Chapter Five FINALE - WHO-THE-HELL-DO-YOU-THINK-WE-AREEEEEEE-EDITJOB GET?!?!
Spoiler for tl;dr:
"Your programs were too basic." Nagato said expressionlessly. "The data lockdown on the ceiling was incomplete. It did not withstand an intensive assault."
"You wish to interfere?"
Asakura still sounded perfectly calm. "Once I slaughter this girl, Suzumiya Haruki is bound to have sort of reaction. Only then can we obtain more information."
"You are my backup." Nagato said in a mantra-like tone, still holding the katana blade.. "Insubordination is forbidden. You must obey my commands."
"Oh? And what if I refuse?"
"I will disconnect your data interface."
Asakura smiled gently. "Would you like to try, Nagato-san? I have the advantage here. This classroom is under my data jurisdiction."
Nagato stiffened for a second. "Processing application for data interface disconnection-"
"-What?!"
The second Asakura heard that phrase, he wrenched his katana out of Nagato's grasp and leaped backwards around five meters away. Confronted with this kind of scene, I couldn't help but realize it - these two really aren't human!
Asakura landed gracefully in the distance and rose to his feet, still smiling. As he strolled forwards towards as once more, the space around us began to distort - that's the only way I could describe it. The desks, the ceiling, the floor - everything began to shake vigorously and (though I couldn't see it clearly) began to take on the appearance of liquid metal.
"Well then," Asakura said, "Let's see how you handle this!"
The liquid metal rose, formed into the shapes of spears, and suddenly hurled themselves at us from every direction with lightning-fast speed. But Nagato blurred before my eyes and suddenly the spears were all embedding themselves by my feet or around the room. Did he just - did he just deflect them all?
As the dust cleared, Asakura charged forwards, katana at the ready and gentle smile still present. Panicking, I tried to turn and run, but Nagato leaned back and grabbed my arm.
"Do not attempt to move away."
One of his hands was suddenly behind my head as he shoved me downwards whilst dodging a few swings of Asakura's katana. "Aaaah!" I screamed, as something flew over my head and smashed the blackboard to pieces.
Nagato glanced upwards, and icicles instantly sprouted from the ceilings and crashed down towards Asakura, who dodged away at a speed that was incredibly difficult to follow with the naked eye. This is insane! A second later, a forest of stalagtites exploded upwards from the ground.
"This area of space belongs to me." announced Asakura calmly. "There is no way for you to prevail." He and Nagato stood a few meters apart, facing each other, while I could only kneel on the ground trembling, afraid to stand, my hopes scattered to the winds.
Nagato was standing in front of me, his legs slightly spread, and it was only now that I noticed that he had written his name on his indoor shoes. As if chanting a prayer, Nagato mumbled something quickly.
SELECT serial_code
FROM database
WHERE code='data'
ORDER BY aggressive_combat_data
HAVING terminate_mode
"Target name: Asakura Ryou, hostile intent confirmed. Beginning disconnection of target's organic information interface."
Normal physics must no longer apply in this classroom - everything's turned into crazy geometric shapes, twisting and turning before my eyes! It's like a theme park's house of horrors, illusions and stomach-churning dimensions - I'm getting dizzy!
"You will cease functionality before I do. We'll see how long you can last protecting that pathetic thing." said Asakura quite casually, his voice seemingly coming from everywhere at once. "Take this."
Where is he? I can't locate where his voice is coming from, in this blinding whirlwind of light and colour!
Whoosh... went the sound of something slicing through the air. At that, Nagato suddenly spun, grabbed me by the shoulders and threw me bodily aside.
"H-hey! What are you-"
Before I could finish, I heard the distinctive sound of metal meeting flesh.
Nagato stood above me, impaled straight through the chest by Asakura's katana.
I guessed... that Asakura had thrown his katana at me to try and catch Nagato off-guard and kill me? But Nagato had managed to throw me out of harm's way, yet had been unable to avoid the sword and had thus gotten 3 feet of steel straight through the chest.
Oh, no...
Nagato's glasses fell from his face and tinkled slightly as they hit the ground.
"N-NAGATO!" I screamed, eyes widening in horror. No, you idiot, what did you-
"I told you not to move." Nagato said softly, looking at the sword sticking out of his ribcage. A pool of blood was slowly beginning to form beneath his feet. "Do not worry for my sake; I am fine."
