[FFML] [Lime] The Eclipse of Haruhi Suzumiya

[Henry Cobb]

[Lime] The Eclipse of Haruhi Suzumiya, chapter two
By Henry J. Cobb

The next morning when my sister yanked me off my bed I awoke without
remembering my dreams and also without evidence of nocturnal
emissions. Whatever had possessed me the previous night seemed to have
passed. I was probably just letting my teenage hormones run away with
me. So what if Mikuru Asahina was a little eccentric? Even her play acting
was nothing compared to Haruhi Suzumiya's wall to wall insanity.

On my walk up the hill to school my thoughts turned to the third new girl
in my life, the shy tiny bookworm known as Yuki Nagato. What had she meant
by the warning from her master, who was Haruhi's brother?

"Hey Kyon!"

"Morning Taniguchi," I turned and stopped to let my friend catch up with
me. Then I remembered that he had attended junior high with Haruhi and had
therefore known her for several years longer than myself. I walked
alongside him for a moment then asked, "What's miss Suzumiya's brother
like?"

"What brother? As far as I know she's an only child."

"Oh," That explained it then. Haruhi's older brother must have already been
in the Yakuza when she was in junior high and so would have been
unmentionable. She had developed her schizophrenia in response to the
strain and the shame. And now her brother is a Yakuza boss who has sent
Yuki and perhaps Mikuru to keep tabs on her.

"What is it Kyon?" Taniguchi kept watching me as we walked along.

"Sorry, it's my mistake. I got things mixed up." It had to keep Taniguchi
out of this mess. It would be best to slowly back away from the situation
myself. Even if I had no concern for my own life, I never wanted to see my
sister or parents lying in pools of their own blood.

Fate was of course not so kind.

"He's here!" Haruhi leaned over her desk behind me.

I didn't want to respond, but I didn't want her to grab me by the collar
and bang my head against her desk again either. I turned in my chair to see
her beaming face, "Who is here?"

"The mysterious transfer student!"

"What makes him so mysterious?"

"Weren't you listening the first time I explained this? Anybody who
transfers so early in the semester must be mysterious!"

"As you say," I forced down my urge to make a fruitless attempt to talk
common sense into Haruhi. My family was at stake after all.

Haruhi seemed taken aback my minimal response and after a moment's pause
rose from her seat, "I'll go look!" She ran from the classroom.

I imagined what kind of new student it would be who would agree to join the
club of a mad girl. Probably an associate of her brother's, all covered
with scars and tattoos.

"What did you say to her?" Ryoko Asakura, the student president of our
classroom walked over to my desk.

"Nothing, but you saw her. She seemed happy."

"Well, as long as she's happy."

Doubt gnawed at my ankles every step to the clubroom. Even if Mikuru was a
professional call girl, Yuki was clearly out of her depth. As I climbed the
steps I imagined my sister's dead body if I continued with this charade and
Yuki's dead body if I didn't. In any case the only dangers to Haruhi came
from her own insanity and her brother's connections, and I couldn't do
anything about either of those.

As I entered the clubroom I saw that the only people there were Yuki
sitting by the window and reading and Mikuru, sitting at the table.

"The coast is clear," I sat down across from Mikuru, "Haruhi isn't with
me."

Mikuru smiled as she saw that I couldn't pull my gaze away from her as she
relaxed into her professional persona.

I turned away to look towards the window, "Yuki reads, but you just sit
there. Don't you get bored?"

"The majority of my attention is elsewhere."

Another riddle. I turned back to Mikuru, "Well I get bored. Do you play
games?"

"But of course. However what should we do when Haruhi suddenly
arrives. Wouldn't it be safer to go to a hotel after club hours?"

"No, I meant a board game," I stood and grabbed a box that Haruhi had added
to the shelves, "Here, do you know Othello?"

"I helped with the choreography, but yes I do know the board game."

We played a game and Mikuru easily beat me. It wasn't fair, the way she'd
draw my glance to her body and hold it there like a fly in a spider's
web. My concentration was all shot.

