Filming today went smoothly, the story’s about to enter its climax, and everyone’s managed to maintain their spirits! Go get some rest, we’ll need that spirit for tomorrow as well!” Haruhi waved her loudspeaker and dismissed us, then went home on her own while humming the ending theme to “Blade.” “Phew…”
Both Asahina-san and I sighed, Koizumi placed the reflector board under his arms and prepared to leave, while Nagato stared blankly at Shamisen like an inkless pen.
I knelt down and caressed the cat’s head,
“Thanks for the hard work. Maybe I’ll buy some cat food for you, or would you prefer dried fish?” “I’m fine either way.”
A clear male baritone voice said the above sentence, and it wasn’t spoken by anyone here. I saw Koizumi and Asahina-san looking stunned, then turned to look at Nagato’s poker face. They all had their sights fixed on one place – my feet.
There by my feet stood the cat, who looked up at me with his round black eyes wide open.
“Hey!” I said, “Did you just speak, Nagato? I wasn’t asking you. I was asking the cat.” “That’s what I thought as well, so I answered you. Did I say something wrong?” So said the cat…
“Now that took me by surprise…”
Koizumi said.
“It’s too shocking, a cat actually speaking…”
Asahina-san said.
“…”
Nagato remained silent as she picked up Shamisen, who then spoke, “I don’t understand why you’re so shocked.”
He said while clinging his paws onto Nagato’s shoulders.
A demon cat… Is that what cats become after living for a few years? “I’m not sure myself. The concept of time does not concern me. What is the present? What is the past? I have no interest in that.” It was already amazing that he could speak, but little did we expect him to say such abstract stuff as well. Now don’t be getting cocky, you’re just a fur ball. I wonder if we should auction off Shamisen on the internet? “For you, I probably have made sounds that sound like human speech, but aren’t parrots the same? From what did you deduce that I have made sounds that conveyed literal meaning?” What the hell are you talking about?
“From this conversation, since you have precisely answered my question.” “Maybe the sounds that I made just happened to match the nature of your question.” “If that’s the case, then wouldn’t that mean the conversations human beings make with each other are all meaningless?” Why on earth am I having a serious conversation with a cat? Shamisen the wild cat licked his front paws and rubbed under his ears and said, “Exactly. You may have carried out what seemed like a conversation with that lady, but no one is sure if both of you have conveyed what each of you wanted to say,” Shamisen said with his deep voice.
“That’s because each person may or may not say what’s in their heart depending on the situation,” Koizumi replied.
You shut up!
“Now that you mention it… It does make sense,” Asahina-san said.
I examined every other cat on the lawn, besides Shamisen, all the other cats made a “meow” or “purr” noise. Seems like it’s just this cat that has gained the ability to utter human languages.
I’m sorry, could you please not agree with the cat as well? I examined every other cat on the lawn, besides Shamisen, all the other cats made a “meow” or “purr” noise. Seems like it’s just this cat that has gained the ability to utter human languages. How can this be?
It’s all that stupid girl’s fault.
“Looks like things have taken a turn for the worse.”
Koizumi elegantly sipped his mocha and continued,
“It seems we have underestimated Suzumiya-san,”
“What do you mean?” Asahina-san asked in a lowered voice.
“The movie world created by Suzumiya-san has begun to become a part of this reality. The movie contents that she visualized, have manifested themselves into this world, and have become a part of our reality. Like how Asahina-san could fire lasers or how the cat could talk. If she suddenly says, ‘I want to film a scene of a giant meteorite falling to Earth,’ it might just happen.”
Right now, besides Haruhi, the other four members of the SOS Brigade were now gathered inside the cafe in front of the station. Koizumi had proposed an emergency meeting to deal with Haruhi, a plan to which we all agreed. It looks like things are getting serious. At first glance, we seemed like a bunch of high school students gathering together while chatting merrily (though it was only Koizumi that smiled merrily), but what we were actually doing sounded like a bunch of suspicious villains plotting to stop the Defender of Justice from using her ultimate attack. By the way, we let Shamisen wait at the grass lawn outside, and we specifically told him not to talk to anyone, or even respond to anyone’s questions. The cat did not look displeased, and merely said, “Okay.” He then sat quietly by the shade of the tree by the roadside and watched us leave.
“What’s going to happen from now on…?”
Asahina-san said, looking very concerned. The poor girl seemed very troubled, since she has been permanently scarred mentally by Haruhi’s movie. Nagato maintained her blank expression and was still dressed all in black.
