[FFML] [Lime] The Shadow over Nishinomiya, chapter two

[Henry Cobb]

The Shadow over Nishinomiya, chapter two
By Henry J. Cobb

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

On Friday morning I briefly considered ditching Miss Yuki Nagato somehow,
with either some sort of alternate route or by running uphill. I concluded
that she might just keep up with me. The only thing worse than being seen
walking to school with a monster girl, would of course being seen running
to school with a monster girl running along after me. She even kept by my
side as we went up the steps and at her classroom she whispered (far too
loudly for my nerves), "Kyon, I will see you in the clubroom this
afternoon, and then we can walk to our home together later."

As I entered my classroom I was at least comforted that this day couldn't
get any worse, as her threat to seduce me would only apply tonight at the
earliest.

I just taken my seat when Haruhi Suzumiya leaned over her desk to shout at
me, "he's here!"

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

"The mysterious transfer student!"

"And what makes him so mysterious?" I turned towards her, but as usual
avoided looking directly into her unsettling, insane gaze.

"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?"

"Oh, be serious."

At least she kept quiet during classes and then ran off to meet with the
new student at lunch. My friend Kunikida was brave enough to take Haruhi's
seat and we ate on her desk.

Kunikida was as sharp as usual. "Who's the girl who walked to school with
you today?"

"Yuki Nagato. She's an orphan we took in at my house."

"Is she your girlfriend?"

"She's in mourning." Keeping up Haruhi's lie seemed to be the only way to
avoid the sorry truth.

"Oh. Well at least Taniguchi seems to have a new girlfriend."

I glanced over my shoulder and saw that our classroom president, Ryoko
Asakura, was eating lunch with my old friend Taniguchi, instead of her
usual girl cronies. Then I turned back to Kunikida, "He was being a little
chicken, so I pushed him into it. I hope it works out for him."

"As long as it's not a repeat of what happened to you in middle school."

I glared at Kunikida and he pulled back then said, "Sorry."

We finished lunch in silence.

After classes I made my way to the Supernatural Phenomenon Research Club
room, opened the door and stopped.

Mikuru Asahina was taking off her blouse and I could see her bra. She froze
and looked at me.

"Excuse me!" I dashed outside, closed the clubroom door and stood next to
it.

A minute later I heard her voice, "Kyon, it's okay for you to come inside
now."

As I walked in I saw that Mikuru had changed to her miko uniform and that
our resident monster, Miss Nagato, was curled up in her comfy chair again
and was reading another of the old books from the club bookshelves. She was
still in her school uniform, jacket and all, with her school shoes under
her chair.

"Why the change of outfits?" I asked Mikuru.

"She insisted."

Mikuru didn't have to say which "She", and that "She" soon arrived with
another student in tow. It was that Catholic school student, Itsuki
Koizumi. In spite of this being his first day, he had our official school
uniform on. The only difference between the way he wore it, and our often
ignored regulations, was the silver chain and cross around his neck.

Itsuki's perfect smile only slipped for a moment, as his gaze fastened onto
Miss Nagato. Then that plastic smile returned as he patiently listened to
Haruhi's usual spiel about looking for creatures from out of time, from
other worlds, or with strange abilities. In spite of her invitation, he
agreed to join.

I resisted the temptation to point at the shortest occupant of the room,
who was sitting in the largest chair in the room, and shout to Haruhi,
"Look! There! That is the strange creature you are looking for!" It wasn't
that Miss Nagato was a guest in my home, but more along the lines of my
having tried and failed to get this point across to Haruhi before.

Haruhi then walked to the computer desk and stood on the office chair she
had swiped, along with the other computer gear, from the terrorized
computer club. She looked us over for a moment, then recited our minuscule
successes and ordered that we meet at nine a.m. the next morning at the
train station to go hunt for mysteries beyond human understanding.

For once I was relieved that somebody had forced an early weekend
appointment on me. This meant that I at least had an excuse to sleep on
Friday night, by myself.

After the meeting, Miss Nagato was as good as her word and walked alongside
me. I couldn't complain too much. We were going to the same house after
all. I felt the glances of the other students on us and then an especially
strong feeling from behind. I glanced back and saw Miss Asakura, who
suddenly turned away and started walking.

