CHAPTER 6

The pending issue on my mind was another envelope, just like yesterday, in my locker. What was up with that? Was putting letters in lockers the current fad?

But today’s was considerably different. This second note was no scrap of paper from an anonymous sender. A name was written on the back of the envelope that looked like it belonged on the side of a girls’ manga. And as long as my eyes weren’t mistaken in reading the steady handwriting…

MIKURU ASAHINA

… was what it said.

I swiftly placed the envelope in my blazer pocket and hopped into a stall in the men’s bathroom to open it. Written in the middle of the sheet of stationery adorned with characters out of a girls’ manga was…

I’LL BE WAITING IN THE CLUB ROOM DURING LUNCH.—MIKURU

After the ordeal I had gone through yesterday, my view of the world and reality had gone through a complete barrel roll and was currently spinning out of control.

I hoped to be spared another life-threatening experience if I went to the club room.

However, I had no choice but to go. The person who sent this was none other than Asahina. While I had no evidence to prove that this letter was actually from her, I didn’t doubt its origins for a second. She seemed just like the kind of person to use such a roundabout method, and the picture of her cheerfully writing on a sheet of cute stationery fits perfectly with her image, right? Plus Nagato was always in the club room during lunch. If something happened, she’d take care of it.

Don’t call me pathetic. I am just an ordinary male high school student.

Once fourth period ended and break started, I escaped the class-room without even eating my lunch, before Taniguchi, who’d been giving me meaningful looks, could come talk to me, Kunikida could invite me to eat lunch, or Haruhi could bring up going to the faculty office to find out where Asakura had moved. I quickly moved toward the club room.

It was still May, yet it already felt like summer. The sun was cheerfully shooting its energy to Earth, as if its furnaces were burning overtime. At this rate, wouldn’t Japan end up being a natural sauna by the time summer came? The elastic band on my underwear was soaked with sweat merely from walking around.

I was in front of the literary club room before three minutes had passed. I figured I’d knock.

“Come in!”

It was indeed Asahina’s voice. No doubt about it. I would never mistake someone else’s voice for Asahina’s. It was really her. Relieved, I walked in.

Nagato wasn’t there. In fact, Asahina wasn’t even there.

A woman stood leaning against the window facing the courtyard. A figure with long hair wearing a white blouse and black miniskirt. She was wearing visitor slippers on her feet.

Her face lit up upon seeing me as she ran over and took my hands in hers.

“Kyon… It’s been so long.”

It wasn’t Asahina. It was someone who looked just like Asahina, though. So much that I had to double-check to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. Actually, I didn’t see how it could be anyone else.

But it wasn’t Asahina. My Asahina wasn’t that tall. Her face wasn’t so mature. The ballooning of her blouse couldn’t have increased in size by thirty percent overnight!

The person smiling as she held my hands in front of her chest looked to be around twenty or so. She came across differently from Asahina the high schooler. Even so, she and Asahina were like two peas in a pod. In every way.

“Uh…”

I was suddenly struck by an idea.

“Are you Asahina’s… sister?”

Her eyes narrowed with amusement and her shoulders began shaking. Even her smile looked amused.

“It’s me, silly,” she said. “The real Mikuru Asahina. But I’m from a later future than the Mikuru Asahina you’re familiar with…. I’ve missed you.”

I probably looked like an idiot at this point. Yeah, the most acceptable explanation would be that the woman before me was Asahina after a few years had passed. A perfect beauty I could accept as the future version of Asahina.

“Ah, you don’t believe me, do you?” Asahina, dressed like a secretary, said mischievously. “I’ll prove it to you.”

She suddenly began unbuttoning her blouse. After undoing the second button, she thrust her cleavage at a very confused me. “Look. I have a star-shaped mole here, right? It isn’t fake. Want to touch it to make sure?”

There was indeed a mole captivatingly protruding from the upper edge of her left breast. Like a solitary accentuation atop her creamy skin.

“Do you believe me now?”

That wasn’t the issue here. I didn’t know where Asahina had moles on her body. The only times I’d seen that much of her skin would be when she was dressed up as a bunny girl and when I accidentally walked in on her changing. In either case, I didn’t have enough time to make any detailed observations. Once I informed her of my thinking, the charming adult Asahina said, “Huh? But weren’t you the one who told me I had a mole here, Kyon? I didn’t even notice it myself.”

She tilted her head in wonder before opening her eyes wide in astonishment. She then suddenly turned bright red.

“Oh… no. It’s still… Oh, I see. It hasn’t happened yet…. Oh my, what do I do?” Future Asahina clasped her hands to her cheeks and shook her head, shirt still partially open. “I’ve made a huge mistake…. I’m so sorry! Please forget what I just said!”

Easier said than done. Anyway, could you button up your shirt already? I’m having a hard time figuring out where to look.

“I understand,” I said. “I’ll believe you for now. I’ve become a person who’s ready to believe anything at this point.”

“Huh?”

“No, just talking to myself.”

This Asahina of an indiscernible age, hands still pressed to her flaming cheeks, finally noticed how my eyes couldn’t help but be drawn to her assets, and hurriedly buttoned up her shirt. She then stood up straight and let out a dry cough.