Koizumi slowly sipped his warm milk coffee and said,
“All I know is, we can’t leave Suzumiya-san unattended like that,” I swallowed the ice water in one gulp, since I’ve already finished drinking my glass of apple tea, “So aren’t we supposed to find a way to stop Haruhi?”
“Who else can stop her from making this movie? I don’t have the confidence to.” Neither did I.
Once the engine is started, as long as Haruhi doesn’t turn it off, she would go on non-stop. She would be like a dead fish if she ever stopped. If we trace her ancestral bloodline, we could probably find traces of tuna and bonito DNA in it.
Nagato doesn’t seem to be even thinking as she silently drank her almond tea. Maybe
she really wasn’t thinking, or maybe because she understood everything, there was no need to think further, it’s even possible that she simply isn’t good at talking. After spending six months with her, I still find it hard to figure out what she’s thinking.
“What about you, Nagato? What do you think of this?”
“…”
Nagato placed her cup onto the tray without making a sound, then smoothly turned her head to look at me and said,
“Unlike last time, Suzumiya Haruhi will not disappear from this world.” Her voice is so cool and crisp.
“The Integrated Data Sentient Entity deduces that this is enough.” Koizumi placed a hand elegantly over his forehead and said, “But that would be troublesome for us.”
“Not for us. We look forward to seeing changes in our observation subject.” “Is that so?”
Koizumi quickly decided to ignore Nagato from then on and turned back towards me, “Then, which genre should we classify Suzumiya-san’s movie as?” Sigh, once again he has spoken in an ambiguous way.
“The structure of the story can be divided into three forms. First, it could occur within a certain framework. Second, it could break through this framework and create a new framework. Third, it could repair the broken framework back to its original state.”
As expected, he began his lengthy speech in Martian, which would lead people to think, “What the hell is he talking about?” Asahina-san, you don’t have to seriously listen to his bullshit!
“As we exist within this framework, if we want to understand our world, we need to think rationally, or grasp it through observation.”
What on earth is this “framework” then?
“Try thinking about this ‘reality’ we are in now. This world is such that we can exist in our current state. Conversely, the movie that Suzumiya-san is making is fiction to us.”
Isn’t that obvious?
“The real problem now is that things that only exist in the fictional world have now affected our ‘reality.’” The eyes of Wonder Mikuru, the pigeons, the cherry blossom, and the cat.
“We must stop the fictional world from creeping further into our reality.” I always felt Koizumi looked rather enthusiastic whenever he’s talking about this stuff, he looked quite cheerful. To counter that, I decided to put out a gloomy face.
“The making of this movie has acted as a filter for Suzumiya-san to manifest her powers. To prevent this, we must let Suzumiya-san realize that ‘this is all fiction.’ Because right now, she has unwittingly blurred the lines between fiction and reality.”
You sure sound excited about this!
“We must find a rational way to prove that things from the fictional world aren’t real. We must make sure this movie is completed in a reasonable way.”
“So how are we going to normalize the fact that a cat can now talk?” “Normalize isn’t the correct term. Because in this way, a world will be created where cats could talk. In our ‘reality,’ cats can’t talk. If no one finds anything wrong with a talking cat, then the consequences could be dire, because in our world it is simply impossible for cats to talk.” “Then what about aliens, time travelers and espers? Is their existence just a possibility?” “Well, of course, since they are existing right now. In our world, this is a very normal thing, though the catch is that we mustn’t let Suzumiya-san know about this.” Really?
“Let’s assume our world to be an object observed from afar. If she believes the ‘real world’ to be what you once used to believe it to be, a world without supernatural phenomena – where aliens, time travelers and espers don’t exist – then this ‘reality’ we’re in would be a totally fictional world.”
So is this the true face of God you’ve been talking about? “But that is what is observed from afar. You have learned first-hand that supernatural phenomena do, in fact, exist in this world – which includes Nagato-san and myself. Since we’re here, you can only accept this fact within the confines of this world. I’m sure you have a different view of the world than you had one year ago.” Perhaps I would be happier if I never knew this fact.
“How should I put it? Hmm, I can confirm this. Right now Suzumiya-san’s status is just like how you were in the past. In other words, she still hasn’t changed how she views this reality. She may talk a lot about it, but deep inside she doesn’t believe that supernatural phenomena actually exist. Let’s take what she has seen as an example; she has treated the appearance of Sealed Dimension and ‘Avatars’ as a dream. As dreams are fictional, the ‘reality’ of this world gets to be maintained.”
