4A/N: Hi again, guys, Anime Borat here. I know that many of you have been waiting for updates in this fic and I'm sorry if I failed to deliver in a timely fashion. Not only has Haruhi's star has faded from the visible sky but a number of games have appeared, succeeding F.E.A.R. in their delivery of the first-person horror experience such as Frictional Games' entire lineup, the Amnesia series and SOMA;Outlast, Alien: Isolation, Hideo Kojima's PT trailer which was meant for his Silent Hills project, whose gameplay style would be adapted by Resident 7 and a slew of inspired games in the horizon like Visage and The Peterson Case; and the Prey reboot, and in dark atmosphere such as Dishonored, the Metro series; Bioshock, including Infinite, the latest Far Cry games(for a given measure of darkness), S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and the new Wolfenstein games. F.E.A.R. itself has been kept alive as an MMOFPS by a Korean developer. Lately, the closest thing to the F.E.A.R. games currently are different indie first-person horror games and SCP Foundation-derived ones like Containment Breach and Secret Laboratory. F.E.A.R.'s longevity has suffered from legal problems among its developers, resulting in non-canon expansion packs, which contributed nothing to the main lore.
Haruhi hasn't seen any good times since 2010 began, having been overshadowed by new anime each passing year. No season 3 seems to be on the horizon and the Yuki Nagato spin-off isn't as broadly recieved. Haruhi has set the bar and put forward tropes and conventions adopted by many later shows one way or the other, some better than others, none that I know (I'm not an avid anime fan) have surpassed its depth, wit, and unconvenionality. I have never watched an anime that's so intellectually stimulating and entertaining as Haruhi, though this is from someone who is not an anime/manga aficiando. I daresay that the closest thing to a sequel of Haruhi Suzumiya is the series Rick and Morty, with a similar "feel." Though it has been waning since the start of this decade The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya will remain a classic, one of the anime that defined the 2000s.
Interval 3 - Worlds Collide
The walk to the cafeteria was still the same stroll that I remembered, except the corridors were full of students, more than I remembered, weaving and moving about. Haruhi seemed rather oblivious to the sights and sounds. Nagato's "data bubble" seems to be working. "There's so many people here," I said aloud.
Yuki turned to me. "Nishinomiya High has undergone an expansion of facilities between 2011 and 2020 in order to accommodate a higher number of students due socio-economic and demographic changes within the city's population. Current population including staff is two-thousand, three-hundred and fifty, about three times as much back in 2010."
"Thanks, Nagato. I wonder how much do I need to fill in about this time." My eyes caught something hovering in the air. It was a contraption flying on twin rotors. "What's that?"
"That's a camera drone," she said in monotone. "It's a remote-controlled, camera equipped flying device used for taking pictures and recording videos. It either has its own controller or controlled via mobile operating device."
"A what?" I haven't got myself in into tech stuff.
"A smartphone like your Blackberry. The drone in question belonged to the newspaper club president."
Nice... wait, he's taking pictures of us?
"They need a cover photo for their latest story."
That reminded me that I have one in my pocket. I got it out of my jacket pocket. "Anyway this will work."
"Your model is out of date by two decades."
Gee, thanks. I'm really a Luddite here.
"But I can manipulate data to update your smartphone to contemporary standards." I gave her my phone. In her palm my phone shone with a light like a printer or scanner from end to end. She handed it back to me. My smartphones looks different from what I remembered. I boot it and the first thing to appear was a thumbprint scanner. Curious, I thumbed it and GOOD AFTERNOON, KYON flashed in my LCD screen. Doesn't seem very... different.
"Nice... Nagato?" Then it flashed it, WOULD YOU PREFER HOLOGRAPHIC DISPLAY?
Yuki answered my question before I even asked it, "You can use a holographic display function with your mobile device. Application selection are displayed in a hologram. You can select an option or application or even a figure through touch, in which the device complies with your request using a complex algorithm which analyzes movement, air pressure, ambient light changes, and thermal energy of your finger."
The technobabble really wasn't needed although I'll give her points for making understandable. "So you mean to say that I can use my phone by simply touching the holographic figures?"
"Exactly." To answer my question further I saw a boy flicking through holographic pages of a manga he was reading with just the flick of his finger. "It is miniaturization of current holographic technology and still in its infancy." Well, we can't be too ahead of ourselves in the technology department, are we? "You have the option of disabling the holographic function and using your touchscreen instead."
"Ah, thanks Yuki," I answered. I would have been a fish out of water without her and Itsuki. Haruhi without them? Let's just say the world would be screwed.
We finally stopped got to the cafeteria where we selected seats. "Kyon!" she announced. "Get us our orders." She then handed me a list, her fait accompli.
I pivoted and was about to go when it hit me. I turned back. "Uh... Am I paying?"
"Penalty!" she cried. "You pay."
Haruhi, don't you know how hard I'm digging into my pockets? Ugh. Man, I think she needs to get off the habit of leaning on other people for loose change or goodies.
I sighed. "Tell me what you want?"
"Get me a lemon cake and iced tea," she demanded imperiously.
Sigh. I turned to the others. "How about you guys?"
"Well, a tuna sandwich will do," replied Itsuki. "I'll be sure to pay the bill." At least Itsuki owes me back.
"Milkshake and oatmeal cookie," Yuki answered. I oughtta teach Nagato about borrowing debt. On second thought, no. She's nice as she is and I don't think teaching her the finer points of finance is a good idea. With that I went off.
I approached the counter and noticed that the menu was displayed on a LCD screen. Of course there are the usual school fare such as breaded pork chops, ramen, sushi, curry, and whatnot. The lunch lady, a young woman actually, smiled at me. "How may I help, dear boy?"
