Suzumiya Haruki no Seitenkan:Volume1 Chapter7
An artificial human who claims to be created by aliens, a boy who traveled from the future, and a magical esper girl have all shown me proof of their identities in order to gain my trust. They revolve around Haruki for three different reasons. Honestly, it's not too bad at all. No, wait, it is bad. Because I still can't understand one thing.
Why me?
Itsuko said that the reason aliens, time travelers, and espers all gather around Haruki is because he wished for it.
Then what about me?
Why am I involved in all of this? I'm just a normal human being. One hundred percent normal. I don't have any sudden memories of a strange past life, or any unspeakable powers. Just an extremely normal high school girl!
Who the hell wrote the script for this story anyway?
Or has someone drugged me and caused me to hallucinate all of this? Or have I been struck by a toxic electric wave? Who the hell got me stuck in all this?
Could it be… Haruki?
…Just kidding.
I don't really know anything.
But why am I so troubled? It seems like all the answers rest with Haruki. He should be the one worrying, not me. Why do I have to be frustrated for him as well? This doesn't make sense! I've decided that it doesn’t make sense! If things are as Nagato, Itsuko and Asahina-sempai say, then you guys should just tell Haruki himself! Whatever becomes of the world then, that's his responsibility; I have absolutely nothing to do with it!
Just put him on your merry-go-round! Leave me out of this!
As the days counted down to summer, I walked slowly up the slope, wiping my sweat with my sleeve and wishing, as per the usual, that I could take a cold shower when I got to school.
If it was already this hot in the morning, it’d be hellish by noon.
Then as I was walking up Mt. Elbrus with gritted teeth, someone put their arm around me. I immediately yelled "Don't touch me! It's too damn hot!" and turned around, Taniguchi's cheerful face came into view.
"Yo!" Taniguchi, walking side by side with me now, was also sweating.
"It’s so annoying! This sweat is just ruining my hairdo," she said, though she still looked cheerful. Now that’s annoying.
"Say, Taniguchi," I cut in as Taniguchi went on babbling nonsensically about her dog, "I'm a normal high school girl, right?"
"What?" Taniguchi gave a laugh as though she'd heard a very funny joke. "Give me your definition of ‘normal’. This conversation won’t make any sense otherwise."
"That so?" I already regretted asking her that question.
"Just kidding! You, normal? HA! You think a normal high school girl would let a guy push her down in an empty classroom?"
Of course not. That’s something you’d do.
It looked like she wasn’t going to forget that anytime soon, however.
"Don’t worry! Your secret is safe with me! He is cute, so I understand,” she continued.
I’m going to hear about this for the rest of my life if I don’t do something soon.
"By my rating, Nagato Yuuki is an A-minus!”
…An A-minus, huh… interesting.
Dammit, what am I thinking about?
"Look, you’re misunderstanding. What happened was because…”
Right now, Taniguchi must be thinking something really perverted. In order to counteract this, I decided to use the following explanation”
Poor Nagato-kun is the victim of Haruki's unreasonable occupation of the Literature Club room. He was very troubled at not being able to hold activities for his own club, so he decided to come to me for help. He asked me if I could help make Haruki give up the Literature Club room and go somewhere else. Moved by his clear sincerity, I decided to help out the poor guy, and discussed it with him in a place where Haruki wouldn't find out about it. As we talked about what to do in the classroom after Haruki had left, Nagato fainted as a result of his chronic anaemia. I tried to catch him before he fell to the floor, but he was too big for me and so he ended up on top of me. That was when you came barging in. Indeed, now that you know the truth, it sounds perfectly innocent, right?
"Liar!" She even slapped me in between my shoulder blades after saying that.
Bah… it took me ages to come up with such a perfect cover story! I can't believe I couldn't fool her!
"Look, let’s say I believe those lies; I still don't think you're normal. If the unsociable Nagato Yuuki came to you for help, that's really something."
Is Nagato really that famous?
"Besides, you're a slave of Suzumiya. If that makes you a normal high school girl, then I'm as normal as a water flea."
If we’re going to talk about your normalness… "Taniguchi, tell me honestly, do you have any super magical powers?"
"W-wha-?" The already foolish look on her face went up a notch.
"I see,” she said, looking down “so even you aren't immune to Suzumiya's poison... Even though we don't hang out a lot, you really are nice. So please, try not to stick too close to me; I don't want to be infected with the Suzumiya Virus as well."
I glared at Taniguchi while she started to laugh uncontrollably.
…If this girl's an esper, then from today onward, I'm the Empress of Japan.
“Oh, that reminds me, Taniguchi,” I said suddenly. “Give me your phone’s SD card.”
“Huh?” She looked confused.
“I noticed you snapped a photo of Nagato and me while we were in the clubroom.”
“But I told you,” Taniguchi argued. “I’d never--”
“Give it here.”
After grumbling for a bit, Taniguchi ejected the card from her phone and handed it over to me. Even though I doubt she’d spread the photo around the school, I don’t feel safe with it in someone else’s possession.
…Besides, it’s my memory, and I want to keep it somewhere safe.
We reached the stairs leading to the school entrance. I was even sort of grateful to Taniguchi, as the weather had sort of cooled down after my conversation with her. Must be all the hot air she uses talking.
In hot weather like this, even Haruki could only lie exhausted on his desk, looking at the hills in the distance, full of melancholy.
"Kyon, I'm hot!" he whined.
Really? So am I.
"Fan me with your book."
