Chapter 196

One day passed very quickly.

Kyon spent most of the night tossing and turning in trepidation, and only fell into a daze of sleep in the latter half of the night.

It felt like he had only just closed his eyes when the alarm clock rang.

Then his family knocked on his bedroom door from outside, urging him to get up, brush his teeth, and eat breakfast, saying he would be late if he kept dawdling.

In a groggy haze, relying on powerful inertia and over a decade of ingrained muscle memory, he muddled through the entire routine; after washing up and finishing breakfast, he grabbed his bookbag and headed out the door.

Sleepiness is a marvelous thing — when you need to sleep it refuses to come, and when you need to be awake it refuses to leave; Kyon was naturally no exception. This caused him to yawn incessantly on the way to school.

— Of course this was inevitable, a matter of force majeure.

— During this period his sleep quality was already very poor, terribly bad; added up it probably amounted to only a few hours.

Ever since the club members laid their cards on the table one after another, his sleep quality had been greatly affected. After all, he was an ordinary person; for an ordinary person it was truly difficult to accept it with peace of mind — anxiety, delusion, these were all perfectly normal reactions.

Family problems can make someone restless and sleepless…

Now even the world has a problem; if someone could still maintain their sleep quality, that would be the truly strange thing.

On top of that, last night Kyon was suddenly taken by Koizumi to that strange Closed Space, where he witnessed a Supernatural Battle and heard a piece of news that seemed not good…

This naturally made it even harder for him to sleep.

Worry, unease.

To tell the truth, Kyon was also somewhat uncertain; he didn't know whether he was lucky or unlucky.

To say lucky: because he had perceived the truth of the world; from this point of view, among the world's population of over six billion, he was undoubtedly among the topmost handful of people — elite to the point of being unable to be more elite. Under normal circumstances, even a national president couldn't compare to him.

As for unlucky, that was also easy to understand —

That is, sometimes knowing too much isn't necessarily a good thing.

For instance, if the End of the World were coming next — maybe tomorrow, the day after, or the day after that; or maybe next year, the year after, or the year after that — in short, an uncertain time, but it could arrive at any moment… as an ordinary person, what could one do in the face of this?

The answer is: nothing at all.

An ordinary person is just an ordinary person, not Superman; saving the world or anything like that is fundamentally unrealistic.

If he knew nothing, he could still live a stretch of peaceful days; but if he knew in advance that the end was coming, he would have no peaceful days to speak of.

Kyon was now in exactly this predicament, caught in a dilemma where he could neither advance nor retreat; advancing offered no way forward, and he didn't know what he should do… as for retreating, that didn't seem like a solution either. He also doubted whether, knowing so many things he shouldn't know, there was really any possibility of backing out.

"……"

"……"

Amidst his delusions, he unknowingly walked up that long slope, paused in front of the school gate, surveyed the school, then turned his head to glance at the direction of the rising sun on the horizon.

What will the world become in the future?

Koizumi didn't explain clearly either; perhaps because he himself didn't know.

He sighed, carrying a complex mood, and walked through the school gate. By this time it was already a bit late; the other students had basically long since entered the school and returned to their classrooms, so the school path was empty, desolate and coldly quiet.

Kyon walked along the school path toward the teaching building, head lowered in thought.

Just then, a sudden burst of hurried, chaotic footsteps came from behind.

"Hurry hurry, we're about to run out of time…"

A familiar voice came along with the hurried footsteps, slightly muffled and slurred, but the sheer urgency was unmistakable — anyone could tell it was someone who had overslept or had some other reason and was going to be late.

Kyon subconsciously turned back, and happened to see Haruhi Suzumiya rushing in from outside the school gate, sprinting all the way.

She still had a piece of toast clamped in her mouth, running at a quick pace while somehow finding a spare moment to reach behind her head and tie her hair, a picture of frantic haste that fully showed she wasn't just late — she was seriously late.

After all, for Haruhi Suzumiya to not even have time to tidy her hair — how rushed must it be?

Could it be she only just remembered she still had to go to school, so she got up not long ago?

This was highly suspicious —

She wasn't simply delayed on the road; she had directly overslept.

Kyon subconsciously thought of this too; after all, he knew deeply what kind of tricks Haruhi Suzumiya could play with that long hair of hers, and from observation, she could practically go a full seven days a week with completely different hairstyles.

Monday: beautiful long straight hair…

Tuesday: a tied single ponytail…

Wednesday: left and right pigtails…

In other words, as the week unit increased, the number of hair ties also increased; just by looking at her hairstyle you could clearly know what day of the week it was. In a certain sense, it was quite convenient; truly a scenic feature of Class 1-5.

Moreover, not only the number of ties, but even the colors of the ribbons she used had a unique pattern.

Monday, Moon Day, so gold…

Tuesday, Fire Day, so red…

Wednesday, Water Day, so blue…

In short, it was very regular; Kyon couldn't help but guess how troublesome fixing her hair like this really was, wanting to see when Haruhi Suzumiya would finally fail to keep it up and break the pattern… and now he had witnessed it, yet never expected it would be caused by such a reason.

Just because she was late?

He subconsciously thought this, while simultaneously seeing Xia Zhi's figure following close behind at an unhurried pace, rapidly approaching from behind Haruhi Suzumiya.

"Be careful, aren't you afraid of falling like that?"

Xia Zhi watched the Team Leader's dangerous posture ahead — the girl was fast-walking with both hands behind her head tying her hair, while mumbling something around the bread in her mouth — and couldn't help but sigh and speak up.

