Disclaimer: The novel 'Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu'/'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. 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. ;)
Additionally, a character or two is borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07, but don't read too much into that.
The third day was the worst so far.
She woke up in the same bed as Yuki again, though the smaller girl's eyes were open when she roused. Did she even sleep? Was she worried about Kyon, too?
Yuki said that Emiri was resting, presumably in the other room, but when Haruhi surreptitiously tried the door, it was locked tight. It didn't even rattle against the catch.
The slight girl still didn't speak much, but made breakfast for both of them, and then led the way to school from her apartment. The rain had stopped, but cloud cover trapped the sweltering heat close to the city surface, making the trudge even less pleasant than usual. Despite her tiny frame, Yuki seemed to ignore the heat.
Haruhi wondered how she could keep her cool, but was beginning to realize there was an awful lot about the bookworm she'd never learned.
They got to school early to find police waiting at all gates, checking identifications of student and teacher alike before allowing entry. Outside of the front gate, a small crowd of reporters stood, some photographing the school, most taking down notes. The close-mouthed police officers said nothing, except to ask for identification, and did not respond to any questioning.
All of the classrooms were closed and locked, with the students instructed to assemble as they had for the opening ceremony, to listen to an address from the principal. She heard the words he said, but the meaning somehow escaped her. The gist of it matched her fears, but the only part she was able to remain cognizant of was the fact that today would not be a class day, but a day of memorial, and that all club activities would be suspended until further notice. After a further repetition of the warning that students should travel in groups, they were released.
The teachers led the way solemnly, streaming towards the main building to unlock the classrooms. Her eyes picked out Okabe, his million-dollar smile shelved for the moment, replaced with a sour grimace. She spotted Kunikida, too but he looked like everyone else; how she felt. Shaken and unbelieving.
Despite all that, she clung to the hopes that she would see him again, and lingered in the field, searching. Yuki stood by her side, watching the other students silently. After a few wasted minutes, the pair of them hurried to class 1-5. A strong smell of bleach lingered in the air, even with all the windows opened. Some of the desks and chairs were unmistakably new. But when she approached her own desk, the knot of students that had gotten there first parted, letting her see the seat in front of hers.
On the surface of his desk stood a small vase with a bouquet of white flowers.
She could only stare, her heart skipping erratically.
She felt the classroom around her spinning, and fell to her knees, still wishing she could refute it. The memorial flowers on Kyon's desk ... she could try and tell herself the principal had never said Kyon, because he had used the boy's real name. She knew that name, had remembered it and treasured it, waiting for the day she could call him by that instead of his nickname, to watch his impossible, implacable expression vanish, replaced with a surprised smile...
...but that day could never come, now. She blinked away tears she hadn't realized were forming in her eyes, until a hand patted her shoulder, and someone held a handkerchief out to her. She took it numbly, only realizing after the fact who had given it to her. At her side, glaring at the surrounding students as though daring them to say a single word or continue staring at her, was Taniguchi.
She unsteadily climbed to her feet, turning to face him shakily. His assumed sophistication and suave was nowhere in sight. He didn't look or behave like a stalker. For a single moment, she actually felt something like a kindred spirit in him; they both knew, they both lost....
His eyes didn't meet hers. "I'm sorry," he said quietly.
"W...why were they asking about you?" she returned, just as quietly.
If anything, Taniguchi's expression became darker, fell even further. "I found him," he said hoarsely. "They asked me a lot of questions. I don't want to talk about it." Then his gaze met hers, and the illusion of a shared moment vanished. She could see the hurt in his eyes, but it could never approach what she was feeling. He would never understand, not truly. He hadn't changed that much from middle school, even if he wasn't being his usual, desperate self at the moment.
She nodded, then turned away from Kyon's desk, plodding listlessly towards the hallway. Yuki was still there, waiting for her, watching as always. But before she could reach the doorway, another familiar voice reached her.
"Suzumiya-san! How are you doing?"
She ignored the question, taking another step forward, until that same voice called out again.
"Isn't this astounding?"
"Hey," she heard Taniguchi growl, "just leave her alone, alright?"
"I don't need you to look out for me," she retorted, realizing she wasn't certain which student she was rebuking, the unusually stoic Taniguchi, or the ever-cheerful Ryouko.
Not Taniguchi, she decided, clutching the handkerchief he'd lent her.
The class representative's signature smile had only faded the slightest bit. "I'm surprised," Ryouko said after a moment, and Taniguchi sighed in disgust, turning away and taking his seat. The other students watched them silently.
"What's so surprising?" Haruhi asked, a current of emotions running through her ... but she didn't have time to feel them. They didn't matter.
"It's strange, really," Ryouko said, her tone musing. "Just a few days ago, you were sitting behind him, and you said you wanted the world to be more interesting. That all of this was boring! But now that something happens, you don't seem very interested. What a pity! I suppose he died for nothing?"
The emotions she had been trying to deny exploded to the surface, and everything happened at once. Taniguchi stood so abruptly he knocked over both his chair and desk, turning around to glare at the class representative. The surrounding students flung themselves backward against the walls of the classroom, eyes and mouths widening in stupefied amazement.
