Volume 3 - The Boredom of Suzumiya Haruhi Read online

  Um, I still don’t get it.

  Nagato stopped replying and slowly took off her glasses. Her emotionless eyes blinked at me. That was indeed the face of the bookish girl that I recognize. It was the Nagato Yuki that I knew.

  “Why are you in the North High uniform? Have you already started school?”

  “No, right now I’m on stand-by mode.”

  “Stand-by……you intend to stand-by for three years?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s really……”

  Patient of you. Don’t you find it boring? Nagato shook her head and said,

  “This is a mission.”

  Her clear eyes looked straight at me,

  “There is more than one way to move through time.”

  Nagato said with her blank expression,

  “TPDD is only a tool for controlling spacetime, it contains uncertainties and inaccuracies. Many theories exist for movement through the spacetime continuum.”

  Asahina-san once again grabbed my hand tightly,

  “Um…..what does that mean?”

  “Using TPDD to transfer organic lifeforms through time is allowed, but it will generate noise. For us, that is not an ideal tool.”

  When you say “us” do you mean the Integrated Data Sentient Entity?

  “Can Nagato-san perform a leap through time planes in its complete form?”

  “Form is not necessary. It is enough for time travel as long as it contains the same data.”

  Shuttling back and forth between past, present and future huh?

  If Asahina-san can do it, then it wouldn’t be hard at all for Nagato. Since Nagato possesses adequate powers to do so. I started to wonder, when compared with Nagato and Koizumi, wouldn’t that make Asahina-san an outsider?

  “Then it’s fine.”

  I interrupted Asahina-san and Nagato’s conversation, now is not to time to discuss the theories and workings on time travel. The question now is what we should do so that I and Asahina-san can return to the future three years later.

  Yet, Nagato simply nodded her head again and said,

  “It can be done.”

  She then stood up and opened the paper door to the room which was connected with the living room.

  “Here.”

  It was a Japanese style bedroom laid with tatami, there was nothing else besides tatami. It looked really lonely, as expected from Nagato’s place. This I could understand, but why has she brought us here to this guest room? Is the time machine hidden inside this room? Just as I was about to ask all sorts of questions, Nagato took out a futon from the cupboard and started laying it flat. She even brought two blankets out.

  “I hope it’s just me thinking too much......but you aren’t asking us to sleep here, are you?” ... “Yes.”

  “I hope it’s just me thinking too much……but you aren’t asking us to sleep here, are you?”

  Nagato carried the blanket and looked at me. The figures of me and Asahina-san were clearly reflected in her crystal clear pupils.

  “Yes.”

  “Here? With Asahina-san? The two of us?”

  “Yes.”

  I stole a glance at my side and saw Asahina-san looking embarrassed, her face blushing red furiously. That reaction was expected, I guess.

  But Nagato doesn’t seemed concerned at all,

  “Now sleep.”

  Don’t be so direct!

  “It’s only sleeping.”

  Sigh……that’s what I intend to do anyway. I exchanged glances with Asahina-san. She blushed while I shrugged my shoulders. It was us who came to Nagato for help, if she wants us to sleep, then let’s sleep! If we wake up and find ourselves back to where we came from, then it’s quite a simple solution.

  Nagato switched off the lamp switch with her hand and began to mutter something. As I wondered, She can’t be saying good night to us, could she? The lamp then flickered and went off.

  Might as well sleep! I laid down and pulled the blanket over.

  The next moment, the lights went on again. The fluorescent tube slowly flickered as the light became stabalized. Huh? What’s this strange feeling? Outside the window was the same night sky as before.

  I sat upright, Asahina-san also sat up, clutching her blanket.

  Her innocent, child-like face looked troubled, and she looked at me with a questioning glance, but of course I didn’t know how to answer her questions.

  Nagato stood there like before as she turned on the lamp switch.

  I have a feeling that this wasn’t Nagato’s usual face, it’s as though there’s some emotion inside this one. I looked closely at that pale white face, it’s as though she wanted to express something but was not able to due to some conflict within her heart. If I hadn’t observed her face for quite some time, I would hardly have noticed it. Though I can’t guarantee that it wasn’t just my imagination.

  The sound of breathing in could be heard by my side, I turned and saw Asahina-san meddling around with the liquid display watch on her right wrist.

  “Eh? It can’t be? ……Eh? Is this true?”

  I took a glance at her watch, could that thing be the so-called TPDD?

  “No, this is just an automatic digital watch.”

  You mean those watches which automatically synchronizes with the standard time? Asahina-san smiled happily at me and said,

  “We’ve returned. Our time of origin was July 7th……just after nine thirty at night. This is such a relief……Phew!”

  She breathed a sigh of relief from the bottom of her heart.

  Standing by the door was the Nagato we knew. If I have to distinguish besides whether she wears her glasses or not, then this Nagato Yuki was the one that has softened up a bit. Seeing her three years later, I finally understood. The Nagato before me has indeed changed a bit since I first saw her in the Literature Club room when Haruhi brought me there. The change was so small that she probably doesn’t realize it herself.

