Kyon -- Big Damn Hero: Distant Thunder

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 (the website) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (and it's possible that this fic technically is, too; seems fair to me). Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

"Chapter Four: The Ambush (II)"

"...effectively, this is going to work just like the last chapter, except this time, the other guy gets all the advantages. I can guess what you're thinking, but this is actually even less fun than it sounds. As mentioned in the opening chapter of the previous book in this series, Roll With the Punches...."

"The Last Resort: Violence and You" -- Tadamichi Kyousuke

After finishing up her homework -- which she would not forget, thus jeopardizing her magical girl trip -- Nonoko watched television in the living room and wondered where her brother was. Probably on a mission, fighting the forces of darkness; it was already almost time for dinner, and he still hadn't come home. She perked up at the sound of the door, and bounced up from the commercial to scramble down the hall.

She had overestimated how quickly her brother was moving, and found herself skidding to a halt in the entryway, waiting for him to sluggishly take off his coat. She caught his dazed look, and how methodically he was moving, and wondered what had happened -- obviously, something had gone wrong. Seemingly oblivious to her, he stepped into his slippers and trudged past, his focus somewhere else.

Nonoko was stuck, uncertain what to do, or where to begin. Well ... she couldn't help Kyon if he couldn't tell her what was wrong. She caught up to him as he climbed the stairs and said, "Hey!"

"Hey, yourself," he said wearily, seeming to only just then notice her. "Need me to look over your homework?"

She frowned, able to tell how little he wanted to do that at the moment. As nice as it would be to check that her trip was still secure, what was the point if Kyon was depressed? No magical girl ever got anywhere by ignoring the people she was supposed to look out for. "What's wrong?" she asked in response. She bit her lip worriedly, and anxiously asked, "Did someone get hurt?"

"No," he sighed, shaking his head. He shook his head and gave her a pained smile, obviously struggling to hide his upset. "Don't worry about it, Nono-chan," he assured her. "Everyone's still okay...."

She pursed her lips and stopped in the hall as he continued marching to his room. It was already obvious that he had been on a mission -- he was wearing his coat and not his school uniform. She considered briefly calling Tsuruya, or Yuki, but then realized that would only be making the problem worse. Kyon had ended up being the magical guardian of Kanae, and probably some other girls, as well -- whatever problem it was he was facing, it almost undoubtedly had something to do with one or more of them.

Well, she knew one thing that could help. She hated being left in the dark, but for Kyon, she would keep herself from prying. So before he could close the door to his room, she did leap at him, but not with her usual energy. Her guess was correct, and Kyon's defenses were down.

Instead of bowling him over, like she remembered doing a few times in the past, she managed to glomp onto him. "I believe in you, Kyon-kun," she told him insistently. "I don't know what you're fighting, but I know you can win!"

He stared down at her in bewilderment for a heartbeat, then managed a real smile, if a weak one, and tousled her hair. "Thanks, Imouto," he told her. She hugged him more tightly, only letting go when their mother called up the stairs to wash up.

Classes were more difficult to pay attention to than usual, especially since Kyon had whatever business he had to attend to, but Haruhi stuck to it grimly. For whatever reason, Kyon didn't seem to be recording notes as studiously as he had been lately ... that slacker. She decided she'd ask him what was bothering him later, but let it slide for the moment.

It also gave her more time to consider the phone call she had gotten from Sakanaka the last night, when the other girl had finally admitted who she had a crush on -- and that he liked someone else. Haruhi had put it together ... if it wasn't Koizumi, it was most likely Kunikida, and now that she had that thought in mind, it was starting to really annoy her how Sakanaka would occasionally steal a mournful glance at the short boy, while he didn't appear to notice or care. So, not Koizumi, then.

And here, she had gone on thinking poorly of Taniguchi, when it turned the least considerate of Kyon's friends was the seemingly polite one?

She grumbled to herself, scribbling her last notes as the teacher concluded. Slamming her book shut, though the noise was lost in the other students rising from their seats, stretching, and yammering to one-another, she leaned across her desk and prodded Kyon with the tip of her mechanical pencil. "Hey," she called, not quite a whisper.

She bit back her complaint about Kunikida, studying the boy's expression, then sighed and reached into her schoolbag, handing him the now-traditional breakfast leftovers. "Take notes for English and grammar for me," she ordered him.

Looking slightly away, she added, more quietly, "I'll let you sleep through history and science."

She wondered what was bothering him, still, but forced herself to settle for one mystery at a time. She'd have plenty of time to talk to him with the brigade later -- Sakanaka's business was a bit more private. When lunch finally rolled around, Haruhi immediately turned on the girl, taking her wrist in hand and demanding, "Come on, let's have lunch together."

Sakanaka's weak protests didn't slow Haruhi down until the pair almost bumped into Yanagimoto at the room entrance. A glance showed Taniguchi already harassing Kyon, and Kunikida sitting nearby, unperturbed after breaking poor Sakanaka's heart. "Watch it," Yanagimoto chided, smiling to show she wasn't terribly upset. "What's the rush?"

"Really?" Yanagimoto asked, raising her eyebrows and glancing between Haruhi and Sakanaka with interest. "I shouldn't pry, but is there any chance I can help?"

"Maybe later," Haruhi allowed, thinking about Yanagimoto's connection to Taniguchi.

"Understandable," Yanagimoto lamented, nodding. "Sorry I couldn't make it to your party -- I was helping the idiot stay out of cram school."

Haruhi nodded her understanding and made a note to speak to Yanagimoto later. For the moment, she finished towing Sakanaka to the club room, where they were completely alone. Well, except for Yuki, but Sakanaka was so bewildered that Haruhi doubted she would notice. She wondered again about the fact that she had a connection with Yuki, and wondered if Yuki would take advantage of the opportunity to become invisible or hide....

But the smaller girl did nothing but flip quietly to the next page of her book, Sakanaka's eyes passing over her as though she didn't see her. "Um," Sakanaka managed very quietly, blushing, her head bowed.

