I prayed.
But.
Then.
The instant I resigned myself, the backs of my eyelids were illuminated with a blue glow.
“?!”
A hairsbreadth from impact, I felt the sensation of sinking into some kind of soft object.
I opened my eyes.
Haruhi and I were surrounded by blue light. I hastily looked around in every direction and saw that we were floating just a few centimeters above the courtyard’s stone floor. Somehow, this shining blue something had cushioned our fall.
When I looked up, it was like a vast wall that reached all the way up to the madly swirling sky.
“It’s—!”
But no, it wasn’t. It was a
There was a
“It can’t be!” I heard Fujiwara’s distant voice. “How can that thing be…”
The
The dimly shining giant was taller than any of the school buildings. I would never forget I’d seen this terrible embodiment of Haruhi’s frustration rampaging through closed space.
Haruhi and I were side-by-side in the palm of its hand.
The
But why had the
From the soft, almost fluffy palm of the
“Nn…”
Haruhi stirred in my arms, and a small moan escaped from between her parted lips.
As though cooperating with her, the
The same instant, I was assailed by a sensation of time compression. Everything seemed to move in slow motion.
I looked up into the sky and saw a small figure standing on the roof of the clubroom’s building.
She was wearing a baggy uniform, and her permed-looking hair cut an unmistakable silhouette—Yasumi Watahashi.
New Brigade Member Number One, who’d vanished as soon as my two selves were reunified, now stood on the edge of the rail-less roof, looking down on me and Haruhi. In the dim, hazy light I couldn’t make out her face, but I was suddenly sure that she was smiling.
She executed a clumsy bow, then raised her head and faced forward.
Drawn by where she was looking, I also directed my gaze to the side of the courtyard opposite the clubroom—but that seemed to be the limit.
My field of vision distorted, twisting. But just before it did, I saw three figures on the roof of the opposite school building. One had short hair, one had long hair, and the third’s hair was in-between, and all of them were wearing North High uniforms…
So they’d come. I knew it. Kimidori, and Asakura, and—.
No longer confined to a sickbed, looking as quiet and keen as ever, it was Yuki Nagato. I couldn’t imagine that these three would have failed to notice the distortions in the axis of time. Positioned outside the world, the Data Overmind would know… just like in that endlessly repeating August.
There was no doubt that they had been observing everything, including me…
“…!”
My vision went suddenly dark, and I was disoriented by a crazy floating sensation. The dizzy feeling I’d gotten so sick of during all my time traveling had returned.
Just as I was about to black out entirely, Yasumi’s shadow waved at me. As a way of saying good-bye it was more than sufficient. Whether it was meant for me, or as a greeting to the three humanoid interfaces, I would probably never have a chance to ask. I just had that feeling…
But that was all right. However far we fell, we’d be together.
Darkness fell.
After a floating sensation, I felt free fall again. I put more strength into my arms, telling myself that Haruhi was the one thing I would never let go of.
From somewhere far in the distance, I thought I heard Asahina the Younger’s voice.
Whump.
“Ow!”
The shock came from my tailbone. Feeling pretty stupid for landing on my butt, I opened my eyes, then quickly closed them again owing to the brightness.
Having become used to the dimness of closed space, my irises couldn’t adjust immediately. And yet—where was I? Based on the nonvisual information available, my hand and rear end were touching something like grass, and my sense of hearing reported a bustling mix of several male and female voices.
Hesitantly, I opened my eyes a sliver, and saw that I was definitely sitting on the corner of a wide lawn, and around me were what had to be male and female students dressed in street clothes. Some were groups walking around, and here and there were couples cuddling together on the grass.
“What? Where am I? Where did I get sent now?”
Across the lawn I saw a building that appeared to be a clock tower. Compared with North High, it was an absurdly modern structure. And the groups of students that were walking around seemed somehow more refined than high school students. This seemed as if it had to be a college somewhere. The breeze was warm. I wondered if it was spring…
My immediate impression of my surroundings was that they were very well-made. But, why? Why was I here?
Just as I was starting to get really worried—
“What’s wrong, Kyon?” The all-too-familiar voice of a girl was directed at me from above.
Still sprawled on the ground, I looked up.
“Haru…” I managed to say before becoming totally speechless. I can’t even remember if I rubbed my eyes or not.
There was Haruhi, looking somehow grown-up. Her hair was longer than I remember it being, and she wore a spring ensemble of soft, seasonally appropriate colors, perfectly matched to the cardigan over her shoulders. No, she couldn’t be this grown-up yet. The Haruhi I knew had only just started her second year of high school.
And yet the Haruhi before me was clearly several years past that. I mean, how should I put it? I can’t really say it right… but yes, she had clearly matured.
