[FFML] The Shadow over Nishinomiya

[Henry Cobb]

A full chapter one rewrite, using some of Michael Clark's suggestions
and adding lots of additional material.

The Shadow over Nishinomiya, chapter one
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 Suzumiya threw open the door. "See, there's
nobody here!"

I tried to adjust my eyes to the gloom in the room. Other than the
illumination from the hall, there was only a small glimmer 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," 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 huge fabric covered
reading chair that the girl sat in, with her legs folded under her, there
were four folding chairs around a table and bookshelves along one
wall. These were filled with what seemed to be very old books. There were
titles in East Asian, European, Russian, Arabic and Hebrew scripts. Some of
the books had patterns on their spines that may have either been strange
icons or perhaps scripts for languages I had never 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. I saw my and Haruhi's footprints from the door to our current
positions, but no footprints leading to the girl's chair. How long had she
been sitting there?

"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.

I found her shoes under her chair, in the dust and covered in dust. I used
the handle of the mop to scoot these out of the way so I could mop under
her chair. I carefully avoided looking up her skirt as I did so, but she
seemed to take no notice of my actions.

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 after PE I was washing up with my old friend Taniguchi when he
asked me, "so, are you still with Haruhi?"

"I suppose."

"That's a new record then."

"What?"

"Every boy at our junior high dumped her."

That was a bit harsh of joke, even for Taniguchi, so I decided to press the
point. "Are you saying she's a slut?"

"As far as I know she's never been kissed. It'd be okay if she'd just close
her eyes, but the look in them. It's no wonder half the boys ran away
screaming. Then the next one would decide that the rest of us were wimps
and ask her out, only to flee himself." Taniguchi shuddered with a classic
look of mock horror.

"Yeah, yeah," I said. He'd always been such a joker, but it was unlike him
to insult a girl he had acknowledged to be good looking.

"When you get burned, don't go crying to Miss Asakura. She's the real
wonder at our school and I'm going to make her mine."

"Oh, what's that about me?"

I turned, our class president Ryoko Asakura was standing there in her PE
outfit. I must not have heard her approach, over the distant noise of the
other students. Taniguchi seemed flustered so I made an excuse for him. "My
friend Taniguchi here was just commenting on your amazing running time,
Miss Asakura. Perhaps he'll ask you out to tea sometime?"

"You are too kind, Mr. Taniguchi." She smiled and bowed, then turned to
me. "But it's nice that you're getting along so well with
Miss. Suzumiya. She seemed so alienated from the class."

Well with an introduction speech that asked to meet with creatures from out
of time, from other worlds, or with strange abilities, who wouldn't be?

"Excuse me please," I bowed and left them.

On my way back to the classrooms I considered the other strange story that
Taniguchi had told me about Haruhi, that she had been found babbling
deliriously one morning in the middle of a giant chalk drawing she had made
in the quad at their junior high. I knew she was a little unusual, but it
was unlike Taniguchi to slander somebody so. I suspected that he was the
boy she had dumped, and that this had left him with a bitter feeling
towards her. I just wished that our friendship had warranted some honesty
from him.

After classes 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.

But one thing bothered me. Her shoes had not moved from the spot I had
shoved them to the previous day. She still sat in the big chair with her
legs folded under her. With the padding on the chair that looked to be a
fairly comfortable position for one so small, but didn't she ever go home?

"What were you doing in here, before we came in yesterday?" I asked her.

"I was taking a nap."

For what, months, years? I didn't ask the questions whose answers I was
unprepared to accept.

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 and asked, "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 the 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."

Haruhi then announced that we would be called the SOS Brigade.

I recognized the international distress signal, and thought it quite
fitting.

I had just taken my seat in the classroom the next morning when Haruhi said
from behind me, "I found out why Yuki wasn't attending classes."

I turned towards her. "Yes?"

"The school had her records mixed up with another student of the same name
who started here a decade ago. Can you imagine that, they're still working
on the same records they had then, and they haven't even changed the school
uniforms in all this time."

"Well, isn't this the sort of mystery you formed the SOS brigade to solve?"

"What mystery? It's just a bureaucratic mix up. They didn't even have a
residence on file for her, so she's going home to your house tonight."

"What?"

"Don't worry, I've already cleared it with your mom. You're excused from
Brigade activities today so you can get her settled in."

Miss Nagato followed me home silently that afternoon. I had to turn back a
few times to make sure that she was there, because I didn't even hear her
footsteps.

I opened the door and stood aside for her.

My little sister ran out. "Are you Yuki?"

Miss Nagato nodded.

"We're going to be roommates from now on! You can call me little sister,
big sister Yuki."

"Understood." Miss Nagato blinked.

"Oh, you poor thing." My mother grabbed Miss Nagato and hugged her
tightly. "To lose your entire family in a fire and be left with just the
clothes on your back. Let's go shopping to get you a few things."

"Can I come along too?" My sister asked.

"You don't mind, Yuki?" My mother asked the creature she held.

"No."

I had seen Haruhi pull scams in person, but to make this sale over the
phone? She had a brilliant career in telemarketing ahead of her.