This posture would make even a dog shake its head.

After all, if her foot slipped, she'd probably knock out several front teeth…

But the Team Leader surely isn't worried; before, she never even considered this kind of thing, so it absolutely wouldn't happen. Now she feels that even if it did happen, it wouldn't matter — her core thought remains unmoved no matter how her ideas change.

As expected —

"Afraid of what? Isn't that what you're for?" Haruhi Suzumiya tied up her ponytail, casually lowered her hands, and hearing this, replied nonchalantly.

Immediately after, she caught sight of Kyon before her, and her eyes instantly brightened.

Thud-thud-thud she ran straight up to Kyon, the Team Leader stopped right in front of him, narrowed her eyes and looked him up and down, then bluntly asked: "Kyon, did you finish your summer homework this time?"

"Eh—ah?"

Kyon was being scrutinized by her in that inexplicable way, and just as he was feeling his hair stand on end from being watched, he was suddenly caught off guard by another question, which stunned him completely, and he instantly lost his composure.

—Summer homework?

—What summer homework? I didn't write any!

—Is summer vacation already here? How did my summer vacation pass?

Originally, because he hadn't rested well, his mental state was listless, and his brain was a bit slow to turn; at this moment, Kyon naturally had some confusion about the situation, and he just subconsciously followed Haruhi Suzumiya's questioning, thinking haphazardly in this direction.

Terrible, it seems I really have no impression of ever writing summer homework!

Could it be that I really forgot? And forgot completely clean?!

His eyes wavered violently, cold sweat nearly breaking out; it was dangerous, his mind turned several circles, and he finally cleared up the situation.

"Wait, no, when did summer vacation start? Haven't we not even passed the May Day Golden Week yet……"

"Reaction too slow! Do you even need to think about this kind of thing? Could it be you haven't woken up!" The Team Leader was very dissatisfied with his reaction, and simultaneously waved her hand grandly: "And I'm reminding you, you definitely won't finish your homework this year's summer vacation!"

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

Kyon shook his head; he didn't believe this kind of thing: "My summer homework will definitely get finished."

"That's not certain……"

The Team Leader pouted her lips, yet in her eyes was a joy she couldn't conceal — the joy of a girl who knows what others don't, who holds a great world secret. Just then, Xia Zhi walked up from behind and coughed lightly.

"Alright alright, stop talking, the bell is about to ring…… aren't you two going in?"

The moment his words fell——

A clear and extremely penetrating bell rang throughout the campus——

"Terrible! We're late!"

The Team Leader's expression instantly changed slightly; she simultaneously glared at the Magician, and immediately hurriedly ran off again.

Xia Zhi followed with steps very calmly, unhurriedly catching up.

—"Don't look at me like that, this has nothing to do with me."

—"I called you many times; it was you who overslept yourself."

Seemingly speaking about the reason why Haruhi Suzumiya would be late, faintly these two sentences drifted back from the front, making Kyon's whole person stare wide-eyed.

What situation?

What situation?! These two people would come to school together today, could it be……

Speaking of which, last night the Closed Space disappeared, Teacher Xia Zhi vanished, was it because of this……

In his mind, an abnormally fierce thought storm instantly arose, until the second bell rang again, interrupting his delusions; realizing he really was going to be late, he couldn't care about anything else and hurriedly ran with all his might, sprinting toward the Teaching Building at the fastest speed.

————————

————————

"Beginning application for permission to connect to memories related to Parallel Time Isotope……"

"Time Connection Plane Band Reversible Boundary Crossing Information download complete……"

"Memory Sharing complete……"

At the same time, in the office, Nagato Yuki, who had been called over, was muttering to herself, like the prompt sounds emitted when a machine operates. In those pupils seemingly composed of inorganic matter, it seemed she was exchanging information with some place, flashing with faint hints of light.

After a moment, she stopped, pausing for a beat.

"Synchronization complete. Specific situation verification complete, confirming facts without error."

"This Cycle runs from August 17 to August 31, totaling Two Weeks, Loops 15532 times, approximately 595 years."

Hearing Nagato Yuki's words, looking over, he discovered she even nodded faintly at him; beside her, Asakura Ryouko's whole expression collapsed.

"No way, is this true? We have to Cycle in August for nearly six hundred years?"

Xia Zhi also nodded in confirmation: "Indeed it is exactly this matter, so now I'll tell you about it…… mainly it seems because of your Function problems, if the Cycle time is too long, bugs will appear; in that endless August I experienced, Yuki had already shown obvious abnormalities……"

"That's for certain!"

Asakura Ryouko bit her lip, her face showing some malicious chills.

"Yuki has no Emotion Function, yet she became like this; if I went through one Cycle, I'd definitely produce serious bugs!"

Simultaneously she seemed to think of something, pulled at the corner of her mouth, and confirmed toward Xia Zhi: "W-wait, there's still one problem…… in that Cycle, was I together with you guys?"

"……"

"……"

"Why did you stop talking?"

Asakura Ryouko had a desolate face, as if she saw a future where she was ruthlessly abandoned.

Indeed it is so; looking at it this way, in those nearly six hundred years of over fifteen thousand Cycles, she was also excluded, unable to participate in SOS Brigade activities…… no meaning at all, and still had to clearly be conscious of the Cycle's existence in the Standby Location……

She instantly felt a chill run down her spine, feeling she had better back up her current Personality and Intelligence Information, otherwise……

She would definitely break.

(Chapter End)