“What’re you doing? Hey…” This Haruhi smiled jokingly at me. It made me dizzy. “What do you think you’re doing, wearing that old uniform? Kyon… Wait—you seem kind of… young…?” she said, then turned around as though someone had called her.
“Huh?”
My vision started to dim again.
Someone was calling out to that Haruhi. Looking surprised, I heard her say “Huh? You’re over there—?” before turning back to me again. “Wha?”
I think she had an expression of shock on her face.
But my consciousness was rapidly fading. The figure of Haruhi standing on the lawn began to grow distant, as though it were being filmed by some kind of special camera move. I didn’t move, and neither did Haruhi—a distance merely opened up between us. Darkness began to close in around me. This was the door. The will of time was trying to return me to my original place.
The moment the walls of darkness closed completely, I could only see the shape of Haruhi’s mouth as she spoke.
—See you again, Kyon, her kind, beautiful smile said.
Again I was falling as though having lost my footing, floating such that I’d lost all sense of equilibrium, and had no idea which way was up or down.
&nbs
p; Had that been a dream? Or an illusion? To be honest, I knew that I was suffering from time-sickness. During the events surrounding Tanabata, I traveled back and forth through time on multiple occasions, and my body had quite thoroughly learned the truth of the saying that one personal experience was worth hearing a hundred stories. I probably wouldn’t get used to it no matter how many times I did it, and in the process had learned that the semicircular canals in my ears were quite weak. But anyone would feel this way if they had to ride in a car with bad suspension along a winding mountain road. The inside of my stomach was already about to flip.
Just how long was this plunge into darkness going to last?
But it didn’t take very long before I reached the next transition. Just as I reached the end of my short fall, it felt as though I was carried by a gentle force that opposed gravity. I felt myself lean into a sensation of breaking, and then a strangely elastic object struck my body. At that, I opened my eyes.
“Nguh?!”
The truth was I opened my eyes both literally and figuratively. I still hadn’t shaken the unreal feeling of being inside some incoherent dream; I was completely awake, feeling the unmistakable sensation of waking up after a moderate amount of sleep. I could even remember the dream I had just had. Not that it mattered.
It took my highly intelligent brain about three seconds to grasp the situation.
“…? Where is this?”
I was in a dark room, on a bed. I could immediately tell that it was not my own. The surroundings had the unfamiliar scent of someone else’s home. It reminded me of the way my sister’s room smelled, but wasn’t quite the same. I was certain it wasn’t a room I’d seen or been in my entire life.
So where was it? Where had I been dropped?
“What… are you doing?” I heard a muffled voice from directly below me. It sounded unnaturally quiet, and there was more than a hint of challenge in it. It was a voice I’d certainly heard before—in fact, it was a voice I hear almost every day.
As slowly as possible, I looked down.
Haruhi’s face was directly in front of me. Despite the darkness, there was enough light coming in through the slightly open curtains that I could see upon her face an expression of shock unlike anything I’d ever seen before.
Beyond that, I seemed to be down on all fours on Haruhi’s bed, looking down at her, where she lay faceup, pinned by the comforter that I was inadvertently holding down with my hands and legs. If an impartial jury had been present and witnessed this scene, they would’ve unanimously convicted me without a single hesitation. There wasn’t any space in this situation for a single speck of an excuse.
“… Is this…?”
I finally realized it. Somehow I’d neglected to ever visit Haruhi’s house, to say nothing of her room, which explained why this place was so unfamiliar. I probably couldn’t have noticed any sooner, but this was without a doubt Haruhi’s room. By process of elimination, that was the only possibly answer.
This was Haruhi’s room, and Haruhi’s bed. And it was the middle of the night. Haruhi was wearing pajamas, and looking up at me with eyes that were past astonishment.
“Kyon, just what do you think you’re—”
I’ll have you know, Miss Haruhi, that I’m the one who has no idea what’s going on here. No, seriously—I would never, ever have guessed that the destination of all that falling would have been Haruhi’s bed.
“Wait!” Haruhi said in a rising voice. “Just—close your eyes… and put the covers over your head!”
She slowly sat up and elbowed me aside, and my vision was soon blocked by the covers going over my head. I heard rustling.
I took the chance to peer through a gap in the covers and look around at the room’s furnishings. No, this wasn’t anything perverted. There was just something I needed to make sure of.
What I was looking for was on Haruhi’s bedside table.
It was something you’ll find in almost anyone’s bedroom—a digital alarm clock. Haruhi didn’t live in the Edo era, so I assumed she wouldn’t have a rooster next to her bed.
Fortunately, Haruhi was considerate enough to have a model that displayed the day and month in addition to the time, which indicated that the sun would soon be peeking out from under the horizon.