“Do you really believe that I’ve come to this time plane from the future?”

“Of course. Wait. Does that mean there are two Asahinas in this period right now?”

“Yes. The past me… past from my point of view, is currently having lunch with classmates in the classroom.”

“Does that Asahina know that you’re here?”

“No. I didn’t know at the time. After all, she is my past.”

Makes sense.

“I needed to tell you something so I made some unreasonable requests in order to return to this time. I asked Nagato to leave us alone.”

It is Nagato we’re talking about here so she probably didn’t even blink when she saw this Asahina.

“… Do you know about Nagato?”

“Sorry. That’s classified information. My, I haven’t gotten to say that in a long time.”

“I just heard it a few days ago.”

“That’s right,” Asahina said as she bopped herself on the head and stuck her tongue out. Now she really did look like Asahina.

But then her face suddenly became serious.

“I can’t stay in this time very long. So I’ll be brief.”

Say whatever you want.

“Do you know who Snow White is?”

I stared at this Asahina who was about the same height as me. Her black eyes were slightly moist.

“Well, yeah….”

“When you find yourself in a harrowing situation, please remember those words.”

“You mean the story with seven dwarfs, a witch, and a poisoned apple?”

“Yes. Remember the story of Snow White.”

“I was just in a harrowing situation yesterday.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about. It’ll happen… Let’s see. I can’t tell you any specifics, but Suzumiya should be with you when it happens.”

Haruhi? And me? Caught up in some trouble together? When? Where?

“… Suzumiya may not find anything wrong with the situation… but for you and for the rest of us, it will be a significant problem.”

“I suppose that you can’t—give me any more details, can you?”

“I’m sorry. Still, just think of it as a hint. This is all I can do.”

Adult Asahina looked on the verge of tears. Yeah, she really was Asahina.

“And that would be Snow White?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll remember that.”

Once I nodded, Asahina said that she still had a little time left and looked fondly around the room. She then tenderly brushed her hand against the maid outfit hanging on the rack.

“I can’t believe I was able to wear this. I wouldn’t be able to do it now.”

“You look like you’re dressed up as an office lady right now.”

She giggled. “I couldn’t wear a uniform, so I tried dressing like a teacher.”

Some people just look good no matter what they’re wearing. I tried asking, “What other costumes did Haruhi make you wear?”

“That’s secret. It’s embarrassing. Besides, you’ll find out soon enough.”

Asahina walked over to me, slippers pitter-patting. Her eyes were oddly moist and her cheeks were still flushed.

“I’ll be going now.”

Asahina continued to stare at my face, like she had something else to say. Her lips parted as if seeking something. Just as I started wondering if I should kiss her and moved to embrace her—she got away from me.

Asahina twisted around suddenly.

“One last thing. Don’t get too close to me.”

She sounded like a cricket sighing.

As Asahina ran over to the door, I spoke up. “Please tell me one thing!”

Asahina paused right as she was about to open the door, her back toward me.

“Asahina. How old are you right now?”

Asahina turned around with a flick of her hair. Her smile was so brilliant that any person would fall in love.

“That’s classified information.”

The door shut. There probably wasn’t any point in going after her.

Heh, didn’t expect Asahina to turn into such a beauty. Then I remembered the first words she had spoken. “It’s been so long.” Those words can only mean one thing. That is to say, Asahina hadn’t seen me for quite some time.

“I see. Makes sense.”

Asahina, being from the future, would have to return to her original time before long. A number of years passed before she saw me again. And that happened just now.

I wonder how much time passed for her. Based on her appearance, I’d say five years… no, three years? Girls go through some dramatic changes once they’re out of high school. I think of my cousin, a brainy type who didn’t stand out much. But the second she entered college, she metamorphosed from a chrysalis into a Monarch butterfly. Come to think of it, I didn’t know Asahina’s actual age. Though I was pretty sure she wasn’t really seventeen.

I’m pretty hungry. I should go back to the classroom.

“…”

Nagato entered the room with the usual look of cryopreservation on her face. But she wasn’t wearing glasses. In the absence of that glass barrier, her eyes bored directly into me.

“Yo. Did you see someone that looked a lot like Asahina on your way here?”

I was just joking when I said that, but Nagato responded.

“Mikuru Asahina’s time-divergent variant. I met her this morning.”

I couldn’t even hear Nagato’s clothes rustle as she sat down in a metal chair and opened up a book on the table.

“She is no longer here. She has vanished from this timespace.”

“Could it be that you can also travel through time? And that Overmind thing, too.”

“I cannot. But time travel is not very difficult. The humans of this epoch are simply unaware of the process. Time is similar to space. Travel is a simple matter.”

“Maybe you can tell me how it’s done.”

“Words would be insufficient for conveying the concept and you would not understand.”

“Oh, really?”

“Really.”

“Guess that’s settled.”

“Settled.”

I felt like I was trying in vain to talk to an echo. I once again prepared to head back to the classroom. I wondered if there was still time to eat.

“Nagato, thanks for yesterday.”

The unnatural look on her face changed ever so slightly.

“There is no need to thank me. Ryoko Asakura’s abnormal behavior was my responsibility. My incompetence.”

Forelocks of hair swayed gently.

Did she just lower her head?