Someone was screaming promises of murder at Asakura Ryouko, and Haruhi herself felt vaguely bemused as she watched her own fist slam into the other girl's cheek. A gasp escaped the surrounding students, and Kunikida launched himself at Taniguchi, hanging onto the larger boy and pulling him back before he could storm towards Ryouko and get involved. Okabe merely stared, frozen in horror, useless as always.
Inexplicably, someone seized Haruhi almost instantly, pulling her away before she could try throwing another punch. Ryouko's smile had faded an additional, tiny increment, but her expression was more puzzled than anything else. Other than her head turning slightly to one side from the blow, she hardly seemed to react at all.
It wasn't until Haruhi was dragged into the hall that she realized the screaming voice was her own, and she released it with a broken sob, collapsing into whoever was dragging her away.
Nagato Yuki waited for the precise moment when she calculated that Kimidori Emiri and her faction would agree that matters had escalated to the point of required action before intervening. Her own view noted the risks of the primary retaliating against the observation subject, or doing something potentially more damaging.
"Take care, okay?" the primary called to the observation subject, though her gaze connected with Nagato Yuki's. "I hope you feel better soon, Suzumiya-san!"
Nagato denied all open-channel requests and burnt a tiny amount of the limited PPC bandwidth she shared with Emiri: "Observation subject in critical emotional state; primary is attempting to catalyze reaction."
While her senses and sensors were evenly divided between the primary and her observation target, she was aware of the figures charging down the hall towards them. Local law enforcement official sub-administrator Oishi, and assistant functionaries.
She appended: "Possible issues with local law enforcement. Observation subject's emotional state will be further stressed."
Emiri's response was carefully considered: "Acknowledged. Will coordinate at nearest adherent spacial coordinates; can intervene on emergency signal if required."
The observation subject went limp in her grasp, and her social monitor was outputting a continuous log of error activity, so she carefully released her grip. Instead of rushing back towards the primary, as her predictive modules had suggested, the observation subject spun, seizing her and bawling into her uniform. Her local libraries identified the action as a gesture requesting solace.
She ignored her social monitor and gently hugged the taller girl, as the large form of Oishi stopped directly between her and the primary. "Alright," he said, voice tinged with modulation indicating vast emotional stress, though at a level below the standard threshold for normal human recognition. "That's quite enough of that. Suzumiya-san, Nagato-san, come with me." He turned around. "Asakura-san, please come with my," voice hitch, indicating an almost undetectable hesitation; uncertainty; the following information was either inaccurate or an obfuscation, "partner, Akasaka-san. Taniguchi-san, you too."
"Pass," Taniguchi spat. "I don't need to share a car with that bitch."
Even from behind, Nagato registered body language indicative of increased frustration in Oishi's frame. "Fine," he growled. "Yamada-kun, Taniguchi wants a return to our hospitality instead of a ride home."
"Gladly accepted," Taniguchi's voice replied, steeped in tones and inflections that conveyed significant measures of derision. "A holding cell is more comfortable than being in the same car as Asakura."
The collective gasp and intake of breath from the surrounding students at that remark triggered a reaction from Nagato's usually dormant emotive processor. She didn't have the time to analyze the reason for it, but her database quickly identified it as satisfaction.
Taniguchi's tone suddenly softened, and he added, "Despite all that ... my only request is that I get to write a farewell message in Kyon's memorial book before I go."
"Yeah," Oishi grumbled. "I've got a heart. No matter the circumstances, everyone will get a chance for that. Akasaka-san?"
More output escaped Nagato's emotive processor before she returned it to the sandboxed environment. The observation subject was still in her arms, trembling with various emotions that had yet to be sorted. The vast majority of them were negative, and Nagato briefly wondered how a simpler life form could possibly cope with trying to process them all, before archiving the idea for later consideration. "We would like to go," she said aloud.
Oishi turned around, still frowning. "You don't want to sign?
Nagato considered the significance of the gesture briefly. It was part of the process of identifying that an organic life form had ceased functioning. But even if she were to write in the book, what would she say? Her emotive processor registered several answers for her, and she suppressed it again. "Not at this time," she answered, following a social cue from her monitor and turning her gaze to the observation subject's sobbing frame.
"Well ... that's fair. Alright, come with me, please."
Suzumiya Haruhi's tears continued until they had reached the edge of the school property, where Kimidori Emiri was already waiting. "Oh, dear," she said, halting a few steps short of Oishi, when the detective fixed her with a wary gaze. "Ah, sir, Nagato Yuki is my cousin; I'm Kimidori Emiri. May I accompany her?"
"Cousin," Oishi repeated, both interfaces sharing a quick glance at the doubt hidden in his tone. "Fine. I was just taking these girls home."
The observation subject was reluctant to let go of her, so the two of them sat in the back seat. Emiri sat in the front, next to Oishi, and the interface with the better social module directed Oishi to the apartment building where Nagato Yuki and the primary both resided.
Itsuki woke up breathing heavily, body shaking with the intensity and ferocity of emotions running through his head. Suzumiya's emotions, he realized, before all thought was blanked away momentarily.
Mori was leaning over him, the back of her hand pressed to his forehead. Her eyes were full of concern, and he realized she'd found time to change clothing to something more casual. She offered him a comforting smile and rose away. "Sorry," she said. "You seemed to be having a troubled dream."
