Kyon -- Big Damn Hero: Raising Hell

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! Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

"Chapter Two: More Training"

"...so, yes, congratulations for finishing your first regimen successfully. But now that you've acquired those skills, you must retain them, while also refining new skills. The purpose of training is improvement, after all."

"Training and You: the Eternal Nightmare" -- Tadamichi Kyousuke

Much to Kyon's surprise, by the time lunch came around, Keiichi was awake, though the man still looked tired. Matsuri sat next to her mother, looking almost identical to what Kyon could remember of Rika's childhood pictures. Shutaro sat next to Keiichi, providing another eerily symmetrical flash to the past, save that his hair was neater, and a dusty blue color.

His own sister was trying to explain to their cousins that Kyon had gotten a part time job as a bodyguard and a world-saving hero, but he tuned that out when Keiichi struck up a conversation, asking how school had been. Discounting the oddity of events surrounding the SOS Brigade -- not just Haruhi, these days -- he admitted that there wasn't much worth mentioning, but lately his grades had been improving.

"Well," Keiichi advised, "don't get too stressed about your test scores, whatever else happens. Your friends are doing well?"

He thought about that a bit. What friends, really? He had a number of casual acquaintances, and a handful of friends like Kunikida and Taniguchi, but really ... his closer friends were the club members. Then again, there was Sasaki, but.... "Generally," he allowed, thinking of the recent difficulties that he and Tsuruya had overcome, and the changes made to save Yuki's life, "there are rough spots, but we stick together."

"That's the most important thing," Keiichi and Rika said together, in unnerving synchronization.

They shared a glance, and Rika giggled, while Keiichi just smirked, continuing, "Really, though, trust us on this one. Good friends are worth more than their weight in gold."

He scratched the back of his head and looked at the sandwich on the plate before him. "Well..." he began uncertainly.

"He's got two!" his little sister said helpfully. "Tsuru-nee-san, and Haru-nee-san!"

"No!" Matsuri protested, her smile instantly replaced with a pout. "Kyon-nii-sama is mine!"

"Now, now," Rika chastised her daughter, patting her head. "We've talked about this, Matsuri-chan."

Ignoring the girl for the moment, Keiichi raised an eyebrow and studied Kyon thoughtfully. "Really?" he asked, smirking. "So you're a player, eh?"

"It's not like that!" Kyon protested quickly. "I don't have any kind of girlfriend at all! Imouto's just being silly."

"But Tsuru-nee-san kissed Kyon-kun," his sister insisted, turning to look at him. "And he said Haru-nee-san shouldn't know, so I promised never to tell her!"

"Yeah, you've really proved the worth of that promise just now," he grumbled. "Anyway, Tsuruya-kun and Haruhi are very good friends, like Asahina-san, or Nagato, or Kanae-chan ... I'm not dating anyone."

Keiichi chuckled, shaking his head. "Alright, never mind that for now," he decided. Across the table, Rika's glance at Kyon suggested that she thought it would be worth discussing more later. "Have you caught any Hanshin Tigers games lately? You're pretty close to Koushien stadium."

"Dad's almost never home these days to take us," his sister contributed with a sigh. "But that's okay! Kyon-kun rescued Tsuru-nee-san from a dark general, like I was saying, so her father bought Dad's company! He'll get to spend more time at home, soon!"

"Well, it wasn't quite like that," he temporized, frowning. "I just looked after Tsuruya-kun, really...."

After abandoning Kyon to the collected children, Rika, Keiichi, and the other women met up at Rena's house. Rena had seen better days, obviously having woken up not long before their arrival.

Stepping in through the doorway, Rika sized up the taller woman with an appraising eye. She had a glow of recently-regained peace about her, and blushed like a much younger woman under Rika's stare. "Good," Rika judged, nodding. After kicking off her shoes, she smirked and raised an eyebrow, asking, "Did Kei-chan treat you well?"

Mion and Satoko were already inside, Satoko nimbly shuffling a deck of cards while Mion flipped through a notebook. "About time you two showed up," the green-haired woman remarked, setting her notebook down as Keiichi stepped in behind Rika.

"Sorry," Keiichi said with a grin. "We were just making sure that Kyon and his sister were going to be okay."

"Ah, Kyon's in town?" Satoko asked, brightening. "I should have remembered that.... Well, Aiko-chan will be happy to see him and his sister. Thanks for picking her up earlier."

Rena nodded thoughtfully, joining the group at the table. Keiichi got a side to himself, while Rika and Satoko sat opposite him, with Rena and Mion on either side. "No problem, Satoko-chan. We don't have to worry about the kids for a little while," Keiichi said, as Satoko began dealing the cards out. "They're in good hands."

"Oh, Kei-chan, don't let me forget to thank Kyon for watching over Yurie-chan," Rena mused. "Do you think he might want some ohagi? Or maybe I could make him some cookies?"

"I think he might want some advice," Rika noted, while Mion doled out poker chips. "According to his sister, he's got quite a few 'close friends', but they almost all seem to be girls."

Mion snorted, shooting Rena a toothy grin. "You know, I wouldn't have thought I'd see our cute little Rika-chan throwing herself at Kei-chan like she did, back in the day," she noted. "But obviously that kind of thing happens."

Mion snorted again. "Fair enough," she allowed. "I don't think Rena or I could have done that ... so, I'm glad it worked out this way."

Rena's hands balled into fists beneath her chin. "No~!" she wailed, her eyes watery. "Not our cute little Kyon! He's too innocent for that -- I'll pick him up and take him home! He'll be safe with me!"

"No, no!" Rena protested, shaking her head quickly. "But I want to save our cute little Kyon!"

"Cute?" Keiichi asked with a chuckle. "He's got Maebara blood in him, you know. We may only look average, but we're the most charming people on Earth!" He gave a huge grin. "I'd have to believe that, considering ... well ... us!"

"I would believe it," Satoko said, doubtfully, "but it sure seems to have skipped Kyon's mother."