Haruhi pushed her into a chair and sat across from her, both of their bentos on the table. "So, what exactly did that jerk do?" Haruhi pressed.

Sakanaka sighed forlornly. "He didn't do anything, Suzumiya-san ... r...really, I made an assumption that he didn't already like someone else," she offered, smiling sadly.

"Nonsense," Haruhi scoffed. "A young girl's heart is broken; he's done something wrong!"

Shaking her head, Sakanaka said, "I can't blame him for that, though.... H...he would rather be with her...."

"Well, okay -- who is this temptress?" Haruhi pressed, annoyed at the idea she couldn't do anything to fix things for Sakanaka.

"W...what? No, Suzumiya-san...." Sakanaka sighed. "I...it wouldn't be right to cause trouble for this girl ... though, really, the very sad part is that ... um ... he said he thinks she doesn't even know he's there...."

Haruhi's lips compressed into a flat line, and she bit back the urge to scream. "Kunikida turned you down because he likes someone who doesn't even care for him?" she clarified.

Poking at her lunch thoughtfully, Haruhi finally asked, "Sakanaka ... if this girl doesn't know that he exists ... then he's pining for her ... and you're pining for him.... But what if this girl doesn't even like him? Or if she just wants to be friends? Shouldn't we find out?"

The other girl looked wistful. "But then, that's no guarantee that he'd care for me ... or would really even....." She sighed and shook her head. "A...anyway, why make this girl out to be some evil person? She just ... got there first."

Haruhi wanted to yell, but bit that back, too. "First girl wins is a cliche, not how things really have to work out," she countered, as patiently as she could. "Now, come on ... are you really giving up so easily? Surely there's gotta be something you can still do!"

"I ... suppose I might try meeting her," Sakanaka ventured weakly, offering a forced smile.

"That's the spirit!" Haruhi cheered, grinning. "Now, who is this mystery girl we've got to find and meet, anyway?"

Haruhi was vaguely aware of Yuki closing her book and setting it down on the table, but shook her head. "Oh," she managed quietly.

Humming to himself, wondering what the day might bring, Koizumi found himself very relaxed by the time he strolled to the clubroom after lunch. When he got there, Haruhi had just finished concluding some point to a perplexed looking Mikuru, who was studying a sheet of paper, and a slightly less confused looking Kanae.

Kyon seemed absorbed in studying his PDA, and Tsuruya watched Mikuru and Kanae with amusement, before saying, "I'll have Kasai helps you out, Mikuru-chan, Kanae-chan."

"Good thinking," Haruhi agreed. "That's probably going to be a lot of costuming supplies!"

Tsuruya giggled, shaking her head, and added, "Kasai can help cover it, if it's expensive, too."

Haruhi flushed slightly, looking a bit guilty. "Er.... Um, Tsu-chan, do you think it would be bad to get supplies so that Mikuru-chan could make the rest of us costumes to match the Gothic Lolita set?" she asked. "I wanted to try seeing if we could coordinate a flash-mob later this year, so us all having costumes like that would be really nice!"

Yuki looked up at that, as Koizumi took his seat, too late to sit opposite Kyon. "Okay," Mikuru agreed, managing a confused smile. "Um ... then, I suppose we'll see you tomorrow?"

"Hmm, your apartment is really small," Haruhi seemed to realize. "How about afterward, we'll all meet up at Yuki-chan's place? You'll be too crowded with everything in your place, and Kanae-chan may need some help studying, still."

The slider pouted at that, betrayed by her giggle. "Thank you, Suzumiya-sempai," she murmured, before vanishing through the door with the time traveler.

The room fell oddly silent as the door shut quietly, and for a long minute, no one said anything at all. Koizumi contemplated getting a board game, but judging by the atmosphere.... Yuki was looking at Kyon, and Koizumi was sure he saw the merest hints of expectation in her gaze. Tsuruya had picked up on the ambient sobriety, as well.

Haruhi's cheer had vanished with the other two club members, and she absentmindedly smoothed her skirt as she sat at the table with the others, crossing her arms over her chest and looking at Kyon closely. "Well?" she prompted.

Koizumi straightened up in his seat at that. Last time, the slider attack robot had been destroyed by Koizumi himself. It seemed likely that Kyon was more capable, given time to adjust his weapons, but the esper couldn't help feeling a little unnecessary, not even being involved in the attack. "You won the battle, then?" he asked, wondering why Kyon hadn't even bothered calling him.

Haruhi's eyebrows had risen, too, so evidently this was the first she had heard about it, at least specifically. Most likely Kanae and Mikuru had been sent away to keep the slider from overhearing....

"Suou Kuyou was there," Kyon said slowly, furrowing his brow and dropping his gaze to the table, searching for something in the pattern of the wood grain. "So ... we didn't actually fight. He wanted to talk to me."

He felt mildly relieved at that, then tried to dismiss the thought as unworthy. "Still," Koizumi said, "isn't that a positive? With communication, perhaps there's no need for conflict?"

"I wish," Kyon sighed glumly, looking up, eyes flicking across the others before he scowled and dropped his gaze. "Anyway ... he wanted to tell me who he was -- um.... S...so, he says that he joined with the enemy sliders -- he mentioned they were called the 'Combine', and that he was joining with them because he wanted to rescue his sister...."

"Oh!" Tsuruya exclaimed, a smile blooming on her face. "Maybe that's a good things! If we can help him rescue her, then he'd become our ally, wouldn't he?"

Koizumi wasn't sure it would be quite so simple, but nodded; the point seemed valid enough, even if it might take significant help from both Haruhi and Yuki to make it happen.

The long silence was only broken when Haruhi muttered a particularly dire curse, balling one hand into a fist and pounding it on the table.

"Ugh, this just pisses me off!" Haruhi complained. "What a crappy situation! And how is it that Kanae-chan didn't ever mention having a brother?"

"That's a good question, and it bears investigation," Koizumi remarked, frowning. "But then ... I'm not certain who best to handle that; these questions would need to be asked of Michikyuu-san delicately, given the circumstances."