"Instead of fanning someone else, I'd rather fan myself. I don't have enough energy early in the morning to fan you. Besides, since when am I your slave, anyway?"
Since I joined the SOS Brigade?
Haruki, unresponsive, remained laying lazily on the desk, lacking his usual pompous energy.
"What do you think Mitsuuru-kun should wear next?" he asked all of a sudden.
Well, after the Chippendale and the maid outfit would be... Hey, wait a minute, there's going to be another costume!?
"Should it be a catboy? Or maybe I should upgrade him to a butler? Maybe I should have him cosplay as Hard Gay…?"
Images of Ashaina-senpai blushing furiously as his small wriggling body is forced into all sorts of costumes flashed through my mind. He’s just too cute!
Haruki, guessing what I was thinking, scowled at me. "You look stupid," he decided, flipping his hair out of his face.
Hey, weren't you the one bringing up the subject? I guess he’s right, though, so I won’t argue with him -- out loud.
While fanning the neck of his uniform with a textbook, Haruki blurted out, "I'm so bored," his mouth perfectly like a heno-ji. He looked like a character from a manga.
After school, as always, I headed towards the clubroom. Haruki was on duty this week, so my walk there was free of his depressing atmosphere. As usual, I knocked first and waited for a reply before entering. Immediately a cute maid greeted me with the brightest of smiles, like a sunflower greeting the sun. Ah, I feel so warm!
Nagato sat by the table reading a book, as cold and pure as the first snowfall of the year.
Ugh, what kind of comparisons am I making?
"I'll go and make tea." Putting on his headband, Asahina-senpai went to the side of the rusty table and carefully placed the tea leaves into the teapot.
I sat in the commander's seat, watching Asahina-senpai busying himself, when I suddenly remembered the SD card in my skirt pocket.
Thinking that I’d add the picture to my collection of photos from the other day, I turned on the computer and waited for the hard disk to boot up. Once the screen appeared, I opened up the folder labeled “MITSUURU” and entered my password. As expected, the processing speed was unbelievable on the Computer Club's new model. In an instant, pictures of Asahina-senpai's maid costume images appeared on the screen.
After I made sure Asahina-senpai was busy brewing tea, I plugged the SD card into the slot on the front of the computer and transferred Taniguchi’s picture to the MITSUURU folder.
Looking at the picture of Nagato and me… if that was shown to anyone ignorant of the situation, they’d definitely misunderstand.
It was at that moment that I remembered what the older Asahina-senpai had said to me in the clubroom yesterday. I clicked on one of Asahina-senpai’s photos, and enlarged it again and again.
It was from the time Asahina-senpai was being forced into weird poses by Haruki. His bare chest could be just seen, and there it was, a little black mark. I highlighted that mark and enlarged it further; the image was a bit fuzzy, but sure enough, there was a star-shaped birthmark.
"So that's it." I said to myself
"Did you find something?" Before Asahina-senpai placed the teacup on the desk, I swiftly closed all the image files. By the time Asahina-senpai stood by my side, he’d find nothing on the screen.
"Huh, what's this? What's inside this "MITSUURU" folder?"
Dammit! Why did I have to go and give that folder such a stupid name?
"Why does that folder have my name? What's inside it? Let me see, c'mon! Let me see!"
I jumped out of the commander’s chair. "Aggh, um, what's inside... I wonder? Probably nothing… In fact there’s definitely nothing!"
"Reeaally?" Asahina-senpai cheerfully plopped himself down in the commander’s chair and moved the cursor towards the folder’s icon. Like I’d let that happen! I dived forward, trying to grab the mouse from him, but he pulled away easily and I only ended up reaching over his shoulder.
"Asahina-senpai, can you please just let go?"
"C'mon, just a peek!" Asahina-senpai, who seemed to be enjoying himself, continued to fight with me for control of the mouse. I felt the situation was going from bad to worse.
At that moment, a hand reached from behind me and snatched up the mouse.
"What are you two doing?"
We were frozen by a voice colder than absolute zero. Haruki, standing before us, looked down on us as though he had just witnessed his dad assaulting an innocent girl.
How long has he been here?
I slowly got off of Asahina-senpai who, at the moment, was still frozen in shock.
“So, Mitsuuru-kun,” Haruki said quietly. “I see you have managed to become more bold. Good. Congratulations. You’ve leveled up.”
What?
“Now get out of my chair.”
At this command, the stunned Asahina-senpai began to move. He got out of the chair, retreated slowly, and then slowly sat down at the table like an ASIMO robot whose batteries were nearly dead. His pale face looked close to tears.
Haruki made a "humph" noise, and plopped himself down in front of the computer. I managed to breathe a sigh of relief, until…
“Huh? What’s this folder?”
Not again…
“Haruki, wait, that’s…” I tried to stop him, but too late, he clicked on it.
“Password?” Haruki raised a suspicious eyebrow. “Obviously it’s Kyon’s brother’s name, right?”
I feel like such an idiot.
Upon viewing the lewd photos of Asahina-senpai inside, Haruki glanced at me. “I thought these photos were deleted…?”
He continued to scroll down through the photos, eventually getting to the photos of me in the bunny outfit. He gave me an icy smile.
“Heh. I guess this means you enjoyed wearing it? Maybe I should make it a rule that you should wear this in the clubroom from now on?”
“Yeah, sure, why not? Now how about you close that folder so I can—"
Too late, Haruki had seen the final image, the one that Taniguchi had snapped two days ago.