“You really do look better without glasses.”

There was no reply.

I raced back to the classroom where my lunch awaited, figuring I could eat super fast and at least wolf down a few bites. Unfortunately, I ran into this obstacle known as Haruhi right in front of the classroom and was forced to miss lunch. It must have been fate. I’d already resigned myself to whatever might come.

Apparently, Haruhi had been waiting for me in the hallway. She looked irritated.

“Where did you go?! I waited to eat since I thought you’d be back soon!”

“Could you say that again, except this time sounding like an old friend just pretending to be angry?”

“Stop babbling like an idiot and come with me!”

Haruhi used some judo technique to firmly lock my arm in hers, and I was dragged up to that dimly lit staircase landing.

Anyway, I was hungry.

“I just asked Okabe over in the faculty office. Nobody knew about Asakura transferring until today. First thing this morning, a person claiming to be Asakura’s father called and said they had to move abruptly. And guess where to? Canada! Does that even make sense? It sounds so made-up!”

“Really, now?”

“Then I asked for her contact information in Canada. I said I wanted to stay in touch.”

You never even held a conversation with her.

“And guess what they said? They didn’t even have that information! You would normally leave your new contact information, right? Something has to be up here!”

“How about, no?”

“Since I was there, I asked for Asakura’s old address. We’ll go check it out after school. We might learn something.”

As always, she didn’t listen to anyone but herself. Well, I wasn’t going to bother stopping her. She was the one wasting her time, not me.

“You’re coming with me!”

“Why?”

Haruhi squared her shoulders, took a deep breath like a monster about to breathe fire, and shouted loud enough that people in the hallway could probably hear her.

“And you call yourself a member of the SOS Brigade?!”

In accordance with Haruhi’s proclamation, I scampered off with my tail between my legs. I returned to the club room to let Nagato know that Haruhi and I wouldn’t be here today, and also to let Asahina and Koizumi know if they stopped by after school. But if I only gave the silent alien the message, it might end up turning into a game of telephone, so I took one of the extra paper flyers and wrote SOS BRIGADE, SELF-ACTIVITY DAY WITH HARUHI in magic marker and stuck it on the door with a thumbtack.

I didn’t really give a damn about Koizumi, but I should at least save Asahina the trouble of having to change into her maid outfit.

And as a result, I heard the bell signaling the beginning of fifth period on a completely empty stomach. I ate during the next break, though.

Going home from school with a girl is pretty normal in school drama TV shows and I’d be lying if I said I’d never dreamed about that happening to me. And presently, I was living out my dream. I wonder why I was not the least bit happy about it.

“Did you say something?”

That was Haruhi, walking in long strides with a memo in one hand. I figured she meant “Got a problem?” with that line.

“No, nothing.”

We quickly descended the hill and walked along the railroad tracks. A little further and we’d reach Kouyou Park Station.

I had been thinking about how we were getting close to Nagato’s apartment when Haruhi actually turned in that direction and stopped in front of a familiar, newly-built condominium.

“It looks like she lived in apartment 505 in this building.”

“I see.”

“See what?”

“No, nothing. Anyway, how are you planning on getting inside? The front door’s locked.”

I informed her of the number pad next to the intercom.

“Entering a number should open the door. Do you know the code for that?” I asked.

“No. It’ll be a battle of attrition.”

Against what?

Never mind. It didn’t take very long. A lady apparently on her way out to do some shopping opened the door from the inside. She gave a look of disgust at the two of us trying to look innocent before leaving. Before the door could close, Haruhi slipped the tip of her foot in as a stopper.

She wouldn’t be winning any smart criminal awards any time soon.

“Hurry up.”

After being dragged in, I stood in the entrance hall. We then got on the elevator that happened to be waiting on the first floor. Normal elevator etiquette would require us to stare silently at the floor number display.

“About Asakura.”

Looks like Haruhi doesn’t give a damn about etiquette.

“There’s something else afoot. Apparently, Asakura didn’t come to North High from one of the city middle schools.”

Well, I’d assume she didn’t.

“I did some snooping and found out that she transferred in from a middle school in the suburbs. Something’s definitely up with that. It’s not like North High’s a good school for getting into college. It’s just your typical prefectural high school. Why would she bother coming here?”

“I dunno.”

“But her residence is so close to school. And it’s a condo. Not just some rented apartment. Great location, too. Must be expensive. Did she commute to middle school in the suburbs from this place?”

“I said I dunno.”

“Looks like we’ll need to find out when Asakura began living here.”

We reached the fifth floor and stood in front of apartment 505 for a while, just staring at the door without saying anything. There may have been a doorplate at one point, but it was gone now, a silent indicator that the place was empty. Haruhi jiggled the knob, but naturally, the door didn’t open.

Haruhi stood with her arms crossed, contemplating if there was a way to get inside. I stood next to her, trying to stifle my yawn. This was a waste of time, even for me.

“Let’s go to the manager’s office,” said Haruhi.

“I doubt he’ll let you borrow a key.”

“Not that. I’m going to ask him when Asakura began living here.”

“Learning that information won’t accomplish anything. Just give up and go home.”

“No, I won’t.”