Miss Nagato had stopped at the same time I had and then continued alongside
me for a few steps before whispering in her usual horse voice, "She knows."

Well of course Miss Asakura knew. The one and only person, outside my
family, who couldn't tell at a glance that Miss Nagato was not human, was
the one who was looking for monsters, our Miss Haruhi Suzumiya.

Miss Nagato continued to follow me inside my house. I turned to her and
said, "this is my room. Why are you following me?"

"Your mother said that you needed help with your schoolwork."

I wondered if the problem would be more my inability to concentrate on my
studies alone in my room with her, or her own agenda for activities to
do. I shouted, "Sis, do you have homework this weekend?"

"I'll do it on Sunday." My sister didn't look away from the television.

"Miss Nagato has time to help you with it now."

"Oh!" My sister clicked the TV off with the remote and ran up to grab our
guest by the hand, "Thank you, big sister Yuki!"

Alone for the moment at least, I made a silent prayer for my sister's soul,
then started on my homework, lest it become a later excuse to invade my
only sanctuary.

As I was washing up after dinner, Miss Nagato entered the bathroom. Neither
of us made any move to cover ourselves. I didn't see anything on her that
was clearly inhuman. Her silver-gray hair color matched top and bottom (if a
bit sparse below) and her eyes where unusually large, even behind the only
thing she wore, her glasses. But all the parts of her looked human, if a
little young to be a high school girl. Her gaze seemed not to wander from
my face.

"Well?" I asked her. "Didn't you just bathe with my sister?"

"I am still recovering from my nap, and need to soak some more please. I
don't take much space in the tub, and I can help wash your back."

"You can soak all night after I am done here. Now leave me alone. I need to
sleep tonight so I can make the brigade meeting in the morning."

"As you wish." She turned and left. Even her backside seemed perfectly
normal for a junior high aged girl, not that I had ever seen one in
anything less than a swimsuit of course. I found her exotic nature more
frightening than stimulating and quickly rinsed off, then soaked myself
only briefly.

In the morning I went to the bathroom to relieve myself and saw that the
tub was still filled. I looked in it and saw Miss Nagato lying under the
water. She opened her eyes, sat up out of the water and said, "good
morning," in her usual hoarse whisper. She felt along the side of the tub
for her glasses and put these on.

I said nothing and simply watched as she got out of the tub and picked up a
towel. There were no wrinkles on her body, front or back, face, fingers or
toes.

I decided to set out early, but Miss Nagato was already ready, in her
school uniform. Was my mom too cheap to buy her anything else? By reflex I
reached for my bicycle then stopped and looked at her.

"Go ahead," she said, "I am much refreshed now and can keep up."

Yeah, monster girl running along behind or beside my bicycle. "The station
isn't that far. We can walk."

"As you wish." She walked alongside me, keeping to my pace by making more
frequent steps with her shorter legs.

Because I was on foot, it took me longer than usual to reach the station,
and we arrived only five minutes before nine.

"You're late, Kyon." Haruhi stood in front of Itsuki and Mikuru, her finger
pointed at me like a gun.

"It's still five minutes before the time we were supposed to meet."

"The last one to arrive is always late. So you're treating the rest of us
at the cafe."

"How about Miss Nagato? She came here at exactly the same time as I did."

"She got burned out of her home and so doesn't have any money. It's your
treat Kyon."

Did Haruhi really believe her own lie?

At the cafe Haruhi revealed her plans to split into two groups to search
around the train station. Mikuru and I drew the colored toothpicks, and
after a warning from Haruhi that this was not a date, we set off.

Rather than go searching in dark places for secrets I was beginning to
suspect might just exist, I led Mikuru to the nearby park.

"This is my first time." She said.

"Yes?"

"To be walking like this, alone with a boy."

"Don't worry, there's plenty of people around here. And don't worry about
me. My mom would kill me if I shamed the family name by despoiling a miko."

"I have some information that you may find difficult to believe."

"There are plenty of things I see with my own eyes these days that I find
very difficult to believe. What do you have?"

"Your friend, Yuki Nagato, is a kappa."

