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.
Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!
"Chapter Nine: Reciprocation"
"Sometimes, it may feel like there's nothing you can do to pay back the people who help you. But if they want to help you, they're your friends -- so just do your best for them, like they do for you!"
"Mirror, Mirror" -- T.K.
He hadn't expected much from the walk to school -- the ominous, building clouds had sprinkled overnight, but left the skies fleeced with cloud, and the air crisp -- eerily calm. Not sure what else to make of it, Kyon thought that it seemed like a promising day to try and make up with Haruhi. It bothered him to admit it, but after dropping his sister off, he realized he would actually welcome a fight to burn off some stress, despite how tired he was.
When he was unexpectedly obliged by a trio of goons, he spun, ready to face them, and decided to fight on equal footing, delivering what he thought was a particularly clever one-liner as he drew his beam-saber -- alone, on an empty street.
"Er," he said to his empty surroundings, frowning as his blade and defenses activated. A moment later, there was a distortion -- a line in space -- and it stretched, widening until it revealed the familiar figure of Suou Kuyou.
"W...we really have to stop meeting like this," he said nervously, still not sure what to make of the girl.
Kuyou's face was impassive, showing no expression again, and her eyes seemed unfocused. She only remained that way for a moment before turning her head slightly and snatching something in front of her so quickly that Kyon didn't see her move, just felt his shields absorb the energy bleed-off from the pressure-waves of her motion and saw a flash of hard blue light.
He blinked in surprise, seeing that Kuyou had grabbed the hand of another, slightly taller girl -- though he had no idea where she had come from. The familiar light-green hue of her hair gave her away, and Kyon grumbled, "Kimidori Emiri...."
The interface eyed her opponent, her own expression just as inflexible as Kuyou's.
Kuyou's eyes darkened and only then turned to regard the girl she was grappling. "I will occult him from you," she said insistently.
Emiri studied Kuyou intently, then flicked her gaze to Kyon. "So, what's your involvement here if you mean me no harm?" he asked, deciding to hope that Kuyou was on his side for the moment.
"No attempt has been made through my effort to directly harm you," she replied.
"You told me you were neutral," he noted, unable to keep the accusation from his voice.
"At the time, this was true," Emiri said. "The lack of clear communication--"
"High order quantum entanglement," Kuyou said suddenly, blinking once. "Ripples and echoes through the memetic medium." Her eyebrows drew a tiny distance close together, and Kyon thought Kuyou's grip on Emiri's wrist tightened slightly. "Your transmissions are bound."
"I do not intend to participate in confrontational roles," Emiri returned. "If no compromise can be reached, this interface will be evacuated; we are prepared for this outcome."
Kyon couldn't help but grimace at that. "So, like we thought, the IDSE has been pulling the strings behind the Sumiyoshi-rengo lately?" he asked.
Emiri's gaze turned back to him, but save to look very faintly amused, she didn't respond.
As unhappy as he was with the situation, he wasn't sure he could bring himself to threaten Emiri. If nothing else, she at least looked like a girl, and if he recognized Yuki as a being, and Kuyou ... it was difficult to convince himself that somehow, Emiri wouldn't count, when she was so similar to the other two anyway. Aside from which, if he understood what she meant about 'evacuating' her interface, she as much as said she'd just escape if she felt the meeting went further downhill.
"Prepared for this outcome," he remarked, wondering if -- really -- this was perhaps part of Emiri's plan.... If the IDSE was able to communicate with Kuyou's faction without Kyon or Yuki's help, that was that much less leverage over the entity, and he wasn't sure he liked that.
"Your ambit is irregular," Kuyou began, before Emiri suddenly went limp, seeming to pass out.
Simultaneous to that, the girl with the long, dark hair cocked her head to one side, as Kyon's shields activated, blocking some blast of energy. When he could see again, Emiri had moved -- now the green-tressed interface stood on the opposite side of a perfectly hemispherical crater in the street -- thirty meters across. The ... blast? Was it a blast? Kyon wasn't entirely certain.
Whatever force it was, the effects were profound. Every window he could see had melted. The concrete structures of the surrounding buildings looked strangely brittle and warped -- ravaged by some unknown force. Buildings around him slowly dissolved into massive, billowing clouds of dust, causing the area to darken.
A car had been bisected by ... whatever caused the spherical bite to be taken out of the world, the edges as neat as if they had been laser-sculpted. As he watched, the perfection of the cut faded, the metal in the vehicle first sagging, then flowing toward the crater and abruptly vanishing. But more eerily, every single surface and object glowed with a faint blue aura, the same disturbing light that Kuyou had flashed with earlier.
For some reason, even though her expression and stance didn't change much, Kyon gauged that Kuyou was irritated when she finally spoke, carefully shaping the word: "Mis-cal-cu-la-ti-on."
"This is neither compromise, nor productive communication," Emiri declared, and Kyon thought he caught a glimpse of real fear in the interface's eyes.
Kuyou made a swift gesture, and very suddenly the strange shield-draining blue glow in the surrounding area flowed like a fog, streaming into the crater and swirling around inside, vanishing in the center of the anomaly.
"Skynet," he yelped, as his PDA chirped a warning, "call Yuki!"
The PDA switched over to speaker-phone, and Yuki's nearly instant response was, "Press and hold 'two' now."
Her own copy of the Song had been established to minimize the impact of her attempts to interact with the world she observed. The natural function of the Chorus still permitted her substantial leeway -- especially in the case of events within the ambit of the entity that she was in love with. As she studied him, she became more aware of threats that she should be responsible for occulting; another of those mysterious entities that the Chorus had always known of, but never managed to speak to.
This one was similar, but most likely not identical to Nagato Yuki -- it was difficult to determine. She existed primarily as a carrier wave beyond Kyon's ability to observe, at the moment. Simultaneous to that, in carrier-wave form, this other entity had gone to the smallest scale that the Chorus knew existed -- their very heart.
It was difficult enough for the Chorus to condone Kuyou's own manipulations, but those were mapped as closely as possible to the natural function of the world around them. This other entity might have had the skill, but in Kuyou's perception, did not understand that the Song was alive; she treated it like a tool.
The other entity delivered a memetic string that Kuyou had difficulty resonating with. She determined that Emiri intended to escape the confines of Kuyou's Song, which would technically satisfy the requirement that she protect Kyon. However, she was also dissatisfied with the idea that -- unnaturally -- Emiri would somehow manipulate probability against what the Chorus predicted. As it was, Emiri seemed to be busy destroying local strings, converting them into a mysterious jumble of memetic ... stuff.
How was it that the entities that Emiri represented, something as old as the Chorus itself, tore apart the core of Song, and then.... But whatever Emiri converted, it was changed, a very strange and improbable part of the local string. Just a collection of unnatural patterns. More and more, thanks to the fact that she was spending what focus she could on her constructed form, she was seeing that patterns had significant meanings toward individual entities.
The patterns within Emiri were confusing, illogical, and most unhelpfully, totally different from what fleeting glimpses she had gotten of Yuki's composition. She still couldn't understand them.
