[FFML] [SHnY] Taniguchi and Kunikida are dead, chapter five.

[Henry Cobb]

[SHnY] Taniguchi and Kunikida are dead, chapter five.
By Henry J. Cobb

[The Haruhi Suzumiya characters and situations are the creation of Nagaru
Tanigawa. Other than that, he's blameless for the following.]

After we had dropped my sister off at her elementary school on Tuesday
morning, Sasaki got onto the bicycle behind me for the ride to our school.

"Something troubling you?" She asked, with fake innocence.

"Yesterday, a friend of mine told me something that left a giant question
mark hanging over my head."

"Perhaps you could ask her to clarify the issue?"

"It sounded both like a confession, and a plea not to act on it."

"Then perhaps you understand her well enough already."

"She's a really good friend, and I don't want to lose that. I will try to
understand her feelings, but I won't try to act on them, until she says
otherwise."

"That sounds sensible enough, and as for Miss Nagato?"

"An even bigger question, since I did not hear it from her. Again it seems
I must wait and see what she does."

"Is that too heavy a load for you to carry?"

"No, I'm getting used to people dropping landmines on me these days."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. As you said, Sasaki, it's a good thing for me to become aware
of hidden hazards."

I entered the classroom behind Sasaki, in order to brace myself for the
strange sensation of being in a room with both so-called goddesses. I
considered how odd it must be that it didn't apply outdoors, or at any
fixed radius, but just when they were both in the same room. It was like
they were waging a battle to control any fixed space around
them. Tachibana had called it a war between Order and Chaos while Koizumi
had said it was a matter of cosmic balance. Perhaps we were all just
imagining things.

Asakura, Taniguchi, and Kunikida had all looked over as Sasaki entered,
but Suzumiya was writing something in a notebook. No, she was sketching,
with longer arcs of her pencil than would be needed for writing. I didn't
ask what she was doing. I was just happy to start the day with her already
pre-distracted.

Suzumiya took out her notebook to work on her sketch between classes,
instead of doing her usual patrols, but she still dashed out of the
classroom as soon as the lunch bell sounded.

"What is Suzumiya up to?" Kunikida asked me, as he joined Sasaki and
myself for lunch.

"No idea."

"I'm sorry Sasaki." He turned to her. "But I need to drop out of the
Literature Club."

"An order from your boss Tachibana?" I asked him.

He glanced around in fright then turned back to me. "She's just a friend."

"So who does Taniguchi work for?"

"How would I know? I mean, he's just a high school student."

Taniguchi put down his lunch and walked over. "Are you bad mouthing me
Kyon?"

"I was just asking Kunikida, if he knew if you had a part time job."

"Why?"

"I've been treating girls out to lunch. It cuts into my allowance. I know
that anyplace you'd work would be easy money, but I didn't want your
recommendation getting in the way."

"Truly, I'm hurt."

"So, have you been building up a war chest to fund your future conquests?"

"I should get on that, perhaps over the next break."

"So how goes things with Asakura?"

"Nothing yet, I'm afraid."

"Why don't you get her alone in a room and confess your undying love to
her? Tell her that you will follow her always, for as long as your heart
still beats."

"Ha ha, Kyon. Always the comedian." Taniguchi returned to his lunch.

I could see that Asakura had turned from her circle of girl lackeys and
raised an eyebrow at this.

Sasaki raised an eyebrow herself. "Don't you need to focus on your
studies, instead of part time jobs, Kyon?"

After classes Suzumiya dashed off at warp speed. Sasaki walked along with
me at a more sensible pace.

On the walk towards the clubroom, Sasaki moved to the side of the
courtyard where the traffic was least, so I followed her.

"Going somewhere, Sasaki?"

"No, I just wanted to ask about Asakura. Do you still have feelings for
her?"

"I never did. What you saw was just a misunderstanding."

"Oh? Then what really happened that day?"

"She was berating me about my poor grades. I was backing away and tripped.
She stumbled on top of me. Nothing more."

"If you say so."

Because of the detour, we were the last ones to enter the clubroom. Asahina
was in her maid outfit and was preparing tea with an electric hotpad. Was
that even allowed in the clubrooms? Tachibana and Koizumi were sitting
across from each other at the table, while Suou was in her usual seat.

Nagato was back in her corner reading, because Suzumiya was using the
computer. Suzumiya seemed to be mostly using the mouse. Was she playing a
game?

We gave our greetings. I took my usual seat across from Sasaki and
turned to Asahina, "Where did you get the tea set?"

She looked up. "Suzumiya brought it."

"I hope I get the chance to try your tea."

