"Dataaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…wonderful dataaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…"
For the man known to all of his friends by the nickname "Kyon," tonight was going to be the weirdest night of his life.
Yes, even WEIRDER than the days he learned the truth of the other members of the Sekai o Ōi ni Moriageru Tame no Suzumiya Haruhi no Dan.
Especially said brigade's insanely-hyperactive leader, Suzumiya Haruhi.
"Wonderful dataaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…" a seemingly visibly drunk Nagato Yuki moaned out as she rested her chin on the small table in the middle of her normally-empty living room. "So much wonderful dataaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…"
Kyon sighed, and then he turned to gaze upon the only other man in the SOS Brigade, Koizumi Itsuki. "So what the hell's wrong with Nagato?" he asked.
The team's resident psychic took a deep breath. "I can't answer that, Kyon-kun," he stated. "My powers, for all their flexibility, can't detect anything emitting from Yuki-chan given that she herself is an artificial lifeform despite how human she is both in body and in behaviour." A sigh. "But whatever is happening…"
"Could it be Asakura-san?" the group's resident time-traveller, Asahina Mikuru, asked.
The men of the group hummed; Asakura Ryōko — like Nagato Yuki, she was a humanoid interface of an entity known as the Data Integration Thought Entity — had once tried to kill Kyon as a way of provoking Haruhi into openly using her reality-warping powers. While Yuki herself had pretty much dealt with Ryōko, there was the possibility that she could be restored to full function and darken their lives anew. "Well, if whatever is affecting Yuki-chan now can also affect Ryōko-san, if she came here…"
"Dataaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…"
Kyon turned quite pale on hearing that sweet voice from nearby. He and the others — save Yuki, who was still moaning like she had FAR too much to drink — slowly turned to see a familiar woman with long black hair and pale blue-grey eyes standing by the main door. As Ryōko seemed to stagger for a moment, Kyon — acting as if he had no reason to fear the very popular high school student/alien-created humanoid interface at all — bolted to his feet and came over to help the staggering Ryōko over to the table, sitting her down beside the dazed Yuki. "You okay?" he gently asked.
Ryōko blinked, and then she gazed in confusion at the only normal member of the SOS Brigade for a moment before she lightly smile. "The data, Kyon-san…" she breathed out as she leaned against him. "So much dataaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…"
"Is it Haruhi-san, Ryōko-chan?" Itsuki wondered.
A nod. "H-hai…she has awoken at last…"
The others save Yuki all paled on hearing that…
In the skies over Nishinomiya (northeast of Kōbe) …
"Damn…what the HELL happened?!"
The lone humanoid girl in the black jumpsuit with the multi-coloured wavy bands wrapped around her arms, legs and body now floating a kilometre over Nishinomiya Kita High glanced around, her more-than-normal eyesight picking up the various reality warps and intersection points between various pocket dimensions that hovered over her current place of education like layers of dark shrouds over a corpse. As her sharp mind recalled everything that had happened to her since she had been taken by a really nice guy named Moroboshi Ataru to a planet named Yiziba to become the current incarnation of the Weaver, Suzumiya Haruhi scowled. "Something made Ataru-kun forget everything he did for everyone he met over the years…and it made ME forget who I was! Damn!"
Taking a deep breath, the reality-warper — unlike Infinity (whose powers, despite their infinite range and capabilities, were focused on the here-and-now), the Weaver had the ability to change all aspects of Reality…including the very flow of Time Itself — allowed herself to reach out, her mind touching each of the small pocket-bubbles of alternate timelines, pocket dimensions and the like, allowing what had happened to phase back into what she thought of as the "main" dimension. Since those other places had counterparts to people who lived in the "main" dimension, she knew she had to make sure that there wouldn't be any conflict whenever something that didn't really chime with the "mainstream" timeline and reality was merged together with that of the many pocket dimensions that had been created by her own subconscious mind.
Noting the sheer level of the mess that she had accidentally created, the Weaver scowled. "I hope somebody's working on what the hell happened," she hissed…
That moment, aboard the Redet Glory over Tomobiki…
"AH!"
People jolted, and then turned to see a delighted smile cross Infinity's face. "What is it, Ayumu?" the Warlock asked as the native of Kansai looked out to the west.
The girl born Kasuga Ayumu gazed at the man known to the wizarding world of Britain as the "Boy-Who-Lived" (and other titles). "Haruhi-chan just woke up."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
And then…
"Oh, that is so PERFECT!"
Eyes locked on the Arbitrator. "What's so perfect, Nabiki-san?" Lum asked.
The woman born Tendō Nabiki gazed on the would-be wife of the man who had changed her life and the lives of so many other people. "Ever heard of the Weaver?"
The Oni warlord's daughter shook her head. "Should I…?" she began before her eyes widened as memories she had absorbed through the empathic bond she shared with Moroboshi Ataru came back. "You mean Haruhi-san? Suzumiya Haruhi?!" She then hummed before a gasp escaped her. "That's right…the Weaver has the power to tap into parallel dimensions, alternate timelines and all those sorts of phenomena!" She gazed up at the Arbitrator. "Are you saying use her to get rid of the cobalt bomb?"