He sat up, rubbing at his face. "She found out," he groaned. Suzumiya's horror and fury echoed in the back of his skull, each throbbing reverberation igniting another spark of closed space somewhere. He had been right, unfortunately; his fellow espers could travel nearly anywhere through the overlapped closed spaces. Shinjin were already stirring in several of them.
"So, is it bad?" she asked.
Something on his face conveyed it before he could speak.
"I see," she said, sighing. "I'll get you something to eat. Arakawa got you some new clothes, and this is the master bedroom, so you can use the shower if you like. Would you care for coffee?"
"Real coffee," he answered, rubbing his face again. "No cream, no sugar." After a moment, he realized he was addressing Mori, not a servant, and added, "Please."
Mori raised an eyebrow, but nodded, leaving the room. He rose to his feet, stripping off the high school uniform he had exhaustedly collapsed in. By his reckoning, he hadn't had nearly enough sleep, given everything he'd already been through.
He stumbled into the shower and tried to remember arriving at the safe-house. He didn't have a key, and didn't want to be seen approaching -- but fortune, so to speak, had been on his side. Closed space overlapped the apartment, so he was able to cross back into the real world in the main room. Other than Arakawa seizing him and holding a knife to his throat for the few seconds it took recognition to kick in, it had worked, too.
After cleaning himself off, feeling slightly more awake, but still bone-tired, he walked back into 'his' master bedroom, and changed into the new clothes that Mori had set out for him. Not too new -- the tags had been taken off, and they'd been washed at least once. When he was finished dressing, he stepped into the main room, where Mori was just setting a steaming mug of coffee on the table. A glance outside revealed an uncomfortably monochrome sky, pounding rain hammering against the windows.
"Good morning," he said bleakly, falling into his chair and sipping cautiously at his coffee. Untouched, as he preferred. Mori took a seat opposite him after setting a plate before him. He eagerly dug into the oversized omelet she had prepared, shoveling it away too quickly to taste it.
"Good morning," she said, smiling somewhat doubtfully. "Will that be enough? I'm not sure if it helps, when you spend that time in closed space, but...."
"It's fine," he said around a mouthful. "I got the other espers on my side, more or less. Any luck on your side?"
"Arakawa established contact with the Tamaru brothers," Mori said with a nod. "We have fairly good, but not flawless intel from the police."
Itsuki nodded, taking another sip of his coffee.
"They don't know where Asahina Mikuru is either. Or who killed ... your friend."
"Do they have any suspects?"
"Neither Tamaru is central on the case; they're both patrol officers, and that's detective work. However, there are 'persons of interest' in the murder. Nagato Yuki, Suzumiya Haruhi, Asakura Ryouko, Asahina Mikuru, and ... yourself."
Itsuki snorted. "Having my look-alike leave the country would probably do that," he grumbled. "That's fine. I won't go anywhere I can't slip into closed space at a moment's notice. Nagato's a TFEI ... and they really think Suzumiya-san could have done it? Anyway, I don't know much about Asakura Ryouko. Class representative for 1-5? Who's she with?"
"We can't see their point of view, and we know a lot they can't imagine," Mori answered with a shrug. "So, they may believe Suzumiya did it. It's not like we could tell them otherwise. Unfortunately, my best guess is that Asakura Ryouko is another TFEI. More importantly, we have an update on Suzumiya's whereabouts."
The esper raised an eyebrow, still shoveling his breakfast away.
"She's currently staying with Nagato Yuki ... so unless Suzumiya imposed on her, Nagato or her superiors have chosen to act directly."
Pausing to swallow and catch his breath, Itsuki shook his head. "So, none of their suspects are plausible ... unless it was Asahina Mikuru. I've always suspected her behavior and outward appearance were a ploy ... but I can't see that she would bother with something like that. She could crush Suzumiya-san's will through less violent but equally, um, direct methods, if that was actually her goal."
"Seduction instead of murder?"
Itsuki resumed eating at a slower pace, nodding, his face coloring slightly at Mori's casual mention of the word. What was wrong with him, where he could discuss murder without flinching, but the idea of Kyon being seduced bothered him? Maybe it was that he didn't see Kyon actually falling for it?
He suddenly didn't want to think about it any further, and didn't feel like eating any more.
"Well, even though you believe Asahina-san wouldn't do such a thing, others in the Organization might think differently. So we have to bank on Asahina-san being in someone's custody, even if we don't know who."
Itsuki pushed his plate away and wiped his mouth with a napkin, pulling the large mug of coffee closer. "I don't think trying to pull her into closed space is going to cut it if she's in the custody of a TFEI," he said sourly. "We have to hope it's specifically the Organization, and hopefully somewhat nearby. If it's not...."
Arakawa turned from fiddling with a radio scanner, pulling his headphones off. "Asakura has been taken into police custody, along with Taniguchi. Suzumiya and Nagato are being questioned as well. According to Tamaru's last message, there's another girl with them -- Kimidori Emiri."
"Another girl?" Itsuki mused. "Not a friend of Suzumiya-san's ... unless she somehow missed all of our monitoring?"
