Still driving at an insane speed, the kidnappers’ van swerved off the paved roadway and onto a true mountain road. Arakawa pulled on the steering wheel and followed. The road seemed to have been forcibly carved out of the cliff; it was barely wide enough for two cars to pass each other, and there was no guardrail. If the driver slipped up, we’d wind up tumbling to the foot of the mountain.
I never thought I’d be in a high-speed car chase before, but I wasn’t levelheaded enough to appreciate that fact. All I could focus on was how badly I wanted to beat the crap out of the kidnappers.
A cell phone started ringing, as if to throw cold water on the flames of my fighting spirit. It wasn’t my phone, though; Mori took her own phone out and put it to her ear.
I couldn’t make out the words, but it sounded like a man’s voice. Mori was silent for a while, listening.
“Understood. According to the plan, then,” she replied simply, then raised her elegant voice and directed it at the driver’s seat. “Arakawa, just a bit farther.”
“Very well,” said Arakawa in a reliable-sounding tone, nodding. He downshifted, revving the engine. There was no chance for me to ask what they were planning to do.
“Whoa—!”
We were approaching a bowlike curve in the unpaved road. A police car appeared ahead, coming toward us around the bend. It slammed on its parking brake and executed a perfect drift turn, coming to a stop in the middle of the road, totally blocking the way.
With nowhere to go, the minivan braked hard, kicking up a cloud of dust as it skidded. My blood ran cold when one of its wheels seemed about to go over the edge of the cliff, but the kidnappers’ driver was pretty good, managing to force the car back on course, where it completed a full spin and an additional half revolution. The van’s nose faced the mountainside as it came to a stop alongside the police car.
Arakawa executed a similar, if slower, maneuver, bringing the black cab to a sideways-facing stop. The minivan was trapped. The only place it could go was off the edge of the cliff.
“Arakawa, stand by here,” said Mori, then opened her door and stepped out onto the mountain road. I followed, but just as I was about to dash over to the minivan, Mori grabbed my arm.
She stopped me with a sharp glance, then called out to the van in a clear voice. “Turn off your engine and step out of the vehicle! You still have time!”
Her tone was polite as ever, but it had a different timbre to it than the one I remembered from the island mansion and Tsuruya’s mountain villa.
An officer got out of the police car. When I looked at the smartly uniformed figure, I was stunned. Underneath the policeman’s cap was the youthful face of the younger Tamaru brother, Yutaka; he gave me a thumbs-up. Still in the driver’s seat of the patrol car was his older brother, Keiichi, who met my eye and nodded.
Had these been the people Mori was on the phone with?
“Release Asahina Mikuru. You have failed. There is no need to continue this!”
Mori’s clear voice brought my attention back to the van. Its windows were tinted, so I couldn’t make out the interior. Unable to contain my impatience, I was just about to run over and give it a kick or something when the idling engine fell silent, and the moss-green sliding door began to move. It was opening so slowly, though, that I wondered if they intended to resist.
But when the kidnappers revealed themselves, my eyes went wide at their appearance. The group that emerged from the van was not comprised of tough-looking criminals or soldiers, but normal-looking young men and women like you’d see just walking around town. The fact that there wasn’t a vicious-looking one among them made me even more worried.
All those thoughts were blasted away as soon as I saw Asahina slumped inside the van. The last kidnappar to emerge carried her out—her body was slack, evidently unconscious.
I’d never forgive them.
Before I could run at them, Mori stopped me again.
“You must know this already, but I’ll say it again. If you so much as leave a single scratch on her…”
My body went slack at the sight of her cold expression. I’d never dreamed a beautiful woman’s smile could be so terrifying. Ha-ruhi had an angry grin that she sometimes used, but this was on an entirely different level.
Perhaps sensing my fear, Mori turned to me and gave me her normal maid-like smile, then focused her attention on the idiotic kidnappers once again. “Leave peacefully. We will allow you to go free. Return to your organization and go where you like. Otherwise—” Mori’s smile turned still more threatening, making me dizzy. If I’d been one of the kidnappers, I would’ve been petrified.