He froze. After a couple seconds, he got up out of the chair and turned towards me. "So, you're interested in serious bookish guys, huh?"
"What are you trying to say?" I responded, my eyes cast to the side.
Haruki plowed on unflinchingly, watching me react. “When was this taken?”
“T-two… two days ago…”
Haruki stared at me for a few seconds. “That was when you started wearing your hair differently. Did he tell you that it looks better on you that way?” He pointed angrily at Nagato, who was finally looking up from his book. “Because that’s—"
“Shut up, you moron!” I shouted suddenly. “Don’t misunderstand!”
This guy doesn’t know all crap that I’ve been through because of him! Of course not, since he’s too busy chasing time travelers and aliens! Well, Haruki, hurry up and realize that you’re pointing at one right now, you giant idiot!
Of course, Haruki couldn’t hear the thoughts going on through my head as much as he would’ve liked to and only looked at the ground. “So that’s how it is, huh….” His head snapped back up to face me, teeth bared. “Listen, you’re forbidden from doing anything like that ever again! This is your chief ordering you! I don’t want you to even so much as talk to him, understand?!”
“Shut up! You can’t tell me what to do!”
“Sure I can, I just—"
“Asshole! Stop acting like you’re special! You’re just an ordinary human being like everyone else, you can’t go making up rules however you feel like!”
<“You get NOTHING!” Lol, Bliss, ever watch Charlie and the Chocolate factory?
Haruki glared at me with wide eyes, biting his lip. Then, slowly, he stepped forward, his hands clenched into fists and without even realizing it, I took a step back. He took another step and this time I cringed, squeezing my eyes shut, waiting for him to strike. He never did. Haruki breezed by me, grabbed his schoolbag, and stormed out of the clubroom, slamming the door behind him.
I might have gone a bit too far myself there, but Haruki who didn’t understand anything, deserved it. Asahina-senpai, staring at the table, avoided looking at me. Nagato simply continued to read his book as if nothing happened.
At that moment, the door opened.
"Did I just see Suzumiya-san run down the hallway?”
Itsuko, who had just arrived, greeted everyone with her smile.
Since no one else was going to answer, I did. “He wasn’t feeling well. He decided to go home.” I said, still a little out of breath.
“Are you sure?” she said. “It looked more like he had just had a fight with somebody.”
“…”
I looked up at Itsuko, whose smile hadn’t wavered, and said finally, "Wanna play Othello?"
"Sure, I haven't played in quite a while." Itsuko, who took my non-sequitur in stride, sat down.
As black and white fought for control of the board, (I never thought that Itsuko, who could turn into a glowing sphere, would be so lousy at board games) Asahina-senpai got up and muttered something about making tea, while Nagato, of course, continued to indulge himself with his book.
I’m confused as to why we’re still here. That's right, that day we conducted our SOS Brigade activities peacefully. Nothing associated with aliens from a different dimension, time travelers from the future, red giants, or blue glowing spheres happened at that time. No one wanted to do anything special, nor did anyone know what he or she should have been doing. We just allowed ourselves to ride on the flow of time, living our high school life idly. Everything seemed perfectly normal.
Even though I was dissatisfied with such a normal life, I'd always tell myself, "Why think so much? You've got so much time." And then I would once again look forward to the next day.
Even with the fight today, I cheered up a bit. I came aimlessly to this clubroom and watched Asahina-senpai work busily like a maid, Nagato sit like a Buddha statue, Itsuko with her bright smile, and Haruki with his energy and mood swings. All these things gave off an aura of complete normality, yet all these had become part of my surprisingly satisfying high school life. Though I've had the out-of-reality experiences of a classmate trying to murder me and seeing fierce monsters appearing in a grey world, at this moment they seem more like a dream than something that really happened.
I was still angry at Haruki for trying to boss me around, but I did have to thank him for letting me meet such interesting people. Although I can’t really appreciate the other more outrageous things… Putting aside the question of "Why me?” maybe someday there'd be normal humans like me who want to join this club.
But in the end, there’s no predicting him because only one person in the world can control Suzumiya Haruki.
And that someone is Suzumiya Haruki himself.
That night, after eating dinner, having a bath and finishing my homework for tomorrow's English lesson, I decided it was time to go to sleep. I lay on my bed and opened the thick hardback book Nagato had stuffed into my arms. I thought a quick read wouldn't hurt, so I casually went over the first few pages. The story was surprisingly interesting, so I kept reading page after page. You really have to read through one to understand how enjoyable a book can be. Maybe I should read a bit more often?
Of course, it's impossible to finish such a thick book in one night, so I put down the book after reading a very long monologue by one of the protagonists. I began to get sleepy, and after placing the bookmark with Nagato's handwriting into the book, I switched off the lights and crept underneath my blanket. In a few minutes, I was in dreamland.
Do you know why humans have dreams? Sleeping is divided into Rapid Eye Movement (REM) and Non Rapid Eye Movement (NREM), and they go in periodic cycles. NREM occurs for the first few hours after a person falls asleep, the brain enters a stasis-like state during this stage. The stage in which the body is unconscious, while the brain becomes slightly active is known as REM, and dreams will occur in this stage. By morning, REM will have increased in frequency, meaning almost everyone will dream until they wake up. I dream every night, but as I usually wake up late in the mornings, I'm in such a hurry to go to school that I usually forget what I've dreamed. Yet, sometimes, I'll suddenly remember a long forgotten dream I had years ago. It's really amazing how a human's memories are structured.