"Tamaru said he overheard Kimidori claiming to be a cousin of Nagato's," Arakawa clarified. "So she would likely also be a TFEI."
"Three TFEIs?" Mori pondered, frowning. "We're going to be disastrously out of our depth if we try and confront them. Well, Itsuki ... what do you think?"
He drained his coffee, contemplating. "Maybe we're giving them too much credit," he assessed, setting the empty mug down. "This could be a long shot, but how confident are we that the Integrated Data Entity is united? Our own Organization just split ... could they also have faults?"
"No one and nothing is perfect," Mori agreed, glancing at Arakawa.
Arakawa picked up the headphones, and held them against one ear. "Does this mean that we take the police theories at face value and look at Asakura Ryouko as the prime suspect?" he asked.
"Until a better explanation comes along," Itsuki agreed. "So ... we assume that her faction, or whatever, decides to ... kill Kyon, but Nagato's faction doesn't agree. Nagato then watches Suzumiya ... but we don't know why that happens, either. And this doesn't account for Asahina Mikuru. Once we bring in TFEIs who are willing to kill...." He swallowed, a sour taste filling his mouth. "We don't even know for certain that she's still alive. And if she is alive, the smartest thing for her to do would be to leave this timeframe immediately, and she's not stupid."
"More questions than answers," Mori sighed, shaking her head. "This makes the new TFEI a whole new book of questions."
"Too much to think about," Itsuki said, staring into his empty coffee mug. "I'm going to try and see if I can take out some isolated closed spaces and keep in touch with the other espers."
"Take care of yourself," Mori insisted before he shifted into that colorless world and embraced his power.
Akasaka Mamoru watched Suzumiya Haruhi and Nagato Yuki follow Oishi down the hall, then turned around, nodding at Yamada and the other detective, who he hadn't learned the name of. From a technical standpoint, despite posing as a detective, he didn't have the authority to perform police actions; he was supposed to behave in a more administrative capacity.
Taniguchi allowed himself to be led away without complaint after writing a brief note in the memorial book. Akasaka then took the book and flipped to another page, presenting it to Asakura. She looked at it curiously, then gave a tiny shrug and scrawled her own message, which he glanced at: "It was fun, Kyon-kun~! Thank you for watching over Suzumiya-san~!"
He ignored the shiver down his spine, then set the book back on the podium before the trembling form of Okabe. "Apologies for the disruption," he said to the class at large.
"Yes, sorry for any trouble!" Asakura Ryouko said sweetly, bowing to her class. "Do we have to go now?"
He nodded at her warily, leading the way out the door. Once they were in the hall, though he suspected a few students would be able to hear him anyway, he instructed, "Walk ahead of me, please. Straight down the corridor and to the first floor -- front entrance."
"Okay," she chirped, still agreeable.
What was it that Oishi had gotten from her? There was something undeniably off about the girl, and he doubted that he would need the expertise of the NPA handwriting analyst to positively identify her handwriting as a match to the note found on Student K's body. He understood what Oishi meant about Nagato Yuki sharing some of the same traits, and he expected that the detective had also caught the fact that despite her small frame and supposedly lower athletic scores ... she was able to physically restrain Suzumiya Haruhi without visible effort.
It would be a minor abuse of standards and regulations, but they had the easily readied excuse that Asakura Ryouko's parents were genuinely unreachable to detain her for questioning.
After changing shoes, keeping a sharp eye on Asakura Ryouko the entire time, Akasaka gestured to nearest police officer, glancing at his nametag briefly. "Tamaru-san, I need you to accompany me to the station house."
Tamaru saluted sharply, his eyes fixed on Asakura. "Yes, sir! I have a car outside the gate."
"Hmm," Asakura mused, "what is this about, I wonder?"
Tamaru wordlessly led the way, occasionally shooting nervous glances backward at the high school girl they were escorting. Was something about this girl off to the uniformed officer as well? Akasaka didn't know, but he knew he didn't like it either way.
After putting Asakura in the back seat of the car, Akasaka sat next to her, directly behind Tamaru to keep her as far from the driver as possible. Even as the officer was starting the car, rain began to fall from the sky again. Tamaru remained wordless.
"Don't I have a right to know what I'm being taken away for?" Ryouko asked. "I was certain that's how the law worked in this country, and minors are supposed to be specially protected, too, aren't they?"
"Be that as it may," Akasaka replied, "we have the authority to bring you in for questioning at least. And you don't need to be charged with anything to be questioned as a person of interest."
"Oh, really? I'm quite typical; there's nothing remarkable about me. How could I possibly be a person of interest?"
Akasaka fought the urge to look away from her. "We can worry about that at the station. If it's all the same, until that point, I'd rather defer conversation."
"Well, if you like!" the girl replied cheerily.
Oishi's day was not going well. Halfway to the apartment complex where he knew that Nagato Yuki and Asakura Ryouko both lived, rain began to sheet down in thick, pounding waves. Emiri sat in the passenger seat to one side demurely, a soft, sad smile on her face, her features carefully composed.
Too carefully, in Oishi's mind.