H-how exactly does being impaled make you fine?!?
Without flinching, Nagato pulled the katana out of his body and dropped it on the ground. It fell the ground with a slightly wooden noise as it instantly transformed back into a shinai. Is that what that thing really was?
"I can't see you defending that human very well in your damaged state," announced Asakura calmly from somewhere in the room, "but it would be unwise to leave you still functional. Goodbye, Nagato-san."
On the other side of what had once been the room, Asakura's silhouette began to materialize from the twisted lightshow. I could see his serene smile as he slowly folded his arms over his chest - and giant, black tentacles, tipped with spikes, sprouted violently from his back.
"Now, die."
Asakura's tentacles extended, wriggling like worms, and shot in on Nagato from every direction. Unable to move, his slim figure shook violently - and the next second, my face was splattered with blood.
One tentacle clawed into Nagato's right abdomen, another into the left side of his chest, another through his throat, through his arms, his legs… too many to count. Blood spattered from Nagato's mouth, his wounds, and down along his legs, pooling beneath his legs.
"It's over." Nagato said quietly, reaching one hand out slowly and clutching a spike. Nothing happened.
"What's over?" Asakura asked, sounding amused. "The three years of your short life?"
"No." said a seriously wounded Nagato, as though nothing had happened to him. "Commencing data interface disconnection."
Almost instantly, everything in the classroom began to glow brightly, and then crystallize and dissolve, turning into sand.
"H-how... how can thi-?" Asakura's face shifted into an expression of shock momentarily, but quickly reverted to his normal serene disposition. "Ah, no, I see. Well, well... you really are amazing, you know that?"
"It took me some time to penetrate the firewall program," Nagato said calmly as the tentacles protruding from his body disintegrated piece by piece. "But now, everything ends."
"You had already planted destructive factors around the room long before you entered, correct? No wonder you seemed to be operating at reduced capabilities. You had already used much of your runtime beforehand..." Asakura said, a note of despondency audible beneath his apparently-cheerful voice. He looked at his arms as they began to crumble, and sighed.
"Such a pity. I suppose I am just the backup, after all. And I thought this would finally be a chance to break free of this stagnation..."
Asakura turned to me with his pearly-white smile.
"Well, I lost! I guess you get to live after all. You'd better be careful, though. I’m not the only one with a dissenting opinion. Just like with humans, eh? The good, and the bad... And who knows, even those who control Nagato-san might change their thinking and decide to kill you instead."
He was by now covered from chest to toe by the glowing, crystalline substance. "Well, even so. I wish you and Suzumiya-san the best of luck. Goodbye!"
As the crystals reached his face, Asakura gave me that eerily calm, serene smile of his, then he was gone. In rain of crystallized sand, the high-school student, class president, and kendo-club member known as Asakura Ryou vanished forever from the face of this earth.
There was a shadow over my head, suddenly, as Nagato Yuuki collapsed. I tried desperately to catch him, but he was too heavy, so he ended up on top of me on the floor.
"N-N-Nagato! Hang in there! I'll call the ambulance or something!"
"There is no need."
Nagato stared into my eyes, blood still sluggishly flowing from his chest.
"Physical damage is of no consequence. Current priority is the restoration of this sub-space into its original state."
The sand crystals stopped floating down, as Nagato stiffened once again. "Removing impure substances. Reconstructing classroom." he announced, his eyes briefly flashing.
As he finished speaking, the familiar form of the 1-5 classroom reappeared before my eyes. It was like a tape rewinding; everything in the room forming out of the crystal sand which threw itself back into shape and solidified. The blackboard, the teacher's desk, the remaining chairs and desks - I couldn't describe it with mere words. If I had watched a video of it, I would have thought it was state-of-the-art CGI instead.
Windows reappeared from the walls, their half-stained glass intact; the sunset flooded in, bathing Nagato and myself in an orange-red light. All the blood that had splattered onto my face had completely disappeared.
Amazing... the only way I could possible describe it was, magical.
"Um... thanks. Are y-you really okay?"
Nagato, my saviour, was still collapsed on top of me. I thought he'd be bleeding all over me with his open wounds and the damage to his uniform, but they'd vanished along with the blood on me.
