BAMBOO LEAF RHAPSODY
BAMBOO LEAF RHAPSODY
Come to think of it, May had been a pretty hot month, temperature-wise, but here we were in July, and it was even hotter. Plus, the humidity was rising at such a ridiculous rate that my discomfort index was off the charts. The cheap-looking buildings that made up our high school were completely free of any fancy comforts such as air conditioners. The interior of the 1-5 classroom felt like a burning waiting room to hell, which made you wonder if the person who designed this place understood what amenities were.
On top of that, we were in the first week of July, with finals around the corner, so my happy feelings had wandered off to somewhere in the vicinity of Brazil and wouldn’t be returning anytime soon.
Midterms had been quite a disaster, and at this rate, I seriously doubted I’d get a decent grade on my finals. And there was no denying that the problem was due to too much time spent on SOS Brigade activities and not enough time devoted to studying. Not that I chose to spend my time on that crap, but a rule had been established in spring that every time Haruhi said something, I had to go from place to place for no real reason at all, and this was now my part of normal lifestyle. I really hated how I was growing accustomed to this practice.
We were sitting in the classroom during a break with sunlight streaming in from the west. The girl sitting behind me poked me in the back with her pencil.
“Do you know what day it is?”
Haruhi Suzumiya said this with a look on her face like she was a grade schooler on Christmas Eve. When she starts showing this much emotion on her face, it’s a signal that she’s up to no good. I spent three seconds pretending to think.
“Your birthday?”
“No.”
“Asahina’s birthday.”
“No!”
“Koizumi’s or Nagato’s birthday.”
“I don’t even know when those are.”
“Incidentally, my birthday is—”
“I don’t care. You have no idea what an important day it is, do you?”
You can say whatever you want, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s just a really hot weekday.
“Tell me what month and what day it is.”
“July seventh… This seems like a stretch, but don’t tell me you’re talking about Tanabata.”
“Of course I am. It’s Tanabata, you know. Every Japanese person is supposed to remember Tanabata.”
First of all, that actually began as a Chinese tradition. And Tanabata, the Star Festival, is supposed to be next month if you go by the Chinese calendar.
Haruhi waved her pencil in front of my face.
“Everything this side of the Red Sea is considered Asia.”
That’s an odd way to describe geography.
“We’re in the same block for the World Cup preliminaries, right? And there isn’t much of a difference between July and August. It’s still summer.”
Oh, really.
“Whatever. We have to do a proper job of celebrating Tanabata. I always throw myself into these kinds of events.”
I’m pretty sure there are better things for you to throw yourself into. And more importantly, why is it necessary for you to tell me this? I could care less about what you want to do.
“It’s more fun if everyone participates. Starting this year, all the brigade members will get together for a big party on Tanabata.”
“Don’t decide that on your own.”
I was watching a needlessly triumphant look on Haruhi’s face as I protested, which left me feeling that it was stupid to bother to try to object.
And once class was over for the day, Haruhi flew out of the classroom the second the bell rang.
“I’ll be waiting in the club room! You’re not allowed to go home!” she said in parting.
I didn’t need her to tell me to go to the club room. After all, there happens to be a person I try to meet at least once a day. The only such person.
The other brigade members had already assembled in the SOS Brigade’s hideout, the literary club room on the second floor of the clubhouse, a place where we would be considered parasites rather than tenants.
“Ah, hello.”
That greeting came from Mikuru Asahina, who had a bright smile on her face. She’s the source of my peace. An SOS Brigade without her would be as meaningless as curry rice without the curry.
Since it was July, Asahina had switched to a summer version of her maid outfit. Who knew where Haruhi had brought the costume from, but upon receiving it, Asahina had sincerely thanked her by saying, “Ah, thank you very much.” She was serving as the SOS Brigade’s maid again today, earnestly making tea for me. As I drank the tea, I looked across the room.
“Hello, how are you doing?”
Itsuki Koizumi nodded to me from his seat in front of a chessboard at the long table as he moved pieces around with one hand and held a book of chess problems in the other.
“I’ve been going insane ever since I started high school.”
Last week, Koizumi had brought the board after saying something about trying out chess since he was getting tired of Othello. Unfortunately, I didn’t know the rules, and neither did any of the other people here so he was left playing chess by his lonesome, which I supposed was an indication that he had nothing to worry about regarding the upcoming exams.
“I wouldn’t say that I have nothing to worry about. This is merely a means of exercising my brain while taking a break from studying. Every problem solved improves the blood circulation in my brain. Would you care to join me?”
No thanks. I don’t feel like doing any more thinking than I have to. Plus, I have a feeling that if I learn any of this weird stuff, it’ll boot the English vocabulary words I have to remember out of my memory.
“That’s unfortunate. Shall I bring LIFE or Battleship next time? Yes, it would be a good idea to bring something that everyone could play. What would you recommend?”
Anything works. Though at the same time, nothing would really be acceptable. This is the SOS Brigade, not a board game club. Incidentally, the objective of the SOS Brigade’s activities remains a mystery to me, so I still have no idea what this enigmatic brigade is supposed to do. Not that I really want to know, and I’m probably safer off not knowing. Which is why I don’t feel like doing anything. My logic is perfect.
Koizumi shrugged and returned to his book of problems. He took a black knight and moved it to a new position.
Next to Koizumi was Yuki Nagato, buried in a book and showing less emotion than an animatronics puppet in some B movie. It appeared that the reticent and curt pseudo-alien had finally developed a taste for reading original texts instead of their translated versions. The book she was currently reading looked like some kind of ancient and heavy spell book with a title scribbled in some kind of Fraktur script I couldn’t decipher. I’m pretty sure it was written in ancient Etruscan or something. Nagato would probably have no problem reading a Linear A inscription on a stone tablet.
I pulled back the metal chair and took a seat. Asahina immediately set a cup down in front of me. It’s really a bad idea to drink hot tea in this sweltering weather—except that I most definitely was not harboring such a wrongful thought. I simply sipped my tea with a heartfelt sense of gratitude. Yep, it’s hot and sweltering.
An electric fan that Haruhi had brought in from who knows where was whirring away in the corner of the room, but it was about as effective as pouring boiling water onto hot stone. She should have just stolen an air conditioner from the faculty office.
I looked up from my English textbook with its pages flipping in the breeze, and leaned back into the metal chair to stretch.
