CHAPTER 2

α—1

“Hello.” The voice was like a mountain echo; it was a woman’s voice, one I had no memory of hearing before.

It was neither Haruhi nor Nagato, nor the Asahina of any time plane. Not Miss Mori or Sakanaka, much less Kuyoh Suoh or Kyoko Tachibana, nor even Sasaki, of whom there was some small possibility. One word was enough to know. It was nobody I knew, a voice that had never once vibrated my eardrums.

“Ah. You’re in the bath, aren’t you? I’m ever so sorry. Excuse me. Shall I call again later?” Before I could say that wasn’t necessary, she continued. “But, but, I shouldn’t call too many times, so. Again, I’m so sorry.” Her voice emerged from the phone like the sound of a running river.

“Who is this? Just tell me your name.”

“It’s me. M-E, me.”

No, this wasn’t Haruhi, so that did not constitute a self-introduction, I said.

“Aw, c’mon!” said the voice. Since it was coming through the phone, I can’t say it was very clear, but the voice’s owner was speaking brightly and cheerily. “But that’s okay. I just called to say hello. Hee hee, your little sister’s a cutie. I always wanted a little sister like that. ‘Arithmetic dri-i-i-lls!’ So cute!”

Now then, I thought. I still had no memory of hearing it, but its intonation sounded like someone speaking in a voice they would normally never use. But no matter how much I searched my internal voice recordings, I couldn’t find it. It just sounded young, sort of like my little sister’s.

“I just wanted to hear my upperclassman’s voice,” said the voice’s owner. “That’s all. I just wanted to. I might need your assistance in the future, so thanks in advance. I hope we can be friends for a long time.”

Now wait just a minute. She was calling me an upperclassman? Which meant she was younger than me. Still, the reality was I didn’t remember her, but before I could press her for her full name—

“I’m hanging up. If we have a chance to meet, I’ll see you then. Hee hee.”

Click.

She hung up rudely.

What was going on here? Having met Sasaki for the first time in a long while, plus Kyoko Tachibana and Kuyoh Suoh, I was at my limit. I didn’t want any new characters showing up for a little while.

I had a sudden realization and looked at the caller ID history. Of course she’d used a blocked number.

I got out of the bath and put on my pajamas, all the while asking myself if I had any clue as to who the girl was, but it was a waste of time.

“What’s with today, anyway?”

There was no point in thinking about it. Whatever was going to happen would happen. And if it wouldn’t happen, I’d find some kind of reason to make it happen. If it came to that, I could consult (in order of degree of difficulty) Koizumi, Asahina, Nagato—and an infinite distance beyond that, Haruhi. I couldn’t be held responsible for what would happen after that.

“What a pain.”

Tomorrow was a full day off, and so long as Haruhi didn’t hit upon something while I was asleep, I’d be able to enjoy my Sunday.

I carried Shamisen like a heating pad in order to ward off the post-bath chill, and I headed to the room where my sister waited.

β—1

“Hello.” The voice was like a mountain echo; it was a woman’s voice, one I’d heard just this morning.

I would’ve preferred it to be Haruhi, Nagato, or even Asahina the Elder. Haruhi probably would’ve just gone on about her plans for the next day, and Nagato would’ve needed to brief me on Kuyoh. There were any number of questions I’d saved up for Asahina the Elder.

“Ah, bathing, are you? Your sister should’ve said something. Shall I call back? Although the fact that you picked up the phone suggests that you’re going to get out of the bath comparatively soon.”

It was not anyone I’d guessed it might be. I said the familiar voice’s owner’s name. “Sasaki, huh?”

“Indeed, it is I. About this morning, I’d wanted to talk a bit more, but Suzumiya and the others arrived early. I suppose you could call it a miscalculation.” Sasaki’s voice chuckled. “Still, your little sister hasn’t changed a bit. I told her my name, but she either didn’t catch it or didn’t remember me—but I suppose that’s not surprising. We’ve only met twice—wait, three times, I think it was.”

“If you want to be her math tutor, that’s plenty.” This was one of my few contributions to the household.

“I know. I’ve no intention of snatching your little sister away. There are billions of perfect strangers in the world, but only a few are related to you by blood, so their value rises in proportion to their scarcity. Such relationships must be treasured—blood is thicker than water.”

“So what do you want?”

“You certainly do get right to the point. I’d like you to come to the usual spot at the station tomorrow. You know the place I’m speaking of. As for the business—perhaps it would be better if Tachibana and the others explained it instead of me. My guess is that you’ll understand it better than I do.”

“So they’re all coming, then?” I got irritated thinking about the silent, eerie Kuyoh.

“Yes, and he’ll be there too—the self-proclaimed time traveler.”

This just got better and better. If that guy spouted off more nonsense about Asahina, I wasn’t confident I could control myself. If it looked like I was going to slug him, Sasaki had better stop me, I said.

“So you’ll come, then? Kyon, don’t worry. All three of them just want to have a peaceful conversation with you. A verbal exchange of views is what everybody hopes for.”

Sure, so long as that alien can actually speak Earth language. Speaking of which—“Sasaki, where did you go with that crowd today?”

“So I need an alibi now? We got on the train and took it to the shopping district, where we wandered around for a while. Tachibana is quite the good-natured young lady, you know. She told me all about her high school.” Sasaki then casually added, “And about what happened four years ago.”

Four years ago.

I’d first heard about it a year earlier, when it had been three years ago. It was like a buzzword that was on everybody’s lips, a punch line that made everyone shake their heads. It was the amount of time passed since Haruhi had used her bizarre superpowers to do something. Four years—time for another Olympics.