"Okay," Haruhi sighed, closing her eyes and rubbing at one temple with the tip of one finger. She sat up straight and crossed her arms over her chest, the pencil in front of her spinning in place and rising slightly from the table. "Um ... I'll be talking to Kanae-chan later tonight anyway. I'll see what we can find out, and that should be a good environment for it." Her eyes opened and turned to Yuki, though the pen before her still continued to spin. "Yuki-chan, did you find any useful information out about the enemies from this?"

Koizumi raised an eyebrow, while Haruhi scowled, shooting a warning look at the other boy. "Well, then, declassify it," she ordered.

Yuki's gaze turned to Haruhi, and Koizumi was sure he read the merest hints of intense concentration in her expression. "No," she returned in a quiet, implacable tone.

Haruhi's eyebrows knit together as she studied Yuki intensely, pursing her lips. "Will you tell me why?" Haruhi pressed.

Despite how annoyed she looked at that answer, Haruhi huffed a sigh and grumbled. "I don't like that," she finally declared at length, giving Yuki a dark stare. "But ... there must be a good reason for it, right?"

Koizumi wondered what to make of that. "Do you mean that this information is classified -- even to you?" he asked.

Yuki gave a very slight nod in response, and some of Haruhi's irritation vanished, replaced with mild surprise.

"You can do that?" she asked Yuki, intrigued. "With Kanae-chan's bad memories, Mikuru-chan's future-censoring, and now Yuki-chan, I'm starting to think that Tsu-chan and I are the only ones who have good recall!"

The heiress giggled, shaking her head apologetically. "Memory is all well and goods, but I don't know much useful for this stuff," she said.

For some reason, Kyon looked very uncomfortable, squirming in his seat as he straightened up. "Um ... when Suou-san showed up, she seemed to ... move us to some place like closed space, so there wasn't anyone else around."

"Can you offer any insight into that, then?" Koizumi posed. "It occurs to me that this 'classified information' probably indicates time travel ... would it then be acceptable for us to draw our own inferences based on what data is available?"

Yuki nodded without hesitation, and Haruhi's eyebrows rose. "Interesting," the brigade chief remarked, frowning. She glanced at Kyon, asking, "So, any messages from your future self?"

"Um ... just that I screwed up by not involving Yuki," he mumbled, looking toward the door.

Much to Koizumi's surprise, Yuki gave another nod at that, her eyes fixing on Kyon. Hadn't Kyon been the best at speaking with Yuki? Koizumi had tried -- for months, actually -- to forge some kind of connection with Yuki, when the brigade had been newly established. While she would listen to him, she had never really tried to speak with him, to the point that she usually wouldn't even answer his questions, unless Kyon were present. And now, Kyon had managed to annoy her?

Haruhi drummed her fingertips on the table, raising both eyebrows. "I have a lot of sympathy for that, Yuki-chan," she said, shaking her head. "Kyon tends to leave me out when he goes on adventures, too."

"I've never gotten any adventure with Kyon except the ones I started myself," Tsuruya noted. "But then, fights aren't fun, Haru-nyan, Yuki-chan ... or are you forgetting a few weeks ago in the hospital...?"

"A...anyway, if what Yuki-chan knows is classified, what you know isn't, Kyon," Haruhi said, shifting her shoulders. "So, anything else from the slider? Or Suou Kuyou?"

Kyon shifted his shoulders and looked pensive again. "Suou Kuyou said -- er, after Wataru left -- that she needed my help. Um, and that she wanted to be friends."

"She's an alien, right?" Haruhi asked, absently tugging her ribbons out and smoothing her hair back, letting the spinning pencil clatter to the tabletop. "And one of ... her friends."

No need to name the 'her' that upset Haruhi so much, in Koizumi's mind. He knew Haruhi's strangely intense fear of the other girl, as though her entire existence were somehow threatened by Sasaki.

"I think so," Kyon allowed. "Um, Yuki-chan told me that the IDSE used to call them the Macro...." He trailed off with a grimace, giving Yuki an apologetic look.

"Macrospacial Quantum Cosmic Existence," Yuki answered smoothly, turning her gaze to Haruhi. "It was believed by the IDSE that communications between themselves and the MQCE were impossible; an attempt to bridge that memetic gap would likely lead to the destruction of both."

"Was believed?" Tsuruya asked, looking like she was struggling to keep up, but still managing to smile. "So, that's changed?"

Yuki looked momentarily stymied, uncertain about how to respond. Finally, she said, "Last winter, in the snow, we were transported to a contained reality."

"When you got sick?" Haruhi realized, aloud, finished tying her hair back up in a ponytail.

"You mean, when you got lost in the snows for five minutes and told me you thoughts you were gone for much longer?" Tsuruya asked, raising an eyebrow.

Yuki nodded again, and Koizumi crossed his arms over his chest thoughtfully. "That event engendered quite a few discussions on the nature of alternate reality," he remarked. "But this seems a discrepancy; I thought the IDSE couldn't manage awareness of other realities?"

"The parallel space that we were sent to is space that is ... subordinate to this physical reality," she said slowly. "In the same nature as the closed spaces that previously were created, the secondary instance of this reality that was created last December, or the significantly more distant space that he entered last night. Based on this encounter, nondestructive communication may be possible; we now know that they call themselves the Sky Canopy Domain."

"So, Suou Kuyou took you to an alternate reality -- but one in our local neighborhood -- to deal with Wataru?" Haruhi asked. "And why isn't that part classified, Yuki-chan?"

Koizumi wondered how big their 'local' reality was, having an entire separate parallel existence within it. And then, what did it mean that wherever Kanae and her enemies had come from it was more distant?

"This is all a disappointment," Haruhi sighed. "I mean ... I guess I should be happy that no one got hurt. But it feels we didn't find nearly enough out! Well ... did you at least get to visit your middle school friend, Kyon?"

"And what was your future self doing, do you know?" Haruhi pressed, narrowing her eyes. "Because...."

