It was Itsuko who gave Haruki a once-over.
"I believe he may be alright," she reported after pushing up his eyelid and checking his heartbeat, "so long as we bandage his wounds. I shall tear a few strips from my shirt --"
"Wait a minute," I interjected. "Nagato, can't you patch Haruki up?"
Nagato gave me a look that gave nothing away, but finally replied: "Yes."
"Then would you please do so, Nagato-san?" Itsuko asked, showing her customary smile. "It would probably be for the best if we remove all traces of these events."
Nagato looked at her, and gave her a monosyllabic response: "Why?"
"Nagato-san, let me speculate," Itsuko said, even while she gently rolled Haruki onto his back. "Your patrons now believe that these experiences may cause Suzumiya-san to release interesting data as his view of the world is abruptly altered, yes?"
Well, it's not just Haruki who has to readjust his view of the world. Just ask the sempai who hasn't stopped hugging me since we finally saw those two girls off.
"Correct," Nagato responded.
"However," Itsuko went on, "I am very certain that the Closed Space in which you, Asahina-san, Suzumiya-san and myself found ourselves was not generated by the white-clad girl. Rather, she was making Suzumiya-san generate it, forcing her will onto him, using his powers by proxy. I can feel some part of Suzumiya-san's mentality and emotions, after all. She ... hurt him. She was hurting him ever since the moment she grabbed him. Do you understand?"
Silence. Then a brief nod.
"Nagato-san," Itsuko went on, her voice becoming more serious, "there is no telling what kinds of damage that girl dealt to Suzumiya-san. I might be mistaken about the amount of damage he took. What if he wakes up a vegetable, or heavily traumatised? In either case, it is more likely that he will cease producing interesting data for your patrons to analyze. Do you see?"
Nagato just looked at her. Then at Haruki's face. "Minute brain damage detected," he said, his tone as calm and unemotional as it might have been if someone asked him to tell them whether it was raining or sunny outside. "Minute brain damage repaired."
"And the wounds to Suzumiya-san's arms, face and back ...?" Itsuko prompted.
"These are not life-threatening damages," Nagato countered, without sounding as if he were arguing at all. "Nor are they likely to interfere with Suzumiya Haruki's capacity to spontaneously create data."
"Nagato," I called softly to him.
When he looked at me, I said: "Nagato. You know Haruki pretty well, don't you. What do you think he is most likely to do as soon as he wakes up, if he remembers some ... thing overpowering him and threatening to eat him?"
No response. Nagato simply looked me in the eye.
"Nagato," I tried again, "you must realize Haruki will go hunting for them. And this is Haruki we're talking about. He is going to find them. Please calculate Haruki's chances of winning against those two, based on what just happened, for me."
"Suzumiya Haruki will prevail," Nagato said without hesitation. "Because that will be his desire."
"Yes," I admitted. "But what about the rest of us?"
Silence. Is that a slightly pinched look about your face, Nagato? Being grabbed and beaten by a group of Haruki's Shinjin can't have been any fun for you, I'm sure of it.
"In all fairness," Itsuko piped up, "I would assume that Suzumiya-san would try to protect us."
Quiet, you!
"Yes," I admitted, "but do you think he would succeed in doing that right from the start?"
Silence. Then: "No."
"Nagato," I said. "When I was in the space that Makuro made --" I glanced at Itsuko. Was that right? Was it Makuro who made that Closed Space that trapped me, or was she using Haruki by proxy as well? Itsuko nodded, so I continued: " -- when I was in there, she said something that makes me think she knew about the Integrated Data Entity."
Nagato's pupils widened just a fraction.
"Nagato," I said, feeling very tired all of a sudden, "if Haruki slips even a little ... Did that Mashiro have to fight very hard to be able to mindrape him?"
"She just grabbed him," Asahina-san whispered against my shoulder. "She just grabbed him, and ... everything happened. I don't understand what happened."
"Nagato," I said again. "If they knew about the IDE ... If it is that easy for them to mindrape Haruki and use his powers ... God knows I don't like to ask this of you, it's an imposition on you, especially after all you've been through, but ... Please patch him up. We need to make it look as if this never happened and make Haruki believe it never did."
"Interfering with the memory engrams of Suzumiya Haruki is disallowed," Nagato noted passionlessly.
I felt queasy all of a sudden. Okay, I definitely don't want you to mess around with Haruki's memories! That's just creepy! Maybe not quite as creepy as seeing your doppelganger fight like a rabid dog, but still.
"Just the wounds and the damage to Suzumiya-san's clothing, please," Itsuko said in a soothing tone of voice. "Before he wakes up. We'll take it from there."
... Why are you smiling at me like that?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Haruki. Oi, Haruki."
I gently patted Haruki's cheeks, which apparently inspired him to snore. Ew, are you drooling a little?
"Haruki, wake up."
I patted his cheeks a little harder and he made a face, started to turn.
"Ow! You lout!" I cursed, slapping his ear. "Wake up!"
Haruki stiffened, then relaxed and rolled back into his previous position. He yawned, somehow managing to look very childlike when doing so, and opened his eyes.
"Eh?" was the first thing he said when seeing my head hanging over him.
He blinked a couple of times, yawned again, stretched -- and stayed right where he was.