Dear boy? I wonder if she's hitting on anyone. I certainly do not merit the affectation dear boy, it gives me the creeps. "I'd like something to eat." Then I added. "Me and my friends."
"If you have multiple orders, why don't you write it here." She handed me a plastic pad with an LCD screen which I would write out our food, input by electronic pen.
I wrote my orders for the staff.
"Thank you," she chimed. At the back I knew the kitchen was in a flurry as the staff prepared our orders while winding down at the tail-end of the day.
"Here you go," she chimed as she handed down our orders. "Have a nice day." I thanked her and went on my way with out snacks. She probably meant it in spite our own not being nice. Better than the canned, saccharine greetings of restaurant and shopping mall staff. Call me a hipster but thanks to being around the Brigade, I had a taste of Luis Buñuel's works, notably The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. That's Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie to you in its original French title. The film in its own convoluted structure is about an upper-middle class clique whose attempts to fine dining were constantly frustrated by increasingly bizarre, illogical moments in the story. Alright, it's not Evangelion or Utena, (why did I let my sister watch Utena, I'll have to explain what it all meant when she gets older) Buñuel was one of the big names in Surrealism and actually worked with Salvador Dali in his groundbreaking first film, the famous Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog) after which they fell out since Buñuel's from Andalusia. Why am I talking about this, you ask?
The movie made me feel like crap after making sense of it. Throughout the film the clique is constantly miffed at their dinner date being interrupted, as though those events have no right to do so. Furthermore, the clique acts like they're the center of the world, like a certain headband-clad goddess, only reality doesn't bend to their whims. And the jokes on them as it turned out that their part of the movie was absurd as in a postmodern sense, yet they persist in their ridiculous sense of entitlement. It really put a damper on one's being a damned know-it-all. Because of that I made an effort to greet and thank service staff, because they have to put up a fake smile to please the self-centered masses to earn an honest buck. Quality service to people who don't give a second thought about the servers who worry about bills, taxes and mortgage like they do, since they thought only they themselves worry of those. And the existential threat of Haruhi's whims meant people like them and their concerns are simply dust in the wind, the story of their lives meant nothing in a fickle cosmos. Being with Yuki Nagato reminded me that no one's a prop in the life of Haruhi Suzumiya.
Our orders were delivered in record time, probably faster than I expected. Of course, with end-of-the-day shifts, everyone's winding down. I took our grub and carried it to our table. We got down to talking as we sat and began our session.
"This is a serious," she declared with much pomposity. "Mikuru is absent and we need to visit her to see why. Anyone who had been in contact with here during the last 24 hours?"
You could've just said yesterday. Nothing earthshattering really, except maybe yourself and some evil, unethical corporation after you.
"Let's hold our horses for a while," Itsuki said. "Mikuru might just have a cold." Or suffering from stress. I could remember a few times my young body felt like I had hauled all the coal of England to some powerplant in Ohio and feeling sick as a result.
"Cold or not, it's a serious matter if a member is absent without an explanation." She turned to me. "You were the last one to contact Mikuru. What's this static all about?"
"There was static in our call, making blanks in our conversation. Gives me the creeps too."
Haruhi cupped her chin in a state of thought, such a cliched pose, don't you think? "Mikuru calling you at the middle at night, her line mysteriously stricken with static?"
"That's the gist of it. She tried to leave me a message but I couldn't make sense of it."
"You're kidding?" she scoffed.
"I'm not. There really was static at the line so whatever she had to say to me I didn't get it."
She did that cliched thinking pose, cupping her chin with her hand, stroking it, and tucking her free arm underneath the arm with the cupped hand. "A quick phone call to you from Mikuru with static soon after our ghost hunting expedition..." And to indicate Eureka she smacked her hand on the tabletop. "I got it! Mikuru has somehow attracted the lost spirits and now they've come back to haunt her. Oh boy! We've got proof of ghosts!"
Now would be a good time to palm my face. But I've become used to this sort of thing now-
Excitement...
What the... Did someone whispered in my ear?
"Man, this is great! We've got possible evidence of ghosts!" she exclaimed excitedly at finding proof of the beyond.
I used my pinky to clear my ear. What was that-
Stimulation...
This time I didn't hear it. The word just popped up in my mind. What's going on?
That's what you choose, isn't it? Okay, I definitely heard that whisper.
Itsuki looked at me oddly, noticing my confused expression whilst Haruhi spouted off the possibilities and implications of proof of an afterlife.
"Haruhi," the esper spoke out, "I think it's a little too early for the ghost angle. The interference may be caused by the energy fluctuations in the atmosphere."
"That's a thought, Itsuki," she replied, "but if that's the case, isn't it why we have cell phone towers everywhere? It's also fact that ghosts cause electromagnetic interference with electronics."
"It is likely due to a spike in solar activity, notably due to geomagnetic storms."
The brigade chief looked at her. "Geomagnetic storms? What's that?"
That was Yuki speaking up. "Geomagnetic storms are temporay disturbances to the Earth's magnetosphere due solar winds causing shocks or clouds of magnetic energy interacting with the Earth's magnetosphere. The increase in the solar wind pressure initially compresses the magnetosphere. The solar wind's magnetic field interacts with the Earth's magnetic field and transfers an increased energy into the magnetosphere. Both interactions cause an increase in plasma movement through the magnetosphere - driven by increased electric fields inside the magnetosphere - and an increase in electric current in the magnetosphere and ionosphere. There are a few notable instances in history such as the 774–775 CE carbon-14 spike over the British isles and Bastille Day 2000. But by far the most massive geomagnetic disturbance is the Carrington event of 1859. The event, named after British named after English amatuer astronomer-"
"Uh, Yuki," I interrupted, seeing her info-dump is gonna bore Haruhi, "I think we need to know how solar storms affect electronics."