"Processing power has been converted into data operation, therefore, the linking interface has been temporarily reversed." he muttered.
"Uh, you want some help up?" Not that I'm in a position to give any, but...
"There is no need." Nagato said, moving his hands and attempting to rise. "I-"
He stopped, suddenly, moving one hand to his face. "My glasses. I forgot to regenerate them."
"...Um, uh, actually, I think you look cooler without them... glasses guys aren't really my type..."
"Pardon?"
"Uh, nothing."
"I... see."
Now's not the time to be saying stupid things like that! If I could have gotten out from underneath Nagato, I would probably have run out of the classroom in utter embarrassment.
"Excuse me!"
The classroom door suddenly shot open.
"I forgot~ I forgot my stuff~" hummed Taniguchi absentmindedly as she wandered into the classroom, fiddling with her cameraphone.
She probably hadn't been expecting anybody to be in the classroom, so when she noticed Nagato sprawled on top of me on the floor, she stood dumbfounded. There was a slight 'click' as she stared at us, and I realized that she had probably accidentally hit the 'record' button in shock.
With Nagato on top of me, and my hair still down, it’s pretty easy to see what conclusion she'd immediately come to.
"I-I'm so sorry-!" she said suddenly, turning bright red and looking flustered, and turned and fled the classroom. "No, Taniguchi - it's not what you-!" I called after her, but she was already too far away.
"An interesting person." Nagato said.
I sighed heavily. "What should we do now?"
"Leave it to me." Nagato said, his eyes still looking down at me.
"Data manipulation is my specialty. I shall let everybody think that Asakura Ryou has been transferred out."
That wasn’t what I was talking about, but… data manipulation? Is that how he does it?
I've just experienced an incredible event. This is no longer an issue of whether I believe in all the stuff Nagato told me the other day - what just happened made me realize how serious this really is. I thought I was going to die! If Nagato hadn't shown up to save me, I would've been killed by Asakura. And the experiences of the classroom distorting, Asakura's deadly spikes, and Nagato eliminating him without a single sign of emotion have all been etched permanently into my memory.
Thank you, Nagato-san.
In a way, though, doesn't this make me a participant in this Mysterious event? Like I said earlier, I had always wanted to be a bystander that would just get drawn into events, a sidekick or something. But it's looking more and more like I'm the main character! I had always wished to be a character in some sort of story involving aliens, but now that I actually was one, well... it really put everything into perspective.
This really isn’t what I had been hoping for…
What I really want is to be the sort of side character that cheerfully provides helpful advice whenever other people are facing their difficulties. I didn’t want my own classmates to go crazy and target me! I have a lot of respect for my own life, thank you very much!
My mind wandered aimlessly as I lay back on the floor of the orange-red classroom. I had forgotten about Nagato, who was still above me, staring down with his usual expressionless face.
H-Hey! Wait a minute! If you're done regenerating, get off me!
------
The following day, Asakura Ryou disappeared from Class 1-5. And I was the only one who had seen it coming.
“Ehh, I guess it has something to do with Asakura-kun's mother's work, that's why he had to transfer out all of a sudden." shrugged Okabe-sensei, one hand behind her head. "Frankly, all the teachers were shocked as well when they heard the news this morning. They'd already flown off yesterday because they had to leave the country so fast."
When Okabe-sensei announced this cover story, most of the girls exclaimed in shock and horror, "What? Why!?", while the guys started muttering amongst themselves. Even Okabe-sensei looked confused. And, of course, the person sitting behind me couldn’t keep his mouth shut.
Boink! He rapped the top of my head lightly. Haruki, if you touch me again…
"Kyon, this HAS to be a Mysterious Event!" Haruki's eyes shone brightly. I could almost see the vigour flow back into him.
What should I do? Should I tell him the truth?
"Actually, Haruki, Asakura-kun was created by an alien lifeform known as the Integrated Data Sentient Entity. Nagato-kun was his superior, but for some reason their relationship broke down, and in the end Asakura ended up trying to kill me. As to why it involves me, it’s all your fault. However, Asakura-kun got turned into a pile of sand by Nagato-kun and disappeared, so it’s all better now.’
Hell no. I'd be carted off to the funny farm if I said something like that. I'll just pretend that everything that happened yesterday was just a horrible, horrible nightmare and leave it at that..
