That had been the way things were last year, and I had no doubt that they would continue into next year. That was certainly what Haruhi wanted, and she’d do anything to make her desires reality. We could even wind up repeating this last year over and over into infinity.
Of course, I didn’t think anything like the August incident would happen again. Haruhi wouldn’t reset the year. I was fairly sure of that.
Why was I so sure? Because I knew that the year that followed the creation of the SOS Brigade had been a lot of fun for Haruhi. Haruhi would never unmake those memories. I was positive.
I could look at the way she was right now and know.
I once again looked at the scene below me.
Haruhi was leading her volleyball team to victory.
She attacked ruthlessly, over and over. I had no interest in the way her shirt fluttered up to reveal her belly button when she jumped. What had my attention was her expression.
Last March, when I’d first met her, Haruhi was completely isolated from the rest of the class. Or should I say, she’d made no effort to fit in, to find a place for herself. Sitting in that chair behind me, she never smiled and was totally closed off, as though she’d taken it upon herself to singlehandedly dampen the mood of the class. Even after that, once she’d started talking to me at least, she was still estranged from the other girls—but not anymore. While she didn’t have a particular group she was good friends with, her days of always pushing everyone away were behind her.
It seemed like the creation of the SOS Brigade had pushed her in a good direction. At the same time, she’d always had that ability within herself. It had been during middle school that Haruhi had started having difficulties. I bet that before that she’d had the force of a radar-guided missile and shone with the brilliance of a fiery afterburner—so rather than her having “gotten better,” it was more accurate to say that she’d gotten her old self back.
I hadn’t known her before the first year of middle school. And even then, I’d only barely glanced at her. I seem to remember wanting to ask someone who’d gone to the same elementary school as her what she’d been like, but I don’t think I wound up doing it.
There on the volleyball court, Haruhi and her classmates were enjoying the tournament. But she seemed to be holding back a little. Apparently her full-on hundred-watt brigade chief power was reserved for when she was dreaming up punishment games. Which was too bad. It was a waste not to let it shine here too.
Haruhi nailed another spike, then looked almost embarrassed as she punched her teammates’ extended fists.
The tournament came to an end, thus concluding the day’s school activities.
Anyone with clubs to attend scattered to do so, while people not in clubs went home. Since the members of the SOS Brigade were assembling in the literature club room, I made my way toward my familiar folding chair with Haruhi, who strode up the stairs in high spirits.
It was obvious that her good mood was due to her victory in the volleyball tournament. It wasn’t as though they gained anything by coming out on top, but as I looked at Haruhi walking beside me, I could tell she was extremely pleased. She’d also triumphed against the student council president’s attempt to close down the literature club, and I couldn’t think of anything else that could drive her to melancholy—except, I suppose, the impending advancement to our second year of high school.
According to Koizumi, more or less anything Haruhi wished for would come to pass, so it wouldn’t surprise me if Nagato, Koizumi, and I wound up all in the same class along with Haruhi. Koizumi was in a special class, but I was sure Haruhi’s Haruhi-brand power could do something about that. Compared to making energy beams shoot out of Asahina’s eyes, it would be trivial. The problem was that Haruhi didn’t know she had such power, so it was also possible we’d wind up scattered among classes.
She still didn’t know—neither about Nagato’s data-manipulation ability, nor about the kinds of things Koizumi’s Agency could accomplish.
So I was optimistic. I’ll be completely honest—next year, I hoped I got to sit in front of Haruhi again. If we got scattered, I’d probably feel the way I felt just before Christmas, when I’d discovered her disappearance. I’d be constantly wondering what she was getting up to.
On the other hand, I wondered if that might not be such a bad thing after all. Was that a self-contradiction? But again, just as Koizumi said, if that meant Haruhi’s powers were calming down, that would be good.
But wait—the truth is, I would feel a bit lonely.
