The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (15 page)

“Well, I can understand how you feel.”

I tried to sound considerate as I entered 708 into the keypad and pressed the button to ring the bell.

After a few seconds I heard a click over the intercom.

I was greeted by a duet of wordless and soundless.

“Nagato, it’s me.”

—Silence.

“Sorry, it’s a little hard to explain, but I’m back from the future. Asahina’s also here. The grown-up one. Uh, yeah, her time-divergent variant, was it?”

—Silence.

“I need your help. Or actually, the future you sent me here.”

—Silence.

“Asahina and I should be up there. Asleep in your guest room with our time frozen…”

There was a click as the entrance was unlocked.

“Come in.”

The sound of Nagato’s voice through the intercom was comforting to hear. It was her usual flat voice, cool and soft. There seemed to be a subtle twinge of wonder and surprise mixed in, but it was probably just my imagination. The sky was the limit once Nagato took over. She’ll be able to do something about this situation. Or I’m screwed.

Asahina’s fingers were hooked in my belt, and she appeared as nervous as if she were walking on a fence in high heels. The elevator doors opened and inhaled us before heading up…

To the now-familiar room 708.

There was a doorbell, but I wasn’t in the mood. I knocked on the door without a word. I couldn’t sense anybody on the other side, but the metal door soon opened.

“…”

A small spectacled face peeked through the crack in the door. She stared at me and swiveled her head to focus on Asahina (Big) before returning her gaze to me.

“…”

The empty reaction with no expression on her face or words
spoken almost made me want to beg her to say something, anything at all. This was vintage Nagato. The Nagato from when we first met. The one who’d been aloof back during spring. The one “I” had asked for help “three years ago.”

“May we come in?”

After a moment of silent thought, Nagato’s chin dipped about a millimeter and she retreated into the room. I’m guessing that’s a yes. I turned to the tense beauty behind me.

“Let’s go, Asahina.”

“Yes… You’re right. It should be fine.”

She sounded like she was trying to reassure herself.

Still, how many times have I entered this room? Four times in total, but only twice if I counted chronologically? My sense of time was a train wreck. I was surprised that my biological clock hadn’t gone haywire yet. My body should have collapsed after jumping from winter to summer and going back in time three years twice, but everything was functioning normally for now. In fact, I was tempted to say that my mind had never been clearer. Because I’d gotten used to it? Maybe after going through all these surreal experiences, I’d managed to fry the nerves that recognized what was normal.

Nagato’s room was just as empty as I’d remembered, without any signs of being inhabited. Just the way it’d been “three years ago.” Just the way it’d been when I first visited back in May.

I was able to relax because this Yuki Nagato was the one I knew. No expression on her face, no emotion shown. A completely infallible alien who never acted confused.

I took off my shoes and made my way through the narrow hallway to reach the living room. Nagato was waiting there. Standing all alone with her eyes fixed on Asahina and me in silence. Even if she was surprised, I wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at her face. It was possible that this Nagato saw me visit from the future on a
regular basis, though I doubt that I’ll be traveling through time to this day that many times.

“We shouldn’t need to introduce ourselves, right?”

Nagato had yet to sit down, so Asahina and I also remained standing.

“This is the adult version of Asahina. You’ve met her before,” I said before remembering that it wouldn’t happen for another three years. “I mean, you’re going to meet her. Yeah, she’s definitely Asahina, so it’s fine.”

Nagato stared at Asahina (Big) the way you’d stare at a Math IIB problem on an entrance exam and let her eyes drift toward the guest room before returning to stare at the well-endowed body hiding behind me.

“Understood.”

She nodded without a single hair’s moving.

As I followed Nagato’s gaze, I couldn’t help finding myself drawn to that special partitioned-off room next to the living room.

“Can I open it?”

I pointed to the guest room and Nagato shook her head.

“It will not open. The room structure has been frozen along with time.”

That brought on a mixture of regret and relief.

