Kyon -- Big Damn Hero: Loose Threads

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with '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. TVtropes(dot)org is part of the public domain, I think? I actually couldn't find a 'legal' section on the site!

"File K:3419.8.19/2011.4.25"

"Even as an observer, sometimes it's nice to be ignorant about some things. At least until after the fact. I suppose that doesn't sound very good, does it? Maybe I shouldn't record this...."

"[CLASSIFIED]" -- Peraea Mons T.E.S.A. Dataplume

Kanae was a bit sad that her sempai wasn't able to attend the club meeting after school, and he'd been too busy studying to really chat during lunch. She also wasn't clear on what exactly he'd done to get in trouble with his family. She was certain it was his mother complaining about him being a good person; after all, she'd gotten worked up over her sempai rescuing her from Ryuguu.

She'd also been approached by a number of her classmates to ask about him, many with suspiciously dreamy eyes. She didn't know more than the rumors going around the school, and her classroom hadn't had a line of sight to the clubhouse where her sempai had supposedly rescued Tsuruya from falling, and then vanquished a terrible villain. Then again, those were just rumors.

People she didn't recognize assumed that because she was part of the club, she knew the 'real' story. Thankfully, before she could get overwhelmed, her sempai's friend Tsuruya had cheerfully bulldozed through the crowd and personally escorted her to the clubroom. The tall girl was eternally energetic, and found almost everything amusing, but Kanae was happy to have another friend in any case.

After reaching the clubroom with her green-haired guardian, Kanae took her usual seat. Mikuru was already industriously working on her sewing project, and Koizumi and Haruhi were engaged in a discussion about something over a game of Othello. Yuki was quietly flipping the pages of an unfamiliar hard-cover novel, 'The Complete Compleat Enchanter'.

"Even so," Koizumi said genially, setting down a piece and flipping several of Haruhi's, "isn't time with family to be treasured? I was planning on visiting my parents over the vacation, myself!"

"That place sounds familiar," Tsuruya mused, before brightening. "Oh! My bodyguard's father used to works there! I think he mentioned it once or twice!"

"Never mind that," Haruhi decided, turning her attention to Tsuruya. "Kyon didn't have time to give me a full report, but he said you could help out."

"Yep!" Tsuruya said cheerfully, pulling a scroll from her schoolbag and then dropping into Kanae's sempai's usual seat. She handed the scroll to Haruhi, who accepted it dubiously, then pushed the Othello board closer to Tsuruya. The green-haired girl eyed the board thoughtfully, then placed a piece immediately after Koizumi took his move.

Haruhi carefully untied the heavy string sealing the scroll and unfurled it, raising an eyebrow at the contents. "Nice," she allowed. "You have very neat calligraphy, Tsuruya-san."

Unable to think of anything else to sketch at the moment, Kanae decided to draw Mikuru.

"You ... tallied broken noses?" Haruhi asked, a bit surprised, before her eyes widened further and she lowered the scroll to stare at Tsuruya incredulously. "Assaulting a yakuza hideout? Tsuruya-san, what the hell were you doing!?"

"Boryokudan," Tsuruya corrected. "They were Sumiyoshi-rengo, an organizations that opposes my own. They were buying the pictures that Yamane's group was taking."

That calmed Haruhi a bit. It was something they had to do, not just some wild whim. "Okay," she said, frowning as she scanned further. She stopped and assumed a quizzical expression, not actually looking at Tsuruya. "An organization that opposes your own? You called Kyon a 'saiko-komon' ... Tsuruya, are you a yakuza?"

Tsuruya shook her head, her eyes widening slightly as Koizumi played his piece on the Othello board. "Clevers," she remarked. Turning to Haruhi she explained, "My family is ninkyo dantai! We don't call ourselves 'yakuza'. I'm not really supposed to talk about it ... but Kyon-kun says that it's no good to hide things from you. My family helps fund Koizumi-kun's organizations! But, officially, the Tsuruya branch of the Yamaguchi-gumi doesn't look into the affairs of his group, and vice-versa. Since Koizumi-kun joined the SOS Brigade, I'd like to do that, too!"

Haruhi tapped the scroll thoughtfully. "What's this about 'kinship rituals'?" she asked.

"Sorries," Tsuruya said, sticking her tongue out and miming a blow to her head. "Um ... when we made the Sumiyoshi-rengo really mad, Kyon-kun asked me to make sure his family was safe. So, with my father's approval, Kyon-kun became my chief advisor, and my father's men watch Kyon-kun's family to make sure the Sumiyoshi-rengo leave them alone. But the ritual is to drink sake with salt and fish scales in it, spend a night in the family home -- you remember when Kyon-kun stayed over?"

Making a disgusted face, Haruhi nodded. "I guess if it's for ceremony...." She perused the scroll further. "Ritual cleansing?" she asked, cocking her head to one side. Yuki's eyes rose from her book to watch Haruhi silently.

"Official words for washing, um ... after a fight," Tsuruya clarified, her face coloring as she stared intently at the board and placed a piece.

Tsuruya began to look nervous. "W...well, it wasn't anything mischievous," she said insistently. "Um, when Kyon-kun was injured, I felt really bad ... that's on the report, too."

"Yeah," Haruhi grumbled, "I see it says 'stitches' here. Yuki-chan, you took care of that?"