"I see." She blinked her eyes, thinkig about the point. "The highly-energized state of both the magnetosphere and ionosphere is highly dangerous to electronic devices. Communications, scientific instruments, navigation, satellite equipment, and information technology would be adversely affected, disupting human activity and possibly endangering human life. During the event telegraphic systems throughour Europe and North Americ failed, causing some operators electric shocks, telegraphic pylons threw sparks and in extreme cases caused fires due to superheated coils. Some operators continue to send messages despite resulting disconnection from their power sources. A solar storm of this magnitude occurring today would cause widespread disruptions and damage due to extended outages of the electrical grid. The solar storm of 2012, widely believed to be predicted in the Mayan 2012 prophecy, was of similar magnitude, but it passed Earth's orbit without striking the planet, averting predicted disaster."
You answered our question with two infodumps. Well, it makes sense, Yuki. If it were science class, you'd get a round of applause for the delivery of your presentation though I think we've yet to cover that. Or we would likely have considering the instant timeskip we had.
Haruhi had nothing to say. "So those loonies we're on to something after all. But we didn't know anything about that, you can count on those freaks from the Spanish Inquisition to ruin everything. What do you expect?"
Ah, three red-frocked priests barging in with a jarring organ track? Just kidding.
"I'll check Google if they have anything to say about it." Haruhi turned on her smart phone to see. Honestly, I was sweating whether she saw through Yuki's solar storm ruse but Yuki gave me a blank look that told me she got it handled.
"Hey," the chief noted, "there was a solar flare up after all. Not a great one too."
Oh Yuki, thanks for the data bubble.
"It occurred during 7:36 last night." She looked at me. "Did you get her call then?"
"Yeah, I did. It likely explained the static in the line."
"So, what was the message she wanted to tell you?" She gave me an evil eye, suspecting something behind her back. A rather cute one with that pout.
"Something about club activity today." This as honest I'll ever get at the moment.
"Hmmm, yeah, comparing notes we have from our search over at that haunted location. That's gonna take a back burner. Today, our priority is Mikuru. Everyone, pack your bags, we're paying her a visit." Thus the meeting concluded by Haruhi's order to visit Mikuru and finish our meals.
Haruhi looked at me. "Hey Kyon, if you're worried about pocket change, I'll pay you back. We'll have to think of a fundraiser for the club."
The walk back to the clubroom had been strangely mundane. Likely because of our new surroundings is still our school, albeit a decade into the future. Another was that the atmosphere should be screaming "Tense!" like the sweeping-my-eyes-all-over-the-place, looking-over-my-shoulders kind, which it did, yet I felt unhurried, no sense of urgency in our gait, nonchalance. You can say we just walked calmly alongside a few students, unfamiliar faces all, so we din't provoke panic or odd looks but that's no issue with Yuki's bubble around Haruhi.
"Come on, people, pick the pace," Haruhi exclaimed. "Especially you, Kyon, there's no slacking off in helping a fellow member."
"I'm right behind you, Haruhi." I groaned. How could we get any faster when she's setting the pace.
"We should all stop over at our houses and pick up some stuff," she added. "We're gonna spend the night with her."
"What!?" That was random.
"What's wrong, Kyon? Ever heard of a sleepover?"
"I do but it's so sudden. I have a sister at home to watch over." Not to mention the home itself.
"Just bring her along," she said.
"How about my folks?" I doubt they're even here with me.
"Just talk it over with them."
I sighed. Somethings haven't changed. Wait, my sister!? Imouto! I turned to Yuki. She locked eyes with me in a second.
Her glance reassured me, communicating what I needed to know without words. However, I can't live it to chance. I dug out my phone out of my jacket and went through the list of numbers. I was about to select my house number (she's too you young for a cellphone of her own) when a hand stopped. It was Yuki, stopping and facing me intently, subtly since she never expressed any sort of emotion in my face.
"She is fine. Your sister is outside this reality but I managed to retain her data."
Those words I know it felt like news to me, especially about my sister. "H-how?"
"I will explain further." With that she left me, left me among these complete strangers who have no idea who I was, who we were. They all passed by me without so much as giving me a glance or comment. Just another student leaving school. A soft backhand pat told me of Itsuki by my side.
"Let's go, Kyon. This can't wait." There was a strange calm in the esper's voice, like the strange sense of rushed, yet unhurried normalcy around us. No one cared to see the strangeness in us. Why should they? We're just another set of faces to the crowd, much like they are to us.
Getting back to the clubroom was a relief for me. It was perhaps the only thing that hadn't change in this fast-forward future reality I was in. All the familiar decor, items, and knickknacks are still here, even the computer that Haruhi "appropriated" from the computer club is sitting on its desk and the costumes in their rack. It felt tiring so I sighed and sat on the table.
"Okay, everyone," our fearless leader announced. "I want you to meet up at Mikuru's house at seven sharp." She picked up her things including club notes and her jacket. "Bring what you need and get over there. We're gonna pay her a surprise visit."
"If Mikuru is truly ill," Itsuki spoke out as he got his jacket, "don't you think it would be intrusive to come to her house?"
"We are the SOS Brigade, Itsuki. We don't leave a member behind. Come on, at least her day won't be so boring."
Well, at least she lives along like Yuki. Saves us the trouble of being entangled with any legal guardians.
There was an electronic melody playing. Haruhi dug into her jacket pocket and picked up her phone. "Hello...?" She turned to us. "I'll have to take this call." She went back to her phone. "Uh-huh, it's me. What is it...?" She left the clubroom and closed the door behind her.
That left us alone. "Kyon, I have synthesized a telephone call from Haruhi's mother." I turned to Yuki, who sat in her usual seat. "Through the data jurisdiction I can manage two minutes of time. Anymore would unravel it and have disastrous consequences for this current universe."