We took the elevator back down to the first floor and headed for the manager’s office at the side of the entrance hall. There wasn’t anyone on the other side of the glass door, but a while after ringing the bell on the wall, a little old man with tufts of white hair slowly stepped out.

Before the old man could say anything, Haruhi declared, “We’re friends of a former resident, Ryoko Asakura. She suddenly moved and we don’t know how to contact her. Did you happen to hear where she moved to? And I was wondering if you could tell me when Asakura came to this place.”

I was marveling at the fact that Haruhi could sound like a normal person as the manager, apparently hard of hearing, kept going, “Eh? Eh?” for a period of time. Haruhi was able to successfully learn that the manager had also been surprised by the Asakuras’ sudden move (“I was shocked when I found the room empty when I hadn’t seen any movers come by”), that Asakura moved here three years ago (“I remember since the lovely young lady brought me a box of candy”), and that she hadn’t needed a loan, but instead paid a lump sum up front in cash (“I supposed she was filthy rich”). She should become a detective.

The old man looked like he was enjoying this chance to talk with a young girl. “That’s right. I saw the young lady a number of times, but I don’t recall ever meeting her parents—

“Her name’s Ryoko? She was a good-natured, kind girl—

“She could have at least said goodbye. What a pity. By the way, you’re a fine-looking girl yourself—”

The old man was apparently running out of things to ramble about. Haruhi must have determined that he didn’t have any more information to offer.

“Thank you very much for your help.” She delivered an exemplary bow before motioning to me. No need to motion. I was already following Haruhi out of the building.

“Lad. That young lady will definitely grow up to be a beauty. Don’t let her get away—”

I really didn’t need to hear that parting line from the old guy. Pretty sure Haruhi was also within hearing range. I was nervously awaiting Haruhi’s reaction, but she kept on walking without a word. I chose to follow her lead in keeping my mouth shut. A few steps out the entrance we ran into Nagato carrying a convenience store plastic bag and her bookbag. She usually stayed in the club room until the school closed, but if she was here right now, she must have left soon after we did.

“Oh? Do you live here, too? What a coincidence,” said Haruhi.

Nagato nodded with her pale complexion. It was obviously not a coincidence.

“Then did you hear anything about Asakura?” Nagato gestured a negative response.

“I see. If you learn anything about Asakura, let me know. Okay?” She motioned an affirmative response.

As I stared at the plastic bag containing canned goods and daily staples, I came to a conscious realization that Nagato ate food after all.

“What happened to your glasses?” asked Haruhi.

Nagato just stared at me without answering the question. She was making me uncomfortable. It looked like Haruhi wasn’t expecting an answer anyway. She shrugged her shoulders and started off again without looking back. I waved goodbye to Nagato. As I walked past her, she spoke in a soft voice only I could hear.

“Be careful.”

Be careful of what this time? I turned around to ask, but Nagato had already disappeared into the building.

I stayed two or three steps behind Haruhi as we walked along the local railroad tracks with no destination in mind. I was just getting further and further away from home. I tried asking Haruhi where she was going.

“It doesn’t matter.”

That was her response. I continued staring at the back of her head.

“Can I go home now?”

She stopped so suddenly she almost fell forward. She turned to me with a pale face devoid of emotion, like Nagato’s.

“Have you ever realized how insignificant your existence is on this planet?”

What are you talking about?

“I have. It’s something I’ll never forget.”

Haruhi began to speak as we stood on the sidewalk of the small road along the railroad tracks.

“During elementary school, when I was in sixth grade, my whole family went to watch a baseball game at the stadium. I wasn’t particularly interested in baseball, but I was shocked once we got there. There were people everywhere I looked. The ones on the other side of the stadium looked like squirming grains of rice packed together. I wondered if every last person in Japan attended this game. And so, I asked my dad, exactly how many people were in the stadium? His answer was that a sold-out game meant around fifty thousand people. After the game, the path to the train station was flooded with people. The sight stunned me. So many people around me, yet they only made up a fraction of the people in Japan. Once I got home, I got a calculator and did the math. I had learned in social studies that the Japanese population was a hundred million and some. Divide fifty thousand into that and you only get one two-thousandth. I was stunned again. Not only was I just one little person in that sea of people in that stadium, but that sea of people was merely a drop in the ocean. I had thought myself to be a special person up until that point. I enjoyed being with my family, and most of all, I thought that my class in school had the most interesting people in the world. That was when I realized it wasn’t like that. The things that happened in what I believed to be the most enjoyable class in the world could be found happening in any school in Japan. Everyone in Japan would find them to be ordinary. Once I realized this, I found that my surroundings were beginning to lose their color. Brush my teeth and go to sleep at night. Wake up and eat breakfast in the morning. People do those things everywhere. When I realized that everyone did all these things on a daily basis, everything started to feel so boring. And if there were so many people in the world, there had to be someone living an interesting life that wasn’t ordinary. I was sure of it. Why wasn’t that person me? That’s all I could think about until I graduated from elementary school. And in the process, I realized something. Nothing fun will happen if you sit around waiting. So I figured I would change myself in middle school. Let the world know that I wasn’t a girl content with sitting around and waiting. And I did exactly what I wanted to do. But in the end, nothing ever happened. Before I knew it, I was in high school. I thought something would have changed by now.”

