Volume 8 - The Indignation of Suzumiya Haruhi

by Tanigawa Nagaru

  Snow White had been her friend since the time she had gone to the forest. And the mermaid remembered that Snow White had said, “If you find something interesting, bring it to me!”

  The mermaid asked the Good-Natured Witch to change her fish tail to legs, and she carried the unconscious Prince to the Dwarves’ cabin.

  But even when she saw the Prince that the mermaid had brought, Snow White wasn’t delighted much. What she thought of as interesting was a little different. A prince that just kept on sleeping was not something she found that appealing…….

  Although having to take care of someone was exciting at the beginning, Snow White was becoming more and more bored with it. Because he never opened his eyes at all. She was getting tired of looking at his sleeping face.

  I wonder if he’ll wake up if I hit him hard, she started thinking, when an express messenger from Snow White’s castle had come.

  This is what the messenger said. Our neighbor, the Great Empire, has mobilized a vast force to cross into our borders, and lay siege to the castle, and the way things were going, it’s going to fall soon, if it hasn’t fallen already.

  How dreadful.

  ③

  When Snow White heard that, she left the Prince, who never woke up no matter how long they waited, in the care of the mermaid, and left the forest with the Seven Dwarves. The first place they went to was a craggy mountain. There, the Tactician who had become a hermit lived by himself. If the tales were true, then he would not associate with someone unless they had visited him three times, but Snow White ordered the Dwarves to capture the Tactician, and she appointed him their Chief-of-Staff. The Tactician smiled bitterly, and with a “Well, okay I guess,” he gave his allegiance to Snow White.

  Thus the number of Snow White’s party grew to nine, and as soon as they had climbed down from the mountain, they gathered volunteer soldiers in the towns and villages where the Empire’s forces had not yet been to. They were totally unable to assemble enough people to match the Great Empire’s troops, but all the same, Snow White raised an anti-imperialist banner and set out for the castle. They defeated the Imperial Forces that had been sent to intercept them one by one, and garnered a series of victories in various places, until they finally recaptured the castle, after which they pursued and annihilated the retreating Imperials, then went on from there by making a counter-invasion and overthrowing the Empire in the blink of an eye, and the country became a part of her own dominion. How surprising.

  It did not end there. Snow White, the Tactician, and the Seven Dwarves, formed a big army and ran through all of the countries in all of the land, and using various strategies and conspiracies, they were able to unite the continent. The Age of the Warring States was ended, and they were visited by a period of peace and harmony.

  ④

  Snow White, having nothing more to do, left the rest to the Tactician and went home to the forest. Though she was no longer concerned about the arranged marriage, returning to the castle would just mean getting bored everyday. Playing freely in the forest was better.

  Snow White came back to the cabin along with the Seven Dwarves, and was surprised to see that the Prince was still sleeping. She had completely forgotten about him.

  Ah, during that time, the mermaid had been taking good care of the Prince.

  Snow White grabbed an apple the Forest Bear had brought while visiting, and used it to hit the Prince on the head.

  “That’s too much sleep already, now wake up!”

  It is said that the Prince opened his eyes, three days later.

  What happened to everyone after that, no one knows.

  Still, I feel certain that everyone became happy. And I wish that they all did.

  ……How do I say this, that was just so like Asahina-san; even though it was a fable of jumbled up fairy-tales mixed in with war stories, the feeling of desperation reaches through to us like it was our own. This was already more than adequate. Which parts Haruhi had her hand in, I leave to your imagination.

  Okay, enough about Asahina-san’s worries, the problem now is how the task that’s been given to me is still untouched. That plot to make me write a story was unreasonable from the start, but if you add in the romance theme, then it moves way past unreasonable and goes straight into the world of foreign concepts. Just what can I do?

  On the other hand, it surprised me how Haruhi had engaged in activities that were relatively appropriate for Editor-in-Chief.

  Between us four, the number of pages for the manuscript was running short, and Haruhi, who had brought up that we were lacking variety, finally resorted to outsourcing for some writers.

  The very first to become victims were Taniguchi and Kunikida, and then continued on to Tsuruya-san and the Computer Club President getting the position of holding the deadline that Haruhi had established.

  It seems like everyone had become Associate Brigade Members as far as Haruhi was concerned, but they were all totally unrelated to the Literature Club.

  Though I didn’t have any time to feel sorry for myself, I’d still prefer it if the responsibility of having to write would just disappear. But I don’t think Haruhi would ever let it pass if I ran away from my article.

  As the time limit that the evil-acting Student Council President had set drew closer and closer, Taniguchi let out, “Why do I have to write an Interesting Days essay or whatever!” in a resentful voice, and, “Now, now, Taniguchi. That’s better than my twelve-part Subject-by-Subject-Study-Aids column, isn’t it?” Kunikida’s easygoing voice struck my ears while we were waiting for morning homeroom one day.

