Volume 9 - The Dissociation of Suzumiya Haruhi Read online

  So I got a call. I thought I would get a call anyway. I have some business too. I’m prepared to have a talk with Koizumi or Nagato. My sister held the receiver with a big smile on her face.

  ” ‘Is Onii-san home?’, I answered ‘Kyon-kun is.’ ”

  Can’t you call me using the former too?

  “Who is it?”

  “It’s a girl-”

  My sister said that in a weird tone, I wiped my hands on the towel I placed on my head and took the receiver from her.

  “Ah, Kyon-kun, you have to help me with my homework after you get out of the bath. Arith~ matic~ drill~~ nn~~”

  After she finished that toneless song, she poked out her tongue at me and skipped out of the changing room like a kindergartener.

  A girl who would call me at this time?

  Who else but Haruhi? Maybe it’s Nagato because of what happened this morning? Could it be Asahina-san?…… don’t tell me it’s the (big) one. I’m not in the mood to listen to some strange advice right now.

  “Hello.”

  To prevent accidentally dropping the phone in the bathtub, I put my head out over the edge and placed the receiver to my ear.

  “Hello.”

  And that echo-like voice is—

  ~~

  Chapter 2

  α-1

  “Hello.”

  The voice echoing from the other side is a female voice that I had not heard before.

  It isn’t Haruhi, it isn’t Nagato, not Asahina-san from any time plane, not Mori-san, not Sakanaka, much less Tachibana Kyoko or Suou Kuyoh, or the one with a little possibility, Sasaki. One can know it after hearing the first sentence. The voice does not come from anyone I know of, a voice that has never entered my eardrums before.

  “Ah, are you bathing? Sorry! I am too impolite. Why don’t I call back later?”

  That isn’t necessary. However, just before I could say that…

  “But, but, if I call too many times it will be very… I’m really sorry.”

  After continuously hearing that incessant voice come through the headset, I stopped her.

  “Who is this?”

  “Its me. Me, just me~”

  No, you are not Haruhi, and so that is not considered a formal introduction.

  “How is it possible you don’t remember…”

  The female voice said. Since it’s coming from the phone, it’s not very clear. The owner of the voice spoke in a jovial high pitch.

  “But it is alright. I am only planning to say hi to you. Your younger sister is so cute! I want a sister just like her! Arithmetic drills~…… Hehe, so cute.”

  Eh? I haven’t heard this voice before, but her tone and style of speaking seems very similar to someone else’s. But no matter how hard I search in the recording stores of my brain, I’m still unable to find it. I only felt that it is a voice with a childish tone sounding like that of my younger sister.

  “I only wanted to hear Senpai’s voice.”

  The owner of the voice said.

  “It is only this, there are no other special purposes. If there is a need to trouble you next time, please take good care of me. If only we could be together for a longer time.”

  Wait, did this person call me a Senpai? Meaning younger than me? But, the voice indeed does not exist in my memory. Just when I wanted to tell her to “at least give me her full name”……

  “I am going to hang up. So chat again soon. If there is a chance, hehe.”

  Click.

  The opposite party hung up in a rather impolite manner.

  What exactly is this? Just a newly-reunited old friend Sasaki, Tachibana Kyoko and Kuyoh is enough to bug me, I do not wish to see more new characters appearing in this time frame.

  I suddenly had a stroke of inspiration and took a look at the call lists, only to find out that the other party had used a private number.

  All the way till the time I finished bathing and put on my pajamas, I continued to question myself on who exactly is the girl who called, and the end result is a waste of time.

  “What exactly is wrong with today……?”

  But I guess no matter what I think is useless, I should just go with the flow. If it doesn’t work, no matter what, I will make sure it does. If there are any surprises, I will discuss it with Koizumi, Asahina-san, Nagato …… and an infinitely long distance to Haruhi, in order from easiest to hardest. Till then, I could ignore whatever that happens.

  “How troublesome.”

  Tomorrow is a full day of rest, something that is extremely hard to come by, as long as Haruhi doesn’t come up with any strange ideas before I sleep, Sunday is going to be relaxing.

  To prevent myself from catching a cold after a bath, I hugged Shamisen like a heat bag and walked towards my younger sister’s room.

  * * *

  β-1

  "Hello."

  The voice echoing from the other side is a female voice that I had just heard this morning.

  The voice echoing from the other side is a female voice that I had just heard this morning.

  If it was Haruhi, Nagato or Asahina-san (big), it would still be alright. Haruhi would at most be telling us what naïve plans will be carried out tomorrow. If it was Nagato, I would have to discuss with her the measures that can be taken to deal with Kuyoh. For Asahina-san (big), I still have many, many things to ask her about.

  "Ah? Are you bathing? Your younger sister should have told me. Why don't I call you back later? But since you already answered the call, according to my predictions, you should be done and coming out soon, right?"

  It was not anyone I had imagined. I said the name of the owner of the familiar voice.

  "Is this Sasaki?"