"S...so, because he hit his head, and my wrist was cut -- Nagato-chi took care of that on Saturdays -- w...well...." Tsuruya's face was red, and she chuckled, rubbing the back of her neck. Kanae was fairly certain she was even slightly trembling. "A...anyway, he, um, took a baths with me and scrubbed my back -- but it was my idea! He was trying to be a gentleman about it and very polite!"

Kanae stared at the taller girl, her mouth dropping open as she finally realized what happened. "You got to take a bath with Sempai!?" she blurted out. "I'm jealous! Er, I mean, that is...." She clapped her hands over her mouth and felt her face heat up as she blushed dark red.

Mikuru roused from her intense study of her sewing project. "What's going on?" she asked, bewildered. Koizumi was frozen, his face pale. "Suzumiya-san?"

Haruhi slammed both palms onto the table, causing about half of the Othello tiles to flip, and the rest to clatter around the board. "Tsuruya-san! Do you expect me to just forgive this!?"

Squeaking in alarm, Mikuru leaped up from her seat and cowered behind Tsuruya; looking at Haruhi's expression, Kanae was strongly tempted to hide, too, but didn't think that the taller girl would make the best cover given the circumstances. She settled for ducking to the floor and peeking over the edge of the table nervously, wishing her sempai were there to cling to. Though, that might not end so well for him, to appearances.

Tsuruya reached into her bag and produced a flat rectangular object with a solid white backing. "I have a picture of Kyon-kun in delinquent costume," she offered, holding it between two fingers and presenting it to Haruhi.

Haruhi looked skeptical, but snatched it from Tsuruya, shooting her another glare before turning her attention to the picture. The girl's eyes immediately widened, and Kanae was surprised to see Haruhi's cheeks color, some of her anger vanishing instantly. "W...woah," she said slowly. Shaking her head, she looked at Tsuruya sharply again. "I am keeping this picture!"

Haruhi made a choking sound, snatching the next picture and staring at it. "Okay," she said dubiously, repeatedly glancing between it and the girl reading her book. "What else?"

Pulling out a third picture, Tsuruya announced, "And me, in kogal-mode! Plus, I still haves all the delinquent-mode costumes!"

The brigade chief looked mildly annoyed. "You'd better bring that here to hang on the costume rack," she mumbled. "Well, even so, taking a bath with Kyon -- that's going too far, Tsuruya-san! It better not happen again! If you're joining, you'd better understand that it makes you my subordinate! Is that clear!?"

Tsuruya saluted sharply. "Understood completely!" she agreed. "Next time I want to take a bath with Kyon-kun, I'll invite you over to join us!"

"You'd better!" Haruhi said, nodding. She blinked, seeming to only just realize what she said, and quickly shook her head, blushing. "I mean, I'll let you in the brigade, but don't think like that! Penalty on you, Tsuruya; you're paying for our drinks for the next activity!"

"Okay!" She pulled out a smaller stack of additional photographs. "Here are the group pictures!"

Mikuru blinked several times, her eyes widening. "T...Tsuruya bathed with Kyon-kun?" she asked, staring at the green-haired girl she was trying to hide behind.

"All business," Tsuruya assured her. "No mischief! Just like when we take baths or sleep together!"

"O...oh," Mikuru managed, looking at Tsuruya askance. "That's ... very bold of you."

"This from the girl who felt Kyon up last week?" Haruhi asked, looking at Mikuru with one arched eyebrow.

"I wonder if it's okay for me to do something like that with Sempai?" Kanae mused, her face still warm. "Everyone else seems to be so free...." She realized she was babbling, and quickly climbed back into her seat, turning her attention back to her sketchpad. "Um! I'm drawing, don't mind me!"

"A...anyway," Haruhi continued, tapping one finger on the table before her, as Koizumi sighed and started collecting loose Othello pieces, "if anyone were to get permission, it'd be Mikuru-chan, because I owe her an apology."

Mikuru looked at Haruhi as though the brigade chief had gone mad, then quickly shook her head. "Back to the project," she decided, folding the machine away and pulling out her hand-sewing kit.

"Ugh," Haruhi grumbled, as Koizumi finished putting away the Othello board. "We need to figure out an activity for after Golden Week ... I'm sure Kyon's mother will come around after sending him to Hinamizawa." She snapped her fingers absently, and the little pyramid on her desk with her rank on it wobbled unsteadily as it levitated, spinning in the air before her.

Yuki raised her gaze from her book and stared at the pyramid. Koizumi stared at it as well. Mikuru continued carefully affixing buttons to the coat she was working on. Tsuruya just shook her head and chuckled.

"I don't knows what to do after Golden Week," the tall girl said, grinning, "but everyone here knows my secret now, that I'm from a ninkyo dantai family! Kyon-kun and Koizumi-kun would have told me more, but there wasn't too much time before the fight we hads on Saturday. So! Haru-nyan, I know Kyon-kun said you could float things and change reality with Nagato-chi's help! What's everyone else do?"

"That'll pass the time," Haruhi agreed, frowning intently at the paperweight floating before her. "Koizumi-kun, why don't you go first?"

Knowing that he was supposed to return straight home, but not eager to return to confinement, Kyon decided to detour to his little sister's school first. After leaving the train station he hitched his bag high on his shoulder and broke into a trot; usually he would pick up his bike from the racks to one side, but Tsuruya had given him a ride. Thanks to Yuki's training and conditioning, he was able to make excellent time, arriving at the gates to her school in time to see her rounding the corner on the way home.