It wasn’t like I was going to study when I got home, so I figured I might as well try to get some studying done after school in the club room, but as I discovered, a change in location isn’t going to make you want to do something you don’t want to do. It’s bad for both the body and the mind to do something you don’t want to do. In other words, you’ll live a healthier life if you don’t do what you don’t want to do. Okay, I quit. I spun my pencil, shut the textbook, and decided to watch my sedative. I was referring to the sedative for soothing my pessimistic soul, by which I mean the maid sitting across the table and working on her math problem set.
She stared earnestly at her problem set as she periodically scribbled in her notebook before becoming deep in thought with a listless look on her face until she jumped as though a lightbulb had gone off in her head and her pencil raced across the paper. And naturally, the girl repeating this cycle was none other than Mikuru Asahina.
The mere sight of her is enough to calm me down. I was feeling so amiable that I would have been willing to donate more than just a few coins to the bell ringers on the streets. Asahina was so focused on studying math that she didn’t even notice me watching her. Every one of her movements was enough to make me smile. In fact, I had a big grin plastered on my face. I felt like I was watching a baby seal.
Our eyes met.
“Ah. Wh-What is it? Did I do something strange?”
Asahina looked herself over in a fluster. That was quite a fine sight and I was about to deliver some form of angel metaphor when…
“Hey, hey!”
The door flew open and the rude girl made her rude entrance.
“Sorriez. Didn’t mean to be late.”
No need to apologize. Nobody was waiting for you.
Haruhi showed up speaking in a boisterous voice with a chunky stalk of bamboo over her shoulder. It was a fresh one, thick with deep green bamboo leaves.
“Why did you bring that here? Are you planning on making a safe box or something?”
Haruhi puffed up in response.
“To hang wish cards on, obviously.”
“No real reason. I just suddenly felt like doing it and it’s been a while. Plus we get to hang up our wishes. Since today is Tanabata after all.”
… As always, her actions truly had no meaning.
“Where’d you get that from?”
“The thicket behind our school.”
Pretty sure that’s private property. Damn bamboo thief.
“Who cares, really? The roots are still under the earth so it doesn’t matter if one stalk on the surface is missing. Though it might be considered a crime if I stole a bamboo shoot. Anyway, I’m all itchy after being bitten by mosquitoes. Mikuru, could you apply some ointment to my back?”
“Ah… yes! At once!”
Asahina quickly ran over with the first aid kit in her hands. She looked like a nurse in training as she took out the tube of ointment and stuck her hand under the hem of Haruhi’s sailor uniform to reach her back. Haruhi continued talking as she bent forward.
“A little more to the right… That’s too far right. Yeah, that’s the spot.”
Haruhi closed her eyes like a kitten being scratched on its chin, but once the bamboo was placed next to the window, she stood on top of the brigade chief’s desk before pulling a number of paper cards out of nowhere. She smiled cheerfully.
“Come on, write down your wishes.”
Nagato abruptly looked up. Koizumi had a mocking smile on his face. Asahina’s eyes were as wide as saucers. This came out of nowhere, and now she’s pulling leaves off the bamboo. Haruhi hopped off the desk with a flip of her skirt.
“But there are conditions.”
“What?”
“Kyon, do you know who grants wishes on Tanabata?”
“Orihime and Hikoboshi, right?”
“Correct, ten points. Then, do you know what stars Orihime and Hikoboshi refer to?”
“No clue.”
“Vega and Altair, I believe.”
Koizumi promptly answered.
“Exactly! Eighty-five points! Those are the exact stars I was referring to! In other words, we should hang the wish cards facing those stars. Got it?”
“What are you trying to say? And what would the remaining fifteen points cover?”
“Ahem,” was the arrogant response from Haruhi.
“Allow me to explain. First of all, it is impossible to travel faster than the speed of light. That fact is based on the special theory of relativity.”
What’s with the lecture out of nowhere? Haruhi reached into her skirt pocket, pulled out a crumpled up sheet of notepaper, and glanced at her notes.
“By the way, the distances from Earth to Vega and Altair are twenty-five light-years and sixteen light-years respectively. Which means that any data sent from Earth will naturally take twenty-five years or sixteen years to reach its respective star, right?”
So what? And you actually bothered to research this stuff?
“So it means that it’ll take a fair amount of time before either god can read your wish. So our wishes won’t be granted for a while. Make sure you write down whatever you want to happen in your future twenty-five years from now or sixteen years from now! If you put down something like, ‘I want a cool boyfriend by next Christmas!’ it won’t be granted in time!”
Haruhi stated this emphatically as she waved her arms around.
“Hey, hold on a second. If it takes around twenty-five years to make the trip there, shouldn’t it take just as long to return? So wouldn’t our wishes be fulfilled in fifty years or thirty-two years?”
“We’re talking about gods here. They’ll work that out somehow. This only happens once a year, like a fifty percent summer sale.”
And she ignores relativity when it suits her purpose.
“Okay, everyone. You all understand what’s going on, right? We’re doing two different kinds of wish cards. One set goes to Vega and the other goes to Altair. So, write down whatever wishes you want to be granted in twenty-five years or sixteen years.”
An unreasonable statement. First of all, you have to be pretty shameless to ask for two kinds of wishes. Besides, how can I make any wishes when I have no idea what I’ll be doing in twenty-five years or sixteen years? The only thing I can think of would be that Social Security and Wall Street haven’t gone belly-up and are still functioning properly. Pretty sure that both Orihime and Hikoboshi would be annoyed by such wishes. They only get to meet each other once a year so they probably feel that the government should deal with those issues themselves. At least, that’s how I’d feel.
Still, she always comes up with these pointless ideas. Does she have a white hole inside her head or something? I wonder what universe her common sense is from.
“You can’t say that for sure.”
Koizumi sounded like he was taking Haruhi’s side. Except he spoke in a soft voice that could only be heard by me.
“Suzumiya’s actions may be eccentric, but nevertheless, she has a strong grasp on her common sense.”
Koizumi flashed his usual cheerful smile at me.
“If her pattern of thought were abnormal, this world would not be as stable as it is. The world would become a bizarre place governed by odd principles.”
“How can you tell?” I asked.
“Suzumiya wishes for the world to become a stranger place. And she happens to possess the power to reconstruct this world. You should be well aware of this.”
I sure am. Though I still have my doubts.
“However, the world has yet to lose its reason. Which means she is putting common sense before her personal desires.”
“This is a rather childish example,” Koizumi said by way of introducing his next little spiel.
“Assume, for instance, that she wanted Santa Claus to exist. However, common sense dictates that Santa could not possibly exist. It would be impossible for someone to sneak into highly secured houses late at night without being spotted by anyone, at least in modern Japan. And how does Saint Nicholas know what every single child wants? He couldn’t possibly have time to visit the home of every single good child in the world in one night. It’s physically impossible.”
