[Aebliss]

Just because I was bored and felt like doing it.

Spoiler for Suzumiya Haruki, volume 1, chapter 7, part 3:

That night, after having dinner and a bath, and finishing my revision of tomorrow's English lesson, I looked at the time and discovered it was time for bed. I lay on my bed and opened the thick hardback book that Nagato had stuffed into my arms just a short while ago. I thought a quick read wouldn't hurt, so I casually read the first few pages. The story was surprisingly interesting, so I continued to read page after page. You really have to read a book to understand how enjoyable they can be. Reading's not so bad after all!

But it's impossible to finish such a thick book in one night, so I put it down after reading a very long monologue by one of the protagonists. Sleep overcame me, and after placing the bookmark with Nagato's handwriting where I'd left off, I switched off the lights and crept underneath my blanket. In a few minutes, I was in dreamland.


Do you know why humans have dreams? Sleeping is divided into phases of Rapid Eye Movement (REM) and Non Rapid Eye Movement (NREM), which alternate in periodic cycles. NREM occurs for the first few hours after a person falls asleep, with the brain usually in a stasis-like state during this stage. The stage during which the body is unconscious while the brain becomes slightly active is known as REM, and dreams will occur during this stage. By morning, the periods of REM will have increased in frequency, meaning almost everyone will dream until they wake up. I dream every night, but as I usually wake up late every time, I'm in such a hurry to go to school that I usually forget what I've dreamed. Yet sometimes I'll suddenly remember a long forgotten dream I had years ago. It's really amazing how a human's memories are structured.

Alright, enough casual talk. Actually, I don't give a damn.

I felt someone shaking my shoulders. Go away! I'm tired! Don't disturb my dreams! I tried to shrug the hands off -- I was still operating on automatic, you have to understand. If I didn't shake off hands that grabbed me while I'm sleeping, my little brother would put me in a headlock every morning, instead of having to settle for the half or double nelson some of the time.

"......Kyon."

The alarm clock hadn't even rung yet. Even if it had, I would have turned it off at once, and it was still some time before mom would send my brother to drag me out of bed.

"Wake up already."

No! I want to sleep some more. I don't have time for strange dreams.

"I said wake up! Can't you hear me?"

The hands seized my shoulders more strongly and shook me ceaselessly. I finally opened my eyes when I felt the back of my head banging against the hard floor.

Hard floor?

I sat upright, looking confused. Haruki was looking down at me and backed a little off to avoid bumping our heads together. He didn't let go of me, though, and even hauled me up a little.

"You finally awake?"

Kneeling beside me was Haruki in his school uniform. His face was somewhat anxious, and I could feel his hands rhythmically squeezing my shoulders, as if he had to fight the urge to ball them into fists somehow.

"Do you know where we are?"

Of course I do; we're at North High, the school we go to, and right now we're at the staircase ahead of the shoe lockers by the school entrance. None of the lights were on, and the school at night appeared gray before us......

No, something's wrong.

There was no night sky above.

Just a wide gray horizon. A monotonous sky. There was no moon or stars, not even a single cloud. Only a sky as gray as the concrete walls.

The world is covered in silence and darkness.

This is a Sealed Reality.

I slowly got up, Haruki releasing me with some reluctance. Just as I thought, his hands curled into fists the moment he let go of me. Were his hands trembling just a little? By the way, I was amazed -- and relieved, given my company -- that I was not wearing my pajamas, but my school uniform.

"When I woke up, I found myself here, then you by my side. What's going on here? Why're we at school?"

Haruki asked in an abnormally soft voice. I didn't answer him at once, instead reaching my arms out to feel my way. Judging by the pain of pinching the back of my hand, to the feel of my uniform on my body, this didn't seem to be a dream. I pulled two of my hairs out. I found out that really hurts.

"Haruki, are we the only ones here?"

"Yeah, I was supposed to be asleep under my blanket. Why did we appear here? And the sky looks strange......"

"Have you seen Koizumi?"

"No......why'd you mention her?"

"No reason, just asking."

If this Sealed Reality was created by a quake in the dimensional faultline or by external factors, there ought to be a glowing giant and Koizumi in here as well.

"Anyway, let's leave the school now! Maybe we'll run into someone."

"How come you don't look anxious at all?"