Clever of you, Yuki. So many questions I'd like ask about that's not what I need right now. "Two minutes seems awfully short."
"Allow me," Itsuki said. He produced a gadget from his bag. It was a shiny cube of gunmetal black, a hundred twenty cubic milimeters throughout. He pressed the side and on top rose three triangles, then the sides fell, revealing a sparse object of crystalline and metallic appearance. It rose an inch or two before it let lose a flash. The entire room now had a bluish tinge that I instantly recognized: a closed space.
"Our research into Closed Spaces allowed us to create this brilliant piece of technology," he said with affection. "The Filament, a pocket dimension generator."
"Wait, an artificial closed space?" I blinked my eyes twice. This is unbelievable!
"Of course. The Agency studied studied the properties of closed spaces and other anomalies for years. Found a way to artificially produce them. We found them convenient for a number of purposes such as security, interrogation, and containment. I have to say this is one of the crown jewels of Science and Technology Department."
The bluish tinge that encompassed gave me that very familiar feeling of emptiness, a barren, solitary pocket of reality. Inside this was one was the same yet it felt subdued, smaller, not the vastness of the spaces Haruhi created, something like being funneled, like a stadium or arena. This is probably how I felt it was artificial, it was a pale imitation of Haruhi's closed space, but one that I can see served Koizumi's purposes.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" He smiled at my awe.
"Well, I'll be..." Having been around them for a while, I should have seen this coming.
"And this would allow us to dilate time," he added, "so while two minutes passed for Haruhi we can be here as long as we need to be. It also helps security too."
"No one listening in on us?"
"Definitely. Just me, you and Yuki are all here."
That's enough to put me at ease. "Okay, I'm game with whatever we have to talk about concerning Haruhi and Armachan."
"I see you've been briefed by our compiled files."
The preliminaries. "I was. Interesting stuff. But why you blacked out No. 3?"
"It's lot of interesting stuff. I've just been cleared to inform you about everything I'm allowed to tell you at the moment."
"Okay, what does Armacham want with Haruhi?"
"It's a long story but we have all the time in this world. Let's use it wisely." He took his smartphone and connected it to a laptop. He booted it, clicked on the relevant functions and showed the updated files including the blacked-out one about FEAR. "A Pentagon report evaluated the performance of American forces in Vietnam. Among the findings one pointed out the disparity between command and control with forces engaged with the enemy. It stated that it caused waste and inefficiency in coordinating operations, missed opportunities, lapses in communication, friendly fire, and enemy interference and inadequate communications security. It stated that it's a major weakness in light of America's commitment to the security of the Free World, where a fast-moving conflict with the Soviets will inevitably clutter up command and control of forces from widely-dispersed fronts. Improvements in communication are critical to overcoming that weakness in a future conflict. This was further supported with an accompanying evaluation of the Yom Kippur War, where Israeli radio monitors were unable to uncover actionable intelligence warning of Arab operations prior to the start of the conflict, giving them the element of surprise and how the Syrians were unable to press their advantage due to the fog of war, stopping to verify with command and saving the Israelis precious time to rally against them long enough for American aid to fly in and save them.
"Then the CIA got word that Soviets where engaged in paranormal research, especially unlocking the powers of the human mind then known as psychotronics with tangible results. That was in the Seventies. Based on this the Pentagon launched the Stargate Project to research into psychic phenomena and its practical applications, expanding upon a CIA program codenamed SCANATE. One of those applications is telepathic communication. Much of the research took place in Fort Meade and the initial private contractor was the Stanford Research Institute from Menlo Park, California. The program had a number of problems such as false starts and frauds applying into it.
"But things changed at Armacham in 1983." His expression mellowed subtly in thought.
"They took over psychic research?"
"That came later but yes. One senior Armacham employee, scientist Harlan Wade, noticed his daughter Alma suffered from nightmares, fits of hysteria and delusion. He referred this problem to a colleague, a Marshall Disler, who was part of Stargate when Armacham was just a bit player. Recognizing the signs, he knew immediately that Alma was psychic. They carried out tests on her to study her abilities. In 1986, Alma turned seven and Armacham was made primary contractor in Stargate, replacing SRI. Her tests and experiments intensified and needless to say the stress from it all was getting to her and she purposely failed tests to make the experiments stop. But there's no stopping the abilities she has as amplified by stress. She also had extrasensory perception, along her to absorb the emotions and thoughts of the research, compounding her stress. She unconsciously turned her abilities loose on the research team in effort to defend herself, setting a fire to a lab, inducing vivid nightmares, mood swings, and hallucinations on the staff. It gotten to the point that they had to pull the plug on Alma."
I was disturbed by that statement. "Wait, they killed her?"
He shook his head. "No. They didn't. They put sedated her into a coma and put her into containment in the Rammelmeier Industrial Compound in Auburn, specially constructed to keep psychic abilities bottled without harming anyone. But it wasn't the end of it for her. Project Origin."
"Project Origin?"
"It was started by Harlan Wade with the purpose of creating psychic commanders for the military with Alma as genetic template."
"Clones..."
"We believed so, initially but we found at they had a later use. We'll get to that. In any case two prototypes were produced. The first one was a failure, unable to produce psychic results. The second prototype, going by name of Paxton Fettel. He was more successful. He proven powerful enough to be able to control the clone-based forces derived from the first prototype."
"So he controlled these clones. Can't use real human soldiers, huh?"
"Yes, they did. Clones were relatively expendable. Paxton was placed under another program, Project Perseus, whose aim is to train as a psychic commander. They were called Replica Forces as they were derived from Fettel as sharing the same genetic material would give him greater control. His psychic potential, however, opened the door for disaster. The Synchronicity Event."
"Synchronicity Event?"