Any person who seriously thinks about this stuff has issues.
“You are absolutely right. Which is why Santa Claus does not exist.”
I was only arguing against him because I didn’t like how he was defending Haruhi, but I just voiced another question.
“If that’s the case, shouldn’t aliens, time travelers, and espers not exist the way Santa doesn’t? So why are you here?”
“That is why Suzumiya is growing frustrated with her own common sense. Her common sense denies her desire for a world where supernatural phenomena frequently occur.”
So in the end, her common sense lost?
“I’m sure that some unrepressed desires called Asahina, Nagato, and myself to this place and granted me mysterious powers. Though I have no idea as to why you are here.”
And let’s keep it that way. At the very least, I, unlike you, am confident in the fact that I am a normal human being.
Though I still don’t know if I should be happy about that or not.
“Over there! No whispering. I’m talking about something serious here.”
I suppose that the sight of Koizumi and me whispering had been an eyesore. Haruhi was yelling at us with her eyes narrowed so we had no choice but to take the cards and pencils she handed to us and return to our seats.
Haruhi was humming as her pen raced across her card. Nagato just stood there staring at hers. Asahina had a puzzled look on her face as though she were trying to solve the Königsberg bridge problem. Koizumi simply said, “What a quandary,” in a carefree tone and tilted his head. There’s no reason for the three of them to think so hard about it. Just have to make something up.
… Don’t tell me that they expect what we write down to actually become reality.
I spun my pencil around as I looked to the side. The stalk of bamboo that had been chopped off by Haruhi sat poking through the open window with its leaves sticking every which way. An occasional passing breeze would set them rustling and cool the room down.
“Hey, did you finish writing yours?”
I turned in response to Haruhi’s voice. The cards on the table in front of her read as follows:
I WISH FOR THE WORLD TO REVOLVE AROUND ME
I WISH FOR THE EARTH TO ROTATE IN THE OTHER DIRECTION
She almost sounded like some kind of obnoxious little kid. It wouldn’t be a problem if she meant for it to be a joke, but the look on her face as she hung the wish cards on the bamboo leaf was dead serious.
Asahina had written hers with adorable and neat handwriting.
I WISH TO GET BETTER AT SEWING
I WISH TO GET BETTER AT COOKING
What a sweet thing to ask for. Asahina clasped her hands together and closed her eyes to pray in front of the wish cards. I think she’s confused about how this works.
Nagato’s cards were pretty bland. They just had the dreary words HARMONY and REFORM written in a printed-style handwriting.
As for Koizumi, he was pretty much on the same level as Nagato with the phrases THE WORLD AT PEACE and THE PEACE AND PROSPERITY OF MY FAMILY written in surprisingly messy hand-writing.
And me? My wishes were simple. After all, they wouldn’t come true for another twenty-five years or sixteen years. I’d be a pretty old man by that point so I’m sure that I would wish for the following:
FORK OVER MONEY
GIVE ME A TWO-STORY HOUSE WITH A LAWN
“You’re such a Philistine.”
Haruhi commented in a tone of disgust as she looked at the wish cards I had hung up. She’s the last person who should be acting disgusted with someone. My wishes are far more productive than wishing for the world to rotate the other way.
“Well, whatever. Everybody, make sure you remember what you wrote down. The first point comes in sixteen years. We’ll compete to see whose wish Hikoboshi grants first!”
“Ah… yes. Yes.”
I glanced over at Asahina nodding earnestly as I sat down in my original metal chair. I turned to find that Nagato had gone back to reading her book.
Haruhi secured the long stalk of bamboo through the window before pulling a chair over next to the it and plopping down. She propped her elbow on the windowsill and stared up at the sky. The fact that she looked awfully gloomy from the side made me feel uneasy. She has severe mood swing issues. She was just shouting and yelling a second ago.
I opened my textbook in an attempt to resume my studying and tried to memorize the different types of relative pronouns.
“… Sixteen years, huh. That’s a long time,” I heard Haruhi murmuring behind me.
While Nagato continued to read Western books in silence, Koizumi returned to playing chess by himself, and I memorized whole chunks of English translation, Haruhi spent the entire time sitting next to the window and looking up at the sky. I can’t deny that she looks good if she keeps her mouth shut and stays still. I was wondering if she’d decided to follow Nagato’s brooding behavior, but a dejected Haruhi was creepy in its own right. Because it’s a sure sign that she’s thinking about something that will cause trouble for the rest of us.
Still, Haruhi seemed to be in particularly low spirits today. She would look up at the sky and sigh deeply. She’s getting creepier by the second. The fact that she’s quiet now just means that we’ll be in for a real horror later on. This is probably how Emperor Sutoku felt the first two or three days after being exiled to Sanuki.
I heard the sound of paper rustling and looked up. Asahina, who had been staring at her problem set across from me, held one finger to her lips and winked her right eye as she passed me one of the extra cards. Asahina then gave Haruhi a quick glance before taking her hand back. She looked back down like a little girl who had just succeeded in pulling off a prank.
I was fully intent on being an accomplice as I drew in the card Asahina had given me and took a look.
PLEASE WAIT IN THE CLUB ROOM AFTER WE’RE DONE. *MIKURU*
The message was written in small lettering.
Naturally, I’ll do as she asks.
“That’s it for today.”
The second after Haruhi said that, she grabbed her bag and left the club room. It just felt so weird. A person that usually acted like a diesel truck that burned massive amounts of fuel was an admirable solar car today. Though it works out perfectly for me.
“Then I’ll also excuse myself.”
Koizumi put away the chess pieces and stood up. And after nodding to Asahina and me, he left the literary club room.
Nagato shut her book with a thud. Oh, you’re going to follow them out? Thanks… and as I felt this sense of gratitude, Nagato walked over to me without making any sound, like a cat.
“Here.”
She handed a piece of paper to me. It was another card. Handing me this thing doesn’t mean I’m going to deliver it to the stars for you. And with that thought in mind, I looked down.
A number of unintelligible figures had been drawn on the card. What is this? The Sumerian alphabet or something? The Enigma machine wouldn’t be able to decipher this thing.
My brow creased as I inspected these circles, triangles, and waves that really couldn’t be considered pictographs or characters, and the next thing I knew, Nagato had spun around to pack up to go home and proceeded to trudge out of the club room.
Whatever. I slipped the card into my pocket and turned to Asahina, whom I had kept waiting.
“U-Um. There’s somewhere I’d like you to come with me.”
An invitation from none other than Asahina. I’d be struck by lightning if I turned her down. I’d jump into a blast furnace if she asked me to.