Behind him, Haruhi trembled, clinging to Yuki as though the smaller girl were a life preserver, seemingly oblivious of the outside world. Nagato Yuki's eyes stared straight forward, looking out the window and blinking occasionally. Her expression was almost completely impassive. While Oishi suspected there were traces of emotion there, he didn't have time to pick them out in a rearview mirror while driving through a sheeting storm.
They got to the parking lot, and Oishi parked in another resident's spot, not caring for the trouble he was causing at the moment. Emiri had brought a pair of umbrellas with her, and gave one to Yuki, keeping the other for herself.
Oishi didn't ask to share, and endured the march to the lobby until Emiri opened the front door in the pelting rain. "I'd like to ask Suzumiya-san and Nagato-san a few questions," he said aloud. "Or maybe just Nagato-san, if Suzumiya-san isn't up for it."
Emiri glanced at the two girls, Haruhi still clutching onto Nagato beneath a shared umbrella. Oishi wasn't certain how it was established that Emiri would be the spokesperson for the two, but it seemed to be the case. The placid, calm-looking girl brushed a single damp strand of hair from her face, remarking, "I think that Suzumiya-san should be allowed to rest."
"I can answer questions," Nagato answered tonelessly. Emiri took the shorter girl's umbrella and folded it away, placing both in a communal bin in the lobby before summoning the elevator. Oishi eyed the small elevator car, then decided, "I'll be up to your apartment shortly. Go on without me; I need to radio back to headquarters."
Emiri and Nagato nodded in perfect unison, boarding the car. An apartment custodian, an aged man, peered at Oishi in consternation over a short counter. "Manager," Oishi called to him, "I need you to leave that security door open for me until I get back. I'm also going to borrow one of these umbrellas." The old man furrowed his brow, and Oishi flashed his badge in response.
After stepping outside and walking far enough away from the apartment building to collect his thoughts, Oishi lit another cigarette and called his NPA counterpart directly. "This is Akasaka," the representative answered instantly.
"Akasaka-kun, this is Oishi -- sorry about the abruptness of this, but I want to request a background check."
"Oh? Alright. Who for?"
"The name is Kimidori Emiri, I'm not certain which kanji -- supposedly she's a cousin of Nagato Yuki."
There was the sound of Akasaka calling something to someone else, his hand muffling the receiver for a minute before he came back. "Alright, I'll see what I can do, but before that, any particular reason?"
"Eh ... call me paranoid if you like, but I'm getting that odd signal from her, too. Speaking of which, how's Asakura-san behaving?"
Akasaka's words contrasted his tone as he growled, "Like a model citizen. I've got her alone in an interview room to sweat her, but I think we both know she's not going to be fazed in the slightest."
Oishi nodded, puffing on his cigarette before he realized the NPA agent wouldn't see the gesture. "Ah. Alright. If you want to interview her without me, go ahead -- just take Aida-chan to handle the official duties. In the meantime, I'm going to try and get some more answers from Nagato Yuki. Do we have an incident report from that mess at the school?"
"An officer at the scene is taking a statement from Okabe at the moment. In the meantime, we still don't legitimately have anything on Taniguchi, unless we want to try and press for disorderly conduct or disturbing the peace. Witness statements if we want to go back to the school might get us attempted assault, but the only actual assault was Suzumiya-san attacking Asakura-san. Outside of assault charges, that's going to be stepping on Kitago disciplinary committee toes. Aside from that, his parents have to be notified before we can do anything, again. For the time being, he's in an interview room being sweated."
"Eh ... alright. We're not going to charge him, I just wanted to try and defuse the situation in 1-5 and keep things from escalating. Let his parents know.... Let's go with disorderly conduct. Have someone on my staff give him a good speech about decorum, get his statement, and we'll let him go with a warning when his parents arrive. Doesn't matter what he says, unless it's genuinely incriminating ... but I don't believe it was him, at this point."
Akasaka drew a slow breath, then sighed.
Oishi's eyes narrowed. "Something else?" he asked.
"Asakura's handwriting," came the answer.
Oishi spat the remnants of his cigarette into a nearby puddle. "I see. Alright -- in that case, go ahead and question Asakura. I'll probably be back shortly ... depending on Nagato-san's testimony, I might bring Suzumiya-san with me for protective custody. If we think Nagato-san is the mastermind...."
"You caught that, too?"
"Yeah. She's physically able, without a doubt. I don't know that the height will match NPA forensic or SOCO profiling, but right now we're looking at her for motive and potential. All the same, if she's smart, I want to try and keep her from thinking that we've got our sights on her until Suzumiya-san is safe."
"Roger that -- I'll see you when you get back. Good luck."
"Likewise," Oishi returned, feeling uncomfortably certain he would need it. He hung up, noting with relief that the rain slackened very slightly as he marched back into the apartment complex.
After spinning around the Shinjin in perfect tandem with his colleague, slashing it into an oozing puddle of blue light, Itsuki drifted to a nearby rooftop and dropped his envelope of power. The form that lit next to him dismissed its own aura, and he was vaguely surprised to see the tall Russian again.
"Lucky break for you," the man said in his thick accent, offering something between a grin and a sneer. "My handler is small and easily swayed with promises of fewer broken bones."
Itsuki blinked, eyes widening slightly. "You beat answers out of him?" he asked, surprised at the idea.