When Emiri seemed ready to do something with the pattern she had assembled in the local string -- Kuyou's strings, part of her Song -- she reasserted control, polarizing the mysterious patterns into uniform regularity. For a moment, she spun them into a single form, realized unintentionally into the same depth of focus as her constructed self.
Her control snatched away, Emiri abandoned her attempts, changing state within her host, inside that unknowable mystery. Over the course of the next three rotations, Kuyou fought for control, limiting the expansion of the new entity she had accidentally created. It spun much more slowly than her, unsure of how to sing, and not a natural part of the Chorus. The surrounding area was bathed in the glow of what spin escaped the new entity as Kuyou fought to contain it. Searching for the correct explanation once she had stabilized the new entity, she turned toward Kyon, expressing that it had been an oversight -- an accident.
The Chorus had not wanted such a thing. This was not her first significant miscalculation of the meeting. That had happened almost as soon as she transitioned Kyon and her target into the shadow Song; the discordance around her skewed her observations and made precise interactions unreliable. As a result, she had not been able to determine that her form was not constructed to withstand the forces she had subjected it to.
Nearly her entire threshold of her own spin had been instantly lost, trying to preserve her form, undesirably smashing the strings of the intervening atoms into raw energy. A mechanism that she identified as being related to Nagato Yuki shielded Kyon from what would otherwise have caused his atomic structure and energy signatures to dissipate, energized into some other form than his own.
She couldn't maintain the new entity's stability -- and shield Kyon -- while also keeping Emiri in check.
Her observations had somehow been insufficient.
Repairing her mistakes was higher priority; the Chorus would not recognize her wishes to ignore the problem. The natural shape of the universe had to be restored, but the simplest solution to that would be to collapse her entire shadow-song into spin -- something that fit within the natural span of her own being, on the fringes of the Song where it was unlikely to be observed. She did not believe that Kyon -- or any other human entity -- could survive that.
Emiri's influence shattered billions of local strings, causing what was now a negligible amount of disharmony. That entity left, and following her, a memetic surge from one of Kyon's subordinate string structures. Kuyou focused on keeping the new entity's singing away from Kyon; it would be too much raw spin for his defenses.
The somewhat more familiar entity of Nagato Yuki arrived, then, incidentally reshaping the broken strings that Emiri had left behind.
That should have been significant, Kuyou thought. It was a real annoyance that once she restored the Song around her to the natural order, the events would no longer be within the scope of observation. In the balance, however, as she was supposed to occult Kyon from danger, so too was Yuki. Ultimately, despite her miscalculations, harmony would be restored.
Despite the block on recall of specific events, Yuki had decided that ultimately, the discord she was experiencing was minor. Tsuruya Haruka and Suzumiya Haruhi had helped her come to the conclusion that small unpleasant experiences were likely to occur, and emotional defenses needed to be established to weather them. Similarly, her primary protection target had likewise demonstrated that at times it was helpful to rely on others -- that friends were there for such reasons.
Which still made her uncertain about the fact that he did not like to rely on her.
She had noted yet another delay in his PDA's regular status updates, and wondered if she was being excluded yet again....
Reaching into her skirt pocket mid-stride, she pulled her phone out and studied it. Not that she didn't understand it innately, at that point. She'd made some small modifications to it on her own, striving to customize the device, but none of that actually made it ring. With some interest, she realized that the small block of paired particles she'd invested in her phone was activating; a message from Kyon for such occasions when traditional human networks were not available.
Suspecting he was in danger, she told him how to activate the emergency interdiction field, which she had devised for such situations.
Shortly, she found a trace of recently manipulated data from another entity -- she suspected she recognized Kimidori Emiri's signature in there, but didn't have time to study it. Instead, she quickly rewrote the structures to reverse their original function with some minor alteration. Where it had been an exit from the other space for Emiri, it was an entrance for Yuki.
That did not prepare her for the environment she entered.
Kyon had previously described the space as being very 'like' normal space, but the moment she arrived her senses were assaulted with a burst of radiation, raw energy cast off from matter being shredded by intense gravity tides -- the energy present was too high to be accounted for even with the collapse of the earth's Sun. A small island of inexplicably balanced tidal forces left a bubble of more survivable space in a perfectly circular radius of about twelve kilometers.
Within that, pinned in the interdiction field, being bombarded by the still-lethal ambient radiation, her primary protection target squinted over one raised arm, trying to make out any details. She doubted he'd be able to tell much; most of the visible wavelengths were being flooded with the cosmic forces, streaming in regular bands, describing a descending spiral to some point directly before the form of Suou Kuyou.
Her first priority was to protect Kyon, so she moved herself between Kuyou and Kyon, into that island of relatively calmer space. Kyon's field projected around him in a cylinder, warding off the worst of the effects -- except the visible light, anyway. After ensuring that it was still holding, not yet overwhelmed, she turned her attention to Kuyou. Both she and the dark-haired girl turned to look at the place where Yuki had entered -- and Emiri had left.
The data structures there were altered yet again, some other entity, or perhaps a direct manipulation of the IDSE itself -- either way, the data was written out entirely. Kuyou's expression betrayed nothing that she could read, but the dark-haired girl turned her attention back to Yuki. Instead of trying to communicate on some other level, on a vibrational frequency that cut through the constant background rumbles, she said, "You must leave."
One hand rose, as though to reach for Yuki before Kuyou paused, some strange reaction going through the aspects of her being that Yuki could perceive, but not understand. The way her structures moved, Yuki could not interpret anything within Kuyou as data, despite the obvious sentience of the other being. She could only be certain that Kuyou was trying to express something, hopefully at least as aware of the distance between them as Yuki.
"This environment is hostile to his kind," Yuki said, adjusting her own voice to resound on a similar wavelength. "I will remove him to a safer location."
Kuyou's dark eyes shifted toward Kyon -- behind her, as though escaping while she was distracted, a crack shattered the street, running from the circular hole behind the entity and to one of the buildings on the side of the street. The entire height of the building shattered into fragments in intense tidal stress, half of them launching downward so quickly that they bled energy across the visible spectrum. Her form staggered as she slipped back a half step, one arm shooting straight behind her at an unnatural angle, fingers splayed.
"Go," Kuyou said, her body improbably withstanding a force of gravity that Yuki was having trouble calculating. "I," she began before shaping a sound that was impossibly empty of memetics, "help."
"Yuki," the voice of her primary protection target came, almost lost in all of the background noise, "she wants to help!"
How had he derived that from the gap? Yuki could herself infer the meaning, but he shouldn't even have been able to hear her over that sort of background noise; the interdiction field would dampen an enhanced voice as well as any other deafening sound. She didn't react, believing that if she waited, he would clarify.
"I think she's worried that if she does it wrong, she's going to accidentally cause more problems," he added, a moment later.
Yuki had no way to determine the probability of that, so decided that she would try and compromise. She would most likely be able to withstand Kuyou's attempts to 'help' better than Kyon would, possibly while gaining more insight into the being.
