Volume 7 - The Intrigues of Suzumiya Haruhi Read online

  Not unlike the Tanabata when I started being Mr. Sleep-for-Three-Years, I could let her put a blanket on me with Asahina-san. But even though I have confidence that I will fall asleep once I lie down, I can’t help but think that nobody would wish for that to happen.

  A time traveler occasionally sleeping at an alien’s house, that’s not too bad.

  “See you tomorrow.”

  “Understood.”

  Using her very calming gaze, Nagato expressionlessly stared at me. Her two serene pupils under her bangs stared fixedly at me.

  “Thanks for your work today. Sorry I made you go through all that.”

  Same with Asahina-san. The person who did the most work would be this Nagato and the Nagato that was there at the Tanabata four years ago.

  “No problem.”

  Her expression unchanged,

  “This all started because of me.”

  I stared at the alien until the door closed tightly. Earlier, I had wondered whether a smile would show up on her face, regrettably not — or very comforting, since the delicate, fair face is impassive as usual. But I thought there was something different from the past, thank my skilled eyes for noticing that.

  Coming out of the apartment, I slowly rode my bike home, and fell asleep as soon as I lay on my bed after getting there.

  I feel that if you fall asleep when you’re really tired, you will have a whole lot of weird, happy dreams. Thirty seconds after I woke up, I forgot everything about the dream, but the lingering mood told me everything I needed to know.

  A time traveler and an alien peacefully steeping tea together will leave this kind of a mood.

  So, just like putting Asahina-san down off my shoulders, I threw off all worries and lived calmly for a month.

  But there was still a problem.

  After seeing that extremely cute face, this problem had slipped my mind; but even though she fell asleep, Asahina-san wouldn’t forget what Nagato and I, along with Asahina-san (Big) went through on December the eighteenth. From her point of view, she had just heard from me that time and space had been changed and had not known whether to believe it or not. After going back in time to see the horrid scene in which “I” got stabbed, she got put to sleep. After she woke up, did she want to go back? — That’s the problem.

  From my point of view, she’d already completed her mission very well, since what she did only she could do. Except Asahina-san didn’t see it like that. Now that I think about it, not long after the end of the vacation, Asahina-san became very absent-minded and lost in thought.

  This and that Sunday Asahina-san who called me out melancholically are connected in some way. She even saved a kid wearing glasses from an auto accident that day. Actually, Asahina-san’s (Big) secrecy has an interesting implication. Whoever makes Asahina-san cry deserves to be beat to a pulp; this is indisputable. After reflecting for a while, I wondered how many times I’ve made Asahina-san cry? Next time I go to a boxing practice ring with Haruhi, I’ll practice some boxing. I can even enjoy the sensation of hitting people and being hit.

  To cut a long story short, it’s a good thing that Sunday when two people went to buy tea happened. It got me thinking about the future of the SOS Brigade, and it successfully lifted Asahina-san’s depression. To tell you the truth, I don’t know what she perceived, but we seem to have a mutual understanding. There’s no point explaining it in detail, especially not to Asahina-san now.

  I never mention John Smith in front of Haruhi. This is somewhat like me not telling Asahina-san about the adult Asahina-san; it has a similar meaning. This is the emergency trump card.

  If the time comes — —

  Well, I don’t want that time to come.

  …

  ……

  ………

  And as February began, the topic started to show up again.

  As soon as the new year arrived, the atmosphere around the school changed. For example, you will almost never see a third-year anymore. Around this time, they are all getting prepared for tests and whatnot, maybe this is the reason, but even the mood in homeroom was much more tense. As I think back to last year, it obviously does affect me. If the third-years don’t work attentively, and the marks do not surpass the competitive schools in the district, the principal will fretfully request everyone to enroll in extra courses or sacrifice the school cultural festival for mock tests and the like. And since I have to do this after two years, it’s very depressing.