"But not his sister! Maybe with the women it skips a generation here and there, but the men have it!"

"Sure thing, Casanova," Mion retorted. "But we can talk about and torment Kyon and Nonoko all week -- what's going on with Rena-chan?"

"Well, it's not that interesting a story," Rena demurred, calming herself and smoothing her still somewhat tousled hair.

"And ... what's the rule on keeping things like that to yourself?" Mion pressed, arching one eyebrow.

Rena pouted, then checked her hand as bidding opened. "If you must know," she said, her cheer fading, "the ex-wife of my father has a grandson that's gotten himself into some bad trouble." Rika knew that Rena's roundabout way of putting as much distance between her mother and that woman's other family was a product of long habit, no longer conscious effort. From her point of view, the boy in question didn't even qualify as a nephew, which he technically would have been. "He's been expelled from his school for assaulting a classmate, or something, and then there was an embarrassing scandal.... I don't know all of the details--"

"Trivial for someone with your sleuthing skills," Satoko interrupted, glancing at the others. They all nodded their agreement.

Blushing faintly at the praise, Rena acquiesced, "W...well, evidently the school had a problem with some of the male students secretly taking photographs of the girls while they changed clothing, and this boy was involved in selling those pictures to a yakuza family."

"Oh, yeah?" Mion mused, calling, grimacing when Rika claimed the pot. "Actually, I heard something about that, too."

"Now I want to put all the pieces together and see what happened," Satoko mused.

Keiichi shook his head doubtfully. "Not if Rena-chan doesn't want to deal with this boy," he opined, as the next round was dealt out. Rika smiled at him covertly; ever the diplomat, Keiichi too was aware and side-stepped the obvious pitfall.

"Well, as a thought exercise it's not so bad," Rena said, smiling weakly. "Setting aside my ... unfortunate relations, what have you heard about it, Mion-chan?"

Mion looked thoughtful, ignoring her cards for the moment. "Let's see ... assuming it was the same area, it would have been in Yamaguchi-gumi territory, but the yakuza who did it were Sumiyoshi-rengo. The details aren't all clear to me, but evidently the local Yamaguchi-gumi got really riled up about it when they found a smaller group operating in their territory. So, the area head's daughter got saddled with a distinction." She couldn't help but wince at that, running the fingertips of one hand across the other.

Rika and Keiichi wordlessly reached out to the green-haired woman, Keiichi placing a hand on her shoulder and giving a reassuring squeeze, and Rika patting her hands comfortingly.

"Um, anyway, it seems that she and her only two subordinates went in and really worked over the Sumiyoshi-rengo group behind it," Mion continued, collecting her cards and flashing the pair a grateful smile. "Which is good for her ... evidently their distinction isn't as harsh as the Sonozaki family distinction, though it sounds a bit more dangerous."

"Hmm.... I'm not sure I know all about a 'distinction'," Rena said thoughtfully, "but it doesn't sound cute. Still, I suppose one could deduce that if this family head's daughter had to make up for something.... Could it be that she had gotten her picture taken, I wonder, I wonder?"

"There's no official story about that," Mion said, "but it would make sense, and that's the kind of thing no one would want to advertise."

"It sounds like this boy's more trouble than he's worth," Satoko said, shaking her head in disgust at her hand and discarding most of it. "Especially if he's made enemies out of those yakuza."

"Oh, I agree," Rena said, nodding quickly. "Kei-chan and I ended up talking about that late last night. Ah, that is, not the yakuza involvement, but the fact that I don't really want to take responsibility for a third year high school dropout I don't even know."

"Sometimes your kids don't do what you expect," Mion commented. "Look at my first daughter! But, really, a child you don't even know.... That's a lot of trouble, especially considering which part of the family he comes from. What's the boy's name, anyway?"

Rena grimaced. "My father's ex-wife didn't ever get around to changing her name, and her second marriage fell apart -- or maybe she just got sick of it. So as embarrassing as this is to me, he's a Ryuguu, too. Ryuguu Ryo."

"Maybe we should talk about something more cheerful," Satoko suggested. "Like family that's less problematic -- just look at Kyon, right? I'm sure he'd never get into that kind of trouble."

Rika hadn't slept particularly well after sending Keiichi off with Mion for the evening. Not that she was particularly worried about either of them, save that Keiichi would probably be quite worn out later. And Kyon had done a fine job of watching over the children, even with Matsuri clinging to him on the couch in the living room in her sleep. The other children had fallen asleep beneath the kotatsu, cutely bundled up in pairs, even Shutaro and Naota.

Kyon was still awake, and helped carry the Sonozaki twins to put them in bed properly, Naota with Shutaro, and Makoto with Kyon's sister and Matsuri (despite the youngest Fuurude girl's sleepily mumbled protests of staying with 'her Kyon-nii-sama'). Satoko and Rena had come with Rika to take their own daughters home, and Kyon went back to the small guest room he had to himself.

Hanyuu watched everything quietly, and assured Rika that Kyon had done a fine job of caring for the children, so Rika went to her own bed, thinking she would get a night of restful sleep and speak with Kyon in the morning. Except, before she even dozed, Hanyuu frantically cried out that Kyon had gone missing -- again.

Still awake, she had gone to her nephew's room, unsettled to see it empty. She was sure she would have heard him leave through the front door, or even climbing out the window.... Of course, Hanyuu said he had vanished and there was no reason to disbelieve her. So she sat on the floor of the guest room and thought about things, while Hanyuu whimpered that his disappearance had nothing to do with the kami plane that she could see, and she didn't know how to follow him wherever he had gone.

"He came back last night," Rika reasoned to her friend, partially to settle her own nerves. "Why wouldn't he come back again?"

Hanyuu whimpered in response. "That girl.... I'm trying to be friends with her, it is so," she explained hesitantly. "Because I don't think she wants to harm him ... she says she wants to protect him! But she won't tell me very much at all, and she doesn't use many words! And most of the words she uses are very complicated, it is so."