Alright, enough technical stuff. I don’t really give a damn anyway.
I felt someone shaking me. Go away! I'm tired! Don't disturb my dreams!
"…Kyon."
The alarm clock hadn't even rung yet. Even if it had, I would have turned it off at once, and it was still quite a while before dad would send my brother in to drag me out of bed.
"Wake up already."
No… I want to sleep some more… Every minute of rest is precious.
"Oi! I said wake up! Can't you hear me?"
The hands on my shoulders were now shaking me until the back of my head banged against the hard floor and my eyes snapped open, already watering with pain.
Hard floor?
I sat upright, confused. Haruki looked down on me and backed off to avoid bumping our heads together.
"Sorry, had to wake you."
Kneeling beside me was Haruki in his school uniform. His white face displayed an expression of anxiety.
"Do you know where this is?"
Of course I do; we're at North High, the school we go to, and right now we're at the staircase in front of the shoe lockers by the school entrance. There were no lights on, and the school at night appeared grey before us…
No, wait. Something's wrong.
There was no night sky above.
Just a monotonous grey horizon. There was neither the moon nor stars, not even a single cloud. Only a grey sky like a concrete ceiling.
A world covered in silence and darkness.
This is Closed Space.
I slowly got up. To my amazement, I was not wearing my pajamas, but my sailor uniform. To my further amazement, I was wearing the ponytail I had lost 2 days ago.
"When I woke up, I found myself here, and you by my side. What's going on here? Why are we at school?" Haruki asked, his voice abnormally quiet.
I didn't answer him at first, instead trying to determine whether this was a dream or not. From the pain of pinching the back of my hand, to the feel of my uniform on my body, it definitely felt like reality. I pulled two of my hairs out and winced. I probably shouldn’t have gone that far.
"Haruki, are we the only ones here?" I asked.
"Yeah… last I remember, I was asleep in my bed and then suddenly...” Haruki looked up, “Where is this? The sky looks so strange..."
"Have you seen Itsuko?"
"Koizumi-san? No… why'd you mention her?"
"No reason, just curious."
If this Space was created by a ‘quake in the dimensional faultline’ or by Haruki himself, those glowing giants ought to show up and destroy everything, and Itsuko and the other espers are the only ones who can stop them. But if they’re not here…
"Anyway, let's escape from the school!” I said, walking forward. “Maybe we'll run into someone."
Haruki followed me. "Hey, how come you don't look worried at all?"
I am most certainly worried! I’m just not going to show it in front of you. What bothers me the most, though, is that you're here as well. Isn't this a playground for your giants? Or am I being oversensitive and just dreaming all of this? All alone with Haruki in an empty world… Freud would have no trouble analyzing this!
I remained at a distance from Haruki as we walked towards the school entrance, when an invisible wall suddenly stopped us in our tracks. I still remember the elastic feel of this wall. It could be pushed inwards a bit, but soon after, another harder wall would block any attempts to penetrate further.
"…What’s this?" Haruki reached out with his arms and tried to push the invisible wall to no avail.
“Like cold washed vegetables…” he muttered.
“Huh?”
“Nothing.”
I walked along the track field and traced the wall. It seems that we're trapped inside the school.
"It doesn’t look like there’s a way out of the school." I couldn't feel any breeze. It was as though even the air had stopped flowing.
"Let's try the back entrance!"
"I have a better idea,” I said. “Let's look for a phone. I didn't bring my cell phone to bed with me tonight.”
I don’t know how long it’ll take for the giants to come out, but I don’t want to be here when they do. Although, if this was the Closed Space that Itsuko told me about, then finding a phone would be useless. Even so, we still decided to go inside the school to look around. There should be a phone in the staff room.
The school looked eerie in the dark with all the lights off. We passed by the shoe lockers and silently entered the school building. Along the way, we turned on the lights for the first floor, and the ceiling lamps lit up at once. Even though they were cold, artificial lights, they were enough to elicit a sigh of relief from both Haruki and me.
After making sure there was no one in the classrooms on the first floor, we headed to the staff room. Of course, the door was locked, so Haruki picked up a nearby fire extinguisher, smashed the window open, and entered through there.
"...Doesn't seem to work." Haruki held the phone up to his ear, but apparently couldn’t hear anything. He tried dialing some numbers, but nothing happened.
We left the staff room and went up the stairs, turning on all the lights along the way. Haruki had suggested we return to our classroom, since the Class 1-5’s room was located at the top floor. Maybe we could figure out something by looking down from above?
Twice, the sound of the building settling startled me, and I grabbed Haruki’s sleeve on reflex each time.
After I did this the second time, Haruki glanced sideways at me. “If you're that scared, then grab onto my arm. It looks more natural that way.”
“Idiot." I said, but I didn’t let go of his jacket.
There was no change in our classroom; it was exactly like we'd left it after school.
"Kyon, come look..."
Haruki went quiet after looking out the windows. I walked to his side and looked down at the situation.
All around was a deep grey world. Looking down from the fourth floor at the top of the hill, I could even see the horizon beyond the shore. It was darkness within the panoramic view, not a single light was on and not a soul to be seen.
"What is this place…?” Haruki asked. “It’s like the end of the world…”
It wasn't everyone else that had disappeared, but rather, the two of us who had appeared here. It seems that we had stumbled into Closed Space by accident.
"This is weird." Haruki murmured, crossing his arms.