I am most certainly anxious, especially seeing that you're here as well. Isn't this a playground for the giants you create? Or am I being overly sensitive because of our fight today and just dreaming all of this? All alone with Haruki in an empty Reality......If Sigmund Freud were here, he could have analyzed all this for me!

I remained at a distance from Haruki as we walked towards the school entrance. Then we were suddenly blocked by an invisible wall. I still remember the elastic feel of this wall. It could be pushed inwards a bit, but soon after, another harder wall would block any attempts to penetrate further.

"......What is this?"

Haruki reached his arms out and tried to push this invisible wall, while asking that question with wide-open eyes full of astonishment. I walked along the track field and traced the wall.

It seems that we're trapped inside the school.

"There doesn't seem to be a way out of the school."

I couldn't feel any breeze. It was as though even the air had stopped flowing.

"Let's try the back entrance!"

"Oh yeah, is there any way we can contact anyone? Let's look for a phone. I didn't bring my cell phone."

If this was the same kind of Sealed Reality Koizumi told me about, then finding a phone would be useless. Despite that, we still decided to go inside the school building to have a look. There should be a phone in the staff room.

The school looked eerie in the dark with all the lights off, and I didn't protest when Haruki wordlessly hooked his arm through mine. Who was he tring to comfort, though, me or himself ...? Bah, that's a stupid question, when one is dealing with this much raw confidence ... I appreciated it, though.

We passed by the shoe lockers and silently entered the school building. Along the way, we turned on the lights for the first floor, and the ceiling lamps lit up at once. Even though they were cold, artificial lights, they were enough to elicit a simultaneous sigh of relief from Haruki and myself.

After making sure there was no one in the classrooms on that floor, we headed to the staff room. Naturally, the staff room was locked, so Haruki picked up a nearby fire extinguisher, smashed the window open, and entered through there.

"......Doesn't seem to work."

Haruki held the phone to his ear, but could hear nothing, not even the dialtone. He tried to dial some numbers, but nothing came of it.

We left the staff room, turning on all the lamps along the way, and went up the stairs, because Haruki suggested we return to our classroom. As the Fifth Class room for first years was located at the top floor, maybe we could figure out something by looking down from above.

Haruki kept holding onto my arm as we walked along the corridor. Don't count on me; I don't have any supernatural powers at all. If anything scary happens, look for me behind you, you're bigger than I am and I can't protect you anyway.

"Idiot!"

Haruki scowled at me, but his hand never let go of me.

There was no change in the Fifth Class room; it was just as we'd left it after school.

"......Kyon, look......"

Haruki went silent after walking towards the windows. I walked to his side and looked down at the situation.

All around was a deep gray world. Looking down from the fourth floor at the top of the hill, I could even see the horizon beyond the shore. It was all darkness within the panorama, without even a single light on. It was like the end of the world.

"What is this place......"

It wasn't the whole population that had disappeared, but rather, we who had disappeared. It seemed that we had stumbled onto this Sealed Reality by accident.

Haruki swung his fists in aimless little circles and murmured: "This feels strange ..."



As we didn't know where else to go, we returned to the club room where we had quarreled just this afternoon. As I'd already stolen the keys from the staff room, we were able to unlock the door and enter.

Both of us breathed a sigh of relief at returning to a familiar, well-lit room.

We turned on the radio, but we couldn't even hear any static. The club room was so quiet that only the sound of my pouring tea could be heard. I'm not that interested in changing tea leaves, so I brewed the tea using thoroughly overused and tasteless tea leaves. Haruki stood beside me gazing intently at the gray world outside.

"You want some tea?"

"No."

I took my teacup, pulled out a chair, and sat down. I took a sip. Sigh, the tea brewed by Asahina-san is so much better than this.

"Just what is going on here!? I don't get it! What is this place? Why am I here?"

Haruki stood by the window and faced outside; his very silhouette betrayed extreme agitation and his hands were moving aimlessly again.

"And why am I with you, of all people?"

"How the Hell should I know!?"

Haruki just flicked his hair and scowled at my response.

"I'm going outside to have a look," he said and proceeded to leave the room. Just as I was about to stand up as well......

"You stay here, I'll be right back."

He scowled so ferociously that I sank back into my chair without thinking.

"I mean it, do as I ask this time. Okay? Stay here. I will be back fo ... I will be back."