“Sure. Where are we going?”
“Um… That would be… Three years ago.”
“Where” is what I asked yet “when” was the response I got. Still…
Three years ago. My initial reaction would be “Not again.” But it managed to spark my interest. Which reminded me that Asahina is technically an unknown entity who claims to be a time traveler. She was so adorable that I’d completely forgotten. Still, three years ago? “That’s where we’re going? Which basically means time travel?”
“Yes—exactly.”
“Well, I don’t really mind, but why me? What are we going to do?”
“I’m sure that… you’ll find out when you get there… probably.”
What’s that supposed to mean?
I must have shown traces of suspicion on my face. Asahina frantically waved her hands around with tears in her eyes as she begged me.
“I beg you! Please just say, ‘Yes,’ without asking anything for now. Or else I’ll… well, be in big trouble.”
“Uh. Okay then, I guess.”
“Really? Thank you so much!”
Asahina happily jumped up and down as she clutched my hand. I mean, if Asahina is happy, so am I. Ha. Ha. Ha.
Thinking back, Asahina’s confession that she had “come from the future” had, quite frankly, been based solely on her own word. The appearance of the other Asahina who looked all grown up had made me a believer, but I couldn’t be positive that it wasn’t some kind of trick. In that case, isn’t this a perfect chance to see some proof to support the theory that Asahina is a time traveler?
“So, where’s the time machine?”
I was expecting something along the lines of climbing into a desk drawer, but she told me that no such gimmick was involved. So how are we going to travel through time? Asahina fidgeted with her fingers in front of her apron.
“We’ll go from here.”
Huh? Here? I looked around the lifeless club room for no real reason. The two of us were alone.
“Yes, please sit down in the chair. Could you close your eyes? Yes, relax your shoulders.”
I obediently followed her instructions. She wasn’t going to whack me in the back of the head, right?
“Kyon…”
I could hear Asahina’s hushed voice in my ear as she stood behind me. She breathed softly.
“I’m sorry.”
I got a bad feeling and opened my eyes, which was when everything suddenly went dark. I experienced an overwhelming dizziness as I lost consciousness. As I completely blacked out, I thought for a second that maybe I should have refused.
When I regained consciousness, my vision was rotated ninety degrees. Things that should have been vertical were horizontal like the streetlight sticking from the left to the right, which made me realize that, yes, I was lying down. I soon discovered that the left side of my head felt especially warm.
“Ah, are you awake?”
The voice of an angel fully brought me out of my daze. What’s that squirming under my left ear?
“Um… Could you lift your head soon or I’m going to be…” Asahina said in a strained voice. I sat up and checked my surroundings.
I was sitting on a bench in the park at night.
I am at a loss for words. It would appear that I had been sleeping with my head in Asahina’s lap. And since I had been asleep, I had no memory of the experience. What a waste.
“My legs are almost numb.”
Asahina shyly smiled down at me. I have no idea where she’d gotten changed but she was wearing the North High sailor uniform instead of her maid outfit. I suppose that she’d had enough time to get changed since it appeared to be late in the evening. How long had I been asleep? And yeah, why was I asleep anyway?
“I didn’t want to let you know how we time travel. Um, since it’s classified… Are you mad?”
No way. Absolutely not. If Haruhi had been the one responsible, I would have punched her in the face, but since it was Asahina, I was totally fine with it.
In any case, one second I was sitting in a chair in the club room with my eyes closed, and the next thing I knew, I was in the park in the dead of night. And this park happened to hold a number of memories for me. This was the park where Nagato wanted me to come that one time. Was this like a mecca for weirdoes?
I scratched my head. There was something I needed to ask about first.
“What’s the current date and time?”
Asahina, sitting next to me on the bench, replied, “July seventh, three years before the day we set off from. Around nine PM I think.”
“For real?”
“For real.”
She had a serious look on her face.
That was awfully simple. But I’m not naive enough to take everything she says at face value. I need some kind of confirmation. Maybe I should check the time.
I was about to mention this when I suddenly noticed a weight on my left shoulder. I flinched. Asahina’s head rested on my shoulder. A sound-asleep Asahina was leaning on me. What exactly does she mean by this?
“Asahina?”
No response.
“Excuse me…”
“Zzz…”
Zzz?
I turned my head about eighty-five degrees to the left to find Asahina with her lips half-parted and breathing softly as she slept. What the what?
Rustle, rustle—
Out of nowhere, the bushes behind me began to rustle and my heart began to pound. What the what?
“Is she sound asleep?”
The person who spoke as she emerged from the dark foliage was… another Asahina.
“Ah, Kyon. Good evening.”
It was the gorgeous version of Asahina. The Asahina who had developed in all sorts of places and was a number of years older than the one sleeping next to me. A young, beautiful woman who retained her adorability despite filling out in a positive way. I’d met her once before. As she walked toward us, she wore the same white blouse and tight deep blue miniskirt she had back then.
“He-he. From this perspective…”
The adult version of Asahina poked the sleeping Asahina’s cheek.
“I look like a child.”
Asahina (Big) reached her hand out to familiarly touch Asahina (Small)’s sailor uniform.
“Was this how I looked back then?”
As I felt Asahina (Small) softly breathing on my arm, I could only look up at Asahina (Big) in a daze without moving a muscle.
“It was her role to guide you to this point. It is my role to guide you from here on.”
I stupidly attempted to question the smiling and voluptuous Asahina.
“Uh… What’s going on here…?”
“I can’t give you any details. Because they’re classified. So I can only ask nicely.”
I turned to look at the snoozing Asahina leaning against me.
“I put her to sleep. I couldn’t allow her to see me.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t run into myself when I was at this point in time.”
Reasoning that sort of made sense, but not really. The alluring Asahina winked at me.
“If you follow those train tracks south, you’ll come across a school. A public middle school. I want you to assist the person you find there. Could you go right away? As for the other me, sorry, but could you carry her there? She shouldn’t weigh very much.”
She sounds like a villager in some role-playing game. “What kind of item will I get in return?”
“What will you get in return…? Let’s see, hmm—”
The adult version of Asahina tapped her finely shaped chin as she stood deep in thought before smiling knowingly.
“I can’t personally offer you anything. However, you can kiss the me that’s sleeping over there, but nothing more. And only while she’s asleep, okay?”
Very attractive terms. Enough to make me want to pump my fist. The sight of Asahina sleeping was lovely enough to make me lose control. But…
“That’s a bit…”
It goes against my policy, both mentally and circumstantially. This is when I really start to hate my rational personality.