"I will protect him," Yuki told the other entity, wondering if she would understand. "You may help me." In the meantime, as much as they could communicate, she had a rare opportunity. "What are you?"
Kuyou seemed satisfied by Yuki's response, answering, "We are," and then another memetic void. Shortly, Yuki had assembled a data structure from some of the ambient energy whipping through the arena, confident in her ability to return Kyon to his own world. She sent him across, timing it so that his interdiction field shut off, and she transfered him before any of the area's energies could touch him. Within that minuscule span of time, before she could even reorient her attention to the other entity--
Some strange force pushed on the entirety of her being, and she fought to maintain her integrity, noting with some annoyance that her organic body would not survive the transition. She modified Kuyou's transportation function to accommodate her, realizing that she was fighting the other entity for control of the process, but hoping that she would understand what that represented. Soon enough, Yuki had returned to the world she had left only minutes before.
She was aware, thanks to remnants of subordinate data on the other side of the connection, that once she and Kyon had physically left, Kuyou allowed all of the mass of that other shadowed realm to fall into the singularity she had assembled there -- but then it crossed the event horizon, and no data returned to her. Turning her attention to the immediate environment, she realized that both she and the other entity had mismanaged their destinations.
Or perhaps, she reflected, looking a kilometer to her left, where Kyon had reoriented himself from the transition and was currently trying to prepare himself for the inevitable landing that awaited them both, some meddling from Emiri or the Entity had caused it. Thankfully the atmosphere here was at least thick enough for him to breathe; she adjusted her own fall, diverting some of her resources for that task. She had overspent herself with the transitions, but not so badly she couldn't still manage this.
While it was likely that the IDSE at large was still manipulating things, she strongly doubted that any other interfaces would confront them for the remaining twelve kilometer descent to the sea, far south of Nishinomiya. Even if Emiri were to appear, Yuki was positive that it wouldn't lead to a direct confrontation. Emiri's faction detested the concept in general, and it seemed doubtful to her on a personal level that Emiri would exchange her interest in information gathering for brute force.
Shortly enough, she'd made it to Kyon's side, just before they plunged into the fog of a cloud. She grabbed his wrist, preparing an incidental structure of data that reduced the probability of them being struck by lightning discharged from the energy polarizing slowly around them. "Yuki!" he yelled.
It wouldn't have been possible for normal humans to speak to one-another through the wind tearing at the pair of them, but she heard him, nodding slightly. From the tips of her fingertips against his skinsuit, she let her voice resonate weakly through the armor, allowing him to hear her as she explained, "To conserve energy, transition will be delayed."
In response, he nodded and pulled her tightly against himself, which she had not expected -- but didn't mind. In fact, except for the landing and the fact that it was so loud, she found herself somewhat enjoying the moment.
Just then they burst through the wet fog, falling with the expanses of rain around them. Parallel to the bottom of the cloud they had passed through, the sun was visible once more. She'd already been aware of the conditions, but pressed against Kyon -- who had needed her help with something again, finally -- she thought the light changed in fascinating ways as she watched.
His PDA told her his heart-rate, but she could hear it through his chest anyway; hurried and anxious, but in her perception steadily regular. She had the presence of mind to append a recording of what she saw to her phone. She had a suspicion, but she would have to confer with Asahina Mikuru to judge its accuracy.
As they descended, the light began to dim in the thickening rain, so she had to rely on her other senses to judge how far it was to the water. When the waves below them were twelve meters distant, the preparations Yuki had made earlier activated, using the energy of their fall to teleport the pair of them to the safest location she knew of -- the clubroom.
Humming to herself, Mikuru strolled through the halls of the school building, going slowly due to the fact that she was overburdened with sewing supplies. Thankfully, Kasai had picked her up from her apartment that morning and helped her unload. Once she'd called Haruhi to explain the situation, the brigade chief had met her at the school gate to unlock the club room and help carry all of the bags in.
Mikuru thought that Haruhi looked a little troubled, and wondered if she'd been sleeping poorly. Despite that, the brigade chief seemed alright. Certainly, she seemed more upbeat than when Mikuru and Kanae had presented their co-operative cooking effort.... And for that, the slider had been an excellent kitchen assistant.
Still.... Haruhi had been a bit melancholy, for some reason asking Kanae if she'd ever remembered any brothers or sisters. Mikuru had thought that the slider's hesitant admission that she had always been an only-child, except for 'Mikuru-onee' had been utterly adorable. Maybe Haruhi wished she weren't an only child?
She hoped it wasn't that Haruhi was jealous of her getting along with the slider, but that didn't seem to adequately explain it, either. She was fairly certain that the two of them were fairly close as it was. "Um ... Suzumiya-san?" she ventured when they stopped before the clubroom, and Haruhi unlocked the door.
"Yeah?" Haruhi returned, glancing back at Mikuru curiously.
"Is something ... wrong?" she wondered.
Haruhi grimaced at that, sighing. "Not really," she mumbled. "It's just, there's not much excitement, and when there is, it's not what I wanted!"
"How do you mean?" Mikuru asked.
Haruhi pushed the door to the clubroom open, tossing her share -- more than half -- of the hefty bags of cloth onto the main table. "I talked about it with Tsu-chan last night," she sighed, shaking her head. Once the door was closed, Mikuru was briefly startled when Haruhi waved one hand, lifting the bags from the time traveler's grasp and wafting them to the table. "I guess it's not entirely reasonable of me ... I just get bothered by some things. I shouldn't let it get me down too much, though; like Tsu-chan reminded me last night, we all have to stick together.... And it's not like Yuki's getting all kinds of adventures with him when my back is turned either."
Done concluding that point, she turned around, just as Mikuru was jolted by an unexpected explosion. There hadn't been any kind of warning from her superiors -- just a blur of motion before the table shattered with a crunching sound, sewing supplies, ribbons, and pattern paper filling all of the space around her. She managed a wail of terror before Haruhi tackled her to the floor, one hand directing a heavier bolt of cloth to unfurl and stand over them as a protective wall.
"Show yourself!" Haruhi demanded, once the clouds and streamers of sewing supplies had settled into thick drifts, festooning the entire club room and the crumbled, broken remnants of the table.
Somewhere, in one of the mounds of cloth, an eerily familiar groan sounded. Mikuru allowed a gasp to escape her throat at the sound, and Haruhi recognized it too, straightening up and not seeming to remember that she had one arm wrapped around the time traveler. The time traveler squeaked in worry as the brigade chief hauled both of them upright and made a gesture, the top layers of the room's central mound rolling themselves out of the way.
Laying on his back in a pile of sewing supplies, atop the remnants of the clubroom's two-leaf table, was Kyon. He was wearing the heavy coat she had made for him, with Yuki's tiny form held against his chest. His hands and throat were covered with his protective skinsuit, though that all flowed into his wristwatch as she watched.... What a nice watch it was, too; she wondered where he had gotten it from, but realized she was distracting herself.
