I still don't know if Haruhi Suzumiya was the cause.
Granted, when it comes to a girl whose slightest offhand whim can alter reality like summer and winter uniforms, who has a time traveler, an alien, and an esper following her everywhere just to see what happens next, and whose mind runs on tracks nobody else can follow, blaming Haruhi Suzumiya is always the safest bet. The more inexplicable the event, the safer an event it is.
Since I first met Haruhi I've seen history rewritten. I've been trapped in a circle of time for hundreds of years (even if I don't remember it). I've confronted extinct animals- I've even helped mend the broken leg of a wolf that's been extinct for a hundred years. I've traveled backwards in time. I've been to parallel worlds. I've met other aliens, time travelers and espers. And all of it, to a greater or lesser degree, has been Haruhi's fault.
But this might not have been. The beings involved were so strange that I don't think Haruhi would have imagined them. I certainly don't believe Haruhi would have imagined what one of them did. And, as I have since been reminded, for all her frightening unconscious power Haruhi is far from the only powerful being in the universe. It is just possible that something sought out Haruhi, for the same reasons that Nagato and Asahina and Koizumi did- to see what would happen.
And if it hadn't put me and my world in terminal danger, I would have been just fine with that. As it was...
It was the Monday after Valentine's Day. I had fallen asleep the previous night trying again to make heads or tails of the essay Haruhi had included in the literature club newsletter. I don't know why I tried. When I first read it it was gobbledygook; it remained gobbledygook a month later; and it seemed inclined to remain gobbledygook until I grew old enough to reach Asahina's home time by the long way around.
That night I'd dreamed of both Asahinas, the timid Mikuru I saw every day in the literature club room and her grown-up future self in maid costumes, dancing around the charts and equations of Suzumiya's essay, blacking out portions with markers and chanting, "Classified information!" As lovely as both the Asahinas are, I would like to think I have better material for dreams about them than that.
And then I woke up because someone's hand was on my mouth. The hand was Mikuru Asahina's- the elder one.
At first I thought I was still in the same weird dream. I groaned and shut my eyes again. Then I felt the pressure on my face- light, gentle, but definitely a sensation a person doesn't get when they're asleep. I opened my eyes again, and the elder Asahina was still there, dressed normally, still holding her hand over my mouth.
"Good morning, Kyon," she said, with that voice that could melt anything.
I glanced at my alarm clock. It showed two minutes before time to wake up.
"I can't explain everything to you now," the elder Asahina said. "I can only stay for a few moments."
As much as I enjoyed the view, this was my bedroom, and the rest of my family would be waking up any moment. My mother was in the kitchen already beginning breakfast. My little sister, in particular, could barge in to wake me up without warning, as she often did. What would happen if any of them caught Asahina here?
"Listen to me," the future Asahina said. "Mikuru will not be coming to school for the next few days. You will need to cover for her with Suzumiya and anyone else that might take an interest. Will you do this for me?"
Of course I would. The question was whether I could. Haruhi had a way of not accepting the first answer that she received.
"Thank you. I'm sorry about this, but I can't tell you anything more than that. Classified information."
Now I was on ground I was all too familiar with. The problem with giving your past self information was that you couldn't actually change anything- or you didn't dare. Yuki Nagato called it "established information"- what has happened must happen. Knowing the future meant losing the freedom to change it. It seemed cruel to me, but since I'd been on both ends of that dilemma recently, I understood the logic. Barely.
Asahina removed her hand from my mouth and placed it alongside my head. "Be careful," she said quietly. "Things will be very dangerous for you. But remember: you have traveled through time. You will see things that other people overlook."
Then she bent her head down and kissed me on the forehead. "Keep your eyes open," she said, standing up. She stepped into my open closet and slid the door shut.
As the door clacked into place, my alarm clock went off.
I got out of bed and walked to the closet. I knew what I would see when I opened the door again- and sure enough, the closet was empty except for the ordinary things. No tall, devastatingly beautiful woman in warm clothes, for certain.
What on Earth was I about to get into?
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(Posted Fri, 19 Apr 2013 02:45)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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