“It’s time. I have to go.”
That’s all the advice I get this time?
“Oh, and please keep me a secret from her. Promise, okay? Want to pinky swear?”
Asahina (Big) stuck out her pinky and I unconsciously hooked mine with hers. We stood there like that for about a minute.
“Good-bye, Kyon. I’ll see you again.”
And with that bright farewell, Asahina (Big) walked off into the darkness, disappearing out of sight in no time. She had no trouble leaving this time.
Well, I thought to myself. I wonder how much time has passed for the adult version of Asahina since she last saw me. It didn’t seem like she’d changed at all since our previous encounter when she’d given me that bizarre hint. Perhaps this Asahina was from an earlier time than the previous one. I have no idea. I had no way of knowing. The only thing I did know was that I’d be running into the Asahina from a different time period again.
I carried Asahina on my back and she wasn’t exactly light, but at the same time, I wouldn’t say she was heavy, so she was somewhere in between the two. Naturally, my steps began to slow. I’d be inclined to blame the innocent-looking face that was softly breathing into my ear. The back part of my neck she’d been breathing on was all itchy.
I did my best to avoid being seen by any people walking by as I followed the directions from the adult version of Asahina. I must have walked for approximately ten minutes through an increasingly uninhabited area. I turned a corner to arrive at my destination.
East Middle School. A place I knew as Taniguchi’s and Haruhi’s old school. Speaking of which, a familiar-looking person was clinging to the school gate. I couldn’t possibly mistake the small shadow who was attempting to climb the metal gate.
“Hey.”
I began having doubts upon opening my mouth. The fact that I could recognize this person was quite a mystery, if I do say so myself. I could only see this person’s back and she was noticeably shorter. Her straight, black hair was at a length that couldn’t be classified as long or short.
Maybe it was because I couldn’t think of any other acquaintances who would be determined to climb over the school gate late at night.
“What is it?”
I was finally starting to feel like I had gone back three years in time. In fact, I actually had gone back in time.
The face that turned to look at me while she remained clinging to the gate was definitely younger than the face of the SOS Brigade chief I knew. But there was no doubt that those shining eyes belonged to Haruhi. The fact that she was haphazardly dressed in a T-shirt and shorts didn’t make any difference. At this point, three years ago, Haruhi was a first-year in middle school. Was she the one Asahina wanted me to assist?
“Who are you? A pervert? Kidnapper? Awfully suspicious.”
The hazy glow of the streetlight illuminated the surrounding area. I couldn’t read the minute expressions on her face, but the middle school first-year Haruhi was obviously glaring at me as though I was a suspicious person. Between her sneaking into school in the dead of night and my wandering around carrying a sleeping girl on my back, which would be considered more suspicious behavior? There’s a question I don’t really want to think about.
“What are you doing here then?”
“Isn’t that obvious? I’m trespassing.”
You don’t have to announce your criminal activities to the world. There are times when you shouldn’t be aggressive.
“Perfect timing. I don’t know who you are, but if you’ve got time, give me a hand. Or I’ll call the cops.”
I should be the one calling the cops on you. Still, I made a promise with the other Asahina. But yeah, I go back in time and I still have to deal with Haruhi Suzumiya.
Haruhi hopped down from the gate and opened the padlock on the bar. “Why do you have the key?”
“I stole it when I had the chance. Piece of cake.”
That totally makes you a thief. Haruhi slowly slid the metal school gate open and beckoned me inside. I approached the girl, who stood about a head shorter than she would be in three years, and readjusted my hold on Asahina.
As soon as you passed through the main entrance to East Middle School, you would be on the school grounds and the school building was located beyond. Haruhi began walking across the dark grounds in a diagonal direction.
It’s a good thing that it’s dark. She won’t get a clear look at my face or Asahina’s this way. Certainly, Haruhi had never entertained the notion that she’d run into Asahina and me back during her first year of middle school, so we needed to keep it that way.
Haruhi headed straight toward the corner of the sports ground, leading me behind the athletic storeroom. A rusty cart, a rickety, wheeled field line marker, and a few bags of lime lay piled on the ground.
“I took this stuff out of the storeroom earlier this evening and hid them here. Great idea, right?” Haruhi bragged as she piled bags of powder, which appeared to weigh as much as she did, onto the cart and lifted the handle. She looked like a child as she struggled to push the cart along. Guess a first-year in middle school might as well be a child.
I carefully set the slumbering Asahina against the storeroom wall. Please stay asleep for the time being.
“I’ll take care of it. Hand it over. You take the line marker,” I said.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have acted in such a cooperative way. Haruhi abused me in such a frenzy that she’d have worked a rampaging robot to the bone if she’d been given the option. Her personality hadn’t changed the least bit. I can see that her inner character didn’t mature over the next three years.
“Draw the lines exactly the way I tell you to. Yes, I’m talking to you. I have to stand a ways away to supervise your line drawing to make sure you’re doing it right. Ah, that spot’s crooked! What are you doing?!”
Her ability to scream commands at a high schooler she’d never met before made it clear that Haruhi had always been Haruhi. If this had been my first encounter with this middle school girl, I would have thought that she was genuinely dangerous.
Before I met Nagato, Asahina, and Koizumi, at least.
There were no run-ins with teachers on night watch or police cars showing up after some nearby resident called the cops. For thirty minutes, I drew white lines in every direction on the school grounds per Haruhi’s instructions.
I never would have thought that mysterious message that had suddenly appeared on the school grounds had been drawn by me.
As I stared in silence at the patterns I had painstakingly drawn, Haruhi walked over next to me and took the field line marker from me. She proceeded to make a number of fine-tuning adjustments by adding a few lines here and there.
“Say, do you think aliens exist?”
That came out of nowhere.
“Why not?”
Nagato’s face popped into my mind.
“What about time travelers, then?”
“Well, I wouldn’t be surprised if they existed.”
I’d be considered a time traveler myself right now.
“And espers?”
“Walking all over the place, I’d guess.”
I recalled the countless number of red lights.
“Sliders?”
“I haven’t met one of those yet.”
“Hmm.”
Haruhi tossed the field line marker aside and used her shoulder to wipe the dust off her face.
“Oh, well.”
I was getting nervous. Don’t tell me that I said something wrong. Haruhi looked at me with upturned eyes.
“That’s a North High uniform, right?”
“Sure.”
“What’s your name?”
“John Smith.”
“… Are you stupid?”
“Let’s just say that it’s my desired pseudonym.”
“Who’s that girl?”
“My older sister. She suffers from an erratic sleep disorder. It’s a chronic disease. She falls asleep suddenly, so I have to carry her.”
