Chapter Text
It all began on the Thursday of the first week of my second year of high school. Ever since Yuki rewrote the universe and I was given the ever-grand task of changing it back, nothing truly out of the ordinary had happened to us, and we had enjoyed a few months of blissful peace. Within that time, not much had changed for us in the still-standing SOS Brigade. Okay, I wouldn't say that, exactly. I would say that we had gotten a lot... closer over the past few months. We had reached the point where we now all called each other by our first names, though everyone still insisted on calling me by my nickname "Kyon". I'd long gotten used to the possibility that people will probably never stop calling me that. Haruhi grew out her hair over the past month and tied it in a ponytail (which she'd never admit is because I suggested it) and had stopped treating Mikuru like her property, though she still forced her into outfits without her consent on occasion. Furthermore, Yuki had been opening up more and more to the rest of us and Itsuki wasn't quite so flippant and obnoxious. Closed spaces were at an all-time low, the Data Overmind hadn't tried anything fishy, and there was no strange time-travelling incidents to note, with the older Mikuru having made no appearances. As a whole, I can say that, for the first time since my high school life started, things were very much normal, or at least as normal as it gets for a guy who hangs out with an alien, time-traveller, esper and reality-warping entity on a daily basis. But all of that was about to change the moment I opened the door to my classroom.
When I first opened the door, I saw Haruhi arguing with our classmate Taniguchi, who had been mysteriously absent since the school year started.
"Listen, I don't know what business you have here and I don't care. Leave now!" Taniguchi said to Haruhi.
"What do you mean 'what business I have here'? This is my class, dummy." Haruhi replied in annoyance.
I thought it looked kind of strange, so I walked over to see just what was going on.
"I won't say it again. You have to leave."
"What is up with you? Did you hit your head or something?"
"No! Well, yes, but that's not the point!"
"Something wrong here?" I interjected.
"Oh, Kyon, thank goodness you're here." Taniguchi said in a tone of relief that I couldn't make any sense of. "This crazy girl has been sitting here all morning. I keep telling her to leave, but she says that she's in our class."
"She is." I replied. "This is Haruhi Suzumiya. You told us about her."
Taniguchi looked at me then at Haruhi, but still looked as confused as before. "What? No, I'm telling you I've never seen her before in my life."
"Jesus, Taniguchi!" I replied incredulously, holding my hair back in shock as I spoke. "You miss a few days of school and you forget about your classmates? I would be one thing, but you two have been in the same class since your first year in middle school."
"What? We've known each other for that long?" Taniguchi asked in surprise.
"Hello, we all hung out together only last week." I reminded him, before showing a picture on my phone showing the three of us at an amusement park, along with Yuki, Itsuki, Mikuru, Tsuruya and Kunikida. "See?"
"What the?" Taniguchi gasped, impulsively taking my phone in shock. "I mean, I do remember us going to an amusement park, but I don't remember her being there."
"Well, she was." I said. "After all, she's the one who founded our crazy club in the first place."
"Something you want to say to me?" Haruhi asked in a threatening tone.
"No, not really." I replied nonchalantly. As annoying as I often found Haruhi, I still had the good sense to know when I had overstepped my boundaries.
It was then that Kunikida, my classmate since middle school, came into the classroom and walked over to us.
"Morning." he said before turning to Taniguchi. "Taniguchi, you're back! Though, what are you doing near Kyon and Suzumiya's desks? Your desk is on the other side of the classroom."
"Taniguchi has a bad case of memory loss." I snarked. "He claims to have never seen Haruhi before in his life."
"Seriously?!" Kunikida replied, looking just as confused as I was. "Taniguchi, you've known her for four years! I know you hit your head when falling down the stairs, but was that really enough to get amnesia?"
If this was amnesia it was a very specific kind of it. Haruhi seemed to be the only person he didn't remember.
"Wait, did you say that Taniguchi fell down the stairs?" I asked.
"Uh, yeah." Kunikida replied. "It happened a couple of days after we went to the amusement park. That's why he hasn't come in until today."
"And where and how did this happen?" I asked Taniguchi.
"I... can't remember." Taniguchi replied. "The whole event is very blurry."
Strange. I had been wondering why Taniguchi had missed the first few days of the new school year. While that did explain it, it didn't explain why he suddenly forgot everything about Haruhi, of all people. After all, he had once claimed that he wouldn't forget her in 50 years even if he tried to. Granted, that was in a different reality, but the point still stood regardless. As I sat down at the desk in front of Haruhi's and class began, I could only hope that I was overthinking the whole thing, and there was a simple, mundane explanation to all of this.