"Complicated?" Rika mused. Hanyuu's vocabulary was centuries old; she knew more words that had fallen out of use than any living person was likely to. The only thing she could think of that her friend wouldn't know would be technical terms, because of their relative newness. "Like what?"

"Hum.... She won't call Kyon by his nickname, it is so," Hanyuu said softly. "When I asked her what her goal was, she said something like.... 'Observation and protective purposes', it is so. But ... she must like him, because she followed him, um, into the bath to watch him...."

Rika blinked, raising an eyebrow at Hanyuu. "Are you peeping on our nephew?" she asked, half amused, half amazed.

"Ah, no!" Hanyuu protested, flailing her arms rapidly in denial. "No, no! I was just following her, it is so! Yeah! To make sure she didn't do anything bad to him, it is so!"

Shaking her head, Rika wondered what Kyon could have done to attract the attention of a semi-perverted specter. Further contemplating was interrupted by the blankets from Kyon's empty futon vanishing for a heartbeat. Before she could really react, Kyon reappeared just as abruptly, evidently asleep, still, and the blankets reappeared above him, quickly settling into place. If she hadn't seen it happen....

Rika tapped her lower lip with a fingertip thoughtfully. "I'm glad he got at least a day to rest," she sighed, finally, shaking her head. Even if that 'rest' was watching over the village children for most of a day. "But we should speak of this in the morning."

Hanyuu whimpered again, her gaze turning to an empty corner of the room. Or perhaps, Rika thought, frowning at the corner, it wasn't so empty after all. But with the moon vanished, there was no source of second sight for her to try and see the spirit world. It would be a week, at best, before she could hope to do that, and Kyon would be gone by then.

She had meant to sleep, but it was hard to dismiss those strange happenings. And then, after she had dozed off, but before she felt anything approaching rested, morning had come around. She was woken shortly after sunrise by Keiichi stumbling home, mumbling an apology to her as he climbed into the futon they shared. She kissed him briefly, pondering his scent.

"New perfume?" she whispered. No reason to burden him with the things that were bothering her, just yet. He was very perceptive, but this tired, even he would most likely miss her agitation.

She nodded her agreement; she'd have to ask Mion if she'd share some with her. "Rest well," she told him, tucking the blankets around him and rising for the day. She checked on Kyon first, curious.

His futon had already been folded neatly in one corner, and Hanyuu floated in the window, gazing outside. Rika moved to her friend's side and looked out with her. Kyon was in the front yard, smoothly going through a series of martial forms. She didn't know enough martial arts herself to know what style or maneuvers he was performing, but she recognized the smooth confidence of motion that came only with years of practice.

Shutaro and Naota had gotten up as early as Kyon, and were clumsily trying to mimic their older cousin. Naota was a fast learner of all things physical; his struggle to follow Kyon's slow, smooth forms only highlighted the older boy's expertise. Rika wasn't sure about Kyon's sister, but had no doubts that Matsuri was watching him.

She went to the front door, and sure enough her daughter was peeking around the door frame, along with Kyon's sister and Makoto. "Alright, girls," Rika said sternly. "Let's get you in the bathtub. The boys are going to want a turn when they're done with their practice."

After waking early to the sound of his uncle Keiichi -- again -- arriving home near sunrise, Kyon decided to get up. He wouldn't have much time to himself in any case, so thought he'd make the most of the morning before a gaggle of screaming cousins made him the referee of another round of zombie tag. Or a 'life-or-death' squirt-gun battle. Or....

Banishing those thoughts, he slipped out the front door and went through a series of kata from the training that Yuki had instilled into him. When Naota and Shutaro stumbled out to try and join him, he switched from a series of wushuu kata to slower, easier-to-follow tai chi. It was eerie to recall tiny bits and pieces of the training ... more like the gist of it, really, but not the specifics.

Still, practicing with his cousins harmlessly was more enjoyable for him than getting into a fight with twenty plus angry criminals.

He heard his aunt calling the girls in to take a bath, feeling a bit embarrassed that he'd gotten an audience he hadn't even noticed, but finished out the series anyway. After that, he went over the finer points of the forms for Naota, who seemed interested in perfecting them, and Shutaro, who didn't really care for the hard parts, but thought it was fun to mimic.

Then the girls finished their bath, and he was given the duty of making sure that Shutaro and Naota scrubbed behind their ears. He wanted to enjoy a longer soak once the boys finished and dashed out to the living room, since the scent of his aunt's cooking was already filling the house, but had a strange, unnerving sense of being watched.

So he dressed and joined the others at the table, trying not to roll his eyes at the way Matsuri instantly latched onto his side. "Did you guys have fun last night?" he asked his aunt as she served his breakfast and handed him a plate.

"Oh, yes," she agreed, smiling softly, though she looked tired and bothered by something. "Thank you again for watching over the children."

"It was interesting seeing you practice this morning," she mused, gazing into the depths of her cup of hot chocolate. "You must have worked quite hard to become so skilled."

He nervously wondered if he'd caused himself unwanted trouble by demonstrating skill he shouldn't have. Strange that everyone else seemed to accept it ... even his parents didn't seem surprised that he had become a 'temporary bodyguard' for Tsuruya. Though, there was the possibility they simply hadn't really believed it....

"Oh, sorry," Rika managed, forcing a smile at his expression. "There's nothing wrong with that, Kyon. I know you're very responsible."

"Kyon-nii-sama," Matsuri said, insistently, "you use your powers for good, right?"

"Nope," his sister told her, smirking. "He uses his powers for awesome! Just like Trope-tan's mysterious protector!"

"Hmm. Kyon, I need to go up to the shrine for a bit today," Rika commented. Setting down her empty mug, she added, "Could I trouble you to come with me?"

"As long as it doesn't involve sealed shrines and ancient legends of demons," he joked, thinking of Haruhi's strange demands.

