Volume 1 - The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi

by Tanigawa Nagaru

She looked surprised for a while, then smiled and blinked her eyes, shaking her shoulders. Even her smile was the same.

  “Hee hee, I’m me!” She said.

  “I am Asahina Mikuru. Only that, I come from an even further timeline……I’ve always wanted to meet you.”

  I must’ve looked very stupid then. Indeed, I could easily accept Asahina-san saying she was from the future. Looking at the beauty standing ahead of me, I realized how beautiful she’d grown. Plus she’s taller, making her sexier. I never thought she would be so beautiful.

  “Oh, you still don’t believe me?”

  Asahina-san in a secretary-like outfit said naughtily,

  “Then I’ll show you proof!”

  She then promptly began to unbutton her blouse. When she opened the second button, she revealed her bust to my astonishment.

  “Look, can you see the star-shaped birthmark? It’s not stuck on! You want to touch it?”

  There was a star-shaped birthmark on her left breast, an attractive highlight on the white skin, radiating charm.

  “So now you believe?”

  How should I say this? I don’t even remember ever seeing whether Asahina-san had a birthmark on her breast. Though I was kinda forced into seeing her change when she dressed as a bunny girl a while ago, I wouldn’t be so focused as to notice such a small area. While I was thinking the above, the attractive, mature-looking Asahina-san said,

  “That’s strange. If you hadn’t told me that I had this birthmark, I wouldn’t have noticed it myself.”

  Asahina-san confusedly shook her head, and then, as if realizing something, her eyes widened and she blushed furiously.

  “Eh……Oh no, I just……T…that’s right! We still haven’t……What should I do?”

  Asahina-san put her hands over her face and shook frantically, her collar buttons still opened.

  “I got it wrong……I…I’m sorry! Please forget what I just said!”

  That’s easier said than done. Oh and, could you please button up? I really don’t know where my eyes ought to be aimed anymore!

  “Alright, I’ll believe you for now. Right now I can believe anything.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Oh nothing, just talking to myself.”

  The unknown-aged Asahina-san was still holding her red face in her hands when she realized what I was staring at, and quickly buttoned up. After sitting properly, she coughed dryly and said,

  “Do you really believe that I’ve come from the future to this temporal plane?”

  “Of course. Hmm, if that’s the case, that means right now there are two Asahina-sans in this world?”

  “Yes, the me from the past……right now, she’s sitting with her classmates having lunch in the classroom.”

  “Does that Asahina-san know you’re here?”

  “No, after all, she is my past.”

  I see.

  “Since I wanted to tell you something, I begged the higher-ups to let me come to this timeframe. Oh yes, I’ve previously asked Nagato-san to leave us for now.”

  If it’s Nagato, I guess she wouldn’t even flinch when seeing this Asahina-san.

  “……Do you know who Nagato-san really is?”

  “I’m sorry, but that’s classified information. Oh, I realized I haven’t said that for a long time now.”

  “I just heard you say that only a few days ago.”

  “You’re right.” Asahina-san said while knocking her head and sticking her tongue out. This really does look like what Asahina-san would do.

  Yet she began to look serious suddenly.

  “I can’t stay here for too long, so I’ll cut to the point.”

  Just say whatever you want to say!

  “Have you heard of Snow White?”

  I looked at the slightly taller Asahina. Her black pupils seemed to be a bit moist.

  “Well, yeah……”

  “No matter what distressing situations you will face from now on, I hope you will remember this story.”

  “You mean the one with the seven dwarves, the wicked witch and the poisoned apple?”

  “Yes, the story of Snow White.”

  “I experienced something distressing yesterday already.”

  “No……it’s more serious than that. I can’t tell you the details, but all I can say is that Suzumiya Haruhi will also be by your side.”

  Haruhi? Also by my side? You mean both she and I will get involved in something troublesome? When? Where?

  “……Maybe Suzumiya-san doesn’t think it bothersome……but for you and us all, it is a tricky problem.”

  “You can’t tell me the details……can you?”

  “I’m sorry, I can only give you hints. That’s all I can do.”

  The grown-up Asahina-san was so apologetic that she was near tears. Yes, that’s the expression Asahina-san usually shows.

  “You mean the story of Snow White?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll remember it.”

  After seeing me nod, Asahina-san said she still had a bit of time left, so she walked around the club room nostalgically, preciously caressing the maid costume hanging on the clothes rack.

  “I used to wear this often. Now I definitely wouldn’t dare to wear this.”

  “You seem to be cosplaying as an office girl now though.”

  “Hee hee, since I can’t enter in my uniform, I have to dress up as a teacher.”

  Some people are just born to have costumes worn on them.

  “Speaking of which, what else did Haruhi make you wear?”

  “I’m not telling you, it’s too embarrassing. Besides, you’ll find out soon enough, isn’t that right?”

  Asahina-san walked with her slippers and came towards my face. I discovered her eyes were unusually moist, and her face a little red.

  “Then I’ll be going now!”

  Asahina-san looked at me, wanting to continue but decided to stop. Seeing her trembling and seemingly wanting something, perhaps I should give her a kiss. Just when I was about to embrace her, she backed off.