“Hmm.”
Haruhi bit her lower lip and turned to the side with a look that said she didn’t believe me. Let’s change the subject.
“What is this supposed to be?”
“Can’t you tell? It’s a message.”
“To whom? Don’t tell me it’s to Orihime and Hikoboshi.”
Haruhi looked surprised.
“How’d you know?”
“Well, it is Tanabata. I just happen to remember someone doing something similar.”
“Huh? I’d love to meet that person. There’s someone like that at North High?”
“Sure.”
You’re the only person now and in the future who’ll ever be like that.
“Hmm. North High, huh?” Haruhi murmured as she appeared to contemplate something. After staying as silent as a rock for a period of time, she abruptly turned around.
“I’m going home. I accomplished my objective. See ya.”
And then she stomped off. She didn’t even thank me for helping her. Extremely rude behavior, but that’s what I’d expect from Haruhi. And she never told me her name either. Though that works out better for me, I’d say.
I couldn’t stay in this place forever so I attempted to wake Asahina up. This was after I’d returned the cart and lime stolen by Haruhi to the spot behind the storeroom.
The sight of Asahina sleeping like a kitten was enough to make me lose control, but I resisted those urges and lightly shook her shoulder.
“Mmm… Hmm. Huh? Wha—”
Once Asahina had opened her eyes, she began looking all around.
“Wha-Wha—!”
She stood up.
“Wh-Wh-Wh-Whe-… Where am I? What how when are we right now?!”
How am I supposed to respond? As I racked my brain for an answer, Asahina emitted a short gasp before staggering. Even in the darkness, I could tell that her face had turned pale.
Asahina began searching herself with both hands.
“My TPDD… is gone. It’s gone.”
Asahina looked like she was about to cry. Soon enough, she really was crying. She looked like a little girl as she cried with her hands to her eyes, but it appeared that this wasn’t the time to be in high spirits.
“What’s a TPDD?”
“Sniff… That would be considered classified… It’s kind of like a time machine. That’s what I used to come to this time… but I can’t find it anywhere. We can’t return to our original time without it…”
“Uh, why is it gone?”
“I don’t know… It should have been impossible to lose… Yet I lost it.”
I recalled the other Asahina touching this one’s body.
“Maybe somebody will come save us—”
“That’s impossible…” she sobbed.
Asahina began explaining as she continued to sniffle. Established events on the time plane were supposed to be predetermined, so if a TPDD were to exist, it would be on her person. The fact that it was gone would be an established event, which would mean that its “absence” had been predetermined… and yeah. I don’t get it.
“So in other words, what’s going to happen to us?”
She sobbed, “ In other words, we’re stuck. We’ll be stranded on this time plane, three years in the past, unable to return to our original space-time.”
We’re in big trouble, was how I felt in my heart, but I didn’t feel nervous at all. The adult Asahina hadn’t given me any particular warning about this situation. She was probably the one who swiped the TPDD or whatever and created the current predicament. I presume that Asahina (Big) came to the past for that very purpose. An established event, right? From the perspective of the Asahina who came from farther in the future than this Asahina, it was predetermined.
I looked away from the sobbing Asahina to glance across the school grounds. The baffling jumble of white lines designed by Haruhi and drawn by me was sprawled across the field. The East Middle School staff and students who had no idea what had transpired would probably find this creepy when they showed up tomorrow. I’ll just have to pray that there aren’t any aliens out there who would consider this an insult… and that’s when I had a sudden revelation.
After all, it’d been dark. The only lighting in the school was provided by a few flickering streetlights and the mess of white lines had been large in scale, so I couldn’t tell what the whole thing looked like until I was a fair distance away.
Which is why it took me so long to notice.
I pulled the card Nagato had given me out of my pocket. The one with a number of unintelligible figures on it.
“There might be a way,” I said as Asahina looked at me in tears. I continued to stare at the card.
The drawings on that card were exactly the same as the ones Haruhi and I had scribbled all over the school grounds.
After leaving East Middle in a hurry, we came to a stop in front of a fancy apartment in front of the station.
“Yes. I never heard any specific details about how long she’d been on Earth, but knowing her, she should have been on this world three years ago… probably.”
I pressed the button for Room 708 on the intercom at the apartment’s entrance. There was a buzzing sound to let us know somebody had picked up on the other side. I could feel the warmth of a trembling Asahina’s hand through my sleeve as I spoke into the mic.
“Is this Yuki Nagato’s residence?”
“…” was the response through the intercom.
“Ah—How should I put this…”
“…”
“Would it help if I were to say that I’m an acquaintance of Haruhi Suzumiya?”
I could feel a chilling presence on the other side of the intercom. There was a brief period of silence. Then…
“Come in.”
There was a click as the door unlocked. I got into the elevator with the nervous Asahina in tow. We rode it to the seventh floor as our destination was Room 708, the one I’d previously visited while in the future. As soon as I rang the doorbell, the door opened, albeit slowly.
Yuki Nagato stood inside. This suddenly felt surreal. Had Asahina and I actually traveled to the past?
I had to wonder because Nagato looked exactly the same. The fact that she was wearing a North High uniform, the way she impassively stared at me, and even her inorganic appearance, which seemingly had no body warmth or presence, added to the impression that she was exactly the same as the Nagato I knew. However, there was something this Nagato had that the more recent one didn’t. The glasses she had been wearing when I first met her.
The glasses Nagato had worn before she had stopped being a glasses girl at some point were sitting on this Nagato’s face.
“Yo,” I said as I raised one hand and gave a friendly smile. Nagato, as always, showed no expression on her face. Asahina was trembling as she hid behind me.
“Can we step inside?”
“…”
Nagato silently walked into the room. I took that as a yes and entered with Asahina. We took off our shoes and headed toward the living room. The room was as empty as it would be in three years. Nagato stood still, waiting for us to enter the room. I had no choice but to remain standing as I attempted to explain our situation. Where do I even begin? From the first day of school when I met Haruhi? That’ll take a while.
I gave her a general rundown, abridging various spots. I must have spoken for five whole minutes as she impassively stared at me through her glasses. A summary of Haruhi’s story that lacks any real point, if I do say so myself.
…“And so. The you from three years later gave this to me.”
Nagato scrutinized the card I presented without batting an eye and traced her finger over the weird characters. Kind of looked like she was reading a bar code.
“Understood.”
Nagato simply nodded. Seriously? Wait, hold on. There was something else that bothered me.
I put my hand on my forehead as I did some thinking.