For some reason, Rika looked even more troubled about that for the merest heartbeat, before a facade that Koizumi could never hope to equal hid her true feelings, and she giggled at him. "Silly," she pronounced, leaning forward and tapping his forehead with one fingertip chidingly. "But I will hold you to that."

He winced at that reaction, realizing he should have known better than to tease the village's resident shrine maiden, given the legends of the god Oyashiro. She wasn't just his aunt, after all....

Turning to the children, she added, "Matsuri-chan, your turn to round up the dishes; Makoto-chan, Nonoko-chan, your turn to wash up."

"Okay!" Kyon's little sister chirped, running to the hall closet for the step-stool she needed to access the sink, Makoto right on her heels.

After asking Satoko to take up the wearying task of watching over the children, Rika left for the shrine, her eldest nephew in tow. The home she and Keiichi shared was her old family home, not the house she and Satoko had shared when they were younger. It had to be renovated, naturally, after the long years of abandonment between her own parents passing away, and her and Keiichi moving in, but it was still the ancestral Fuurude home, built very near the shrine.

Kyon said nothing, merely looking off down the hill toward the rest of the village, until they reached the torii before the grounds proper, where he paused to bow as per tradition.

Rika did the same, and for reasons she'd never understood and didn't care to ask, so did Hanyuu.

The shrine was actually a small complex of buildings, the largest of which frequently served as the town's meeting hall, and the smallest of which was the saiguden, the sealed ritual equipment temple. She detoured to the meeting hall briefly to drop off the basket she had brought with her, then led Kyon to that locked building, not much larger than a shed.

His eyes went to the ancient lock on the door, as she produced a key from the pocket of her sun dress. "Isn't this...?" he began, before trailing off uncomfortably.

"You're in no danger," she assured him. "It is forbidden to enter the saiguden, except to those of the Fuurude family, or those who are accompanied by them. While you enter this place, you are under my protection."

He nodded hesitantly when she opened the door and stepped in. It had been nearly a year since she had gone into the room, last Watanagashi, for the annual festival. It was the first year that Matsuri had been allowed inside, as well, and the thick layer of collected dust reminded her that she needed to spend more time cleaning that gloomy place.

When he still seemed uncertain, she took his hand in hers, leading him within. The sunlight filtering in from the back of the room outlined the statue of the god Oyashiro with an ominous dusty halo. When Kyon stopped to stare at the various pieces of ritual equipment lining the walls, his face paled.

"D...do you know someone by the name of Asakura Ryouko?" he asked, looking half-ready to bolt out the door.

She gave him a curious look and thought about it seriously. "I know a few girls named Ryouko," she allowed. It was a fairly common name, after all. "But I don't think so."

He nodded uneasily and winced when his eyes fell upon a low table with a spiked roller on one end. "Um, did you ... need help cleaning this up?" he asked nervously, staring at the dusty floor.

"I just wanted to talk," she said. "But I think it might go easier for you if I told you a bit of a story, first."

"Yeah, sure," he managed. "This place really establishes a certain mood." He shook his head quickly, and turned his attention to her completely, holding one hand up, palm toward her in a placating gesture. "So, Auntie Rika, I don't know what kind of poor impression I gave you, but I assure you, the fact that I have no girlfriend in no way suggests that I'm interested in Matsuri-chan in that way. I guarantee, and in fact, swear on my life that my intentions are pure; despite her behavior, for me, she is just a cute younger cousin that in my mind may as well be a less annoying younger sister. I promise you, I do not look at little girls in such a light, and will endeavor to ensure you never get the impression I am such a person again."

She couldn't help but smile at the outburst. "Don't misunderstand," she told him. "I don't mean to unsettle you, just underscore the gravity of the situation. It would be in poor keeping as a host to offer my protection and then threaten you." She couldn't resist adding, "Besides, if I were to threaten you in any way, it would be to say that I might not stop your aunt Rena from trying to run off with you if you don't take this seriously."

"That, also could be misconstrued," he joked weakly, managing a slightly forced smile. "But yes, I apologize. Whatever it is you need to tell me, I will listen."

The earnestness in his voice was matched only by some memories of Keiichi.... She coughed quietly and stepped around him, suspecting that placing herself on the far side of him from the open doorway would reassure him somewhat. "This statue," she explained, gesturing to the fierce looking deity with a missing hand, "is how the villagers saw Oyashiro-sama for a great many years.

"Almost all of these tools," she said, gesturing at the ancient implements of torture lining every wall, "were used a very long time ago to establish a code of behavior for the village. Anyone who defied that code was punished, in this very spot ... though the original building has been replaced many times through the years." He shivered, and she turned her attention to the ceremonial hoe she used for the Watanagashi ritual. "The reason for being punished here, before the statue of the one who they thought was Oyashiro-sama, was to spare them Oyashiro-sama's curse.

"Because if Oyashiro-sama's wrath were invoked, then he would merely demon away the offender, and also slay one villager. For each sin, two lives would end. One would vanish, one would be visited with the furious violence of an angry god." She realized her gaze had been slowly drifting to the floor. Unpleasant memories, those not wholly accurate legends. She looked Kyon in the eyes, worried at the seriousness of his gaze.

Startling as it was, she could not glean a single whit of doubt or disbelief from the boy. He stood attentively, absorbing her every word.

"Those legends weren't precisely the true story," she added, smiling weakly. "Most of these things ... as grim as they are ... were probably never used." She gestured to a particularly impractical construct, something shaped like a very spiky lantern with no panes. "Not for more than intimidation. The goal was to scare people into behaving, so that the code would remain intact. But ... people began to abuse the belief of being demoned away. It was an ugly and simple matter to murder two people, ensure that only one body was found, and then blame it on the god....

"One of my ancestors, Fuurude Hanyuu, created Oyashiro-sama. She took the sin of the entire village into herself, and had her own daughter sacrifice her. Fuurude Hanyuu became the terrible god, in the minds of the people." She glanced back at the statue wistfully. "This idol is Oyashiro-sama, perhaps. But it is not Hanyuu." Kyon nodded, studying the statue.