"K...Kyon-kun?" Mikuru yelped, breaking free of Haruhi's embrace as the pair dashed to his side, dropping to their knees in the debris. "Kyon-kun! Don't die! U...um ... where does it hurt? What's wrong? I can help!" She anxiously grabbed one of his hands and patted his wrist, uncertain if it was safe to move him.
"I'll be okay," he groaned, wincing as he looked up at her and Haruhi. "I'm just a bit sore from falling a hundred kilometers."
"A hundred kilometers?" Haruhi yelped, eyes widening. "No way!"
"The distance was significantly less," Yuki replied, her voice slightly muffled, but making no move to pull away from Kyon.
"Right," Haruhi said doubtfully. "Like, only a dozen or so?"
Yuki's tiny nod rubbed her cheek against Kyon's chest.
"Just from the top of the troposphere," he sighed. "Um, Yuki-chan, I think I'm lying on top of a pile of splinters or something -- can I get up, please?"
With surprisingly obvious reluctance, Yuki allowed Haruhi to pull her off Kyon. Mikuru helped him up worriedly, keeping her calm by reminding herself that Yuki would not have let him remain seriously injured. He winced, rubbing his lower back once he was upright, but appeared otherwise okay. Still.... She looked around the room, dismayed ... the first aid kit was there, buried somewhere beneath the sewing supplies.
"Sit down, Kyon-kun," she insisted, tugging him toward the least buried of the chairs. "Um ... Suzumiya-san ... do you think you could help me look for the first aid kit?"
Haruhi nodded and waved one hand absently, sending all of the unfurled cloths rolling back neatly into place. The other supplies likewise quickly tidied themselves up -- the only real problem was that once the supplies were out of the way, the table really had been smashed into a jumble of pieces. Outside of the legs, Mikuru didn't think any of them were terribly large pieces, either....
Not letting Kyon refuse, despite his complaints, she pulled the coat off him; Haruhi seemed to catch on and snorted, helping to strip the protesting boy's coat and shirt away. Shortly, he was seated properly while Mikuru looked at the welts across his back in dismay. "O-kay," she soothed, setting the first aid kit on another chair near Kyon's side, "hold still, but this will tingle...."
Haruhi crossed her arms over her chest as Yuki turned and watched Kyon. "Well?" Haruhi pressed. "What happened, then?"
"I think I got attacked by some Sumiyoshi-rengo men," Kyon admitted, his voice holding steady even when Mikuru gently dabbed his still-forming bruises with the ointment she had chosen. "Three guys in suits with knives -- didn't catch their pins of affiliation, but it doesn't take a genius to guess, right?"
"I'm not sure I like people going after you with knives," Haruhi grumbled. Yuki gave a curiously emphatic nod, and Mikuru agreed with that sentiment wholeheartedly, except that the people with knives actually seemed to be lowest on the threat list at the moment. "But you've got energy weapons, so that shouldn't even have been a fight!"
"It wasn't," he answered, nodding soberly. "As soon as I reached for the beam-saber, I was in that weird place with Suou Kuyou again."
Haruhi blinked at that, and Mikuru pursed her lips, wondering what it meant.... Surely Yuki could make sense of it?
"Evidently Suou Kuyou thought I was being attacked by someone else there, uh ... Kimidori Emiri," Kyon said hesitantly. "So they fought...."
"Wait -- our first client?" Haruhi asked, surprised. "How was she there?"
"She is like ... myself," Yuki said quietly.
Haruhi's eyebrows knit together as she tried to digest that. "Kimidori-san is an alien?" she asked, astounded. "That ... might explain why the computer club president didn't remember her, even though she said they were dating. Hmm, it could also explain why someone her age wears character-print underwear...."
"Yea-- Wait, what?" Kyon asked, whipping his head around to stare at Haruhi incredulously, then wincing and bringing one hand up to his neck.
"No! Careful!" Mikuru ordered, gently turning his head back. "You just fell, Kyon-kun; you must be more cautious!"
"Er ... right," he mumbled. "I just ... heard something very wrong." He blinked, then clenched his eyes shut as Mikuru cautiously rubbed at his neck, hoping to soothe any minor pain he might be suffering. "Incorrectly, I mean."
Crossing her arms over her chest, Haruhi wondered, "Does this mean she's manipulating the student council president? She's an enemy, right?"
"Uncertain," Yuki answered. "However, Kimidori Emiri will not directly cause harm to him."
Haruhi raised an eyebrow at that. "Indirectly seems to be another issue," she remarked, shaking her head sharply. "Still, if she wasn't trying to cause harm, how did Kyon end up being hurt?"
"Whatever else was happening, Suou-san told Kimidori-san that she was trying to 'occult' me," Kyon said, shifting his shoulders his head. Mikuru frowned at the word, considering it -- she didn't need any augmented reality context translation tools for that. "After that, um ... Kimidori-san said she didn't like direct confrontation and was going to try to run away -- I think. Suou-san seemed not to like that, and tried to stop her, but ... I'm not clear on what happened after that -- it was somewhat confusing for me."
"Sounds intense," Haruhi remarked, turning to Yuki. "Do you know what happened?"
"In an attempt to prevent Kimidori Emiri from fleeing, Suou Kuyou appears to have assembled a singularity," Yuki answered.
"Well, it didn't stop her, but Kimidori looked scared, to me," Kyon determined.
Mikuru froze, distracted from applying the last dabs of ointment. "A...an IDSE interface was scared?" she asked in a voice that was much more worried than she liked.
"It sounds reasonable to me she could be scared for her life -- this is a singularity, like ... a black hole we're talking about, right? I think anyone would be afraid of that!"
"Data tends to be transformed at the quantum level when it crosses an event horizon," Yuki said quietly. "An interface such as Kimidori Emiri or myself would not be capable of preserving data integrity in such an environment unassisted."
Mikuru shivered and finished applying the last of the ointment. Really, the idea of making Kyon take his shirt off should have been a lot more fun than this. "Give it a minute to dry before putting your shirt back on," she instructed, trying very hard to ignore that last thought. He nodded at her, giving her that smile she had been hoping for, and she quickly turned to put the first aid kit away when the unwanted thought kept returning. Only the severity of the situation at hand and the fact that she had gotten to do some tiny bit of good for Kyon let her keep her head.
Haruhi rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "I guess that's a pretty powerful force," she acknowledged. "So, event horizons are like kryptonite to you, then?"
"Any event which sufficiently transforms data," Yuki clarified.
Mikuru didn't really want to think about that, but made herself confront that issue, too. "Um ... could it be that ... they preserve information in a way that's difficult for us to recognize?" Mikuru asked hesitantly. "S...so that transformation seems trivial to her?"
Yuki considered this, not saying anything until Kyon had decided enough time had passed, and started pulling his clothing back on. Mikuru doubted that she was distracted by that, but when she did speak, her quiet voice sounded very faintly troubled. "It seems uncertain that Suou Kuyou is capable of acknowledging data in forms that we recognize," she finally said. "Language is inadequate to express my observations. I can only say that her functions and behaviors are...." She paused, not saying that last word, but Mikuru could guess what it was.