But the kidnappers just stood there and snorted, then released Asahina. The unconscious girl slumped back and down, leaning against the van’s tire. The kidnappers saved themselves by handling her very carefully. If they’d just shoved my lovely Asahina off, I probably would’ve charged toward them, raising a cry, fists at the ready.
“We will have your vehicle sent back to you later. Leave the area on foot.”
Mori pointed at the cliff’s edge, indicating that they should climb down from there. It wouldn’t be impossible, but descending without any climbing equipment would certainly be difficult. It served them right.
“Oh well,” said one of the kidnappers, sounding cheerful enough that I wondered if she really understood her own position. “I guess I expected this. Too bad, though. Maybe it was fate, after all.”
She was the only woman in the group, and the one who’d set Asahina down. When I looked more closely at her, she seemed to be in her mid-teens. Age-wise, she wasn’t far from me.
The woman pierced me with a brilliant smile. “Hello, there. I’m sorry these are the circumstances, but I’m honored to finally meet you. I’d hoped to properly introduce myself someday.”
She gave a signal to her cohorts with her body language. Leaving their female companion behind, the cohorts seemed not at all reluctant to go. The last of them looked about college-age, and he conscientiously closed the van door before he went, then headed to the near-perpendicular edge of the cliff. One by one, they disappeared down into the forest; neither Mori nor Yutaka Tamaru seemed to want to catch any of them.
I wanted to run immediately over to Asahina, but Mori again took my arm and wouldn’t let go. I heard a giggle—it was the kidnapper woman.
“You don’t have to worry. We did not harm your little time traveler in the slightest. She’s only sleeping because of the tranquilizer we gave her, and I doubt she’ll even remember what happened. She fell asleep so quickly it surprised even us. Has she gotten used to being knocked out?”
The woman—no, girl—was still composed, even with her cohorts gone. How long was Mori going to let her get away with that? These guys were kidnappers! What about the Tamaru brothers—if they were gonna dress like cops, they should at least have a set or two of handcuffs.
I was just about to voice my protest, when the sliding door of the supposedly empty minivan was opened again—from the inside.
“What a pain.” A man’s face popped out, with a smile five times more malicious than anything I’d seen from Koizumi. “You got us way too easily. It was so easy to steal Sleeping Beauty here that I wish we could’ve held on to her a little longer. This is just going to backfire on us now.”
He made no move to leave the van, simply leaning back in his seat. It was him—the guy from yesterday. The other time traveler, whose appearance seemed so strangely significant.
“This, too, was predetermined—for us, as well. So I don’t really care.”
“You should leave too,” said Mori in a kind, big-sisterly voice, smiling with lips like the petals of a poisonous flower. “Or do you plan to stay for a while? We’ll be happy to prepare you a bed.”
“I won’t waste your time.” The bastard looked down at Asahina, snorting, then turned his malicious eyes to me. “This wasn’t a failure. It’s historical fact. You all did very well—you and Asahina too. Tell me, is it fun, bei
ng made to dance like that? Count me out. I’m sick of just playing a part.”
“Oh? Are you really?” It was the kidnapper girl. “So how much of the future is decided, then? It takes some skill to follow the path that leads to the correct outcome, doesn’t it? Anyone can dance, but dancing correctly is quite difficult.”
“Hmph. You go right ahead and dance, then. I wasn’t counting on help from you people anyway.”
“Is that so?” said the girl, amused. “That may be fine for you, but are we not assembling at the same place? Let’s join forces.”
The bastard’s face twisted in annoyance, and he glared at me again. I wanted to tell him that he was going to have to do better than that—Haruhi had gotten me used to being glared at. If he wanted a staring contest, I’d take him on any day.
Maybe he sensed my anger; his face was full of loathing. “Fools, all of you. You don’t understand anything. Your ignorance is terrifying.” He put his hand on the door’s handle and gave me one last parting line. “I’ll come again. You’ll see me many times—it’s ridiculous, but it’s my duty.”