"First my Mysterious Transfer Student shows up, then the class president transfers out mysteriously. There’s something going on here, I know it!”
Oh, should I commend you on your brilliant instincts?
"Maybe his mom got a transfer?" I muttered, still exhausted from yesterday.
"Bah! I'm not buying such a lame excuse."
"Believe it or not, that's the number one reason for having to transfer schools."
"Isn’t it strange, though? It was only one day between them receiving the job transfer notification and them moving out. Just what kind of work is his mom doing, anyway?"
"Maybe his parents simply didn’t tell him beforehand…"
"Impossible! It requires further investigation."
I felt vaguely tempted to tell him that the job transfer was merely an excuse and they had left the country to escape from a massive mountain of debt, but I decided not to. Because a) I was talking to Haruki, would would probably take that seriously and invent some crazy sprawling story involving the mafia and the yakuza and treat it like fact, and b) I was the only one who knew the real story.
"As Supremely Manly Commander of the SOS Brigade, I cannot leave such a Mysterious Event uninvestigated!"
Just…. stop, please.
“By the way, what’s with your hair?”
“Don’t ask.”
Haruki looked offended at my response, but it didn’t matter. I couldn’t find any hair ties when I looked this morning, so I figured I might as well just come to school without a ponytail. Besides, after what happened yesterday, I really have to re-evaluate how I view my life. Does this new look accurately depict what I’m feeling right now?
Having witnessed all this supernatural stuff firsthand, and trying to tell myself that it never happened, I had to pick one of the following choices: I was either hallucinating; or something was wrong with my brain; or the world is strange enough already; or I'd had a very long dream.
There’s no way I could admit the world is some sort of virtual reality.
Aggh! 15 is too early to face a life-changing crisis!
Why does a first year high school girl like me have to deal with such philosophical questions like whether the world exists or not? Those aren't things I should be thinking about! Please, stop adding to my troubles!
Right now, I have all sorts of other problems to deal with!
I did about half of it. Everything from Taniguchi onwards still needs to be discussed imho.
Halfway through the fight scene editjob. I'm giving advance warning that I don't like the Taniguchi snapping pics thing - if she did that, she would be a really shitty friend. A really, really shitty friend. Libby or not.
I dunno, I never conceived it as an innately bitchy thing to do. Aebliss described how I was envisioning it a number of posts back. She sees something that shocks her, takes out the camera on instinct, and once she realizes what she's looking at she runs off. Now, if she goes off and uploads them to the internet or something after, she is a bad friend. But Kyonko will ask her to keep it quiet, and to send the pics to her and delete any copies, and as long as she complies (which she will, because she IS Kyonko's friend) I don't see the problem. Even the way it's written, with Taniguchi laughing a bit as she runs off...as long as she hands them over and keeps quiet after, she comes off alright in my mind. It's Kyonko's mistake later on that gets them out in the open, not malice on the part of Taniguchi.
Aebliss described how I was envisioning it a number of posts back. She sees something that shocks her, takes out the camera on instinct, and once she realizes what she's looking at she runs off.
I dunno, I never conceived it as an innately bitchy thing to do. Aebliss described how I was envisioning it a number of posts back. She sees something that shocks her, takes out the camera on instinct, and once she realizes what she's looking at she runs off. Now, if she goes off and uploads them to the internet or something after, she is a bad friend. But Kyonko will ask her to keep it quiet, and to send the pics to her and delete any copies, and as long as she complies (which she will, because she IS Kyonko's friend) I don't see the problem. Even the way it's written, with Taniguchi laughing a bit as she runs off...as long as she hands them over and keeps quiet after, she comes off alright in my mind. It's Kyonko's mistake later on that gets them out in the open, not malice on the part of Taniguchi.
I don't believe you can instinctively take several pictures with your cameraphone.
Chapter Five FINALE - WHO-THE-HELL-DO-YOU-THINK-WE-AREEEEEEE-EDITJOB GET?!?!
Spoiler for tl;dr:
"Your problems were too basic." Nagato said expressionlessly. "The data lockdown on the ceiling was incomplete. It did not withstand an intensive assault."
"You wish to interfere?"
Asakura still sounded perfectly calm. "Once I slaughter this girl, Suzumiya Haruki is bound to have sort of reaction. Only then can we obtain more information."
