The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya (10 page)

Did she really want me to put this stuff on the spot indicated within three minutes of 6:12 this evening?

What would be the point?

I reread the letter several times until I’d memorized it, then shoved it down into the depths of my bag. I absolutely could not let Haruhi see it. This was one thing I’d never be able to think up a good excuse for.

I left the bathroom and ascended the stairs, deep in thought.

This much was becoming clear: Asahina had been sent back from eight days in the future because of this. There was something she needed to do in this time period, and it’s something that the current Asahina, the one here at school right now, could not do. But why couldn’t she do it?

As I arrived at my classroom, still wrestling with the endless questions, there was Haruhi, looking vaguely subdued as usual.

Haruhi glanced up at me. “How’s Shamisen?”

“Ah—” That’s right, that had been my excuse. “He’s okay.”

“Huh.”

I sat down in my cold chair and discreetly took in Haruhi’s profile.

She didn’t seem to have noticed anything. She held her chin in her hands, looking bored, her mouth closed. Recently she’d been
spending a lot of time like this. I didn’t know what she was thinking about, and I didn’t have time to give it much thought.

“Hey, Haruhi.”

“What?”

“About Shamisen—I have to take him to the vet again today. It looks like I’ll have to do that a lot, actually. So I don’t think I can make it to the clubroom. Sorry, but…”

I was positive she was going to stare daggers at me, but no.

“Fine, whatever.” Haruhi looked at my stunned expression. “I don’t want people ditching for no reason, but if you’ve got a good excuse, I’m an understanding chief, and I won’t give you a hard time about it.”

I searched my memory for a version of Haruhi that was “understanding” and “wouldn’t give you a hard time,” and concluded that this was the first time I’d ever seen such a thing.

“I’ll come and visit him sometime soon, so tell him I said to get well soon, okay? But I guess Shamisen’s got your sister to pamper him to death too.”

She didn’t seem like she really cared that much; her chin moved around, still cupped between her hands. It was definitely strange to see her so listless, but at the moment I was grateful for it. I still had to figure out the Asahina Problem.

Still, what was this mood? Having the person behind me quietly stare out the window was both nostalgic and strangely novel. If only Haruhi would be like this even half of her waking time…

“Morning, class!”

The morning bell hadn’t even finished ringing when Mr. Okabe came striding gallantly into the room.

I understood.

I understood that Haruhi’s melancholy would not last long. When I thought about it, this was the first concrete prediction that the time traveler had made. According to Asahina, Haruhi would drag us all into a treasure hunt, and we’d wind up walking
all over the place. I’d be fine if Haruhi was like that the
other
half of her waking hours.

For good or ill, that was enough to make me feel at ease.

At lunch, I bolted down my food and hurried to the clubroom.

If she wasn’t in her classroom, she’d be here, I reasoned, and sure enough—there was Nagato sitting at her usual spot at the table, absorbed in reading.

“Nagato, how’s Asahina?”

I was the one who had made her stay at Nagato’s place, so I thought I should make sure everything was okay.

“…”

Nagato turned her lowered gaze up to me, silent as though contemplating the meaning of my question.

“What do you mean by ‘how’?”

“She’s not causing you any trouble, is she?”

“No.”

Thank goodness for that, I thought. I imagined Nagato and Asahina having a pajama party. My heart swelled.

“However,” Nagato said in an even voice, “she is uneasy when she is with me.”

Her glossy eyes dropped once again to the hardcover in front of her.

I looked at Nagato silently, searching for some kind of expression on her pale face. Regret, or loneliness, say—but no such feelings were evident.

I could understand Asahina’s unease. Most people would probably find being shut up in a room with Nagato hard to handle. I could handle it, as could Haruhi and Koizumi, and Tsuruya would probably be fine, but that wasn’t the point.

Nagato had understood Asahina’s fear and had expressed it to me thus, so there had to be something more.

“It’s because Asahina and I both are constantly in your debt. She’s being considerate.”

“It’s mutual,” said Nagato, not looking up. “I have also relied on you.”