He closed the van door; evidently that was all he had to say.
Nobody moved. Mori was still, continuing to stare right through the kidnapper girl, and I took my cue from her. The unnamed kidnapper girl stood there smiling, then went over to the van, as though having suddenly remembering something, and opened the door.
I already knew there would be no one inside. The interior of the car was empty. That malicious jerk was nowhere to be seen. I didn’t know if he’d used teleportation or time travel, but either way I was happy he was gone.
“I’ll be going as well.” The girl dusted off her hands, as though having finished her work, and looked down the mountain road. “I suppose I’ll walk back. Oh, feel free to take care of the car. You needn’t return it. It’s yours.”
“Thank you,” replied Mori, finally letting go of my arm. I dashed toward Asahina like a mother bird returning to the nest where she’s left her babies.
“Asahina!” I lifted her up. The soft sound of her breath and periodic rising of her chest were proof that she was still alive. I gave one last angry glare in the direction of the kidnappers, but the girl had already started making her way down the cliff.
Mori leaned over beside me, drawing close to Asahina’s sleeping face. She put a finger to Asahina’s neck and brought her lips close to the unconscious girl’s mouth.
“She is unhurt. I expect she’ll awaken in a couple of hours. Please, take her to the car.”
I carried her, of course. I was well used to carrying Asahina around. It was one job I didn’t want anyone else doing for me.
We returned to the black taxi. Arakawa gave Asahina a fond look as though she were his own grandchild, then regarded me similarly. I relaxed my arms and let Asahina gently come to rest in the car’s backseat. I had no idea what was going to happen, but I was elated at having gotten her back. When I thought about what it would’ve been like if they’d gotten away… no, I didn’t want to think about it, and it couldn’t have happened anyway.
It must have been nice to be Asahina the Elder and believe in predetermined events. For her to do something like this, it must have been absolutely necessary in order for this Asahina to eventually become her. Right, Asahina?
I continued to gaze at my younger-seeming older schoolmate, not noticing when Mori got back into the car, nor saying anything to the Tamaru brothers. I only came out of my reverie when the car began to move.
“Where shall we go?” Mori asked me, and only then did I realize that the taxi was heading back down the highway we’d come up before.
“… The library.”
At the moment, I just wanted to see Nagato’s face and calm down. I sat back in the seat, feeling about as exhausted as Asahina looked.
I’d thought my work was done once I’d put the turtle in the water, then retrieved it, but the fact that Asahina’s kidnapping awaited soon after was more than just unexpected. Despite my psychological exhaustion, I managed to move my mouth and speak.
“Mori… have those guys always targeted Asahina? Have there been failed kidnapping attempts all along? Are there going to be more…?”
“She will not be kidnapped in this time period.”
“Well, then, what was it that just happened?”
“I believe that what I am saying is correct. Her current self is completely unharmed. After all, someone else was kidnapped in her stead.” Mori’s face was filled with affection. “Mikuru Asahina enjoys the protection of many. Yours, Yuki Nagato’s, and even ours. We are all alike in that we don’t wish to hand her over to anyone.”
Just as I trusted Koizumi, I supposed I could trust Mori.
“As for the rest, I suggest you ask your lovely maid—the older one, from further in the future.”
That much was obvious. I exhaled, then voiced the sudden question that came to mind. “Mori, are you Koizumi’s superior? Something about the way you talk makes me think so.”
Mori giggled and smiled a strangely ageless smile. “You needn’t concern yourself with that. We’re like a company; all the employees are quite close and don’t stick to formalities, not even with the company president.”
I could tell she was dodging the question, but the truth was I wasn’t very interested in the internal hierarchy of the Agency. If I really wanted to know, I could just lean on Koizumi to tell me. He probably wouldn’t tell me the truth, but then again, neither would Mori. If he wanted to tell me, Koizumi wouldn’t wait for me to ask before delivering his whole spiel. Maybe that was the Agency style of doing things. He’d give me an earful eventually; that much was certain.