  Haruhi, who had come to school later than me, thrust some copy paper at me without saying good morning.

  “What’s this?”

  “Yesterday, Yuki submitted her manuscript when it was time to go home.”

  Haruhi made a face like she had swallowed some dental filling that had broken off along with some toothpaste,

  “I read through it carefully at home, but it’s a pretty strange story. Even though fantastical horror is still horror, I had trouble evaluating it. And it’s only as lengthy as a short-short story. Here, you read it for a bit.”

  If it’s the article Nagato had written without saying anything, then I’ll read it as much as I can.

  I took the copy paper from Haruhi, and started following the printed text with my eyes.

  Untitled 1 Nagato Yuki

  I am a ghost, said the girl when we met about ｘｘｘｘ before.

  When I asked for her name, “I do not have a name.” was her answer. “Since I do not have a name, I am a ghost. You are probably the same.” the girl continued.

  That is correct. I am also a ghost. If a being is able to converse with ghosts, then that being must also be a ghost. Like I am now.

  “Well then, shall we go?”

  She said, and I followed. The girl’s steps were so light, she looked completely alive. “Where will you go?” the girl asked me, as she stopped moving her feet and turned around.

  “You can go anywhere. Was there a place you wanted to go to?”

  I was lost in thought for a moment. Where have I gotten to? What is this place? Why am I here?

  As I stood still, I couldn’t help but gaze into the girl’s dark eyes.

  “Weren’t you thinking of going to ｘｘｘｘ?”

  The girl had discerned my answer. When I heard those words, I finally understood what my own role was. Yes. I was on my way there. How could I forget? For this important matter, I had a reason to live and exist.

  White things were falling from the sky. Numerous, tiny, fluttering, aqueous crystals.

  It is something I must not forget.

  “So, that’s that, then.”

  The girl smiled happily. I nodded, and expressed my thanks to her.

  “Good bye.”

  The girl disappeared, leaving me by myself. She had probably returned to her place. And in the same way, I had to return to my place.

  White things were
falling from the sky. Numerous, tiny, fluttering, aqueous crystals. They fell to the earth and vanished.

  It was one of the wonders that filled time and space. In this world, such wonders were common. I stood absolutely still. The passing of time had lost its meaning.

  Those wonders of bound cotton continued to fall, one after another.

  This shall be my name.

  And with that thought, I was a ghost no more.

  “Hmm……?”

  I raised my face after reading that much.

  Before morning homeroom, students were arriving steadily; a familiar scene that was spreading throughout the classroom. Ordinarily, Haruhi would be gazing outside the window in the seat behind me, or poking at my back with a mechanical pencil, but this time, Haruhi was stretching out her neck as she peered into my hand, looking troubled, and my face was thoughtful as I chased letters on the copy paper with my eyes.

  Well, I was probably making a face that closely resembled Haruhi’s.

  And it was all because of what had been written. Being made to read that first thing in the morning is more than a little difficult, I feel.

  As I recall it, the lot that Nagato had drawn was Fantasy Horror.

  Having lifted my eyes from Nagato’s story, I turned sideways to face Haruhi’s profile.

  “Hey Haruhi, I might not be familiar with fantasy or horror, but are recent fantasy horrors like this?”

  “I’m not familiar with it, either.”

  Haruhi put her hand on her chin, and tilted her head like an editor who was facing a writer that, in her judgement, had written something troubling.

  “It feels like a fantasy, but it’s not much of a horror. But, hmm. Doesn’t it feel very Yuki-like? Maybe, Yuki gets scared at that stuff.”

  If there was something that made Nagato feel scared, then I’d probably be terrified the most and the worst if I were to see it. I really don’t want something like that to appear. Even if it’s just inside a story.

  “By the way, you.”

  As I viewed Haruhi’s confused face with fresh thought,

  “If you didn’t know anything about Fantasy Horrors, why did you make her write such a thing? You should’ve considered that when you were deciding on the genres.”

  “I did consider it. A little.”

  Haruhi confiscated the first sheet of copy paper from my hands,

  “I felt that a simple horror wouldn’t be interesting, so I added fantasy to it. That’s the result when I deliberated on which genres to write on the lots. A mystery, a fairy-tale, a romance story―――if you consider these, all that’s left is horror, isn’t it?”

  You missed Sci-Fi. Moreover, I don’t think you spent any more than three seconds to deliberate on the genre selection. You probably just scribbled down what you randomly thought of one by one.

  Haruhi gave a slight smile,

  “I thought I’d make you all write something different through miscasting. Since Sci-Fi is Yuki’s specialty, that wouldn’t be any fun, don’t you think?”

  I jerked involuntarily, but an invisible hand patted me on the chest. Setting aside whether or not it would be Sci-Fi, Nagato could write something cosmic without blinking an eye. Since she was an alien, anyway. Though I thought that Haruhi might have noticed something, the many Sci-Fi books in Nagato’s collection probably made it obvious even to Haruhi, so it isn’t strange that she would know Nagato’s specialty.