---

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Haruhi said this all at once, like a contestant in a speech competition. Once she finished, she stared up at the sky, looking like she regretted saying all that.

A train passed by on the tracks. The roaring noise gave me some time to decide if I should make a witty comment or quote some philosophical anecdote to fill up the silence. I pointlessly watched the train disappear into the distance, leaving behind a Doppler effect.

“I see.”

My inability to say anything else made me a bit depressed. Haruhi silently patted down her hair, which had been blown around by the gust from the train.

“I’m going home,” she said, and headed back the way we came.

As for me, it would be faster to go home that way, but I got the feeling that Haruhi’s back was silently yelling, “Don’t follow me!” so until Haruhi was out of sight, I just stood there.

What am I doing?

When I got home, I found Koizumi waiting for me outside.

“Hello.”

The way he was smiling already like we’d been friends for ten years was awfully fake. Between the uniform and bookbag, he looked just like a person on his way home from school. He waved familiarly.

“I wanted to fulfill my prior promise. I’ve been waiting for your return. You were earlier than I expected.”

“You sound like you know where I went.”

Koizumi had one of those “smiles are free” looks on his face.

“Could I have a bit of your time?” he asked. “There’s somewhere I want to take you.”

“Suzumiya-related?”

“Suzumiya-related.”

I opened the door to my house and dropped my bag in the entrance. My sister happened to be walking by, so I let her know I might be home late. I then went back and joined Koizumi outside, and a few minutes later, I was a passenger in a car.

Koizumi hailed a taxi that just happened to pass by with unbelievably perfect timing. The freak and I got in the car, and it took off east on the highway. The destination Koizumi named was a large city outside the prefecture. I was pretty sure it would have been far cheaper to go by train, but oh well, he was the one paying for it.

“Incidentally, what prior promise were you talking about?”

“You wanted proof that I was an esper, correct? An opportunity has arrived, so I thought you might want to come along.”

“Is there a point in traveling so far?”

“Yes. I can only demonstrate my powers as an esper in a certain location, under certain conditions. Our current destination happens to fulfill those conditions.”

“Do you still think Haruhi is God or whatever?”

Koizumi, sitting in the back with me, turned my way. “Are you aware of the anthropic principle?”

“Never heard of it.”

Koizumi exhaled a chuckle before speaking again. “The condensed version is as follows. ‘If something must be true for us, as humans, to exist, then it is true simply because we exist.’ That’s the theory.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“ ‘I observe, therefore the universe exists’ would be another way to put it. Basically, humans, the intelligent life forms of this planet, discovered the laws of physics and other physical constants and through those discoveries, became aware for the first time of the existence of a universe bound by those observations. Therefore, if the humans on Earth who observed this universe had not evolved to our current level, there would be no one to make those observations and consequently, the existence of the universe would remain unknown. In other words, it wouldn’t matter if the universe existed or not. The existence of humanity permits the existence of the universe. This would be the reasoning from a human basis.”

“That’s just ridiculous. It doesn’t matter if humans are around or not. The universe is the universe.”

“Precisely. Which is why the anthropic principle cannot be considered scientific. It is merely speculative theory. However, it brings some interesting facts to our attention.”

The taxi stopped at a traffic signal. The driver just looked straight ahead. He didn’t pay any attention to us at all.

“Why did the universe happen to be created to accommodate human life? If there were a slight increase or decrease in the gravitational constant, the universe would most likely not have facilitated the development of the sun. Or take Planck’s constant or particle-mass ratios. They exist in this world at conditions most suitable for humans. Consequently, this universe is what it is, and humanity is what it is. Don’t you find that curious?”

My back was starting to itch. Koizumi sounded like a brochure for one of those new pseudoscience religions.

“Don’t worry. I do not believe that an omniscient, omnipotent God created humans. Neither do my colleagues. However, we have our suspicions.”

“About what?”

“Perhaps we are just clowns standing on tiptoe at the edge of a cliff?”

I must have had a really weird look on my face. Koizumi chuckled like a rooster with asthma.

“I kid.”

“I don’t understand a thing you’re saying.”

I got that out in the open. I didn’t have time to waste on little stories that weren’t funny. Let me out right now or turn the car around. I’d prefer the latter.

“I brought up the anthropic principle to draw a comparison. I haven’t gotten to Suzumiya yet.”

“So tell me already. Why do you, Nagato, and Asahina all like Haruhi so much?”

“I believe her to be a charming person. But let’s set that aside. Do you remember? I once said that the world may have been created by Suzumiya.”

“It annoys the hell out of me, but I guess I still remember.”

“She has the ability to realize wishes.”

“Don’t make that kind of a statement with a straight face.”

“I have no choice but to make such a statement. The situation is changing the way Suzumiya wishes.”

“Like that’s possible.”

“Suzumiya is positive that aliens exist. She wished it to be so. That is why Yuki Nagato is here. Similarly, she wished for time travelers to exist. That is why Mikuru Asahina is here. And I am also here for the sole reason that Suzumiya wished it so.”

“Like I said. How do you know that?”

“It was three years ago.”

Screw three years ago. I’m sick of hearing those words.

