[FFML] The Shadow over Nishinomiya

[Henry Cobb]

The Shadow over Nishinomiya
By Henry J. Cobb

[My apologies to the obvious original authors, whose works should never be
combined.]

"The Supernatural Phenomenon Research Club?" I read aloud the crude
handwritten sign over the door, uncertain if I had deciphered it correctly.

"Well, not anymore!" Haruhi threw open the door, "See, there's nobody
here!"

I tried to adjust my eyes to the gloom in the room. Other than the light
from the hall, there was only a small sliver of light from the far side,
where the curtains did not quite meet. Under that far light hunched a
figure that now looked up with enormous circular eyes. After a moment I
realized that these must be glasses, worn by a diminutive figure, with
distances so hard to judge in the darkness.

Haruhi stepped inside and felt along the wall. She flipped a switch, but
the shadows remained unlit, "It's burned out?"

"Uh, excuse me," I said to the dweller in darkness, "Do you know where the
members of the Supernatural Phenomenon Research Club are?"

"They did not return," The speaker sounded female. She whispered hoarsely
as if she had not been called on to use her voice for a long while.

"They must have all graduated or something," Haruhi made her way carefully
into the gloom, until she reached the curtains on the far side, which she
threw open.

The shadowy figure flinched away from the light, and covered her face with
a book. She wore the proper uniform for a freshman girl at our North High
School, but she was so slight that she could have easily have passed for a
junior high school student of three years younger. Her short hair however
was of a silver gray hue to be expected from a woman many decades older.

I walked to within a few steps of the young/old girl and asked, "Do you
know when the club members will be back?"

"They did not return," She looked at me and blinked once. It was as if she
expected that I had simply not heard what she considered to be a complete
explanation the first time.

"So, you are the only remaining member of the club?" Haruhi asked her.

"Yes," The gray haired girl went back to reading her book.

"See Kyon," Haruhi turned to me, "The club will close if she doesn't get
more members, so we're doing her a favor."

I took a moment to look around the room. Besides the chair the girl sat in,
there were four other chairs around a table and bookshelves along one wall,
that were filled with what seemed to be very old books. Some of the book
titles were in East Asian scripts, some were in European scripts, mostly
English, German and some Russian, a few were in Arabic and Hebrew, and some
were in scripts I had not seen before.

Everything was covered in dust. The school janitorial staff must not have
visited this room for months, perhaps years. I looked down at the
floor. There were three sets of footprints in the dust from three different
shoe sizes. I saw my and Haruhi's footprints from the door to our current
positions, and many smaller prints from that girl's chair to the
bookshelves and back. Haruhi and I must have covered exactly her steps that
she took to the door and back each day.

"So what is your name?" Haruhi asked the girl.

"Yuki Nagato," The girl responded from behind her book.

"Well, I'm Haruhi Suzumiya and this is Kyon. We'll be using this room from
now on and we'd like to welcome you to our club."

Wasn't that the other way around? I thought, shouldn't we be the ones
asking to join her club?

Haruhi waited in vain for Miss Nagato to respond to her invitation, then
looked around the room, "Well it's a bit of a fixer-upper, but it is the
only available clubroom so let's get to work," She stopped and looked up,
"Strange."

I followed Haruhi's gaze up to the ceiling, past the cobwebs. The light
fixture was lacking not only a cover, but also the lights themselves.

"Well, no wonder the lights don't work," Haruhi grabbed my necktie, "Come
along Kyon. We'll find everything you need in the janitorial supplies."

Thirty minutes later, after standing on the table to replace the lights, I
was using the mop and bucket Haruhi had borrowed to clean the floor. I had
considered telling her to have me start by dusting so that I wouldn't have
to redo the mopping after the dust had settled, but I didn't want to
suggest to her additional tasks I should do.

"So Miss Nagato, what's that book like?" I asked the girl who had continued
to read through all this.

She held the book up towards the sting of the uncovered florescents. The
title seemed to be in Arabic or something. She went back to reading and I
went back to mopping.

When I returned home, my grade school sister looked me over then remarked,
"What's with all the dust Kyon? Have you been exploring forgotten tombs
again? Just kidding. I know you never do anything interesting," She ran off
to her room laughing.

Just once, I'd like her to call me big brother again.

The next day I sat in the slightly more livable clubroom and did my
homework while I waited for Haruhi to show up. Miss Nagato had flinched
again when I had turned on the lights and then ignored my greeting when I
noticed she was there. She was reading another book. This time the cover
title was in German. How many languages did she know? She must be one of
those reclusive kid geniuses you read about from time to time. Perhaps she
was junior school aged, of normal height for her age, and just a few grades
advanced.

Haruhi arrived, dragging in a girl who was slighter than herself, even
though she was wearing a sophomore uniform, "Our newest member, Mikuru
Asahina!"

"Where did you kidnap her from?" I asked.

"I found her wandering around the school in a daze," Haruhi turned to her
captive, "What sort of after class activities do you have Mikuru?"

"I'm a miko in training."

"Well quit that and join our club!"

"I can't, it's our family shrine!"

"Very well, just bring your miko outfit tomorrow so you can save time by
changing here."

"And why do you want her to do that?" I asked.

"It's these giant boobs!" Haruhi reached from behind to grab Mikuru's
bosom, "Can you imagine what sort of evil spirits it must attract to have
them spilling out of a miko outfit?"

"You are the only evil spirit here," I said as I pried Haruhi off Mikuru,
"Now stop that. Sexually abusing a miko is bound to get you cursed."

I bent down to where Mikuru was sobbing on the ground and helped her to her
feet, "Don't listen to Haruhi. You do not have to join if you just don't
have time."

Mikuru sniffled and then looked around the room until her gaze settled wide
eyed on Miss Nagato, "There's something I need to take care of here."

"See!" Haruhi patted Mikuru on the back, "She's fine with joining, fine."

A few days later Haruhi almost jumped out of her seat when I entered our
classroom at the start of the day, "He's here!"

"Who is here?" I put my bag on my desk peg.

"The mysterious transfer student!"

"And what makes him so mysterious?"

"He transferred from a catholic school. Can you imagine what he'd have to do
to get kicked out of a catholic school?"

"Insult a nun?"

-HJC