Since we didn't know where else to go, we returned to the clubroom where we usually spent our afternoons. As I'd already stolen the keys from the staff room, we were able to unlock the door and enter.
Both of us breathed a sigh of relief at returning to the familiar, well-lit room.
We turned on the radio, but couldn't even hear static. The clubroom was so quiet that only the sound of me pouring tea could be heard. I couldn’t take the time to change tea leaves, so I brewed the tea with thoroughly overused and tasteless ones. Haruki stood beside me blankly gazing at the grey world outside.
"You want some tea?" I asked.
"No." Haruki didn’t even look at me, just continued to stare out the window.
I took my teacup, pulled out a chair, and sat down. I took a sip. Sigh… Asahina-senpai’s tea is so much better than mine. I wonder where he got such talent…
"Just what is going on here!? I don't get it! What is this place? Why am I here?" Haruki stood by the window and faced outside; he looked very troubled. "And why am I stuck here with you…?"
I scowled. "What is that supposed to mean?"
Haruki scowled right back at my response. "I'm going to go look around." He said and proceeded to leave the room. I stood up as well, but he turned to me…
"You stay here, it’s safer. I'll be right back." After saying that, he dashed from the room. Just like him to do something like that!
While hearing Haruki’s energetic footsteps disappearing and sipping my tasteless warm tea, that thing appeared.
It was a small glowing blue sphere. At first it was the size of a table tennis ball, then slowly the sphere grew larger, shining like a firefly before finally taking on a humanoid shape.
"Itsuko, is that you?"
Before me was a glowing humanoid, but I could not see Itsuko's appearance clearly, just her bare outline.
"Hi!" A relaxed feminine voice came from within the glowing object.
"It took you long enough! I thought you’d appear in your human form…"
"It’s a bit more complicated than that. I'll be honest: this isn’t normal." The blue light flickered a bit. "If this were normal Closed Space, I could have gotten inside easily, but not this time. I can only appear in this incomplete form and that’s only with the help of my companions. I can’t even stay with you for very long. Our powers are disappearing slowly, even as we speak."
"Just what's going on? Is it just me and Haruki here?"
"Yes," Itsuko answered. "We’ve all been afraid that this would happen sooner or later and now it finally has. Suzumiya-san has grown tired of this reality and has decided to create a new one."
There was no way to respond.
"Our superiors are in a total panic. Who knows what the world will become when its God has disappeared. Though it's possible the world will survive as long as Suzumiya-san decides to have mercy upon it, it is also possible that it'll vanish in an instant."
"What are you trying to say…?" I don’t want to believe this.
"Simply put," the blue light was now flickering like a flame, "You and Suzumiya-san have disappeared from our world. This world is not Closed Space but rather a brand new world created by Suzumiya-san. The Closed Space we've seen before was probably just practice for this moment."
You know, that’s a really funny joke, but I don't know how to laugh right now. Ha. Ha. Ha.
"I’m not joking. This world is probably the closest to the world that Suzumiya-san desires. We're still not sure what kind of world that is, but we should have an answer to that soon."
"Look, let’s move on. The real problem is, why am I here?"
"You haven’t realized it yet? Suzumiya-san has chosen you. You are the only person that Suzumiya-san truly wants to be with. It’s really too obvious. " The light around Itsuko now glimmered like a torch running out of batteries. "I'm close to my limit now. At this rate, I'll never be able to see you again; on the other hand though, I'm kind of relieved since I no longer have to go hunting for those Celestials anymore."
"So I’m just supposed to live alone with Haruki in this grey world!?"
"Well, I guess you’re kind of like Adam and Eve. Just work hard on re-populating the world and it'll be fine! Don’t worry, I hear childbirth gets easier after you’ve had your first one."
"… If I get out of this, I’m going to hurt you."
"It’s just a joke! A joke! Right now this closed state is only temporary, but very soon it'll probably become similar to the world you know. Yet this world will be completely different from the world we're from. In fact, this world could be considered the real world, while the original world should be considered Closed Space. As for what differences there are between these two worlds, unfortunately, we don’t know yet. If I'm fortunate enough to be reborn in the new world, I’ll be counting on you to show me around."
At this moment, Itsuko the glowing humanoid object began to slowly disintegrate and then, like a star running out of fuel, now shrank to its original table tennis ball size.
"So there’s no way back to the original world?"
"If Suzumiya-san wishes it, it might be possible. It’s a pity that it’s come to this. I’ve only known you for a month, but I’ve really enjoyed my time with the SOS Brigade… Ah, right, I nearly forgot. I have to relay both Asahina Mitsuuru’s and Nagato Yuuki's messages to you."
Before Itsuko disappeared completely, she left this message: "Asahina Mitsuuru asked me to apologize in his place: he said, 'I'm sorry, it's all my fault.' Also, Nagato Yuuki tells you to 'Remember to turn on the computer.'"
After the message, she vanished like a candle flame blown out by the wind.
I don't know why Asahina-senpai had to apologize to me. Had Asahina-senpai done something wrong to me? But I decided not to think about that now.
Instead, I followed Nagato's request and switched on the computer. After the hard disk makes a beeping sound, the OS trademark should appear on the screen… That's strange, why is nothing showing up? The OS screen, which was supposed to appear after a few seconds, didn't appear; the screen was pitch black with only a white typing cursor flashing in the upper left corner of the screen. Then, the cursor started moving silently, and a line of cold words appeared.
YUUKI.N > Can you read this?
I was stunned for a moment, and then I pulled the keyboard closer and started typing.