  Asahina-san turned around lightly and said,

  “Finally, I have one more request. Please don’t get too close to me.”

  She said with a weak sigh.

  I quickly shouted to Asahina-san, who was running to the door, “I have a question for you!”

  Asahina-san stopped just as she was about to open the door.

  “Asahina-san, just how old are you?”

  Asahina-san turned and shook her hair out, then gave a seductive smile, “Classified information~.”

  The door closed just like that. I couldn’t have done anything even if I had given chase.

  Wow, I could hardly believe that Asahina-san would look so hot when she grew up. Then I suddenly thought of the first thing she said. “Kyon-kun……it’s been a while.” It can only mean one thing: Asahina-san hadn’t seen me for a long time.

  “Yes, that should make sense.”

  The future Asahina-san must have probably returned to her not-so-distant future, and then spent a few years there, before reuniting with me in this age again.

  How long has it been for her? From how she has grown, I’d say perhaps five years……or even three! Girls change a lot when they graduate from high school. My cousin was like that. When she was in high school, she had always been a quiet, bright schoolgirl that didn’t attract any attention. Then when she entered university, she metamorphosed from an ugly caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly. Yet since she’s grown, I’m even more confused by Asahina-san’s true age; I don’t think she’s 17 at all!

  Man, I’m hungry, I think I’ll go back.

  “……”

  Just then, Nagato Yuki entered with her usual well-preserved cold face, but as she wasn’t wearing glasses today, her naked glare landed on me.

  “Hey, did you just see someone who looked like Asahina-san passing by?” I half-jokingly said.

  “I have seen Asahina Mikuru’s differential temporal clone this
morning already.”

  Nagato silently sat on her seat and then placed her book on the desk and opened it.

  “She is no longer here now and has departed from this timeframe.”

  “Can you travel through time as well? With that Data Entity thingy?”

  “I cannot. However, temporal movement is not as difficult as one would think; it’s just that humans have yet to grasp its basic principles. Time is like space; moving through it is very simple.”

  “Then can you teach me?”

  “That is a concept that cannot be conveyed in speech, so you wouldn’t understand even if I explained it.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Yes.”

  “I guess that’s too bad.”

  “Too bad.”

  It was pointless trying to talk to such a wooden character, so I decided to go back to the classroom. Maybe I still have time for lunch?

  “Nagato-san, thanks for yesterday.”

  Her wooden expression moved slightly.

  “There is no need to thank me. Asakura Ryouko’s actions were my responsibility; I was careless with my supervision.”

  Her hair parting swung softly.

  Was she trying to bow and apologize to me?

  “You definitely look cuter without your glasses.”

  She didn’t reply.

  I had wanted to rush back to the classroom to have my lunch, but Haruhi was there waiting for me at the door, and my plans for having lunch went out of the window at once. Could this be fate? It seems I’ve reached the point where I can see through all karma.

  Waiting impatiently by the corridor, Haruhi yelled in an annoyed tone,

  “Where did you run off to? I thought you’d be back sooner, I haven’t even eaten because I was waiting for you so long!”

  She doesn’t sound mad at all, rather she sounds like those childhood girlfriends who pout trying to hide their embarrassment.

  “Don’t stand there like an idiot! Follow me!”

  Haruhi placed a wrestling wristlock over my hand and dragged me to the dark staircase.

  I’m really hungry, man!

  “I’ve just asked Okabe in the staff room. The teachers only learned about Asakura transferring this morning. Early in the morning, someone claiming to be Asakura’s dad called, saying they had to move due to some emergency. And you know where they’re moving? Canada! How can this be possible? It’s just too fishy!”

  “Oh really?”

  “After that, I said I was a good friend of Asakura and wanted to ask the teachers if I could contact her in Canada.”

  Please, you hardly ever talked to her when she was still around.

  “And you know what the teachers said? They say they didn’t know. Normally if someone were to move, wouldn’t they usually leave their contact details? Something is funny here.”

  “No, there isn’t!”

  “So I asked for Asakura Ryouko’s old address from before she moved. I’m gonna go there and have a look after school. Maybe we can find something there.”

  This girl never listens to what other people are saying, as usual.

  Forget it, I’m not going to stop her. In the end, the one wasting her time would be Haruhi, not me.

  “You’re coming as well.”

  “Why!?”

  Haruhi puffed up her shoulders, and then like a dragon huffing and puffing before firing its breath, she shouted in at a volume the whole school could hear,

  “BECAUSE YOU’RE A MEMBER OF THE SOS BRIGADE!!!”

  Complying with Haruhi’s orders, I retreated frantically. I went to the club room to tell Nagato about it since neither me nor Haruhi would be having any club activities today, and I had Nagato relay the message to Asahina-san and Koizumi as well when they arrived. Yet I didn’t know whether this silent alien would make things even more complicated, so just to be safe, I took a felt-tip pen and wrote on the back of one of the SOS Brigade flyers,

  “There’re no activities today for the SOS Brigade. - Haruhi”

  and pasted the note on the door.

  Leaving Koizumi aside, at least Asahina can save having to change into her maid costume.

