Due to the now-infamous Chippendale incident, Asahina-senpai, like Haruki, has become a household name in the school.
But after taking a day off, he once again bravely appeared in the clubroom. Is this the result of Haruki’s “manliness training?” No way.
Since our club activities don’t seem to involve anything other than molestation and blackmail, I decided to bring an Othello board. It had been buried deep in my house, long forgotten, so I thought that Asahina-senpai and I could play some games and talk for a while.
The website is done, but without any visitors, it’s useless. We haven’t even gotten a single e-mail. The computer was only good for surfing the Internet, and I’m sure if the Computer Club girls ever found out that it was being used for so little, they'd cry themselves to death.
Sitting next to Nagato Yuuki, who is, as usual, reading his book, I started the third round of Othello with Asahina-senpai.
"Suzumiya-san sure is taking his time." Asahina-senpai said quietly while still staring at the board.
Seeing that he wasn’t too badly affected by what happened, I breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe, with some luck, I could keep Haruki from breaking the poor kid further. I want to maintain his innocence forever…
"There's going to be a transfer student joining us today. He probably went to go get her."
"Transfer student?"
Asahina-senpai raised his head like a little bird. Aww, how cute!
"Haruki was excited when he heard that there was going to be a new transfer student in class 1-9. He seems to really like the idea, for some reason."
I placed a white piece on the board, and flipped the black pieces.
"Hmm..."
"I didn't think you'd come today, Asahina-senpai!"
"Um, I did have my doubts," Asahina-senpai said uncertainly, "but I was still worried, so I decided to come."
Didn’t he say something like that before…?
"What are you so worried about?"
Smack! He flipped one of the board pieces with his tiny fingers.
"Uh, um... nothing."
Feeling a strong gaze from somebody’s eyes, I turned to see Nagato staring at the Othello board. His face was still the same as ever, but his under his glasses, his eyes seemed to be more intent than I had ever seen before.
"..."
His glare was like a newborn kitten amazed at seeing a dog for the first time. I traced his line of vision to my hand, still holding the Othello piece.
"... Nagato-kun, do you want to play?"
After I said that, Nagato robotically blinked is eyes and, with the tiniest of motions, nodded his head. You wouldn’t even have noticed if you weren’t paying close attention. So I swapped seats with Nagato, and sat beside Asahina-senpai.
Nagato picked up one of the pieces, and inspected it carefully. He seemed particularly fascinated by the way the pieces stuck to each other magnetically.
"Um… Nagato-kun, have you played Othello before?"
He slowly shook his head.
"Do you know the rules, then?"
Same motion. A negative answer.
"Okay, you're holding white, so your objective is to flank the black pieces in a line between your other white pieces. And then you flip the black pieces over so they become white. Whoever ends up with more pieces wins."
He nodded, and started placing his pieces on the board, although he seemed to be clumsy in flipping the pieces over.
Strangely, after the opponents had changed, Asahina-senpai seemed to be getting more and more nervous. His fingers started to tremble, and I noticed that he refused to look directly at Nagato, sneaking furtive glances several times… I guess he couldn’t really concentrate, so white quickly took a clear advantage in the game.
That’s weird. Why does Asahina-senpai seem to be afraid of Nagato?
It wasn't long before white won convincingly. Just before the two were about to start another round, the perpetrator of all the chaos returned with a brand new sacrifice to the SOS Brigade.
"Hey, everybody! Kept ya waiting, didn’t I?" Haruki yelled cheerfully as he dragged a female student by the hand.
"This is the new transfer student in the First Year, Ninth Class, and her name is..."
Haruki suddenly stopped and gave the sacrifice "it's your cue" look. She turned and smiled calmly at us.
"... Koizumi Itsuko, pleased to meet you."
Slim and graceful, with a nice body and a big bust, she gave the impression of an elegant and rich young lady. She could easily pose on those supermodel magazines and get a lot of fans. If she's a nice person as well, she'll turn out to be even more popular.
[Editor’s note: Itsuko reminds me of every Kikoku Inoue character ever. I’m going to have to have Itsuko make a joke about how she’s “eternally seventeen”, or something.]
"This is the SOS Brigade club room," Haruki was saying. "I'm the commander, Suzumiya Haruki. These are Subordinates One, Two, and Three. Oh, and you're Subordinate Number Four, so please get along well together!"
What kind of introduction is that!? The only names mentioned are yours and hers! Don't just reduce us to the level of nameless subordinates!
"I don't mind joining," Koizumi Itsuko said, clearly not anticipating the great danger to herself.
Please, just go! Run away before Haruki uses your body to sell tickets or something!
"But I'm afraid I don't know what sort of club this is."
Don't worry, neither do any of us. In fact, I don't think that anyone in the world knows what sort of club this is supposed to be. If there’s anybody but Haruki who says they can answer that question, they’re lying.
"Then let me enlighten you to the purpose of the SOS Brigade," Haruki said dramatically. He took a deep breath, posed dramatically, and shouted: "To find aliens, time-travelers, and espers, and marry them!"
And then the entire world ground to a halt. BAD END.
…What?
You've got to be kidding me! But I kind of expected something like this from the very start. As for the other three, though...
Asahina-senpai was completely dumbstruck, staring with his eyes and mouth wide open at Haruki. Nagato was staring at Haruki, completely still like a doll that had run out of batteries. His eyes, though, were surprisingly wider than normal, showing more reaction than I had seen him show before.
Our newest member just gave a strange little smile; it was hard to know what the smile meant. A moment later, though, she was the first to get back to her senses.
"Ah, I see."
She looked at Asahina-senpai and Nagato, and nodded to herself.
"As expected from Suzumiya-san."
With that mysterious statement, she continued:
"I will gladly join this club. I look forward to working with all of you."
She smiled, showing her bright white, even teeth.
Hey now! What sort of person just accepts an explanation like that? Did you even hear what Haruki was saying? Do you want to get married so young?
Noticing my confused look, Koizumi Itsuko suddenly came and stretched her hand towards me.
"I'm Koizumi Itsuko, but you can just call me Itsuko," she suddenly said to me, introducing herself. "I just transferred in here today, so there's still a lot for me to learn. It's nice to meet you."
"Uh, likewise," I said, not sure about how to react. "I'm-"
"That's Kyon!" Haruki interrupted unnecessarily. Like I said before, that's not my name!
"The one with glasses is Yuuki-san, and the weakling there is Mitsuuru-kun."
Crash!
A loud noise thundered throughout the room. Asahina-senpai had been trying to stand up, but tripped over his chair, and crashed into the Othello board with a loud noise.
"Are you all right?" Itsuko said, appearing at Asahina-senpai's side. How had she moved so quickly?
"I, um, I'm fine," Asahina-senpai said, looking gratefully at Itsuko.
Grr… looking after Asahina-senpai is my job! Mine!
"Great, now we have five members! There’s no way the school can stop us now! Hahaha!"
Haruki had stood on top of a chair and was continuing his speech.
“As of right now, the SOS Brigade is open for business! Everyone, let us work together and move forward! Forward, towards our ultimate goal, and the fulfillment of my plan!"
What's that, a mass wedding with aliens?
And what do you mean by “open for business”, Captain Haruki? We still need a sponsor teacher, and I don’t think there’s anyone who’d want to get involved in something like this. No one normal, anyway.
When I looked, Nagato-san had already gone back to his corner, reading once again. Are you sure you're fine with being counted as a member, Nagato-san?
You sure you’re okay with that?