“What’s your problem?” I must’ve been making a pretty introspective face. Haruhi peered down at me from the top of the stairs. “You’re acting weird. First you were smiling, and now you’re all serious. Do you have some kind of facial disorder? Or are you still dwelling on getting your butt kicked at soccer? Honestly, the boys of Class Five are totally useless.”
That was because the field positions for the tournament had been decided by lottery, I said. All the athletic guys wound up on team A. The defender line was Taniguchi, Kunikida, and me. I’ll admit it was pretty nice to be able to tackle the hell out of the Class 9 forwards, but unfortunately I couldn’t keep up with their captain, Koizumi, who kept kicking these killer passes. But even Class 9 lost to Class 6 in the next round, which was an appropriately half-assed result for Koizumi. I almost wondered if he did it on purpose, and I said as much.
“What’re you talking about?” Haruhi laughed. “But yeah, I can see Koizumi doing something like that. I mean, it is Class Nine. When guys like you and Taniguchi decide you hate the smart kids and decide to charge them, you’re gonna get hurt and look stupid. I’ll admit there are a few jerks in the class, but I like most of the Class Nine students just fine.”
She’d liked them well enough to transport all of them to a different school with her. Oh, wait, no—that had been Nagato’s doing.
As I was untangling the threads of my memory, we arrived at the clubroom. Haruhi seemed to have forgotten to make even the slightest gesture toward politeness, and she slammed the door open without so much as knocking. “Hey, Mikuru! How’d the tournament go? And is there any cold tea? I got really thirsty playing all that volleyball. I bet I’m dehydrated.”
She strode right into the room and flopped into the brigade chief’s seat.
The rest of the brigade members had already assembled, and I was greeted by the familiar sight of Nagato and Koizumi in their usual places, with Asahina in that maid outfit that suited her so well—she could’ve been the subject of a Rembrandt or a Rubens.
“I don’t have anything cold, I’m sorry,” said Asahina, apologizing for the mistake. “Ah, shall I chill it for you? In the refrigerator?”
That’s right, this room had a fridge. It was a tiny one without a freezer box, but we’d used it to cool soft drinks back when we’d made stew. Since my main drink in here was Asahina’s hot tea, I had even less use for the refrigerator than I did for the portable gas burner.
“Nah, it’s okay,” said Haruhi generously. “That’d take too much time, and tea’s better when it’s just been brewed anyway.”
Cups of tea were quickly brought to Haruhi and me. Asahina’s facility with tea had leveled up again. Just as I was debating whether to compliment her on the improvement in one of her hospitality skills, Asahina spoke very happily.
“Cold tea… hmm, yes, I suppose I could get a refrigerator with a water cooler next time.”
What was she talking about? Sometimes I wondered whether she’d brought back knowledge from the future on any subject other than tea making, although I would never say so out loud. I didn’t want her flailing around too much. While she looked like nothing other than an adorable maid, a time traveler was a time traveler, and if Asahina got too hasty, she could easily start going on about the nature of time, and unlike Koizumi, I got a headache when I tried to think about that stuff. I wanted a break from incomprehensible diagrams.
Speaking of Koizumi, he was sitting in his o
wn chair, playing single-player Othello.
“Now that really takes me back,” I said, looking at Koizumi’s activity. Come to think of it, this was the first board game that had been brought into the clubroom. And I’d brought it.
“Indeed. It’ll soon be a year since we all met. I was thinking it would be nice to bring things back around to the beginning.”
He’d been fairly agreeable during the soccer match, but sitting here in the clubroom, Koizumi seemed even happier, and before I could reply, he’d reset the Othello board to its original state.
Back to the beginning, eh?
I hadn’t lived so long I could really look back on the past, but they were words I could see myself saying.
As I picked up one of the magnetized Othello pieces, I looked sideways. Othello. One year ago. Those words had a very particular association in my mind, and the object of that association was sitting at a corner of the table, quietly absorbed in a book on foreign literature.
“…”
Yuki Nagato silently read her book. The first time I saw this alien-humanoid interface show something like a genuine emotion was when Asahina and I were playing Othello in this very room. The memory is very clear.