But Nagato was always the one who could do something. She’d saved my life time and time again, I told her. When something happened, she was pretty much the only reliable one. I wouldn’t say Koizumi and Asahina were worthless, but if she hadn’t been around, there would’ve been many more times when we’d all have been helpless, I said.

“I was also the cause of many problems.”

C’mon, those couldn’t be helped, I told her. If she wanted to assign blame, she ought to start with the Data Overmind and me. It wasn’t something she could blame herself for. Plus it was thanks to that whole incident that I learned to really appreciate this reality. I got to see Haruhi in a ponytail. When I’d been able to change something, the experience had meant a lot to me.

“I see,” murmured Nagato, turning the page. The cold winter wind blew, rattling the glass of the clubroom’s windows.

I turned on the electric heater. “What about your boss? They’ve suppressed the extremist faction, right?”

“The Data Overmind does not have complete consensus. But the main faction still leads.”

Interesting. Even pure thought entities had internal disagreements.

“And you’re connected to the main faction, right?”

“Yes.”

Asakura had been a vanguard of the extremist faction. Wait—were there just two factions? Were there others? I asked.

“So far as I am aware, there is the Moderate, the Revolutionary, the Compromise, and the Contemplative.”

And they were all different. Asakura had tried to kill me in order to provoke Haruhi, but Nagato had destroyed her. But the higher-ups were still arguing about it, apparently.

Just as I was visualizing the interactions of all those gods in the sky, Nagato spoke.

“I cannot transmit the thoughts of other factions.” She slowly brought her gaze up from the page. “But I am here.”

Her voice was perfectly steady, the very sound of trustworthiness.

“I won’t let them do as they please.”

On the way back from the clubroom, I ran into two familiar faces.

“Heya, Kyon!” Tsuruya waved her hand rapidly.

“Is your kitty okay?” said the person beside her in a worried voice. “I heard he had to go to the vet.”

It was Asahina. The normal, native-to-this-time Asahina. She didn’t seem to know she’d soon be headed into the past.

“Is he taking medicine?”

Oh, of course—Haruhi had called from the clubroom, and since Asahina had been there, she knew what we’d talked about.

“It’s not very serious, but it seems like he’ll need some time to recuperate.” I shook my head lightly, a bit confused. Obviously, this Asahina looked no different from the other one. If I wasn’t careful, I’d fool myself into thinking that Asahina was the one who was supposed to be at Nagato’s place right now, and I wouldn’t even notice it had happened, unless Asahina herself said something.

“Hard to believe Shamisen could get stressed out about anything!” said Tsuruya with a smile. “But I guess that’s better than catching some weird disease. I bet he’s not getting enough exercise! No mice at your house, right, Kyon? Sometimes we get mice in our garden—you should totally bring Shamisen over. I bet it’d do him some good!”

“Sure, once he’s better, I’ll do that.”

I wasn’t going to take him outside while it was still this cold, but once spring came, Shamisen would probably love that. Once the cherry blossoms bloomed, Haruhi would definitely want to do some kind of flower-viewing garden party, anyway.

“Kyon, will you be coming to the clubroom today?” asked Asahina a bit forlornly.

“I have to take Shamisen to the vet again today,” I said, wishing I’d asked the other Asahina what my day was going to contain. “I already told Haruhi.”

“Oh, really?” She sounded like she really cared about the cat. “I hope he gets well soon.”

It pained me, but I gave a serious nod. “Come by sometime and pet him. It’ll help him get better. He’s a male too, after all.”

The two girls left to get juice for their lunches, and I returned to my classroom. Not having a heater, it was colder than the clubroom I’d just been in. The only source of heat was the breath and warmth of the students in the room, and the most efficient heat source, Haruhi herself, was gone.

I walked toward Taniguchi and Kunikida and joined in their conversation.

Then, after class was over—

I put the school behind me as soon as I could. I had plenty of time until the time given in the letter, but I was worried about Asahina being left by herself, and if I was going to follow Asahina the Elder’s instructions, there were some tools I had to assemble.

First I stopped by my house and got a hammer and some nails from the garage, which I threw in my bag, then grabbed my bike and sprinted over to Nagato’s apartment building. The winter day was cold enough to make my ears sting, but when I thought about Asahina waiting all by herself, I didn’t care. Plus it was practically guaranteed that something fun would be waiting for
me. It was the arrival of a scene I’d been hoping for ever since summer vacation.

