The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (22 page)

YUKI.N> A high level of intelligence refers to data processing speed and accuracy. The intelligence of organic life forms has limited processing capabilities due to error and noise data from their physical bodies. As a result, once they reach a certain level, evolution stops.

So our physical bodies are the problem?

YUKI.N> The Data Overmind was created from data to begin with. It was believed that their data processing ability would increase infinitely until the universe burned up. But that was wrong. Just as the universe had its limits, evolution had its limits. At least, as long as they remain a discarnate entity of data.

And Suzumiya?

YUKI.N> Haruhi Suzumiya possessed the ability to create data from nothing. An ability the Data Overmind does not have. A human, a mere organic life form, is creating more data than it can process in its lifetime. If we could analyze this ability to create data, we could find a clue regarding autoevolution, or so we thought.

The cursor flickered. I could feel her hesitance before the words began racing again.

YUKI.N> We are counting on you.

Counting on me?

YUKI.N> We wish for you to return to this world. Haruhi Suzumiya is a vital observation subject. An important being that may never be born into this universe again. I also individually feel that I want you to return.

The letters were fading. The frail cursor slowly produced words.

YUKI.N> Another visit to the library would

The monitor blacked out. Increasing the brightness didn’t help. Nagato’s final typed words were brief.

YUKI.N> sleeping beauty

The loud rattling of the hard drive scanning almost made me jump up. The access light blinked and the monitor displayed the familiar OS screen. The whirring of the computer fan was the only sound in this world.

“What are you telling me to do, Nagato? Koizumi?”

I let out a deep sigh and casually, really, just casually looked out the window.

The window frame was covered in blue light.

A giant of light stood in the courtyard. Up close, it looked like a blue wall.

Haruhi jumped into the room.

“Kyon! Something’s here!”

Haruhi almost ran into me as I stood at the window before coming to a halt next to me.

“What is that? It sure is big. A monster? It isn’t a mirage, right?”

She sounded excited. Like her earlier gloom had never happened. Her eyes shone without a hint of anxiety.

“Maybe it’s an alien. Or the revival of some super weapon developed by an ancient race! Is that what’s keeping us from leaving the school?”

The blue wall stirred. My mind flashed back to the scene of skyscrapers being trampled down. I immediately grabbed Haruhi’s hand and ran out of the club room.

“Wha—H-Hey! What are you doing?”

We practically fell into the hallway. At the same time, a large roar vibrated through the air. I pushed Haruhi to the floor and covered her with my body. The clubhouse shook violently. I could hear the sounds of hard, heavy objects crashing into the floor down the hallway. Based on the volume of sound, the giant apparently hadn’t targeted the clubhouse with its attack. It was probably the building across the way.

I grabbed Haruhi’s hand and pulled her up as she sputtered. I then took off running. Oddly enough, Haruhi followed without complaint.

Is it my palm that’s sweating? Or is it Haruhi’s?

The taste of dust in the decrepit clubhouse was gone. As I dashed as fast as I could to the stairs, I heard a second crashing sound.

We raced down the stairs. I could feel Haruhi’s body heat through her hand. We cut across the courtyard and headed down the slope to the track. Upon first glance, Haruhi’s face next to me looked, though I may be mistaken, somewhat happy. Like a kid on Christmas morning finding all the presents she’d wanted next to her bed.

We kept running to put some distance between us and the building. When I looked up, I became truly aware of how big the giant was. The one in the place Koizumi took me to had been about as big as a skyscraper.

The giant raised its arm and smashed its fist into the school building. The first hit had already split open the cheap four-story structure, so it collapsed rather readily. Debris flew in all directions, causing deafening noise.

We stopped after advancing to the center of the two-hundred-meter track. A gigantic blue humanoid rose against the gloomy monotone canvas like a Hollywood special effect.

I was thinking about how this was what Haruhi should be taking pictures of for our Web site. She didn’t need to put up pictures of the Computer Research Society president groping Asahina, much less pictures of her in costumes. This scene is what she should put on the Web site.