"Tsst," the Russian hissed, shaking his head. "They thought they could control me with injections, forgetting perhaps that just because I am not in closed space, I am not without strength. I cannot go home, little boy. I hope you are happy."
"I'm not," Itsuki said, shaking his head. "Not at all."
"You play the role of a hero," the Russian continued, offering a broad-shouldered shrug. "I save the world. Just maybe, we'll get a happy ending anyway."
"You're just going to stay in closed space?"
"No, I will seek refuge with other espers. But that is not the point. The point is this: the Organization admits to capturing the time traveler. I don't know where, but I am told it is so."
Itsuki took another deep breath, nodding to himself. The two were still in closed space; another Shinjin was active in a merged space. "I'm not just trying to play the hero. Even though your information helps me, we're all in this together. We can at least try to clean this space before I go back."
"Yes, is faster with allies," the Russian agreed, before reassuming the red sphere of energy around himself and streaking away towards the next Shinjin.
Itsuki shook his head, lips pursed. No matter what happened, he and the large man would be allies in this space ... but was his word trustworthy? Even if so, all he'd done was confirm Mori's speculation, which he could easily just have been feeding back to the younger esper....
No, he told himself, shaking his head. It was too early to start doubting himself and his new cabal.
Akasaka didn't particularly want to interview the Kitago class 1-5 representative. Even though she appeared in most ways to be an average schoolgirl -- too average, really, except for her almost sculpted good looks -- the 'wrongness' about her that he couldn't quite articulate jarred against his nerves.
But he was trying to help Oishi with his investigation. Aside from which, the background check on Kimidori Emiri was already in motion; he had nothing to gain by idling, unless he wanted to make Oishi do this interview himself. And Oishi was going to have his hands full possibly trying to take Suzumiya into custody, protective or not.
He flagged down Oishi's chief secretary, the unassuming Aida. "Oishi-kun wants Asakura-san interrogated," he ordered. One of the detectives still at the school had scanned the page with the girl's handwriting sample, and the case file now had both samples side-by-side; a photocopy of the original note and Asakura's message to Kyon. "I'll be supervising."
"Understood," Aida replied, nodding.
The two men stepped into the room with the girl, who beamed a cheerful, sunshine-bright smile at the two men. "Hello!" she chirped.
"Hello, Asakura-san," Aida replied, after flicking on the digital recorder, setting a now very thick copy of the case-file on the table before taking a seat opposite her. Akasaka took the seat to Aida's right, adding his own small file with the rushed NPA analysis next to it. "My name is Mizuno Aida. This is National Police Agency supervisor Akasaka Mamoru. We'd like to ask you a few questions."
"Hmmm.... Questions? I think the law says you need to contact my parents, doesn't it?"
"It does," Aida agreed. "However, there are specific statutes outlining our responsibility to justice and truth, especially in the case of parents or guardians of minors that cannot be contacted."
"But, don't at least forty-eight hours need to pass before parents or guardians can be considered unreachable?" Her smile hadn't faltered in the slightest.
"They already have," Akasaka commented. "Counting our original attempts to contact them the first day of the investigation. May I ask how a high school girl became so well versed in law?"
Her fixed smile lessened slightly. "Without a legal guardian or parent, I believe I am allowed a lawyer before you can question me," she pointed out.
Akasaka set his phone on the table and slid it forward. "By all means," he said, "if you have a lawyer, call them. We'll erase this record and restart the interview."
Aida sighed, rewinding the digital recording and zeroing out all of the data. Asakura reached towards the phone, her smile returning, then hesitated, cocking her head slightly to one side.
"We would like to point out," Aida explained, "that our previous interview was merely to question you in further detail about what happened a few nights ago."
"You haven't been accused of anything," Akasaka added.
"Though," Aida continued, tilting his face with artistic precision, flashing light from his spectacles like mirrors directly into Asakura's eyes, "we do find it very interesting that you feel the need for a lawyer, considering that."
The girl stared, her smile vanishing as her lips pressed into a straight, flat line. She blinked, considering something, then her eyes fixed on the closed envelope that Akasaka hadn't even brought into play. Raising her hands and steepling them together, fingertips touching like a blushing schoolgirl about to make a confession, she carefully said, "I'm sorry. I have no more interest in this."
She rose to her feet, regaining her smile, and both of the men rose warily, too.
"You're not leaving this building," Aida began, before she abruptly circled around the table and closed the distance to him, her hand driving into the detective's chest before Akasaka could even reach for his stun-gun. It came away trailing an arc of crimson, then plunged in again, and again, and for good measure, the girl ripped her hand back and forth, side-to-side, shedding another spray of arterial blood.
He didn't know if he would ever be able to explain how, but she was already kicking open the interview room door before Aida collapsed, gurgling in agony as the knife -- from where? The girl had been searched! -- clattered to the floor at the fallen detective's side.
"Help!" Akasaka screamed, wrenching the stun-gun from its holster and turning, but far too late. The detectives in the room beyond all stared in shocked amazement ... but there was no sign of the girl. "Officer down! Officer down!"
Growling, he stuffed the stun-gun back into place and tried to administer first aid until a medical attendant arrived. His heart and mind both racing erratically, the second he had his hands free, he snatched his phone and redialed Oishi.