  Talking about tests, the tests that determine your class number are about to begin. Our school has two of them. Actually, class nine, which Koizumi’s in, is Math/Physics. I’m not sure whether he just has connections or is naturally smart, I’m still amazed he managed to transfer in. I sure don’t take Math and Physics seriously enough to make them my principle courses.

  Temporarily moving my thoughts from the future to the present hell, University admission tests. Why can’t the quickly counting down senior days go by slower? I am purposely not looking at the calendar. Since I got back from December the eighteenth, I have been carefree and relaxed.

  All in all, I can’t think of a more dangerous job than fixing time and space. Since I completed it smoothly, just let me rest for a little while. Nagato is now exactly the same as before. Asahina-san’s smiling face has finally come back. Haruhi is a bit unusual, but she’ll be back to her noisy self in no time at all.

  At this point, there shouldn’t be any problems at all. I might as well say I don’t want to think about it. But, in the club room, a selfish person just has to bring up trivial matters and deem it important all by himself. He is the only brigade member to be cast aside with Haruhi, the useless during a time-space change esper, Koizumi.

  “There are two December the eighteenths you frequently visit, interesting.”

  After the incident at the mysterious mansion, Koizumi has enjoyed listening to the experiences I’ve had with time travel. Just like a smart little grandson wanting a story out of his grandparents, Koizumi has already asked and inquired many times before. He seems to really want to travel in time. I always feel like he envies me. I mean, on the way back from Tsuruya-san’s, he was heartily asking “Can I go too?” and “I don’t even care if I can’t see the past me.” and stuff like that. Needless to say, I completely ignore him.

  I am embarrassed because of the Nagato thing, so even though everything is over, I still talk obscurely about it. Finally, I cannot deter Koizumi any longer and, not wishing to offend him too much, told him about the incident.

  So, just as I had expected, he started to explain cheerfully.

  “You see, this all started when Nagato-san changed the world on the dawn of December the eighteenth. In that world, I, Suzumiya-san and Asahina-san were all normal people. You spent three days there, then you went three years back in Nagato-san’s Emergency Escape Program…… No, wait, four years now…… There you met the normal Nagato-san and went back once again to dawn on December the eighteenth.”

  Yes I know that. I’ve been there again recently, you know.

  “Okay, think about this. Dawn of December the eighteenth. Let’s label the time that Nagato-san changed the world as ‘X’. When you went from Tanabata four years ago to ‘X’, that ‘X’ already wasn’t the original ‘X’.”

  What? That’s impossible. There can’t be more than one ‘time’ at a time.

  “No, that’s just the way our minds work. It’s simple, really. If the world had not changed at ‘X’, Suzumiya-san wouldn’t have disappeared and I wouldn’t have become a normal person. If that were the case, you would have no reason to go back.”

  An ontological paradox. Yes, I know of those.

  “But this world requires you to go back in time to fix it. If you didn’t go, the world would have continued on its wrong path. So you went back to the past, and righted the world. Otherwise this time would not exist.”

  “Let’s draw a diagram. That might help.”

  Ever since the snow mountain incident, Koizumi like
s diagrams a lot. Picking up a whiteboard marker, he starts to trace a line down the whiteboard.

  “Let’s say this line is the world going on its original course from the past to the future.”

  The line stops in the middle of the board. He draws a circle on it and labels it ‘X’.

  “This is the original time. Here, Nagato-san changed the world she was in and your memories of that world begin.

  Koizumi begins drawing again. This time it isn’t a straight line. It’s a very rounded line curving to the right, making a circle leading back to the ‘X’ point. The diagram now looks like a budding leaf with half ripped off.

  “This circle is the memory you have after the eighteenth. The Emergency Escape Program let you return to Tanabata four years ago, and from there you went to the eighteenth. If Nagato-san had been reverted right here, everything would have been fine, but it didn’t work out like that I guess.”