  "Yes, it's me. As for today's incident, I originally wanted to talk to you for a longer time, but Suzumiya-san arrived a bit too early. I am afraid this is a miscalculation on my part."

  Sasaki laughed in her cluck-cluck voice.

  "But your younger sister hasn't changed one bit. I'd already told her my name, don't know if she didn't hear it or if she forgot about me already...... but I guess it cannot be helped, we have only met twice...... no, thrice.

  "If you wanted to be my younger sister's tuition teacher, I think you had better not."

  This is one of my rare contributions to the family.

  "I understand. How would I snatch your cute younger sister away? While there are billions of people who don't know each other at all, those whom one is related to in blood are only the few members in the family. This causes the ratio on the difference on both sides to increase. This is one of those things in the world that must be viewed seriously; as they say, blood is thicker than water."

  "So, what is it?"

  "I will be direct then. Nine in the morning tomorrow. Hope you can come to the old place in front of the train station. You know the place right? I guess you should, even if I mentioned only the old place part. As for what is going to happen...... well, actually it isn't me looking for you, and I guess it is time to listen to Tachibana-san directly. According to my considerations, I think you will understand this better than me."

  "Those fellows are coming, aren't they?"

  I felt very irritated the moment I remembered the quiet and alienate Kuyoh.

  "He should be coming as well. He is called... well, that self-proclaimed time traveler guy."

  This made me feel worse. If that idiot talks some rubbish about Asahina-san again, I have no confidence that I can control myself this time around. If I lose control and end up beating that guy up, you shall be the one to stop me.

  "So you are saying that you will be coming? Kyon, don't worry. Those three hope to come to terms without coming to blows. If we can exchange our opinions by just talking, no matter who it is, it would be better that way."

  Let's hope that alien understands Earth language. Speaking of that......

  "Sasaki, where did you go with them today?"

  "You wanted evidence to prove that I am not there? We took t
he train to the city and walked for a few rounds. Tachibana-san is really nice to hang out with. She even talked a lot about her high school."

  Sasaki calmly added.

  "And, about the incident four years ago."

  Four years ago.

  12 A pun on the fact that the incident from Melancholy took place four years ago.

  Because when I first heard about this was last year, and back then it was already three years ago. This is a keyword that everyone often talked about and caused them to shake their heads. That is when Haruhi used some sadistic superpowers to cause something major to happen till now. We can now host the Olympics12.

  "What did she say?"

  "You should ask her about this directly. I am still very confused now. Oh yes, Kyon, actually I am very unsettled now. It is like I am going to attend a swimming lesson tomorrow and yet not knowing how to swim(!), like an elementary school child."

  I remembered my middle school days when Sasaki stood and waited beside the pool. This person is indeed a girl. When she is mingling with other girls from the class, she seems like a normal girl. The only thing out of the ordinary would be her above average communication skills and her shining eyes when she is talking. Indeed, other than when talking to males, she is a common middle school, and now a high school, student.

  It had always been like that, but why must Sasaki call me and discuss such strange topics? This is indeed something not common at all. Must be a mistake somewhere. Whose fault is it?

  "Sasaki, I know that you are now the messenger of that group. But, I really don't understand, why must you do something like this?"

  Sasaki, on the other side of the line, remained silent for a while before breaking into a laughter of deep thought.

  "This is because I am your good friend, more than the others. If someone asked you out, you wouldn't be so obedient would you, after all you are not one who is so easily tricked, although you are quite easily defeated in a debate of words."

  I had never thought of defeating you in a debate of words.

  "You have indeed the qualities of a listener, with the right amount of intelligence, as well as that of innocence. Don't get angry, but reporting something you know the other party already knows is kind of meaningless. But for this, if the other party is Kyon, then there is nothing to worry about. You give others such a feeling, a feeling of being able to talk to you freely."

  I kept having a feeling that this doesn't seem like you praising me; but since these words came out from the mouth of Sasaki, they would be instantly understandable. Speaking of which, it had always been this way since long ago.

  "To not interfere with your younger sister's studying I'll be hanging up now. I also do not want you to lose your opportunity to wield the power of a senior. Make sure you wake up punctually tomorrow or I would've wasted my time flipping beds and cupboards upside down digging for the contact list of my ex-classmates. It would be easier if there was at least a contact number written on the New Years' card."

  I am going, of course I am.

  13 Identification Friend or Foe. Basically a system of determining whether something will be beneficial or harmful to himself or herself.

  I had long wanted to clarify things with them. There is no need to confirm anything by IFF[13], they long had enough information for me to classify them as an alien, time traveler and esper foe. Since they had decided to come together and not operate separately, it allows me to waste less effort.

  "Be careful not to catch a cold after bathing. And, please say hi to your parents for me."

  The phone lightly hung up.

  I hurriedly got out of the bathtub, put on my pajamas and hurried towards my room.

  * * *

  β-2

  I speedily picked up the phone Shamisen was lying on and called. Somebody picked up after only a few rings.

  “This is Koizumi.”