  “But, how did you do it?”

  Nagato explained to Asahina-san without any emotion,

  “Selective freezing of liquefied connected data within spacetime, preserving it until the known destination within the spacetime continuum, and finally unfreezing the data.”

  She said some very abstract terms, then paused and added,

  “And that is now.”

  Asahina-san attempted to stand up, then her knees softened and she knelt down again,

  “Could it be……impossible……Nagato-san, you……”

  Nagato remained silent.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “Nagato-san……has stopped time itself. She probably had the time in this space along with us frozen for three years, until today when she finally unfroze the time……right?”

  “Yes.” Nagato replied and nodded her head.

  “This is unbelievable, to be able to stop time……wah~.”

  Asahina-san knelt exhaustedly and sighed.

  I thought to myself, seems like we’ve safely returned to three years in the future. I was sure of it just by looking at Asahina-san’s reaction, she was that sort who wears her thoughts on her face. No matter, I’ll believe the reason for how we returned from three years ago and how time had been frozen for now. Right now I can tolerate almost anything, no matter what it is, I can basically accept it without any problems. It’s all good……but,

  This wasn’t the first time I’d visited Nagato’s home. She had invited me once, more than a month ago, but that time I only saw the living room and had not entered this guest room, which I wasn’t even aware had existed. So……um, in other words, what’s going on here?

  I looked at Nagato, and Nagato looked at me.

  ……In other words, when I visited for the first time and heard her story concerning data explosions, there was another “me” sleeping in the room besides us.

  What’s going on? That was going on according to logical deduction.

  “Yes.” Nagato said. I suddenly felt dizzy.

&n
bsp; “……Hey, does that mean back then you already knew what would happen? Including me and today’s events?”

  “Yes.”

  From my perspective, the first time I met Nagato was during the start of the school term when Haruhi thought of setting up the SOS Brigade. Yet Nagato had already met me in Tanabata three years ago. For me, that only happened not long ago, but she told me that was already three years ago. I think I’m going crazy already.

  Both me and Asahina-san looked stunned and astonished at this turn of events. I always knew Nagato was capable, but I never thought she could even freeze time. In that case, doesn’t that make her the amazing Wonder Woman?

  “Not entirely true.”

  She flatly refuted my praises.

  “This was a special exception. An emergency. Unless it is very important, this method is rarely used.”

  And we were considered “very important”.

  “Thank you, Nagato.”

  I decided to thank her first, though thanking her was the best I could do.

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  Nagato nodded her seemingly cold face, then handed me the tanzaku with geometric symbols drawn on it. I received it and noticed the paper quality had worn out a lot, as though it had been left for three years.

  “Oh yeah, the symbols on this tanzaku, can you tell me what it’s saying?”

  I casually asked. I didn’t think anyone could read some nonsensical symbols drawn by Haruhi, so I simply thought it would just be a joke.

  “I am here,”

  Nagato replied. I was exasperated.

  “That is what’s written on it.”

  I’m getting more and more confused now.

  “Could these Nazca-like drawings or symbols be some sort of alien language?”

  Nagato didn’t answer that question.

  Asahina-san and I left Nagato’s home and walked under the moonlit sky.

  “Asahina-san, was there any meaning for you to bring me to the past?”

  Asahina-san tried her hardest to think, then lifted her head and said in a very soft voice,

  “I’m sorry. I……well……um……I’m not sure……I’m like……the end interface……no, the bottom……no, I’m just like a trainee……”

  “Yet you’re by Haruhi’s side.”

  “That’s because, I never thought I would be caught by Suzumiya-san to join the club.”

  She pouted and said. Asahina-san, you look cute with that expression as well.

  “I merely followed the orders……of my superiors, or higher up. So not even I know what meaning there is for the things that I do.”

  Looking at a blushing Asahina-san, I thought to myself, could that superior be none other than the adult Asahina-san? It was a baseless speculation, but since the only time travellers I know are her and the normal Asahina-san, I can’t be blamed for thinking that.

  “I see.”

  I tilted my head and muttered.

  Yet, I still didn’t understand. If that adult Asahina-san came to drop me a hint, then she would know what would happen to us. And it seems she never told this Asahina-san anything as well. Just what was going on?

  “Hmm……”

  It’s no use getting a headache over this. If Asahina-san doesn’t understand it, then there’s no way I could understand. Nagato said that there’s more than one way to travel through time. Future time travellers have their own set of rules I guess? I hope someone will explain these to me, when everything is settled.

  I parted ways with Asahina-san at the station. Her small figure once again gave thanks to me, then left as though it was a great pity. After she was out of sight, I headed home as well, and it was now that I realized that I had left my bag in the club room.

  The next day, which was July 8th; for my consciousness, it was indeed the next day, but for my body, it felt like three years and one day had passed since I last went to school. I went to school empty handed and headed straight for the club room, then went to the classroom after getting my bag. Asahina-san came earlier than me it seems, as her bag was nowhere to be seen.

  Arriving in the classroom, I saw Haruhi sitting there, looking intently out of the window, as if fully expecting the arrival of aliens.