"Just because she lives with us, does not make her my girlfriend. But, yes
I can believe that whatever it is that she is, has been called a kappa." I
looked down into the creek. I saw plants and fish there, but no humanoid
figures.

"We have detected a great evil at your high school."

"Who is this ''We''?" I noted, but didn't comment on, her self-exclusion
from the school.

"The Jinja Honchō."

"So the rumors of their having an undercover arm?"

"Are still only rumors of course. Since you are aware of Miss Nagato's
non-human nature, will you help us?"

"Sure? What's the plan, lure her somewhere and burn her? Somehow she
doesn't even look bulletproof."

"No!"

"What?"

"We want you to watch her and report back through me, please."

"Why not knock her off?" I had almost said up, but caught myself in time.

"Here." Mikuru sat on a bench and indicated the space next to herself.

"Yes?" I sat next to her.

She looked off into the distance for a minute then turned to me and said,
"think of it this way. Suppose we knew of a street dealer of narcotics, but
did not know the source of the drugs. What would you think might happen if
we eliminated that dealer?"

"Another one would be setup and the organization would be warned. So you
want me to help track Miss Nagato back to the source of her evil?"

"Yes. It would be helpful for you to gain her trust, but be careful that
she does not seduce you into joining her evil."

"I was already on my guard, but thanks for the information."

"So you will consider our request?"

"Why me and not say Haruhi?"

"See seems to be a bit unstable. Please do not tell her any of this."

My phone rang as Haruhi summoned us back. We had nothing we cared to reveal
to her or Miss Nagato and so I was again assessed the late penalty and had
to pay for lunch.

We split up again and this time I was pared with Miss Nagato.

As we walked along I considered the situation and decided to call her thin
bluff. "So you waited in the clubroom for a decade?"

"I was too dried up and so slept through the event I had waited for, after
the others did not return."

"So what, you were stuck in the clubroom with nowhere to go, like a fish
out of water?"

"A curious phrase Kyon, but accurate."

"Where did you get the school uniform then?"

"The others provided it."

"And why didn't anybody else intrude in that room for ten years?"

"Only unusual types would have been able to find that room."

A door in a well traveled corridor and nobody tried the knob for a decade?
This wasn't making any sense at all. I decided to try to see if I could be
a little more friendly to the monster. "It must be boring to read the same
old books there, year after year."

"Yes, but they are all that I have."

"Why not go to the library?"

"The library?"

"Here," I took her hand in mine and led her a few blocks to the local
public library.

She was stunned at the rows of books and so didn't resist as I pulled her
along to the occult section. Then she let go of my hand, adjusted her
glasses and stood on tiptoes to examine the top shelf. "Junk, trash,
debunked, useless, interesting!" She took one book down from the shelf and
went to a table to study it.

I went to the manga section and picked out a volume that was more relevant
to my interests.

A while later, Haruhi called me and demanded we return instantly. I found
that Miss Nagato had collected three books and couldn't be persuaded to
leave them behind, so I helped her apply for a library card. At my address
of course.

"So did you find anything?" Itsuki swatted me on the backside when we met
again.

"What was that about?" Haruhi asked him.

"Just being friendly. We need to work together after all."

While Haruhi's glance was distracted I felt my backside. There was now a
folded piece of paper in my pants pocket. I left it there.

Back in my room that evening I took out the note that Itsuki had planted on
me. It said to come alone at one p.m. on Sunday to a certain address. Well,
why not? Everybody else wants to talk to me, after all.

That night Miss Nagato once again crept into my room in her bra, panties
and glasses. She looked down at me for a moment and then sat in my desk
chair and waited.

"First you said that there was no time, so why are you so eager to do me
now?" I asked her in a whisper.

"The calculation changed. You follow Haruhi Suzumiya on the basis of your
own reasoning, rather than out of fear or ideology."

"So what does that have to do with hooking up with me?"

"You humans have strong emotional bonds towards your relatives. As long as
I was carrying one of your offspring, you would feel obligated to protect
me."

"So your plan is to blackmail me?"

"Blackmail?"

"Go to the cops, and say I forced you."

"That would be illogical. I am dependent on your protection and I have
little recourse to the human authorities."

"So what makes you think I'm not gay?"