He left the room right away after saying that, closing the door firmly behind himself. That is so like Haruki to do that! While hearing Haruki's energetic footsteps disappearing and sipping my tasteless warm tea, that thing appeared.

It was a small, glowing blue sphere. At first it was the size of a table tennis ball, then slowly the sphere grew larger, shining like a firefly before finally taking on a humanoid shape.

"Koizumi, is that you?"

Before me was a glowing humanoid, vaguely feminine of shape. But I could not see Koizumi's appearance clearly, not her eyes, nor her nose or her mouth.

"Hi there." A relaxed voice came from within the glowing object.

"Took you long enough! I thought you would appear in your human form......"

"Things are getting a bit complicated, so it's going to take some time to explain. I'll be honest; this is an abnormal event!" The blue light flickered a bit. "If it were a normal Sealed Reality, I could have penetrated it easily, but not this time. I had to appear in this incomplete form, and as I needed some help from my companions before I could finally enter here, I can't even remain in this state for too long. Our powers are disappearing slowly, even as we speak."

"Just what's going on? Is it just Haruki and me in here?"

"Yes," Koizumi answered.

"This means what we had feared is finally happening. Suzumiya-san has grown tired of this reality, and he has decided to create a new one."

"......"

"Our superiors are now in total panic. No one knows what will become of our world when its god has disappeared. Though it's possible the world will survive as long as Suzumiya-san decides to have mercy upon it, it is also possible that it'll vanish in an instant."

"What are you trying to say......?"

"To put it simply," -- the blue light now flickered like a candle in the breeze -- "you and Suzumiya-san have now disappeared from our world. This world is not a Sealed Reality, but rather a brand new reality created by Suzumiya-san. The Sealed Realities we've seen before were probably just drills for this genuine recreation of the world."

Such an interesting joke, but I'm not sure whether the punchline has come yet. Ha ha ha.

"I'm not joking. This world is probably closest to the world which Suzumiya-san desires. We're still not sure what kind of world he desires, but we should have an answer to that soon."

"Let's leave that aside, the real problem is why am I here?"

"Do you really not know? You are the person chosen by Suzumiya-san. You are the only person in our world that Suzumiya-san wants to be with. I thought you'd have discovered that by now." The light around Koizumi now glimmered like an electric torch running out of batteries, its brightness clearly diminishing. "I'm close to my limit now. At this rate, I'll never be able to see you again; on the other hand though, I'm kind of relieved since I no longer have to go hunting for those Avatars anymore."

"Must I live alone with Haruki in such a gray world?"

"In this world, you're like Adam and Eve. Just work hard on re-populating the world, and it'll be fine."

"......I am so gonna beat the crap out of you!"

"Just kidding! Right now this sealed state is probably only temporary, but very soon it'll become similar to the world you know. Yet this world will be completely different from the world that you and I are from. As of right now, this world could be considered as the real world, while the original reality ought to be considered a Sealed Reality. As for what differences there are between these two worlds, unfortunately we do not know. If I'm fortunate enough to be reborn in the new reality, I'm counting on you to show me around."

At this moment, Koizumi the glowing humanoid object began to slowly disintegrate and then, like a star running out of fuel, now shrank to its original table tennis ball size.

"Is it impossible for us to return to the original world?"

"As long as Suzumiya-san wishes for it, it might still be possible. I only knew you for a short while; it's a pity really, but I did enjoy my time with the SOS Brigade...... Ah, yes, I nearly forgot, I have to relay both Asahina Mitsuuru and Nagato Yuuki's messages to you."

Before Koizumi disappeared completely, she left these messages.

"Asahina Mitsuuru asked me to apologize in his stead: he said, 'I'm sorry, it's all my fault.' Also, Nagato Yuuki tells you to 'Remember to turn on the computer.'"

After the message, she vanished like a candle flame blown out by the wind.

I don't know why Asahina-san had to apologize to me. Had Asahina-san done something wrong to me? But I decided not to think about that now; rather, I followed Nagato's request and switched on the computer. After the hard disk makes a beep sound, the OS trademark should start appearing on the screen......That's strange, why is nothing showing up? The OS screen which was supposed to appear after a few seconds didn't appear; the screen was pitch black with only a white typing cursor flashing in the upper left corner of the screen. Then, the cursor started moving silently, and a line of cold words appeared.