"And something else," the middle Tendô daughter — the Gift Nabiki had received was a form of broadcast empathy that had, over the various incarnations of the Arbitrator, been focused on matters of a political nature, something that still had a place on a world where there was little in the way of an actual government save for the various support mechanisms to keep the Show going — then stated. "Lum-chan, how would your people look upon the idea of the Niphentaxians being TOTALLY CUT OFF from the surrounding Universe? Hell, how would the Niphentaxians themselves look upon something like that?!"
Lum blinked, and then she gaped. "Nabiki-san! That's PERFECT…!"
"No…you can't do that…"
Lum's head snapped over to glare at her slowly-recovering father. "And why not?" the young Oni teenager demanded. "For all those years since I actually SAVED that bastard's life from the Terrible Swamps — ESPECIALLY after they sent that bio-bomb to Vos to try to kill the Mikado — all I ever wanted was for all of those idiots to get out of my life and stop worshipping me like I was some sort of god! But NO!" she snarled out, which made Invader duck. "You always kept telling me we had to do everything we could to keep Ōgi on our side! And LOOK what they did?! They planted a COBALT BOMB here in Tomobiki, WHERE DARLING AND I WERE LIVING! How in the Maiden's Names am I supposed to accept something like THAT?! Why would the TERRANS accept it?!"
"Lum!" her father sobbed. While part of him agreed to what his daughter just said, his own sense of duty to his people had been drilled into him for years. He couldn't let go of that…even if it did make his precious little baby upset. "Don't you understand?! There are people who want this planet…!"
"Not really."
Invader stopped as he gazed on the Arbitrator. "You must be speaking of people like the Shi'ar, the Kree and the Skrull. Not to mention the Psions and the Thanagarians." A shrug twitched her shoulder. "Something you don't know, Captain: All those races ALSO look on Earth as a strategic location for whatever reason suits them. If any of them tried to conquer the planet, the others would launch an all-out war to keep it free. That probably factored into what happened to Ataru-kun before you people came into his life." A shake of the head. "People can be so BLIND at times…"
"Tell me about it," the Warlock stated.
"You think Miss Haruhi could get rid of that bomb?" the Sentinel asked.
"Sure she could, Dudley-kun!" Infinity stated. "I'll go talk to her."
And with a flash, she teleported off the Redet Glory…
…to appear over Nishinomiya. "Haruhi-chan!"
KLONK!
"Ow!" Infinity wailed after getting a big mallet smacked onto her head. "Haruhi-chan…?" she moaned out as she gazed on the other girl floating nearby.
"Ōsaka no baka!" the Weaver snapped. "Don't interrupt me!"
Moaning as she rubbed the place where a good-sized lump was now developing, Infinity looked at her fellow Kansai-born Yizibajohei…and then she paused as her own meta-senses picked up what the Weaver was busy trying to fix. "Wow! What a mess!" she exclaimed. "Don't tell me you did this when you were made to forget Ataru-kun?!"
"Unfortunately, yes! I'll have it all fixed up in a short bit, so don't interrupt me!" the Weaver said as she reached out with her powers — unlike Infinity and her Infinite Wave, the woman born Suzumiya Haruhi hadn't given her reality-warping gift a flashy title — to draw in energy from one pocket dimension to merge it into the "main" reality. "What the hell happened to Ataru-kun, by the way?"
"Oh, some really mean people in the Men in Black teamed up with some dork wizards to blank his memories of Negako-san and all of us so that he could be made to do a tag race with a girl from Uru," Infinity explained. "She ended up marrying him!"
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
And then…
"WHAT?!"
That shout nearly caused Nishinomiya to vanish in a flash of light!
"Data update…"
The non-artificial members of the SOS Brigade perked on hearing that calm declaration from Nagato Yuki. "Nagato, are you alright?" Kyon asked.
The lavender-haired girl with the golden-brown eyes behind reading glasses blinked, and then she looked up and off to her left. "Fascinating. Haruhi is Yizibajohei."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
And then…
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! YOU SAID THE FORBIDDEN WORD!"
That was a pale Mikuru, who had literally dived under the kotatsu to hide herself. As Yuki and a now-recovered Ryōko blinked in confusion, Kyon and Itsuki exchanged a confused look before they turned back to their host. "What is a Yizibajohei, Yuki-chan?" the empath then asked before jolting on hearing Mikuru scream again.
"Yizibajohei," Yuki answered, ignoring another shriek from Mikuru. "A demonym of the word 'Yiziba.'" Yet another scream by Mikuru, which made Yuki wave her hand as she placed a bubble of silence over the time-traveller. "That is the indigenous name of the planet that formed around what is known to the Data Overmind as the 'Seeker's Forge.' The place where the First Race created the mesonium power foci known more commonly by the term 'Power Jewel.' Such as the one located in British Columbia that, in the Earth common year 1892, was found by Deannette Antonia…"
"Raeburn!" A pause, and then, "Hey! How the hell did I forget something like THAT?!"