"You are my backup." Nagato said in a mantra-like tone, still holding the katana blade between two fingers. "Insubordination is forbidden. You must obey my commands."
"Oh? And what if I refuse?"
"I will disconnect your data interface."
Asakura smiled gently. "Would you like to try, Nagato-san? (I might replace this with -kun, but I'm still unsure. - Ed) I have the advantage here. This classroom is under my data jurisdiction."
Nagato stiffened for a second. "Processing application for data interface disconnection-"
"What?!"
The second Asakura heard that phrase, he wrenched his katana out of Nagato's grasp and leaped backwards around five meters away. Confronted with this kind of scene, I couldn't help but realize it - these two really aren't human!
Asakura landed gracefully in the distance and rose back to his feet, still smiling. As he strolled forwards towards as once more, the space around us began to distort - that's the only way I could describe it. The desks, the ceiling, the floor - everything began to shake vigorously and (though I couldn't see it clearly) began to take on the appearance of liquid metal.
"Well then," Asakura said, "Let's see how you handle this!"
The liquid metal rose, formed into the shapes of spears, and suddenly hurled themselves at us from every direction with lightning-fast speed. But Nagato blurred before my eyes and suddenly the spears were all embedding themselves by my feet or around the room. Did he just - did he just block them all?
As the dust cleared, Asakura charged forwards, katana at the ready. Panicking, I tried to turn and run, but Nagato leaned backwards and grabbed my arm.
"Do not attempt to move away."
One of his hands was suddenly behind my head as he shoved me downwards whilst dodging a few swings of Asakura's katana. "Aaaah!" I screamed, as something flew over my head and smashed the blackboard to pieces.
Nagato glanced upwards, and icicles instantly sprouted from the ceilings and crashed down towards Asakura, who dodged away at a speed that was incredibly difficult to follow with the naked eye. This is insane! A second later, a forest of stalagtites exploded upwards from the ground.
"This area of space belongs to me." announced Asakura calmly. "There is no way for you to prevail." He and Nagato stood a few meters apart, facing each other, while I could only kneel on the ground shaking, afraid to stand, my hopes scattered to the winds.
Nagato was standing slightly in front of me, his legs slightly spread, and it was only now that I noticed that he had even written his name on his indoor shoes. As if chanting a prayer, Nagato mumbled something quickly.
SELECT serial_code
FROM database
WHERE code='data'
ORDER BY aggressive_combat_data
HAVING terminate_mode
"Target name: Asakura Ryou, hostile intent confirmed. Beginning disconnection of target's organic information interface."
Normal physics must no longer apply in this classroom - everything's turned into crazy geometric shapes, twisting and turning before my eyes! It's like a theme park's house of horrors, illusions and stomach-churning dimensions - I'm getting dizzy!
"You will cease functionality before I do. We'll see how long you can last protecting that pathetic thing." said Asakura quite casually, his voice seemingly coming from everwhere at once. "Take this."
Where is he? I can't locate where his voice is coming from, in this blinding whirlwind of light and colour!
Whoosh... went the sound of something slicing through the air. At that, Nagato suddenly spun, grabbed me by the shoulders and threw me bodily aside.
"H-hey! What are you-"
Before I could finish, I heard the distinctive sound of metal meeting flesh.
Nagato stood above me, impaled straight through the chest by Asakura's katana.
I guessed... that Asakura had thrown his katana at me to try and catch Nagato off-guard and kill me? But Nagato had managed to throw me out of harm's way, yet had been unable to avoid the sword and had thus gotten 3 feet of steel s-straight through the chest.
Oh, no...
Nagato's glasses fell from his face and tinkled slightly as they hit the ground.
"N-NAGATO!" I screamed, eyes widening in horror. No, you idiot, w-what did you-
"I told you not to move." Nagato said softly, looking at the sword sticking out of his ribcage. A pool of blood was slowly beginning to form beneath his feet. "Do not worry for my sake; I am fine."
H-how exactly does being impaled make you fine?!?
Without flinching, Nagato pulled the katana out of his body and dropped it on the ground. It fell the ground with a slightly wooden noise as it instantly transformed back into a shinai. Was that what that thing r-really was?
"I can't see you defending that human very well in your damaged state," announced Asakura calmly from somewhere in the room, "but it would be unwise to leave you still functional. Goodbye, Nagato-san."