As I was thinking about that, the sound of Haruhi rapidly speaking reached my ear.

“Do you think it’ll attack us? It’s just a hunch, but I don’t think it’s anything evil.”

“Dunno.”

As I responded, I was thinking to myself about what Koizumi explained when he first took me into closed space. If we left the destructive actions of the Celestials unchecked, the world would eventually be replaced. As in this gray world would take the place of the former world. And then…

What would happen next?

According to Koizumi, a new world was apparently being created by Haruhi. Would the Asahina and Nagato I know be in it? Or would it be a world where abnormal became normal, where these Celestials walked freely and aliens, time travelers, and espers were everywhere?

If that were to happen, what would my role be in that world?

There was no point in thinking about it, since I didn’t have a clue. I didn’t know what Haruhi was thinking. I’m no master at reading other people’s minds. I have no skills at all.

As I stood deep in thought, Haruhi’s cheerful voice sounded near my ear.

“What is all this? This weird world and that giant.”

It looks like you made them. Both this place and that thing. Anyway, what I want to ask is why I’ve been dragged into this. Adam and Eve, you say? That’s just dumb. I won’t accept such a clichéd turn of events. I refuse to.

“Don’t you want to go back to our old world?” I asked, sounding like I was reading off a script.

“Huh?”

Haruhi’s shining eyes seemed to dim. I turned to her white face juxtaposed against the gray backdrop.

“We can’t stay in this place for the rest of our lives. It doesn’t look like there’s a place to eat when we get hungry. There probably aren’t any stores open. And if that invisible wall extends around this entire place, we won’t be able to get out. We’ll surely starve to death.”

“Hmm, you know. It’s kind of strange, but I’m not really concerned about any of that. I just get the feeling it’ll work itself out. I know something’s wrong, but I just, I don’t know… I’m having fun right now.”

“What about the SOS Brigade? It’s the club you made. You’re just gonna ditch it?”

“That doesn’t matter anymore. After all, I’m really enjoying myself right now. There’s no need to go look for anything mysterious anymore.”

“I want to go back.”

The giant suspended its dismantling of the school.

“I discovered something after being thrown into this situation. I may complain all the time, but I actually liked how my life was. Including that idiot Taniguchi and Kunikida. Koizumi, Nagato, and Asahina. You can even include the vanished Asakura.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I want to see them again. I feel like I still have so many things to tell them.”

Haruhi’s head lowered a bit. “I’m sure we’ll see them. This world won’t be covered in darkness forever. The sun will rise tomorrow. I can tell.”

“That’s not what I mean. I don’t mean in this world. I want to see the old them in the old world.”

“I don’t get it.”

Haruhi made a pouting face and looked up at me. She had this strange mixed look of hatred and sorrow like some kid who had her present taken away.

“Weren’t you fed up with that boring world? It was just an ordinary world where nothing special ever happened. Didn’t you want something more interesting to happen?”

“I did indeed.”

The giant began walking. It kicked down the wreckage of the collapsed school building and advanced into the courtyard. It karate-chopped the passageway between buildings and punched the clubhouse. Our school was being blown apart. And our club room.

I looked over Haruhi’s head to see the base of more blue walls standing in different positions from the giant. One, two, three… I stopped counting once I got to five.

The giants, unhindered by the red balls of light, began destroying the gray world as they pleased. It must have been my twisted mind telling me they were probably having a good time doing this. Every time they waved their limbs, the landscape vanished, like a piece of space being shaved off.

Half the school was gone without a trace.

I was unable to sense if the closed space was expanding. Plus I really didn’t know anything about the whole “expanding until this space becomes the new reality” thing. I just knew that was how it was. Right then, if a drunk middle-aged guy sitting next to me on the train were to say, “Don’t tell anyone, but I’m actually an alien,” I probably would have believed him. I already had three times the amount of experience I’d had a month ago.

What can I do? It would have been impossible a month ago, but now, I could do it. I’d already received a few hints.

I resolved myself and spoke.