"H...helping my friend out," Kyon managed, looking toward the door as though considering fleeing through it.

One of Haruhi's eyebrows twitched. Koizumi wondered what Kyon had done -- for whatever reason, he'd called off his security escort for the day and vanished. Who had he gone to meet?

"So," Haruhi said, placing both palms flat on the table, her voice shaking a little as she shot the boy in question a dark glare, "how is Sasaki, Kyon?"

While she had a certain suspicion that she and Kanae were being ushered away from something that Haruhi and the others didn't want her -- or more likely, the slider -- to hear, Mikuru resolved not to let that bother her. Or at least, she would try and look at the positives; she was trusted to take care of the smaller girl, after all. That thought in mind, she gave Kanae an encouraging wink, ducking her head in with a grateful smile as she and the slider met Tsuruya's large bodyguard at the school parking lot.

Kasai wordlessly returned the nod, opening a door for the two girls to slide in. Shortly, the two were on the way to Mikuru's favorite supply shop, and she turned to the slider. "So, Kanae-chan, did you have fun at the party on Sunday?" she asked.

"Um?" Kanae eked out, surprised from a daydream by the question. "Ah! Er, yes, it was great fun -- I was really impressed by that dance you all learned!"

Mikuru giggled, feeling her face color. She patted the slider on the shoulder and explained, "Suzumiya-san devised that, you know. Um ... I didn't think it was so much fun to learn, but now, I'm very glad she made us!"

"Suzumiya-sempai mentioned a 'flash-mob'?" Kanae ventured curiously. "What's that?"

"Hum?" Mikuru asked, realizing that the slider was right. "Oh, well, it's a very ancient custom devised...." She winced, realizing that wasn't correct for the time-frame. "Er.... No, that's not right. Um ... it started a few years ago, I think? The idea is to find willing participants and have them all suddenly meet somewhere. Um ... they would all wear similar costumes, like dressing up for a tea party -- then show up at a park, or a train station."

"So, Suzumiya-sempai wants to have us show up somewhere dressed up like that with a bunch of other strangers who think that would be fun, too?" Kanae asked, mulling that over. "That seems a bit odd!"

"W...well, it might really be fun, too," Mikuru countered. It should have bothered her, but the idea of showcasing her work in a group, not being the only one dressed up ... she was embarrassed to admit to herself that it actually sounded very exciting. And if she made enough costume sets, it could become a recurring tradition, too.

Startled from her own daydream, Mikuru giggled guiltily, realizing that Kasai had found a parking spot. "S...sorry," she managed, climbing out of the car and leading the slider into the store. Kasai followed behind them unobtrusively, giving a very quiet but patently male sigh of suffering on entering such a shop.

Kanae seemed to catch that, and masked a giggle of her own, while the clerks waved their greetings. "Um, let's see," Mikuru mused, looking at her list with a frown. "I haven't really had a chance to design any of the costumes in this list ... I wonder if it will be okay? I might end up getting too much cloth...." She shook her head, dismissing that. She'd been told that money wouldn't be an issue, and Kasai could help carry things to the car.

The important part was not the supplies, but that she was supposed to be distracting Kanae. "What other costumes do you think you might want to wear for Kyon-kun?" Mikuru mused. "Haruhi suggested a Trope-tan costume?" Though, from what Mikuru would tell, it would be trivial to buy suitable costume parts, since it seemed to mostly be standard clothing.

Kanae flushed deeply, her cheeks turning crimson. "T...that would be okay," she agreed. "U...um.... Asahina-san? Can I ask you a question about Sempai?"

"Of course!" she answered, glancing back to where Kasai was intently studying a collection of brass buckles, slightly out of earshot. "What is it, Kanae-chan?"

"Um ... Sempai once told me ... er ... that he thought I was cute," Kanae managed. "B...before we...."

Mikuru felt her own face color sympathetically; she'd seen Haruhi replay the video. Part of her wanted to be a little jealous, but most of her wanted to hug the slider and tell her how utterly adorable it was to see the smaller girl look up at Kyon so dreamily before.... She pretended to cough very quietly, trying to pull her attention back to the moment. "You are," Mikuru-chan said, smiling brightly. "Kanae-chan, has Kyon-kun been so busy he's made you feel neglected?"

"W...well," Kanae mumbled, her face heating up. "I don't.... Er.... That is...." She sighed, then smiled nervously. "Um ... Sempai is really good at ... kissing," she managed. "I...is it okay that I'm not, um, as good?"

Mikuru took a sketchbook from a shelf and fanned her face with it for a moment, cooling herself down. "Kyon-kun is amazing," she agreed shakily, offering Kanae a smile. "Um ... but when you consider ... he has a lot more chances to practice...."

Kanae seemed to weigh that, as if only just then realizing how many more kisses he'd been involved with than any one girl in the ... what was their arrangement, anyway? Surely there had to be some proper word for that.

"I j...just want to ... be good enough," Kanae managed to eke out. "I d...don't have--"

Mikuru sighed and set down the book, hugging Kanae before she could complain about her development, cutting her off and not really caring that they were in the middle of the store. "Silly," she chastised the smaller girl gently. "Kanae-chan, you're starting to believe in your friends, I think, and that's wonderful!" Then she squeezed slightly tighter before releasing the slider. "But don't forget to believe in yourself, too; we do, after all!"

Kanae seemed startled by that, then smiled nervously. "Y...you're right," she agreed, giggling. "S...sorry ... but sometimes, it's hard not to be jealous.... Y...you can cook, and sew, and ... and...." She shrugged, pointedly not looking at Mikuru's chest.

"You could learn those things, too, if you wanted," Mikuru said, offering a smile. "I suppose if two of us were sewing, we could make costumes twice as fast?" Admittedly ... that bothered Mikuru a little, but then, it wasn't like Yuki didn't already know everything she had taught Mikuru, anyway.... If she were so inclined, she easily could have outperformed Mikuru, at probably anything -- outside of time travel. And, come to think of it, Kanae was learning to teleport, which Yuki could also do.