"There's more," she added, after a pause, "but let's leave such a gloomy place for now."

He nodded again, more eagerly, stepping out of the shed before she did, waiting patiently while she relocked it and led the way across the grounds to the larger meeting hall.

She opened the door and gestured him inside. "This is actually just a meeting room," she explained, looking across the area. "It's still used by the village for things like the festival committee, and town meetings. In fact, long ago, before your mother was even born, when I was very tiny, this same room was used to discuss the Hinamizawa Dam project."

"I think I remember Auntie Rena mentioning something about that," he murmured, stepping inside and leaving his shoes on the stairs. The building was a single hall with large closets in the back. Low tables formed a squared 'U' shape, with the open end facing the entrance, and cushions lined the outer perimeter. Hanyuu drifted in through the wall and watched silently.

After slipping off her own shoes, Rika closed the door behind him and walked to the center of the tables, reaching over to grab two cushions and set them down. She took one for herself and patted the other cushion. He sat as she indicated, while she poured tea from the thermos in her picnic basket for each of them. Wordlessly nodding his thanks, he sipped at his tea, before regarding her curiously.

"This may sound far-fetched," she began, hesitant, uncertain where to begin, "but are you familiar with the theory of alternate realities?"

With careful deliberation, he set his cup down, looking at her suspiciously. "I am familiar with the theory," he answered, his tone oddly flat, trying to conceal some hidden stress. If she hadn't been watching for it....

She pursed her lips and considered pressing him to see what he knew ... but she had to open up to him before she could really expect him to open up to her. "Let us imagine, then," she said, "that in the late seventies and early eighties, something terrible happened, right here, in this village.

"Let us imagine that the history of the curse and the code was being studied by scientists and doctors. And one of these doctors and scientists was ... sick in the mind. She was obsessed with discovering the true nature of 'Hinamizawa syndrome'. To those ends, she wanted to use one of the village's spiritual leaders and trusted families as a test subject. This syndrome was some sort of blood-borne ... thing. A parasite, a virus ... it was difficult, if not impossible, to determine."

Kyon nodded uneasily, listening attentively. She paused to sip her tea, steeling herself for the next part.

"Her chosen test subject is the family line of priests and shrine maidens that have tended Oyashiro-sama's shrine since the legend was established. But ... the girl she needs to study has protective parents. They decide not to allow the doctor to test their child." She smiled bitterly. "Though it was not clear for several years, the doctor arranges for those parents to be killed, and makes it look like an accident. Similarly, unfortunate events befall many children her own age.

"The years pass, we imagine, as they must, until June of 1983. As unfortunate as things have been for this girl and her friends, true tragedy strikes. One of her friends goes mad due to the influence of Hinamizawa syndrome. In a fit of rage, he...." She hesitated, then sipped her tea again before setting the cup on the floor. "He takes the lives of two of the friends he loves most.

"Shortly after that, he takes his own life, though not willingly, and in his madness, he believes that he was defending himself from his friends -- that they had gone mad. And when he tears his own throat out, he believes that it is not his own hands that do it, but Oyashiro-sama's."

Hanyuu sobbed, whimpering, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry ... a thousand times and more, it is so, I am sorry!" Rika remembered he incident well enough, and knew how Hanyuu blamed herself, even though it wasn't her fault....

Kyon looked very disturbed, but nodded again. "Okay," he managed, his voice shaking only the merest bit. "As terrible as that is ... I am imagining it."

"And then, with three of her best friends dead, the girl herself is murdered," Rika murmured. "Her life ends ... but the true god, Hanyuu, can do this one thing. She takes their souls, and sends them back in time, to a world so similar it is nearly identical. They return to that endless June, and try to live through it again, to find a future where their friends live, and the girl herself survives."

He swallowed uncomfortably, meeting her eyes as his troubled voice asked, "How.... How many times?"

"Weeks and months blur into years," she finally said. "Well over a century of bloody Junes with no seeming end.... There are changes. Sometimes, different friends go mad. Sometimes, it's the same ones. On very few occasions, none go mad.... But the girl is murdered, every time. Mere numbers couldn't be remembered so easily." She shook her head. "But that doesn't matter. Traveling back to alternate Junes, that was powerful magic, the right of a god. In the end, it took a true miracle to break the cycle. Do you know what that miracle was?"

He shook his head numbly, and she smiled at him, trying not to remember the old suffering, burying the centuries of pain under the bright decades of happiness she'd had.

"Don't think less of it than it is; the miracle happened when the girl finally did something she should have long ago. She learned to rely on her friends and loved ones. Her family may have been gone, but she wasn't alone. Only by everyone working together were they able to overcome the seemingly impossible." That singular bright moment, that searing joy, was marked onto her indelibly. She would never forget it, even if she had to cross centuries again, for some unfathomable reason.

"It was a bond of immense trust." She hadn't meant to dig so deeply into herself, to pour those truths out where her nephew could see them. They were heavy, and he was far too young to deserve the task of trying to shoulder that weight. But even so.... "Kyon, can you imagine that?"

"No, I can't," he whispered, his eyes watery, his gaze unwavering. "But I believe it."

She leaned forward and embraced her nephew, holding him tightly and burying his face in her shoulder. "Oh, Kyon," she sighed. "What have you endured to know this? What has happened that you can accept this without flinching? I don't know what trials you face, but I want to help you. Will you let me?"

"I...it's.... It's nothing nearly that bad," he finally managed, when she released him and looked at him sternly, her hands resting on his shoulders. "I wouldn't.... You may still think I'm crazy, and.... Well, parts of this are secrets I don't really tell anyone else, but...."

As she had been asked by Haruhi, Yuki watched Kyon. Not that she had any objections to the task, by any means. She would have preferred to have remained visible, and at his side, but social issues would likely arise from her physical presence, and she had an acknowledged lack of capability for handling many of those.

