Disclaimer: The novel 'Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. I do not know the producers yet, but the animation company responsible is Kyoto Animation. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. ;)
I awake in a hospital.
My first thought is to wonder how long it will take me to drown on my own blood. This is before I realize where I am, of course. Then I realize I'm fine, and fell asleep in a chair. In a hospital room.
Before a bed. With Haruhi in it.
I rub the sleep from my eyes and stand up. From my perspective, I've just been through a hell of a day. But Haruhi....
She looks fine when I stand over her. In a hospital gown, her blankets tucked across her chest. Her arms are on top, and she's got an IV stuck in her, as well as a number of things which look very expensive that I don't really know what to call.
I pay them little attention; this is Haruhi we're talking about. She looks fine, though. No wounds, only a single bandage around her head. I'm still not sure how she managed to convince herself after the act that we put on ... but it got us back home, I guess. As I look at her, she makes a quiet, struggling noise, and her face scrunches up in concentration. "Nn.... Nnnng." Then her eyes drift open, clouded, but locking onto mine almost instantly. Two blinks later and those same eyes narrow. "What are you doing here?"
"Here?" I ask, raising an eyebrow. "You come out of a coma, and that's the first thing you say to me?"
"And that's the first thing you say to me?" she retorts.
I have something in my eyes there. While I rub at them, I say, "Oh. Well, welcome back, Haruhi. Though I knew you'd get better."
"Did you?" she asks quietly, sitting up. I help her, when she seems to need it. She doesn't say anything else until she's comfortable, able to look at me without peering upwards. Then, she says, "I had a really crazy dream."
"The doctors said you might," I allow, nodding. "I'm just glad you're okay."
"How long was I out? And why are you here?"
"Koizumi's busy running the Brigade," I answer with a shrug. "As far as how long.... Let's just say that it was too long for me."
She blushes very slightly at that. "What, you missed me?" she challenges.
"Maybe," I say with a shrug. "Now that you're awake, I want to tell everyone else. But I don't want to leave you alone."
"I'm sleepy," she says with a yawn. "So that's fine. Bring me something chocolate when you come back. And Koizumi! I need to see what he's doing with the Brigade."
"Of course," I say with a laugh. "And then you'll need to tell me all about your dream. Let me guess," I say, smirking. "You dreamed you were a princess of a magical kingdom filled with alien timetravelers."
"No," she says, shaking her head. "I wouldn't have minded that."
"So it was a bad dream?"
"There are no princesses," she says, rolling her eyes. "And if there were, I'd be the princess of the SOS Brigade."
"A princess in a world of dragons," I say.
She giggles at that. "I guess," she answers, surprisingly shy all of the sudden. "Did.... You did save me, didn't you?"
"Yeah," I say slowly, looking away. "Though.... Well. Tell me about your dream. Was I in it?"
She suddenly looks more nervous. "Um.... Maybe later. I'm tired."
"Mmmm. Well, I'll tell a doctor you're awake, I'm sure they'll want to take a look at you." From a personal experience, which may or may not ever have happened. She pouts at that. What did I really expect?
"Could you stay a little longer?" she asks me in a very quiet, un-Haruhi-like voice.
Not that, I suppose.
After the doctors and nurses chased me out of the hospital, much later, I turned my cell phone back on and called up Mikuru, Koizumi, and Yuki-chan in turn. They agreed without question to meet me, and we joined up at the train station.
It's really simpler for me that way. Walking to school just for this ... and, anyway, I don't want to look at the buildings that I had Yuki-chan destroy right away.
Mikuru arrives first. "Hello, Kyon," she says brightly, giving me a friendly smile. "Is Suzumiya-san doing better?"
"Are you playing with me?" I ask, raising an eyebrow at her. She looks bewildered. "Or did you.... Well, wait a minute. There's Koizumi."
"Hello, Kyon," Koizumi says pleasantly. "Is it good news, since you didn't say more on the phone?"
I nod; Yuki-chan arrives last, preceded by a tingle. "Let's go somewhere we can talk." My stomach rumbles then, and I wince.
"The cafe," Koizumi suggests with a gesture. "My treat this time."
