CHAPTER 2

In retrospect, that was exactly how it played out.

The following break, Haruhi didn’t leave the room by herself like normal. Instead, she walked out with my arm forcibly in tow. After exiting the classroom, she rapidly proceeded through the hallway and flew up a flight of stairs before stopping in front of the door which led to the rooftop terrace.

The door to the roof was usually locked and the staircase leading up from the fourth floor was mostly used for storage, probably by the Art Club. Stuff like huge canvases, broken easels, and noseless busts of Mars were all piled up, leaving the corridor feeling cramped. Scratch that, it was cramped. And the lighting was dim to boot.

What was the point of bringing me to a place like this?

“Help me,” Haruhi said. She was currently grabbing my necktie, pressuring me with her penetrating eyes. It felt like extortion.

“Help you with what?”

I already knew the answer, but I asked anyway.

“Making my new club.”

“Why do I have to help with your idea? Tell me that first.”

“I’ll go secure a room and members and you go get the chartering paperwork.”

She’s not listening.

I untangled myself from Haruhi’s grip.

“What kind of club are you planning on making?”

“Why does that even matter? Creating the club comes first!”

I highly doubted the school would accept a club engaging in undisclosed activities.

“Understand? Find out what you have to do before school’s over. I’ll find a room before then. Got it?”

No. Except I got the feeling that if I gave voice to that thought, I would be clubbed to death on the spot. While I was trying to say the right thing, Haruhi had already flitted down the stairs with an oddly spry skipping motion, leaving behind a very confused boy at the top of the dusty stairway.

“… I didn’t say yes or no yet….”

No point in talking to a plaster bust. I set off, now thinking about what I would say to my curious classmates when I returned to the classroom.

Here are the provisions for chartering a “student association.”

Five or more members. Determine faculty advisor, name, responsible party, and club activities. These must be approved by the student council club administration committee. Club activities must adhere to the policy of leading a productive and active school life. Based on future activities and performance, the administration committee may press a motion for a raise in status to “research society.” Furthermore, as long as the group remains a student association, no funding will be provided.

There was no need for any real digging. This was all written in the back of the student handbook.

We could take care of the member requirement by randomly asking people to let us use their names. A faculty advisor might be hard to find, but there was always the option of using deceit. The name just needed to be something inoffensive. The responsible party would obviously be Haruhi.

But I was willing to bet that her club activities weren’t going to “adhere to the policy of leading a productive and active school life.”

At least that’s what I told her. However, Haruhi Suzumiya is the kind of person who only hears what she wants to hear.

Grabbing the sleeve of my blazer with a vise-like grip the moment the bell rang, Haruhi dragged me out of the room the way a kidnapper would and zoomed off. It was all I could do to prevent my bookbag from being left behind in the classroom.

“Where are we going?” The question any sane person would ask in this scenario.

“The club room!” was Haruhi’s curt response before she fell silent as she moved forward with enough vigor to bowl over the darting students in front of us. At least let go of my arm!

We navigated through a passage and descended to the first floor before exiting. Then we entered a different building and headed back upstairs before Haruhi came to a stop in the middle of a dimly lit hallway, forcing me to brake as well.

A door stood before us.

Literary Club.

That’s what it said on the affixed, slanting nameplate.

“Here.”

Haruhi opened the door without even knocking and barged in without the slightest hint of reservation. I followed suit, naturally.

The room was surprisingly large. Maybe because it only contained a long table, metal chairs, and steel bookshelves. The two or three cracks running across the ceiling and walls told the tale of the decrepit state of the building structure.

And seated in one of the metal chairs, like an addition to the room, was a girl reading a thick hardcover book.

“This room is now our club room!” Haruhi proclaimed in a dignified fashion, throwing her arms into the air. Her face was painted with a divine smile. I decided not to voice my opinion that seeing such a smile on her face in the classroom every day would be a good thing.

“Wait a second. Where are we?”

“The cultural department clubhouse. The art club and wind ensemble have the art room and music room, right? Clubs and societies that don’t have specialized classrooms have rooms in this clubhouse. Also known as the old shack. This is the literary club’s room.”

“So this belongs to the literary club.”

“But the third-years all graduated last spring so it has zero members. It was the only club that would have been cut if nobody new joined. And this girl is the first-year who joined.”

“Then the club wasn’t cut, right?”

“It might as well have been. It only has one person.”

Unfreakingbelievable. She planned on taking over the room. I directed my attention toward the girl who was apparently a first-year literary club member, indulging herself in reading at the folding table.

A girl with short hair and glasses.

She hadn’t even looked up once during Haruhi’s clamoring. The only movement was when her fingers turned the page every once in a while. The rest of her body hadn’t moved the slightest bit. She was completely ignoring our presence. She was quite the weird girl.

I lowered my voice and whispered to Haruhi, “What about her?”

“She said she’s fine with it.”

“For real?”

“I ran into her during lunch. When I asked her to lend me this room, she said to go ahead. She doesn’t care as long as she can read apparently. I suppose you could call her an oddball.”

You’re one to talk.

I took another look at the strange literary club member.