He quickly caught up with her, spotting a somewhat conspicuous man in a sharp suit and fedora glancing after the girl. Before announcing his presence to his sister, he slowed, eying the man. Seeing him, the suited figure nodded, pulling his fedora down and lowering one hand to the pin on his lapel. Relieved to realize it was one of the Tsuruya clan's men, watching over his family as promised, he nodded back, a hand rising to the pin he'd started wearing habitually as well.

"Yep," he answered, tousling her hair when she looked back at him. "Just thought I'd walk you home, Imouto. How was class?"

"It was fun! I got to tell my friends about you fighting the dark general! Miyoko-chan had a newspaper clipping about your school, too, and in social studies we got to talk about it!"

They made small-talk about the article, which he was glad to discover didn't name him, or anyone else from the brigade. Naturally, it didn't name any suspects, either, but that didn't bother him very much.

After getting home and exchanging wary, silent glances with his mother, he returned to his room and spread his homework across his desk again. A chirp from his phone alerted him of a text message, and he checked it curiously, frowning when he saw it was from Sasaki. "Why..." he said aloud, suddenly chilled. He didn't wonder why she was trying to contact him, but he had lost count of the number of times he'd thought he should ask Yuki about it -- and hadn't.

What else had he let slip? What other important things had gotten dropped by the wayside? The sudden shift in his life, parallel to the more dramatic shift in Haruhi's.... Grabbing a sheet of paper, he quickly started scribbling notes, his face marked with an intent frown.

"Temporal displacement," he grumbled, remembering the older Mikuru's warning of what he needed to learn about. "Sasaki," he added. "And Kanae-chan's alien invaders." Was he forgetting anything? "I need that vacation more than I thought."

He opened the text from Sasaki: "Hello Kyon! I suppose you must be very busy lately? I read in the paper about your school! I hope you are okay. I don't mean to bother you, so if you don't respond, I'll leave you be -- until after Golden Week, at least! So, if I don't hear from you, have a nice vacation! :)"

Strangely, her use of a smiley face in the text message bothered him more than anything else. She wasn't the type to usually do that, at least, in his memory. Had she done it to try and calm him? To warn him?

He forced himself to take a calming breath. He was becoming needlessly paranoid about all of this. Something strange certainly seemed to be going on, but that had frequently been the case since starting high school. One last item that had been bothering him could be dealt with first. He prepared a text of his own, asking Mikuru to meet with him at school early the next day. That should take care of all the loose ends he'd been dropping.

And while he was on the subject.... He pulled the envelope from his blazer pocket thoughtfully, wondering how much money Tsuruya had given him. If he was lucky, it was a few thousand yen, not likely to be anything near the ten thousand he had managed to get once, when he sold a certain baseball bat to the Kamigahara Pirates, but--

He gawked, staring in shock at ten, crisp, sequential, seemingly never-before-used ten thousand yen bills. "One hundred thousand yen," he managed, aloud. "It's good to work for Tsuruya-kun." In fact, other than being grounded, he was confident his day couldn't get any better!

As though to underscore that thought, his mother suddenly called up the stairs, "Kyon! A classmate is here to see you!"

He shrugged, folding the bills together and putting them in his wallet. He turned his chair around and rose in time to see Koizumi stepping into the room, looking somewhat stressed. "Everything okay?" Kyon asked, eying the esper up and down.

"It's been better," the esper said, his usually calm voice slightly strained. He glanced over his shoulder, to where Kyon could faintly make out Mori's voice as she engaged Kyon's mother in discussion about something. Koizumi closed the door and rubbed his forehead. "Um, I must point out I did question the wisdom of sharing the details of your ... activities ... with Suzumiya-san, but it also seems you were correct; Tsuruya-san brought it up anyway."

Koizumi paused a moment before grudgingly admitting, "No, actually. Much to my consternation. I have never seen Suzumiya-san so frustrated without closed space being created. It seems she has given herself an ... alternative method of relieving that frustration, but I am aware enough of her emotional state to know that it's not completely effective."

The esper coughed politely. "Your ... activities ... with Tsuruya-san, naturally."

One of Koizumi's eyebrow's twitched. "No, Kyon-kun ... the thing which Mori-san gave you ... equipment for?"

Kyon winced, raising his hands and shaking his head. "Okay, you and Mori have the wrong idea -- there is nothing like that going on-- Wait, Haruhi thinks it is happening!?"

"She's not best pleased about the 'ceremonial cleansing' you evidently undertook with Tsuruya-san, I can assure you of that," Koizumi said, spreading his hands in a shrug.

"It's ... possible that closed space will not be created anymore," Koizumi allowed. "Which concerns me if her frustration is allowed to build too much without a sufficient outlet."

Kyon frowned. Would that burden fall to Yuki, he wondered? "And, naturally, you want me to take care of it?"

"With due respect," the esper said, smiling, "it seems to me that this situation was caused by you in the first place, so, yes, that would be greatly appreciated."

"So ... am I in trouble with the Organization?" Didn't this contradict what his future self would tell Mori?

"No ... the espers are aware of Suzumiya-san's emotional state, as I've said before, but it seems that I am the most sensitive, either through proximity, or just a better personal knowledge of Suzumiya-san." Koizumi shook his head. "This in no way lessens my concern, however."