"Yuki." Suzumiya rose from the office chair in front of the
computer. "Upload this image to the front page of our website."

Nagato put down her book. "The Literature Club website?"

"No, the SOS Brigade website."

"Okay." Nagato sat down and looked at the computer screen.

There was a loud clang, as if two metal rods had been banged against each
other. Had that even been a sound? I couldn't place the source. I looked
around and saw that Asahina and Sasaki were also looking around, while
Suou had vanished.

Tachibana and Koizumi were looking over at Suzumiya. Their usual smiles
were replaced with expressions of bewilderment.

Suzumiya had grabbed Nagato and was pulling her out of the chair with one
hand while she had her other hand in the smaller girl's mouth.

I ran over to her. "What are you doing to Nagato?"

"Trying to keep her from swallowing her tongue. She's having a
seizure. Give me a hand with her."

I pushed the office chair out of the way, and helped to lower Nagato to
the floor. She was twitching as her eyes moved in different directions.

"Hold her down, Kyon. Don't let her hit anything solid."

Yuki was stronger that she looked, at least in this condition, but I
finally managed to use my weight to pin her.

She relaxed and her eyes moved as a pair to look at me. "Kyon, what are
you doing?"

"Yuki! You should have told us you were epileptic." Suzumiya was holding
Nagato's head in her lap.

"Epileptic?" Nagato looked up at Suzumiya.

"What other health problems do you have?"

"I've been perfectly healthy, for as long as I can remember."

"It must be a side effect of being a time traveler."

I got off Nagato, stood and looked at Asahina, but she shook her
head. Tachibana and Koizumi had also looked towards our resident time
traveler, while Sasaki and Suzumiya remained focused on Nagato.

Nagato sat up, then looked down and saw that she had wet herself. "Excuse
me, I must go clean up."

Suzumiya lifted Nagato to her feet. "Mikuru, grab her other arm. We're
taking her to the girls room."

"The ambulance will be here in five minutes." As Koizumi turned towards us,
I saw that he was listening to his cellphone.

"We'll meet them out at the street." Suzumiya led the chain of Nagato and
Asahina out of the room.

"Kyon, is there anything flashing on the screen?"

"What?" I looked at Koizumi then down at the computer screen. "Just a
strange drawing, and it's not blinking."

I looked back and saw that Koizumi and Tachibana were studying me closely.

"Close that program please."

"Why aren't you worried about Nagato?" Sasaki asked.

It was Tachibana who responded to her. "Koizumi is worried that the image
may have been an epileptic trigger. In case Nagato has to return to this
room to pick up something, we don't want her looking at it again."

"Oh, silly me. Sorry."

I closed the program and shut down the computer.

Tachibana seemed satisfied that I wasn't the most interesting person in the
room anymore. "Don't be sorry, Lady Sasaki. I'm sure this must come as a
great shock to you."

"I'm just really impressed with everybody in this one or two clubs. It's
like it's the Emergency Medical Technicians club. Say, where did Suou go?"

"I think she ran off to get help when the attack started."

I let Tachibana's lie stand, but I'd like to know myself.

"There is one thing I can do." Sasaki grabbed the paper bag with
Asahina's school outfit and left me with the two espers.

"What happened to Nagato?" I asked them.

Tachibana shrugged, then smiled at Koizumi. "She's your alien, time
traveler, esper or whatever, right?"

Koizumi frowned. "Her aura is currently unstable. I will reserve judgment
for the moment, other than to note that she is certainly full of
surprises."

"Will she be okay?"

He smiled. "First we would have to define what okay is, for aliens. One
thing that is clear, is that the probability of these being their real
faces is very very low. Perhaps they are just playing with us poor
humans."

We went outside to wait for the ambulance.

Nagato came out in the maid dress, which fit her like a tent. Asahina was
back in her school uniform, and with Suzumiya flanked Nagato.

I looked around for even one giggle, but the gathered crowd of students
seemed to take this all seriously.

Tachibana looked at the ambulance then back to Koizumi. "That's your
private hospital."

"Can you think of a better facility for this case? We'll discuss this
tomorrow."

Koizumi entered the ambulance to "handle the paperwork", but it was clear
to me that the techs were reporting to him.

Suzumiya insisted on accompanying Nagato, and the rest of us gathered our
things to head off to our homes.

As Sasaki and I were turning to go, I saw the Computer Club president
running up.

"What happened to Yuki?"

That bastard was already on a first name basis with her? Well I knew how
to fix his little red wagon. "She had an epileptic attack. Apparently
she's been using the computer too much recently."

On the walk down to the station where my bike was parked, Sasaki asked me
if this was true and I just shrugged.