  Thanks to all this, the school bell for the fifth session chimed before I could eat anything. So it wasn’t till after the next recess before I could eat.

  I’d be lying if I said I’ve never wanted to walk shoulder to shoulder with a girl after school just like in those idol dramas. But even though this dream has now become a reality, I’m far from happy. Just what is going on?

  “Did you just say something?”

  Haruhi asked while walking by my left side, striding with large steps while carrying a piece of notepaper. I automatically interpreted her question as “You got a problem?”

  “Nope, nothing at all.”

  We walked down the hill and followed the railway line. A little bit further on would be Koyouen Station.

  I had thought we were getting near Nagato’s home, yet I never thought Haruhi was also walking towards that place as well. We then arrived before a familiar, brand-new apartment block.

  “Asakura seems to live in Room 505.”

  “No wonder.”

  “What do you mean ‘no wonder’?”

  “No, nothing. Oh yeah, how do you expect to go in? Look, even the gate is locked.”

  I pointed to the number keypad by the intercom and said,

  “You need to enter the correct code to open the door. Do you know it?”

  “Nope, we’re gonna need to endure a prolonged battle in this situation.”

  What’re you trying to wait for anyway? Just after I thought how long that’s going to take, we didn’t wait long. As at this moment a middle-aged lady opened the gate from inside, seemingly about to go out to buy some grocery. She looked at us for a while with a questioning glance and then walked off. Haruhi rushed to keep the gate open just before it was about to shut.

  This doesn’t seem wise at all.

  “Hurry along!”

  So I was dragged like that into the entrance hall, and then entered the elevator, which happened to stop at the ground floor. It is basic etiquette to silently look at the floor numbers when riding an elevator……

  “That Asakura……”

  But Haruhi doesn’t seem to recognize the existence of etiquette.

  “……There’re many other fishy things about her. She didn’t seem to have attended the local junior high as well.”

  Well, of course.

  “I did some research and found she transferred to North High from another town. This is too suspicious! North High isn’t some famous school or anything, just a normal local high school. Why would she go through so much effort just to come from another town to attend this school?”

  “Dunno.”

  “Yet she lives near the school, and it’s one of those apartments paid by cash and not by rent. The price must be insanely expensive. Has she been commuting by train all the way to her junior high out of town all this time?”

  “I told you I don’t know.”

  “Looks like there is a need to find out when Asakura started living here.”

  The elevator stopped at the fifth floor. We silently stood and looked at the door for Room 505. The name board by the door had been removed, indicating this was an empty apartment. Haruhi turned the door knob, but as expected, it’s locked.

  Haruhi crossed her arms, wondering how to get inside the apartment to investigate, while I stood by trying hard not to yawn. This is a complete waste of my time.

  “Let’s find the concierge!”

  “I don’t think he’ll lend us the key.”

  “No, I’m thinking of asking him when Asakura started living here.”

  “Forget it, let’s go home! What can we do even if we did know?”

  “No.”

  We took the elevator and returned to the ground floor, and went to the concierge’s post at the entrance hall. There didn’t seem to be anyone behind the glass panel, yet when we pushed the buzzer by
the panel, a little old man with white hair slowly appeared.

  Haruhi began to bombard the old man with questions before he could even speak.

  “Excuse me, we’re friends of Asakura-san. She suddenly said she was moving without even leaving her new address, and we don’t know how to contact her. Could we please ask if you know where she moved to? And, could we please know when Asakura-san started living here?”

  As I was being amazed at how Haruhi can actually use such normal, polite language, the old man seemed to be hard of hearing as he kept replying with, “What?”, “Come again?”, and so on. Despite that, Haruhi still managed to learn from the old man that he too was surprised at Asakura suddenly moving out. (I didn’t even see the movers come, yet all the furniture inside was gone. It still gives me the creeps.) And that Asakura moved in three years ago. (I remember the pretty lil’ lady giving me a box of treats that day!) Also, instead of paying by installments, the apartment seems to have been paid for in one single down payment with cash. (I guess they must be very rich!) Wow! You can be a detective at this rate!

  The old man seemed pleased to be able to talk to a young girl like Haruhi.

  “Come to think of it, although I’ve often seen that pretty young lady, I don’t recall ever seeing her parents.”

  “I remember the lil’ lady’s called Ryouko. Such an elegant name for a girl.”

  “I was hoping she would at least say goodbye……it’s such a pity. Oh yeah, you’re pretty cute as well!”

  When the old man began to talk about similar stuff, Haruhi determined she could no longer extract any more data from him, so she decided to bow to him politely and said, “Thank you very much for your help.”

  She then urged me to leave. This didn’t need any urging at all, since I was already prepared to follow her and leave this apartment block.

  “Hey, kiddo, that missy is gonna grow into a pretty lady, make sure you don’t let her out of your grasp!”

  The old man was obviously talking nonsense. What I was worried about was what sort of terrible reaction Haruhi, who had overheard all that, would have. Yet she silently continued moving forward, and I remained silent as well. A few steps from the entrance hall, we bumped into Nagato, carrying her bag and some convenience store plastic bags. For Nagato, who would often be in the club room reading her book until the school closed, to be here, means she had also left school after I had.