'Yes.'
YUUKI.N > I have not completely lost contact with the world you are in. But that is only a matter of time, since the disconnection should occur very soon. If that is true, this will be our final conversation.
'What should I do?'
YUUKI.N > I do not know. The abnormal data spurt has disappeared completely on this side. The Integrated Data Sentient Entity is very disappointed with this, because they will lose the possibility to evolve.
'What do you mean by the possibility to evolve? Just how is Haruki evolving?'
YUUKI.N > Being highly sentient means being able to process data quickly and accurately. Sentient organic life forms are limited by the excessive inaccurate and mixed-up data streams caused by their physical bodies, and are unable to process data quickly and accurately. So after evolving to a certain stage, organic life forms will cease to evolve.
'Is it possible to evolve even without a physical body?'
YUUKI.N > The Integrated Data Sentient Entity is created purely from data. They too had believed that their ability to process data would increase infinitely until the universe overheated itself. But they were wrong. As with the universe having an edge, their evolution also has a limit, at least for sentient entities relying on data to survive.
'What about Suzumiya?'
YUUKI.N > Suzumiya Haruki possesses the ability to create massive amounts of data out of nothing. That is the ability that the Integrated Data Sentient Entity does not have. He can release data that could never be processed by a human, a mere organic life form, in its lifetime. The Integrated Data Sentient Entity believes if this data-creating ability is analyzed, then they will be able to find clues to how to auto-evolve.
The cursor flashed momentarily. Perhaps Nagato was hesitating on what words to use. The next second, the words flowed like water.
YUUKI.N > I'm betting everything on you.
'Betting on me for what?'
YUUKI.N > I hope that you can both return to this world. Suzumiya Haruki is an important observation target, an important treasure that might only appear once in this universe. Besides that, I also wish for you to return.
The color of the words began to fade as the electricity supply got weaker. The cursor continued to type out words.
YUUKI.N > Let us go to the library again next time.
The screen grew darker; I tried adjusting the brightness of the display, to no avail. Just before everything disappeared, Nagato typed out three more words:
YUUKI.N> the snow queen
The sudden sound of the hard disk whirring loudly made me jump in my seat. The access lights on the CPU flickered, and the familiar OS logo appeared. The sound of the computer fan was the only thing that could be heard in this silent world.
I tried to make sense of that final message. What had Nagato meant? Maybe he was talking about Yuki-onna... but that didn't seem to be right. I don't know how Nagato knew about it, but when I was little, the fairy tale of the Snow Queen was one of my favourite stories. The tale of the brave little girl going out in search of her one true love, overcoming every trial the world sent at her, until she was finally reunited with him in the palace of the Snow Queen, all of it made me imagine that someday I could have an adventure like that. And when it was all over, I could live happily ever after, together with my true love.
And so on and so on, I forgot how exactly it had ended, but wasn’t really the problem here.
"What should I do? Nagato! Itsuko! Someone answer me!"
I sighed deeply and turned my head despondently towards the window.
A deep red light shone in from outside.
A glowing giant now stood in the school courtyard. It was so close that it looked like a huge red wall.
Haruki burst into the room. "Kyon! Something's appeared!"
Haruki hurriedly squeezed beside me to stick his head out the window, mouth agape. "What is that? It's huge! Is it a monster? It doesn't seem like an illusion." He was beaming with excitement. His depressed anxiety from a while ago had disappeared. Right now, his eyes glimmered with enthusiasm. Unlike me, he wasn’t afraid at all.
"Is it an alien? Or it maybe it’s a super-weapon created by the ancients, waking up from its long slumber? Is that thing the reason we can't escape from school?"
The blue wall moved. The giant smashed the school building with ease, but I was too struck with terror to move.
A tremor ran through the building suddenly and Haruki pushed me down to the floor. Just as the ceiling cracked and bits and piece of debris rained down, Haruki shielded me with his body.
I could hear the giant still swinging and stomping. From this I knew the giant's target was not the clubs complex but rather the school complex opposite.
“…T-thanks. You okay?” I asked Haruki.
Haruki coughed and grinned. “Heh, this is nothing.” As he got up, plaster dust and chunks of roof slid off his back. “Put your arms around my neck.”
“Huh?”
“We need to get out of the building. Put your arms around my neck so I can carry you out of here!” Haruki said, already reaching underneath me with his arms.
“Hey, wait!”
Too late, I was already in his grasp. Reluctantly, I reached up and put my arms around Haruki, who picked me up and dashed out of the clubroom.
With the speed of someone who would have been the ace of the track team, Haruki ran towards the staircase. Every moment punctuated by steel and concrete being torn apart as the giant continued its rampage.
Being where I was, I could feel Haruki’s heart pounding against his chest, almost beating into me.
After crossing the courtyard, we headed past the slope and towards the track field. At this moment I took a quick glance up at Haruki. It might have been the angle that I was looking from, but he seemed quite happy. It was like seeing a child waking up on Christmas morning and finding out the presents he had wanted all along were now by his bedside.
After running a fair distance from the school buildings, Haruki stopped, turned and together we saw just how huge the giant was. The giant was the same size as the one Itsuko showed me in Closed Space, almost as tall as a skyscraper.
The giant waved its hand, and the school building collapsed. Since the four-story complex was already ripped open from its previous strike, it now fell easily. The debris fell and scattered in all directions along with the deafening noise it created.
Haruki ran frantically to the centre of the two hundred meter track field, where he stopped and put me down.
