Free The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya by Nagaru Tanigawa Page B

help.”
    You’d be a fool to ask me for help. Shouldn’t you already know that we’re at the same academic level? I won’t know the answer if you don’t.
    “Hey, Kunikida.”
    I called out to the other member of their duo as he returned from the bathroom.
    “Tell Taniguchi everything you know about sodium hydroxide. He’s particularly interested in knowing if it’s buddies with hydrochloric acid.”
    “They should be friends, at the very least. Since you get a neutralization reaction when you mix them.”
    Kunikida sauntered over and peered into Taniguchi’s open textbook.
    “Oh, this problem. It’s easy. You calculate the answer in moles before converting to grams. You see…”
    I felt pretty helpless as I watched a knowledgeable person solve the problem like it was nothing.
    Taniguchi kept on nodding as Kunikida reached the climax of his calculations. Right then Taniguchi appeared to lose interest in learning the method. He grabbed a mechanical pencil from my desk and wrote the numbers and symbols, as dictated, into the margin of a page in his textbook.
    Once that was finished, he flashed me a peculiar smirk.
    “Kyon-boy, I heard from Kunikida during the soccer game. You made a lot of noise two days ago, huh?”
    Weren’t you here two days ago?
    “I was sleeping in the nurse’s office during lunch. And I was out of it all afternoon ’cause I felt like crap. I didn’t hear about it until today. You were raging about how Asakura wasn’t supposed to be here or something?”
    “Pretty much.”
    I flipped my hand to tell him to get lost, but Taniguchi merely smirked.
    “I wish I could have seen it. We rarely get a chance to see you yelling and screaming.”
    Kunikida appeared to remember something.
    “Kyon seems to have recovered. Though you were still curt with Asakura. Did something happen between the two of you?”
    Any attempt to explain would have them thinking I was cuckoo. So I kept my mouth shut. The logical course of action to take.
    “That reminds me, you were saying something about Asakura replacing someone else. Did you find that person? Haruhi, was it? Who were you talking about anyway?”
    Could you let it drop already? In my current state I’m jumpingreflexively every time I hear that name. Even if it were just a parrot repeating her name, I would jump.
    “Haruhi?”
    Look, Taniguchi has his head tilted to one side. And then he spoke.
    “This Haruhi couldn’t possibly be Haruhi Suzumiya, could it?”
    That’s right. Haruhi Suzumiya…
    The bones in my neck made a creaking sound as I slowly raised my head to look up at the dumb look on my classmate’s face.
    “Hey, Taniguchi. What did you just say?”
    “I said Suzumiya, y’know? The psycho girl from East Middle. I was in the same class as her all three years. Heh, I wonder what she’s up to now.—So how does Kyon know her? What’s that crap about Asakura replacing her?”
    Everything went white for a moment—
    “Damn bastard! You and your gray hairs!” I shouted as I jumped up. I must have given Taniguchi and Kunikida a scare, as they took a step back in unison.
    “Don’t talk about my gray hairs. You’re the one with hairline issues. Besides, white hair runs in my family. From a long-term perspective, you’re the one who should be worried.”
    Shut up. That’s none of your business. I grabbed Taniguchi by his shirt and pulled him so close that my nose almost stuck into his face.
    “You know Haruhi!?”
    “You bet I do. Hell, I won’t be able to forget about her after fifty years. If you’re from East Middle and you don’t know about her, you’d better get your head checked for amnesia.”
    “Where?”
    I was practically growling.
    “Where is she? Where is Haruhi? Where’d she go?”
    “What’s with you? Where, where, where. Are you supposed to be a broken record? Did you happen to catch a glimpse of Suzumiya somewhere and instantly fall for her? Give up on it. I’m trying to be nice here. She might be fine