Eventually, the school day ended, which meant that it was time for us to head on to the club room. It was then that I realised that this was the perfect opportunity to try and make sense of what happened earlier. The moment the bell rang, I turned to Haruhi and asked her if she wanted to go to the club room together, and thankfully she agreed. As we walked to the club room, I struck up a conversation.
"Don't you think that was kind of weird?" I asked Haruhi. "Taniguchi suddenly forgetting you like that? I mean, you're not exactly the kind of person one easily forgets."
Haruhi shook her head. "Not really. I mean, yeah, as you said, we've been classmates ever since our first year in middle school but we were never really friends. Hell, I barely even spoke to him until last year. He's not like you, Yuki, Mikuru and Itsuki."
"You consider us your friends?" I asked.
"Are you seriously asking me that?!" Haruhi responded, acting as though I had said something completely ridiculous. "This past year I've had with all of you has been the happiest of my life in a long time. We've done more fun and cool things in the past year than I did in all my years of middle school. Every day I look back on the day when I got the idea to form the SOS Brigade, and realise how glad I am that you suggested it to me, since it means that we all got to meet and do all of this stuff together."
She neglected to mention that my "suggestion" amounted to me making a speech about how those who aren't satisfied with what they have are generally the ones who invent things and make discoveries, which she took as meaning she should make a club of her own. Though while her answer was pretty solid overall, that did lead me to another question.
"Then how come you never say 'Thank you' whenever I do something for you, like when I went down to the village in the freezing cold to buy a radiator and carried it all the way up to the club room?"'
At those words, Haruhi gave me an incredulous look. "So the fact that I waited in the club room for you to wake up instead of just leaving you there isn't showing I was grateful? I had to say two meaningless words on top of that? Anyone can say those words and not actually mean them. Showing someone you're grateful is a lot better than telling them, don't you think?"
"For most people, saying 'Thank you' is a perfectly valid way of showing gratitude." I pointed out.
"Well, I'm not 'most people', am I?" Haruhi retorted.
I thought about what she said for a second, then spoke again. "You're right, you're not."
Haruhi didn't have anything to say in response to that, and before we knew it, we were right outside the door to the club room of the SOS Brigade (actually the club room of the Literature Club that was hijacked by Haruhi early last year with Yuki's permission). Without us exchanging another word, I opened the door and we walked in. Upon entering the room, we conveniently found all three of the other SOS Brigade members waiting there for us- Yuki was reading a book in the corner of the room as usual, Mikuru was serving tea while wearing a new maid outfit Haruhi bought her for the new school year (a sexy black-and-white one that fit her perfectly, I have no problem saying) and Itsuki was sitting at the table in the middle of the room shuffling a deck of cards, just in case anybody wished to play a hand with him. With all members present, Haruhi whipped out her whiteboard and began the day's club meeting.
"Attention, all club members!" Haruhi declared in her typical bossy tone. "It has been one whole year since the grand formation of the SOS Brigade! However, we still-"
"May I interject?" I asked, raising my hand as I spoke.
Haruhi sighed. "Fine. What did you want to say?"
"Well, I just want to point out it hasn't really been a whole year since the Brigade's formation." I said. "You didn't even decide to form the thing until May, and even then it wasn't until the end of the month that it was officially approved of by the school, so in actuality about ten and a half months have passed."
"And?" Haruhi glared. "You really think I care about a technicality like that? If you're going to interrupt me, make sure you have something useful to say." Having thoroughly crushed my spirit with her harsh words, Haruhi continued on with her grand speech. "Anyway, as I was saying, it has been one whole year since the grand formation of the SOS Brigade! However, we still are nowhere closer to our ultimate objective- to find aliens, time-travellers and espers!"
Actually, that goal had been accomplished before the brigade was even officially formed. Not that Haruhi knew that, of course. Yuki, Mikuru and Itsuki were all adamant on making sure that Haruhi never learned what they really were.
"As such, it is time for us to pick up the pace, and come up with things for us to do during the new school year." Haruhi continued. "So, today we will spend an hour or so brainstorming and coming up with any ideas that pop into our head." She looked around and saw that my hand was raised again. "What is it this time?"
"Look, it hasn't even been one week since the school year began." I pointed out. "Last year, we pretty much made up stuff as we went along. So, why do we need to do something like this now?"