At supper Miss Nagato ate very little and slowly while my sister talked to
her about the random things she found of interest.

I slept poorly that night, waking to jump at shadows. In the morning I
fell out of bed as my alarm clock rang. I looked to my door. My sister did
not burst into my room, as was her habit, so I made my way silently to her
room and carefully opened the door.

There was a sleeping bag laid out next to my sister's bed, but it had
clearly been unused. I looked over to her bed where my sister was uncurling
herself from Miss Nagato's arms.

"Morning, Kyon."

"Why didn't you come wake me?" I asked.

"Oh, sorry. We were up late last night while big sister Yuki told me
stories."

"Why didn't I hear anything?"

"She whispered them, you dummy! She didn't want to bother anybody else."

As Miss Nagato rose, I saw that she was only in her bra and panties and
quickly made my exit.

After breakfast we three walked together for a while, with my sister
holding Miss Nagato's hand, which she reluctantly let go when we got to her
school.

"Have a good time at school today, big sister Yuki, and you too Kyon."

I walked alongside Miss Nagato in silence for a while then decided to
strike up a conversation. "My sister seems to really like you."

"She is interesting."

"Sorry about peeping in like that this morning, I just wanted to see how
you two were getting along."

She said nothing so I stretched for something to say. "I only caught a
glimpse, but have you ever considered how you might look without your
glasses?"

"Poorly. The refractive indices of water and air differ."

Was that meant to be some explanation for how the eye worked?

In the clubroom after classes, Haruhi announced that our operations
required a computer and so led us three to the nearby computer club
room. She threw open the door and pointed to one of them, "You are the
computer club president, correct?"

"Yes." He stood. "What is the meaning of this?"

"The SOS Brigade requires a computer." She grabbed his necktie and stared
into his eyes in a manner to which I myself was all too well
accustomed. "Provide us your newest one."

"What are you people?" His eyes passed over Mikuru, Miss Nagato and myself,
before getting trapped in Haruhi's gaze. "We can't just give away the
computers we've worked so hard for."

"You will." Haruhi leaned in closer and followed as he took a step back.

"No. No." He backed into a corner and slid down.

Haruhi bent down at the waist to follow him, and jerked on his necktie to
get him to look up at her. "Well?"

"Take what you like! Just leave me alone!"

Haruhi released him and he dropped his head to his knees, with his arms
crossed over his head. The rest of his club remained in their seats. They
looked at him then flinched away as she scanned the room.

Haruhi pulled a list from her pocket and said, "let's see, which of these
match to the newest PC models. Hmmm. Okay Kyon, detach this one and bring
it to the clubroom."

"No, not the newest one!" The computer club president complained from his
corner.

"Yes?" Haruhi looked over at him.

"Okay! Take it. It's our gift to you." He collapsed again and sobbed loudly
until we left the room with our loot.

Later I pointed out that our clubroom did not have Internet access so
Haruhi paid the computer club another visit and they were soon stringing
wiring for our connection.

That evening as we were preparing for bed, I walked into the only bathroom
in our house and stopped.

Miss Nagato was shampooing my sister's hair. Each of her fingers moved
independently, twitching to unheard, unworldly music.

"Kyon, you pervert!" My sister screamed, "stop staring at me!"

"Oh, sorry." I left and closed the door.

That night I watched the shadows in my room as sleep eluded me. I think I
finally nodded off for a bit then startled as I noticed my door was
opening. There was a figure in the doorway that closed the door behind
itself and then crept silently through the gloom. From the outline and size
I assumed it must be Miss Nagato. The only sound was a slight creak from my
chair as she turned it around to face me and then sat down in it.

"You are awake." She stated it as a comment, not a question.

"Yes." I turned my head towards her. From the small amount of light
entering through the window I could see that she wore only her bra and
presumably panties. I admit that I had entertained the possibility of
sneaking a mostly naked girl into my room at night, but I swear that my
fantasies had only been about human girls. "What do you think you're doing
in a boy's room in the middle of the night? What if my parents find out?"

"What is your concern? Is it that? Do not worry. Our kinds are biologically
compatible, and you seem to be suitable, but there is no time for that at
the moment."

"Oh." Suddenly she had spoken more than she ever had before. What was this,
was she coming on to me?

"What is your assessment of Haruhi Suzumiya?"

Was she trying to judge my feelings for the other girl to weigh her
chances? I considered saying something along the lines that unlike Haruhi
I'd only consider dating humans, but I didn't want to insult her into
making a fuss in my room so I said, "she was the strangest student I had
ever met." I left the "until I met you" part unspoken.

"Acceptable." She stood next to my bed and put a hand to her glasses. "We
do have a few hours until your sister awakes. If you like."

"No! I need to get some sleep. It's a school day tomorrow."

"Very well, over the weekend then." She walked to my door and closed it
silently behind her.

I lay there watching that door for what seemed like a long time before I
dozed off.

In the morning when the alarm clock awoke me, I considered the conversation
of the previous night to be all a dream, until I looked over at my desk
chair. It was exactly in the spot where Miss Nagato had left it.

-HJC