YUKI.N > Can you read this?



I was stunned for a moment, and then I pulled the keyboard closer and started typing.

'Yes.'
YUKI.N > Right now I have not completely lost contact with the world you are in. But that is only a matter of time, since the disconnection should occur very soon. If that happens, this will be our final conversation.
'What should I do?'
YUKI.N > I do not know either. The abnormal data spurt has disappeared completely over here. The Integrated Data Sentient Entity is very disappointed with this, because they will lose the possibility to evolve.
'What do you mean by the possibility to evolve? Just how is Haruki evolving?'
YUKI.N > Being highly sentient means being able to process data quickly and accurately. Sentient organic lifeforms are limited by the excessive inaccurate and mixed-up data streams caused by their physical bodies, and are unable to process data quickly and accurately. So after evolving to a certain stage, organic lifeforms will cease to evolve.
'Is it possible to evolve even without a physical body?'
YUKI.N > The Integrated Data Sentient Entity is also created from data. They too had believed that their ability to process data would increase infinitely until the universe overheated itself. But they were wrong. As with the universe having an edge, their evolution also has a limit, at least for sentient entities relying on data to survive.
'What about Suzumiya?'
YUKI.N > Suzumiya Haruki possesses the ability to create massive amounts of data out of nothing. That is the ability that the Integrated Data Sentient Entity doesn't have. He can release data that could never be processed by a human, a mere organic lifeform, in its lifetime. The Integrated Data Sentient Entity believes if this data-creating ability is analyzed, then they will be able to find clues to how to auto-evolve.

The cursor flashed momentarily. Perhaps Nagato was hesitating on what words to use. The next second, the words flowed like water.

YUKI.N > I'm betting everything on you.
'Betting on me for what?'
YUKI.N > I hope that you can both return to this world. Suzumiya Haruki is an important observation target, an important treasure that might only appear once in this universe. Besides that, I myself also wish for you to return.
The color of the words began to fade as the electricity supply got weaker. The cursor continued to type out words.

YUKI.N > Let us go to the library again next time.
The words grew darker; even trying to adjust the screen brightness didn't help. Finally, Nagato typed the following two words.

YUKI.N > sleeping beauty






Brrr--!

The sound of the hard disk spinning had me jumping from my seat. The light on the CPU flickered, and the familiar OS trademark screen appeared. The sound of the computer fan spinning was all that could be heard in this world.

"What should I do? Koizumi! Nagato!"

I sighed deeply and turned my head despondently towards the window.







A red light shone from outside the window, painting the clubroom in shades of blood.







A glowing giant now stood in the school courtyard. Because it was so close, it looked like a huge red wall.

Haruki rushed into the room.

"Kyon! Something's appeared!"

Haruki saw that he was about to bump into me, since I was already standing by the window, and quickly stopped and stood beside me. He placed a hand on my shoulder, squeezing it as if for emphasis as he smacked his other hand against the window.

"What is that? It's huge! Is it a monster? It doesn't seem like an illusion."

Haruhi sounded very excited. His depressed anxiety from a while ago had disappeared. Right now, his eyes glimmered with enthusiasm. No fear could be found in them. He was like a little boy who had been presented with a new toy, or an amazingly interesting game.

"You think that's an alien? Or it could be a superweapon created by the ancients, waking up from its long slumber? Is that thing the reason we can't escape from school?"

The red wall moved with deceptive slowness, like lava crawling from a volcano. The image of the giant smashing the buildings with ease flashed through my mind. I hurriedly grabbed Haruki's hand and tried to pull him out of the club room.

"Wait! Wait up, what're you doing!?"

Haruki resisted at first, but reluctantly allowed me to pull him after he'd glanced at my face.

As we rushed to the corridor, nearly falling down, a loud tremor vibrated through the air. The club complex shook violently and dust rained down on our heads. There was a loud cracking noise -- and suddenly Haruki pushed me to the ground, shielding me with his body as lumps of masonry came falling down. The sound and vibration of a hard, heavy object stomping on the ground was transmitted to my ears. From this I knew the giant's target was not the club complex but rather the school complex opposite.