And the day happened to be a day in May.
So… what did that mean? The day I’d fallen into the glowing blue hand of a
I’ve had all sorts of experience with leaping into the past and then back to my own present, but this would be the first time I’d jumped into the future. Who’d forced me ahead in time? Asahina the Elder? Or was this a previously unknown ability the
Haruhi was still rummaging around. Given the sound of rustling cloth, I assumed she was changing, but my interest was elsewhere.
Hanging from Haruhi’s wall was a simply designed calendar. The black numeral indicated today, this day, the day on which the sun was about to dawn, had been plainly circled with a red magic marker. The edge of the circle had been embellished with little flower petals, like a mark of praise from a teacher on a kindergarten student’s drawing.
I knew perfectly well what today was the anniversary of.
After all, I’d done something similar for a day on my calendar’s April page.
So she’d remembered. Well, I remembered, so I guess it’s not surprising. One year ago today was a day that was as important to us as our school entrance ceremony.
This day was—.
Just then, I heard the sound of a small bump against the window.
Both Haruhi and I straightened at the sound. Haruhi had finished changing into regular clothes, so she didn’t complain when I pulled the covers off of my head. She seemed more interested in whoever was making the noise outside of the window, and walked quickly over to it. I went and stood beside her.
It was here where I learned that Haruhi lived in a normal house and had a room on the second floor. I found it deeply mysterious that I didn’t know this already.
When she pulled back the curtains and looked down, three figures were illuminated by the streetlight in front of the house.
There wasn’t a single doubt about their identities. It was Asahina the Younger, Koizumi, and Nagato.
Seeing our response, Koizumi raised a tired hand, while Asahina put both hands on her chest. Nagato simply stood there stock-still as usual. I felt a deep sense of relief.
Haruhi quietly opened the window. Outside it was silent, not unlike the closed space I’d been in just a short while earlier. This was probably a residential area where the loudest noise they got was the paperboy making his rounds.
We hadn’t coordinated anything ahead of time, but Haruhi and I still wound up holding our breath together, as Koizumi gave us a light wave.
I had just noticed that he seemed to be holding some kind of small package in his other hand when our lieutenant brigade chief made a wind-up motion and tossed the item toward us. The toss traced a lazy parabola—was that Nagato’s doing?—before landing perfectly in my hands. Strike!
The neatly wrapped box had a card attached to it with a ribbon. Despite the low light, I was able to easily read the writing on the card.
In honor of the first anniversary of the founding of the SOS Brigade. From the brigade members to Her Excellency the brigade chief, with a year’s worth of our deepest thanks.
The irregularity of the handwriting made it seem as if each brigade member had written one of the phrases. My handwriting was among them, though I had no recollection of putting it there.
… That’s right. This date, this very day, marked exactly one year since Haruhi had declared the foundation of the SOS Brigade. Having received her divine inspiration, she’d slammed the back of my head into her desk, and as soon as our lunch break arrived, dashed up the stairs and made straight for the l
iterature club room, then after school, declared she was taking it over, and the very next day, captured poor Asahina.
—From now on, this room is our clubroom!
—The SOS Brigade! Saving the world by Overloading it with fun, Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade!
That was the moment our mysterious club members came together and established a base from which we would spread trouble throughout North High.
Isn’t that right, Koizumi, Nagato, Asahina?
That’s the reason I’m here, is it not?
“Haruhi.”
I held the present and turned my body to face Haruhi.
“Wh… what?” She acted as if she didn’t know, but I could tell she understood what was going on. She glanced back and forth between looking at my face and the box, seeming like a treasure hunter’s sidekick who knew she was about to receive a great treasure but didn’t know what to do with it.
Times like this, you just gotta approach things head-on. I handed her the treasure box with card attached. “Thank you for your hard work as our brigade chief. I hope you’ll favor us moving forward.”
“Idiot,” she said, but still politely took the box. After scanning the card, she closed her eyes and held the box tightly close. Somehow it felt like a sentimental breeze blew by, and then—
“Kyon, how did you get in my room?”
Ah… well, it sure as heck wasn’t through the front door. “I climbed up the drainpipe and came in through the window. You’ve gotta be more careful with your locks. I was lucky your lock was tired of being closed.”
I have to admit I was pretty impressed with myself for being able to spout such a pack of lies on demand.
“Isn’t that kinda overdoing things? Someone could’ve reported you while you were climbing up.” Haruhi’s expression was somewhere between laughter and tears, but then she suddenly looked down at my feet. “And why are you wearing your school slippers? Take those things off this second—you’re gonna get my floor all dirty.”
The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya Page 30