Koizumi gave him a flat stare. "Kyon-kun ... please be very careful about these things. I realize your new-found authority may come with certain ... temptations ... but, surely you're not oblivious as to Suzumiya-san's regard concerning you?"

"I get it," Kyon grumbled, annoyed with the esper's attitude. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "So I should talk to Haruhi?"

"You certainly need to be more careful with concerns to your treatment of other girls as it gets back to Suzumiya-san," Koizumi advised. "Personally, I would suggest not ... playing around with anyone else. Suzumiya-san is a very interesting person, and in many ways her eccentricity makes her more tolerant than another might be ... but everyone has limits."

Kyon opened his eyes and stared at Koizumi. The esper was gazing out the window absently. "I get it," he said quietly.

"Good," Koizumi said, turning his gaze back to Kyon and smiling. "Mori-san will try and smooth things over with your family to make it possible, but I trust that you will take care of this quickly, then?"

Kyon's phone warned him that he had a text, and he checked it, not surprised to see that it was from himself: "Hi! Need the phone. Turn back on tomorrow morning."

Smirking at the esper as he turned his phone off, he said, "You and Mori don't need to worry; I already am."

He remembered the day his tenshi had stopped coming to class. No one else seemed to catch it, but the boy who was too strange to use his own name hadn't seemed at all surprised. That wasn't much of a clue, in and of itself.... But he had followed his tenshi everywhere. He knew she had left a message in that villain's shoe locker.

He hadn't read the note, but he wasn't blind, and he could guess. So he'd waited in the hall, watching quietly, pretending to be busy with straightening out his backpack. He had no illusions; he was one of those not-quite-attractive-enough-to-be-noticed people. Not hideous enough to be stared at, just the right level of plain and uninspiring features to generally vanish into the background.

And he'd seen the nameless fiend walk into the 1-5 classroom, nearly a year ago. The classroom he'd last seen his tenshi stride into.

Time passed. Eventually, Taniguchi, that good-for-nothing pompous.... That boy had opened the door to the classroom, seen something that caused him to panic and apologize, and then ran away, yelling something inane.

He had gone home, to feel his hopes and dreams wither just a little bit more. She'd been forever out of his reach before, but now.... Now, thanks to that villain....

The detective at the foot of his bed snapped his fingers, drawing him back to the present. He stared at the irritated looking man in uniform, then shifted his shoulders. "I hit my head," he said by way of explanation. "Everything is a bit fuzzy."

"I'm sure," the detective replied doubtfully, glancing at his notepad. "We'll take a break here. I'll be back in a few hours." The detective gave a wide, unfriendly grin. "Don't go anywhere."

He sneered at the man's turned back, the handcuff securing him to the bed-rail making a quiet metallic clang.

Alone with his thoughts for a minute, he replayed the day after the villain had defiled his beloved. He knew, somehow, that because she had been tainted, corrupted by that disgusting sub-human ... she wouldn't come back. Arriving before class the next day, he had gathered some personal effects from her locker outside the classroom. When the announcement came that she had left, his tenshi vanished forever, he watched, somehow knowing.

The excitable girl behind him was delighted that 'something' had happened, but the fiend himself did not betray the slightest iota of surprise. Of course, why would he be surprised? He had driven her away.

He'd done nothing, merely remaining silent and watching the nameless one act unconcerned. Days turned to weeks and months, and all he had to console himself was the physical education outfit he'd taken before it was too late, the one small bit of her left. But....

...something about those clothes, some scent on it.... It made him feel closer to her, somehow. He wanted, more than anything, vengeance for the loss of his tenshi. And yet.... And yet, somehow, the closer he felt to her, the more he knew he had to be subtle. He had to find some way of either overwhelming the nameless thug, or undermining him without ever being seen.

Initially, he'd had just one intended target, that being the girl that the villain seemed to care about. But then, the others in the club had found out, and it had become an opportunity to become something larger, more profitable.... Money wasn't the most important thing in the world, but it helped. And making that money established connections. He just needed to wait for it all to pan out....

He looked up sharply, as the door to his room opened, and an unfamiliar-looking man in a clean suit limped in, leaning heavily on a cane. He was followed by a boy that he knew quite well, however. "Yamane Jun," the man said, giving a shark-like grin. "Well, well, well.... How low the mighty have fallen, hum?"

"Shut up," the familiar looking boy warned tersely. "Getting in here wasn't cheap, so you had better make it damn well worth his time, or we're both screwed."

"You're not my boss, Ryuguu," Jun sneered. "As I remember it, it went the other way around."

"Boys, boys," the man said, shaking his head. "Calm down. You can kill each other once we address a matter of personal vengeance."

Ryuguu and Jun both fell silent, eyes turning to the man. He tenderly limped to a chair near the foot of Jun's bed, wincing as he sat, one hand going to his back.

"Now," he said, once he was seated, "you're in a bit of luck, Yamane. It seems that the school doesn't want to press charges, because that would make their mistake much more visible on the record. And the Tsuruya family doesn't want to press charges, because they don't want this brought further to light either. Oh, certain ... others ... might want justice, but it's hard to press charges when you aren't named, isn't it?"