An unbelievable red giant has now appeared in the dark monotonous school. If you want to take pictures, you should be taking these, and not pictures of the president of the Computer Club groping Asahina-senpai's package, and definitely not pictures of Asahina-senpai wearing all sorts of costumes. The website ought to have pictures like what we're seeing right now!
As I was thinking about this, Haruki quickly said in my ear, "Do you think she'll attack us? I don't think she's evil at all… whaddya think?"
"I don’t know." As I answered Haruki, I thought about what Itsuko told me when she brought me inside Closed Space. If we let these "Celestials" continue their rampage, then after their destruction, Closed Space will replace the real world, meaning this grey world will replace the world we came from, and then…
What will become of our world?
According to what Itsuko just told me, Haruki seems to be creating a brand new world. Will the Asahina-senpai and Nagato I know be in this new world? Or will it be a surreal world where these "Celestials" walk around freely, and aliens, time travelers, and espers become commonplace?
If the world really becomes like that, what role will I be playing?
Argh, forget it! It's useless trying to think anymore, because I just don't get it. I don't get what Haruki's thinking, and I don't possess any telepathic power that allows me to read what others think.
At this instant, I heard Haruki speaking to me, "What’s really going on here? Whether it's this world or that giant, it's so weird…"
Those things were all created by you, buster! I should be the one asking the questions! Why'd you drag me into all of this!? Adam and Eve? No way! It’s so stupid! I won't believe in such a crappy story! Never!
"Don't you want to return to the original world?" I asked calmly.
"What did you say?" Haruki turned towards me. His fiery eyes were now shrouded in darkness.
"We can't just stay here forever! There's not a single shop, so there's nowhere to eat when we get hungry. Besides, the school's surrounded by an invisible wall: there's no way out of here. At this rate we'll just starve to death."
"Don’t worry so much! Things will eventually sort themselves out, I’m sure of it. For some reason, I feel really happy all of a sudden!"
"Then what about the SOS Brigade? You created that club! You're just gonna leave it?"
"I really don't give a damn anymore! I'm already experiencing something exciting now; there's no need for me to go out and search for mysterious events."
"But, I want to return to the original world."
The giant momentarily stopped in its demolition of the school.
"Before we ended up in this strange situation, I didn't realize how much I liked my life the way it was. There I have the idiot Taniguchi, Kunikida, Itsuko, Nagato, Asahina-senpai, and even the long-vanished Asakura-san, I guess."
"…What are you talking about?"
"I really want to see those friends again. I have a lot of things I want to tell them."
Haruki turned back towards the school, and then spoke. "We'll see them, don’t worry. This world won't be covered in darkness forever. Once morning comes, the sun will come up. I'm sure of that."
I shook my head. "It's not like that. This world isn't what you think it is. I really want to see those friends again, in the original world!"
"I don't get what you're talking about." Haruki turned back towards me, scowling at me like a kid who just had every birthday gift snatched away from him. "Aren't you sick and tired of that boring world as well? There's nothing special in the normal world at all! Don't you want to experience something interesting as well?"
"I used to think like that."
The giant started moving. It kicked the remaining parts of the school complex and headed for the courtyard. On the way, it swiped at the school corridor with its arm and gave the clubs complex a huge kick.
I looked over Haruki's shoulder and was astonished to find other glowing red giants appearing. One, two, three......when I got to five, I decided to give up counting.
Without the blue glowing spheres to stop them, the glowing red giants now began their destruction of this grey world without delay. I don't get what's so interesting about all this destruction. Every time they moved their arms and legs, everything that they touched disappeared instantly.
In a moment, half the school had vanished.
I couldn't tell how large this Closed Space was, and I didn't know if this dimension would expand and become another world. At this moment, my mind was still full of uncertainty. If at this instant, an old drunkard sitting beside me in a train had said to me, "Let me tell you a secret that you can’t say to anyone else! I'm actually an alien," I would have believed him right away. The number of mysterious events I've experienced has now increased by infinity compared to a month ago.
What exactly could I do? If it were a month ago, maybe I wouldn't have thought of anything, but right now I knew what I had to do. I've already received so many hints.
Once I'd decided what to do, I said the following:
"Haruki, these last few days, I've experienced some very interesting things. Though you may not know it, there are all sorts of people who are really interested in you. It wouldn't be too far-fetched to say that the world literally revolves around you. Everyone believes you are a very special person, and they've tried to back up those beliefs with actions. You may not know it, but the world is headed in a very interesting direction."
I placed my hands on Haruki's chest and I could feel his heart rate double. He looked at me with an uncomfortable face that said, "What's gotten into you?"
And then, he turned away from me again, towards the rampaging red giants, with a serious expression on his face.
Looking at his handsome and lively face, I remembered Nagato's "evolution possibility", Asahina-senpai's "temporal distortion", and Itsuko treating Haruki as "God". But what is Haruki to me? What do I think about him?
Haruki is Haruki, what else can I say? I didn't intend to just answer like that though. Yet, I didn't have a definite answer. I knew it'd come to this, right? If you had pointed at the classmate behind me and asked, "What is he to you?" - how do you think I would answer? ...This, I'm sorry, I'm going in circles again! To me, Haruki's not just an ordinary classmate, and certainly not any "evolution possibility", "temporal distortion" or even "God".
The giant turned in our direction. Despite not having any eyes, I could still feel it looking right at us. It took a step towards us, which had to be a couple of meters at the least, with how quickly it shortened the distance between us even though it was walking so slowly.