"During his psychic training ten-year old Fettel managed to mentally link himself with his mother Alma. The results were disastrous. Seven ATC personnel were killed in particularly gruesome ways before the young boy was subdued."
"That's like out of Elfen Lied and Akira." I haven't watched either show or movie, I simply cheated by skimming Wikipedia. Suffice to say, experiments with emotionally-unstable individuals of enormous paranormal power through unethical means, in the name of vague, laudable goals for the actual benefit of a powerful, unscrupulous few never ends well. "But how did he connected with Alma while she's in heavy containment?"
"Her power was far enormous than Armacham anticipated. You can say it proved their theory about genetic-amplified psionic control the hard way."
"Didn't stop them from poking and prodding him and shoving him into hellish bootcamp."
"Yes, after they subdued and stabilized, his training continued on but the event gave him a goal, a new purpose in life other than the one dictated to him by ATC. His goal was to free his mother at whatever the cost."
"He did a Shadow Moses on Armacham, didn't he?"
"Exactly. Fettel caused a second Sychronicity Event, this time taking control of the Replica troops he was trained to command and used them in his uprising against the defense contractor. Due to the highly-unusual and extremely sensitive nature of the threat, the Pentagon was called in. They called in their cleaners." Man, I thought Itsuki wouldn't get that reference.
"First Encounter Assault Recon." The moment I spoke those words I had this shudder. For some reason I feel it's drawing me closer.
"It's one of the more surprising things I found out because F.E.A.R. never existed, at least before all this. The knowledge of the Agency is that F.E.A.R. had been created in 2002. But conception has gone back as Project Stargate itself as the United States Department of Defense had studied countermeasures against possible Soviet psychotronics in a future world war. Also it's believed that they were also formed to combat possible invasion from extraterrestial entities."
"Seems like we're indulging in another of Haruhi's fantasies, are we?" I noted wryly.
"Seems like it. The question is why this: why this of all fantasies? Yesterday was just looking for proof of ghosts. Now we're close to two decades in the future with sci-fi and supernatural elements."
No surprise there. "She might have been watching something. I don't know, Alien, The Matrix trilogy, Blade Runner, The Ring, Inception, Ghost in the Shell?" Was that why Yuki told me to go to sleep? Because Haruhi was watching some movies in frustration over her failed expedition? Likely to spare me the trauma of being inside a movie?
"Likely but Haruhi, for all her eccentricities remains a teenage girl in terms of thought process," he countered. "This world, this reality, is far from a spontaneous creation of her mind. Very organic and there's too much detail for it to be hers, since I believe that intricacies are not her strong point, unless she did a spot of bedtime reading of relevant literature. Word at the office is that this reality is another parallel, independent reality."
I my head was trying to get some grip on that statement. "What the hell does that mean?"
"There's an Itsuki that used to live in this timeline before dying in Fairport. And Yuki mentioned that she has an alternate self here in this reality. I assume that you and everyone else has a one but for some reason they vanished and with you and Suzumiya-san replacing them."
Wait, what happened to the other me? "You have no clue about what happened to them, huh?" Moving on. "So, what does the crisis in Fairport have to do with her?"
"Our intelligence indicates a rift within Armacham. The CEO of ATC, Genevieve Aristide, wanted to reopen the old facility where Alma is kept in order to re-purpose it, against the wishes of the company board of directors. Turns out Alma is far from dead, given her power. This caused the Synchronicity Event that led Fettel's uprising against Armacham. He wanted to release his mother from her entombment. A simple mission of suppressing a mutiny for F.E.A.R turns into a revelation of the corporation massive portfolio of misdeeds. Fearing their dirty laundry laid out to the public the board sends its own in-house security, their heavily-armed private army, to deal with the situation. All in all, what was a discreet operation has turned into an urban war that left much of the city in ruins."
"Jeez..." That escalated quickly! "So, they've got a vengeful esper who took control of reached out to her 'son' - anything derived from one's own genetic material is technically their child, right?"
"Ah... yes... I believe it is so." The pause is rather strange to hear from. Likely he's keeping his cards close to the chest, likely in the interest of Agency secrecy, secrecy that I find suspect.
"Okay, so Fettel wants his clone mommy back like Sephiroth after CEO of the year reopens entomb sarcophagi and the Pentagon's paranormal special ops gets embroiled in a war with clones made by Shinra-Weyland-Yutani-Umbrella-OCP... Then it turns into a free-for-all with clones, military, mercenaries, and an all-powerful ghost esper."
"You got that about right," he replied. "And we're there too, trying to contain the effects Alma has on Fairport as her power has grown in leaps and bounds, already altering reality in the city and growing wider each day."
"So, what is their main interest in Haruhi?" This conversation was draining me already. I'm dying to get to the point.
"Armacham is looking for a way to suppress Alma. Their research from Origin and Perseus was not in vain. They've developed some equipment for detecting and quantifying psionic emissions, largely to keep track of Alma but after F.E.A.R. was formed Armacham was being fed gold as First Encounter retrieve exotic tech from around the world, notably in the former Soviet Union when it is revealed that they did engage in psychic research and other fields. Their biggest score was at Chernobyl, in the wake of a second disaster-"
"Chernobyl!? It went kaboom twice here!?" I didn't look forward to any radiation.
"Sorry, Kyon, I didn't mean to scare you. Well, in here, Chernobyl has become a sort of a hotspot of unusual activity. Turns that illegal scientific research is conducted within the Zone of Alienation. In 2006 these underground science projects have caused a second disaster, ironically, it produced much less radiation, instead it caused anomalies in physics to emerge, attracting individuals seeking to investigate the Zone's mysteries. Among of those was F.E.A.R., who made repeated trips to the Zone, basically the Wild West in Eastern Europe, bringing back data for Armacham to use. Now they have detected Haruhi and studied her, founding her potential to be off the charts."