“I’ve known Nagato for a while now, but three years ago… Today for you… So in other words, the present you. Today would have been the first time you met us, right?”
I have to admit that I had no idea what I was saying. Nevertheless, Nagato responded as the edges of her glasses flashed. In a calm and indifferent voice she answered.
“And so…”
“Requesting permission to access the memory corresponding to my time-divergent variant. I have downloaded reversible border regression data.”
No idea what you’re talking about.
“The ‘me’ in three years and the ‘me’ at this time are the same person.”
“So? Of course you’re the same person. That doesn’t mean the Nagato from three years ago would share memories with the Nagato from three years later.”
“We do now.”
“How?”
“We have synchronized.”
Yeah, I don’t get it.
Nagato removed her glasses without any further response. She looked up at me with her emotionless eyes and blinked. That was definitely the familiar face of the book-loving girl. The Yuki Nagato I remembered.
“Why are you wearing a North High uniform? Did you already enroll?”
“I have not. I am currently in standby mode.”
“Standby… You’re going to stand by for three whole years?”
“Yes.”
“That’s just…”
That’ll take a world of patience. Won’t you be bored? But Nagato shook her head.
“That is my role.”
She stared directly at me with clear eyes. “There is more than one method of time travel.” Nagato spoke in a flat voice.
“The TPDD is merely a device for controlling time. Both unreliable and primitive. There are a number of theories concerning the process of movement through the time continuum.”
Asahina squeezed my hand again.
“Um… What exactly do you mean…”
“When transportation of organic life forms is conducted with the TPDD, noise may occur. We believe it to be imperfect.”
By we, she means the Data Overmind, right?
“You’re capable of perfect time travel?”
“The process does not matter. The transfer of identical data suffices.”
“Going from the present to the past or to the future, huh…”
If Asahina can do it, maybe Nagato can do it too. I assume that Nagato’s the one with an excess abundance of power. In fact, after doing some comparing to Nagato and Koizumi, I’m starting to suspect that Asahina’s the one who really has no idea what’s going on.
“That’s nice and all.”
I interrupted Asahina and Nagato. “Now isn’t the time to be discussing the finer points of time travel. We need to figure out how Asahina and I are going to get back to the future three years later.”
However, Nagato simply nodded.
“It is possible.”
She then stood and opened the sliding door that led to the room next to the living room.
“Here.”
It was a Japanese-style room. With tatami flooring. The fact that the room was completely empty except for the tatami mats was what you would expect from Nagato, but why were we being shown into this guest room? Could there be a time machine hidden in here? As I wondered, Nagato removed a futon from the closet and spread it on the floor. And then a second one.
“I’m pretty sure I’ve got the wrong idea… but are you telling us to sleep here?”
Nagato, still carrying a futon, turned to look at me. I could see Asahina and myself reflected in her amethyst eyes.
“Yes.”
I glanced next to me to find Asahina fidgeting with her face completely red. That’s how I’d expect her to react.
But Nagato didn’t seem to care.
“Sleep.”
Don’t be so direct.
“Just sleep and nothing else.”
Well… That was the plan. In any case, Asahina and I looked at each other uncertainly. Asahina’s face was bright red while I just shrugged. We had no choice but to rely on Nagato in this case. If she’s telling us to sleep, then that’s what we’ll do. Just hope that it’s as simple as waking up in the morning to find ourselves back in our world.
Nagato reached toward the switch on the fluorescent lamp next to the wall. Then she muttered something. I was wondering if she was saying good night when the light disappeared with a click.
It appeared that I had no choice but to sleep so I pulled the covers over myself.
And the next thing I knew, the light turned on. The fluorescent lamp made clicking sounds as it flickered and stabilized. Huh? Something feels wrong here. It was still dark outside.
As I sat up, Asahina also woke up, clutching the edge of her blanket.
The expression on her lovely, childlike face was one of bewilderment. She looked at me questioningly, but naturally, I had no answers.
Nagato was standing there. She had her hand on the light switch, just like before.
It didn’t seem like Nagato’s face. I could feel some emotion as I stared at the pale face. Like she had something she wanted to say but was unable to because of conflicting interests. It was the slightest expression of emotion that couldn’t be perceived without being accustomed to her poker face for a long period of time. Though I couldn’t be sure that I wasn’t just imagining things.
I heard someone suddenly inhale next to me and turned to find Asahina fiddling with the digital watch on her right wrist.
“Huh? No way…! What? Really?”
I glanced at her wristwatch. “Don’t tell me that thing’s the TPDD.”
“It isn’t. This is just an atomic watch.”
“One of those watches that synchronizes with the atomic clock through radio waves, huh?”
Asahina smiled cheerfully as she continued, “It’s wonderful. We’ve returned. It’s just past nine PM… on July seventh, the day we departed. I’m so relieved… Whew.”
She sounded like the world had just been lifted off her shoulders.
The Nagato standing at the entrance was our Nagato. If you were going to differentiate between them by saying one was bespectacled and one wasn’t, this one would be the latter. The Yuki Nagato who’d softened just a little bit. I could tell after seeing how she was three years ago. The Nagato before me right now had definitely changed from the Nagato I’d met in the literary club room when Haruhi dragged me there. I’m guessing it was so slight that she couldn’t tell.
“But how?” Asahina asked in a daze.
Nagato responded in a flat voice, “I froze liquefied data within the selected space-time and unfroze the data once there were corresponding points from an already known space-time continuum.”
Was that even comprehensible? After a brief pause, she added, “Which would be now.”
Asahina attempted to stand before falling to her knees.
“You couldn’t have… Impossible… How could you… Nagato, you…”
Nagato remained silent.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Nagato—stopped time. She probably stopped time for the whole room we were in, for three whole years. And then at this time today, she unfroze us…?”
“Yes,” Nagato confirmed.
“That’s unbelievable. She stopped time… Whoa…”
Asahina sighed as she remained bent over. That’s when I thought of something.
It appeared that we had safely returned to our time three years later. After seeing Asahina’s reaction, that was certain. She’s incapable of hiding anything. Which is fine. The theory behind our return from three years ago involved stopping time—I can believe that. I have developed enough tolerance to accept just about anything at this point. That’s fine too. Just fine and dandy—but.
This wasn’t my first visit to Nagato’s home. I’d been invited inside just a little over a month ago. But I stayed in the living room the whole time and never entered the guest room. I didn’t even know about its existence. Which means, uh… What does it mean?
I looked at Nagato. Nagato looked back at me.
—So basically, when I visited this place to hear her crazy spiel, another me had been sleeping in the next room.
What the hell? Isn’t that what this means?