That evening after I had turned off my room light and settled into bed I
closed my eyes, but sleep eluded me.

I felt a presence, so I opened my eyes. Two girls were standing there in
North High school uniforms. I sat up and turned to them. "Hello?"

Ryouko Asakura swept out her arms and the walls and ceiling changed to
those strange geometric glowing shapes.

I saw by this strange light, that the other girl had green eyes and
hair. "Good evening Miss Asakura, who's your friend, and to what do I owe
the privilege of your visit this evening?"

"I am called Emiri Kimidori. I am leading the investigation into what has
happened to Yuki Nagato."

"Surely you'd know better than I, about your own kind?"

"The faction behind Miss Nagato has broken the quarantine, in order to
contact her. The connection is only partial, and she has not returned to
being an interface."

"So she is human?"

"Mr. Kyon, can you define for me what it is to be human?"

"Sorry, that question is beyond me. Ask just about anybody else in the
brigade or club instead."

"Can you tell us what you did to trigger the two changes in her?"

"I didn't do anything. The first time Miss Asahina asked her to check time
travel stuff, and the second time was when she looked at an image that
Suzumiya had drawn on the computer. I wasn't even the one talking to her
in either case."

"The image has been changed to neutralize the effect. Should Miss Suzumiya
ask about this, you will make up some reason why you did so." Asakura's
smile indicated that deadly consequences would await if I didn't.

"Mr. Kyon, you are still a suspect about these matters. Therefore Miss
Asakura will provide you with a sensor token that you will keep with you
at all times."

"Why?"

"You can prove your innocence by assisting us with Miss Nagato's recovery,
or you can prove your guilt by resisting us."

"I guess I don't have much choice then."

Asakura held up her hand and her knife appeared. She held it by the blade
and passed the handle to me.

"I can't show this at school!"

"Then take this as well." Asakura made a gesture as if to pass me
something invisible, but her lips had not moved and her voice sounded
directly in my head.

"Hey, that's that same not-speaking trick that Suou uses."

"I require contact in order to use this method of
communication. Fortunately my weapon is a part of myself."

I took the unseen item from Asakura, and as I did it appeared. It was a
black leather sheath for the combat knife. I put the knife into the sheath
and placed it down on my bed. As I removed my hand, the two items vanished,
to reappear again as I picked them up again. "Neat trick, but why not make
the knife invisible instead?"

"This is for your own protection. My knife is sharper than it
looks. Please avoid touching other persons with either item."

"So will Nagato have another attack, the next time your alien friend
contacts her?"

"They are still in communication. You may contact Miss Asakura at any time
through the items she has given you. We apologize for the
interruption. As you humans say, pleasant dreams." Kimidori snapped her
fingers and the pair of aliens vanished. My room was again plunged into
ordinary darkness.

I walked over to my closet and clipped the sheath onto the belt I'd wear
the next day. No point leaving it out where my sister could run into it.

My cellphone rang and I saw that it was a new number. "Hello?"

"So you survived your close encounter?"

"Yes, Koizumi, I still seem to be intact." I declined to mention the
'gift' I'd been handed, while in the same room with it, so instead I set
out a different topic. "How is Miss Nagato?"

"No change in her condition. She will be released in the morning in time
for school. We can talk further there. Good night."

Apparently he didn't want to say any more over the phone.

In the morning my sister ran into my room to wake me as usual. I went to
go relieve myself. I heard an angry buzz from my closet, so I turned back
and clipped the sheath to my pajamas.

My parents seemed to not notice that I wore a knife to breakfast, but my
sister gave me a few odd glances. Sasaki also didn't say anything about it
during the ride to school.

Suzumiya looked up when we stepped into the classroom. "Kyon, Yuki has
returned to school today, so we're all having lunch in the clubroom. I
suppose the Literature Club can attend also, if they insist."

Was that the tinniest sliver of consideration towards Sasaki? Perhaps I
was still dreaming.

When I went to use the facilities between classes, Koizumi was waiting and
followed to use the urinal next to mine. He glanced down at the invisible
knife on my belt. "Kyon, you seem especially gifted today."

He used that line at the urinal? I prayed that nobody else had heard
it. "I'm as dangerous as a yakuza working for the Tokyo police." That
was about as direct a warning as I dared, while wearing the bug.

"Yuki's body seems one hundred percent human normal, but there is a very
interesting high frequency signal on her EEG. It isn't localized and it
doesn't seem to have impaired her mental or physical facilities."

"Her friends said that the connection was still active. So there is no way
to cut that off without blowing her brains out?"

"Not that we mere humans can devise."