"And?" Yamane asked, straightening up slightly. He wasn't actually badly injured, other than massive bruising across his back, a black eye, and one very stressed ankle. Now that he was recovering from his concussion, at least. "You mean, I'll be able to get out of here, soon?" And go back home, where he could console himself with his tenshi's scent.... Oh, what sweet bliss that would be!

"Oh, yes," the man said, nodding. "Your uncle Watanabe here is looking out for you."

Watanabe grimaced. "That dirty punk, Kyon, messed up my operation. My boss is pretty angry about things, and even though I'll be released soon, that elbow slam has made me piss blood all week," he growled, wincing as one hand went to his back, over his kidney. "This is where you two come in. My boss can't make an obvious move against him. And neither can I." He jerked his head at Ryuguu. "But you can. And once Kyon is ... out of the picture ... we can take care of that air-headed Tsuruya bimbo."

The boy was wearing casual clothing, but suddenly looked nervous, reaching deep into a pocket on his very baggy trousers and withdrawing a pistol in his unbandaged hand. Jun's eyes widened in shock; gun control laws being what they were in Japan, obtaining a handgun was all-but impossible ... this one was almost certainly illegal.

Jun could name over seventy different models of camera, but not a single model of handgun; he had no idea what the piece was called, except that it looked like it belonged in a Hong Kong blood opera. "We each get one," Ryuguu said, uncomfortably. "We do this ... our uncle here will make sure that when we're done, nothing comes back to us. We get fresh starts, benefit packages, new allies...."

"Naturally," Watanabe added, grimacing when he struggled to his feet, leaning heavily on his cane as Ryuguu shoved the pistol back out of sight, "screw this up, don't do what we say ... then I've never seen you in my life -- either of you. But I think you understand how this works. I gather neither of you have happy family lives at the moment anyway. So, what do you say, kid?"

Jun stared blankly at Ryuguu's pocket for a long minute, then gave a slow nod. For his tenshi, he would do this. "I'm not a kid," he mumbled, shooting a warning glance at the man before him.

"Good," Watanabe said, grinning through the pain. "Once you're out of here, Ryuguu will contact you for the next step. But don't worry ... you'll be released soon enough. Then we'll make sure you know how to use those things ... it's not that different from a camera. Point, and shoot. Think of it, boys ... soon, you can be free...."

Mikuru wasn't certain why Kyon wanted to meet with her, but she had no objections to it. And it was in the clubroom, at school, so surely it wasn't anything that would upset Haruhi. At least, it shouldn't be. She felt a little bit sad he hadn't asked to come to her apartment, but the greater part of her knew that she would be in quite a bit of trouble if that happened. Anyway, Haruhi's 'permission' aside, she had to behave herself.

And part of behaving herself was believing that Kyon was good enough to behave himself, too. Which, so far, he had. He'd never made a move to ask her on a date, even though he did frequently compliment her outfits, her hair, her cooking.... It wasn't like she'd kept a mental journal of all those events, or logged it in a private note to herself to examine in the future.... Well, okay, she did have a fairly extensive collection of recorded memories to peruse later, once her actual mission was over -- but until such time as she returned to her own time, she wasn't able to browse through those.

So she relied on good old fashioned chemical memories of those incidents. And she was just remembering how long it had actually been since she'd actually gotten to make him tea when she reached the clubroom door, pleased to find him inside, sitting at Haruhi's desk and puttering with the computer.

"Good morning, Kyon-kun!" she said cheerfully, trying to force her smile even brighter when she saw that his expression was a bit downcast. He tried to smile back, but she knew it wasn't completely genuine. She closed the door behind her, approaching the desk nervously. "I...is everything okay?"

He scratched behind one ear uncomfortably, and said, "Ah, sorry ... I just.... Before last night's session with Nagato, I asked her about something that has been bothering me. She didn't know anything about it, though, so it's been troubling me."

She had a hard time imagining what Yuki wouldn't know about. "What is it?" she pressed, curious.

"Sasaki's name has coming up a lot, lately, and just recently she's been trying to get in touch with me," he said, shrugging. "Something about her really bothers Haruhi. Koizumi could even tell when Sasaki's name made Haruhi create a new kind of closed space."

She nodded absently, taking a seat and contemplating asking her superiors if they knew anything about it. They would just give her that old standby line, most likely ... or worse, answer her questions and then forbid her to tell Kyon. Her smile fading, she spent a moment of focus forming the questions and relaying them anyway. She wondered what it looked like to Kyon, who would have no understanding of what augmented reality was, or what the curious gesture she made next to her face meant. From his point of view, she probably looked like she was daydreaming, maybe trying to shield her eyes from the light.

The answer came back more quickly than she had expected ... but the contents were exactly what she had predicted. "I don't know anything about that," she said apologetically.

He shook his head. "Don't worry about it," he assured her. "That's not why I asked you here. Um ... so ... Nagato mentioned it last night, but can you tell me what temporal displacement is? It seemed it might be something you'd know about...."

"That's a very complex thing," she said, surprised he knew to ask. Well, not if Yuki had mentioned it, she supposed. Yuki seemed to know everything, but she herself had a hard time understanding why Kyon would worry about it. "Um ... let's see ... to put it into words...." She just knew she was going to explain it terribly, and Kyon was going to come up with simpler words that were completely sufficient for it.

He shifted in the seat behind the desk slightly, glancing at the doorway briefly.