On the other side of what had once been the room, Asakura's silhouette began to unfade from the twisted lightshow. I could see his serene smile as he slowly folded his arms over his chest - and giant, black tentacles, tipped with spikes, sprouted violently from his back.
"Now, die."
Asakura's tentacles extended, wriggling like worms, and shot in on Nagato from every direction. Unable to move, his slim figure shook violently - and the next second, my face was splattered with blood.
One tentacle clawed into Nagato's right abdomen, another into the left side of his chest, another through his throat, through his arms, his legs… too many to count. Blood spattered from Nagato's mouth, his wounds, and down along his legs, pooling beneath his legs.
"It's over." Nagato said quietly, reaching one hand out slowly and clutching a spike. Nothing happened.
"What's over?" Asakura asked, sounding deeply satisfied. "You mean the three years of your short life?"
"No." said a seriously wounded Nagato, as though nothing had happened to him. "Commencing data interface disconnection."
Almost instantly, everything in the classroom began to glow brightly, and then crystallized and dissolved, turning into sand.
"H-how... how can thi-?" Asakura's face shifted into the second expression of shock I'd ever seen as crystallized sand drifted down from the ceiling, and then reverted to his normal serene disposition. "Ah, no. I see. Well, well... you really are amazing, you know that?"
"It took me some time to penetrate the firewall program," Nagato said calmly as the tentacles protruding from his body dissolved into sand. "But now, everything ends."
"You had already planted destructive factors around the room long before you entered, correct? No wonder you seemed to be operating at reduced capabilities. You had already used much of your runtime beforehand..." Asakura said, a note of despondency audible beneath his apparently-cheerful voice. He looked at his arms as they began to crystallize, and sighed.
"Such a pity. I suppose I am just the backup, after all. And I thought this would finally be a chance to break free of this stagnation..."
Asakura turned to me with his pearly-white smile.
"Well, I lost! I guess you get to live after all. You'd better be careful, though. I’m not the only one with a dissenting opinion. Just like with humans, eh? The good, and the bad... And who knows, even those who control Nagato-san might change their thinking and decide to kill you instead."
He was by now covered from chest to toe by the glowing, crystalline substance. "Well, even so. I wish you and Suzumiya-san the best of luck. Goodbye!"
As the crystals reached his face, Asakura gave me that eerily calm, serene smile of his, then he was gone. Under a rain of crystallized sand, the high-school student, class president, and kendo-club member known as Asakura Ryou vanished forever from the face of this earth.
There was a shadow over my head, suddenly, as Nagato Yuuki collapsed. I tried desperately to catch him, but he was too heavy, so he ended up on top of me on the floor.
"N-Nagato! Hang in there! I'll call the ambulance or something!"
"There is no need."
Nagato stared into my eyes, blood still sluggishly flowing from his chest.
"Physical damage is of no consequence. Current priority is the restoration of this sub-space into its original state."
The sand crystals stopped floating down, as Nagato stiffened once again. "Removing impure substances. Reconstructing classroom." he announced, his eyes briefly flashing.
As he finished speaking, the familiar form of the 1-5 classroom reappeared before my eyes. It was like a tape rewinding; everything in the room forming out of the crystal sand which threw itself back into shape and solidified. The blackboard, the teacher's desk, the remaining chairs and desks - I couldn't describe it with mere words. If I had watched a video of it, I would have thought it was state-of-the-art CGI instead.
Windows reappeared from the walls, their half-stained glass intact; the sunset flooded in, bathing Nagato and myself in an orange-red light. All the blood that had splattered onto my face had completely disappeared.
Amazing... the only way I could possible describe it was, magical.
"Um... thanks. Are y-you really okay?"
Nagato, my saviour, was still collapsed on top of me. I thought he'd be bleeding all over me with his open wounds and the damage to his uniform, but they'd vanished along with the blood on me.
"Processing power has been converted into data operation, therefore, the linking interface has been temporarily reversed." he muttered.
"Uh, you want some help up?" Not that I'm in a position to give any, but...
"There is no need." Nagato said, moving his hands and attempting to rise. "I-"
He grunted, suddenly, moving one hand to his face. "My glasses. I forgot to regenerate them."
"...Um, uh, actually, I think you look cooler without them... glasses guys aren't really my type..."