"Haruhi Suzumiya seems to be the cause of your depression."

"I mean, what if I were homosexual? Wouldn't that defeat your plan to
seduce me?"

"The materials you have hidden in this room would suggest otherwise."

"Well forget it. I've no interest in having ugly kappa babies."

"Kappa is a prejudicial term. I can assure you that our offspring would
pass as human at even close inspection. My own father was human, after
all. You may touch and smell any part of my body to put your mind at ease
about this."

"No thanks. Please leave my room and do not return without permission."

"As you wish." She stood up and bowed to me. "I look forwards to your
reconsideration."

I studied her walk to my door in the gloom. There was something about the
way she moved that was a little off, or was I just imaging that? Well I
had to keep an eye on her anyway. So Haruhi had sent Miss Nagato to seduce
me for some evil plan? If it were Haruhi herself I might be tempted, what
with her looks and fuller figure. Miss Nagato appeared to be only a few
years older than my sister, and so triggered in me only a general protective
attitude towards children, even though she was probably much older than
myself. Not that I knew much about kappa, of course.

On Sunday Miss Nagato followed me to our house door, but I said that she
was not invited to the meeting I was going to and that she should stay and
play with my sister and her friends.

"As you wish, and as you can see I am at ease around human children. I will
prove an acceptable mother."

I almost sighed. I took out my bicycle and on my way to the address Itsuki
had given me I checked twice, but found nobody following me.

The address turned out to be a Catholic church. There was a middle-aged man
in a priest outfit or something and I told him I was there to see Itsuki
Koizumi.

"Ah yes my son, right this way." The priest led me to a room in the back on
the upper floor and knocked at a door that had one of those one-way looking
telescopes in it.

"Yes?" Itsuki asked from inside.

"You have a visitor, Sir." The priest said.

"Very good." There was a sound of a lock being undone and then the door
opened. "Kyon, how nice of you to come here today. Thank you Father, that
will be all for now."

"As you wish, Sir."

What was Itsuki doing, ordering around a priest of at least twice his age?

Itsuki closed and locked the door behind me then sat in a chair behind a
desk and indicated the chair in front of the desk for myself.  The other
furnishings in the room included a bookcase behind the desk, a pair of
filing cabinets and a sofa. The sofa seemed to be of the sort that would
unfold into a bed. I judged that when it did so it would take up most of
the space in the room. I glanced down at the hardwood floor and thought I
saw a few bits of dust at the places the supports for the bed would unfold
to.

"Where does that go?" I pointed at the only other door in the room.

"It's my bathroom, shower and closet. Do you need to use the facilities?"

"No thanks. So this is quite a comfortable spread you've got here, Itsuki."

"I can't complain. It is much more than my usual cot in a dorm. We go where
we are needed."

"So why did you invite me to your room?" And why lock the door behind me?

"We have detected a great evil centered on your school."

"Yeah, I heard this yesterday."

"From that pagan girl? Did she tell you that your friend, Yuki Nagato, is
not human?"

"Yes, and just because Miss Nagato is living at my house, does not make her
my girlfriend."

"Oh?" Itsuki's plastic smile wavered for a moment as he raised an
eyebrow. "You had best see to it that the sea sprite, siren or mermaid as
these things have been called, does not seduce you to your doom."

"I've checked quite closely. She has no tail."

"Well, not while walking on land of course."

"So you want me to keep an eye on her, until she leads us to the greater
evil?"

"Ah? So our interests do coincide with those of the pagans for the moment
after all?"

"Why didn't you ask Mikuru about that yourself?"

"There are certain restrictions. As you may have learned in your history
classes, there has been some unpleasantness between our faiths here in
Japan."

"So, is the entire Catholic Church in on your little conspiracy?"

"Not really. Should I fall, please contact somebody else in the Opus
Dei. The Father here can lead you to them if asked. Anything else I can set
your mind at ease about today?"

"No, I've got quite a bit to chew over already."

"We look forwards to your cooperation." Itsuki rose, shook my hand and
opened the door then turned to me. "Have you had lunch already Kyon?"

"I think I need to get back home."

"You left the monster there?"

"Yes."

"That might be best then. Be seeing you."

-HJC