Despite having taken off at an insane dash, Suzumiya wasn't already in the
clubroom when we arrived for lunch, but Nagato was reading a book in the
corner. Did she always skip lunch? Asahina was in her maid outfit,
preparing tea.

Suou followed Sasaki and myself, and we took our usual seats. Had Suou been
with us before I opened the door?

Nagato placed a bookmark and looked up at us. "Hi, Kyon and Sasaki. Who's
the new girl?"

"What?" I looked around, but saw only the regulars, except for the missing
Goddess of Chaos, and the pair of espers.

"Nagato. We're having a party for you. Please bring your chair over here."
Sasaki indicated the end spot next to me.

Nagato put down her book and carried her chair over. I guess I should have
done that for her?

She took the indicated space then bowed to Suou, across from her. "Hi, I'm
Yuki Nagato, pleased to meet you."

Suou smiled at Nagato for a bit then turned to Sasaki.

"Ah, you will have to excuse my friend, Kuyou Suou. She's a bit shy. But
surely you two have been together in this same room many times before?"

"It must be my fault then, Miss Sasaki. I've been so distracted with
everything."

"A chance to meet new people isn't a fault. You just need to take things
easy for a bit. I'm sure that all the members are very glad that you've
made such a speedy recovery."

At that point Koizumi arrived and held open the door for Tachibana and
Suzumiya. Nagato was faintly startled, as she noticed the strange
sensation of having both goddesses in the same room. Nagato's days of
being an ordinary human being had come to an end. She was one of us now,
we who noticed the cosmic conflict between Suzumiya and Sasaki, and saw
Suou clearly.

Suzumiya brought in a cake that she had baked herself. She placed her cake
box on the table and saw that all of the chairs around the table had been
taken. Her suspicious gaze settled on Sasaki. Then she went to the
computer desk and rolled the office chair around to the end of the table,
next to Nagato and Suou. She was effectively blocking the door, but this
didn't seem to bother her.

Suzumiya took the lid off her cake box. The icing on the top of the cake
had exactly the same pattern that she had exposed Nagato to on Tuesday. I
heard gasps from the espers as I turned to look at Nagato.

Nagato looked down on the cake. "So this is your logo?"

"For the SOS Brigade."

"I'm sorry I didn't upload that for you. I'll do it this afternoon."

"No, I checked and Kyon already did it." Suzumiya looked down at the
cake. "Strange, the cake doesn't seem to be exactly the same as the
website version."

Sasaki gave me a disapproving look.

"It must be an issue with digital conversion." I took a quick headcount of
the clubroom. Nobody had vanished or collapsed.

"Let me take a photo of this." Suzumiya pulled out her cell phone.

I picked up the plastic knife she had brought, and quickly sliced the cake
into eight pieces.

"Kyon!" Suzumiya complained.

"Don't you want to take a picture with a piece in front of each person?" I
tried to sound as innocent as possible. "We need to hurry if we're to
finish up before lunch is over." I began to serve out the pieces before
she could think of another objection.

As Asahina started serving tea, I put my right hand on the hilt of the
invisible knife on my belt.

"You will convince Suzumiya to use my version of her image, before she
draws it again." Asakura's voice sounded in my head, but none of the other
students in the room seemed to notice.

After classes, Suzumiya had to drag Nagato away from her worshipers in the
Computer Club for a meeting in our clubroom about objectives for the
semester. Nothing was accomplished as each esper supported a different
goddess, Nagato didn't want to assert herself, I didn't want to agree to
doing more work myself, and Suou proved impossible to engage on any
topic. The final tally was Suzumiya, Koizumi and Asahina for doing a
movie, Sasaki and Tachibana for a Literature Club yearly, with Nagato,
Suou, and myself undeclared.

After the inconclusive meeting, Suzumiya wanted to walk Nagato home, but
Asakura showed up at exactly that point and said that she would, as they
both lived in the same apartment building.

On the ride to her house, Sasaki leaned down closer to me from her perch
on the back of my bicycle. "If I can get Nagato to agree, will I have your
vote also, Kyon?"

"What's with this competition? Why don't you two go into a room by
yourselves and settle this?"

"Fu fu fu fu. Suzumiya is not my girlfriend."

"I didn't accuse you of that, Sasaki."

"Oh. That's right, you didn't. I've known her since elementary school."

"So this is all related to some trauma back then?"

"I don't think so. We were never in the same class. She was so energetic
back then. I doubt that she remembers me though. My family changed its
name to Sasaki just before I started middle school, and as you know my
personal name is rather common."

"Is this an invitation to start using your personal name?"

"I don't think that would be appropriate between fellow students. It might
indicate that our relationship was something other than intended."

"So stop calling me Kyon."