“One day, I suddenly became aware of the fact that I possessed certain powers. For some reason, I knew how to use those powers. Other people with the same powers experienced similar awakenings. Furthermore, we also knew that Haruhi Suzumiya was the cause. I cannot explain why. We just ended up with that knowledge.”

“Let’s say I give you the benefit of doubt. I still don’t see how Haruhi can do all that.”

“Indeed. We found it hard to believe ourselves. How could a single girl have transformed the world, no, perhaps even created the world? And that girl finds this world to be a boring place. This is a terrifying situation to behold.”

“Why?”

“Didn’t I tell you? If she is capable of creating this world at will, she could undo the world we know and create her desired world from scratch. That would quite literally be the end of the world. Of course, we have no way of knowing if it has already happened. The world we believe to be unique may actually be the latest in a string of reincarnations.”

Like I’m gonna believe that. I said something else out loud, though. “Then reveal your true identity to Haruhi. Once she knows that espers really exist, she’ll be ecstatic. She might stop thinking about changing the world.”

“That would pose another problem. If Suzumiya believes the existence of espers to be a common occurrence, the world would really end up that way. The laws of physics would be bent. As would the law of conservation of mass and the second law of thermodynamics. The entire universe would erupt into chaos.”

“There’s something I don’t get,” I said. “You said that Haruhi wished for aliens, time travelers, and espers, which is why you, Nagato, and Asahina are here.”

“Yes.”

“Then why hasn’t Haruhi noticed yet? You people know it. Even I know it. Isn’t that kind of odd?”

“You believe it to be contradictory? The contradiction would be within Suzumiya’s heart.”

“In English, please.”

“To be concise, her desire for the existence of aliens, time travelers, and espers contradicts her common sense, which says they cannot exist. She may be eccentric in her speech and conduct, but she is a normal person with rational reasoning. Her sandstorm-level of energy during middle school has alleviated substantially the past few months. I would have preferred that she continue to calm down, but once she came to this school, a tornado touched down.”

“What do you mean?”

“It is your fault.” Only his mouth was smiling. “If you hadn’t given Suzumiya that strange idea, we would probably still be observing her from afar.”

“What did I do?”

“You were the one who gave her the idea to form this questionable club. Your conversation gave her the inspiration to create a club made up of unusual individuals. The responsibility is yours. As a result, low-ranked members from the three forces interested in Suzumiya have gathered together in one group.”

“That’s a false charge.”

One of my weaker denials. Koizumi chuckled.

“Well, that isn’t the only reason.”

And with that, he stopped talking. Before I could tell him to go on, the driver spoke.

“We’re here.”

The car stopped and the door opened. Koizumi and I got out into the crowd of people. The taxi driver drove off without collecting the fare, but I wasn’t particularly surprised.

If anyone living in this region says they’re going out on the town, they probably mean that they’re coming here. A typical local urban area you could find anywhere in Japan with department stores and complex structures lined up all around and a jumble of private railway and Japan Railways terminals. The setting sun lit up the pedestrians rushing by the intersection with color. Once the traffic signal turned green, a sea of people so big you had to wonder where they all came from, started walking. The two of us had been let off at the edge of the crossing and we quickly slipped into the crowd.

“It may be a bit late to say this after coming all this way.” As we slowly walked across the crossing, Koizumi spoke while looking straight ahead. “You can still back out now.”

“Just a bit late, eh?”

Koizumi, walking right next to me, grabbed my hand in his. What are you doing? You’re freaking me out.

“I’m sorry, but could you close your eyes for a bit? It won’t take long. Just a few seconds.”

I dodged some sprinting businessman in a suit who was obviously late to a meeting or something. The walk traffic signal began counting down.

Fine. I complied and closed my eyes. The sound of many footsteps. The roar of car engines. Constant chattering. A tumult of noise.

Koizumi led me by the hand. One step. Two steps. Three steps. Stop.

“That’s enough.”

I opened my eyes.

The world had turned gray.

It was dark. I unconsciously looked up at the sky. The bright orange sun was nowhere to be found. The sky was covered with dark gray clouds. Were they even clouds? It looked like flat seamless space that stretched on forever. My surroundings were covered in shadows. The gray sky emitted soft phosphorescence in the sun’s absence, the only light preventing this world from falling into total darkness.

No one was around.

Aside from Koizumi and me, standing in the middle of the intersection, the crowd of people covering the crosswalk had vanished without a trace. The traffic signal continued counting down in the dim light and had just turned red. Yet not a single car moved. It was so silent you might wonder if the earth had stopped rotating.

“The void within a dimensional fault. A place separated from our world. Closed space.”

Koizumi’s voice echoed rather loudly through the silent air.

“The middle of this crosswalk happened to be the ‘wall’ of this closed space. Here, like this.”

Koizumi’s outstretched arm stopped like it had run into an obstacle. I followed suit. It felt like I was touching chilled winter sky. My hand pressed softly into an elastic, invisible wall but met firm resistance before even making it ten centimeters in.

“Its radius is approximately five kilometers. You cannot gain entry through ordinary, physical measures. One of the powers I possess is the ability to enter this space.”

Not a single light was on in any of the buildings protruding from the ground like bamboo shoots, nor in any of the stores in the shopping district. The only artificial light was from the traffic signal and the dimly lit street lights.