"Different?" the time traveler suggested, in lieu of 'alien'.
"...yes," Yuki agreed. "She is ... very different." A tiny hint of frustration creased her eyebrows, and her attention turned to Kyon.
"What?" he asked, looking between her and Haruhi in confusion, just finished buttoning up his long-sleeved shirt over his undershirt.
"Dummy," Haruhi chastised him, grabbing his tie and looping it over his neck. "You understood--" She pursed her lips together in a tight line as she carefully knotted the cloth strip, then resumed. "You probably still understand Yuki-chan best -- part of why you're such a-- Urg...." She gave his tie some final adjustments, still holding on to the very end. "Well, what do you think of Suou Kuyou?"
Kyon shook his head, answering, "Yuki asked Suou-san what she was. Kuyou said something in answer, but I didn't really understand it...."
Mikuru thought the slighter girl seemed somehow disappointed to hear that.
He shrugged uncomfortably, obviously noting how Yuki felt. "I don't know what 'sidereal' means," he said apologetically.
Yuki's expression shifted, looking curiously perplexed.
"T...those are astronomical terms," the time traveler offered hesitantly. "U...um, 'occulting' is when a body obscures a star from observation -- ah, when the moons pass between surface-based observers and stars, for example." That seemed to be alright to say; no future censoring there. "And 'sidereal' means 'in relation to the stars' but primarily is used to explain the orbiting period of a star, or, um, to calculate relative time...." She let herself trail off, realizing that Yuki would already know that.
Haruhi nodded, looking thoughtful. "I think I remember something about this now," she agreed. "So, then, she has something to do with the stars?"
Kyon looked intrigued, but didn't have any further guesses to offer. If only her superiors would send her a helpful hint every so often....
"Most likely," Yuki agreed, though she still looked uncertain.
Haruhi sighed, shaking her head as she glanced at the clock. "If she thinks on the scale of stars, or whatever, and can make a singularity ... what is it that Kyon can help her with?"
Yuki's answer, surprisingly enough, was to step forward and hug Kyon. "I ... think I know." Mikuru couldn't help but allow a tiny gasp to escape her at the suddenness of the motion.
Haruhi's eyes widened, one brow ticking angrily. "Y...Yuki-chan," she mumbled, her teeth grit. Before her temper escalated, she seemed to deflate, considering something. "Do you think that Suou likes Kyon?"
"Um," Kyon managed, in a very quiet, very nervous voice, nodding uncomfortably. "I...I've been told that she does...."
"W...what?" Mikuru asked, her eyes widening, turning to Kyon in alarm. "S...she's got a crush on you?"
"You mean, there really is some kind of intelligent life out there that just wants to learn our earth concept of love?" Haruhi asked, raising her eyebrows. She blinked, her gaze dropping to the slight girl that was still clinging to Kyon. "Actually, come to think of it, a precedent may already have been set...."
"U...um," Kyon coughed, shifting, but not moving away from Yuki.
Mikuru couldn't understand why that had prompted Yuki to hug Kyon, though, unless.... "Y...Yuki-chan, are you alright?" she asked anxiously.
"Scared," the smaller girl answered, very quietly.
Haruhi faltered at that, the last visible remnants of her ire vanishing, replaced with sympathy. "Well ... I guess that's reasonable.... Kyon, come on! She's scared, can't you hug her back?"
While he looked very confused about it, Kyon immediately did as Haruhi insisted, cautiously hugging the girl. "I'm sorry, Yuki-chan ... is there anything I can do to help?" he asked worriedly.
"This is fine," she answered quietly.
"So ... then..." Haruhi started, before trailing off with a judicious nod. "Yeah, actually, it is. Take all the time you need, Yuki-chan."
"W...wait," Kyon started, still uncertain. "Haruhi--"
"It's not my problem if you're late for class," she warned Kyon, fixing him with a sharp stare. "I don't really care about that right now -- but you owe Yuki-chan an apology, so it seems to me this will do for now! In the meantime, Yuki-chan, trusting your own judgment, let's fix that table before I go to class, okay?"
The small girl nodded at Haruhi, and the broken table-pieces shivered and trembled for a moment before flying back together, as though never damaged in the first place. Mikuru managed a confused smile at that, wondering what Kyon had to apologize for. "Come on, Mikuru-chan," Haruhi added, a gesture repacking the sewing supplies back in their bags. "Let's give Yuki-chan some privacy."
"Haruhi," Kyon said, looking even more confused, but still hugging Yuki. "Look, I don't-- I don't understand an awful lot lately, but I'm sorry."
"W...well, we can talk about that tonight with Tsu-chan," Haruhi said uneasily. She looked on the verge of saying something else, then shook her head and ran to the hall.
Mikuru bit her lip, then ducked her head, quietly excusing herself from the room. As she closed the door, she glimpsed Yuki pressing her face against Kyon's chest again. Yuki had Kyon; she'd be okay.
Haruhi would have been too fast for her to catch up to, if she'd really pushed herself. Thankfully, Haruhi wasn't really running, just walking quickly, so Mikuru found her in the walkway between the old clubhouse and the main school building. "Suzumiya-san?" she asked worriedly. "What's going on? I don't really understand...."
After glancing around to make sure no one else was in earshot, the younger girl stopped, then turned to face Mikuru. She looked more annoyed than genuinely upset, at least. "Yuki-chan and I are just bothered because Kyon didn't try to keep us in the loop about something he did," she explained. "And I guess for Yuki-chan ... she's scared of Kyon getting hurt because he doesn't ask her for help as much as she wants. I think that's what really scared her, more than anything else ... that Suou might have hurt him on accident ... or maybe that she might ... um ... take him away...."
"O...oh," Mikuru said quietly. She thought about it for a moment, wondering if it had something to do with the link that was supposed to exist between Haruhi and Yuki. The link that kept Yuki alive.... Could some of that fear be Haruhi's, too? "S...so, you're upset with Kyon-kun?" she asked worriedly. "Because he, um ... didn't tell you something?"
Haruhi shook her head, turning to stare out one of the hallway windows. "I'm still annoyed about that, but I'll get over it. Really, we haven't been that great about telling him everything, either, but despite that ... I just want him to trust us more," she grumbled.
"My superiors d...don't tell me very much," she offered cautiously. "S...so, I have a bit of empathy for not being trusted to know the details...."
The girl flinched at that, then shifted her shoulders. "W...well.... I guess Kyon isn't the only one who needs to apologize.... I'm sorry for that, Mikuru-chan."
Mikuru wondered what that meant, but the chime for classes sounded then. Surely it would be clarified later...? Giving the time traveler an apologetic smile, Haruhi suggested, "How about tomorrow night, making Kyon take us to go see that movie he watched with Tsu-chan and Kanae-chan?"