"Come on, get up," I moaned. "My legs are falling asleep."
"Why are you letting me use your lap as a pillow, then?" he asked, perfectly shameless. He even put his hands behind his head and settled back! "Jeeze, you're a lot of trouble. You up and disappear when Itsuko gets sick, making me have to come look for you when I should have been escorting her to a ... doctor ..."
His eyes unfocused for a moment, and his brow wrinkled. His skin turned a little pale.
"When did I fall asleep?" he muttered. "Your lap must not be such a great pillow after all, because ... a nightmare ...? A horrible dream ..."
"Like the idiot that you are," I tell Haruki in the haughtiest tone I can manage, "you managed to walk into a tree branch and knock yourself out. I found you unconscious. The branch has sadly deceased from contact with your stupid head, and I was nice enough to take care of you."
Shouldn't you be more appreciative to wake up and find a girl taking care of you? Where are the words of gratitude? 'Not such a great pillow after all', indeed! When and why were you thinking about using my lap as a pillow, may I ask? Why are you still using it? Get off, you're heavy!
"A tree branch?" Haruki repeated, sounding indignant. "As if I'd do something that stupid!"
"You certainly are," I told him.
"Bah," Haruki grumbled, firmly closing his eyes. "If I did, it's your fault for running off when you were supposed to help with Itsuko."
"Ha!" I snorted, crossing my arms in triumph. "I helped her better than you did, at least! I didn't just run off to look for uma or something, I was in the staff room, phoning her parents to come pick her up. Right now, Itsuko is safe and sound at her family doctor's place, getting a checkup."
"Then why am I here, lying on the ground and a substandard pillow?" Haruki asked indignantly. He sniffed. "A smelly pillow, too. What the hell are you wearing this hakama for? Smells like mould."
"It's not my fault that Itsuko's parents have a small car and that you split up with Nagato, Mitsuuru and Koizumi and walked into a tree," I countered. "Anyway, I fell into a mud puddle while I was looking for you. I had to boost this horrible thing from the cupboard in the staff room. I feel so embarrassed, and it's all your fault, you thoughtless lout."
"Wuss," he mocked me.
Hey, don't get comfy! My legs are all pins and needles, I tell you!
"To think the teachers indulge in cosplay fantasies, though," he mused, looking at the sky past my head and the tree branches above that. "Interesting. Hey, how do you think Mitsuuru-kun would look in a hakama?"
Like an impossibly pretty labourer of old, or an ancient noblewoman's sheltered son ... or beloved plaything, I suppose. Don't ask me, just get off of my lap. Damn Itsuko and her stupid ideas! Why did it have to be me who woke Haruki up?
A few seconds passed, and Haruki sighed.
"This is better than that stupid dream," he suddenly announced. "Even if your clothes smell like they've been buried in a mud field for a year."
"Is that so," I replied, very careful not to betray anything through my tone of voice.
"It is," Haruki declared firmly. "Wait. Ow. What's that under my back?"
Finally, he got up. I scooted to my feet as quickly as I could, trying to surreptitiously rub life back into my legs. And we both saw what he'd been lying on top of, other than my lap.
"Oh, ha ha, Kyon!" Haruki huffed as he picked up Asahina-san's little sewing kit and his own hairband. "You're a real joker. So, you took the time to pick these up before you came to look for me? And then you put them underneath my back? Why didn't you just add Yuuki's glasses as well?"
"You're too heavy," I lied, lowering my head while dusting off the horrible hakama, so he wouldn't be able to read my eyes. "I wouldn't want you to get glass in your back."
"You're no Florence Nightengale," Haruki firmly declared.
He pocketed the sewing kit and slipped his hairband back onto his head -- and I felt a little chill go through me for some reason. I hadn't put those items there, of course. I had no idea where Yuuki's glasses were, really. But the last time I'd seen my ribbon, Makuro had been using it to tie back her own hair. Why did that suddenly seem important ...?
"I still have your item! Remember!"
"Kyon, what are you spacing out for?"
Haruki rudely shocked me out of my thoughts by seizing my hand, and starting to drag me with him. Hey, what do you think you're doing?
"If you're as accident-prone as you say," Haruki replied, "someone is going to have to make sure you get out of this forest and back home without falling into another mudhole, or --"
"Or walking into a tree branch?" I suggested nastily.
He didn't even look annoyed, he just pulled me up next to him and kept walking.
"Exactly," he said. "Come on, the bus stop is this way. Where did you say Mitsuuru-un and Yuuki went again ...?"
"They went with Itsuko because her parents were frantic," I lied. "Look, I can walk by myself. And I'd really rather call for a taxi than take a bus ..."
You want me to show myself in public, dressed like this?
"Do you have the cash for a taxi?" Haruki countered. "I don't. And I'm taking you home before something else happens to you."
Oh, no. Oh God, no. My parents and little brother are going to see you bringing me home, dressed like this, for Setsubun? Screw Makuro's bad portrayal of me, this is the most embarrassing experience of my life!
"Geeze, why do your hands always get so cold?" Haruki complained, and rubbed the appendage in question between his own.
Hey, will you cut that out?! I'm not some little kid ...
2009-05-18, 05:43