"Um, think of it as a way to track time relative to your departure point? Basically, if you were to travel back in time thirty minutes, you would have a thirty minute temporal deviation value. If you waited fifteen minutes and then traveled forward fifteen more minutes, you would return just after you originally left, but your deviance would be fifteen minutes, still."

"So, basically, it's an offset? How far off you are from the initial point you left, if time were to continue moving forward?"

She didn't like the explanation being so simple when he reworded it, but he seemed to understand it. "Yes," she said, nodding. "'Offset'. That's a good word.... Anyway, it's useful for us in some situations because it lets us try and preserve our relative age in relation to the world around us. Er, um...." She paused, but realized even if she had let something slip, none of it had been classified. "A...anyway, mostly it's only important because a high deviation value causes a kind of temporal resonance. This will naturally fade away off after taking the slow path long enough, but that resonance makes you highly susceptible to time quakes."

"Er ... yes," she said, nodding. "But generally, such things only happen when paradoxes are resolved or incurred."

He tapped his chin thoughtfully, studying the bookshelves. "What would my deviation value have been last December?" he asked, turning to look back at her.

"U...um...." She flinched, not liking that memory at all. "My memories aren't clear," she told him honestly. "It should have been a few days, at most, but something was very strange about that journey." She shook her head. "I'm sorry...."

"Well," he mused, rubbing his chin, "we'd both be off by about three years in any case, thanks to last year's Tanabata, right?"

She sighed, lowering her head and staring at the bookcases that the interface had filled. "Nagato-san seems to be very good at it," she admitted. "She did ... something else. When it was done we were both synchronized without any resonance to the time she released us. Um, when I said that our form of time travel made a 'noise', while it is also a sound, that's not really what I meant. It's more of a ... ripple on the fabric of space-time? A resonance there."

"Not so good at resonance theory," Kyon murmured, giving her a glum look. "But, basically, vibrations connect everything?"

"Something like that!" she agreed, nodding quickly. "But, in any case, Nagato-san's ability to suspend us didn't cause any resonance at all. We were both synchronized to the time we were released."

Kyon looked thoughtful. "I guess I understand it," he allowed. "But I don't see how it would be useful to me ... unless there's a way to detect that resonance ... then I suppose I could find time travelers?"

"Or they could find you if you're displaced yourself," she agreed. "But you would need classified--" She cut herself off with a wince and shrugged apologetically.

"Well. If it's important, I'm sure you or Nagato will tell me at the time. Thank you, Asahina-san." He gave her a weak, somehow troubled smile. "Now, do you have authorization to take us back in time to, let's say ... a few minutes after everyone left the clubroom yesterday?"

She contemplated, thinking back. "Well, Suzumiya-san decided to stay behind a bit," she admitted, frowning. "I'm not sure when she actually left."

"Oh? Well ... that's actually fine," he said, his smile widening. "Makes things easier for me. I need to talk to her yesterday."

She nodded, trying to recall the specific times. "I think that would have been about ... four forty five, or so?"

He checked his phone, flipping through some messages before he nodded. "That should be about perfect," he agreed. "Let's see ... I've noticed you seem to be able to move us through space and time simultaneously -- can you send us to the roof? That should be empty at that time."

"I'm not clear on the specifics," he admitted. "But it didn't seem likely you carried me from here to the park last Tanabata. I'm guessing it's probably something like ... I don't know ... our planet is still spinning through space, so if you were to only move through time we'd be in the wrong place."

She blinked. "N...no, it would be somewhere else in the Earth's orbit," she managed. "Because of the Principle of classified--" She winced. "W...well, you've done very well figuring out something that we don't usually express in words." She gave him a bright smile. "You're quite good at this!" If he had only been born in her time, he could easily have gotten placed within her organization ... perhaps even as her partner-- She tried to make herself stop thinking of that. A passing daydream was just fancy, after all.... He was tied to this time, and even though it wasn't visible, the breach between them was years beyond his understanding.

"Ah," she managed, blushing slightly as authorization for the transfer came through. She hadn't even submitted the request! How did he do that? "Um, approval has been granted. Close your eyes, please?"

He nodded, washing away his look of concern, and did as she asked. She felt her blush intensify as she drew close enough to put her hands on his shoulders and triggered the transfer.

He was getting far too used to this, Kyon decided, opening his eyes on the rooftop of the school building. Mikuru lowered her hands from his shoulders and stepped away, glancing around uncomfortably. Then again, the last time she was here, she had been cowering in terror from fireworks they hadn't had permission to use....

Biting his lip, he realized one flaw in his plan. Clubs were over or letting out; what should he do with Mikuru while he spoke with Haruhi? He quickly sent himself the text message he had received the previous day and shut off his phone. "Um, Kyon-kun," she asked, as he was watching his phone power down, "what are we here for?"

"Haruhi got upset or frustrated about something yesterday," he answered, grimacing. "Because I was careless."

"O...oh?" she managed, frowning. "She didn't seem that upset, though ... she got a bit angry with Tsuruya-chan, but she seemed to get over it.... Um, Kyon-kun, is it true you, um, took a bath with Tsuruya-chan?"

He felt his face color, but nodded. "Yeah, the first time, we were both injured ... the second time, I was just.... Well, it was after big fights in either case, for me."

Her face paled. "S...Suzumiya-san didn't hear about a second time," she said worriedly. "Um, s...she probably shouldn't...."

