Free The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya by Nagaru Tanigawa Page A

exactly why she couldn’t just go home. And if some rumor happened to reach Haruhi’s ears, I could wind up in serious danger. Shamisen’s fur would grow back if I wound up having to shave a patch, but I couldn’t very well erase Asahina’s existence. It looked like I’d have to leave the idea of Asahina staying at my house in the realm of fantasy.
    The petite junior’s footsteps listed diagonally. Her path finally intersected mine, and our arms touched, causing her to twitch back in surprise, even more adorable than usual. It didn’t seem like it was just the fault of the ill-fitting shoes. I found myself pleased that she was unconsciously leaning on me, but I couldn’t simply enjoy the sensation. I wasn’t confident that I’d be able to support her completely. A falling domino causes another to fall, until they’ve reached the last piece.
    So when I started to think about who could be trusted not to fall, there weren’t many candidates.
    Haruhi was totally out of the question. If anybody were to ask why, I’d feel no shame in going completely
Eraserhead
on them.
    The other Asahina currently existing in this time period was also out of consideration. Having a matched set of twins walking around would only complicate things—and I had no intention of having to think about time paradoxes any more than I already was.
    Koizumi seemed a bit more trustworthy, but I didn’t know how his Agency treated time travelers, and who knew what would happen to Asahina if I handed her over to that mysterious syndicate. Mori, Arakawa, and the Tamaru brothers were all good people, but Koizumi himself had admitted that they were no better than underlings, and I didn’t have enough faith in them to also trust whoever was controlling things over their heads.
    Thus, a simple process of elimination led me to a single name. The shadowy power behind the scenes of the SOS Brigade, the one who already knew what was going on. Though she was still backed by an unknown, unknowable boss, it had a less corporeal existence than Koizumi’s superiors.
    Yes, the only one remaining was her.
    Thus it came to pass that when I started to think about where to go, there was only one option.
    It was time to see Yuki Nagato. Having another problem like this was enough to make you want to say “What, this again?” Maybe it was time to start thinking of the alien and the time traveler as a matched set. It seemed like the route from the future to the past always involved a trip to Nagato’s room.
    And also—
I thought.
    Nagato was the one who had pulled Asahina (current) out of the room such that Asahina the Current’s gaze wouldn’t fall upon Asahina (future). Nagato might even be able to tell me just what was going on here.
    “Are we going to Nagato’s place?” asked Asahina, her steps slowing.
    “You’ll be fine with her,” I said, trying to cheer her up. “She’s got an extra room, and I’m sure she’ll let you stay for a week.”
    Heck, I should’ve brought my own pajamas. I even had a good excuse.
    “But…” Asahina replied, her eyes a bit downcast. “Being alone with Nagato is a little… um… for a whole week?”
    There wasn’t anything to be afraid of. Nagato would never do anything to hurt Asahina. We’d relied on Nagato plenty of times in the past, and she’d even been our companion in our most recent time-travel episode.
    “I-I know, but…” Strangely, Asahina looked at me with accusation in her eyes. “I don’t think Nagato will enjoy it very much if I stay with her…”
    “Huh? Why’s that?”
    How would Asahina know what Nagato
did
enjoy? I doubted Nagato would so much as flinch even if someone stripped all their clothes off and started dancing around six inches away from her.
    I looked at her, waiting for an answer, but Asahina just puffed her cheeks in irritation and faced ahead.
    “… Fine then,” she said.
    Nagato’s specialty was saying things using the fewest words possible, and this time was no