He regarded the enemy time traveler with a smile that had more than a hint of challenge in it, and continued. “Wouldn’t you agree, Fujiwara?”
“Shut up. Your clever nonsense makes me want to vomit,” spat Fujiwara, his eyes looking as though he’d already prepared himself for utter ruin.
A warning signal was blaring away in my head, flashing red and yellow lights. This was bad. He was getting ready to snap. Fujiwara had obviously lit the fuse on his own self-destruct mechanism. The premonition of it overwhelmed my psyche like a magnitude-nine tsunami.
Fujiwara’s state of bitter self-recrimination was made clear by his dark muttering. “… I’m an idiot. I should’ve done this from the beginning. Heh. No matter how many words I waste on them, these ignorant fools will never understand. Kuyoh—do it.”
Everyone put their guard up. Kuyoh did not so much as blink.
“What’s wrong, Kuyoh? Carry out our agreement,” came Fujiwara’s overbearing order. “Go kill Haruhi Suzumiya!”
What to say in this situation, given this development? For my part, should I say that I was able to consider those shocking words calmly?
A container. Yes, Haruhi’s powers could be stolen. Even Nagato had done it before.
A container. Which meant Haruhi’s powers could be given to anyone. But it would all depend on the person.
A container. Who was closest to Haruhi now? It went without saying.
The quickest way to force Haruhi to lose her powers would be her death. A corpse had no will. And it would be a shame for that wonderful supernatural power of hers to go to waste… or so the alien, time traveler, and esper were all thinking.
And conveniently, there was a perfect container right at hand. One less capricious than Haruhi, less eccentric, one less incomprehensible, one who wasn’t the chief of the SOS Brigade, one with more serenity and common sense. My former classmate.
Sasaki.
It was enough to make a strange thought flash through my head. What if Haruhi’s godlike powers had blossomed in Sasaki from the beginning?
That was what Fujiwara was trying to do: kill Haruhi and turn Sasaki into the new god. She wouldn’t rampage the way Haruhi did. Naturally Sasaki wouldn’t easily go along with whatever Fujiwara and the others told her either. But Fujiwara and Kuyoh might have been confident that they could force her. Maybe they would brainwash her, or deprogram her, or… take someone hostage. That hostage could well be the entire world.
Or me. Would I be made a pawn in this game?
The hell with those idiotic ultramaroons.
If they gave Sasaki any trouble, I’d do everything I possibly could to resist them. And it wouldn’t be just me. I was sure I could depend on Koizumi and Asahina the Elder. And if Nagato were here, she’d want to help too. She probably still couldn’t move very much, though. Otherwise, I imagine she would’ve shown up right about when Kuyoh did. At this point, I’d take Asakura or Kimidori too.
So come, already. Hurry up. Actually—why hadn’t they? Damned useless aliens. The next time I saw them I was going to give them an earful.
Fujiwara pressed Kuyoh again. “Bring Haruhi Suzumiya’s life to an end! You said you could!”
“—”
Her unfathomable expression frozen, only Kuyoh’s crimson lips moved.
“—Some phenomenon is hindering my movement. Or, the Haruhi Suzumiya present in this space-time continuum is surrounding me three levels deep. Also, I cannot escape from this closed space. Complying with your directive code is difficult.”
Fujiwara clucked his tongue. “Damn you, we come all this way and you expect me to be satisfied with that?”
“I said it was difficult—” Kuyoh’s long hair began to float up. Next, her eyes flashed red, her mouth pinched into an upside-down V. The words that came to my mind were “evil witch.”
“—However… I can summon the subject… yes, like this—”
She raised her thin arm, and pointed out through the window with her index finger.
Everyone, including me, looked in the indicated direction.
“Augh…!” I couldn’t help letting out a cry, and I didn’t have time to hate myself for it.
Because—
Outside the third-story clubroom, floating in space a few meters past the window past the brigade chief’s desk, was—
“Haruhi!”
It was none other than the school uniform–clad form of the person I’d spent the entire first year and change of high school with, the owner of the seat directly behind me in class, whose face I’d seen nearly every day, the master of the literature club room, and the chief of the SOS Brigade.