I grabbed at Haruki, who was so shocked that his mouth opened and closed like a goldfish. "We have to get out of here!" I screamed in his face. Amazingly, Haruki didn't argue; he just scooped me up again and bolted down the corridor.

My palms were getting sweaty. So were Haruki's.

The air of the old club complex was full of floating dust. Haruki coughed and spluttered, but still carried me toward the staircase with all his strength. The sound of the giant causing more destruction could be heard.

Haruki ran down the stairs, his body heat being practically engulfing my whole frame. After crossing the courtyard, we headed past the slope and towards the track field. At this moment I took a quick glance at Haruki's face. I might have been mistaken, but he seemed quite elated. It was like seeing a little boy waking up on Christmas morning and discovering all the presents he had wanted all along were now by his bedside.

After running quite a distance from the school buildings, Haruki stopped, turned and looked upwards. We now discovered just how huge the giant was. The giant inside the Sealed Reality Koizumi showed me was just as huge as this, almost as tall as a building.

The giant waved its hand, and the school building collapsed. As the four story complex was already ripped open from its previous strike, it now fell easily. The debris fell and scattered in all directions, its fall serenaded by the deafening noise it created.

Haruki charged to the center of the two hundred meter track field before stopping again. An unbelievable red giant had now appeared in the dark monotonous school.

If you want to take pictures, you should be taking these, and not pictures of the president of the Computer Study Group with her hand on Asahina-san's pants, and definitely not pictures of Asahina-san wearing all sorts of costumes. The website ought to have pictures like what we're seeing now!

As I was thinking about this, Haruki quickly said in my ear,

"Do you think he'll attack us? I don't think he's evil at all, what do you think?"

"I don't know!"

As I answered Haruki, I was thinking at the same time about what Koizumi told me when she brought me into that Sealed Reality. If we let these "Avatars" continue their rampage, then after the destruction, the Sealed Reality will replace the real world, meaning this gray world will replace the world we came from, and then......

What will become of our world?

According to what Koizumi just told me, Haruki seems to be creating a brand new world. Will the Asahina and Nagato I know be in this new world? Or will it be a surreal world where these "Avatars" walk around freely, and aliens, time travelers, and espers become commonplace?

If the world really becomes like that, what role will I be playing?

Argh, forget it, it's useless trying to think anymore, because I just don't get it. I don't get what Haruki's thinking, and I don't possess any telepathic power that allows me to read what others think.

At this instant, I heard Haruki speaking to me,

"What exactly is going on here? Whether it's this world or that giant, it's all very strange!"

Those things were all created by you, buster! I should be the one asking, why'd you drag me into all of this!? What Adam and Eve? That is just stupid! I won't believe in such a crappy story! Never!

"Don't you want to return to the original world?"

I asked calmly.

"What did you say?"

Haruki looked down at me. His face was smoothly white even in this gray world, and his glimmering eyes were now shrouded in darkness.

"We can't just stay here forever! There's not a single shop, so there's nowhere to eat when we get hungry. Besides, the school's surrounded by an invisible wall: there's no way out of here. At this rate we'll starve to death."

"Hmm, it is all strange, but I don't care. Things will eventually get sorted out. For some reason, I just feel very happy."

"Then what about the SOS Brigade? You created that club! You're just gonna leave it?"

"I really don't give a damn anymore, because I'm already experiencing something exciting now; there's no need for me to go out and search for mysterious events."

"But, I want to return to the original world."

The giant momentarily stopped its demolition of the school.

"Before we ended up in this strange situation, I didn't realize how much I liked my life the way it was. There I have the idiot Taniguchi, Kunikida, Koizumi, Nagato, and Asahina-san, and even the long-vanished Asakura."

"......What are you talking about?"

Slowly, Haruki let me slip from his grasp. I felt both relieved and a little uncomfortable when my feet touched the ground. If the giants did attack, could I keep ahead of them by myself? No, this is more important. Focus!

"I really want to see those friends again. I have many things I want to tell them."

Haruki lowered his head, and then continued after a while,

"We'll see them; this world won't be forever covered in darkness. Once morning comes, the sun will rise. I'm sure of that."

"It's not like that. This world is not what you think it is. I really want to see those friends in the original world."

"I don't get what you're talking about."

Haruki scowled at me, like a petulant kid who's had his treasured present snatched away, revealing his anger and sadness.