"O...okay?" she responded, wondering what prompted that. Behind them, there was still no sign of Kyon or Yuki, even though a handful of students from the light music club came down the stairwell leading to the hallway, chatting as they streamed toward their classrooms. Still ... she did like the idea that if Haruhi was upset with Kyon for some reason, she was one of the people that Haruhi relied on to try and help bring them back together. "Um, that sounds like it should be fun," she said, correcting herself. "Hmm, should I make dinner first? My place is small, but if you and Kyon-kun like...."
Haruhi nodded decisively. "Okay, I'll leave planning that date to you, then; tonight Tsu-chan and I are going to talk to Kyon ... well ... at least a little bit. I r...really wanted to hold out until his birthday, but I don't think it's a good idea to wait that long anymore...."
Mikuru wasn't sure what was going on, but she was confident that Tsuruya would help a lot -- her cheer seemed unconquerable. "Okay," she agreed, following Haruhi as she started moving down the hallway. "U...um ... I have to ask Kyon-kun ... out ... though?" she managed meekly.
Haruhi snorted, shooting her an amused, sidelong glance. "Just tell him he's going to do it, brigade chief's orders," she clarified. "Asking him before Tsu-chan and I talk with him...." She trailed off and shrugged, and Mikuru nodded in uncertain response, waving at Haruhi as she stepped into her classroom. Shaking her head to clear it, she realized with dismay that if she didn't hurry, she was going to be late.
He didn't precisely want to complain about comforting Yuki -- in fact, being able to do so actually was one of the few positives of the situation. Barring the fact that he knew he should be scared by anything that frightened someone as generally impassive as her....
He tried, but couldn't convince himself to add that item to his list of things to ignore. Instead, he focused his ability to ignore things on Haruhi -- too much confusion to sort out there, and just quietly holding Yuki actually felt a lot better than dealing with that.
Part of his mind wondered if he might convince her to sit, when his legs began to stiffen, but he berated himself for thinking about it; this was about Yuki's comfort, not his. Eventually, she seemed to have settled herself, and slowly drew away, though her head remained bowed, and he thought her motions seemed somehow reluctant.
"Um ... Yuki-chan ... so...." He shifted his position, thinking back to an exercise he had learned early in his martial arts training to loosen his stiffness. "Listen, I feel like I've kind of.... Um, I think I meant well, but I didn't really take into account how you might feel.... T...that was stupid of me, and I'm sorry about that."
"It is not ... mutual," Yuki said after a moment. Kyon felt his heart hammer in his chest and almost stumbled mid-stretch.
"W...what?" he managed, dizzied. Yuki was breaking up with him? He recovered his balance, one hand on the room's small refrigerator, almost tripping over the chair his greatcoat was still draped across. Sitting seemed like a good idea, so he did that before anything else, trying to recover his wits. His internal ignore list then decided that it was the ideal time to shut down, spinning everything through his head all at once.
It wasn't really like they were dating, he forced himself to admit. He was engaged to Tsuruya, while telling the girl point blank that he would break it off because it would upset Haruhi. And speaking of her, it somehow seemed that he was dating her, at the same time! He'd been warned not to get too close to Mikuru -- by her older self -- and quite obviously hadn't handled that right, either. And then, as if that weren't enough, he'd abused what should have been a wholesome sempai/kohai relationship with Kanae--
Naturally, Yuki was all but omniscient, so she'd been entirely aware. What had he really expected?
He tried to force down his roiling emotions. Alright -- he'd failed at being more than a friend to Yuki -- maybe he could at least still be just that? "Y...yeah," he said, before she could answer. "O...okay. That's entirely fair. Sure." He was surprised at how much it hurt, all things considered -- but it couldn't be anything worse than he deserved. "Um ... I can understand why you'd want to ... break things off...."
"T...there was ... a serious error in verbal transmission of data," Yuki said, her voice strained, stuttering in an unfamiliar way.
He looked up sharply, drawing the sleeve of his blazer across his eyes. The small girl was trembling, looking even more distraught than before. Her eyes were shining, damp with unshed tears.
"It is not fair of myself to expect a behavior for you when I do not exhibit that behavior myself," she stated more clearly, though her voice still trembled. After a pause, she added, "I am entering an error state."
He hadn't even realized he had gotten up from the chair, he merely noticed that he was suddenly hovering over anxiously. "What can I do to help?" he asked worriedly.
"I do not ... want distance between us. Please ... hold me," she whispered, a pair of crystalline tears descending from her eyes.
And just like that, he damned himself again. "Okay," he said, hugging her to his chest again. "Whatever you need, Yuki-chan."
"Don't ... let me go..." she breathed, her tears causing damp spots in the thin layers of his summer uniforms.
Though he was very concerned about the unscheduled (and very abrupt) vanishing act that Kyon had pulled earlier that morning, Koizumi was reassured to be notified by an Organization contact that the boy arrived for his homeroom. He was late, earning him a lecture from his homeroom teacher that echoed into the halls, but present.
As seemed to be a slowly forming habit, he grabbed his lunch and headed to Kyon's classroom, giving the students around him absent nods and smiles as he slipped away. An unfortunate side-effect of his assumed behavior -- getting adequate grades and being politely aloof -- was that, against all logic, many of the girls in his classroom seemed to think very highly of him. He wasn't like Kyon, entirely unaware of the fact that he'd attracted interest ... but at the same, he didn't really know what to do with those girls.
They weren't at all interested in him, they were interested in how he acted. And that had been wholly for Haruhi's benefit, so....
After winning his way free of the brave girl who thought she wanted to have lunch with him, he reached the doorway of Kyon's classroom, frowning when he saw the boy in question slumped over his desk. Haruhi wasn't in view, but Kunikida and Taniguchi hovered over him, prodding him with questions.
"Come on, man!" Taniguchi was protesting, looking mildly vexed. "What's got you down?"
"I'm going to hell," Kyon mumbled in response, muffled into his elbow. "Or maybe I'm already there...."
"Was it a bad mark?" Kunikida asked in consternation -- but not so curious that he stopped picking at his lunch. "Did you do poorly on a test?"
"Failed," Kyon grumbled.
"So ... you haven't really been studying with Suzu--" Taniguchi cut himself off so abruptly his teeth clicked together loudly when Kyon raised his head and fixed him with a dark stare. "Uh...." Taniguchi glanced around, looking for an answer before his eyes lit on Koizumi. "O...oh! Hey, uh, Koizumi -- help us out, huh?"
Kyon's dourness faded slightly, and he nodded, sitting up. "Yeah, alright," he sighed. After a moment, he stood, ignoring the pair of wrapped bentos on his desk. "Let's go."
Koizumi didn't say anything at first, just following Kyon as he led the way to their usual place, outside. A quartet of first-year students occupied one table, so they chose the furthest away from the group. The esper frowned, noting a somewhat familiar first year boy among the bunch, who froze like some timid woodland creature the second he realized Kyon was nearby, eyes fixed on the second year student and wide with terror. His friends seemed to notice, and all four fell silent.