Kanae straightened up with a smile and shook her head. "N...no, that's.... That's yours," she said decisively. "I...it would be nice to see that smile Sempai has for your cooking for me, but, um ... I should focus on what I can do better."

"Maybe your drawings?" Mikuru suggested. She really did need to see what Kanae drew ... but then.... "Oh!" she exclaimed, as Kanae's face flushed dark red and she stared away. "I know! Kanae-chan -- why don't you draw a costume you might like? Or you could help me -- you can design, and then I could make them!" She nodded decisively at that, eying the list Haruhi had given her. "At least, I would really appreciate it if you could help your Mikuru-onee out!" She winked at the smaller girl, trying to smile brightly while she leaned toward her, hands clasped together beneath her chin pleadingly.

"I ... can do that," Kanae agreed, looking dazed for some reason, wobbling where she stood. "Um ... Mikuru-onee...." She seemed lost in thought, day-dreamy, but more confident. Mikuru let herself smile at that.

Everyone needed to just do what they did best, and work together as a team, after all. Turning to the cloth she'd spent too long not picking out, she decided that the rest of the day was going to be wonderful. Now, if she could bring Kanae and Yuki a tiny bit closer together ... with their very similar sizes, and a new assistant costume designer....

He supposed in the back of his mind, he didn't really have much confidence that he would be able to keep visiting Sasaki a secret from Haruhi for long. But after everything else he'd been through, Kyon had dared to hope. So, he'd upset Yuki, Haruhi was slowly growing more furious at him, and he still had nothing approaching a clue how to deal with Wataru.

He took a breath and sat up straight, not meeting anyone's eyes except for Koizumi's. Thankfully, for once, there was something aside from recrimination there; the esper even seemed to look slightly sympathetic....

"Sasaki's doing really bad," he answered at length. "Tachibana Kyouko's friends seem to have made her paranoid, and afraid for her life. She saw one of them and ran away from our meeting like she thought I was going to be caught in the blast radius. I ran after her, but before I caught up, I ran into another slider robot and Suou Kuyou -- but I already explained that part. Anyway, how did you find out?"

"O...oh," Haruhi managed, sounding curiously deflated. He stole a cautious glance at her, but found she'd slipped into the conflicted and unreadable state she used to spend more of her time in. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked away. "You just told me now. S...so she's in real danger, huh?"

"I think so," Kyon said sadly. He raised one hand to his temples. "Look ... that's ... the extent of what I know. I hate to run away like this, but I've been doing nothing but making mistakes for the last day or so; if it's all the same, I'd like to go home and see if I can keep anything else from going wrong."

"Um ... I don't think that protecting your friends is a mistake," Tsuruya said, her voice slightly sharp. "That's one of Kyon-kun's greatest strengths! Kyon-kun also has enemy sliders and time travelers trying to beat him up; I don't see the sense in you trying to help them out." He flinched back slightly, but when he looked up, he thought Tsuruya was just turning away from Haruhi.

For her part, Haruhi glowered at the table. "That's ... true," she grit out. "Um.... S...so.... But -- I'm unhappy that you didn't trust us enough to say you were meeting her, Kyon!"

"I--" Haruhi began, before cutting herself off with a shake of her head. "It's--" She worked her jaw for a moment, unable to find the words, then finally sighed in disgust. "Oh ... never mind.... J...just...." Closing her eyes she took a deep breath. "W...we can talk about this tomorrow -- I have to go."

"If you like," Koizumi interjected smoothly, rising from his seat, offering a placating smile before Haruhi could rush out the door, "Kyon-kun and I should be heading out to discuss something as it stands. There's no reason for you to have to leave the club room, Suzumiya-san."

She hesitated, and Kyon nodded, climbing to his feet. "Right," he agreed. "I'll, uh ... see you tomorrow, then."

"Y...yeah," Haruhi mumbled back, as he followed Koizumi out the door, shooting one last backward glance inside. Haruhi looked torn, indecisive, as though she were trying to muster the strength to say something -- or struggling not to. Tsuruya's thoughtful gaze was on Haruhi, and Yuki stared fixedly at a point on the table, looking ... strangely unsatisfied, in his mind.

Well. Best not to brood on it -- as Koizumi's presence implied, it was time to face the music. Once they were in the hall, walking side by side, he turned to the esper and asked, "How badly did I screw up, anyway?"

"Kyon-kun," Koizumi said slowly, frowning. "I don't like the idea of ... as you intimated to me ... myself as some austere, judgmental presence that only hovers over your shoulder to offer criticism and complications. Realistically, it seems to me that your future self is mercenary enough without my help ... as Tsuruya-san seems to have intimated."

Kyon snorted, but was unable to keep from nodding. For once, Koizumi felt more like a friend than anything else. After a long minute of silence, lasting until they changed shoes and Koizumi led the way to the parking lot, Kyon managed, "Thanks for that, then."

The esper gave a wry shake of his head. "I can't help but take what you say to heart ... but all the same, there is something I may not have adequately explained to you. Do you understand why one specific person upsets Suzumiya-san so much?"

"Me?" Kyon asked dourly, before Koizumi shook his head and gestured to the car where Arakawa was waiting. After the two had climbed in, Koizumi signaled the elderly man to drive, and the car smoothly sped off.

"I tried explaining this to you previously, but ... perhaps I didn't explain it well enough. Or was too busy trying to be clever," the esper suggested.

Kyon furrowed his brow and studied the esper thoughtfully. Koizumi seemed lost in his own thoughts, staring out the window. Was he being extra self-recriminating, trying to adjust some of Kyon's own irritation with himself elsewhere? "So ... why does Sasaki upset Haruhi, then? And just ... lay it out straight."

"At first," Koizumi said slowly, "I believed it was jealousy. Suzumiya-san recognized your familiarity with this girl.... As Mori-san related it to me, she says you called her by her first name, yes?"

"It's something of a point of confusion that she has the same given and family name," Koizumi sighed, shaking his head.