Immediately I rushed to the window and threw it open, and you can bet during that interval I didn’t avert my gaze or close my eyes for an instant.
“Haruhi!”
There was no response. Haruhi was floating there in the air, eyes closed as though she were asleep, her face the picture of innocence. Her lips were slightly parted and her body moved as if she was breathing. I couldn’t tell if she was genuinely sleeping or if she’d been rendered unconscious. With her arms and legs hanging loose, she looked like a broken doll, and she didn’t open her eyes when I called to her.
“—I have forcibly transported this entity from outside closed space. The entity in question is recognized by all present as Haruhi Suzumiya. I have fulfilled my obligation.”
“Not yet.” Fujiwara turned back and glared at Kuyoh. “My requirement was the death of Haruhi Suzumiya. I didn’t ask for her to be brought here alive.”
“—Implementation forthcoming.” Kuyoh’s mechanical face reddened ever so slightly. “Given the gravitational acceleration of this planet, a human falling to the ground from this altitude will sustain fatal injuries—. Within this high-mass atmosphere, this is the most basic form of death. As a method of ending the function of an organic life-form, this has been determined to most closely match the available natural phenomena.”
“I see,” said Fujiwara maliciously. “That’s a rather roundabout way of doing it. If that’s how the Heavenly Canopy Dominion thinks, I’m impressed.”
Having said so, he turned back to me.
“So this is how it is, you pathetic throwback. Killing this girl is trivial. So what will you do? I’d love to hear your decision. Will Haruhi Suzumiya’s life be ended here and now, or will you make your dear Sasaki the new god? Come now—which will it be?”
What a cheap threat. And his acting was a total cliché.
Rage welled up within me. Time travelers and aliens were both idiots. Did they think I—or, uh, Haruhi—would be able to do something about this? Saying “die” or “I’m gonna kill you” only proved that he was an angry child. Honestly, if this is what people from the future were like, then I didn’t have much hope for the fate of humanity. Were we really going to entrust the future to these jerks? Really?
They shouldn’t have underestimated me. They shouldn’t have underestimated Haruhi. More than anything, they shouldn’t have underestimated Haruhi.
“Stop!” cried Asahina the Elder. “This is meaningless! Is it catastrophe you wish for? By the laws of time travel, this would be the worst crime imaginable!”
“I don’t wish for this. But if it will ensure the existence of my time line, I’ll wish for a new time. Even if it means I myself disappear, I’ll bet on you. You’ll remain, sister. I’ll make you remain. That’s all I want.”
Fujiwara chuckled grimly, as though trying to sound as evil as possible. “Kuyoh, construct a symbol that’s easier for this dense audience to understand.”
Her body not moving at all, Kuyoh’s faintly shining eyes swiveled toward Haruhi.
As Haruhi floated in the air outside the clubroom and three stories up, her body began to change position. Her torso was raised and her feet pointed down. Both arms extended straight out, and from behind her, a shadowlike mass oozed out of nowhere. As I watched and wondered how to express what I was seeing, it was obvious that no matter what world
this was, the same word applied. This object was a cross.
That… bastard… what sort of farce was he making this?
Haruhi was now being crucified on a cross of darkness.
She was unconscious, her head slumped over to one side, and her eyes were still closed as though she were asleep. The sense that she was suffering might well have been my imagination, but in any case this was not a situation she would’ve wished for.
To say nothing of how Kuyoh and Fujiwara were declaring their murderous intent.
They really were idiots. Presiding over such an obviously villainous plot was incompetent even in a third-rate manga from the last century. And if acting satisfied at the crucifixion of a girl is third-rate, then this idiot sneering at me was even worse than that. It was all so obvious that it was like some kind of slapstick gag. This is dumb. This is so dumb, Fujiwara. He didn’t have any talent as an actor. I understood all too well, now. Out of all the life-forms existing in this space-time, he was the lowest of the low. He was lower than algae.