When I thought about it, I realized I hadn’t seriously played a game like this with Nagato. Unless she lost on purpose, I couldn’t imagine I’d have a chance at winning. Unlike playing against Koizumi, when I usually won. Unless that was on purpose too. Could be.
Be all that as it may, Haruhi sat at her brigade chief’s desk and was quiet for a time. At first she used the computer—doing some web surfing was part of her routine. Of course, the first thing she did upon opening the browser was to load up the SOS Brigade’s crappy site, thereby increasing the hit counter by one. She considered this one of her duties. She’d then browse through paranormal activity sites, occasionally installing random pieces of freeware she found, such that I had no idea what was or was not on the computer anymore. Occasionally she’d run into a problem, and it was inevitably the computer club president who’d be called in to help. I guess it was nice to have the right man for the job.
The lovely, pre-spring afternoon, with everybody assembled and relaxing, just a little bit tired from the sports tournament—it felt pretty nice.
My Othello game was going well, and Asahina’s tea was delicious. I would be able to pass the rest of the day uneventfully and go home without incident.
—Or at least, that would’ve been nice, but such peaceful days do not last forever.
Back to the beginning.
Yes, that was what I found myself wanting to mutter when the client came right into the SOS Brigade.
That’s right, a client. It wasn’t somebody we’d arranged to have come, nor was it the result of one of Haruhi’s unplanned fancies.
After knocking, the client timidly entered the room, like a tiny deer invited to a bear’s den, then said something calculated to delight Haruhi.
There was a place near her house where ghosts were rumored to emerge, she said. She wanted to know if we could look into it.
“Ghosts?!” Haruhi parroted, her eyes shining. “Emerging, you say?”
“Yes,” said Sakanaka, nodding seriously. “It’s a rumor in my neighborhood. That there are ghosts.”
Sakanaka… I couldn’t remember her first name, but she was a classmate of Haruhi’s and mine in Class 5. Sakanaka sat down on the folding chair we used for guests, accepting some tea from Asahina, her face clouded as she explained.
“It’s only recently that the story started. Maybe three days ago. I’d been thinking something weird was happening…”
She tilted the guest-use-only teacup to her lips, looking bemusedly around the room—particularly at the clothing rack containing all of Asahina’s costumes.
I thought back to Haruhi’s volleyball matches. On the girls’ A team there had been a particular setter who’d supported Haruhi the attacker very well—it was this girl, Sakanaka.
To be perfectly honest, she’d never made much of an impression on me in class. Or rather, the most impression-leaving person in Class 5 had been Asakura, but she’s gone now, and nobody had really risen up to take her place. I wasn’t even sure who our class rep was. When I thought about it that way, Taniguchi and Kunikida were closer to Haruhi than the rest of our class was. To put it in terms of distance from Earth, they were Mars, but she was Uranus.
However, Haruhi didn’t care about details like intra-class distance one bit.
“I’d just love to hear the details. Ghosts… yes, ghosts. Sakanaka, are you absolutely sure there are ghosts? If so, it is no overstatement to say that the SOS Brigade must unquestionably spring into action!”
She looked ready to slap on an armband that said, “Paranormal Investigator,” head to the scene, and start stringing up black-and-yellow DO NOT ENTER tape.
“Wait. Please, Suzumiya—wait!” said Sakanaka hastily, waving her hands. “I’m not positive there are ghosts. It just seems… ghost-ish, I guess? Something like that. It’s only a rumor. But I do think that spot is strange…”
Sakanaka was now the focus of everyone else in the room, including Nagato. Suddenly realizing our collective gaze was on her, she shrank back.
“Um… maybe I shouldn’t have said anything…?”
“No, you totally should have, Sakanaka!” shouted Haruhi. “Whether they be demons or vengeful spirits, suicides or playful ghosts, I don’t care! If it means I can meet a ghost, I’ll buy a ticket anywhere. Anyway, I can’t hear a story like that and then just sit around doing nothing.”