“Haruhi, I’ve been through some really fantastic experiences the past few days. You probably don’t know, but there are actually a bunch of extraordinary people interested in you. You could even say that the world is revolving around you. These people, they consider you to be a unique girl and are acting accordingly. You may not have realized, but the world was definitely moving in an interesting direction.”

I wanted to grab Haruhi’s shoulders when I realized I was still holding her hand. Haruhi, however, had a look on her face like she thought I had mad cow disease.

Unconsciously, Haruhi avoided my eyes and watched a giant take apart the school like it was completely natural.

As I looked at her from the side, I become newly aware of the softness of the curves of her face. Nagato said she was the “potential for evolution.” According to Asahina, she was a “time warp.” Koizumi treated her as “God.” Then what about me? What did “Haruhi Suzumiya” mean to me?

Haruhi was Haruhi and nobody else. I wasn’t going to use such overblown language to dodge the question. But I didn’t happen to have a decisive answer. Isn’t that natural? If someone points to the classmate sitting behind you and asks, “What is she to you?” how are you supposed to respond?… No, sorry. Guess that’s still dodging the question. Haruhi wasn’t just a classmate to me. Of course, she also wasn’t the “potential for evolution” or a “time warp,” much less “God.” She couldn’t possibly be.

The giant turned toward the track. It has no face or eyes, yet I could feel it looking at us. It began walking. Each step carried it meters. Despite its sluggish movements, the creature’s approaching figure loomed before us.

Think. What did Asahina say? Her warning. And Nagato’s last message. Snow White. Sleeping Beauty. Even I should know what Sleeping Beauty was referring to. What do the two have in common? The answer became clear once I factored in our current situation. So clichéd. Way too clichéd, Asahina. And Nagato. I wouldn’t accept this stupid turn of events. No way in hell.

Or so my rational thought insisted. Nagato might call it “noise.” Humans are not rational creatures. I released Haruhi’s hand, grabbed the shoulders of her sailor uniform, and turned her toward me.

“What is it?”

“Actually, ponytails turn me on.”

“What?”

“That ponytail you used to wear looked so good it was criminal.”

“Are you an idiot?”

Her black eyes appeared to reject me. As Haruhi raised her voice in protest, I forced my lips onto hers. It’s expected to close your eyes in such situations so I did, which is why I didn’t see the expression on Haruhi’s face. Maybe her eyes were wide open in shock. Maybe her eyes were closed like mine. Maybe she had her arm raised over her head about to smack me. I have no way of knowing. But I wouldn’t have noticed being smacked right then. I’m willing to bet that anyone in this situation with Haruhi would feel the same way. I strengthened my grip on her shoulders. I didn’t want to let go just yet.

I could hear roaring sounds in the distance. The giants were probably punching and kicking the school again. But in the next second, a sense of weightlessness threw me off balance. I fell, experiencing an excruciating impact on my left side. My kiss shouldn’t have warranted a judo throw. But then I opened my eyes and froze upon seeing a familiar ceiling.

I was in a room. My room. I looked to the side to find my bed and discovered that I had fallen onto the floor. Naturally, I was wearing my sweats. Half of my disheveled blanket had fallen off the bed. My arm was behind my back and my mouth was wide open like an idiot’s.

It took a while before I regained my senses.

I stood up half-conscious and pulled open the curtains to look outside. I could see a few stars and street lights shining here and there. Once I saw a flickering light on in one of the houses, I began walking in circles in my room.

A dream? Was it all a dream?

Stuck in a world all alone with a girl I know and I end up kissing her. Freud would have a field day with this. Did I really have a dream that’s such an easy read?

Gah, I want to hang myself this very second!

I should probably be grateful that Japan eliminated the right to bear arms. If an automatic handgun had been within my reach, I would have popped myself in the head without hesitation. If it had been Asahina, I could have picked at my honest desires within the dream. But it was Haruhi, of all people. What the hell was my subconscious thinking about?

I sat wearily on my bed and threw my arms over my head. If it was a dream, it was the most realistic one I’d ever had. My right hand was covered in sweat and I could still feel a warm sensation on my lips.