“Yes,” Nagato replied. I felt dizzy.
“… Hey. So in other words, you already knew everything back then? About me? About what happened today?”
“Yes.”
From my perspective, my first meeting with Nagato had been on that day in the season of newly green leaves when Haruhi came up with the idea of establishing the SOS Brigade. However, Nagato had met me earlier, on Tanabata three years ago. As far as I was concerned, that meeting had occurred just a moment ago, but three years had passed since. I’m going to go insane.
Asahina and I stood in a daze together. I’d known that Nagato was capable of many things, but I never would have dreamed that she could stop time. Doesn’t that make her invincible?
“Not exactly.”
A motion of denial.
“This was a special case. An exception. Emergency mode. Rarely engaged. Unless drastic measures are required.”
And we warranted those drastic measures.
“Thanks, Nagato.”
I thanked her. That was all I could do.
“Not necessary.”
Nagato nodded without a shred of amiability. Then she held out the card that had various geometric shapes on it. As I took the card, I noticed that the quality of the paper had deteriorated. As if it had been sitting there for three years.
“By the way, can you read what the writing on the card says?”
I didn’t expect anyone to be able to read Haruhi’s made-up message. So I was merely joking.
“ ‘I am here,’ ” Nagato answered.
I hadn’t expected a reply.
“That’s what it says.”
I was getting confused.
“Don’t tell me that… those pictographs or symbols or whatever actually ended up being the language of some alien race somewhere?”
Nagato didn’t respond.
After Asahina and I left Nagato’s room, we walked under the twinkling stars.
“Asahina, what was the point of me going back to the past?”
Asahina earnestly thought for a moment before looking up and speaking in a faint voice.
“I’m sorry. I, well… The truth is that, um… I don’t really know… I’m at the bottom of the chain… No, a peon… No, something like an intern…”
“Yet you’re close to Haruhi.”
“That’s because I never expected to be caught by Suzumiya.”
She pouted as she spoke. Your face looks adorable like that, Asahina.
“I just follow orders from my superiors… or I mean, the people at the top. So I don’t know the meaning behind my actions.”
As I watched Asahina speaking bashfully, I wondered if those superiors included the adult version of Asahina. I had no basis for that assumption. It was simply because she and the normal Asahina were the only time travelers I knew.
“I see.” I murmured, tilting my head.
I still don’t get it. The adult version of Asahina had come to give me a hint, so she should have known what would happen to us. But she didn’t tell anything to the present Asahina. What does that mean?
“Hmm.”
After some groaning, I decided that there was no way for me to understand something Asahina didn’t. Like Nagato said. There are many processes for time travel. Time travelers have their own rules and regulations to follow. Someone will explain it to me one day. When this is all over.
I parted ways with Asahina in front of the station. Her tiny figure bowed to me over and over as she reluctantly walked away. I also began heading home, which was when I realized that I’d left my bag in the club room.
The next day. Which would be July eighth. It felt like the next day to me, but physically, it’d been three years and a day since I’d gone to school. Empty-handed, I went straight to the club room, grabbed my bag, and headed to my classroom. I assumed Asahina had come before me since her bag wasn’t there.
Haruhi was already in the classroom staring out the window with an impressed look on her face. Like she was ticking off the seconds before the arrival of aliens.
“What’s wrong? You’ve been awfully melancholy since yesterday. Did you eat a poisonous mushroom or something?”
I sat down in my seat. Haruhi sighed in an exaggerated fashion.
“Not really. Just remembering something. The Tanabata season holds some memories for me.”
I felt a chill down my spine. But I won’t ask—what those memories might be.
“Really.”
Haruhi turned back to stare at the clouds. I shrugged. I have no intention of playing with fire around a bomb fuse. That’s how a person with common sense would act.
After school in the literary club room that had been turned into the SOS Brigade’s hideout, Haruhi simply delivered the order, “Clean up the bamboo leaves. We don’t need them anymore,” and left. The “Brigade Chief” armband lying on the desk looks lonely. Oh, well. She’ll be back to her usual crazy self tomorrow and telling us to do impossible things. That’s the kind of person she is.
Asahina was nowhere to be seen. The only other people here were Yuki Nagato and Koizumi, who was playing chess with me. I’d given in to Koizumi’s enthusiasm and allowed him to at least teach me how each piece was supposed to move.
It would seem that I’d been too quick to assume that he’d brought the chessboard because he was bad at Othello.
Koizumi was as bad at chess as he was at Othello.
As I took Koizumi’s pawn with my knight, I glanced at the poker-faced Nagato, who was staring at the board with interest.
“Hey, Nagato. I can’t really tell, but Asahina is actually from the future, right?”
Nagato slowly tilted her head.
“Yes.”
“Still, the whole process of going to the past and coming back to the future didn’t seem very consistent…”
Yeah. If time has no continuity—if we traveled three years into the past and then slept until the present time, the “present” we’re in right now would be a different world from the “yesterday” we departed from. But in the end, I had given Haruhi unnecessary information and there was a possibility… that information had brought Haruhi to North High to search for nonhuman life… So it’s possible that none of this would have happened if I hadn’t gone three years into the past. Which means that there is continuity between the past and the future. That would contradict the explanation I’d heard from Asahina. I could at least figure that out by myself.
“Axiomatic set theory cannot prove the antinomies within itself without antinomies,” Nagato said flatly.
I suppose you could say that she was showing emotion from a relative standpoint. You may consider that an adequate explanation, but I have no idea what you just said.
Nagato exposed her pale throat as she looked up at me.
“You will understand eventually.”
And with that, she returned to her usual position and began reading again. Koizumi started to speak in her place.
“It’s like this. My king is currently in check by your rook. What a quandary. Where should it escape?”
As Koizumi spoke, he lifted his king and dropped it into his shirt pocket. Then he spread his arms like a magician.
“Well, was there anything inconsistent about my actions?”
I stroked a white rook as I considered his words. I had no intention of going along with his stupid Zen philosophy crap or abstract bull for the sake of compliments to satisfy my own vanity. So I didn’t respond.
In any case—There’s no doubt that Haruhi is made up of paradoxes. Same goes for this world.
“Of course, in our case, the king holds little value. What matters is the queen.”
I placed the white rook on the square where the king had been. Queen’s Knight 8.
“I have no idea what’s going to be happening, but next time, I’d prefer to not have to use my head so much,” Koizumi continued.
Nagato didn’t respond and Koizumi merely smiled.
“I personally believe that some peace and quiet would be best, but would you prefer that something happen?”
I snorted as I marked a win under my name on the scorecard.