All I had to do was wait.
I got out of the taxi in front of the library, and with Mori’s help got the still-sleeping Asahina safely situated on my back.
“Take care. Until we meet again,” she said with a smile that came right out of her maid era. Arakawa gave me a silent bow, and the black taxi sped away, heading north up the highway.
I wondered if it had been Arakawa in the driver’s seat when Koizumi took me to see the Celestials. I’d have to ask about that. And thank him too—Arakawa and the Tamaru brothers both.
Heading to the library’s entrance with Asahina on my back, I saw Nagato waiting for me there. She stood stock-still, apparently unaffected by the cold.
“I am glad she is unhurt,” said Nagato, before I could say anything. Her crystalline eyes regarded Asahina, whose cheek rested on my shoulder. “I heard what happened.”
From whom? I asked. Koizumi?
Nagato shook her head slowly, then even more slowly held a hand out to me.
She was holding an envelope. Beside the fancy design on it, there was a single handwritten numeral.
Number 5.
The missing message had been delivered to Nagato. I hardly had to ask who the sender was, but Nagato told me.
“Mikuru Asahina’s temporal variant. We met roughly one hour ago.”
So Asahina the Elder had been here. But to think she’d go to Nagato!
“What did she say?”
“She said to take care of herself,” said Nagato simply, then reached out with her index finger and touched Asahina on the forehead.
“… Mm… ah… Whaa…?”
It was a magic touch. Asahina’s eyes blinked open.
“Waah… Kyon… huh? Why are you carrying… oh, N-Nagato…”
Shamisen struggled the same way when someone picked him up. Asahina had started squirming immediately upon awakening, and although I would’ve been happy to carry her a bit longer, she seemed unlikely to calm down—and Nagato was watching. I let Asahina down. According to what Mori had said, the tranquilizer was supposed to keep Asahina asleep for two hours, but perhaps because of something Nagato did, Asahina seemed perfectly steady once her feet were on the ground.
Her eyes a bit red at the corners, Asahina looked up at me.
“Um… what happened to me? We gave the turtle to
the boy, and then… then all of a sudden there was a car, and it stopped, and…”
Apparently she’d been given the tranquilizer immediately thereafter. She didn’t remember anything, so I explained the rest. As the story progressed, her face went from pale to flushed, and when I finished the tale of the car chase, she smiled, much to my surprise.
“So that’s what happened. I guess even I can be useful sometimes. I managed to protect my other self in this time line.”
Asahina’s straightforward smile blasted all the psychological fatigue out of me. She was right. If it hadn’t been for (Michiru) Asahina, the kidnappers would’ve resorted to more extreme methods to capture Asahina the Younger. They might’ve done it right in front of Haruhi. Koizumi and his comrades could have tried to stop them without worrying about the consequences, but that would’ve been a terrifying turn of events. Haruhi would be shocked, and Koizumi’s Agency could hardly stand by and do nothing. But even our enemies would realize that, now—that they couldn’t get away with kidnapping even the comparatively harmless (Michiru) Asahina.
We’d managed to get Asahina back without relying on Nagato. I’ll bet our antagonists were well aware of what might have happened if she had been involved. If they wanted to be our enemies, I looked forward to seeing them get the treatment they deserved.
“Oh, that letter…” Asahina’s eyes fell upon envelope #5. “When did it…?”
Just a while ago. It was for Nagato, I said.
“For Nagato…” Her long eyelashes fluttering, Asahina addressed her petite fellow brigade member. “N-Nagato. Who was it that gave you this letter—was it…?”
“I cannot say,” came Nagato’s flat refusal. The expressionless alien continued, as though to remind Asahina. “You will understand eventually.”
Asahina’s mouth opened, and she froze.
“You of all people should understand that,” added Nagato, in a voice that sounded like a snow sculpture given life. She then pulled the hood of her duffle coat over her head.
The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya Page 22