I knew what I had to do. After all, Asahina-senpai and Nagato had both given me such obvious hints: the Frog Prince, and the Snow Queen. Please, there's no way I didn't know what the Frog Prince is supposed to mean! And in that context, I remembered how the brave girl had gotten her love back from the Snow Queen. The answer was right in front of me.
This sucks. Asahina-senpai, Nagato, how could you ask me to do such a thing? There's still my feelings to consider too, you know! That sort of thing is very important to a girl! Besides, even if I went through with it, there was no way Haruki would turn into a handsome prince just like that.
But it was probably the only way to escape the Snow Queen's palace. My rationality screamed out against it, but humans were never the sort to listen solely to reason, since we were full of what Nagato would call "noise" in our data. I planted myself firmly in front of Haruki, and looked him square in the eye.
"What is it now..."
"You know, you got it all mixed up in the clubroom."
"Huh?"
"I'm actually not into bookish type at all. I’d rather have a guy who can lift me up in his arms!
"What are you talking about?"
Seems like he doesn't get it. Well, there's an easy remedy for that.
I grabbed his necktie, and dragged him down to meet my lips.
It's more polite to close your eyes at times like this, so I closed mine. And so, I didn't know what expression Haruki had. Were his eyes open from the shock? Or did he close his eyes as well? I could feel his heartbeat again, pounding like a bongo drum. Slowly, I slid my arms up around his neck...
Suddenly, he wrapped me with his arms and pulled me in closer. And… was… was that your tongue I just felt?!
I could still hear the rumbling in the distance; it seemed the giant was still destroying the campus. Just as I was thinking that, I suddenly lost my balance and fell downwards. Everything felt like it was turning upside down. No matter what I did, I couldn't keep my balance. I fell to the cold, hard ground, and then... I opened my eyes and saw a very familiar ceiling.
I'm stunned.
I was in my room, and appeared to have fallen out of bed onto the floor. Of course, I was wearing my pajamas. Half of the messed-up blanket lay on the floor. My arms were clutching a pillow, which was covered in my saliva. I immediately threw it aside.
It was some time before I could think again.
In a half-dreamlike state, I slowly stood up, opened the window, and looked outside. I saw a few twinkling stars and the shining street lamps. I confirmed there were lights coming from other people's windows and occasional silhouettes moving behind them.
Was it a dream? Had I been dreaming all of this?
I had a dream where I fell into a surreal world with a guy I knew, and then ended up making out with him! A dream so simple to understand that even Sigmund Freud would cry, laughing.
Urgh, I just want to hang myself right away.
If it were with, say, Nagato, then I could have at least gotten some sort of well-detailed personality analysis from this dream. But no, I had to dream of myself kissing Haruki, of all people! What on earth was my subconscious thinking!?
And what on earth did the Frog Prince have to do with that?! If my memory's correct, the original fable had the princess cutting of the frog's head to bring him back to normal. Why couldn't I have cut off Haruki's great ugly head to restore the world? Why did I have to get the stupid kids' version?!
I sat wearily on the floor, my energy spent, and held my head, thinking that if it had all been a dream, why did it feel so real? The smell of Haruki's sweat, his quickening heartbeat, and the feel of his tongue in my mouth...
......Does this...does this mean that this is no longer the original world? Is this a brand new world created by Haruki? Is there a way for me to confirm this?
There isn't, no matter how hard I thought. Or rather, I never wanted to think about such a problem. If I had to admit that all of that was a dream because my brain was out of order, then I'd rather believe that the world had been destroyed.
I looked at my alarm clock. Two thirty in the morning.
...I'm going back to sleep.
I pulled my blanket over my head, asking my mind to give me some peaceful sleep.
I couldn't sleep, though that isn't the only reason I feel terrible this morning.
Right now, I'm so exhausted that I almost need to crawl in order to climb up the slope. This is killing me, to be honest. I'm just glad I didn't meet Taniguchi on the way, or I'd be forced to hear her go on and on. The sun continued to release the heat from its endless nuclear fusion. Mr. Sunshine, please, can't you take a break once in a while? I'm going to fry to death!
I need a shower. And a bath. Anything to get rid of the feeling from my dream last night, please. I had finally remembered the ribbon the older Asahina-senpai had given me, and randomly decided to tie my hair up again today, so that I could at least keep the hair out of my eyes and maybe stay awake. It didn't help.
Refusing to come when I needed it, the sleep demon now circled around my head when I least wanted it. If it keeps going on like this, I don't know how long I can remain conscious in the first class.
When I saw the school complex, I stopped and looked at the crummy old four story building. The sweaty students all crawled into the school buildings like a bunch of ants.
I dragged my feet up the stairs, and then into the familiar room of Class 1-5, stopping three steps from the window.
Haruki was there, grinning. "Yo, Kyon. I just wanna say that I’m sorry about yesterday. I overdid it a bit."
I placed my bag on the desk, and said “Whatever. It's over and done with, it really doesn't matter anymore.”
Haruki looked at me, actually concerned. “You feeling okay? You don't look so good.”
"I feel miserable!” I said, pouting. “I had a terrible nightmare last night."
“Really?” Haruki's grin quickly returned to his face. “I had the best dream ever.”
I glared at him and turned my face towards the window.
Haruki went quiet. I could feel his eyes studying me.
"Hey, Kyon," he said, after a few minutes pause.
"What?"
"You look great in that ponytail."
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