  Because Asakura Ryoko was there. But, at that time, it wasn’t just Asakura who intervened. There was also a “Me” from the future, along with Nagato and Asahina-san (Small). We did everything in our power to revert the world to its former state. Now that I think about it, it took about a month.

  “That’s it. Which means you saved yourself. That is —”

  Koizumi’s pen started out from the ‘X’ point again, this time looping to the left,

  “— this part. The history of this world now. In the memory of Suzumiya-san and myself, you fell down the stairs on the eighteenth and lost consciousness, not waking up until the twenty-first. This was also two months ago, when you set out to save yourself.”

  Even after drawing the left loop, Koizumi didn’t stop the pen. He continued the line that ran through the ‘X’, only stopping when the line reached the bottom of the board. He put down the pen, took a half-step back, glanced at me and looked at the diagram intently.

  It was just a sideways eight, looking remarkably like an infinity sign ( ∞ ), with a line down the middle. It’s very easy to understand like this. The point all the lines connect is the ‘X’ time.

  I, who had always earnestly told myself I hated Math and Physics, was slowly beginning to understand what Koizumi wanted to say.

  The right loop was the time from my memory. After a series of chaotic events, I managed to make it back to ‘X’ and was there when Nagato changed the world. I even got stabbed by Asakura.

  The left loop was the time I missed. It was the time from when I lost consciousness after being stabbed up to when I woke up in the hospital. Those three days were this loop.

  And both circles start from ‘X’……

  “Meaning there are two ‘X’ times.”

  Koizumi answered me simply.

  “If the world before the change is ‘X’, then after the change — We can call it ‘X*’”.

  Koizumi, who had put down the pen, looked at his graph and was very interested.

  “Without an ‘X’, there would be no ‘X*’. So, the original ‘X’ did not disappear. We could say the two times are superposed. When becoming…… superimposed, it got covered up. The old data was overwritten with new data. The first ‘X’ ran for a while, but it and the changed world that stemmed from it were covered up by the ‘X*’, the second timeline. But it isn’t gone altogether, it’s still there.”

  “I don’t get it.”

  I pretended I didn’t understand, while suddenly remembering Asahina-san’s (Big) words.

  Something about a larger and more complicated time quake occurring.

  “It’s like looking at two separate overlapping circuits. The intersection looks like it’s a 2-D connection. If we add another dimension, that’s different. Even though in the world of horizontal and vertical lines they look like one place, they are at a different depth.”

  I rub my temples, pondering what a time traveler would make of this. Or an alien, for the matter.

  “There’s also another possibility I would like to share with you.”

  I’m pretty sure I’ll have to listen to anything he says now anyway.

  “The memory we have but you don’t have…… when you fell down the stairs on the eighteenth, to your awakening on the twenty-first, three days later, maybe it never existed.”

  It doesn’t really matter if it did or not. Besides, I was just lying there the whole time.

  “Yes, it’s just as you say. Do you remember what I said before? We cannot eliminate the possibility the world was created five minutes ago. Maybe you being lifted into an ambulance and out cold for three days never happened. You could also think, from when the world was changed on the eighteenth to when you woke up on the twenty-first, those moments don’t exist in time. If this were true, then Suzumiya-san’s and my own memories are made up and we’ve been made to believe them after everything was reconstructed on the evening of the twenty-first……”

  I did say I would listen, but no matter how I looked at it, it was ridiculo — I can’t say that. It’s not completely impossible. The past had been re-written for a year back, and this was only three days.

  “Change of topic. Suzumiya-san saw the reality of the shadow girl, she’s alert to it now.”

  Who? The person who pushed me down the stairs?

  “It was Nagato-san.”

  That’s hilarious. At the time, wasn’t Nagato going down the stairs with you guys? Apparently, I was at the back.

  “Yes. That’s what we all remember. Nagato-san didn’t push you directly. But she was the one that made up the story of you being knocked unconscious. And Suzumiya-san intuitively sensed that it was no accident. Of course she doesn’t really know it was Nagato-san. In reality, the perpetrator wasn’t at the scene of the crime. But Suzumiya-san doesn’t know that. What she does know is that for it to become like this, someone had to do something. So the culprit must be hiding nearby.”