"Yeah," Kyon agreed, shrugging. "It makes it somewhat arbitrary -- but she said if she was calling me by my nickname, it was only fair to consider that I was at least as familiar with her. The only difference is which characters to write, but then...."

Koizumi's lips pursed slightly. "So I see. Well, what I can say decisively is that Sasaki-san causes Suzumiya-san to feel threatened," the esper explained.

"Threatened?" Kyon asked, looking at Koizumi askance. "Why? Sasaki wouldn't try and hurt Haruhi...." Though, the idea of Haruhi trying to argue for some point against Sasaki's constant deconstruction was chilling in its own right. Why was that such a scary thought?

"Ah ... initially, my thought was that Suzumiya-san perceived Sasaki-san as a ... romantic threat," Koizumi said carefully, looking at Kyon from the corner of his eyes.

Kyon snorted, shaking his head. "No -- Sasaki and romance don't belong in the same sentence," he judged, shifting his shoulders. "She told me once she doesn't believe in things like that," he said, trailing off as -- unbidden -- a very familiar conversation with Haruhi about the same thing replayed itself in his mind. His head spun trying to consider that--

"However," Koizumi continued, "that fear is significantly more primal. Admittedly, when I asked you for the why, it was because I hoped you knew. I don't understand why Suzumiya-san is upset -- well, earnestly, even if she may not be able to admit it to herself -- terrified by Sasaki-san. It's not simply the fear that she might somehow take you away from Suzumiya-san...." He trailed off and shot another of those sidelong glanced to Kyon.

Understandable enough, really. Not that it was something he wanted to talk about with Koizumi, but then ... he really didn't even want to think about it. If he had to discus it....

He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away. "I don't think that what Haruhi's afraid of there could happen," he told the esper. "I mean ... Sasaki wouldn't even try that." Would she? He had a hard time imagining that; she had been so adamantly against the idea of romance....

...except, she'd always been calm and unflappable, not so terrified of some figure in a doorway that she forgot to settle her check before running. If he'd been wrong on one count, he could be wrong on more.

"Her fear is more that somehow, as I understand it, Sasaki-san causes Suzumiya-san to feel that her very existence is threatened," Koizumi suggested, shaking his head. "Given that Sasaki-san does seem to have some form of power, and there are people such as Tachibana Kyouko about her, or worse, simply the way that Suzumiya-san's power does work...."

"Haruhi thinks that Sasaki could ... send her away?" Kyon asked, considering that. "That ... seems a bit unreasonable!"

"More than a bit," Koizumi agreed, turning to face Kyon and frowning intently. "Her fear is overwhelming, unreasonable ... and entirely genuine. As easy as it may feel to you to dismiss this, your associations with Sasaki-san...."

Kyon wanted to borrow Haruhi's curse from earlier, but bit his tongue. "Thank you," he managed, sighing. "For being that friend I could use right now."

Koizumi gave a weak smile. "I'm uncertain what's going to happen, but I have faith in you. There are still open time-loops, aren't there?"

Blinking, Kyon checked the PDA, scanning through his time travel notes. "I have to go back to when I got shot, and ... I think I helped Sasaki out yesterday, because she's been sending me regular text messages and said thanks for something I did. Future me was especially unhelpful with details, this time around." The chime to announce an incoming text rang, as if on cue.

He checked the message, pleasantly surprised it wasn't from Sasaki, but Tsuruya. The message was prefaced with an animated heart icon, just saying, "I will take care of Haru-nyan, Kyon-kun, but don't forget tomorrow!"

"Y...yeah, I ... guess I'll have to find some way to reassure Haruhi, then," Kyon sighed. Sasaki? Terrifying? "It's a small marvel that I think I've made the biggest mistake I've made so far, and things seem to somehow be holding together, anyway...."

Koizumi chuckled, shaking his head. "Kyon-kun," he reproved mildly, "you are important to the group, but we are, as you say, nakama -- not just an organization. It seems that you've taught me we must cling closer together in these trying, needful times, not further apart. Furthermore, I can actually try and be objective, now, so...." He shrugged.

"Well.... At least there's that," Kyon grudgingly acknowledged, managing a shaky grin.

"I do have one request," the esper remarked, as they pulled to a halt before Kyon's home. "If it's not too much to ask -- as your personal assistant ... if you do intend another mission such as yesterday's, might I be involved, if I could be of help? Or at least ... informed?"

Guiltily, Kyon nodded. "Yeah," he sighed. "I shouldn't have tried hiding it from everyone, anyway...."

"Then that's all from me," Koizumi said, forcing some false cheer into his voice.

Kyon nodded again and climbed out of the car, surveying the dark storm-clouds lining the horizon. Well, at least the weather seemed to accurately reflect his mood.... "Alright, Skynet," he mumbled to his PDA, walking toward the door of his home, "I've got to make things up to both Yuki and Haruhi. Somehow." It made a doubtful buzz, but added the items to his to-do list.

He glanced down at the screen as another of Sasaki's text messages actually did come through.

Once Kyon -- her fiance -- had left, Tsuruya turned her attention back to Haruhi. For her part, Haruhi obviously looked distressed, but that didn't take a genius to figure out. The girl was struggling, seeming on the verge of tears or hysterics, occasionally giving a tiny tremble of barely restrained emotion.

"Can we go to your place? Mikuru-chan and Kanae-chan will be waiting to meet us there after they finish shopping...."

Tsuruya smiled, nodding, then pulled her phone from her pocket. "I'll just make a few calls, and then we'll all be at Yuki-chan's place, okay?"

Haruhi's response was an indistinct, vaguely disagreeable noise. Tsuruya pursed her lips and shook her head, turning her attention to her phone. A few minutes later, they were in another of her family's vehicles, and shortly after that, they'd reached Yuki's apartment.

Inside, Tsuruya took charge, planting Haruhi at the table and then tapping out a quick text message to Kyon; he had enough to deal with already, so deserved at least some minor reassurance. After that, Tsuruya took the table at Haruhi's side, and asked, "Haru-nyan, are you mad at Kyon-kun?"