“Where is this?”

Maybe I should have asked what this is.

Koizumi calmly said he would explain as we walked.

“The details are unclear, but this would be an alternate world slightly off from ours… at least, you can think of it as such. A dimensional fault sprung from the place we were just at. We have entered the resulting gap. Right now, everything is happening as normal on the outside. The average person will be unable to stumble into this place… most of the time, at least.”

We crossed the street. Did Koizumi already know where we were going? He seemed sure of himself.

“Picture a dome-shaped space rising from the ground. We would be within that.”

We entered a multipurpose building. Forget people. There wasn’t even a speck of dust.

“Closed space occurs in a completely arbitrary fashion. There have been instances where they occurred every other day. There were also times when months went by without incident. Only one thing is certain.”

We climbed the stairs. It was really dark. If I hadn’t been able to see the faint image of Koizumi walking in front of me, I probably would have tripped over myself.

“This space is created whenever Suzumiya becomes emotionally unstable.”

We stepped out onto the roof of the four-story multipurpose building.

“I am able to detect the emergence of closed space. So can my colleagues. The reason we are able to do so is a mystery. But we know the location and time of emergence without knowing why. And the method for entry, as well. I am unable to express this sensation in words.”

I placed my hands on the railing of the roof and looked up at the sky. There wasn’t even a breeze.

“You brought me all the way here to show me this? It’s just an empty place, isn’t it?”

“No, the crux of the matter is yet to come. It should begin soon.”

Stop acting so superior. But Koizumi just pretended not to see the sour look on my face.

“My powers are not limited to detecting and entering closed space. You could say that I’ve been granted powers which reflect Suzumiya’s rationality. If this world is like a pimple resulting from her unstable state, I would be the medicine that treats it.”

“Your metaphors are hard to understand,” I replied.

“People often tell me that. In any case, you are quite impressive. Not a hint of surprise after witnessing all this.”

I recalled the erased Asakura and the gorgeous Asahina. I’d already been through a lot.

Koizumi abruptly looked up. His eyes gazed beyond my head at some point far off in the distance.

“I see that it has begun. Please look behind you.”

I looked.

I could see, standing far in the distance between skyscrapers, a shining blue giant.

It was a head taller than a thirty-story commercial building. It looked like its body was glowing from within. Was its slim, dull cobalt-blue body made from some kind of irradiant substance? It had no distinct outline. And nothing you could consider facial features. The places where eyes and mouth would go appeared darker, but the rest of the face was completely blank.

What is that?

The giant raised and shook one arm like it was waving before bringing it down like a hatchet.

It smashed a nearby building in half as it waved its arm. Debris from the concrete and reinforcing bars fell in slow motion and rained down upon the asphalt below with a thunderous roar.

“We believe this to be the manifestation of Suzumiya’s irritation. It seems that when the pent-up negative feelings in her pass a certain point, these giants appear and start wrecking their surroundings to relieve her stress. Of course, we can’t allow them to run loose in the real world as it would turn into a huge disaster. That is why closed space is created and the destruction only transpires within. Quite a rational method, don’t you think?”

Every time the shining blue giant waved an arm, a building would split in half and collapse. The giant would step forward, crushing what was left of the building. I could hear the dull sound of structures being crushed, but oddly enough, I couldn’t hear the footsteps of the giant.

“The laws of physics dictate that the legs of a humanoid of such proportions would be unable to support its own weight. The giant is behaving like it is weightless. Its ability to destroy buildings would suggest that it has mass but it would appear that it is not bound by logic. Mobilizing an army wouldn’t be enough to stop it.”

“So you just let it rampage around?”

“No. That is why I am here. Please watch.”

Koizumi pointed his finger at the giant. I squinted. A number of red dots that hadn’t been there before were circling around the creature. Compared to the blue giant, who could probably touch the clouds with its skyscraper-level height, the tiny spherical red lights looked like sesame seeds. I counted up to five of them, but they moved so fast that my eyes couldn’t keep up. The red dots, orbiting the giant-like satellites, looked like they were trying to obstruct its path.

“My colleagues. Like myself, they were granted power by Suzumiya. We are giant hunters.”

The specks of red light skillfully evaded the waving arms of the blue giant impassively wrecking the city. They then abruptly altered their course and charged at the giant’s body, which seemed like it was made of vapor. They easily penetrated it.

But the giant apparently paid no attention to the red spheres flying around its face. It ignored their attacks and, almost dutifully, swung its arm down in a karate chop to smash a department store.

Even when the numerous red lights charged together, the giant didn’t even flinch. The red lights were so fast that they resembled a cluster of lasers penetrating the giant’s body. From this far away, I had absolutely no idea how much damage it had taken. I didn’t see a single hole on its body.

“I must join them.”

Koizumi’s body began glowing red. This would be what you call an aura of visible light. Koizumi’s glowing body was eventually engulfed in a sphere of red light. What was before me was no longer human, just a big ball of light.

This is just ridiculous, man.

The sphere of red light softly floated up. It shook left and right two to three times as if waving, before it took off so fast there weren’t even any afterimages and flew straight for the giant.