I felt a warm breath on the back of my neck. Asahina (Big) had let out a soft sigh. She apparently felt the same way I did. I wondered how Asahina (Big) would feel if she saw herself sleeping next to me. I was tempted to ask, but I needed to explain the situation first.

“Nagato, sorry about bothering you again, but could you at least hear me out?”

How much had the “me” in the adjacent room told her? The history of the SOS Brigade up till the Tanabata fiasco. Then I
simply needed to pick up from there. A tale spanning half a year or so, which started from a spring of melancholy, led to a parade of activities for alleviating Haruhi’s boredom, and concluded with the film shooting that forced me to sigh. Yes, you were also there, Nagato. You were a big help at times, though you also gave me a few scares. Until two days ago. For some reason, none of that had ever happened, which was why I came here. With the help of a Nagato-made emergency escape program.

It would have taken a few hours to explain if I went into detail, so I gave her the same digest I’d given Haruhi. Skipped over the nitty-gritty stuff and gave her the general storyline. That should be enough for her.

“… And so I managed to make it back here, thanks to you.”

The proof of the pudding is in the eating, so I took the bookmark from my pocket. I felt like I was handing a talisman to a ghost as I showed it to Nagato.

“…”

Nagato took the bookmark in her fingertips and ignored the illustration of a flower as her eyes fell on the writing on the back. Her scrutiny was what I’d expect from an archaeologist who had just dug up an LCD TV from a Cretaceous stratum. I had no idea how long she was going to stare at the thing, so I interrupted her inspection with a question.

“What should we do?”

“I-I believe that we should normalize this abnormal space-time.”

Asahina (Big)’s voice sounded as nervous as if she were confessing her love to the man of her dreams. Asahina had a tendency to act like a nervous wreck around Nagato, and it seemed as though that hadn’t changed years later. That was the impression I got.

“Nagato… We need your help. You are the only one who can restore this altered time plane. Please…”

Asahina (Big) had her hands clasped together and eyes shut tight, as though she were praying at a shrine. I’ll join in the prayer to the great goddess Nagato. Return the world to one where Asahina would make tea for us in the clubroom, which I would savor while playing a board game with Koizumi, and you would be sitting as still as a statue next to us while reading a book until Haruhi came flying through the door. That was my wish.

“…”

Nagato looked up from the bookmark to stare at empty space with earnest eyes. I could understand why Asahina was so nervous. We had no chance of winning if Nagato disagreed. Was there anybody in this world who could stand against Nagato? Maybe Haruhi.

We couldn’t hear any outside noise in the soundproofed apartment room. It was as quiet as if time had stopped. Nagato’s eyes met mine. A gesture of acceptance. The one where her chin moved a few millimeters.

“Confirming,” Nagato said, shutting her eyes before I could ask what she was confirming.

“…”

Her eyes immediately reopened as she turned eyes the color of night toward me.

“Unable to synchronize.”

Another short phrase as she stared at me. Her face looked slightly different, and it probably wasn’t an optical illusion. This face was the product of everything that had happened since spring and over the summer. Koizumi had also noticed. The culmination of all the minuscule changes to Nagato’s expression since we first met. However, this wasn’t how Nagato had been by winter.

Her thin lips parted slightly.

“I am unable to access that time continuum. The system is equipped with a protection that selectively rejects my requests.”

I didn’t understand what that meant, but I was pretty worried. Hey, hold on a sec. Don’t tell me that there’s nothing you can do.

Nagato paid no heed to my fears.

“But the situation has been understood. Restoration is possible.”

She slowly traced the words on the bookmark with her finger. And then she began to explain in a voice that sounded like newly accumulating snowfall.

“The party responsible for the space-time alteration manipulated Haruhi Suzumiya’s data creation ability to partially transform the data composition of the world.”

The soft voice I was used to hearing. It soothed my heart the way a music-box tune soothed me as a baby.

“As a result, Haruhi Suzumiya was left powerless after the alteration. She no longer has the power to create data. The Data Overmind does not exist in that space-time.”