"You win," I started putting away the pieces, "I'm no match for you in any
way." I detected the fainest hint of motion to my right and turned.

Yuki was standing there and looking down at the board, "May I play?"

"Sure, take my spot," I rose and indicated the chair and Yuki bowed at
Mikuru then carefully sat down.

Yuki's first move was to place a piece that was not connected to any of the
starting pieces.

Mikuru raised an eyebrow at this, "I thought your sisters were experts in
this game, from years of practice?

"I am almost always by myself."

"Are they jealous of your master's attentions?" Mikuru asked.

"I have only done what I have been told," Yuki read through the booklet
that came with the game and then made a correct move.

After a few moves I leaned over to suggest a better move for Yuki and she
flinched back away from me. At that moment I resolved to stay by Haruhi's
side until I had the opportunity to find and destroy her
brother. Threatening my family was one thing, but whatever had been done to
traumatize Yuki was just unforgivable.

At that moment Haruhi burst in with her mysterious transfer student in tow,
a freshman boy named Itsuki Koizumi. In spite of this being his first day
in school he had the proper uniform already and unlike most boys at the
school had his collar buttoned and his tie in place. Most likely to
minimize the amount of uninked skin he had to show, I suspected. She said
that he had already agreed to join the club and he responded by asking what
the club was about. She gave her spiel about finding aliens, time travelers
and espers and he took it all in stride. He bowed to Mikuru then turned to
shake my hand.

Haruhi interrupted my attempt to introduce myself and gave out the names
for each brigade member.

Mikuru tripped as she rose from her chair and caught herself on the table
with an artful jiggle. I pulled my glance away to look at Itsuki's face
which remained in that pleasant smile, with his eyes mostly closed. He was
either gay or a very cool customer indeed.

Itsuki shook Mikuru's hand, but did not turn to Yuki and Yuki did not rise
to offer her hand.

Haruhi was so delighted with a full roster that she didn't notice this and
said nothing as Yuki rose to return to her seat in the corner.

The next day I walked into the clubroom and saw Haruhi stripping Mikuru
again. I quickly excused myself and bolted back out through the door.

When I was invited back in a few minutes later I saw that Haruhi had
dressed Mikuru in a maid's outfit. For a moment I almost believed Mikuru's
blush.

Haruhi took out her camera and started taking pictures of Mikuru, then
concerned that the outfit covered too much, handed the camera to me so that
she could adjust the maid's outfit to show more of Mikuru's cleavage.

I took photos mechanically, my mind set on my plan to avenge Yuki's
mistreatment. I idly wondered how old Mikuru would have to be to have such
a figure and how much of it was natural.

Yuki froze rather than flinching back as Haruhi reached over to snatch away
her glasses, then returned to reading without even adjusting her
posture. Perhaps it was only the threat of the male touch that horrified
her.

Haruhi was so delighted to play with her maid doll as she put the glasses
on Mikuru that she paid no attention to Yuki's lack of reaction or the sour
expression I must have worn at that moment.

Itsuki entered at that point and Haruhi asked everybody to play with
Mikuru.

Itsuki turned down the offer and took a seat while I pointed out that I was
busy with the camera.

Haruhi said that was enough photos for the day and took the camera from me
then put the glasses back on Yuki's face.

Yuki froze again then readjusted the glasses once Haruhi had moved on.

Haruhi demonstrated once again her total lack of common sense as she stood
on the swivel chair behind the computer so she could look over the monitor
at us all. She noted her so called successes of putting up our minimal
webpage and her aborted attempt to pass out fliers and complained about the
lack of emails or student contacts with proper mysteries. And then she
said that we'd set out to search for the mysteries. The next day was a
Saturday and so we were to meet at the train station or face the death
sentence.

I was the last one to arrive, and so even though I was five minutes before
the deadline she had imposed, I still had to treat the group at the local
cafe. Yuki was seated on the bench next to Haruhi, but far enough away so
that I had to get a chair from another empty table nearby to have a seat. I
noticed that Yuki was the only one dressed in a school outfit. Didn't she
have anything else or was she just given what was needed for her mission?