"Are you nuts?" Haruhi replied. "It's precisely because it's so early in the year that we need to do this now. Time can never be regained once it's lost, so it's important to figure out everything we want to do over the year so we don't have a single regret!"
I facepalmed. "You win. Can't argue with that logic."
When I removed my hand from my forehead, I saw Mikuru holding a cup of tea in front of me. "Oh, thank you." I said, taking the cup from her.
"Now," Haruhi continued. "we need to figure out how we're going to decide what to do! Any suggestions?"
"Didn't you say we would make a sequel to our movie for this year's cultural festival?" Mikuru asked.
"I did, but then I thought we could make a completely different movie." Haruhi replied. "I looked back on the one we made last year, and realised that a lot of things about it were really sloppy and didn't make any sense."
Understatement of the year.
"I have a suggestion." Itsuki piped up, holding up his deck of cards. "How about we play a game of poker? The winner of each hand will write down an activity of their choosing. Not only will it narrow down possible ideas, but it'll entertain us for today, so it'll be like killing two birds with one stone."
"I'm down for that." I agreed before turning to the girls. "Are you on board with this?"
"Sure, why not?" Haruhi smiled. "Yuki, come over here. We're going to play poker."
"I don't care what we do." Yuki replied, not even looking up from her book as she spoke. "You all go ahead."
"We can't have that!" Mikuru said. "You're a part of the club, so you have as much a right to choose what to do as any of us."
Yuki looked up from her book. "If you insist."
While the girls were talking, I walked over to Itsuki and whispered into his ear. "Itsuki, there's something I have to talk to you about."
"I assume it's something you don't want Haruhi overhearing?" Itsuki whispered back.
"Exactly." I replied. "And I'm sure you'll agree with me once I tell you what it is. Can you find some way for us to leave the club room together for a while?"
Itsuki nodded. "I'll see what I can do."
Once all five of us were gathered around the table, Itsuki dealt us our cards. We looked at our hands and began exchanging cards. Itsuki and Mikuru both folded, while Yuki revealed that she had two pairs. Haruhi revealed that she had a flush and seemed certain of her victory until...
"As they always say, read 'em and weep." I declared, throwing down my hand and revealing that I had three of a kind and a pair. "Full house!"
While Haruhi, being the sore loser that she was, got annoyed at me besting her, she nevertheless relented and handed me a pen and piece of paper for me to write down my chosen activity. And the activity I chose was...
"Bowling?" Haruhi questioned, the disappointment evident on her face and in her voice. "I agreed to allow you to choose what to do and that's the best you could come up with? We went bowling only last summer."
"Yeah, and I want to do it again." I replied. "I like bowling, and I wish to have a chance to beat you this time."
Haruhi then sported her trademark grin. "Oh, I can't back down after hearing you say that. Bowling, it is."
By this point, I knew more than enough about Haruhi to know how to get her to cave in to my desires. As the winner of the last round, I was designated the new dealer for the second hand. Before I could deal the first card, however, Itsuki got up from the table. "I think I'll go to get some snacks. We don't want any of us getting hungry during this."
"Have Kyon do it." Haruhi said, pointing to me as she spoke. "He's the one who's supposed to do the heavy-lifting."
"Then how about I go with him?" Itsuki suggested. "Some extra hands wouldn't hurt, right?"
Haruhi sighed in resignation. "Fine. But don't be gone too long."
With that, the two of us left the club room, then mutually exchanged a nod with each other. Itsuki had bought us some valuable time, and I was going to make sure we used every second of it.
After we had bought some snacks for the group, Itsuki and I sat down in the courtyard (the same one where Itsuki revealed his identity to me). Without wasting any time, I jumped right into what I wished to discuss.
"Taniguchi came into class today." I began.
"Normally, I would say that's a good thing, but judging by the look on your face, I'd say there's more to it." Itsuki replied.
I nodded and then continued. "For some reason, he's completely forgotten everything about Haruhi. When I first came into the classroom, he was talking to her like she was a complete stranger, and outright claimed to have never seen her before in his life."
"I see." Itsuki said, sounding oddly cheerful about the whole situation. "That is most unusual."
"You're telling me." I responded. "Taniguchi has known Haruhi for three years longer than any of us have. Hell, he's the one who told me all about her in the first place, so it makes no sense for him to completely forget her, even if he did hit his head."