"Pardon?"
"Uh, nothing."
"I see."
Now's not the time to be saying stupid things like that! If I could have gotten out from underneath Nagato, I would probably have run out of the classroom in utter embarrassment.
At that moment, the classroom door suddenly opened.
"I forgot~ I forgot my stuff~"
There, entering the classroom, humming a stupid song while playing with her cellphone, was Taniguchi.
She probably never thought there would still be people in here, so when she discovered us, she stood dumbfounded, her mouth wide open.
With Nagato on top of me, and my hair still down, it’s pretty easy to see what conclusions she’d immediately come to.
Taniguchi gave me a wide grin, reminding me of Haruki, and, slowly raising her cellphone, started snapping pictures of me and Nagato on the floor.
“Hey! Wait! What the heck are you doing?” I screamed.
“Sorry, Kyon. Have fun!” Taniguchi ran out of the room, laughing manically. I tried to follow, but, of course, Nagato was still on top of me.
"Such an interesting person." Nagato said.
I sighed heavily. "What should we do now?"
"Leave it to me." Nagato said, his eyes still looking down at me.
"Data manipulation is my specialty, I'll let everyone think that Asakura Ryou has been transferred out."
That wasn’t what I was talking about, but… data manipulation? Is that how he does it?
I’ve just experienced an incredible event. Whether I believe what Nagato told me the other day is no longer the issue here, because what happened just now has let me realize just how serious things really are. I really thought I was going to die! If Nagato hadn't shown up to save me, Asakura would have raped and killed me. The experiences of seeing the classroom distorting, of Asakura's black tentacles, and Nagato eliminating him emotionlessly have all been etched into my mind.
Nagato-san, I’m really grateful to you.
In a way, though doesn't that make me an insider to a Mysterious Event? Just as I said in the prologue, I had wanted to be a bystander that got sucked into these events, just a mere sidekick. But the way thing are looking, I’m the main character! I had really wished I was a character in a story involving aliens, but now that I am, it really puts everything into perspective.
This really isn’t what I had been hoping for…
What I really want is to be the sort of side character that cheerfully provides helpful advice at the right moment when everyone is facing a difficult situation. I don’t want my own classmates to go crazy and target me! I have respect for my own life, thank you very much!
My mind wandered without aim for a while as I lay back in the orange-red classroom. Due to my spacing out, I'd completely forgotten about Nagato, who was still above me, staring at me with his usual expressionless face.
H-hey! Wait a minute! If you’re done regenerating, get off me!
------
The following day, Asakura Ryou disappeared from Class 1-5.
I was the only one who had seen it coming.
“Ehh, I guess it has something to do with Asakura-kun's mother's work, that's why he had to transfer all of a sudden. Frankly, the teachers were shocked as well when they heard the news this morning. Because they had to leave the country so quickly, they already flew off yesterday."
When Okabe-sensei announced this cover story, most of the girls exclaimed in shock and horror, "What? Why!?", while the guys talked amongst themselves about this. Even Okabe-sensei looked confused. And, of course, the person sitting behind me couldn’t keep his mouth shut about this.
Boink! He rapped the top of my head lightly. Haruki, if you touch me again…
"Kyon, this HAS to be a Mysterious Event!" Haruki's eyes shone brightly, all his vigor regained.
Should I tell him the truth?
‘Actually, Asakura-kun was created by an alien lifeform known as the Integrated Data Sentient Entity. Nagato-kun was his superior, but for some reason their relationship broke down, and in the end Asakura ended up trying to kill me. As to why it involves me, it’s all your fault. However, Asakura-kun got turned into a pile of sand by Nagato-kun and disappeared, so it’s all better now.’
Oh please! I'd be carted off to the funny farm if I said something like that. I'll just pretend that everything that happened yesterday was just a horrible, horrible nightmare and leave it at that..
"First my Mysterious Transfer Student shows up, then the class president transfers out mysteriously. There’s something going on here, I know it!”
Ooh, should I commend you on your brilliant instincts?
"Maybe his mom got a transfer?"
"Bah! I'm not gonna buy such a lame excuse."
"Believe it or not, that's the number one reason for having to transfer schools."
"Isn’t it strange, though? It took them only one day from receiving the job transfer notice to moving out. Just what sort of work is his mom doing?"
