Volume 3 - The Boredom of Suzumiya Haruhi Read online

  “Reward? Well……”

  The adult Asahina-san elegantly placed her hands under her chin and thought deeply, then she gave a mature smile,

  “I have nothing to offer you, but you could kiss me while I’m sleeping softly. And make sure it’s only when I’m sleeping.”

  Such an attractive deal! That’s exactly what I’ve been wishing for. The sight of Asahina-san sleeping soundly was so cute I was tempted to do it, but……

  “That’s a bit……”

  Whether it was my mood or the situation then, I just don’t feel like it would be appropriate for me. Frankly, I was disgusted at myself for being so rational then.

  “Time is running short, I must go now.”

  Is this the hint you’re giving me this time?

  “Oh, yes, please don’t let her know that I was here. Let’s hook our fingers and make a promise.”

  I automatically lifted my little finger and hooked it with Asahina-san’s (big) little finger. Can I hook it for a minute longer?

  “Goodbye then, Kyon-kun.”

  Asahina-san (big) said cheerfully and walked off into the darkness, she was out of sight in no time. She sure left slickly this time.

  “Now then……” I muttered to myself. I wonder when I’ll meet this adult Asahina-san again? I had a feeling she hasn’t changed much since giving me that strange hint the last time we met. Maybe this Asahina-san who appeared came from an earlier time plane than the one I met before. I don’t get it. There’s no way I could. Judging from the mood just now, it was possible I would meet many more Asahina-sans from different time periods.

  Asahina-san, who I carried on my back, wasn’t light, but she wasn’t exactly heavy either. It was natural that my pace has slowed down. Her angelic face breathed such soft breaths into my ear that it was almost criminal. My neck felt itchy from her breathing.

  I avoided the glances of the pedestrians (though there was hardly anyone else on the street), and quickly headed in the direction the adult Asahina-san had pointed out for me. I think I walked for another ten minutes, the pedestrians on the road became less and less as I walked along. After turning around a corner, we finally arrived at our destination.

  East Junior High. I’ve heard of this place. This was Taniguchi and Haruhi’s junior high. Speaking of which, a familiar person was now standing in front of the school fence. I instantly recognized the small figure that was about to climb up the metal fence.

  “Hey!”

  After yelling, I felt surprised. How did I know who this person was? This was too incredible. I looked at that person’s back, the height was much shorter, while the dark straight hair was neither long nor short.

  Of course, there was only one person who I knew would sneak out at night and scale the school fence.

  “What?”

  It was now that I truly began to feel that I was now face to face with a past reality three years ago. No kidding, it seems like I’ve really traveled three years back in time.

  Leaning by the fence, the face that turned and looked at me was indeed younger than the commander of the SOS Brigade that I know.

  Leaning by the fence, the face that turned and looked at me was indeed younger than the commander of the SOS Brigade that I know. Yet there was no mistaking that pair of glittering eyes, those were Haruhi’s eyes. Even if she dressed casually in a T-shirt and pair of shorts, she still looked the same to me. Three years ago, Haruhi was in her first year of junior high. Could she be the person Asahina-san wanted me to help?

  “Who are you? A sex criminal? Or a kidnapper? At any case, you look suspicious.”

  The blurry street lamps showered the street in a dim white light. I could not clearly make out Haruhi’s expression, yet Haruhi, the first year junior high student, was now looking at me with eyes that has seen something suspicious. Who looked more suspicious? A girl trying to scale the school fence in the middle of the night? Or me who was loitering around carrying a sleeping girl? I really don’t feel like giving this question any thought.

  “You’re the one looking suspicious instead. What’re you doing here then?”

  “What else would I be here for? To illegally enter the premises, of course.”

  Don’t openly declare your criminal intentions like that, there’s a limit to being shameless!

  “You came just in time. I don’t know you, but if you’re free, then help me out a bit! Or I’ll call the cops.”

  I should be the one calling the cops, but I’ve already promised the other Asahina-san. On the other hand, why do I always find the existence known as Suzumiya Haruhi clinging on to me? Even here in this time period?

  Haruhi leaped to the inside of the fence and opened the lock on the fence with a key. Where’d you get those keys from?

  “I stole them when no one was looking. It was too easy.”

  She was truly a pickpocket. Haruhi slowly slide open the metal fence and waved at me. I walked towards the little girl, who was one head shorter than her future self three years later, holding Asahina-san up properly.

  Next to the entrance of East Junior High was the track field. The school complex was opposite us. Haruhi started to walk diagonally across the dark track field.

  It’s good that it was so dark, since she wasn’t able to see clearly my face or Asahina-san’s. In three years time, Haruhi would never have thought that she had met me and Asahina-san while she was in her first year of junior high. So it was good this way, or it’ll become troublesome.

  Haruhi went straight to the corner of the track field and led me to the back of the sports equipment storage. Inside was a rusty wagon, and a chalk-drawing machine hanging behind its wheels, as well as a few bags of chalk powder.

  “I had these hidden beforehand in the storage house during the evening, pretty clever huh?”