They're after Haruhi. Dear God... "They're after Haruhi."
"Affirmative."
I looked at Yuki. She had been silent the entire time. "Yuki, have you known that Armacham is after Haruhi?"
"No, I do not. I need to acquire relevant data from my counterpart," she monotoned.
I've been through some weird things but I never knew that something like this would come. People were after Haruhi, after her powers. It was supposed to be the world's – our – best kept secret. How could anyone know who she is? Or what she was capable off? I'm now having serious doubts about Koizumi and Yuki especially on their ability hold everything together. Koizumi intimated to me that a paranormal event five thousand miles away in the American West Coast has great implications here. Armacham, a high-profile contractor for the Pentagon was having interest with Haruhi in relation to their psychic program. Yuki, for that matter, how did that slip her and how did mere man manage to best her?
"So Itsuki," I asked. "So you're gonna play bodyguard for us?"
Koizumi frowned. "As much as I want to, they need me back at headquarters. We have a lot of pressing matters to attend to, especially of things that concern me and Haruhi."
"So, you're not gonna be we us?"
He shook his head. "No."
Great. Leave me alone, figuratively naked against people who want to kidnap Haruhi.
"I'll arrange for a security detail to protect you and Haruhi at all times."
You know, by speaking that way, I'm already convinced that you're truly an agent. I can welcome the protection.
"And Kyon, Haruhi is high priority right now. The danger is believed to be imminent."
"With this danger what are we expecting?" I asked.
He paused and gave me a look. "That's classified."
Bullshit! You're taking Mikuru's line.
"No offense, Kyon," he explained, "but I'll tell you off the record: we've got a leak in the Agency."
A leak? You mean somehow someone spilled the beans on Haruhi? On us?
"Yes, you heard me right: a leak," he continued, sound even more serious. "I don't know how great it is but this leak was what made made our current predicament possible. The word of it alone has hampered our efforts to deal the current crisis effectively. Our operatives are working on need-to-know basis and the agency's proceeding as much as you would expect at that situation: slowly and poorly."
"Must have been tough," I commented. I have no idea how your agency works.
"You have to understand Kyon that we are dealing with two problems at the same time: the crisis looming at Fairport, Nishinomiya and possibly elsewhere and our own fiasco. Can you imagine our operatives working hard to maintain stability while we look over our shoulder with counter-intelligence breathing down on our necks?" His eyes looked intense, asking me to think. "Or for that matter, the rank and file turning on each other in suspicion."
"We're you getting at..." But before it can end in a question mark, the gears in my head started whirring all of a sudden. I never watched enough spy movies and thus it never struck me that Itsuki's organization working as an intelligence agency. Yet, from my possibly hazy memory on the subject, the appropriate term sprung up. It made me shudder. "Someone leaked to it to them... Armacham. It's a mole." The word came out as a breathless whisper.
Itsuki nodded gravely. "Yes... A mole."
My mouth went slack. "You mean someone was leaking information on Haruhi in your organization... Deliberately?"
"Affirmative. And in a way, consider yourself operational. You are our most effective means of keeping Haruhi in check and I, apologized in advance, the last line of defense between her and Armacham."
Wait... You're dumping bodyguard duty on me? "Do I get a gun?" Was it too much to ask? I am protecting Haruhi from now on, you know?
He gave me a subtly cool look. "No, Kyon. You don't. You have no knowledge or experience in handling firearms. Our best solution is hide you and Haruhi away from Armacham."
"Not to mention our security detail," I reminded him.
"Yes, that too though I may need to select the personnel involved. The last thing I want is to have the mole or his functionary or patsy traveling along."
"You're gonna have to do better than that," I retorted. "What if he's plugged to your system?" Someone inside the Agency was feeding Armachan information about us, especially about Haruhi. If anything, my faith in the Agency's security was shaken severely.
"At this moment, we are doing everything we could. I'm doing as much as I could on my end here. In the meantime keeping it in a need-to-know basis is the best option right now."
At the very least the last thing I want was to turn a firearm at Haruhi for... whatever? Wait, why I'm a thinking of that? Why in hell would I want her dead? If Haruhi is God then I would seriously destroy the life hereafter, not just the material world. I still want to enjoy my life, however zany and potentially dangerous it is. I'd seriously screw up my chances for a next life if I ice her.
Itsuki switched off the device and it closed itself. The room returned to its normal color and atmosphere. He put the box back in his bag and Haruhi came back in, finished with her conversation with her mother.
"Hey, guys!" she quipped. "Mom says we have to stop over at the grocery store to get some stuff at my place before we go over to Mikuru's."
The hallways were more quiet now as less students and staff remained over. Our own walk was quiet but the subtle tension remains. A powerful defense contractor was after Haruhi in order to cleanup their own mess. But how the hell are they pull that off? Itsuki said whatever was scrounged up at Chernobyl in this reality will give them the edge should they try to get Haruhi. However, I can't imagine anyone getting the drop on her, not without destroying the current universe.
I passed by the nurse's office and noticed the door open with the vacant seat. I turned away when pain suddenly erupted in my body. It was sharp and sudden. My vision started flashing red, my head seemed to bursting with pain. Then they flashed of a darkly lit room full of TVs and blinding white light in front of me.
ARRRGGGH! The pain seemed to be killing me, I couldn't even scream. Yet I hear my voice cry out in short halting yells even with no sound from my mouth. I could hear my heart beat as more pain crackled into my body, I can't move. It could feel my arms cramping, as though steel cable were coiling tightly around my arms trying to crunch my bones.
"Tell me what you know!" a voice, distorted into a guttural, electronic bark, boomed inside my head. "Do not! Fucking lie! To me!"
AARRRGGH!