I didn’t get it, but that sounded pretty ominous, since the past had been rewritten for every person around Haruhi, except me. An all-girls school had been turned into a coed one, a number of North High students had been shifted to that school, all related parties had had their memories altered accordingly, the members of the Agency, Nagato the alien, and Asahina the time traveler were all living different lives, Asakura was back in action, and Haruhi had been erased from the memories of the students at North High. Asakura had been added in and Haruhi taken out. Even Nagato’s boss was gone.

What a mess.

“The power stolen from Haruhi Suzumiya allowed the perpetrator to modify three hundred sixty-five days’ worth of memory data.”

So the period from December of last year—going by my original time—to December seventeenth of the current year had been modified. The Tanabata three years earlier—which would be today—had been left untouched. Now there’s a lifesaver. I only made it this far because Haruhi still remembered what had happened on Tanabata. Still, who was the fool who did something as stupid as something Haruhi would do?

Nagato was still staring at me.

“Restoring the world will require traveling to December eighteenth three years from now and running the repair program immediately after the perpetrator alters space-time.”

So you’re going to travel through time with us? Since you’re the one who’s doing the repairing?

“I cannot go.”

Why not?

“Because,” Nagato answered as she pointed to the guest room, “I cannot leave them.”

Her explanation was that she couldn’t leave this space-time while keeping time frozen for Asahina and me, sleeping in the next room. Nagato continued in an announcer-like tone.

“Emergency mode.”

“So what are we supposed to do?” I asked, feeling a little anxious.

“Mixing.”

As usual, she failed to make any sense.

Nagato slowly removed her glasses and held them in both hands. The glasses then levitated above her palms, as though they were being held up by invisible strings. If this had been a normal person, there probably would have been invisible strings involved, but I shouldn’t have to tell you that Nagato doesn’t do normal.

Squish.

The lenses and frame twisted into a weird whirlpool for a moment before the glasses transformed into something
completely different. A shape I recognized. One that most people would prefer to avoid. A tool that humans instinctively feared.

I hesitantly offered my view.

“It looks like a giant syringe…”

“Yes.”

It was filled with a colorless, transparent liquid. What are we supposed to do with that, and to whom?

“Inject the repair program into the perpetrator.”

I glanced at the sharp needle protruding from the syringe before reflexively looking away.

“Uh… Isn’t there a more peaceful way to go about this? I’m sorry to say that I’m not licensed for any of that stuff. It might get ugly if I hit the wrong spot.”

Nagato turned to the syringe clenched in her hands with eyes the color of a powered-off LCD screen.

“I see.”

Her hands opened to reveal the syringe swirling into something else. I recognized the shape and gulped.

“That’s a dangerous item you’ve got there…”

It was a handgun this time. However, the barrel was especially small and appeared to be stainless steel.

Nagato offered the shiny metallic model-gun-like pistol to me.

“Probability of success remains high through clothing, but a direct discharge to the skin is preferred.”

“What about bullets? Don’t tell me you’re using live ammunition.”

Going by the appearance of the fake-looking gun, they were either aluminum or plastic.

“Needle gun. The program has been applied to the tip of the needle.”

Mentally more acceptable than a giant syringe. I took the gun and was surprised by how light it was.

“By the way…”

I finally asked the question I’d been avoiding.

“Who’s responsible? Who changed the world? Who besides Haruhi could it be? Tell me.”

I could hear Asahina (Big) sigh softly.

Nagato’s lips parted as she nonchalantly told me
that person’s
name.

“…”

I was struggling to find an appropriate response when Nagato turned to Asahina (Big).

“Transmitting target space-time coordinates.”

“Oh, yes.”

Asahina (Big) stuck out her hand as though she were a large, loyal dog.

“Go ahead…”

Nagato’s finger lightly touched the back of Asahina (Big)’s hand before it was slowly retracted…. That was it? However, that appeared to be enough for Asahina (Big).

“I understand, Nagato. We simply have to go to that point and repair ‘her.’ It shouldn’t be difficult. Since that version of ‘her’ won’t have any power to speak of…”