"Maybe his parents just didn’t tell him beforehand…"
"Impossible. It requires further investigation."
I had wanted to say the job transfer was just an excuse, that they had escaped overnight from their debtors, leaving behind a mountain of debt, but I decided not to. After all, I’m the only person here who knows the real story.
"As Supremely Manly Commander of the SOS Brigade, I cannot leave such a Mysterious Event uninvestigated!"
Just…. stop, please.
“By the way, what’s with your hair?”
“Don’t ask.”
Haruki looked offended at my response, but it doesn’t matter. I couldn’t find any hair ties when I looked this morning, so I figured I might as well just come to school without a ponytail. Besides, after what happened yesterday, I really have to re-evaluate how I view my life. Does this new look accurately depict what I’m feeling right now?
Having witnessed all this supernatural stuff firsthand, and trying to tell myself that it never happened, I had to pick one of the following choices: I was either hallucinating; or something was wrong with my brain; or the world is strange enough already; or I'd had a very long dream.
There’s no way I could admit the world is some sort of virtual reality.
Aggh! For someone who's just turned 15, having to face a turning point in her life like this is just a bit too early!
Why does a first year high school girl like me have to deal with such philosophical questions like whether the world exists or not? Those aren't things I should be thinking about! Please, stop adding to my troubles!
Right now, I have all sorts of other problems to deal with!
I did about half of it. Everything from Taniguchi onwards still needs to be discussed imho.
Wait, Kyonko's only 15? God-damn.
If I was a weirder person then I am, I'd personally go up to Taniguchi and be like "Oh you go girl!~" xD and another thing, if she's a girl would the name stay as Taniguchi forever? Or will it be like...Tanigucha?
@I suggest Taniguchi SPREAD RUMOURS. Because in every situation this must happen. Then the angry fanclub appears. Then Kyonko is embarassed. The Haruki questions. The Kyonko turns even redder and turns to Yuuki for Help. Yuuki turns around and gives her a thumbs up while sparkling and then continues reading his book. jk.jk.jk.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kang Seung Jae
Is this the start of the fight between lolicons and lolitacons?
I'd be supporting both? >_>
There's no Shotacon vs. Lolicon battles because we all know who'd win. xD
If I was a weirder person then I am, I'd personally go up to Taniguchi and be like "Oh you go girl!~" xD and another thing, if she's a girl would the name stay as Taniguchi forever? Or will it be like...Tanigucha?
@I suggest Taniguchi SPREAD RUMOURS. Because in every situation this must happen. Then the angry fanclub appears. Then Kyonko is embarassed. The Haruki questions. The Kyonko turns even redder and turns to Yuuki for Help. Yuuki turns around and gives her a thumbs up while sparkling and then continues reading his book. jk.jk.jk. [/color]
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The whole aim here was to avoid Taniguchi being a bitch.
The whole aim here was to avoid Taniguchi being a bitch.
She's a goofball, but she's no bitch.
I lawled though.
Not a bitch hm..well she can like...be like "So what was up with that day with you and Yuuki?" and someone overhears.
or she drops her cellphone and a member of his fanclub finds it and looks through it to see who it belongs to, and then see's the picture, and then comes the "YUUKI-SAMA HAS BEEN DEFILED BY A VILE WOMANGZ" and poor Taniguchi never gets her phone back again.
He got dibs on that avatar, so it's dangerous to wear that.
Yeah... I actually thought that was myself for a minute Scared the heck outta me, thought i had a clone or something.
@Kyonko-chan: I made it i have dibs on it, But i dont mind if someone uses it for now (as long as i can use it again when i want to XD), but i really gotta say this, its extremely awkward seeing someone other than me use that avvy
I apologize for my lack of work on the volume covers, Its the exams, not my laziness!!!, I'll keep churning them out when exams are over.
Not a bitch hm..well she can like...be like "So what was up with that day with you and Yuuki?" and someone overhears.
or she drops her cellphone and a member of his fanclub finds it and looks through it to see who it belongs to, and then see's the picture, and then comes the "YUUKI-SAMA HAS BEEN DEFILED BY A VILE WOMANGZ" and poor Taniguchi never gets her phone back again.
or something so it wouldn't be her fault?
Hmmm.
I'll take that into consideration. I like this idea a lot better.