"Aren't you sick and tired of that boring world as well? That world is so normal that there's nothing special at all. Don't you want to experience something interesting as well?"

"I used to think like that."

The giant started moving. He kicked off the remaining parts of the school complex and headed for the courtyard. On the way, he swiped at the school corridor with his arm, then gave the club complex a huge kick. The school is slowly being flattened, including our club room.

I looked past Haruki and was astonished to find other glowing red walls around. One, two, three......when I got to five, I decided to give up counting.

Without the blue glowing spheres getting in their way, the glowing red giants now began their destruction of this gray world without delay. I don't get what's so interesting about all this destruction. Every time they moved their arms and legs, everything that they touched disappeared instantly.

Moments later, half the school was gone.

I couldn't tell how large this Sealed Reality was, and I didn't know if this dimension would expand and become another reality. At this moment, my mind was full of uncertainty. If at this instant, an old drunkard sitting beside me in a train had said to me, "Let me tell you something, but don't tell anyone! I'm actually an alien," I would have believed him right away. Because the number of mysterious events I've experienced has now tripled compared to a month ago.

What exactly could I do? If it were a month ago maybe I wouldn't have thought of anything, but right now I believed I could. Because I've already received a few hints.

Once I'd decided, I said the following,

"Haruki, these last few days, I've gone through some very interesting things. Though you may not know it, there are all sorts of people who are very concerned about you. It's not ridiculous to say that the world literally revolves around you. Everyone believes you are a very special person, and they've tried to back up those beliefs with actions. You may not know it, but the world is headed in a very interesting direction."

As I grabbed onto Haruki's shoulders, he looked at me with a face that said, "What's gotten into you?"

And then, he moved his eyes away from me and towards the rampaging red giants, with a matter-of-fact expression.

Looking at his young and smooth face, I remembered Nagato's "evolution possibility", Asahina-san's "temporal distortion", and Koizumi treating Haruhi as "God". But as for me, what is Haruki to me? Just what do I treat him as?

Haruki is Haruki, what else is there to say? I didn't intend to just answer like that though. Yet, I didn't have a definite answer. I knew it'd come to this, right? If you had pointed at the classmate behind me and asked, "What does he represent to you?" - how do you think I would answer? ......This, I'm sorry. I'm going in circles again! To me, Haruki's not just an ordinary classmate, and certainly not any "evolution possibility", "temporal distortion" or even "God".

The giant turned towards the track field. He's not supposed to have any eyes, yet I could vividly feel the pressure of his gaze. He took one step in our direction. His single step was most likely a couple of meters, or he wouldn't have shortened the distance between us so quickly despite walking so slowly!

I got it! Didn't Asahina-san say something about it? That prophecy! And Nagato's last message. Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. Please, even I know what Sleeping Beauty means! What is the similarity between these two stories? In our dire situation, the answer was practically shouting out loud.

Man, this is so lame.

It's way too lame! Asahina-san, Nagato. I'll never accept such a development! Never!

My rationality insisted on that. But humans were never a lifeform that relied only on reason to survive. Maybe they needed a bit of what Nagato called "mixed-up data". I reached up and gently seized Haruki's earphones, pulling them loose -- and tossing his headset away. "Here," I said when he looked at me in surprise, "listen to me with your full attention for once."

"What now......"

"You know, I actually like you best when you're raging against the world."

"What?"

"I like you best when you're trying to make the world change to suit you, not when you give up and run away from the fight. You are at your best when facing challenges head on, so ... don't run away. Do things to improve your life yourself, don't ... run away."

"What're you trying to pull?"


I ignored Haruki's protests, seized his necktie and pulled his head down sharply. And I ... kissed him on the lips... I grabbed his hand and held on tightly, not wanting to let go yet. For a moment, his black eyes resisted me. I ignored Haruki's protests and kept kissing him. It's more polite to close your eyes at times like this, so I closed mine. And so, I didn't know what expression Haruki had. Were his eyes open from the shock? Or did he close his eyes as well? Or did he try to raise his hands and push me away? But even if he did, it didn't matter, since I was betting everything on this. If anyone else did this to Haruki, they would know how I felt then. I grabbed his hand and held on tightly, not wanting to let go yet.

