[scify]

STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT, I DON'T NEED TO GO TO CLASS.

Spoiler for September the Fifth, Day 4, Interlude 07: Irritation:

Irritation

"The room is even more of a mess than before."

"The food wrappers have increased in volume. There’s enough of them to paper the walls. (He had raided the cupboards downstairs.)"

"There appears to be an increase in the volume of garbage, but that’s because every drawer in the room had been emptied. (He had been searching for something.)"

"The pockets of every single piece of clothing (that had pockets) were turned inside out. (He had still been searching, but it’s not like a pocket could fit what he was looking for anyway.)"

"The stack of manga in the corner of the room had turned into a jumble of manga spreading out from the corner of the room, almost like a melting scoop of vanilla ice cream, with sprinkles, that had fallen onto the ground, and splattered little bits everywhere. (He had wondered if they had gotten lost under the manga somehow.)"

"The room had not been like this when he had left for school this morning. (That was also when he had forgotten them, which had turned out to be a big mistake.)"

"At school, he had begun the day by interrogating his classmates about Kyonko’s whereabouts. (He had bullied Taniguchi and Kunikida so much that they had to be sent to the nurse’s office, and he the principal’s.)"

"No luck. No luck at all."

"During his first break, he had rushed to Itsuko Koizumi’s classroom to interrogate her classmates. (They weren’t the least bit intimidated by him.)"

"No luck. No luck at all."

"During his next break, he went to Yuuki Nagato’s classroom a few doors down to interrogate his classmates. (Terrified of the angry and clearly upset intruder, they said they didn’t know where he was, but that it wasn’t uncommon for him to miss a class or two.)"

"No luck. No luck at all."

"During lunch break, he had gone to Mitsuuru Asahina’s classroom to beg his classmates to tell him where he had gone. (They didn’t know.)"

"No luck. No luck at all!"

"Even Tsuruya, who might have known something, wasn't there either. (No cause for more concern; his classmates had said that he had 'called in bored'.)"

"No luck, no luck, no luck, no luck! No luck at aaaaaallllll!"


"Haruki Suzumiya had gone home after that."

"He walked home in the rain, not having bothered to bring an umbrella. On some level, he blamed himself for what had happened."

"Being soaked was all he deserved."


"It was about this time that the rain began to get noticeably worse. Except that he didn’t notice."

"Haruki Suzumiya wished that he could break something. He didn’t, but something else did."

"Somewhere in the city, a building crumbled. A lot of people died."

"Acceptable. (But not for the bereaved.)"


"When Haruki Suzumiya got home, he took all the snack food and candy out the kitchen, and went up to his room without a word to anyone or anything."

"When he had flopped down on his bed, he was intending to enjoy an afternoon of solitude and melancholy."

"It was about this time he noticed they were missing."


"And that was how the room had gotten into that state. (It was also because he had used up some of his pent-up energy throwing manga at the walls.)"

"Haruki Suzumiya is now in the mood to clean it all up. This is because he is irritated, and has nothing else to do."

"Nothing else at all. Because his xxxxxxxxxx are missing."

"Haruhi Suzumiya loved his xxxxxxxxxx so very much. They had been a present for one of his birthdays, and they were about the only thing he owned that he really took care of."

"He’d use them whenever he felt down. Or whenever he felt happy. Or whenever he felt anything."

"But his xxxxxxxxxx were gone. He was positive that they were gone. The room wouldn’t be such a mess if he hadn’t searched that hard."

"Do you understand what it means to lose something that you love so much?"

"Do you understand?"

"Do you really understand?"

"Do you really, truly, understand?"

"Do you really, truly, completely understand?"

"Haruki Suzumiya considered his xxxxxxxxxx to be his soul, and now they were gone."

"His soul had been taken from him."

"So it may be easy to understand why Haruki Suzumiya is so irritated."

"Irritation breeds frustration breeds Closed Spaces full of angry red giants. That’s the way of things."

"It’s late evening. Haruki Suzumiya is punching his pillow and trying not to cry. (Men don’t cry. Not real men. They hold in their tears until they’re full to burst.)"

"What is this? Why? Why? Why did they all leave him behind? Why?"

"Are they just playing with him? Are they just hiding? Did they sneak in here and steal his xxxxxxxxxx too?"

"Maybe they’re just inside my closet, laughing at me?"

"He wrenched open the closet door. No luck at all. It was empty."

"He had searched there earlier anyway. Why he’d expect to find anything in there now is anyone’s guess."

"Haruki Suzumiya wasn’t crying. He really wasn’t. (Men don’t cry. They hold in their tears until they’re full to burst.)"

"Instead, he punched a hole in his wall at the injustice of it all."

"He wasn’t sad. He wasn’t angry. He was merely irritated. That’s all he was. (Men hold in their tears until they’re full to burst.)"

"Outside the window, out in the rain and wind, thunder was rumbling."

"The news had said that this storm was record-setting. Something Haruki Suzumiya, until yesterday, would have cared about. He would done something crazy, like drag the SOS Brigade out in the wet and cold, just to witness the storm of the century."

"Is that why they left?"

"I’m sorry."

"I’m sorry."

"I’m so sorry."

"I'm goddamn sorry!"

"Please, just come back... I want to see all of your faces again..."

"I want to apologize. (I’m holding the tears in until I’m full to burst.) So please, please."

"Come back."



"I’m not crying."