My strangely high spirits were the lingering results of my talk with Nagato in the clubroom.

Come what may, Nagato would protect Asahina and me, and I wanted to protect them too. Haruhi treated us brigade members like her property, and if anybody messed with us, she’d flip out and turn them right around—plus Koizumi, at least, could probably take care of himself. It was hard to imagine him getting tired, and if he were to falter, I can’t say I wouldn’t give him a hand. Haruhi would probably order me to, without regard for whether it was convenient for me or not. Not that I cared. I’d been a brigade member for just under a year, and I hadn’t been ground down so much that I’d fold now, of all times.

“Whoops.”

I skidded the bike to a stop, letting the rear wheel drift out a bit for no real reason, then headed for the console in the apartment foyer. I pushed the button for Nagato’s unit.

“… Yes?” I was relieved to hear Asahina’s voice.

“It’s me. Did anything happen? I hope not.”

“Um… no, nothing happened. Ah, I’ll be right down, so just wait there, please!”

I’d wanted to come up to Nagato’s room and relax for a bit, but Asahina cut off the intercom immediately.

I stood there idly for about five minutes, whereupon Asahina showed up in the foyer, still wearing her school uniform. She held school slippers in one hand.

She looked at me with an expression of relief, but then suddenly turned serious, shivering in the cold as she trotted over to me.

“I borrowed shoes from Nagato. Also, here’s the apartment key.”

Asahina held a small key in her hand.

“Could you return it to Nagato for me?”

Huh? What was going on? Since she was staying for a while, couldn’t she borrow both the shoes and the key?

“About that…” Asahina tucked her chin down, her eyes upturned and looking at me. “I don’t think I should stay at Nagato’s place.”

Why not? I asked.

“How should I put this…” The winter wind tried to disturb her chestnut brown hair; Asahina smoothed it down with her hand. “When I’m alone with Nagato, she just can’t calm down.”

I’d gotten the same line from Nagato. But no, forget that—I couldn’t imagine what Nagato would do that would indicate anxiousness to Asahina, I said.

“Um, well,” said Asahina, as though explaining something to a small child. “It’s just a feeling, really. When I’m sleeping at night… I mean, we’re in separate rooms, I’m sleeping in the spare room, but it’s like she’s standing right beside my bed, staring down at me…”

C’mon, she’s not like a ghost, I said.

“… It’s just a feeling, but it’s like she’s
conscious
of me.” Asahina exhaled whitely, staring at my chest. “I don’t feel it when we’re all in the clubroom, but it’s really strong when it’s just the two of us at her place. It happened last month too. When we returned from the past, I woke up and you were gone, and I just had the feeling that she’d been staring at me the whole time I was asleep.”

What was that supposed to imply? I couldn’t imagine Nagato ever doing anything to hurt Asahina, I said.

“I know. That’s not what she’s thinking. It’s just an impression I get… but I know. It’s like she’s hung up on me somehow.”

This was completely incoherent.
I
certainly didn’t understand it.

Asahina looked at me accusingly. With a lonely tone to her voice, she said, “It’s like… she wants to be like me.”

“…?” was my only reply.

“Like doing all kinds of crazy stuff with you, Kyon. I’m always
doing stuff like that, right? But Nagato just watches. It was like that on Tanabata and during the endless summer too.”

The seal of the SOS Brigade was all over my memories of the previous year. One of them was that Nagato was always the hardest-working member.

“I wonder if that’s part of why she changed the past. She’s always watching over us, instead of always getting saved, like me.”

Asahina breathed into the palm of her hand, then nodded decisively.

“When I think about it like that, it makes sense. What I feel from Nagato, I mean. She might want to become like me, in a way…”

My mind went on a wild flight of fancy. I couldn’t help imagining going into the clubroom as usual and encountering a maid-outfit-wearing Nagato there, cheerfully serving me tea. She would smile as she poured out the hot water, then, holding the tray, ask me how it tasted…

If Nagato were to become like that, I couldn’t really complain. But what would happen to the Nagato who sat at the corner of the table, reading?