Rubbing at his temples, Kyon raised his voice enough to be heard, calling out, "I don't bite."
The timid first year made a quiet whimpering noise and tried to hunch in on himself.
Kyon shook his head with a sigh, leaning one elbow on the table and staring moodily away. "I don't know why, but that first year always walks into me when I'm saying something I don't want overheard -- remember when he walked into us interrogating Daimonji?"
Koizumi nodded, realizing why the boy had seemed familiar. "That strikes me as most likely being a trivial detail," he suggested, turning his attention away from the boy. "All the same, unless I miss my mark, something happened this morning -- you absolutely appear to be troubled."
"I am," Kyon groaned, shaking his head.
Koizumi listened patiently as Kyon described his early morning encounter with Kimidori Emiri and Suou Kuyou. He'd already been aware of the Sumiyoshi-rengo men that had tried to corner Kyon on his way to school. It was a point of embarrassment that none of his security detail were close enough to prevent the attack, but almost at the same moment he vanished -- and equally inexplicably -- a force of police officers had burst onto the scene to arrest the knife-wielding men.
Reading between the lines, Koizumi guessed that there had been some discussion between Kyon and Haruhi that morning....
"Is Suzumiya-san aware of Kimidori Emiri's nature?" he asked curiously.
"Yeah," Kyon sighed, grimacing. "She is. Really ... we probably should have explained the truth of that to her a long time ago."
"What does she know of the student council president, then?" the esper pressed.
"Nothing ... just that she thinks he might be influenced by Emiri."
Koizumi nodded. "Then I will address that," he assured Kyon. "In reality, that was my ploy from the beginning, so I will take responsibility for it."
Kyon looked mildly surprised, some of his gloom dispelled. "Okay," he agreed, nodding. "That's something of a relief."
At least there was that. "Is something else troubling you?"
"I don't ... know," Kyon said hesitantly, furrowing his brow. "I think Haruhi is upset with me, but I'm having a hard time figuring things out right now."
That was definitely not good; if Kyon couldn't figure Haruhi out, Koizumi surely couldn't. If his link with her were still intact, it might be a different story.... Ultimately, though, Koizumi reminded himself that Haruhi's screaming emotions frequently denied him the level head he'd prefer to consider things. Certainly, Kyon wouldn't have appreciated it.
"Alright," Koizumi said slowly. "I'd like to help on this front, but I'm probably not much more certain than you." After a pause, he quickly added, "Though, if you'd like, I can also leave well enough alone."
Kyon grimaced, shaking his head and crossing his arms on the table before him. "I don't know what to do," he admitted. "Haruhi and Tsuruya-kun arranged to talk to me tonight -- but I have no idea what about. Or what to say. If it's about Sasaki, well, I want to try and reassure Haruhi, but she wouldn't talk to me this morning."
Koizumi pondered things. As far as he could tell, Haruhi seemed surprisingly unconcerned with Kyon's engagement ... presumably, she didn't think of it as a threat. There was no real point to telling Kyon that she seemed to have affection for him -- well, more than that, really. Unless it somehow ... tied to Yuki?
He really didn't like to think about Kyon and Yuki, given that it was obvious to everyone in the brigade that Kyon was closest to her. For whatever reason, Haruhi wasn't jealous of that, either. Perhaps Yuki was given some leeway because of her connection with Haruhi? All the same, in the past, Haruhi hadn't done much to conceal her jealousy when Kyon seemed to be close to Mikuru.
"As your assistant, I would like to suggest a revision in the division of brigade responsibilities," Koizumi decided. It was too much for just Kyon to handle, after all.
"What did you have in mind?" Kyon asked tiredly.
"We will need to discuss this with Suzumiya-san and the others, naturally, but I suspect that it might go a long way toward preventing such a situation as this again."
Kyon nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah -- you know what? That sounds like a good idea. I'll trust you to draw up some sort of proposal for Haruhi?"
"Quite gladly!" Koizumi replied, cheered to finally take some initiative and try to improve the situation. "I'll get to that immediately. If my advice isn't too unwelcome, I suggest you finish your lunch while you can."
Kyon actually looked reassured by that. "Thanks, Koizumi -- I'll see you at the club meeting?"
The esper gave a nod before the two parted ways. Thinking about things ... if somehow Koizumi's falseness had caused a rift between himself and Haruhi in the past -- something he was realizing more and more.... Well, at least his earnestness of late seemed to be mending that.
Kanae wasn't sure what it was, but she was starting to get a sense of tension from the rest of the brigade.... Not Mikuru, at least, but she had a suspicion something went wrong for her sempai recently, and wasn't sure how she could possibly help. Hopefully it wasn't her enemies causing him trouble.... She knew enough now that she wouldn't run away, but she wished things would be more calm.
After the chime sounded to signify the end of class, she slowly rose. The other first year students around her bustled more purposefully, but if Kanae went on ahead, she might miss Tsuruya -- thus causing the senior to wander the school in search of her. Probably, there was no longer any reason for Tsuruya to continue escorting her to club meetings, but the green-haired heiress seemed to really enjoy it anyway.
As the energetic upperclassman peeked into the room, Kanae couldn't help but smile -- she liked spending time with Tsuruya, too. The students still in the classroom waved knowingly at her, long familiar with the ritual, and Kanae took her things to meet with the heiress at the door. "Hello!" Kanae chirped at the taller girl.
"Good afternoons, Kanae-chan!" Tsuruya returned brightly, leading the way to the clubroom. "Hmm," she mused thoughtfully, glancing at the shorter girl. "Let's see.... You saw Kyon-kun on Sundays, right?"
The slider almost tripped, her face heating up at the reminder of accidentally sliding into her sempai's bed. "Y...yes, before the party," she agreed nervously. They'd gone over it, though, and she didn't think she was in trouble....
"Hmm. So, that tricks you're learning ... if you were to do it again, could you go back?" Tsuruya asked, as they navigated the crowded intersection to the hallway leading toward the club rooms.
"Y...yes," Kanae agreed. "I think so.... Nagato-san will know for sure, I bet!" She seemed to know everything.
Tsuruya's smile intensified, and she gave a judicious nod. "Okies," she said, pitching her voice a little lower. "After you checks with Yuki-chan to make sure it's fines, I think you should do that again after your training tonight!"
Kanae started, her eyes widening. "W...what?" she asked in surprise. "T...that's okay?" Haruhi had mentioned that she'd slept next to Kyon once, in the hospital, so she hadn't been too upset....
Tsuruya nodded as they walked through the second year hall, toward the access hall to the club building. Glancing around to ensure no one was listening too closely, Tsuruya suggested, "Isn't it good practices?"
Her face turning dark red, Kanae managed an uncertain nod. "I...it's really okay, though?" she asked worriedly.
Chuckling as they climbed the stairwell, Tsuruya assured her, "It will be after tonight!"
Kanae tried to puzzle out what that meant ... but then decided to just trust Tsuruya for the time being.
