***
Cellphones have a tendency of ringing when you least expect them. This time was no different.
As I dragged my legs, heavy with exhaustion, up the path towards Nagato's apartment, I got a call from Haruki that stopped me in my tracks.
“Where in the world did you get to?! Did you get lured away by a demon's voice or something!? Mitsuuru-kun nearly wet himself when you ran out like that. You need to be more careful.”
“Yeah, um, sorry. I haven't gone that far. I'll be back soon.”
“Fine, but why did you leave in the first place?”
“...Oh, well, you know. I realized that I hadn't brought anything for Nagato, so I thought I'd go and buy a can of peaches or something.”
“What century do you live in? Make it basket of fruit. Well, no, there's no need to go that far, he's not in the hospital or anything. Just buy orange juice. One hundred and twenty percent pure orange juice.”
I'd like to hear where I'm going to find orange juice like that.
“Bah, just a hundred percent then. And you'd better be back within three minutes. Got it? Oveeeeer!”
He hung up on me without any further ado, but that didn't upset me. It was hardly the first time. Right now, Haruki's one-sided, to-the-point, and entirely self-centered way of doing thing was just what I needed to stabilize my mind a little. This is the way Haruki was meant to be. If he wasn't, he couldn't hope to serve as the leader of a group as outrageous as the SOS Brigade.
I headed down to the supermarket by the station, wandered through the aisles as though sleepwalking, purchased the bottle of 100% Californian Orange Juice that Haruki had specified, and walked in a rather sullen state back to Nagato's apartment complex. Reaching the door, I dialled through to Nagato's room, and Haruki picked up the intercom and let me in.
By the time I got back to the apartment, I'd overrun Haruki's time limit by two minutes or more, but our glorious leader made no comment and simply took the bottle of orange juice from me, passing it to Asahina-senpai.
“Put this in the fridge, Mitsuuru-kun.”
“Sure thing.”
Used to being ordered about by Haruki at this point, Asahina-senpai scuttled off in the direction of the kitchen. I wondered if he had actually come close to wetting himself earlier...
“How's Nagato?”
“He opened his eyes for a while just a bit ago, but he's gone back to sleep now. No going into the bedroom, got it? It's just creepy to stare at people when they're sleeping.”
There was an odd look on Haruki's face, but he didn't say anything for over four minutes or so before finally coming out with what was bothering him.
“Hasn't something like this happened before? Yuuki getting a fever, and all of us having to look after him. I thought it was just a hallucination, but for some reason it all seems so real...”
That would be because it was. The “shared hallucination” explanation was nothing but piece of bull that Itsuko pulled out of nowhere. Not that I could explain that to Haruki, so I kept my mouth shut.
Almost as though praying for something, Haruki went on.
“It's just like back then, right? Once we got back to Tsuruya-san's villa, Yuuki got better in no time. It was just a bad reaction to the cold up on the slopes. It's the beginning of spring now, and the turning points between seasons are the easiest times to get sick, so they say. This is probably just some kind of hay fever.”
It sounded as though he was trying to convince himself.
“Yeah, it won't be anything serious. Give him a few days, and he'll be as good as new.”
This is where I feel like interrupting with an “Oh yeah? Says who?” but unfortunately the answer would have to be 'me'. Sometimes I envy Itsuko with her gift of words. No matter how crazy a situation gets, she always find some clever excuse to wrap it up all nice and neatly. She's going to Hell for sure.
The bedroom door might as well have been covered in yellow-and-black “KEEP OUT” tape, so I headed straight for the living room.
Itsuko was sitting at the kotatsu, and as I came in she glanced over.
“Where did you go?”
“A place as horrible as your Closed Space.”
“So I have heard.”
She rested both elbows on the table.
“I received reports that there were sightings of both Suou Kuyoh and Kimidori-san.”
She gestured towards the cellphone on the floor beside her.
“Both were only for the briefest of instants, but from the look on your face, I can venture that it was more than a chance encounter.”