  Haruhi beamed, she then carried the bag of chalk powder, which was nearly as heavy as her, onto the wagon and pushed the handle. The way she slowly pushes the wagon made me realize how young she really was. I guess junior high students are still more or less kids in their first year.

  I carefully placed the sleeping Asahina-san down and let her lean against the wall of the storage house, please sit here like a good girl for now.

  “Let me do it! Give me that thing, you go carry the chalk-drawing machine.”

  Should I really be helping her? All this time I have been driven around like a slave by Haruhi, she was like a robot that went astray and won’t stop until she has destroyed everything. She was still the same from the past all the way to the present. It seems a person’s inherent nature won’t change so easily in the space of three years.

  “Follow my instructions and draw the lines. That’s right, you there. Because I need to watch over you from somewhere afar and see if you’ve made any mistakes. Ah! You’ve drawn it wrong there! What’re you doing!?”

  To be able to order around a high school student she never met before without even flustering, there’s no doubt this is indeed Haruhi. If I had met this sort of junior high schoolgirl for the first time, I probably would have thought she’s mentally insane.

  If I knew her before meeting Nagato, Asahina-san and Koizumi, that is.

  Following Haruhi’s instructions, I drew white lines along the left and right side of the track. For nearly thirty minutes, not a single night-shift teacher appeared, and neither did a police car come to investigate after receiving complaints from neighbours.

  Could the strange symbolic patterns that Taniguchi said suddenly appeared on the track field be drawn by none other than myself?

  I silently looked at the pattern that I worked so hard to draw out. Haruhi now came to my side and snatched the drawing machine from me. She then began to draw a few more lines and said,

  “Hey, do you believe there are aliens?”

  Now that was sudden.

  “I guess there are.”

  The image of Nagato’s face flashed in my head.

  “Then what about time travellers?”

&n
bsp; “Hmm, it’s not surprising if they exist.”

  Right now, I’m a time traveller myself.

  “Then what about espers?”

  “They’re everywhere, I guess?”

  I suddenly thought of numerous red spots flying around.

  “And sliders?”

  “I haven’t met them yet.”

  “Hmph.”

  Haruhi threw aside the chalk-drawing machine and rubbed the chalk off her face with her shoulders.

  “Hmm, this should do.”

  I began to feel uneasy, was it because I said something I shouldn’t be saying? Haruhi looked up at me and said,

  “Is that a North High uniform?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What’s your name?”

  “John Smith.”

  “……Are you an idiot?”

  “Can’t I use an alias for once?”

  “And who’s that girl?”

  “That’s my sister. She’s suffering from a sleeping disorder called narcolepsy. She’s been like that for some time now, suddenly falling asleep anywhere and anytime, which is why I need to carry her around.”

  “Hmph.”

  Haruhi bit her lower lip and turned aside, revealing an expression of disbelief. I decided to change to subject.

  “By the way, what is this for?”

  “Can’t you tell? It’s a message.”

  “For whom? Don’t tell me it’s for Hikoboshi and Orihime?”

  Haruhi looked surprised and asked me back,

  “How did you know?”

  “……Well, it is Tanabata today. I happen to know someone who does something like this as well.”

  “Really? I’d sure like to meet that person. Is there really such a person in North High?”

  “Yup.”

  From now till then, the only person who would do such things is you.

  “Hmm, North High huh……”

  Haruhi muttered to herself as in deep thought. She was silent for some time like a salted vegetable, she then suddenly turned around the next moment.

  “I’m going home now. I’ve achieved what I came here for. See ya.”

  She walked off in great strides. Not even a word of thanks? How rude, yet that sure is how Haruhi would behave. Besides, she never gave her name all this time. I had a feeling it’s probably good that she never did.

  We can’t just stay here forever, so I decided to wake up Asahina-san. Of course, not before I returned the wagon and chalk-powder which Haruhi abandoned back into the storage house.

  Sleeping like a kitty cat, Asahina-san looked so cute I was tempted to do something naughty to her, but in the end I resisted this urge and slowly shook her shoulders.

  “Um……huh. Eh?……”

  Opening her eyes, Asahina-san began to look around non-stop.

  “EH!?”

  She shouted and stood up at once.

  “W,w,w……where is this place? Why? What time is it now?”

  How should I answer her? Just as I was about to look for an answer, Asahina-san suddenly yelled, “AH!!!” Even in the dark, I could tell that her white face was now paler than usual.

  Asahina-san searched herself with both her hands,

  “The TPDD……it’s gone. I can’t find it~~.”

  Asahina-san was on the verge of tears, then after a while she really started to cry. She looked just like a kid that got lost as she rubbed her hands on her eyes and wept. But now is not the time to adore her cuteness.

  “What’s a TPDD?”

  “Sob~~……That’s classified information, I’m not supposed to say……it’s something like a time machine. I used that to get us to this time plane……but I can’t find it. Without that, we can’t return to the time where we came from……”

  “Then how did it go missing?”

  “I don’t know……I’m not supposed to lose it……but it’s really gone.”

  I thought of the other Asahina-san, who was touching her a while ago.

  “Wouldn’t someone come and help……”

  “It’s impossible. Sob~~.”