But this absurd cliché did have an effect. Oh, it had an effect, all right.
“Dammit…!” I leaned bodily out of the open window and reached out with my hands. She was too far to reach, but I still wanted to grab Haruhi. Even if it meant embracing her in a hug, I had to pull her back into the clubroom. I wanted to slap her face and wake her up.
And more than anything else, I would never forgive Fujiwara and Kuyoh for what they had done to Haruhi. I wouldn’t let them think they could get away with this. I was going to kill them both, I swore.
As though having seen my hate-crazed eyes and correctly guessing my thoughts, Fujiwara started to mock me. “So, how do you like having the most precious person in your life being used as a pawn? No matter what you’ve thought up until now, Haruhi Suzumiya is the most important phenomenon in the universe to us. There isn’t a single other human with more value. No matter how you live the rest of your life, it’s worthless and meaningless. Haruhi Suzumiya’s power will determine everything from here on out. And if we transfer her will and consciousness into a different container, Haruhi Suzumiya herself will also become worthless.”
I was grinding my teeth so violently I chipped one of them. There was no way in hell I was letting this bastard get away with this.
“Wait!” Asahina shouted plaintively. “There’s no proof that that’s the real Haruhi Suzumiya. It could be an illusion! Kyon, it might be some kind of trick to force you into making a decision.”
“I’m afraid not,” said Koizumi decisively. “No trick would deceive me, since I am, in a sense, a tool of Suzumiya’s subconscious. Our sleeping beauty over there is not a clone nor an illusion. She’s the genuine article, 100-percent-pure Suzumiya. My—no, our—beloved brigade chief.”
That was the truth. Koizumi wouldn’t lie to me. There would be no point to a bluff now. So what could I do…
“—”
Kuyoh was silent. She seemed to be waiting for someone’s command.
“Ah… uhh… um…” Kyoko Tachibana seemed totally confused, as though she were completely unable to keep up with the rapidly developing situation.
“Looks like there isn’t going to be any negotiating,” Fujiwara muttered in a calm, darkly resolved voice. “I’m going to end Suzumiya’s life. Don’t worry, Sasaki will handle her remaining duties. For you in the past, nothing will change. You can just live out your full, happy lives all the way through to old age without Haruhi Suzumiya.”
Was that true? Was there nothing we could do?
In desperation I looked to Asahina the Elder. With that lovely teacher style of hers, the adult Asahina gently covered her eyes. I didn’t understand what the earlier exchange about brothers and sisters had meant. And I definitely didn’t know which one of them was telling the truth. But I felt as though I could understand Fujiwara’s goal. So did that mean Asahina the Elder’s aims were blocking it? Was that all?
Engulfed by a maelstrom of doubt, what brought me back around to the present was the clear, refreshing voice of my comrade.
“If you think you can do it, by all means please try.”
The counterattack I’d been hoping for came from an unexpected person. Koizumi stood in front of Fujiwara, blocking his way. It seemed as though he intended to object to the time traveler’s murderous intention, but what was it that kept his face so calm?
Did Koizumi have some kind of plan? There was no way I could be that calm, looking at Haruhi, about to fall three stories to her death. We didn’t have time to plan any tricks or set any traps, so ad-libbing seemed unlikely to work. Damn, damn, damn—it was so pathetic it made me want to cry.
If I lost my temper and flew into a rage here, all that would happen would be a mark on my permanent record showing that an idiotic high school boy had resorted to violence without actually accomplishing anything. If Sasaki were here, at least she could’ve managed her trademark smooth talk. If Nagato were in her normal mode, I wouldn’t have had anything to fear from Kuyoh.
The advantage was overwhelmingly with our opponents. Even if I could ignore the faltering, terrified Kyoko Tachibana, even the Data Overmind’s humanoid terminals Asakura and Kimidori didn’t know how to deal with Kuyoh. This utterly foreign alien had joined forces with Fujiwara, and turned the clubroom into a danger zone.
I stood there, teeth clenched, when someone pushed me from behind. “It’s always the prince’s role to save the princess when she’s imprisoned in thorns. Not just his role—his duty.” Koizumi shrugged. “Of course, I don’t have any idea about our captured princess up there. Am I wrong?”