"Good idea." A few minutes later, we're settled into a corner booth, Mikuru to my left, Yuki-chan to my right, and Koizumi just past her. Once the waitress is gone, I ask, "How much of the last week did I manage to undo?"
Koizumi and Mikuru look equally puzzled. Yuki-chan sips at her soda wordlessly. "Did something happen?" Koizumi ventures.
"If ...it was something, I won't.... That is, until...." Mikuru trails off and shrugs apologetically.
"I guess that must really help from an observer's standpoint," I sigh. "Well, that's okay. I made a backup. Yuki-chan?"
She sets her empty glass down -- that girl loves her sugar -- and looks at me. "Modifications have been made to you," she assesses.
"Don't undo them," I say quickly. "Or.... Well, actually, once you retrieve the backups, I guess I don't need them anymore."
I haven't noticed much tingling yet anyway. She gives that tiny nod and says, "Accessing. This may take a few minutes."
It does; we have time to order our meals and make some small-talk before Yuki-chan abruptly blinks. "Oh," she says quietly.
"Well?" Koizumi asks expectantly.
"I can arrange for memories to be restored to you without damaging your current function," Yuki-chan tells him. "It may be likened to dreaming."
Then there's a bit of confusion while she explains things in her way, and I enjoy a nice bowl of pasta. When all is said and done, Koizumi shakes his head and says, "It was unnerving just knowing that the world could have been created just a day ago. Knowing that it's happened.... Well, all I can say is that I'm grateful that Haruhi has chosen someone so reasonable to focus on."
"I concur," Yuki-chan adds.
Mikuru nods, smiling brightly. "And tomorrow," she adds, "we'll all visit Suzumiya-san together.
I nod, thinking of bringing Haruhi something. Something chocolate, she had said. "Anyway," I say, "I guess because of Yuki-chan, I remember that dream world." It's much easier to call it a dream; it never happened, now. "What happened here?"
The explanation plays out almost exactly like Haruhi reasoned it must have. Taniguchi was a would-be killer, and had planned to trick Haruhi into writing a suicide letter. Haruhi didn't fall for the story, which actually made sense -- the aliens who were going to take her away might not return her for hundreds of years. A suicide note would keep people from wondering, and aliens had to remain hidden.
But she had the entire Brigade waiting in the stairwell to cover her should anything go wrong. Which it did. Taniguchi hit her over the head with a bat, though apparently I managed to save her before he could do worse, fighting him off while Mikuru called an ambulance and Yuki-chan administered first aid. Koizumi helped me, and Taniguchi was with the police....
Not a happy ending for everyone, I suppose, but by the time I was headed home I felt a little better about it. Yuki-chan assured me that Taniguchi wasn't a human being sentenced to something terrible. He was a human-purposed contact interface like herself, and he would be deleted, like Ryouko. Though, they were also planning on being more subtle about it this time; his data link had been severed, which apparently leaves him little more than human.
Unsurprisingly, when I was about to board the train, Koizumi called me aside. "A moment," he said, nodding. "I suppose I'll dream tonight about what happened, if Nagato-san is right. And I don't have a reason to disbelieve her...."
"Of course," I say with a shrug. "But?"
"But.... If this really happened, and it wasn't just a delusion of Haruhi's that you got dragged into, there's three things I wish to say."
"Yeah?"
"Firstly ... you're a brilliant liar. I hope we are never enemies, and am glad to have you on my side."
I snort at that, but unfortunately, he's right. I was a pretty good liar, to deceive Haruhi like that.
"Secondly, I think you truly are the best for Haruhi ... and not just to handle situations like this. I think-"
"I'm ahead of you on that one," I say, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I really am."
"Oh. What are you planning on doing?"
I lick my lips and look away. "I know how she wants to hear it. But not tomorrow. Later. It will happen, though."
"Of course."
"And that third thing?"
That smile again.... "You're about to miss your train."
Smug, arrogant, egotistical.... I laugh, grinning at him, and back aboard before the doors shut. He waves. I wave back.
Then I turn and look out the window and think again about chocolates, and torn pages from notebooks that talk about love. And maybe another page that talks about love that hasn't been written down yet.
Because, you never really know, do you?
"Haruhi," I whisper to no one in particular, "you're unbelievable. But I believe in you anyway."
Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing. :)