  Asahina-san explained to me as she sniffed, that every event in a time plane has been decided, so if there exists a TPDD, then it should be with her. And right now she no longer has it with her, then that means it’s already inevitable that she would lose it, so it has been decided that she “no longer carries it”……something like that. What’s that supposed to mean?

  “In other words, what’s going to happen to us now?”

  “Sob, sob. It means, if things remain this way, we’ll be stuck on the time plane three years ago and won’t be able to return to our original time.”

  Now that’s serious! I thought to myself, yet somehow I don’t feel alarmed. The adult Asahina-san never told me anything about this. I’m guessing she should be the one who took the TPDD away and created such a situation. I deduced that Asahina-san (big) came here to the past just for that purpose alone. For the Asahina-san who came from a further time than this Asahina-san, this was inevitable.

  I moved my eyes away from Asahina-san, who was sobbing sadly, and towards the track field. The mysterious pattern that Haruhi thought up and drawn by me looked very scrambled up. The teachers and students of East Junior High are probably going to get a shock when they see this next morning. I just hope that these scribbles are not some curses aimed at aliens……Just as I was wondering away, then it finally hit me.

  It was dark everywhere, the school was only dimly lit by the blurry street lamps outside. As the white lines that I drew were so big, if I didn’t stand back some distance, I wouldn’t be able to see it all.

  Which was why it took me so long to discover it.

  I reached for my pocket and took out the tanzaku Nagato gave me. On it were drawn some mysterious geometric shapes.

  “There may be a way out of this.”

  I said, Asahina-san looked at me blinking her eyes while I continued to study the tanzaku.

  The symbolic patterns drawn on it was exactly the same as Haruhi’s message for the stars, the graffiti that Haruhi and I drew on the school field not long ago.

  We hastily left East Junior High and came to a high-class apartment complex near the station.

  “Isn’t this……Nagato-san’s home?”

  “Yeah. I didn’t ask her specifically when she came to Earth, but I’m sure she was here three years ago……I guess.”

  I stood at the main entrance of the apartment complex and pushed the button for Room 708. A beep sound was heard through the intercom, I could feel the warmth of Asahina-san’s nervous hands through my sleeves. I spoke into the speaker,

  “Is this the residence of Nagato Yuki?”

  “……” The intercom replied as such.

  “Um, I don’t know how to say this……”

  “……”

  “I’m a friend of Suzumiya Haruhi……does that make any sense to you?”

  A frozen-like breath can be heard through the intercom. A brief pause, and then……

  “Come in.”

  Beep The main gate opened. I led Asahina-san, who was looking terrified, into the elevator. We arrived at the seventh floor and came in front of Room 708, which I have visited once before. I pushed softly on the door, which then opened slowly.

  There stood Nagato Yuki inside the door. Everything felt surreal to me. Was it really true that I and Asahina-san had travelled back in time?

  Nagato looked exactly the same as I saw her before, which led me to doubt whether we even travelled through time. The way she wore her North high sailor uniform, looked at me with her emotionless eyes, and her seeming lack of body warmth and sense of existence was no different to the Nagato that I knew. Yet, the only difference was that Nagato had recently stopped wearing glasses, while the Nagato here wore one just as I had first met her.

  This Nagato wore on her face a pair of glasses which I had no idea when the present Nagato stopped wearing.

  “Hey!” I raised my arm and gave her a friend
ly smile. Nagato was as devoid of emotion as always. Asahina-san hid behind my back and trembled incessantly.

  “Could we come in?”

  “……”

  Nagato silently turned inside towards her apartment. I took that she had given me and Asahina-san permission to enter. We took off our shoes and headed to the living room. It was the same as it was three years later, the place was still empty as usual. Nagato stood still and waited for us to come in. Left with no choice, I decided to continue standing and explain everything to her. Where should I begin? From the first day of school when I first met Haruhi? That’s one hell of a long story.

  Skipping through the details, I gave her a brief summary of what has happened. Her emotionless eyes continued to stare at me through her glasses. I think I spent about five minutes explaining, though personally I believed the summary for this Haruhi story was nonsensical to say the least.

  “……And so, the you from three years later gave me this.”

  Nagato gazed at the tanzaku that I took out, her fingers hovering over the strange symbols as though reading a barcode.

  “Understood.”

  Nagato simply nodded her head. Is that so? Wait, I’ve suddenly thought of something that’s really bothering me.

  I placed my hand on my temple and said,

  “It’s true that I’ve known Nagato for some time, but for you it was three years ago. That is, for you right now, this is the first time we have met, right?”

  Even I didn’t understand what I was talking about. Yet Nagato’s glasses flashed as she calmly replied as though nothing had happened,

  “Yes.”

  “Then……”

  “Obtaining permission for memory sharing with alternate temporal disparity. Downloading reversible moving time plane data.”

  What the hell’s that?

  “The ‘me’ that exists in the time plane three years from now, and the ‘me’ that exists in this time period are one and the same person.”

  Then what? Isn’t that supposed to be the case? But it can’t be possible for Nagato three years ago to share the same memory as Nagato three years later.

  “It is possible.”

  How’d you do it?

  “Synchronization.”