Haruhi had us draw toothpicks to split into two groups of two and three
each to search the city and she noticed with a frown that Mikuru and I had
drawn the two colored toothpicks.

"I must have done that incorrectly," I put my toothpick back in the center
of the table. The last thing I wanted was to tempt fate and Mikuru's threat
of the love hotel. If that was what Mikuru wanted she could just do that
walk and I would have followed her anywhere.

"Very well," Haruhi gathered the toothpicks back again, "We can have one do
over if you must."

This time I was split out with Yuki.

Haruhi took a moment to warn me before our two groups split, "This is not a
date Kyon. If you have fun with her then you will die!"

Far from being the date Haruhi had warned about, Yuki kept always out of
arms length as we walked along. I briefly considered asking her about this
master she so feared, but settled on a question about what I knew of her
interests, in order to break the ice so to speak, "You read a lot of
books?"

"Yes."

"I bet you've read almost all the books in our clubroom by now."

"I have."

"What will you do then?"

"I don't know. I miss the collection I left at home when I was sent to
attend this school."

"So you have a lot of books at your old house?"

"I was alone most of the time, but sometimes travelers would leave behind
books."

"Well, why don't you check books out of the library?"

"The library?"

"This way," I reached for her hand and she backed up a step, wide eyed
behind her glasses. I had done it again. I knew she was frightened of being
touched and I had reached out by reflex. "My apologies, just follow me."

"Yes, I'm sorry."

"Ta da!" I held open the door of the library for her and she went inside,
keeping well clear of me.

She stopped a few steps inside the building and looked around with mouth
agape.

"What do you think?" I walked up next to her, but kept the same distance
she used.

"There's so many. Where do I start?"

"You're new to this town, right?"

"Yes."

"So why not a book about the local region?" I walked towards the section
and she followed, at her usual distance behind me.

I pointed out one book and she took it to a nearby table to read it.

She seemed lost in her reading as usual so I acted on something that I had
remembering her mentioning at her apartment.

"Your home is in the mountains?"

She looked up at the book I had brought back, "Yes. What is it?"

"It's a picture book of the mountains of Japan."

She reached out a hand towards the book and then withdrew it.

I placed the book where she could reach it and backed up two steps.

She opened the book and rapidly flipped through the pages, stopping to
almost smile at different pages.  Then she looked up and said, "Thank you,"
before turning back to the book.

My ploy had failed.  I had expected her to look up her home in the table of
contents or index and skip directly to that page. Instead she was stopping
at pictures of mountains all along the length of the nation. She couldn't
have lived on every mountain in Japan so she must just like looking at
terrain photos.

"There's a limit of three books per person."

"What?" She looked up to where I pointed at the three books that she had
added to the two I had selected.

"I've got one slot free on my library card, so just select one of the two
books I picked for me to check out and you can check out your three."

She looked at the five books for a moment then picked up one of the three
she had selected, walked over to the shelves and slid in back into
place. She returned to the table, put the picture book on top of her other
two selections and slid my first selection in my direction, "You check out
that one please."

"And you'll need a library card," I picked up the book, "follow me."

I waited in line for the librarian as Yuki sat and filled out the form. My
cellphone rang so I answered it, "Hello miss Suzumiya."

"Where are you Kyon?"

"Doing research."

"Get back here right now!"

"Oh, did you find something mysterious?"

I could hear Haruhi fuming, but she didn't say anything.

"Then we'll return to the station as soon as we can.  And guess what, it'll
be the team that didn't do anything useful that will be the late team." I
hung up before she could respond to that.

Haruhi was standing with arms crossed and foot taping as I walked up with
Yuki behind me. Haruhi pointed at me and said, "So what is this mystery you
found?"

"We did better than that," I indicated the three books I carried, but I
didn't mention the picture book that Yuki was almost hidden behind as she
walked and flipped through it.