When the elevator reached Nagato Yuki's floor, Oishi quirked an eyebrow to see the girl standing in front of her apartment, waiting for him. Was she able to see him, seven floors below? Watching his conversation through the rain? He doubted she'd be able to hear him through the driving storm ... or even if the sky were clear, across that distance.
But it was unnerving anyway. "Nagato-san," he greeted her.
She wordlessly turned and opened the door. Grimacing, he stepped into her apartment. The sparse, almost bare room sported only one piece of furniture worth noting. Emiri sat at the table, and three teacups had been set out. "Sit," Nagato said, taking a seat one side of the table, next to her 'cousin'.
"I'm a bit more comfortable standing at the moment," Oishi replied, glancing across the room again. "Suzumiya-san is resting?"
Emiri nodded apologetically. "Today has been very hard on her," she said, with exactly the perfect amount of sad sympathy. That was enough for Oishi; for all he knew, Suzumiya was drugged in the next room. He decided he'd play a few more questions out, and then take her in. Whatever the strange girls were up to, Suzumiya would be better off with doctors and police psychologists.
"You won't mind if I take a look at her?" Oishi asked.
Emiri looked at Nagato, who blinked again, then rose to her feet. "Follow," she said. Oishi did, uncomfortable with the idea of turning his back on the girl at the table. Nagato Yuki walked a short distance down the hall on silent feet, then slid a door open. In the room within, Oishi was able to see the form of Suzumiya, still dressed in her school uniform, sleeping on a single futon. The girl's face twitched on occasion, as though she were submerged in a deep layer of dream, and her cheeks still glistened with recent tears.
Oishi allowed a deep sigh to escape, then nodded at Nagato, who slid the door shut and walked back to the living room on equally silent feet, retaking her seat in a single fluid motion.
He followed, frowning intently as he tried to puzzle out what was going on.
"If you'd like to speak with Yuki-chan alone, I can leave," Emiri offered. "I don't mind watching over Suzumiya-san."
The detective nodded warily. "I appreciate that," he said. "If it's not too much trouble."
The girl shook her head in response and rose to her feet, walking back to the bedroom with feet as silent as Nagato's. For her part, Nagato stared straight forward, only blinking on occasion. "Nagato-san," Oishi began, once Emiri was out of earshot, "could you give me your eyewitness account of what happened today?"
Nagato blinked and turned to look at him. "Vague," she answered.
He pursed his lips together. "Specifically," he clarified, producing his notepad, "what happened with Suzumiya Haruhi in class 1-5. And please, be verbose."
The stoic girl gave a tiny nod. "At seven minutes thirty four seconds after nine in the morning, Suzumiya Haruhi entered class 1-5. She approached her desk. She observed a floral arrangement on," and then Nagato's demeanor cracked for an instant, and something like a tiny, almost invisible scowl crossed her face, before vanishing, "the desk in front of hers. The cultural significance of this confirmed a reality she had been attempting to deny for some time."
Oishi stared, taken aback.
Nagato blinked twice, then continued, "After expressing a physical reaction of shock, Suzumiya Haruhi accepted a gesture of solace from fellow student Taniguchi. She then turned and approached," another pause, though this time Nagato's expression didn't change, "myself. At this juncture, fellow student Asakura Ryouko, representative for class 1-5, attempted to provoke a reaction from Suzumiya Haruhi concerning her words from fifth month nineteenth day two thousand and ninth year current era.
"Confronted with these words, Suzumiya Haruhi reacted with anger and physical violence, striking class representative Asakura Ryouko. It was at this point that I interceded, physically removing Suzumiya Haruhi from conflict for her own safety. You arrived after that."
The detective's gaze turned to the notepad, where he'd written only the day's date. "Is that ... so?" he finally managed.
She still stared at him, unblinking. "Yes."
"Well.... I see. Thank you. Ah, unfortunately, at this time, I'm going to take Suzumiya Haruhi into custody. Regardless of her motives, her behavior is unacceptable."
Nagato's gaze slowly turned away from him, and she blinked. "Wait here," she said quietly.
"If it's all the same," he began, as she rose to her feet, before she shook her head abruptly.
"It is inappropriate for you to watch her change," the girl noted. "Wait here."
Oishi pursed his lips together, wondering if they were going to do something like sneak down a fire escape ... but nodded. His argument for bringing Suzumiya into protective custody was already weak enough. He contemplated ignoring Nagato's blunt demand and checking on the girls anyway, but was distracted by the ringing of his cell phone.
"Oishi here," he answered, not checking the display.
"Oishi-kun!" Akasaka yelled across the connection. "Asakura Ryouko escaped!"
"What?" he yelped back, quickly glancing down the hallway. "How? Where is she?!"
"I don't.... Somehow, she had a concealed weapon -- she attacked Mizuno-san -- he's...." The NPA agent took a deep breath. "Oishi-kun, I don't know how to explain this; I've never seen someone move as quickly as she did. Mizuno's in a bad way, and she's out of our custody. I'm going to mobilize forces to search for her, but if she killed Student K to get to Suzumiya, she could be on her way there right now."