Other than the anomalous encounter with an intriguing human-based data-entity, who was also watching Kyon, there was little of concern. The wavelength she and the other data-entity shared was able to allow unhindered observation of baseline physical reality, while also rendering her insubstantial to most physical objects and standard energy forms. As a side-benefit, the intangibility and energy incorporeality also allowed her to float through things, meaning she could navigate in perfectly straight lines between points at her convenience.

Moreover, being near Kyon instead of simply waiting in her apartment did give her some small amount of leeway to resist the drives of the entity, as they were wary of interfering with him directly. His current temporal entanglement with future instances of himself made direct action against him very risky.

Generally, the actions undertaken by Asahina Mikuru's superiors were selfish, to ensure the future they wished for came about. However, the fact that their selfishness happened to include offering Kyon a substantial degree of protection from the entity's machinations was greatly appreciated. Lately, and especially because of the fact that she was able to 'borrow' Mikuru's primitive time-travel mechanisms, Yuki had come to more closely include the time-traveler in her pool of people who she needed to protect.

From a pragmatic standpoint, it was because she needed the time-traveler's help. The slider's, too. Without them, her error-correction would be significantly more difficult; most likely the data entity would have succeeded in removing her almost immediately.

But even discounting those things, when she watched the discussion between Kyon and the 'aunt Rika' who was connected to the human-based data-entity and she emphasized the importance of trusting friends, Yuki felt that she was starting to have a very good idea of what 'friends' were, and how valuable they could be.

The woman's story was interesting, but in her recall, not unique in the confines of the data entity's knowledge. It was a significantly more limited form of the reality altering that Haruhi possessed, linked to the human-based data-entity, 'Hanyuu', who had also wanted to be her friend. While the Integrated Data Sentience Entity had found it novel, and even interfered with the woman's past in some iterations, it had ultimately concluded that the methodology would not lead to its desired ability to further the entity's evolution.

And then, as she had stopped being interesting to the entity, focus was shifted away.

Yuki had not previously been aware of the incident, but the residual data was easy to read from the other data entity. She felt an uncomfortable imbalance when considering the time-loop, and realized that just being bored ... wasn't nearly that bad.

When Kyon hesitantly began to explain the roles of the others in the brigade to Rika, the woman broke into his explanations to say, "I believe you, Kyon, though this does sound strange to me. Before you go on, do you know of any reason you might be haunted?"

"Haunted?" he asked, mystified. "We...." He paused, looking thoughtful and retrieving his long-cooled cup of tea. After draining it, he said, "I'm not really positive we've ever dealt with ghosts. We found things that I would have thought of as ghosts, but I was told that they were actually some type of alien being."

"Then ... would an alien be following you?" Rika asked, glancing at her bonded data-entity fearfully.

She nodded at the other data entity. From their perspective, she was undoubtedly alien.

Rika turned to look at Hanyuu's reaction, but was still unable to perceive Yuki. "It's possible," Kyon allowed, looking around the room, his eyes passing through her before something occurred to him and he sighed, ducking his head slightly. "Um, Nagato, if you're here, could you come out?"

Because he had asked, she did, shifting her waveform to align with the baseline physical reality, settling to the floor at his side, between him and Hanyuu. "Oh," Rika murmured, raising an eyebrow as she studied Yuki. "Well, aren't you a pretty one?"

She wasn't certain what to make of that, so turned her attention to Kyon. Surprisingly to her, he seemed more relaxed, and produced one of the extra cushions from across the meeting room's low tables, setting it nearby and gesturing for her to sit. She did so, turning her focus back to the other data entity and Rika.

Kyon made a very quiet cough, and said, "Auntie Rika, this is my friend, Nagato Yuki. I'm sorry about that; I didn't know she was following me around...." He smiled slightly and shook his head, turning an inquisitive gaze to Yuki. "But I'm guessing that Haruhi said something along the lines of you should keep an eye on me?"

"I didn't know she was your friend," Rika allowed. "And I couldn't see her myself, but Hanyuu could."

"She currently exists within a wavelength that is restricted from casual access to baseline physical reality," Yuki contributed. "For the purposes of ensuring his safety, I also occupied that wavelength, as it seemed very unlikely I would encounter another data entity there."

"I'm not! I'm not!" Hanyuu protested, shaking her head back and forth quickly. "I'm a god! I'm...." She trailed off hesitantly. "A...aren't I?" she asked Rika worriedly.

"Well," Kyon said after a thoughtful moment, "I think from Nagato's perspective, almost everything is data. So, whatever, um, Hanyuu is, she would see things that way."

Yuki started a process to temporarily synchronize the other data entity's waveform to the baseline physical reality, but stopped herself, realizing this could be one of those social situations she did not always adeptly handle. She could find no proper references for behavior in similar situations, so turned to look at Kyon, who had caught her half-raised hand with his gaze, but didn't move to stop her. "Do you wish to perceive her?" she asked him.

Yuki considered that, and made some minor modifications to the pending process before she shook her head in negation.

Yuki finished her manipulations and the other data entity was rendered into physical form, stumbling slightly and dropping to her knees to try and hide behind Rika, peeking over her shoulder at the other two.

Kyon stared in consternation at what his aunt had explained was the actual being behind the local legends of the terrifying demon god Oyashiro. He took in her features and size; generally, except for being more pale, and having lighter colored hair, (and a pair of dark blue horns, one of them chipped), she actually looked an awful lot like his aunt. Which made sense, he supposed, since Hanyuu was Rika's ancestor. Where Rika was wearing a casual sun dress, Hanyuu wore a white and red shrine maiden's outfit, more stylized and impressive than the one that Haruhi had found and stuffed Mikuru in on a small handful of occasions.

Trying to keep from laughing at how adorably cute the physical incarnation of Oyashiro was, Kyon managed, "Um, Hanyuu-sama, your statue really doesn't do you justice."