At the fast food restaurant Haruhi made me pay anyway and then flipped
through the three books I had carried.  She put the books down and said to
me, "There's no mysteries here."

"How will you know when a true mystery appears?" I asked her.

"When something unusual happens that has no normal explanation."

"And how can you find the unusual if you don't know what the usual is?"

"Well, that's just common sense," Haruhi folded her arms.

"If it was that easy then everybody would have spotted it already, wouldn't
they? We need a firm baseline of the known knowns so we can spot the
unknown unknowns."

"Very well. Apology accepted. You can live. Now let's split up into teams
of three and two again."

"No."

"Are you questioning my orders underling?"

"You just admitted that the research is useful so send Yuki to read her
books and then the remaining four of us can search in pairs."

"Your suggestion is acceptable. Yuki," Haruhi turned to the shorter girl,
"I want a full report by Monday of anything you find that is a known
mystery in these books."

"Understood."

"Yuki," I turned to her, "Are you sure you can carry all those books? I can
drop some of them over at your place later."

"No!" Yuki snatched the books to herself, "I can carry all these," She got
up from the table and I moved out of the way to give her plenty of room to
pass.  She walked out the door with the three reference books under her
left arm and the huge picture book carried open in her right hand, using
her thumb to flip the pages.

I hoped she didn't get run over while crossing the streets like that.

"How do you know where she lives?" Haruhi had her fingers curled on the
edge of the table.

"I helped her fill out a form for a library card. Now let's split up
again." I was ready this time to go one on one with any of the three, even
Mikuru. Not in that way, but in terms of lines of questioning that would
move me closer to my goal.

I hit the jackpot.

"This isn't a date you two," Haruhi told Mikuru and Itsuki, "I expect a
full report when we get back here in two hours!" Then she put her arm
through mine and lead me off.

Walking arm in arm with a girl, was I'm afraid a rather unusual situation
for me to be in, outside of a few times in junior high. I decided to
start on my line of questioning, "So how was the search this morning?"

"Horrible! There were dogs barking all over the place. This is a terrible
neighborhood."

Which opened things up brilliantly for my real question, or so I
thought. "What's your brother like?"

"Brother? That's a stupid question. I'm an only child. Didn't I tell you
that?"

"No, you hadn't." So he had left either before you were born or when you
were too young to remember, never to be mentioned again. I upped my
estimate of her brother's age.

"Very well then. If you want to know so much about my family let me tell
you about the event that launched my path to greatness." Haruhi told me of
how she had attended a baseball game in her youth and this had lead her
towards an understanding of how many people there were in the world and
what it would take for her name to be famous.

Infamous was more like it I thought. I kept feeding her questions about her
family and fortunately she was such an egotist that she never even asked
about mine. Did she even know what my real name was? Better if she didn't.

Finally we ended up on a hilltop facing west.

"The sunset," She looked directly into the sun without protection. As usual
the girl had no common sense. "It always leaves me with a mixed feeling,"
she continued, "Fond memories and a strange sense of emptiness. Like
there's something I've forgotten," She turned to me, placed her hands on my
shoulders and started to lean up on her toes to reach my face.

My phone rang.

Haruhi backed away as I pulled out my phone and opened it.

"Kyon!" It was my little sister, "Where are you? Did you get in trouble
again?"

"Sorry, I'll be right home."

"Kyon you idiot!" Haruhi poked me in the chest, "How dare you make me
forget what time it is!" She pulled out her phone and hit a speed dial,
"Koizumi! Are you still with Mikuru? Just go home then. I got sidetracked
and it's all stupid Kyon's fault. I'll see you two Monday at the
clubroom. Brigade leader out."

For a moment I was almost jealous. She had just met him and she already had
his number on her cellphone. Wait, had I just almost kissed her? How
suicidal was I? I thanked whatever guardian angel it was that had made my
sister save her own life by calling me just then.

-HJC
No knifing this time sorry. Murder by duct tape in the next chapter. Quack!