"I'll need you to elaborate on that last part." Itsuki said.
"According to Kunikida, Taniguchi fell down some stairs and hit his head, which is why he hasn't been in school until today." I explained. "However, he doesn't seem to know where or how it happened."
Itsuki sat back with his arms folded, supposedly to contemplate all that I had said, then he spoke again. "It seems that we've got a real mystery on our hands."
"Well, it's not exactly a mystery, is it?" I replied. "I mean, Haruhi obviously is the one who caused this."
"Do you have any proof of that?" Itsuki questioned.
"How about the fact that 99% of the crazy things that have happened in the past year have always involved her in some capacity?" I responded.
"No faith in that 1%?" Itsuki challenged, his tone getting on my nerves. "I will admit that she seems like the most obvious suspect in this, but that doesn't automatically mean she's responsible. Think about it; every time Haruhi has changed reality, it's always because she has something to gain from whatever changes are made. Can you think of anything she would have to gain from erasing Taniguchi's memories of her?"
While I'd be lying if I said I was thrilled about being challenged, Itsuki was right. Haruhi wouldn't have had anything to gain from erasing Taniguchi's memories, especially considering she barely gave him the time of day as it was. And it wouldn't be the first time I thought she was behind some strange phenomenon and it turned out to be caused by someone else. I just latched on to Haruhi being the cause because it seemed like the most convenient explanation. And as annoying as it was to be hearing this from Itsuki of all people (who himself used the idea that Haruhi created aliens, time-travellers and espers as a convenient explanation as to why he suddenly discovered his esper powers three- sorry, four years ago), that didn't make what he was saying any less true.
"So, what do you think caused Taniguchi's memory loss?" I asked.
"Well, for all we know, he doesn't have any memory loss." Itsuki suggested. "For all we know, he could be faking the whole thing as a way of messing with her. I mean, given Taniguchi's personality and what you've told me about his history with Haruhi, I wouldn't put it past him."
I had to admit, Itsuki's theory did seem to be pretty solid. After all, of all the people in the school who had a bone to pick with Haruhi, Taniguchi ranked near the top of the list, surpassed perhaps only by the president of the Computer Club.
"So, what you're basically saying is that we should do nothing?" I asked.
"I'm saying we should assume 'innocent until proven guilty'." Itsuki corrected. "We don't yet have enough proof that Haruhi is the one behind this, so if we try to do something about it now, we'll probably just make it worse. So for now, we should let sleeping dogs lie. Best case scenario, the problem will resolve itself, but if things stay the same or get worse, then we will take action."
It was strange, but upon hearing Itsuki's words, my body suddenly felt a lot lighter. It was as though a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders.
I smiled. "You know, Itsuki, I used to find it really annoying how you constantly go with the flow, but now I realise that laid-back attitude of yours is the only thing that's kept me sane all this time."
"Is that so? Well, I'm glad to hear it." Itsuki laughed lightly. "Anyway, we'd better get back to the club room. We stay here much longer, and the girls will start wondering where we are."
Once we returned to the club room, we played four more hands of poker, which each member except me conveniently winning one, so each of them wrote down an activity for the new school year- Haruhi wanted to go mountain climbing, Itsuki wanted to go fishing, Mikuru wanted to do karaoke and Yuki...
"I can't think of anything I want to do." she said nonchalantly. "You all pick something."
"Sorry, can't do that." I said firmly. "We all agreed that whomever won each hand would pick something, and you won the last hand. None of us can make the decision for you."
"Just jot down the first thing that pops into your head." Haruhi suggested. "It doesn't matter what it is."
"The first thing that..." Yuki began, but then she took the paper and pen and wrote down something, then showed it to us.
"A science museum?" Haruhi said in surprise. "I would never have thought of that."
"It makes sense, though." Mikuru noted. "She really enjoyed it when we went to the planetarium at the amusement park."
"I did?" Yuki asked.
"Yeah, you looked really happy." Itsuki told her.
I smiled as they recalled that memory. Given that Yuki was an alien, it made sense that she was into space and everything related. With all of us having taken down our suggestions, Haruhi declared the meeting officially over and we all went home. I had to admit, I was looking forward to all the crazy stuff we would get up to in the next few weeks. If anything, it would help me take my mind off what was happening with Taniguchi. Even so, the question of exactly what was going on still lingered in the back of my mind, and I know Itsuki felt the same way. Little did we realise just how much worse things would end up getting in the following weeks.