Running a hand through his hair nervously, he allowed, "You're probably right. Okay. Ah ... would it be okay to leave you with the calligraphy club again?"

"Ah...." She thought for a moment, then nodded. "If they let out, is it okay to call you?"

He nodded back. "I'll turn my phone on in about five minutes; my past self knows not to use it for the rest of today."

"Good planning," she approved. "But, my past self didn't know, so it might be problematic if you tried to call me."

"Got it," he agreed, as they trooped into the school building and marched to the clubhouse. Mikuru waved to him as she walked down the hall to the calligraphy club, just past the door to the now-defunct idol research club. Taking another breath to steel himself, he rapped on the door to the door beneath the literature club sign.

He shook his head and opened the door. Haruhi was at the computer desk, her head pillowed on her folded arms. She looked up with a glare, straightening up with surprise when she saw him. "Kyon!?" she managed, as he stepped in and closed the door behind him. "What are you doing here?! Shouldn't you be at home?"

He checked his wristwatch. "I am, right now," he agreed, turning on his phone once more. "I'm just about ready to start working on my homework."

She sighed, looking away. "You're having another time travel adventure?" she grumbled. "Where's Mikuru-chan?"

"I asked her to wait in another clubroom, so I could talk to you," he said cautiously, walking to the desk and glancing out the window. "That's all I'm here for, actually."

"Bleah," she grumped. "I'm not sure I like his creepy stalker organization, but I really don't like Koizumi's creepy stalker esper power."

She sighed, turning to stare out the window as well. "Hey ... you like ... Tsuruya-san, don't you?"

"She's a good friend," he said cautiously, studying her. "But ... don't get the wrong idea. It's...." He trailed off.

"You took a bath with her," Haruhi growled, shooting a glance over her shoulder at him. He could read a trace of hurt along with the anger in that gaze. Subtle tones of regret, mostly hidden, but still there. He could try and pretend he hadn't seen them, but that hadn't ended well for him those months ago, when the boy she tutored told her that he and Mikuru were on a 'date'. If only the kid could have the decency to mention that Kyon saved him from being flattened by a malicious time traveler in a green minivan.

"Well," he said slowly, "it was just a bath, Haruhi. And it was after a fight. I'd been kicked in the face -- which really hurt, by the way -- so I wasn't at my best. Anyway, why are you so upset about it?" Not that he didn't know, but it wasn't like he could do anything about it if she couldn't admit it.

She seemed to realize that, too, and much of her visible anger dispersed. "You can like whoever you want," she mumbled. "I just...."

"I'm not blind or stupid," she sighed, turning away. "I see how you look at Mikuru-chan. I know what you did for Yuki-chan and Tsuruya-san. And ... Yuki-chan gets to borrow you when she needs it ... but it's not like I should be the one to give that permission to her...." Her voice was thickening, and she cut off with a muffled choke. "S...so it's nothing! It's nothing! Y...you...."

He put one hand on her shoulder, marveling that someone so powerful was capable of appearing so vulnerable. She squeaked a bit, managing to resolutely look away at the last instant. "Haruhi," he said uneasily. "Look.... With Tsuruya-kun, I mean.... It's not like I'm trying to start a relationship with her, or anything -- and anyway, as far as her family goes, she's my boss."

He grimaced, seeing his mistake. "No, Haruhi.... Tsuruya's your subordinate, isn't she? And, I said a long time ago ... even if I am working for part of Tsuruya's family, and somehow inadvertently ended up joining an organized crime syndicate, it's secondary to the brigade."

"But that's not what this is about," he realized aloud. "Haruhi, um...." He paused, thinking. How to phrase it? "I'm not ... looking for something with anyone else. I mean, you know me. It's only because we'd had that fight. This doesn't mean ... I don't like you." He took another breath, as she stilled suddenly, cautiously turning her face, but not enough for him to see her eyes.

The words had come easily with Yuki ... but then, Yuki had asked. And what was he telling Haruhi, anyway? That he was shiftless and didn't have the initiative to say the important things? That he'd just go along with what anyone else started? He had to take a step forward.

"You know," he said, breaking the silence he had let drag on too long, "I l...like you a lot, Haruhi. That's why ... all of this is even happening in the first place."

Slowly, her face turned to look at his, hope and fear warring in her eyes, which shimmered with unshed tears. Her voice was soft, but level, when she said, "You're an idiot."

He sighed, giving her a weak smile. "I thought I didn't like tsundere characters, but maybe I'm wrong if I like you," he tried.

She stood suddenly, wiping her eyes with the back of one sleeve and giving him a hard stare, full of fire and confidence again. "I can't stand those characters! And I'm not like that! But you'd better be serious, Kyon; is that really true?" she demanded. "Or are you just saying that?!"

"It's true!" he insisted, holding his ground. "I don't think anyone should just say something like that and not mean it!"

"Oh? Well, you've got a funny way of showing it, if you like me, and then go that far with Tsuruya-san!" Something approaching a smile flickered about one corner of her mouth, and lightning fast, even more quickly than his new training took into account, she snatched his tie and jerked on it sharply, pulling his face close to hers. "So, if you really do like me, I don't want to see you doing things with other girls that you haven't ever done with me!"

For a heartbeat, he struggled for breath, staring into her eyes. Then he regained his resolve and met her empowered gaze, leaning even closer, so that their noses were almost touching. "Is that what you want?" he growled.