I was panting heavily. I was drained of any strength I normally had. It was excruciating. My body felt it had been in a rack for over a week. My friends looked at me worriedly, like I was about to have a heart attack.
"Kyon, what the hell's wrong with you?" Haruhi demanded. The eyes looked at once serious and annoyed.
I breathed a long sigh and shook my head. "Nothing... I just got a slight headache. Woke up on the wrong side of the bed." Yeah, Kyon, get Haruhi to believe that cliched excuse - which sort of is, you fake something like that to explain you can't really explain.
"You sure? It better be good, Kyon." Her tone of voice seemed annoyed with a hint of concern. Concern for my wellbeing or just concern that I didn't ruin her day? Reality-benders are certainly capricious creatures.
The goddess marched off and we followed suit. School dismissal time isn't really much different from what was practically a decade ago. A lot of kids going home or getting together before going home. My body seemed to be full of aches, like the muscle spams from electric shock. I don't how that happened and that freaks me out!
We met a tall woman with lavender hair and purple eyes dressed in a business suit. I knew her: Yuki! Or rather Future! Yuki. I never usually picture Yuki as an adult, let alone having a growth spurt. She was breathtakingly beautiful with her hair still cut in the same manner as I met her, and a model's body. She was glowing with quiet charm and assertiveness. Yet, I knew it was still the same Yuki. She may have learned how humans interact with one another in society but she is still the same quite, analytic bookworm that I met in that club room from, at this moment, years ago. It's unlikely she'll apply anything she learned about human interaction outside the context of function and research.
"Good afternoon," she greeted. "I see you're the SOS Brigade." That voice of hers seemed warm yet there's her coolness that I know. But in that way, it's more like hot chocolate slathering on vanilla ice cream to make a sundae. Yes, I found her voice charming and I just gave you an explanation. I found it... sexy. Her potential adult form is very attractive. If she was an office worker, I imagine her a very professional and competent one. Maybe make CEO but knowing her meant she will probably not assert herself. More than likely she would merely take a job that has no fanfare, yet with any job she takes she will exceed beyond all expectations, a very valuable asset to any company that hires her. Needless to say, my human instincts have drawn me to her in a more... intimate... level. She was like a bright spot for me in this otherwise dreary day.
"Good morning to you too," Haruhi replied excitedly, like she was working her with a sales pitch. "How'd you know about us?"
"I am here to see my cousin Yuki," she replied. She saw her younger self with wide eyes. "Hello, Yuki."
"Good afternoon, Fuyuko-nee," Yuki greeted formally. "Fuyuko" went over and embraced Yuki. Yuki, slowly and awkwardly embraced back. I can tell that this is a charade but it was an example about how Future! Yuki had better developed social skills than the teenage Yuki.
"Yuki, you never mentioned that you had family," Haruhi asked the teen bookworm.
"I think Yuki barely mentioned anything," I pointed out. Not that Haruhi cared.
"Yuki is rather quiet when it comes to her relations," Fuyuki explained.
"Why? Family problems?" Haruhi asked earnestly. Thank God this was Yuki, asking relatives blunt questions is liable to getting our asses in trouble - and I in all likelihood would take the most of it for Haruhi whether I like it or not.
"No, she's just very private about it."
"Yeah, I see, no one likes peering into your private lives." Haruhi towards the rest of us. "From now on, SOS Brigade members must share everything about their private lives!"
Wait, why the hell are we gonna you show you our deepest darkest secrets. It's not like you'll reveal yours to us. I hope she won't.
"Fuyuko" chuckled in amusement. "I think you're contradicting yourself."
"But it won't matter. My brigade follows my every order. I expected nothing less of them."
Sheesh, Haruhi, you get so eager. We're the SOS Brigade, not Yale University's Skulls and Bones.
"Really? I sure hope you're not pressing Yuki too hard with her club activities."
Well, I can sort of agree to that one. That alternative world was the result of you not taking anymore of Haruhi's antics and of keeping the world together - for my sake as for everyone else's.
"Yuki is a faithful club member," Haruhi said proudly. "She attends club meetings regularly to the clock, contributes everything to its functions one hundred and ten percent, ever faithful through the thick and thin. She's someone any club member of any club would aspire to. I'm duly proud of her."
Yeah, and who else attends regular meetings and give their work outputs consistently? The Communist Party, who expect all the things Haruhi mentioned. Problem is, they don't have the reality-bending abilities of a Japanese high school girl to get Marxist-Leninist theory off the ground and have to deal with the consequences, much of it major long-term screwups. Chernobyl and all those nukes laying around after the Union's fall are still some of the world's major problems and there's no real way it will go easily soon. Unless Haruhi wishes it.
"Oh, how wonderful," she chimed. Please stop with that voice, you're making me quiver. "It's good to see you make friends, Yuki-chan."
"I had a great time with them," Yuki said with understated mirth. "It was rather satisfactory beyond my expectations."
"I'm glad to hear so." Adult! Yuki - oh please, stop mesmerizing me with your lovely eyes! - turned to us. "Where are you going, by the way?"
"To meet one of our absent club members, Mikuru Asahina," Haruhi replied. "We believe she's sick and we're gonna have a sleepover, bring her up to speed on yesterdays' activities."
"Oh, I hope she's well. You can catch a cold that way." She's just beautiful.
I wanted to linger a little but we had a job to do. We continued our way to the grocery store, Haruhi in the lead when a hand grabbed my arm and snatched me into an open door!
Inside I saw who snatched me off the street. It was Yuki. She was looking into my eyes. I'm startled out of my wits.
"Yuki, what are you doing-" She placed to fingers on her lips, telling me to keep quiet. I had the presence of mind to nod. From what I can see we're in a storage room.
Her mouth uttered noiselessly some incomprensible code I couldn't hear. Then the clacking of heels echoed in the room, followed by the noisy squeaking of a side door. Fuyuko.