As soon as they entered, Kanae realized that they were the last to reach the club. Haruhi was behind the computer, tapping away at something, and Yuki was at the table, slowly flipping through another book. The slider was unnerved once she translated the English title of 'the Terror', and decided not to investigate further. Mikuru sat just next to Yuki, humming to herself as she went down the list of costume ideas that Haruhi had given her earlier.
Nearest the doorway, of course, her sempai and Koizumi sat, her sempai trying to prod something from his PDA, and Koizumi -- for a change -- busily tapping at the keys on one of the club's laptops. Kanae's attention immediately went to the free seat adjacent to her sempai. Tsuruya saw it too, and gave Kanae a cheerful wink, taking the seat closer to Haruhi's desk instead.
The slider gladly sat next to her sempai, who looked up from his task to give her a warm smile before frowning and prodding at his PDA further.
Haruhi glanced up and finished whatever project she was working on. "Okay," she called, prompting everyone to look up. "I've discovered a recent problem."
"What's that?" he asked, instantly wary, straightening up. Koizumi and Yuki both looked curious, too.
"We used to do mystery searches," Haruhi explained, shaking her head. "But Kanae-chan wouldn't know about those -- basically, we'd split into groups on non-school days and search for something amazing!"
Kanae nodding in understanding. That actually did sound like fun ... Haruhi had seemed to suggest something like that at the beach, too. Though, that was for different reasons.
"I could do with a little less amazing, personally," Kanae's sempai suggested with a grimace. Mikuru winced and gave him a very sympathetic look, while Tsuruya shook her head.
"Well, that's part of it," Haruhi agreed. "But really, searching for things gave us regular structure!"
"Um, does that mean we need some other activity?" Mikuru asked worriedly.
"I'm not sure it's an activity we need.... At this point, since we have enemies, regularly doing things outside of school like that is really exposing ourselves if we keep doing the same things, right? So, we can't afford to be that predictable. But ... all of those things outside of school like that, they seem to keep going to Kyon, don't they?"
"No, really?" her sempai groaned, hanging his head.
"If I might," Koizumi interjected, before Haruhi could retort. "I do have a suggestion for precisely this scenario."
"Alright," Haruhi allowed, raising an eyebrow and studying the esper curiously.
Koizumi rose from his seat and bowed slightly to the assembled group, carrying himself with a very professional air. "I believe at this point, the most effective plan would be to divide the threats facing the Brigade into groups, each of which could have a director of operations."
"Hmm, like Tsu-chan being in charge of any ya-- Er, ninkyo dantai activity?" Haruhi asked.
"That makes sense!" Tsuruya agreed.
"Hmm.... Alright -- what else?"
Koizumi continued, "Naturally, Asahina-san would be responsible for handling her domain of time travel."
Mikuru nodded uncertainly in answer.
"And Nagato-san should be able to keep us apprised of situations concerning the entity, the sky canopy domain, and with some luck, our enemy sliders," the esper concluded.
Yuki's eyes turned to Kanae's sempai before returning to Koizumi, as she gave a very small nod.
"What about you?" her sempai asked, wondering. Haruhi nodded curiously as well, but Kanae wondered why she wasn't given any responsibilities in this new order.
"I can't offer any assistance to the group as a whole that isn't already taken care of by Tsuruya-san and Mori-san," Koizumi explained, shaking his head. "At the risk of being somewhat presumptuous, I will do my best to serve as an assistant to Kyon-kun and Suzumiya-san." He offered another polite bow at that.
"Terrible idea," Haruhi judged. "What the hell are Kyon and I supposed to do?"
Koizumi winced very slightly, but managed to keep his smile. Kanae felt a bit bad for the esper.... But she also understood Haruhi's point perfectly.
"Aha ... apologies," he said, shaking his head. "I did not present myself well; these auspices would all naturally still report to the vice commander and commander. Ultimately the handling of any situation is up to you."
"Hmm ... so, what would mean that Mikuru-chan's titles are official secretary, chief of mascot services, and director of temporal issues?" Haruhi asked.
Mikuru blinked. "Mascot services?" she wondered, seeming to only then realize her promotion.
"Something like that!" Koizumi agreed.
"So, what duties would directors have?" Kanae's sempai asked.
"Generally, just being aware of their domains," Koizumi said with a shrug. Turning to Haruhi, he elaborated, "In an ideal situation, for example, Asahina-san would be able to advise you and Kyon-kun of any time-travel issues and how best to deal with them."
"Ah!" Haruhi said, brightening. "So, you're saying that in this system, if Kyon were -- for example -- attacked by a slider and decided not to ask Yuki-chan for help, he'd be acting pretty dumb?"
"Er," Koizumi coughed, his smile slipping somewhat. "Perhaps ... hypothetically."
"Generally, this actually sounds very reasonable," Kanae's sempai said, though he looked very displeased with the idea, for some reason. "Except, it seems to me that an awful lot of responsibility falls on Yuki -- maybe too much."
"Oh, you think someone trying to handle sliders and two different kinds of angry aliens on their own is too much?" Haruhi asked, giving Kyon a doubtful stare.
"I think I'm just going to shut up now," he decided. As he looked away, he added, "I already have so much to look forward to later..." in a quiet mutter. Even though Kanae was sitting next to him, she barely heard it, but it prompted Haruhi to flinch, and Tsuruya's smile to fade slightly.
Though he didn't show much, the slider was certain that Koizumi looked distressed, too -- only Mikuru seemed not to have heard. "Er ... a...anyway," Haruhi said, suddenly unable to look up. "Um, so.... Yuki-chan, what do you think about having Kyon try and recruit Suou Kuyou to join our side?"
"Constructive," was Yuki's answer.
"That sounds promising!" Mikuru said hopefully, looking around the table with a cautious smile.
That didn't seem right, to Kanae.... Something wasn't being said, and she wasn't sure what it was. "What should I do?" she asked anxiously. "I'm not in charge of anything?"
"Well, you are our newest member," her sempai reminded her, before anyone else could speak. "At the moment, you're a trainee, right?"
"That's right!" Mikuru agreed. "Um ... have you done any designing, yet?"
"Yes, a little," Kanae allowed.
"Oh, you're doing important things, Kanae-chan," Tsuruya assured her with a wink.
"I agree!" Mikuru said brightly, giving Kanae a warm smile. Kanae felt her face heat up and managed a nervous nod. "S...so, Nagato-san is in charge of handling enemy sliders?"
"She's in charge of directing slider operations," Haruhi clarified. "Well, Koizumi, that was a pretty good idea, and I think it'll work out. Hmm.... We'll spend the rest of this meeting working out details, and if there's time left over, then we can work on upcoming activities!"
Kanae nodded uncertainly, hoping that Haruhi was right, but mostly, just wondering if she followed Tsuruya's advice, if her sempai would be reassured. If the rest of the meeting didn't need her attention, and her sempai was right that it really was fine not to worry about the important things.... She turned her head to her sketchbook and rummaged for her pencils. She could do her part, too.