  Koizumi smiled that bright smile.

  “That intuition sort of created the shadow girl. Of course, such a perpetrator does not exist. There is no mysterious shadow.”

  You can’t be telling me Haruhi suspects Nagato purely based on intuition. After Nagato’s new world was fixed, she changed everyone’s memories at will. But I can believe that somehow, Haruhi has come to realize something was wrong, that there was somebody, somewhere, doing something.

  “It’s a theory, what I came up with to answer your question.”

  The enlivening rogue sat on the chair and suddenly extended his arms wide.

  “In fact, I don’t understand how the timelines are created and paradoxes resolved. But then what is Asahina-san doing, coming here from the future? So now I have a question for you. If you could go into the past and steer history away from something awful, would you?”

  I suddenly think of Asahina-san (Big) on the night of Tanabata. When Haruhi and Koizumi, who had went to a different school, Asahina-san of the Calligraphy Club and Nagato with glasses were assembled, I pressed the ‘Enter’ key on the keyboard, and the second time-quake happened right away. The “I” from the past sitting on the long bench in the park. The “I” that helped the middle-school Haruhi draw the pictures.

  If I had ran up at the time, I wonder what would have happened. If I had told him everything that was going to happen, don’t let Haruhi make that movie, don’t give Nagato any trouble, etc, and gave him some advice.

  I can only shrug my shoulders, because there’s nothing else possible.

  “Yeah, I don’t know.”

  If I really had the chance to do so, I say do it before you think about it. I know the head will be hard to use, so just let the body do it. I always did that before, I’m anticipating doing it this time too.

  “But, no matter what people say, you can’t just go on time traveling trips, especially if it doesn’t impact us.”

  That’s too bad, I was going to take you with me this time.

  Even if your eyes look like Shamisen’s when he’s hungry in the middle of the night, I don’t care. Go beg Asahina-san; the adult one, that is. I h
ave no clue where you have to go to find her. The only thing I can tell you is, remember to bring some medicine for the dizziness.

  Koizumi, depressed, shook his head and started to play Shogi by himself. I continued reading my manga magazine like before, the club room was peaceful once again. I was just thinking, that’s good, when……

  “Sorry to make you wait!”

  With that, the door is kicked open. The main character in the chaos enters, her sailor uniform skirt and hair blowing charmingly and freely in the wind. The master of this room, Haruhi, is holding a convenience store bag, her face smiling complacently.

  “The stores in the neighborhood don’t have these snacks, so I had to go down the hill to get these. Ahh! I’m freezing.”

  There was an electric stove in the corner of the room, so she quickly stretched out her hands to warm them up. After the Brigade Leader came Nagato and Asahina-san. Both were carrying the same type of things as Haruhi.

  “………”

  Nagato silently closed the door.

  “Um, what should we do next?”

  Asahina-san, confused, cocked her head. Haruhi zealously replied,

  “Do I even need to tell you? Mikuru-chan, do you know what day today is? You couldn’t have bought all this without knowing, right?”

  “February the third. But, what does……?”

  “It’s the Spring Setsubun! Spring Setsubun!”

  Haruhi pulled out a vacuum-packed food package out of the convenience store bag.

  “That annoys me, Mikuru-chan. You didn’t do this when you were little? It’s Setsubun today, and if it’s Setsubun, you just naturally want to throw roasted soy beans and eat futomaki!”

  Futomaki really is a local tradition. In a nutshell, she’s a brigade leader that rigidly follows the little traditional festivals of the four seasons. Now, the SOS Brigade isn’t the ‘Save our world by Overloading it with fun: Suzumiya Haruhi Brigade’ anymore, it’s the ‘Save the world by celebrating all Obscure festivals: Suzumiya Haruhi’s Brigade’. This is so not a lie.