Pale skin with a face devoid of emotion. Robotic finger movement. Her hair was shorter than a bob cut yet managed to cover her arranged features. It made me want to see what she looked like without glasses on. Her doll-like demeanor meant she had a lack of presence. If I had to classify her, the simplest way would be to say she’s the mysterious, stoic type.

I’m not sure what she thought of my blatantly fixed stare. The girl pushed up the bridge of her glasses without preamble.

Dark-colored eyes stared at me from behind the lenses. Neither eyes nor lips revealed any emotion at all. A top-notch poker face. Unlike Haruhi’s, her default expression appeared to show no emotion at all.

“Yuki Nagato,” she said. Seemed to be her name. She had a flat voice you could forget in three seconds.

Yuki Nagato looked at me for about as long as it would take to blink twice. She then apparently lost interest and returned to her reading.

“So, Nagato,” I said. “She’s planning on turning this room into an I-have-no-idea-what club. Is that still okay with you?”

“Yes.”

Yuki Nagato answered without taking her eyes from the page.

“Well, but, it’ll probably be a huge bother.”

“Not really.”

“You might even get chased out.”

“Go ahead.”

Quick responses were good, but her replies had no feeling to them. It would seem that she genuinely didn’t care.

“Well. There you have it,” Haruhi interjected. Her voice was always full of life. I was getting a bad feeling about this for some reason.

“Be sure to meet in this room after school from now on. You had better show up! If you don’t, heads will roll.”

She said this with a smile like cherry blossoms in full bloom. I reluctantly nodded my assent.

Since I like my head where it is.

And so we managed to secure a club room, which was good, but we hadn’t yet made any progress with the paperwork. Besides, we hadn’t even decided on a name or what club activities we’d be engaging in. I told her to figure those out first, but Haruhi apparently had other ideas.

“That stuff will all fall into place later on,” Haruhi loudly proclaimed. “First comes the members. We need at least two more.”

Which means what? You’re counting that literary club member? Aren’t you confusing Yuki Nagato with a piece of furniture that came with the room?

“Rest assured, I’ll find them in no time. I happen to know of someone who was made for this club.”

How was I supposed to rest assured? My doubts were only growing stronger.

The next day, I declined when Taniguchi and Kunikida invited me to walk home with them and, having no choice, dragged my legs toward the club room.

Haruhi just yelled, “You go on ahead!” before tearing out of the room with a record acceleration time that would explain why the track team so fervently pursued her membership. Fast enough to make you wonder if she might have rocket boosters attached to her legs. She was probably off to secure the new club member. Did she finally run into an alien?

I slung my bookbag over my shoulder and unenthusiastically shuffled my feet in the direction of the literary club.

Yuki Nagato was already in the club room. She was reading in the exact same position as yesterday, giving me this sense of déjà vu. And just like yesterday, she didn’t even twitch as I entered the room. Not that I would know, but is the literary club just a club for sitting around and reading books?

Silence.

“… What’cha reading?” I asked, unable to bear the silence any longer. Instead of answering, Yuki Nagato merely raised the book to show me the cover. The foreign-sounding title, written in gothic lettering, was already putting me to sleep. Looked like a sci-fi novel or something.

“Is it any good?”

Yuki Nagato pushed up the bridge of her glasses with a limp motion and replied in a listless tone.

“Unique.”

I got the feeling she was just giving an arbitrary answer to my question.

“Which part of it?”

“All of it.”

“You like books, huh?”

“Relatively.”

“Is that so….”

“…”

Silence.

Can I leave now?

I dropped my bag on the table and was in the process of seating myself in one of the extra chairs when the door opened. More like it was kicked open.

“Hey! Sorry about being late! It took a while to catch her!”

Haruhi made her entrance with one hand held over her head. Her other hand was behind her, grabbing some other person’s arm. Haruhi barged in with said person in tow, obviously brought here against their will, and locked the door for some reason. Click. Upon hearing that sound, the petite person began trembling with anxiety. It was another girl.

And an extraordinarily beautiful one at that.

How is this person “made for this club,” exactly?

“What is this?” the beautiful girl said. The poor thing was almost in tears.

“Where are we? Why did you bring me here? Why are you l-locking the door?! What are you…”

“Be quiet.”

The girl froze with a start upon hearing Haruhi’s imperious voice.

“Allow me to introduce you. This is Mikuru Asahina.”

And with that, Haruhi said no more. That’s the whole introduction?

A constrained silence fell over the room. Haruhi was standing there looking like she’d already done her duty. Yuki Nagato was reading as though nothing had happened. The mysterious girl named Mikuru Asahina was cowering on the verge of tears. I didn’t foresee any of them speaking up soon so I had no choice but to open my mouth.

“Where did you abduct her from?”

“I didn’t abduct her. It was voluntary arrest.”

Close enough.

“I caught her daydreaming in a second-year classroom. I walk through every nook and cranny of this school during breaks so her face started to become familiar after a while.”

I had been wondering why she wasn’t in the classroom during breaks. So that’s what she was doing. Wait, more importantly…

“Then isn’t she an upperclassman?”

“What about it?”

She had a puzzled expression on her face. Apparently, she really didn’t think anything of it.

“Never mind, then… Uh, Asahina, is it? Why her?”