I could still hear the rumbling in the distance; it seemed the giant was still destroying the campus. Just as I was thinking that, Haruki's free hand suddenly seized the back of my head and he squeezed his lips even more strongly against mine. His other hand abruptly tore free and grabbed me around the waist. I felt a sudden sympathy with little birds, freshly fallen from the nest, who are seized by a big, hungry tomcat. I felt that even if I struggled, I wouldn't be able to break free ...! Haruki held me ever tighter and ... Oh, no. He was lowering the both of us to the ground, now ...! No, no, no, I'm not ready!

I suddenly lost my balance and fell downwards, and then everything turned upside down. There was a hard impact to my left side. No matter what I did, I couldn't keep my balance. When I tried to sit up and open my eyes, I saw a familiar ceiling above my head and was stunned.




I was in my room, and turning around, I realized I had fallen out of bed onto the floor. Of course, I was wearing my pajamas. Half of the messed-up blanket lay on the floor. I placed my hand behind my back, opening my mouth like an idiot.

It was some time before I could think again.

In a half dreamlike state, I slowly stood up, opened the window, and looked outside. I saw a few twinkling stars and the shining street lamps. I confirmed there were lights coming from other people's windows and occasional silhouettes moving behind them.

Was it a dream? Had I been dreaming all of this?

I had a dream where I fell into a surreal world with a boy I knew, and then ended up kissing him! A dream so easy to understand that even Sigmund Freud would laugh out loud.

Urgh, I really wanted to hang myself right away.

Maybe I should be grateful that this country has outlawed guns, or I would've grabbed a fully automatic gun and aimed it at my head without hesitation. If it were with Asahina, then I could have at least gotten some sort of well-detailed personality analysis from this dream, but I had to dream of myself kissing Haruki, of all people! What on Earth was my subconscious thinking!?

I sat wearily on the floor and held my head, thinking if this were all a dream, why did it feel so real? The sweaty right hand, and the warmth left on my lips......

......Does this...does this mean that this is no longer the original world? Is this a brand new world created by Haruki? Is there a way for me to confirm this?

There isn't, no matter how hard I thought. Or rather, I never wanted to think about such a problem. If I had to admit that all of that was a dream because my brain was out of order, then I'd rather believe that the world had been destroyed. Besides, right now I'm in denial.

I looked at my alarm clock. Two thirty in the morning.

......I'm going back to sleep.

I pulled my blanket over my head, asking my already clear mind to give me some deep sleep.







I couldn't sleep.

That's why right now I'm so exhausted that I almost need to crawl in order to climb up the slope. This is killing me, to be honest. I'm just glad I didn't meet Taniguchi on the way, or I'd be forced to hear her go on and on about nothing. The sun continued to release the heat from its endless nuclear fusion. Mr. Sunshine, I beg of you, can't you occasionally take a break? I'm going to fry to death!

Refusing to come when I needed it, the sleep demon now circled around my head when I least wanted it. If this goes on, I don't know how long I can stay awake in the first class.

When I saw the school complex, I stopped and looked at the crummy old four story building. The sweaty students all crawled into the school buildings like a bunch of ants.

I dragged my feet up the stairs, and then into the familiar first year Fifth Class room, stopping three steps from the window.

There, sitting in the back by the window, I saw the back of Haruki's head. How should I say this? He had her chin resting on his hands as usual and stared outside with a wooden expression.

"Yo, how's it been?"

I placed my bag on the desk.

"Miserable! I just had a terrible nightmare last night."

Haruki pulled his earphones free and turned to me, replying to my question in a calm tone. Hey, you actually just went through a really incredible event last night!

"That's why I couldn't sleep all night. I wanted to take sick leave, but then my attendance rate would have gotten too low."

"I see."

I sat down on the hard chair and studied Haruki's face. His hair covered the side of his face from his ear downwards, so I couldn't clearly see his expression. In any case, he was in a bad mood. At least his face told me so.

"Say, Haruki."

"What?"

I said to Haruki, whose eyes were still staring outside,

"It's good to be talking again. We ended yesterday on a bad note."

"Yeah."

He just replied. Then, with some small reluctance,

"I hear you."

I obviously edited some bits to work around the ponytail thing. If you don't like it, debate and edit as always. ^^ I kept the earphones as a minor element, which can be removed without too much bother. I like it, but the majority will have its way, I'm sure.