Rika didn't try to keep from laughing at all, looking over her shoulder and elbowing Hanyuu. "Don't be such a coward," she chastised, her voice still light with laughter. "Now come on, grab a cushion and let's continue this discussion over lunch." While Hanyuu hesitantly slipped away to grab a cushion as she suggested, Rika opened the basket she had kept the thermos of tea in, and started laying out the midday meal.

"J...just Hanyuu is fine, it is so," she managed, blushing and unable to meet Kyon's eyes. "Um, um, um, I'm not used to people aside from Rika being able to see me, it is so."

She finally gathered the courage to look at Yuki, who met her dark eyes with an unblinking gaze. It was a pair of goddesses in their own right; he wished he could take a picture, but was sure somehow it would be a bad idea. He labored to commit the scene to memory instead. "H...how long will this last?" Hanyuu asked tremulously, tugging one sleeve of her outfit when it slipped.

Hanyuu was taken aback at that. "Y...you made me ... real ... for the whole day?" she asked in amazement.

"You have very impressive allies," Rika remarked, handing him a bento lunch. "Sorry, I wasn't expecting to cook for four.... Will it be too much trouble to ask you to share with your friend?"

"Ah, I don't mind," Kyon replied, unthinking, before he realized that there was only one pair of chopsticks and cup between himself and Nagato. Well ... that wasn't too bad, anyway. He gestured for her to go before him, handing the teacup over. "Sorry," he told her.

"No problem," she said, as she always did. Strangely, he felt she meant it more this time than she had in others....

Trying not to think about things too hard, he glanced up as Rika asked, "Nagato-chan, might I ask what your intentions with my nephew are?"

The quiet girl at his side said nothing for a moment, just grabbing a morsel from the bento and eating it mechanically. After swallowing, she set the chopsticks on the edge of the bento and slid it toward him. "For the duration of his time in Hinamizawa I have been asked to ensure his safety; I will continue to do that, unless he should ask otherwise."

"I meant beyond that," Rika clarified, while Hanyuu hesitantly picked up a sweet roll with wide, anticipating eyes.

Kyon was torn between following the conversation and staring at Hanyuu's antics as she nibbled on the sweet bun as though it were mana from heaven. Even though he was having trouble looking away from the ecstatic expression of what he deemed to be one of the three cutest 'gods' he'd ever seen, he could still hear Yuki's response. "The future is ... uncertain."

"That doesn't answer my question," Rika pushed, gently. "I mean, what do you want with him?"

"That which is uncertain; a future," she answered. Hanyuu blinked at this answer, her expression shifting to worried and surprised scrutiny of the girl at his side. He turned to look, as well, but Yuki's face was very slightly lowered, her eyes looking away.

Rika felt a little bit bad that she didn't finish her discussion with Kyon and Yuki until the sun had set, and Hanyuu suddenly became weightless, drifting off the floor once more. She felt worse that all things considered, she couldn't offer much assistance to Kyon in the strange trials he was enduring. Maybe, she thought, as Yuki likewise faded into that same twilight realm where Rika and Kyon couldn't see her, she could try and arrange a trip down to Nishinomiya, and she could talk to this Haruhi girl.

Kyon didn't outright state it, but she could tell that he cared for Yuki. There was no real hesitation on his part to share a teacup with her, even though that meant a second-hand kiss. Yuki had seemed eager for it, as far as Rika could read the girl. Then again, Yuki was difficult to read ... only her long years of experience gave her enough insight to guess.

Doubtless Rena would be able to read the girl more easily, but even she would probably find her a challenge. Even though Kyon had explained that Yuki was some sort of alien, she acted enough like a regular girl for Rika to see her as one. Admittedly, even though she acknowledged that Hanyuu was a god of sorts, she still saw her as regular woman, too. Maybe her outlook was biased, she realized with a small degree of embarrassment.

Finally, as they were walking back home from the shrine, she declared, "I don't know what I can do to help you, Kyon. But I will listen and be your ally in any way I can; you have only to ask."

"Thank you," he said, inclining his head slightly. He scratched behind one ear and said, a little awkwardly, "It's good that I have you and uncle Keiichi to look after me, but sometimes I wish that things worked out better between myself and Mom."

Hanyuu made a strangled giggling sound from Rika's side, covering her mouth and appearing grateful that Kyon couldn't see her for the moment. Rika was hard-pressed not to burst into laughter herself. "Well, setting her aside for the moment, let us focus on you and your sister enjoying what time you can, while you're up here. Shall we go to the water park tomorrow? Wouldn't that be fun?" It was a small thing, she knew, but she could try and give him some small refuge to avoid his problems and decompress.

"That sounds kind of fun," he agreed. "I don't think I've gone swimming since last year. You sure it'll be hot enough?"

"According to the weather reports it should be. So, that will be the plan," she decided. She opened the door to the house up to see Keiichi, her children, and Kyon's sister crowded around the table.

"Finally back?" Keiichi asked, grinning as he leaned to one side to see over Shutaro's head. "You missed Satoko-chan by a few hours. I got us some pizza, and Nonoko-chan chose a movie while we were out."

"It'f the bwidge of bwirdf mofie," Kyon's sister tried to say around a mouthful of pizza.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Kyon chastised her absently, gently tapping her forehead with one finger as he and Rika found places at the table.

Even though Kyon sat next to his sister, opposite Matsuri, the girl only took it as a challenge. The second Rika took a seat and reached for a slice of pizza, Matsuri vanished beneath the table, popping up right at Kyon's side. "It's the animated movie, 'Bridge of Birds'," she said cheerfully. "It's really romantic, nih-pah~!"

With sage wisdom, Shutaro gave his older sister a level look and reminded her, "Icky."

"Oh!" Keiichi started, staring between the girl and her plate. "Looks like a free slice of pepperoni for me!"

"Waah!" Matsuri wailed, scrambling around the table to defend her plate as Keiichi lunged at it with overly dramatic slow-motion.