"Sorry, Kyon. Your sister made me promise. I admit that Mr. Sasaki
frightened me a bit at first, but I have no problem with calling him
father now. I see no reason to dishonor his name. The incident did make me
withdraw a bit until you pried me out of my shell. Something happened to
Suzumiya between elementary and high school. She used to be so outgoing,
and now she interacts with just a selected few. Whatever it is, I'm sure
she has her reasons. I'll try to not take her slights personally. After
all she treats me no worse than she treats most people."

That still doesn't make it right I thought, as I stopped in front of
Sasaki's house.

After dinner I received a phone call from another number I hadn't seen
before. "Hello."

"Kyon! It is you. Um, could you come to my apartment now?"

"Sure, Nagato. Do you need anything?"

"No, I just need to talk about something."

"Okay, I'll see you soon."

I wondered what was troubling Nagato, that she couldn't talk about over
the phone. It was a bit of a bother to go over to her place, but I didn't
want to ask her to walk out alone in the evening, if she might suffer
another seizure.

My little sister crept up behind me as I was putting on my outdoor
shoes. "Kyon, take me along."

"Can't. A girl from my school wants to see me alone in her apartment."

"Liar! No girl would ever date you."

Nagato buzzed me into her building, met me at her apartment door, and
then served tea in her living room.

I looked around her apartment and saw that previously rather sterile
living room had begun to collect random piles of books. I'd have to go get
her some bookshelves at some point. I turned back to her and waited.

She blushed so I looked down at the vapors from my teacup.

"Kyon."

"Yes?"

"Do you believe in aliens?"

I suppressed a sigh. "I don't believe that Earth is the only place in the
universe that would have life. There are just too many stars even in our
galaxy. Of course there are aliens."

"What would these aliens be like, and how would they contact us?"

"While most life forms should be much more primitive than mankind, the
ones who do contact us should be much more advanced. Just from random
chance they would be at least a billion years more advanced than mankind,
and look at the advancements on Earth in just the last Century."

"So would they use giant radio telescopes to call us up?"

"How would they know we were here? Our radio broadcasts barely extend a
hundred light years. Just as humanity has the Internet, any galaxy spanning
civilization would require some sort of advanced communication network."

Nagato nodded. "I knew you were the right person to talk to this
about. Since my attack, my second attack, the one that happened in the
clubroom yesterday, I've heard this voice inside my head."

"What makes you think it's an alien?"

"I asked it for proof and it gave me your phone number. Only, it's not
like talking. It's more like a network connection to a database."

I put my hand on the hilt on the invisible knife.

"Yuki's faction is widely considered the nerds of the galaxy." Asakura's
voice sounded amused then switched to a warning tone. "You may continue
human, but be careful of her condition."

"Nagato, you read a lot of science fiction books?"

She looked around at the piles of books and blushed. "Sorry."

"Let's go this weekend and get you a bookcase at a yard sale. But I have a
way that you can safely talk to me about your experience over the phone or
in the clubroom."

"Yes?"

"For your Literature Club project, write the story of a high school girl
who is contacted by aliens."

"What?"

"Then anybody else who hears it, will think that you are being creative,
not crazy."

"Th - that's a good idea, Kyon."

"Here, let's setup text messaging between our phones so you can chat with
me at any time about this."

At the clubroom meeting after classes on Thursday, Nagato outlined the
story she would be writing.

"And so what happens to her?" Suzumiya asked.

"She is contacted by aliens." Nagato replied.

"And then what? Where's the conflict? Okay, for the movie Koizumi will be
an ordinary boy who is contacted by alien Tachibana, Mikuru is an esper from a
secret organization who is trying to capture Tachibana, and Yuki is a time
traveler trying to make things right."

"But, my story is about a girl who is contacted by aliens."

"Sorry, Yuki. The dramatic meme works better when it is a boy who is
seduced by aliens. Boys are just less cautious in romantic matters, so it
makes it more believable."

"So who is the villain in this story, Asahina, Tachibana, or perhaps
Nagato?" Sasaki asked.

"I won't say."

"You don't trust us?"

"My movie won't say."

"Oh, to give the audience a chance to make up their own minds?"

"No, I'm leaving it to the sequel. The audience will have to return next
year to find out if Mikuru is out to capture Tachibana in order to save
the Earth, or if she is just telling herself that to cover for her
jealously. So keep that in mind while you are writing the novelization,
Sasaki."

"Very well, Kyon, Tachibana, and Nagato. Will you help me with the
novelization?"

Suzumiya saw our nods, then reached into the computer desk drawer and
pulled out a red paper band that she pined to her sleeve. It had "Super
Director" written on it.

-HJC