"Haruhi-san, I believe," Itsuki stated as he gazed in amusement at a wide-eyed Kyon. "No doubt, in her awakening to her abilities, whatever it was that made us forget the history of metahumans and other such beings on Earth was removed as well."
"Why?!" Kyon wondered.
"That will have to be investigated!"
Hearing that icy voice from a woman who normally talked in an emotionless monotone, both men turned to stare wide-eyed at their host. "Yuki-chan…" Itsuki gasped.
"You okay, Nagato?" Kyon asked.
A sigh. "No, Kyon-kun, I'm not 'okay!'" the bibliophile snapped before she paused, and then she sighed. "Please understand what those such as Ryōko and I are like. I once told you that Haruhi has the ability to create data, something that — at least to the knowledge of the Data Overmind as I then understood it — has never happened before. But when the data dump that Ryōko and I just experienced occurred, we just realised that there are many other entities in this universe which can create data. The fact that Ryōko and I were deliberately DENIED data to analyse and understand…!" She shuddered before closing her eyes. "It is akin to how humans would feel about people lying to them. Or keeping someone ignorant. To find out that since my initial activation, I missed out on SO MUCH…!" A shake of the head. "Someone did this. I sensed a name in the data dump: Moroboshi Ataru. Itsuki, do you know of this person?"
"Now that I can remember the name, yes," the empath stated. "Moroboshi Ataru. Son of Moroboshi Muchi and Yamaguchi Kinshō. The fifty-seventh — and reportedly the last — host of what has always been believed to be Earth's first true artificial intelligence, known either as the Saikō Jinseijutsu or Moroboshi Negako. He disappeared ten years ago shortly after his taking the Promise of Bunka Go-nen — the magical oath that made him swear to do anything to allow Negako-sama to live her own life — but he was reported to have appeared from time to time all over Earth."
"Including here in Nishinomiya."
Eyes locked on Ryōko. "What do you mean?" Kyon asked.
"Ataru-kun doesn't produce his own data like Haruhi-san does, Kyon-san," Ryōko explained. "But he does have a unique data signature those such as Yuki and I can sense immediately. There is a faint trace of it here in Nishinomiya. At a park close to the Suzumiya residence."
"I can sense it," Yuki added. "The incident occurred five years ago." She closed her eyes. "Haruhi was crying when Ataru came to her. He did not like the idea of a 'pretty girl' crying, so he gave her a Yizibajohei starflower. When she learned that such a flower didn't exist naturally on Earth, she agreed to travel with him to Yiziba. There, she encountered the Conservator and the Great Crystal of Power. There, she became the Weaver, one of two metahumans whose powers potentially rival that of Galactus himself, though they are geared more to create than to destroy."
A noticeable chill filled the room; now that they could remember all the news stories about the Devourer of Worlds that had often faced off with the Fantastic Four whenever he came to Earth, both Itsuki and Kyon were stunned at Yuki's revelation that their own friend and brigade boss possessed that level of power. "Whoa…" Kyon breathed out…and then he perked as something came to him. "Wait! The last time Galactus was here was about four years ago, right?! When a whole bunch of middle school girls in superhero costumes just swarmed the guy when he appeared over New York City!"
"And one of them — if I recall the incident correctly — looked like Haruhi-san would at that age!" Itsuki added as he stared at Kyon. "Oh, my heavens…!"
Silence fell as everyone considered that. "Damn!" Kyon then breathed out. "We're friends and schoolmates with the Teen That Saved Earth!" A shake of the head. "Go figure…!"
In the skies overhead…
"There we go! All fixed up!"
"Yeah, it looks a lot nicer now!" Infinity said as she gazed at a cleaner Nishinomiya metaphysically-wise. "Boy, Haruhi-chan! When you make a mess, you sure make a mess!"
A tendon twitched on the Weaver's forehead. "Are you TRYING to provoke a fight scene with me, Kasuga?!" she snarled as she glared at the other woman.
"Oooooooh! Meaningful dialogue!"
Hearing that, the Weaver jolted…as Infinity then giggled as she gave her fellow Kansai-born Yizibajohei a knowing look. Seeing that made the Weaver take a deep breath. "You know, Haruhi-chan, you really got to stop being so excited at times!" the Goddess Who Walked Amongst Men then stated before she blinked. "Ah! Oh, darn! I forgot! We need'cha over in Tomobiki! Some creeps from some planet put a cobalt bomb there and they're threatening all life on Earth! Chiyo-chan can't disarm it…"
"So you need me to deal with it. Alright, alright, already!" the Mistress of Time and Space breathed out. "Lay on, Macduff! And damned be him who first cries, 'Hold! Enough!'"
And both women then vanished as we now…
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(Posted Thu, 15 Mar 2012 01:38)
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