  “What’s wrong? You’ve been looking depressed since yesterday. Have you been picking and eating toxic mushrooms?”

  I said and sat down. Haruhi gave a deliberate sigh and said,

  “Nothing really. Just feeling melancholic thinking about something in the past. Some memories I had during Tanabata.”

  I shuddered at once. What memories were those……I didn’t ask her.

  “I see.”

  Haruhi turned her head and observed the changes in the clouds. I shrugged my shoulders. I have no intentions of lighting the fuse for this bomb. Anyone with common sense would do the same.

  After school, the Literature Club room once again became the underground headquarters of the SOS Brigade.

  Haruhi only said, “Throw the bamboo shoot away, it’s useless now.” Then left at once. The “commander” armband looked rather lonely after being left behind on the table. Sigh, tomorrow she’ll return to being the eccentric girl, asking us to do impossibly unreasonable things. She’s that sort of person.

  Asahina-san wasn’t here as well. Only Nagato Yuki was in the room, alongside with me playing chess with Koizumi. Unable to resist his “evangelistic” passion for chess, I agreed to let him teach me how to play the game.

  I had thought Koizumi switched to playing chess because he was crap at Othello, but it seems I was wrong. He was just as crap at chess.

  I took out one of Koizumi’s pawns with my knight while glancing at Nagato, who was looking intently at the chess board with her blank face.

  “Say, Nagato, I don’t get it at all. Is Asahina-san really from the future?”

  Nagato slowly tilted her head.

  “Yes.”

  “But I just feel a sense of paradox between heading to the past and returning to the future.”

  That was expected. If there were no continuity between the past and the future - if we went back three years ago, went to sleep over there and reawakened in the present, then the “present” that we’re in now should be a different world from the “yesterday” that we departed from. Yet from the outcome, I had given Haruhi an idea she shouldn’t have, and that idea had brought Haruhi to North High, enhancing her interest in all non-human life……there exists this possibility.

  If I didn’t travel back to three years ago, maybe everything would never have happened. Judging from the tone of adult Asahina-san, she seems to know more than us. In other words, continuity does exist between the past and the future. This contradicts with what Asahina-san had told me earlier. I can still figure this out at least, no matter how dumb I am.

  “As there is no conclusion to the paradox theory, there is no way to prove that there is no paradox.”

  Nagato said calmly, giving a strange expression that reads ‘That should explain everything.’ That explanation may indeed be enough for you, but I completely do not understand at all. Nagato lifted her smooth white neck and looked at me,

  “Soon you will understand.”

  She then went back to her usual seat and returned to her world of books. Koizumi now spoke,

  “That’s the case. Right now my king is being checked by your rook. This is sure a problem for me, where should I escape to?”

  Koizumi said while picking up his black king, then casually placed the king into his jacket pocket. He then showed his palm like a magician revealing his tricks,

  “Well, is there a paradox with me doing this?”

  I toyed around the white rook with my fingers and thought, I’m not going to play some stupid Zen philosophy games with you, and I don’t plan to satisfy myself with abstract topics. So I refuse to answer your question.

  In any case - there’s no doubt that Haruhi is a paradoxical existence, the same can be said for this world.

  “Beside
s, a king means nothing to us, instead, it is the queen that plays a more important role.”

  I placed the white rook on the box where the black king was standing. Queen to Knight 8.

  “……I don’t know what’s going to happen next, but I just hope it’s not something that’ll give me a major headache.”

  Nagato remained silent, while Koizumi smiled and said,

  “I think it’s best for things to remain peaceful, or would you prefer to have something happen?”

  I snorted and drew a circle by my name on the score chart.

  Mystérique Sign

  Unsurprisingly, Haruhi had recovered from her melancholic state during the end-of-term exams, and was once again acting however she pleased. As for me, it seemed like the blue color forced out by that reaction had been passed into my hands like a baton, and I was at the peak of misery. Every exam paper that was distributed made me feel worse and worse. My melancholy was probably shared as much by Taniguchi. In the midterm exams, we were like comrades who would fly right on the edge of the low altitude line together, even when the red mark of failure had us firmly caught in its radar. A person is an animal that wants someone who is at least as stupid as itself around. You can feel relatively at ease if they’re around. On the other hand, this is absolutely not the case when you see somebody else relaxing.

  Taking her test in the seat behind me was Haruhi, who somehow always had time to spare. Around thirty minutes before the allotted time was over, you could usually hear her sleeping on her desk.

  How annoying.

  All club activities are suspended during exams, but since the SOS Brigade is open all-year-round for some reason, reopening for business on a day like this is normal, even though no one had asked us to, same as yesterday and the day before that. School enforced policies do not apply to SOS Brigade activities, apparently. This is only natural, since this whole thing has been a mistake from the very beginning. And since this enigma of a brigade wasn’t even a club or anything, it didn’t matter. That is Haruhi’s policy.

  Like the other day. Although I had just managed to raise my will to study to the limit, at just the right moment, Haruhi dragged me by my sleeve and brought me with her to the clubroom.