  No, wait. If that was the case, then the same would be true for mysteries.

  “Yep, if I could help it, I wanted Mikuru-chan or you to write the mystery. Seeing what kind of crazy thing you’d submit would’ve been interesting. But if it was sci-fi, it would’ve been allowed even if it wasn’t wild, is why. So I had to cross it out even if it broke my heart.”

  Though I wanted to retort about how biased that was, even if I made something out of the contents of the lottery or the results, the time won’t be reset. At this stage, the order to write a Romance Story that I had been saddled with won’t be cancelled, and for that matter, even if I could’ve written a mystery, fairy-tale, or fantasy horror, they’re not that much better than a romance story. If only it were sci-fi, then I could’ve used some of my experiences as a basis. But then, I don’t think I should let Editor-in-Chief Haruhi know about any of my actual experiences as it is.

  As Haruhi flapped Nagato’s fantasy horror short-story about,

  “Well, it’s good that Koizumi-kun got the mystery. Of course, if there isn’t at least one thing that could be read respectably, then we wouldn’t have a club journal. If we made everything too original, then the readers will run away.”

  This girl, she seems to be planning to go right on to changing the Literature Club journal into a periodical. The urgent thing right now is to fight the Student Council President’s plot until the end. There’s something we have to remember. The SOS Brigade doesn’t come in a package with the Literature Club, and is just living off of it.

  “I know that. There isn’t one thing that I have to ask you to teach me, in or out of school. Because I am the Brigade Chief, and you are just a single Brigade Member.”

  Haruhi showered me with sharp looks,

  “But that’s okay. Yuki’s story has a continuation. Go read the second page.”

  I dropped my eyes to the remaining copy paper in my hand, and began reading the article that had been printed with a pretty, Ming font that made me think of Nagato’s handwriting.

  Untitled 2 Nagato Yuki

  Until then, I had never been by myself. I was one of many. I was a part of the set.

  My group was bound together like ice, eventually expanded like water, and finally diffused like vapor.

  And a single particle of that vapor, was me.

  I was able to go anywhere. I went to various places, and saw various things. But I did not learn anything. There was only the act of seeing, for that was the only function allowed me.

  For a long interval, I was like that. Time was pointless. All the phenomena in that artificial universe held no significance.

  But in time, I found meaning. Proof of my existence.

  Matter attracts matter. This is the truth. I was drawn in, because it possessed form.

  Light, darkness, contradiction, and common sense. I had encountered, and connected with each one. Those functions were not in me, but perhaps I might not mind having them.

  If I were allowed to, I would have them.

  As I continue to wait, will those wonders keep on falling?

  Those tiniest of wonders.

  The second part ended with that.

  “Hmm-hmm……”

  I twisted my head, as I read it over and over. It was hard to call it horror or fantasy horror, and it didn’t even really feel like a story; if anything, it seemed more like an autobiography. Or maybe her thoughts; it also felt like she had simply listed down whatever words came to her mind.

  Nagato’s story, huh…….

  As I was reading through it, I thought of something else. No matter what I did, I would never forget anything about that December of last year. And at the heart of that, is the other Nagato. At that time, when Nagato was in the Literature Club, could she have been writing a story? With an outdated computer, all alone inside the clubroom…….

  Whatever she was thinking about my silence, and the thoughtful look on my face, Haruhi seized the second sheet of copy paper from my fingers,

  “And now for the ending, page three. The more I read it, the less I understand the story. So I’d really like to hear your impressions.”

  Untitled 3 Nagato Yuki

  A black coffin remained in the room. There was nothing else.

  Above the coffin in the middle of the dark club room, sat one man.

  “Good day.”

  He said to me. He was smiling.

  Good day.

  As I kept standing there, a white cloth alighted from behind the man. In the middle of the darkness, the cloth was enveloped by a pale li
ght.

  “Pardon my lateness.”

  The white cloth said. Or rather, the person who was wearing the big, white piece of cloth. Through holes cut out where the eyes would be, black pupils were looking at me.

  It seemed like the one inside was a girl. I could tell from her voice.

  The man laughed in a low voice.

  “The recital has not yet started.”

  The man did not move from above the coffin.

  “There is time, still.”

  The recital.

  I was remembering something. What was I going to present here? Quickly, now. But I could not remember.

  “There is time.”

  The man said. He was smiling at me. The apparition of the white girl danced around happily.

  “We will wait. Until you remember.”

  The girl said. I gazed at the black coffin.

  There was only one thing; I remembered why I was here.

  My place was within the coffin.

  I had come from there, and I had come back here so I could return. But the man was sitting on the coffin. As long as he doesn’t leave, I cannot go in.