The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya Read Free Page B

Elder’s hand lay softly on the nape of my lovely upperclassman’s neck.
    “I put her to sleep.”
    The adult Asahina stroked her younger self’s head sadly.
    “She mustn’t learn that I am here. I had to make sure that wouldn’t happen.”
    My Asahina breathed softly as she slept, her head pillowed on my unconscious self’s slack arm.
    “I have to stay a secret to her.”
    Asahina’s sleeping face looked exactly like it had on that park bench at Tanabata three years ago. The reasoning was likewise the same—Asahina the Elder didn’t want to reveal herself to her past self. Catching a glimpse of her from behind was one thing, but if we’d gotten close, the older Asahina’s identity would’ve been obvious.
    “…”
    Nagato knelt on one knee, putting her hand to the spot on“my” torso where I’d been knifed. That’s obviously what saved me. In any case, the bleeding stopped, and “my” face looked a little less pallid. So it
had
been Nagato who’d healed my wound.
    Nagato stood without ceremony, then held out her hand and spoke.
    “Give it.”
    I silently handed her the gun. I hadn’t been able to do anything with it, anyway. I just couldn’t make myself do it. I didn’t want to pull the trigger on any Nagato, at any time.
    Nagato took the gun unconcernedly, then aimed it at her collapsed, glasses-wearing other self and pulled the trigger.
    “…”
    There was no sound, and I saw nothing miraculous fire from the gun, but—
    “…”
    Nagato (glasses) blinked, then got slowly to her feet. She stood there, ramrod-straight, very much like the Nagato I knew so well—not the girl who had given me the application form for her club, tugged hesitantly on my sleeve, and smiled shyly and faintly.
    As though to confirm my thoughts, that Nagato smoothly removed her glasses, then after glancing to me with her own eyes, locked her emotionless gaze on her other self.
    “Request synchronization.”
    The two Nagatos stared each other down. This incident included, I’d had several occasions to see my other self. My retinas had also been graced with the sight of both Asahina the Younger and Elder. But this was the first time I’d seen two of Nagato, and it was strangely moving. Magnificent, even.
    “Request synchronization,” the gunshot Nagato repeated. The Nagato holding the pistol responded immediately.
    “Denied.”
    Even I thought this was weird—to say nothing of the Nagato who now held her glasses in her hand. Her eyebrows moved a millimeter. “Why?”
    “I do not wish to.”
    I was stunned. Had Nagato ever so clearly expressed a preference? It wasn’t an excuse. She had definitively and unambiguously spoken words of emotional refusal.
    “…”
    The other Nagato fell silent, as though in deep thought.
    “…”
    The night wind ruffled her hair.
    The Nagato who had come back from the future with me spoke.
    “You will reset the world changes you effected.”
    “Understood,” said the other Nagato, but then continued on to say, “I cannot detect the existence of the Data Overmind.”
    “It is not here,” replied my Nagato indifferently. “I am still connected to the Data Overmind in my own space-time. I will effect the reversion of changes.”
    “Understood,” said past-Nagato.
    “After the reversion,” continued my Nagato, “take whatever actions you wish.”
    The newly repaired other Nagato looked to me, her head cocked ever so slightly. I was certain of the invisible information her expression revealed. Nobody understands Nagato’s feelings the way I do.
    This Nagato is
that
Nagato. The Nagato who appeared at the hospital that night—that is her. The one who made me so angry by claiming that her punishment was being debated.
    I also understood why the Nagato who came from the future with me rejected synchronization. She doesn’t want to tell her current self what action to take, when the time comes.
    Why, you ask? It goes without saying.
    Thank you
—the words I heard from Nagato