“Yeah.”
I'm not even sure if I know who's an ally and who's an enemy anymore. God knows what all those damn aliens are up to. Kuyou, Asakura, and Kimidori-san may all look human enough, but they're monsters, pure and simple. Sure, humans can come out with the craziest of stuff from time to time, but at least you can always work out the reasoning behind it.
Nobody knows what goes on in a monster's mind.
The stuff they do comes so far out of left-field, it feels like they're NPCs in some badly-scripted RPG, and it doesn't help that their stats are broken as all hell.
I sighed.
“Is there really nothing we can do, Itsuko?”
“Oh, I assure you I will do everything in my power. Who knows what I may find if I provoke Kyou Tachibana in the right manner, but, as things stand now, prospects don't seem high. I don't believe there is any connection between his faction and Nagato-san's current condition. Kyou Tachibana and his associates have chosen the wrong person to ally themselves with. Suoh Kuyoh is not someone who will respond to reason. It is ridiculous for humans to hope to understand an entity beyond the comprehension of even the Data Overmind.”
Then what about the time travellers? That dumb bitch Fujiwara didn't seem to be afraid of Kuyoh, at the very least. Ugh, I can't believe I'm thinking of turning to her for help. We don't even know what her agenda is either.
“Yes, it seems clear that her objective isn't just a simple case of observing Suzumiya-san. In fact, I could say that of both factions of time travellers, although I doubt our dear Asahina-san has been made aware of this particular fact.”
Itsuko's eyes shifted over to the side, settling upon Asahina-senpai, who was doing the dishes in the kitchen. Haruki was with him, as well, making himself as busy as ever, pouring the contents of the soup pot into containers, packing away leftover ingredients and so on.
“Right, I've decided. Until Yuuki gets better, I'm coming here every day to make dinner. I don't care what anyone else says, even if Yuuki himself tells me not to, I'm still coming.”
It was a rather loud pronouncement, considering that Haruki was only talkign to himself, but he sough approval from no one.
You really are the most self-centred person in the galaxy. I hope you never change.
***
After digging out a spare key from lord-knows-where, Haruki closed and locked the door to Nagato's apartment and slipped the key into his pocket like a fragment of gold dust. Having left Room 708 and the sleeping Nagato behind, we decided to go our separate ways.
“The SOS Brigade won't be meeting for a while, understand?”
Looking back up at the apartment we had just left, there was irritation in Haruki's eyes, visible even in the fading twilight.
“Until Yuuki comes back to school, nobody needs to go to the clubroom. We're coming here instead. To Yuuki's. Mitsuuru-kun, I'll be needing your help again tomorrow, too.”
“Yeah, of course!”
He nodded with a level of sincerity that surprised me. Does he care about Nagato after all?
It looked like Haruki and Asahina-senpai were fully determined to take up the task of looking after Nagato in the days to come. For once, there wasn't any excuses from Haruki about this being his duty as Brigade Chief. He knew this wasn't the time for something like that.
And I knew there was something that I could do, as well. No, something...
...That only I could do.
I had to get back home as fast as possible and get in contact with a certain individual.
The only one of our new group of acquaintances whose telephone number I actually knew.
“Sorry I took so long to respond, Kyon. I was in the middle of a cram school session, so I had turned my cellphone off. I got your message. Tomorrow evening, after school hours, correct? I don't have cram school tomorrow, so I suppose I can be at Kitaguchi Station by about half past four. Of course, I'll pass the message on to the other three as well. I'd be willing to bet that they'll all be happy to come. Actually, I think they may have been waiting for you to get into contact with me. Kyon, you seem rather worked up, but I'd suggest that you try to calm down before tomorrow afternoon. It might be that this reaction of yours is a part of whatever they're planning. Not that I'd know anything about it, you understand, just that that's what I would do, were I in their position. Well then, see you tomorrow. Good night.
- Your Friend”