Since the swarm of red lights Koizumi joined never stood still for a second, I couldn’t bring myself to count them, but I doubt their number reached double digits. And their valiant use of their bodies to attack merely served to carry them through and didn’t seem to have any actual effect. At least, that’s my opinion as an observer. But then, one of the red spheres approached the blue giant’s arm, attached itself near the elbow, and circled it once.

And with a whoosh, the giant’s arm was severed near its elbow. The arm, now without an owner, fell to the ground. At least that’s what I expected, but then the blue light sparkled like a mosaic. The arm began to thin and melted like a snowflake bathing in sunlight. Blue vaporous smoke began slowly dripping from the severed elbow. Was that the giant’s blood? The scene had definitely entered the realm of fantasy.

The red spheres switched from head-on to piecemeal attacks. They gathered around the giant the way fleas would swarm around a dog and began hacking away at the blue creature. Red lines slashed across the giant’s face as its head slid off. Its shoulders collapsed, and before long, its upper torso turned into some kind of weird-looking lump. The severed parts turned to mosaics before disappearing.

Since the blue light was standing in an area of deserted land without anything serving as cover, I was able to observe the entire sequence of events. Once the giant had lost over half of its body, it broke down. It disintegrated into specks smaller than dust. Only the piles of debris remained.

The red dots circling above waited until they were sure it was over before scattering in all directions. Over half of them immediately disappeared out of sight, but one came flying straight toward me. It made a soft landing on the rooftop, went from police-siren red to a shade more akin to a space heater, and began dimming. Once the glow had vanished, all that remained was Koizumi brushing his hair pompously with a smile on his face.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

He wasn’t even short of breath.

“There is one last sight for you to see.”

He pointed to the sky. I wondered what else there could possibly be as I looked up at the dark gray sky, and then I saw it.

There was a crack in the sky near where I had first seen the giant. It looked like a hatching chick trying to break out of its egg. The crack began extending in the shape of a spider web.

“Once the blue monster is defeated, the closed space is destroyed. It’s quite the spectacle.”

While Koizumi was finishing or not finishing his explanation, the cracks covered the entire world. It looked like someone had covered the sky with a huge metal sieve and forgotten about it. The spaces in between the cracks grew smaller and eventually became little more than black curves.

Crash!

There wasn’t an audible sound. But I could feel the sound of glass shattering inside my head. A spot of light appeared at the zenith and instantly began widening in a circle. I thought it was raining light, but I was mistaken. It was more like one of those retractable roofs on a dome stadium opening in mere seconds. Except with the entire stadium opening, not just the roof.

Piercing noise rang through my eardrums, and I reflexively covered my ears. But that was just a hallucination after having spent time in a silent world. It was the sound of the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

The world had regained its former state.

The crumbled skyscrapers, gray sky, and flying red lights were nowhere to be found. The road was covered with cars and people again. The familiar orange light of the sun shone between buildings and cast long shadows on all objects blessed by its warmth.

There was a gentle breeze.

“Do you understand now?” Koizumi asked once we were safely in the taxi, which, with unbelievable timing, had pulled up before us after we left the multipurpose building. The driver looked familiar.

“Nope,” I responded. I meant it.

“Thought you would say that,” came Koizumi’s cheerful response. “Those blue monsters—we call them Celestials—are, as I already mentioned, linked to Suzumiya’s emotional state. As are we in the Agency. Only when closed space is created, when Celestials are created, am I able to use my paranormal powers. And those powers can only be used within closed space. For instance, I currently have no power.”

I silently stared at the back of the driver’s head.

“It is unknown why we are the only ones with such powers, but I would assume that any person would have sufficed. It was like winning the lottery. The probability is extremely low, but someone is bound to win. They just happened to have called my number.

“An unfortunate tale,” Koizumi finished with an ironic smile on his face. I kept my mouth shut. I had no idea what I should say.

“We cannot leave the actions of the Celestials unchecked. For the greater the extent of destruction the Celestials wreak, the more closed space will expand. The space you just saw was one of the smaller ones. If we leave it alone, it will continue to expand, eventually covering all of Japan, or even the entire world. And in the end, that gray space will take the place of our world.”

I finally opened my mouth. “Why do you know this?”

“As I said, I just ended up with this knowledge. The same goes for everyone in the Agency. One day, we suddenly became aware of the fact that we possessed knowledge concerning Suzumiya, the effect she has on the world, and the strange powers we now possessed. As well as the result of leaving closed space untended. It’s only natural to do whatever you can once you’ve learned the consequences. For if we do not act, the world will surely be destroyed.

“Quite a quandary,” Koizumi sighed before falling silent.

We just stared at the roadside through the car windows for the rest of the ride to my house.

The car came to a stop and I got out.

“Please be mindful of any trends in Suzumiya’s behavior. Her emotional state has been stable for a while now, but recently, there have been signs of agitation. Today’s duties were the first in a long time.”

“Even if I’m mindful, what’s that going to accomplish?”

“Well, you never know. Personally, I would prefer to leave everything in your hands. There are those among us with complicated intentions.” Koizumi said all this with his body sticking out through the half-opened door. He then ducked his head back in the car before I could say anything. The door shut. I dumbly watched the car depart like some legendary ghost taxi. I then went into my house.