"Here is my counterpart, Kyon," she introduced. "Yuki Nagato of Reality #43567, CE 2027."
"Good afternoon, Kyon," she said in the familiar monotone, dropping whatever facade of human emotion she put up in order to blend in- but not that soothing voice.
"Kyon, your hormone levels have risen noticeably," the adult said.
Wha-
"I believe that Kyon is sexually attracted to you and wants to mate with you," spoke teen Yuki. Oh God! My face turned beet red in embarrassment. Neither of them seem to react to my morass of emotions.
"It is only normal, Kyon," adult Yuki replied, "human males are naturally attracted to females of breeding age, especially between the ages of 18 to 30 years old. Humans attend to their appearances in order to attract mates much like other species in the animal kingdom."
You just scientifically deconstructed humanity's obsession with beauty, adult Yuki. And you managed to kill my embarrassment as well, helping me concentrate on the matter at hand.
"Okay, uh... How will I talk to both of you?"
"You can call me, Yuki," teen Yuki, the Yuki of my reality, said.
"And you can call me Nagato," said the women interface.
"Okay, first things first, what happened to my sister?" I wanted to know if Imouto was okay. She said that my little sister's... "data" was retained.
"Kyon, during your transition into this reality," Yuki said, "your sister was awake while you slept. She would have easily been torn apart by the violent collision and melding of data from this reality and our former reality as they were suddenly forced into compatibility with each other. I was able to retrieve her data before the destructive melding took place, placing her in place outside of space-time."
I breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Yuki. I thought I lost her. How about our folks?"
"They disappeared, Kyon. But they were not entirely destroyed. Their data can be recovered. However, to effect the recovery we need to restore the previous universe pre-collision. I had detected two massive flare-ups of data, one whose signal characteristics of Haruhi Suzumiya and the other quite similar; I had promptly sent it to the Data Integration Thought Entity for analysis. It also had detected it and warned of the data collision that was then about to take place and informed me possibility that I might be cut off from it. I was given limited higher-level processing power and I immediately used it to protect all members of the SOS Brigade. I needed you to sleep as my then limited potential was stretched and I cannot fully guarantee your protection from the resulting violent data upsurges. Had you remain awake your mind would not have survived the resulting overload."
It was good thing I slept then. If the nightmare I have was the worse it could do at my state of rest, I hate to see it when I opened my eyes.
"We were all drifting across the vortex caused by the collision, also responsible for leeching into other realities. The violently shifting masses of data have obscured my connection with the Data Entity, signals of whom were spawning out of those rifts of realities. I homed in on the most powerful one I can find and put out a distress signal."
"So, by that you mean here?"
"Exactly," Nagato said. "I managed to make contact with her and advised her as best as the signal strength allowed. I promptly forwarded the signal to the DITE, who gave me authorization to rescue the alternate SOS Brigade. However, this instance was strange in that it required DITE to empower me so as to tether you here."
"It is indeed," Yuki added. "As soon after contact was the shifts accelerated in intensity. The Data Integrated Thought Entity has allocated all of its memory to bring you here to safety and ease some of the damage caused by the collision."
"I never thought the Data Overmind would have this much concern for me," I quipped in amazement. It -they - saved our asses, including mine, even if I blackmailed it with destruction by revealing myself as John Smith to Haruhi.
Nagato said, "The Data Overmind is greatly concerned for the repercussions for the situation had you and Haruhi not survived. It also most interested in that Haruhi is not the sole factor that created this severe and massive fluctuation of data."
What, I'm confused. "What the hell does that mean?"
"The signal which shared characteristics to Suzumiya was Alma Wade's, the daughter of Armacham neurophysicist Harlan Wade," Yuki proclaimed. "It was the signal that attracted to me here. And an unknown data stream that pulled both realities together, pushing us here, accelerating the data shifts around you to dangerous levels in that forced the Data Overmind to empower me to rescue you, all it seemed by design."
A/N: This has gotta be the longest chapter I've written force this fic by far. My apologies for those who kept with this slow burn of a story. As you can see a portion of the exposition is a summary of F.E.A.R.'s lore in order to acquaint those not familiar with the series without going into too much detail. You might also spot a few other references to other media there. The Stargate Project was a real CIA program researching psychics for intelligence operations. It was closed down and declassified in 1995 for inconclusive and controversial results.
Now I apologize for taking so long to update this. I had suffered writer's block, important matters IRL, and competition with my other drafts, being over taken by time itself. By now, the F.E.A.R. series is effectively on hiatus, while the first game was a marvel of videogame innovation, the second did just well, the third had not lived up to the expectations of the first two. There are alternatives to for the stalled series such as the games mentioned above but F.E.A.R. was groundbreaking and revolutionary such as the blending of action and horror into a seamless whole, through atmosphere and sound design, its reflex time ability, allowing for Matrix-style gameplay, but its best feature was its artificial intelligence, whose scripting gave its enemies a great amount of tactical freedom, allowing them to take cover, flank the player, pour suppressing fire, traverse and use the environment to their advantage and to truly work as a team, something compared to then contemporary shooters where the enemy tries to defeat the player by rushing, numbers, and firepower. And this was after the first Far Cry game in the previous year, where the devs did the same thing, only through tasks, tactics, and patrolling patterns. A few advances have been made in AI since then such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. through its ALife program, which gives NPCs a full-range of daily tasks to be accomplished without the players' input; Left 4 Dead, which has an AI named the Director that guides gameplay for a dynamic experience by analyzing player performance, which would be taken further with Isolation in where the Xenomorph is guided rather than controlled by the game's AI director, and Bioshock: Infinite where one of the characters, Elizabeth, whose AI is geared to supporting the player, making her a very reliable companion.