He wasn’t. But Koizumi, I told him, I still had important business with Fujiwara that involved socking him right in the face.
“I’ll handle that.” A volleyball-sized sphere of red light appeared above the palm of Koizumi’s right hand. “I rather feel as though I’ve become the protagonist of an esper manga. I may not have this chance again, so I hope you’ll let me seize this one. This is my last chance to make my dream come true, you see,” he said happily, but I could tell he was well and truly angry.
Go right ahead, Koizumi. After all, if you didn’t exercise your physical abilities every so often, your body would get weak.
After patting me on the shoulder, Koizumi pushed me forward, escorting me to the courtyard-facing side of the room, which was illuminated by the madly shining sky.
Several meters of space separated the edge the windowsill from the place where Haruhi hung in the air. It wasn’t a distance I could bridge just by reaching out my arms. How was I going to pull her back in?
“Kuyoh!” Fujiwara’s scream grated against my ears. “Do it!”
In that instant, Haruhi began to slip free from the cross. With her head hanging down as she slumped over, she looked like a saint being freed from the bonds of crucifixion. The stone floor of the courtyard was directly under her, and headfirst, she began to fall.
“Haruhi!”
I didn’t think about anything. Not about consequences, memories, or any kind of duty or sense of righteousness. I didn’t need to. I just kicked off the window frame and jumped out into thin air, like I expected wings to sprout from my back. As though pushed by someone’s invisible lifting force, I caught Haruhi in my arms just as she fell. And then, naturally, pulled by gravity, we both fell. Headfirst.
Haruhi’s body was more delicate than I’d imagined. I’d never seriously embraced her like that before, so I’d never noticed.
But the sense of warmth, of softness, made me realize that this really was Haruhi. She was just a second-year high school student, in the bloom of her girlhood—just an ordinary girl.
This was the true form of sleeping beauty. Even if I died the very next moment, her name would live on, carved in history. The girl softly breathing in my arms was, beyond any doubt, Haruhi Suzumiya.
She was the real Haruhi. She wasn’t some illusion from Kuyoh, or a fake prepared in advance. To threaten me, Fujiwara was using the real Haruhi.
>
He really was serious. Fujiwara would really go that far. Was this what you wanted? You’d lay out your disturbing future, your desire not to lose Asahina, and you’d even go so far as to put Haruhi on your death list, just to bring the future you wanted to create into sight?
But all I could see was the form of the person right in front of me.
Koizumi, Asahina the Elder—I’m sorry. There’s nothing else in my eyes.
Haruhi Suzumiya.
Our brigade chief and the ruler of the clubroom. That arrogant, confident optimist. Happy to manipulate anyone or overcome anything, surging forward toward her goals like a bowling ball shot from a linear catapult. My only boss. She was all I could see.
Ah.
The ground was getting closer. Owing to her unconsciousness, Haruhi’s body was limp, and slightly feverish. It was just as Koizumi said. That delicate body with its curves right where you’d expect them, the surprisingly slender shoulders, the slight fragrance—I knew better than anyone else that this was Haruhi.
When humans fall from high places, they die. I didn’t have to guess at what my skull would look like after falling at this rate of gravitational acceleration and slamming headfirst into the stone pavement.
Had I been a little too hasty? At the very least I could’ve set up a mat on the ground, or strapped on a parachute—.
Of course, I didn’t have time for such introspection. The only thing I thought of was the faint notion of curling around Haruhi and putting myself between her and the ground to absorb some of the impact.
The sound of rushing air roared in my ears. I would be hitting the ground soon.
I closed my eyes. Tight.
I embraced Haruhi. As tightly and closely as I possibly could.
The distance of my suicidal free fall was short enough that there shouldn’t have been even enough time for the turn of a revolving lantern. Not wanting to see the fast-approaching ground, I’d shut my eyes, praying to Mother Earth that she would awaken to her duty to cushion our impact.
The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya Page 29