Of course, she pretty much never sat around doing nothing, I pointed out.
“Kyon, I’ll ask you to keep your smart-aleck mouth shut for once. We’re talking about ghosts here! Don’t you want to see one? Have you ever seen one?”
I had not. And I wanted to continue that forever, I said.
With the energy of a kindergartener who’d woken up from her afternoon nap only half an hour earlier, Haruhi said, “But if one happened to appear in front of me, I’d really want to talk to it a little!”
Sorry. I wouldn’t.
I looked away from Haruhi’s burning gaze, turning my eyes to Sakanaka, who seemed like she wanted to say something, then kept suddenly closing her mouth.
Why had Sakanaka brought this ghost case to us all of a sudden, right here at the very end of the school year? She was only our second client. After Kimidori… after Kimidori had come to us for the consultation session that led to the cave-cricket incident, I’d torn down our “clients wanted” poster and thrown it in the garbage, which seemed to have worked, since we hadn’t had another student coming and mistaking us for a general-purpose troubleshooting agency. Had Sakanaka seen the poster while it was up on the bulletin board and remembered it all this time? If so, she should probably have been using that excellent memory to remember something a little more worthwhile.
I said as much, and much to my surprise, Sakanaka shook her head.
“No, that’s not it. I remembered something else. Someone had handed it to me, and I hadn’t thrown it away; I just put it in a drawer in my house. That was what reminded me…”
Sakanaka produced a single piece of paper from her book bag. It was old and crumpled, and when Asahina saw what it was, she backed away from it like a vampire from a cross.
“Th-that’s…”
It was the source of Asahina’s trauma and the fruit of the SOS Brigade’s very first activity, despite being a simple flyer produced by wasting school copier resources.
It contained the SOS Brigade’s declaration of founding.
This was what I was sure was written on the flyer:
“We, the SOS Brigade, are searching for the world’s mysteries. People who’ve experienced mysterious phenomena in the past, are currently experiencing mysterious phenomena, or plan to experience mysterious phenomena in the future should come to us for a consultation. We will help you find resolution. It’s true.”
Two bunny girls h
ad stood at the school gate to pass out that flyer as part of Haruhi’s effort to seize the world’s mysteries.
This was ridiculous. To think the seed she planted with that flyer would eventually bear fruit.
And just when the school year was about to end without incident too. Who had wished for this curtain call? We didn’t have an encore prepared. This was no time to be going back to the beginning.
As though she’d picked up on Asahina’s and my feelings, Sakanaka sounded uneasy. “… This is the SOS Brigade, right? It’s pretty famous now… That’s what you and your friends do, right, Suzumiya? Like in horror movies and stuff.”
Sorry, Sakanaka. We didn’t have anybody who specialized in horror. All we had was an alien bookworm, a mystery-loving esper, and a time traveler who was pretty easy on the eyes. If we had a genre, it was probably sci-fi. And even that much would be beyond me.
I’d fallen into silence. Haruhi spoke up against me, more and more excited. “See, Kyon! People are paying attention. It wasn’t a waste at all. I knew those flyers were a good idea.”
I wondered about that. I had a suspicion that Haruhi herself had forgotten she’d made them until now.
“Cheer up, Sakanaka! You’re a classmate, so we’ll take on this case for free.”
To be completely truthful, no matter who came to us with a case, Haruhi would never ask for money. For her, the greatest reward was the fact of having a mystery to solve at all. She was satisfied as soon as the client walked in the door. I knew that perfectly well thanks to the cave-cricket incident last year.
“Ghosts, huh?” Haruhi smiled lazily. “The last thing we’ll do is banish them, but before we do that we’ll need to hear everything about them. We’re gonna need a camera for documentation and a video camera for interviews.”
She was getting really into it, totally ignoring me and the other brigade members. This was bad. At this rate, ghosts might actually start appearing. Except what about Sakanaka’s story?
The Indignation of Haruhi Suzumiya Page 11