"Well, duh," was the girl's grumbled response, burying her face in her crossed arms.

"Why?" she asked, sitting upright and giving Tsuruya surprised grimace. "What do you mean-- It--" She hesitated, looking back to the table. Finally, she blurted out, "What if Kyon goes out with her instead of us?"

Giving a quiet sigh, Tsuruya leaned against Haruhi and pulled the girl close to her in a hug. "Silly," she chastised, tapping her forehead gently. "This is still our fault, Haru-nyan, not Kyon-kun's...." Haruhi flinched at that, but didn't escape the taller girl's embrace. "Because we haven't explained things to him."

"T...that's not true, though!" Haruhi protested, shaking her head fiercely. "Kyon going to her would be because...." She trailed off, trembling weakly.

"That's not on Kyon-kun, that's on us," Tsuruya said, smiling sadly. "That girl -- that Sasaki? She's good at explaining things, I think, and we still haven't even tried! So he's confused ... if we don't straighten up, how do you expect him to act? It's not too late, Haru-nyan!"

It was something of a surprise that the smaller girl offered that, but Tsuruya could only take that as encouragement. "Now, Yuki-chan, why are you upset with Kyon-kun?" Tsuruya pressed, still holding Haruhi closely, but giving Yuki an expectant look.

Yuki considered this question for more than a minute before answering. "It ... seems that he was aware of risk to himself, and chose not to request my assistance," Yuki said slowly.

Haruhi half laughed, half sniffled, shaking her head. "He almost never includes me!" she protested. "B...but ... you can't be upset with him for that, Yuki-chan ... he's really just trying his best to be ... some kind of hero, like I ... kind of insisted he should be.... It's because he likes you that he doesn't want you to be troubled."

Tsuruya thought that was very apt, so nodded her agreement, but Yuki looked mildly confused. "That is not ... fair," she determined.

"You are ... upset with him ... when he similarly attempted to protect you," Yuki finally said.

Haruhi was stunned by that, her mouth dropping open. "B...but," she sputtered, before giving a weak smile and a shake of her head. "O...okay, you've got me there.... It's just ... that girl ... she scares me! Like ... I get the idea somehow that she could make it so ... I never saw Kyon or any of my other friends again...."

"Do you really think that Kyon-kun would let that happen?" Tsuruya asked, finally able to find something to grin about. "How could he suddenly decide that the most important thing in his world -- his friends -- suddenly didn't matter?"

"I guess I wasn't being reasonable," Haruhi sighed. Somewhat petulantly, she asked, "C...can I even be bothered that he didn't trust me -- us, really -- enough to tell me?"

"Maybe a little," Tsuruya agreed. "But, hmm, Haru-nyan, if Kyon suspected you might react badly, and was just trying to protect you...."

"Only a little," Tsuruya insisted, shaking her head again. "Yuki-chan being angry is a little cute ... but haven't we all worked too hard on this?"

Sighing, Haruhi grumbled, "I'm still going to be mad ... but about circumstances, instead of Kyon."

"Is that acceptable, Yuki-chan?" Haruhi asked the shorter girl, pulling her face from Tsuruya's shoulder long enough to fix her with a questioning stare.

Yuki seemed uncertain for a moment, and then Haruhi gasped softly, breaking free of Tsuruya's embrace and seeming to realize something the heiress had missed. Reaching out to grab the shorter girl's wrist, Haruhi pulled her into another hug with no real resistance. "Um ... I'm sorry," Haruhi managed, sighing. "I've been really selfish today, haven't I?"

"This is ... okay," Yuki allowed, very quietly, muffled slightly by Haruhi's shoulder.

Tsuruya couldn't help but chuckle at that, shaking her head ruefully. "I like the dere-dere Haru-nyan better than the tsun-tsun one," she teased.

Haruhi blushed and hugged Yuki to her tighter in response, and despite the urge, Tsuruya managed not to snap any pictures right away. While Haruhi and Yuki stayed together at the table, neither moving apart from the other, the heiress rose to her feet, certain that Mikuru and Kanae would be by soon. Sure enough, she'd only just finished stretching when Yuki's intercom chimed.

"Kasai-san said to leave it in the car and he'd bring it by tomorrow," Kanae answered with a giggle. "Um! Mikuru-onee said I should help her out in the kitchen!"

Tsuruya raised an eyebrow at the change in address, but when she turned a questioning gaze to Mikuru, the time traveler merely shook her head with a giggle of her own, bustling into the kitchen after nodding at the other girls. "Oh," she called out from around the corner, "I'm sorry, Yuki-chan, but, I'm taking over your kitchen to make dinner tonight. I hope you don't mind!"

"Understood," the smaller girl answered. At a glance, as she was still leaning into Haruhi's embrace, Tsuruya thought Yuki looked very satisfied with that outcome.

When she heard the door open, Nonoko bolted upright from where she and Miyoko had been working on their homework, charging full-bore toward the noise. She threw herself at her brother the same moment that her mother glanced down the hall. He caught her with what seemed to be his recent practice, giving her a small chuckling smile.

"Nonoko," her mother chided her, "it's good that you care for your brother, but you're a growing girl. Really, you're going to need to stop doing that soon."

She resisted the urge to make a smart remark about getting her tackles in while she could, instead countering, "I haven't grown in years!"

"Hmm ... you do need new shoes, though," her mother mused, before shaking her head and returning to the kitchen. "Dinner will be ready in about half an hour," she called.

Nonoko hid a face in her brother's shoulder, not looking forward to the inevitable shopping trip. Then again ... growing would mean more shopping, too. That was really going to be boring!

"Hello, Kyon-nii," the girl answered with a giggle. "Um ... Nono-chan said you could help double-check our homework?"

"Sure," he answered, nodding. "I guess I can help out with that. Anything exciting happen lately?"

"Yeah," Nonoko said excitedly, releasing her brother so he could change his shoes. "Uncle Keiichi is coming to town! He'll be in tomorrow!"