Oishi felt a chill run down his spine at the thought of losing his best aide. "Shi.... Alright. I'm taking Suzumiya-san into protective custody," Oishi growled. "Have backup meet me at Nagato's apartment."
"Understood," Akasaka replied. "Oishi-kun ... don't hesitate. Asakura shows no remorse."
"Right," Oishi said, numbly. "I'll see you at the station."
The door at the end of the hall opened, and Nagato Yuki, still in her school uniform, and Suzumiya Haruhi, now in more casual shorts and a loose shirt, stepped from the room. The short, bespectacled girl was most likely not the culprit if Asakura had revealed herself with a weapon, despite Oishi's original thoughts on the matter. "Nagato-san," he said, stepping forward and seizing Haruhi's unresisting wrist, "Suzumiya-san is being taken into protective custody from Asakura Ryouko; you can come with me if you like."
"No," she answered softly.
Oishi stared at her, but realized he couldn't stay to argue. "Fine," he said in clipped tones, dragging Haruhi towards the doorway. She followed his lead docilely, and he grit his teeth, wishing he could understand what was going on.
Nagato watched him lead the girl to the walkway outside of the apartment, her eyes tracking him as the door swung shut. Muttering dire imprecations to himself, he glanced at Haruhi's face. Her eyes were dark, empty, her facial muscles were slack, and her walk was the stumbling gait of a drugged stupor. "Damn it," he snarled at no one in particular, switching the hand he used to lead her and putting one hand on his pistol as they approached the elevator.
He stopped suddenly, eyes narrowing as he watched the elevator's floor indicator. From fifth, up to sixth ... and stopping on the seventh. Asakura's apartment was on the fifth floor, but there was no way she could possibly....
When the door opened, revealing the class 1-5 representative in her school uniform, she cocked her head to one side and raised her eyebrows. "What a pleasant surprise! Maybe this will be more interesting?" she asked. "I'm really disappointed that you didn't react more, Suzumiya! I did this all for you, you know!"
Oishi drew his handgun and fired with a wordless snarl. It would cost him his badge, but he didn't care anymore; if the schoolgirl had killed Aida, then nothing else mattered. Impossibly, he saw the girl's hand flash, faster than his eyes could follow, and a spray of sparks danced off the blade that she had not been holding a heartbeat earlier.
"No," Haruhi whispered hoarsely, pulling away from him, trying to retreat from Asakura's approaching form. "No!"
"Damn it!" Oishi swore again, pulling the trigger again and again, until the clip was empty, each bullet somehow deflected by a stray shower of sparks. If anything, the smile on Asakura Ryouko's face widened with each deflection, until in desperation, Oishi cast the handgun away, following Haruhi's lead and breaking into a run towards the emergency fire escape at the other end of the hallway.
Abruptly, his body froze in place, as though he were encased in invisible cement. He could breathe, somehow, but couldn't even move his jaw enough to form words, and the breath he could draw was a raspy stream at best. Asakura giggled cutely as she walked past him. Before him, Haruhi had frozen too, probably bound the same way he was. She was sprawled on her back, eyes wide in terror, mouth locked open with an unvoiced shriek. Unshed tears shimmered in the light reflecting off her face.
"I'm really very disappointed," Asakura said, adding another tiny giggle to her statement. "Maybe it's because I didn't let you see it happen? Or maybe you just need to know it was me that killed him? He cried, you know! I thought he was going to be more of a man about it, but I guess I don't really understand the emotions of organic beings that well!"
Asakura suddenly stood up straight, tilting her head back and touching a single fingertip to her lower lip. "I understand that some humans have a tradition of allowing the dying last words, so I let him have that. I thought maybe he would show me something I didn't know. But it was the same boring thing you'd see from a television drama! First, he begged for his life, or for a compromise ... that was really uninteresting." She flicked one wrist, throwing the jagged combat knife directly into Oishi's gut. He heard the eerie sounds of the blade penetrating his flesh, and the slap of the small hilt arresting its momentum.
He tried to writhe in pain, but was held too securely to react; he couldn't really even quicken his breathing or cry out in alarm. "So, I stabbed him, just like that!" The girl took a step closer to Oishi and yanked the knife out. "And then I told him to do better than that! And do you know what he said?"
Asakura bent over slightly, her cheeks faintly coloring as she touched the tip of her blade to the tip of one finger, toying with it absently. "It was really disappointing. He said, 'If you really want to surprise Haruhi, tell her I don't think she's so strange at all'. Of course, he was crying the entire time.... What is that supposed to mean? Was it just a product of his fear? Was it genuine, or just words? I really don't understand!"
She cocked her head to one side again, leaning close and peering into Haruhi's eyes, where tears now flowed freely. "Hmmm.... This is still very uninteresting. I thought you'd do something after all this! But maybe my superiors were wrong? Maybe you're not that special at all.... Or maybe you aren't scared enough? Well, in that case, if you can't stop this, then I'll at least get a new state to observe!"
Asakura stood up straight holding the knife loosely in one hand again. "Suzumiya-san," she said cheerfully, "please die!" And with that, she thrust forward, the blade plunging into Haruhi's chest. Asakura's smile widened even further, her eyes narrowing into tiny lines as she gave a single, sickening twist to the embedded blade.
END -- CHAPTER 3