The Wavering of Haruhi Suzumiya Read Free Page B

mysterious group seemed to have taken their places. The audience murmured, and as I looked on, dumbfounded, the bassist and drummer nervously tinkered with their instruments; Nagato did not so much as move to play her guitar. Her face was as expressionless as it usually was.
    Haruhi placed what looked like sheet music on the music stand in front of her, then looked slowly over the auditorium. Given the darkness in which the audience sat, I doubted she saw me. Haruhi tapped the mic to make sure it was on, then turned around and said something to the drummer.
    There was no introduction and no stage patter. The drummer counted off the beat on her drumsticks, and the band was suddenly playing. The intro alone was enough to blow me away. Nagato’sguitar technique was up there with Mark Knopfler’s or Brian May’s. And I’d never heard the song before. No sooner did I think
What is this?
than Haruhi began singing, as if to deal me a final blow.
    Her voice was clear and bright—so clear and so bright it could’ve reached to the moon.
    But her eyes never wavered from the sheet music.
    I didn’t recover from my stunned state for the entire duration of the first song. I wondered if this was how a monster in an RPG feels when “Silence” has been cast on it.
    Onstage, Haruhi was mostly still as she stood there belting out the lyrics, but I guess it’s hard to read sheet music and dance at the same time.
    The first song wrapped up. Normally that’s when the audience would erupt into cheers and applause, but everybody else was just as stunned as I was.
    I had no idea how this had happened. It was strange enough to see Haruhi up there, but I was even more amazed by Nagato’s melodious guitar technique, and no doubt the other members of the pop music club were filled with the same questions I was. And the people in the audience who didn’t know who Haruhi was had to be wondering: Why a bunny girl?
    We were frozen like sailors aboard a tattered sailing vessel who’d just heard a siren’s song. When I looked more closely, I saw that the bassist and drummer were looking at Nagato and Haruhi with similar expressions. Apparently it wasn’t just the audience who’d been stunned.
    Haruhi just stood there staring straight ahead, but eventually her brow furrowed and she looked behind her. The drummer, chastened, hastily counted off the next song.
    Setting aside the various personages, the mysterious band was now on their third song.



Now that I’d finally gotten over the shock, I could appreciate the lyrics and music I was hearing. It was an up-tempo R&B number. The song was unfamiliar yet pleasant in my ears, and I had to admit it was pretty good. That might have been thanks to the absurdly good guitarist, but Haruhi was, well—how do I put this? Maybe I was too used to hearing her yelling all the time, but I had to admit she had an excellent singing voice.
    The rest of the audience, too, seemed to have shaken off its petrifaction and were now genuinely drawn toward the stage.
    When I thought to look around, I realized many more seats had filled up. My eye soon fell on one audience member in particular, who walked toward me wearing what looked like the civilian clothes of a knight of Denmark.
    “Hi there,” he said, coming in close to speak into my ear, perhaps concerned his voice would be lost in the loud music. “What exactly is going on here?”
    It was Koizumi.
    How the hell should I know? I shouted back to him in my head, glancing at his costume. You’re in a festival getup too, eh?
    “Changing clothes seemed like it would be a bit of a bother, so I came in my stage outfit.”
    And what’re you doing here?
    Koizumi looked over to Haruhi onstage pleasantly, then flicked his bangs.
    “Oh, I just heard some rumors.”
    So it’s a rumor already, eh?
    “Oh, yes. She’s wearing that outfit, after all, so it would be stranger if there weren’t rumors. People do talk.”
    Evidently, news that North High’s prize weirdo,