That’s what we’ve been working hard to maintain all the time.
“Right, therefore there’s no doubt that fiction can be manifested into reality. If Suzumiya-san treats these occurrences as ‘fact,’ then the talking cat would be incorporated into this ‘reality.’ As it would be strange in this world for cats to talk, in order to allow talking cats to become part of ‘reality,’ the world would have to be reconstructed. Does Suzumiya-san want to create a world where cats can talk? I don’t think the world would reach the realm of science fiction completely, since judging from her way of thinking, I don’t think she would do something so troublesome. Though it’s also possible the world could become the stuff of science fiction at once, where no reason is needed to explain why cats can talk. As long as ‘talking cats’ existed, that could be enough for her. There would be no question as to ‘why cats can talk,’ since the world would become a place where it’s natural for cats to talk.”
Koizumi put down his mocha and toyed with the edge of the mug with his fingers as he said, “This would be problematic, as it would overthrow all the concepts already known to mankind. In my own way, I respect how humans make observations and come to conclusions. Under this method, it is impossible, without any external influences, to find a cat in this world that can talk through mere observation alone. It is very strange to us for a talking cat to exist in this world.” Then how do you explain your existence? Aren’t espers the same as talking cats? “You’re right. For this world, we’re still an anomaly. Not confined to any known rules of this reality. We only exist thanks to Suzumiya-san. This cat is the same, because Suzumiya-san wishes to let him appear in this movie, which is why he exists. From what I can understand, Suzumiya-san is trying to create a link with this reality and the fictional elements of the movie she is trying to make.” Now is not the time to understand, now is the time to figure out what we should do! “Which is why we need to categorize which genre this movie belongs to.” How I wish he wouldn’t push so far. While it may be gratifying to show off one’s ability to speak lengthily, one ought to consider the feelings of the audience as well! Your long speech is just as annoying as the ones the principal makes in the morning school assembly every week. Just look, even Asahina-san has been looking perplexed since the beginning.
But Koizumi did not intend to stop here,
“If all this happened in the fictional world, then no explanation is needed as to why the cat could talk or how Asahina-san could fire beams from her eyes. Since in that world, ‘it’s a matter of fact.’”
I turned my gaze out of the window to make sure Shamisen was still there.
“But, if there is a reason for talking cats and the Mikuru Beam to exist, then from the moment it existed, then it’s possible that it would be discovered by someone. The reality where cats can talk and where Asahina-san fires beams actually does exist, it’s just that no one has noticed it yet – by observation, its existence will eventually be proven. Yet at that moment, our whole world will change completely. We would now need to readjust our knowledge of this world, from one where paranormal events don’t exist to one where they do exist, as the world we thought we once knew has now become a fictional world.”
I sighed deeply. Is there no way to shut this guy up?
So this is what you’re trying to say: a sufficient reason is required to explain the existence of talking cats. But if that’s the case, how do you explain the existenc
e of you, Nagato and Asahina-san? Aren’t you, along with the both of them, part of those supernatural phenomena?
“It’s probably like that for you, as no further explanation is needed. For you, the world has already changed. Isn’t the world you knew when you first entered high school different from the world you know now? Your concept of reality has now changed for good. Haven’t you been encountering new realities? And haven’t you confirmed that people like us really do exist?”
“What are you trying to say?”
“Let us return the subject to the movie itself, the movie Suzumiya-san is trying to make can probably be classified into the science fiction genre. In this movie, no reason is needed to explain why cats can talk or why Asahina-san and Nagato-san possess magical powers. It was enough that way.”
So, all we need to do is give some meaning to the existence of the demonic cat, the waitress from the future and the evil alien magician?
“Not exactly, because by giving them their raison d’etre it would be bothersome for the outside world. If the observer realizes that ‘the world has changed’ after watching the movie from beginning to end, then their existence would be acknowledged, and the world will change into one where it’s not a big deal for cats to talk. I do not wish for the world to get any more complicated than it is.”
Neither do I. The only ones unbothered would be probably Nagato and her people, I guess.
“I said before that we need to decide the context of this movie, all we need to do is to just ask her which direction this movie is going. The context should be such as to dispel all the questions raised by the mysteries and paranormal events occurring within the movie, and through a reasonable ending, it should pull the distorted world back into its original form. There is one context that allows the world to be resurrected when it is about to end, and is able to find a reasonable answer to all sorts of mysterious events.”
Volume 2 - The Sighs of Suzumiya Haruhi Page 15