"Really?" Kyon asked, surprised. "I didn't hear about that -- do you know what he's coming down for?"

"Auntie Rena's new book!" she answered, bouncing on the balls of her feet all the way up the stairs. Then she stopped, pouting, as she reconsidered. "But none of the cousins are coming...."

"I'm going to call that a plus, for the moment," her brother remarked, raising an eyebrow at her as he finally topped the final step, Miyoko just behind him. "Alright, let's take a look at your homework, huh?"

Nonoko nodded happily. Help with her homework was good, but what really mattered was that Kyon seemed to recover. And with uncle Keiichi around, well, if there were any problems, they'd get solved quickly enough. "So," she asked in a conspiratorial tone, trying to hide her smile, "is everything okay?"

Lately, in her opinion, things had been going just a little too well, considering how much progress she'd made. As much as she'd been working to shift the credit of her investigations away from herself, eventually her department was going to insist that toppling gang activity -- no matter how well it was done -- was a practice that took time, not reckless ambition. Add in the fact that while she had always believed in luck, but known better than to depend on it....

Coincidences were stacking up, and so were the inexplicable details of the investigation she had mired herself in. Osaka always had a few SAT officers on standby, but it just happened that on the day Miyuki had requested their aid, double the standard regiment had been transfered in from Tokyo. That shouldn't have made a difference, but some miracle beyond anything she'd attempted made the bureaucratic nightmare behind arranging a large scale raid vanish.

Irritating enough; she'd actually just wanted a lead that would buy her time, not distract her for two days and then drop her right back where she'd started. The headway that was made against the Sumiyoshi-rengo crime syndicate was staggering, and she'd actually gotten to be on-scene for the attack. Naturally, from the safety of a mobile command center, rather than the line of fire, but even then.... Over fifty criminals captured without a single casualty, and them holding an unprecedented cache of weapons?

Other than her suspicions, she was finding precious little in the way of facts....

She couldn't fault herself for following through, even though it was starting to bother her. She was taking criminals off the street, even if it did seem to be playing into someone else's hands. It seemed to her that the obvious benefit would be to the Yamaguchi-gumi -- almost overnight after the raid, they had expanded their already solid foothold on Osaka. Not that Osaka wasn't the historic root of their power anyway, but with reduced competition....

Be that as it may, she had trouble visualizing some conspiracy connecting the Tamaru brothers to whoever had pulled the strings to make the raid go so smoothly -- even in Osaka. Why would the Yamaguchi-gumi bother with having their enemies incarcerated? It went against their ideals, despite how quickly they capitalized on it.

Traditionally, they would rather have acquired what the police had confiscated. While she was well versed with the nuances of boryokudan honor codes, she'd seen honor trumped by greed often enough. More than just a handful of thugs had discarded that code when it was inconvenient to them, so it might be plausible that the Yamaguchi-gumi had orchestrated the event. Even setting aside the theoretical reticence an organized criminal might have working with -- or using -- the law, she couldn't see anyone with footing as steady as theirs risking all of the assets that the police had seized.

It was hard to imagine the head of the Yamaguchi-gumi would be so compelled to avenge their injured ally that they'd throw all that potential profit away. Even if he were to make a knee-jerk reaction and be willing to let those assets go, she couldn't even dream an explanation for how quickly things had been arranged in the background.

She didn't particularly enjoy the idea that she had been duped or led into things, but she worried that despite that, and all of her other concerns ... if she changed her behaviors, whoever was manipulating things from behind the scenes would notice. And that boiled down to doing her best to determine what Kyon was up to, since he had started the entire thing off in the first place.

A number of ousted Sumiyoshi-rengo survivors had fled Osaka into the surrounding cities -- and Nishinomiya hadn't been an exception. Guessing that her unreasonable 'luck' would give her results anyway, she'd had all of the known criminals in town watched as much as possible. True to form, it had, and so, she had another useless detail she couldn't make sense of.

Sighing, she tapped a key on her laptop, watching the video play back again, the sound intermittent as the surveillance vehicle adjusted the shotgun microphone. A trio of Sumiyoshi toughs had been loitering in an alley near the train station for several hours, until one of them got a phone call. He straightened, alerting the others, and then the three of them charged together.

The camera adjusted badly as it zoomed out from dim alley to the more clearly lit street, recovering aim and focus in time to reveal the trio just a handful of steps behind Kyon, on his way to the train station. She slowed the playback, moving frame-by-frame as he spun, centimeters ahead of the gleaming tip of a blade. The knife-point advanced, pixel-by-pixel, but the boy was a blur, leaping improbably far away.

She sped the playback speed slightly, furrowing her brow as Kyon hopped nearly five meters away with casual ease, his image shaking as the cameraman reacted in surprise. She froze the playback there, studying his expression as he looked at the attacking trio, more annoyed than anything else. As unlikely as anything else.... She didn't mean to, but couldn't help but smiling at that thoughtfully.

"Only annoying, hmm?" she remarked to herself, tapping a key and resuming normal playback.

"Alright, you started out with knives," Kyon remarked dryly, his voice slightly tinny in playback. The three had paused, studying the boy and letting him speak -- likely surprised by how far and quickly he had moved.... He reached into his coat and gave the men an incredibly unimpressed glower. "I'll respect that you're cutting to the chase; let me return the favor in kind!"

She paused again, just before he could pull his hand from his coat, studying the small block of pixels. Ultimately, unfortunately, it was still just pixels, no real suggestion of what he was hiding. A sigh escaped her and she shook her head, resuming play again.

And then ... right when he might have finally broken a law within her observation by pulling a weapon from inside his coat....

...he vanished. Abruptly, with no fanfare, no clues as to how.... He simply stopped being there, between frames.

The rest of the recording wasn't worth watching -- just her men finally reacting, then coming into view as they rushed the Sumiyoshi-rengo in question and arrested them. Leaving her with more criminals who couldn't answer the questions she really had.

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Calm Before the Storm Arc V

Chapter Thirty Eight: Distant Thunder