She gave a tiny, but firm nod, unblinking. "Those are the rules," she insisted. "Do you understand!?"

"Heh," he chuckled. For some reason, being so close to her, he thought of Yuki. He thought of Tsuruya kissing him on the cheek. Then he leaned in and watched her eyes widen in alarm as he kissed her. She pulled him even closer with his tie, and his arms went around her, holding her tight until he thought he would pass out. Breaking the kiss, he pulled his tie loose enough to breathe again, and managed, "Deal."

Her eyes were still wide, and her face was slightly red. "G...good," she managed, breathing heavily as she crossed her arms over her chest and shakily nodded. "S...so, you came back in time just to ... tell me you like me?"

She smirked. "Good," she decided. "If I'm at least that important to you, then I know it's sincere-- But you'd better listen to me on this one! I don't want to have to sit out the next time you have an adventure! I'm not some delicate flower that needs to be protected -- I have powers, too!"

"Yeah? Well, next time, I want to be involved from the beginning, and not have to be the background character that just cleans up after you!" she demanded, jabbing a finger into his chest. "Then maybe next time you won't end up taking a bath with Tsuruya-san behind my back, or getting into so much trouble with your family!"

"I'll do my best," he agreed. He frowned as his phone rang, and pulled it from his pocket warily. Mikuru's name appeared on the caller ID, and Haruhi raised an eyebrow.

He nodded apologetically. "You'll see me tomorrow," he assured her, answering the phone as he hurried from the room. "Take care!"

"Okay, hero," she allowed, giving him an appraising look. "I'll count this as enough involvement for this adventure ... for now. Any messages for your past self?"

"Not today," he said, waving as he jogged out the door and answered his phone. Running to the stairwell before speaking, because of Haruhi's unreasonably sharp hearing, he whispered, "Hello?"

"Yeah," he answered, looking down the hall to the clubroom that he had sent Mikuru to. "Everything okay?"

"I'm waiting on the roof," she answered nervously. "Um, I didn't mean to bother you, or anything like that...."

"No problem," he assured her. "I'll be right there and we can head back to tomorrow morning."

Unsurprisingly, to Mikuru, the authorization for transfer came through just before Kyon returned to the roof, looking over his shoulder at something. "Thanks, Asahina-san," he told her, smiling. "Ready to go back?"

She nodded, trying not to glance at the club house, which was easily visible from the roof. "Y...yes," she agreed. "Um, close your eyes?"

He did as she instructed, and for a heartbeat, while his eyes were closed, she considered-- But, no, that would be wrong. If only there were some gesture along those lines she could make.... She placed her hands on his shoulders and invoked the transfer, her safeguards and conditioning protecting her from the worst of the effects.

His eyes opened and she backed away from him, giving an encouraging smile. He had done what he'd set out to do, and they'd even returned to the room where he'd done it. That seemed like a victory, all things considered. For some reason, he looked troubled, though.

"I'm fine," he said, checking his wristwatch. "Uh ... so, what's our deviation right now?"

"Oh," she managed, her face coloring. "W...we shouldn't have had one. We're the same amount of relative time forward. Isn't that okay?"

"Yeah, that should be fine," he agreed. "Um, thank you, Asahina-san." He shook his head as though to banish some lingering thought and went to the computer, still running from when they had left. "I ... really liked talking with you. And I appreciated your help, too." That seemed worrisomely final, to her! "A...anyway, you know what happened last week, right? Tsuruya-kun and Haruhi explained the investigation?"

She nodded, shivering a tiny bit. It was embarrassing enough having a role in Haruhi's movie, but if somewhere in her own time images of her undressing were still circulating.... What a terrible thought that was!

"W...well," he began, suddenly looking away, unable to meet her eyes. "S...so, I have to tell you something, because I was thinking about it. I mean ... the issue was bigger than it seemed on the surface, but the Sumiyoshi-rengo aside, just ... sticking with the surface, which is what the idol research club was doing, well, we both think that it was wrong of them to take pictures without permission, right?"

"Yes," she agreed, nodding. Was Kyon feeling bad about getting involved in ... shady activities and using force to resolve the situation? She could understand that ... but the world was never really clearly black and white, so at some point it seemed an inevitable issue. Still, if someone as steadfast and generally reliable as him thought she was worth discussing it with, well, that was a small mark of pride for her. "But I don't think there was anything wrong with how you took care of it!"

He sighed and slumped slightly. "I'd be a hypocrite if-- No, I am a hypocrite," he said. "So, you even asked me about this, and ... I didn't tell you the truth." He tapped a few keys on the keyboard. "When I took the camera from Haruhi, after she took those pictures of you ... er ... right after I failed to stand up for you from the computer club incident...." He trailed off and rubbed at his forehead.

She was stunned, uncertain what to say, or where he was going. Really, she did not like to remember that incident at all. Haruhi had thankfully gotten much better at respecting her boundaries, and Kyon had done a much better job of trying to stand up for her since then.... But when had Kyon ever lied to her!?

"W...well, I kept those pictures," he confessed, standing up. "So, I'm going to delete them now ... like I should have when I told Haruhi I had." Then he managed to turn to her, and she could see in his eyes how much he really was bothered by it. "I'm sorry, Asahina-san."

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Filler Arc IV

Chapter Fourteen: Loose Threads