Kyon and Rika both chuckled at the girl as she snatched her plate from Keiichi's fingertips at the last moment. He gave a mournful, defeated sigh, then immediately straightened with a grin. "So!" he said brightly. "Let's start that movie, huh?"

Haruhi had been bored. Her family, pathetically enough, had no real plans for Golden Week other than lounging around and recuperating from the workload. Her mother and father worked full time, her father complaining about the fact that the previous week had evidently been wasted due to some complex corporate restructuring. He had gotten effectively demoted, even though his new position maintained his previous benefits and salary.

She didn't see what he had to complain about; his old company had been bought by a larger company, and then everyone had been restructured to new positions. Evidently, instead of being chief financial officer, as he was before the acquisition, he was now one of several aides at his new company. She hadn't bothered to learn the name, just rolling her eyes as he continued lamenting the loss of his 'dear Nishinomiya Heavy Industries'.

Before the acquisition, he had always complained sadly about how his company 'just wasn't going anywhere', no matter how he tried. It wasn't like he actually lost his job, despite his behavior. After taking her to see another baseball game at Koushien stadium, as little as she liked the memories that place evoked in her, he considered his familial duty concerning Golden Week dealt with and suggested she 'play with her friends' for the remainder of her vacation.

Complicating matters, however, her mother worked as a financial investigator for the government, and was in a foul mood as well. Since Haruhi's father evidently was transfered to the company she was investigating, several months of work had to be handed over to someone in a different office, because it suddenly became a 'conflict of interests'. She could sympathize with her mother to a small degree; working hard on something and then having the project snatched away for reasons beyond your control....

But considering all that, she wasn't really enjoying spending all her time at home, or tutoring her neighbor. Kanae had left with her parents to some place in Okinawa. Koizumi wasn't going to come back from visiting his own family until the Saturday before school resumed, Yuki had vanished into thin air, presumably getting to spend time with Kyon out in the country, where chaperones were few and far between....

That last part really bothered her, so when Tsuruya cheerfully called her and said she was back from Switzerland, but only for a day, Haruhi leaped at the opportunity. After meeting up with Tsuruya at the taller girl's home -- so much less gloomy -- things had taken a sudden upward swing. Tsuruya was only in town long enough to recover from her family business, and considering what rumors Haruhi had heard about Swiss banks, she was starting to suspect that Tsuruya had an entirely different meaning for 'family business' on that trip.

More importantly, Tsuruya was headed to Hinamizawa for some other facet of family business, as well, and Haruhi was entirely welcome to come. Cheered by that, she told her parents she was going camping with her friends, packed everything she needed, and then double-teamed Mikuru with Tsuruya's help, pulling her from some sewing project in her lonely little apartment to join them.

Of course, Kyon hadn't been exaggerating about Hinamizawa when he described it as being 'in the country'. It wasn't just out in the countryside and remote, it was a tiny village with no trains, a single bus line connecting it to the next larger city, and most irksomely, no hotels. Tsuruya had already known and planned for that, getting them a relatively nice room on the top floor of a five story hotel building in the nearest larger town of Okinomiya.

Incidentally, as far as Haruhi could tell, that was also the tallest building in the city, only matched by a small handful of others. Mikuru being herself, she naturally collapsed into a bed and dozed off after the trip. Tsuruya excused herself to make a few phone calls, but the sun was still out, if low, and the sky was reasonably clear.

Enough was enough, and Haruhi was going to go find Kyon! Tsuruya's driver was also her bodyguard, and Haruhi remembered that meant the man had to know something about the village. After finding him, about to head into the town, as Tsuruya had dismissed him for the day, she badgered him for information on Hinamizawa. He was able to give her directions -- follow the main road for six miles.

So she'd set out. What was a six mile walk, anyway? That was nothing, in the grand scheme of things!

But she'd failed to realize how quickly the sun set in the mountains, and worse, at some point, she'd lost all reception on her cell phone, and then ... the rainclouds that she hadn't realized were building stormed in. Trudging wearily through the cold rain in the dark, she realized her plan of asking a villager where to find Kyon had hit a major stumbling block. There wouldn't be any villagers outside in such terrible weather.

Resolved to press on until she reached some sort of shelter, she continued trudging forward, amazed that she hadn't even seen a single car the entire time she'd been walking. Really, what were the odds? How insanely remote was this village?!

Eventually, she rounded a curve of the road, nearly invisible in the dark, and saw a light ahead. Crashing through the trees and brush, nearly tripping into the mud twice, she finally made it to the door of a house, a humming generator under an overhang on one side providing power for the light that spilled through the windows. A plaque on one side of the door read, 'Fuurude'.

She squinted at it, sighing to herself that her plan had fallen to ruin. She'd have to wait one more day to find Kyon, after all.... She even had pictures of him, should she find someone to ask, but her impatience.... The generator undoubtedly meant that power was out; she hoped it didn't mean that the phone lines were down, too. She knocked, images of Kyon going through her head. Kyon in his school uniform, the picture of Kyon in what Tsuruya called 'delinquent mode', Kyon smirking at her....

And then the door opened, and she saw something she had no idea how to react to. She knew that he mentioned that he took care of his cousins when he visited his family, but the sight of him wearing jeans, a sturdy-looking solid blue long-sleeved shirt, and a very durable (but obviously also worn) apron with a bright red letter 'K' sewn onto it.... His typical unimpressed look aside, as he raised one eyebrow and studied her, she thought he could step into any day-care or preschool in the country, and be taken for one of the caretakers there.

Her carefully rehearsed explanation for being lost in the unexpected storm didn't come to her lips; all she could do was try and form words without voicing them, staring in surprise. He sighed quietly and shook his head, the tiniest hints of a smile showing around his eyes. "I should have figured," he said, instead of anything resembling a proper greeting. "Come on, get in out of the rain."

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Fanservice Arc II

Chapter Sixteen: Raising Hell