  The way you always remain on standby to pick up the phone as soon as possible is something that I really admire.

  “Because I felt that you would be contacting me very soon, in fact it seemed to have come a bit later. I originally expected you to call right after we were dismissed.”

  I called you immediately after Sasaki called me, if this is still considered late, I guess I have to put superluminal particles in the phone line.

  “Seems what we are talking about isn’t of great concern. So that is why, is it the other side that contacted you? No, I actually expected you to call me no matter Sasaki-san called you or not. Didn’t you have some things to ask me?”

  “Do you know that Tachibana Kyoko girl?”

  “Of course I do. After all she is someone who has no similarities with the ‘Organization’, which means she is from a competing faction.”

  I really wanted to know what kind of competition it is. It shouldn’t be some war with guns at a secluded corner I suppose. Don’t tell me it is a war with superpowers in sealed realities?

  “If that is possible, it would be really interesting. Unfortunately, this is not something that is so simple. Because she is not able to enter the sealed realities created by Suzumiya-san…… It is just that Tachibana Kyoko and her group is not much different from the ‘Organization’ I belong to. We had activities due to similar interests but each of us have our own explanations to them. I guess it can be put that way.”

  And that is the so-called legendary theory about the new world created by Haruhi three…… no, four years ago?

  “Although the inability to prove the theory causes it to remain an assumption, if we put it more simply this is how it will be. There are many believers in the ‘Organization’ as well. Regarding the fact that the source of our powers being Suzumiya-san, it is something that we had agreed upon. This point can be made without any exaggeration. All members, including myself, had already agreed with it.”

  What about Tachibana Kyoko?

  “That is why I said she is one of those representatives that doesn’t have powers bestowed upon her by Haruhi. Yet she just thinks that she does, making her different from us. A bunch of people refuse to believe Haruhi is a god. They could have been innocent bystanders, and yet somehow knew about these things and wanted to appear on the stage, although I understand how she feels as well.”

  Koizumi’s explanation seemed to be carrying some expression of pity.

  “So, what did Sasaki say?”

  “Tomorrow, I will be meeting them.”

  I told him everything Sasaki said.

  “Don’t know why, they seem to have something to say to me, and I have something to say to them as well. Even to the extent of giving them a earful.”

  Koizumi chuckled a few and continued.

  “Let me add on. Tachibana Kyoko will never carry out any acts of violence against you or Suzumiya-san. Regarding the kidnapping incident, she is actually disapproving of it. The problem lies with the inability of some people to control themselves after believing the honeyed words of the time traveler. And to them, you two are equally important. The one that is dangerous should be the opponent of Nagato-san. Her thoughts are harder to decode than that of the Integrated Data Sentient Entity.”

  After telling me to “Please be very careful”, the emergency telephone call between Koizumi and me ended. The reason why we did not have a longer chat is because I know Koizumi should know what I am trying to say with these. If I am kidnapped then, I would have to trouble you.

  “After that……”

  The next is Nagato.

  I am able to remember her phone number clearly even without using a phone book.

  This time round, the phone rang thrice.

  “…………”

  “Nagato, it’s me.”

  “…………”

  “Regarding tomorrow……”

  Although there is no reply, just from the silent breathing, I am able to tell who it is that picked up the phone. I continued the phone call without any form of response. All the way till I mentioned “And so tomorrow, I will be meeting
the alien I met today.” before she replied……

  “I see.”

  I heard Nagato’s voice, devoid of any emotion.

  “Unless Sasaki was lying, they plan to solve the problem peacefully. Koizumi thinks so as well. That is why I decided to consult your opinion.”

  “…………”

  And after a period of silence, one that lasts as long as looking up a word on the dictionary……

  “The immediate moment is of little danger. This matter can be approached without concern.”

  Because this came from Nagato, it is very convincing. I felt my body suddenly relaxing.

  “The Integrated Data Sentient Entity is currently analyzing their reports.”

  “Is there any actual information captured?”

  “Not yet, the only things determined are that it is a macro-spatial quantum cosmic existence.”

  “Did you manage to successfully communicate with that fellow named Kuyoh?”

  “Unable to find common link. Thought process remains unclear.”

  The riddling alien still remains a riddle?

  Just when I am wondering whether I could catch that Kuyoh woman and pass it to some alien development organization, Nagato suddenly continued.

  “Their salutation has been standardized temporarily.”

  “Oh, tell me about that then.”

  “Sky Canopy Dominion.”

  Without considering any dramatizations, Nagato revealed the name in monotone.

  “From what we see, they came from above the sky.”

  * * *

  α-2

  After finishing my younger sister’s homework with her, I left Shamisen with her and returned to my own room. I picked up the phone lying on my bed and called. Somebody picked up after only a few rings.

  “This is Koizumi.”

  The way you always remain on standby to pick up the phone as soon as possible is something that I really admire.

  “Because I felt that you would be contacting me very soon, in fact it seemed to have come a bit later. I originally expected you to call right after we were dismissed.”