TMoHS: The Anagram of Suzumiya Kurumi 12
Title: The Anagram of Suzumiya Kurumi
Rating: PG
Length: 5809
Warnings: Time travel, spoilers, book canon, some coarse language and science fiction themes.
Summary: Kurumi hasn't been sent on an escort mission for some time. Precisely who she is escorting is quite hard to define, and really depends on your chronological perspective.( Earlier chapters 01| 02| 03| 04| 05| 06| 07| 08| 09| 10| 11)
Disclaimer All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
2025, March, the agency, Tokyo; 2000 Tsuruya Residence, Tokyo; 2000 Sasaki's Residence, Tokyo; 2003, North Senior High School, Tokyo
Nobody ever really gets enough time to rest, not really. To truly have respite you need to not only recover from your exhaustion but also have the time to build up reservoirs of energy in surplus. As it was, I was fortunate enough that I had a month to stress over our revelations before I began to take on more work. Being a time travel agent isn't really a career you can walk away from or abandon, especially when you're in it as knee-deep as I was.
I was allowed to visit home on the weekends, as I had during my childhood training. It was quite odd, however, to be living as my own teacher. To know that I had once shared the same bed and bedroom and routine as my student. The same old spluttering washing machine. That there was in my cupboard an old pair of socks that were too cute to throw out, but too small to wear; probably the same ones she tugged back up after a physical training session. We both had regular meals with what was effectively the S.O.S Brigade. Even though young Kurumi had no awareness of these things, and we were separated by approximately ten years of age (this was still early in her training, you see, before junior high) I couldn't help but see echoes of her during my time off. It was like my memories had been displaced into a kind of false present day. I could swear I heard old arguments with Mum and games of chess with Uncle Itsuki even when I was the only person at home. That our chronologies did not match (which made for some spectacularly odd lesson plan diagrams, let me tell you!) only made matters worse in some ways. I had to think about what she was studying, how old she was; I tended to remember exactly what her weekend would have been like.
I was legally an adult, I thought to myself. The agency had arranged for me to sit a make-up high school graduation exam, too. I had officially graduated and become a full-time time travel agent. Perhaps it was time to move out, to find somewhere fresh to live? To have a home that wasn't an agency rental or Mum's, but my own?
Perhaps it might have been the right time, I sighed sadly, but I had too much responsibility and selflessness trained into me. I had to do right not only by myself and my needs, but by the needs of the Ideal Timeline. As Aunt Yuki and Uncle Itsuki and I all agreed on the matter of closed spaces and motherly love, I could not ethically move out until I had either confirmed our suspicions regarding my own capabilities or until Mum seemed a little less attached to the reformation of the S.O.S Brigade.
It was ludicrous and hard to explain, but now that I was Mikuru returned in her eyes, her perception of our improvised family group had changed. She didn't just want Aunt Yuki and Uncle Itsuki to help her research the topics for her show; she wanted us all as her co-hosts. Special sub-topics given to each member of the brigade, and everyone assembling under Mum, the obvious leader. And when she said “obvious” it was without any speck of humility or irony, she truly did believe this all in her heart.
With all this on my shoulders, you can imagine that I never really got the respite I needed following my failed mission. While I was not going to become an implanted agent for a long time, however, times were tight and I was still listed as On Active Duty. Facing the choice of undertaking errands for the agency or being press-ganged into becoming a “believe it or not!” TV host's underling, you can imagine what I chose. I at least knew that within the duties of being a time agent there was always the emergency recall option, and that the emergency rooms did contain a thermos of tea.
That I had brewed. Which was, in a way, quite creepy. But there was a roster for refilling and attending to the emergency rooms, and as long as I didn't think too much about what I was doing, that job had the comfort of predictability. Cold tea goes out, hot tea brews and goes in. First-aid kit is checked and replenished, towels are washed and folded. You couldn't get much safer than something like that.
I did have minor concerns, of course. What if I agreed to travel in time and space? Since my epiphany regarding the TPDD and my own abilities, I hadn't tried to travel in time outside of the agency headquarters, and then only for the purposes of collecting young Kurumi from home. It wasn't as if I had faced a large or unexpected jump, and I was a little scared that if I was the power behind the time travel and not the TPDD, if that was the reason there were so few agents, and if the real control over time travel was not in the TPDD's display but my own mind, that I might unintentionally risk destroying the universe or create a large closed space.
I shivered, and shuffled my feet to stay warm in the cool early air of the morning as I waited for the bus that would take me from my house to the agency. Around me commuters and students were mainly all turned inwards, all of us contemplating the week of work ahead of us. I myself was trying to gather my resolve up, to contact the higher superiors that I had not yet met in person, to demand a more satisfactory explanation of the TPDD and the nature of time travel.
The trip in passed in a daze, and as I mounted the steps of my preposterously illogical workplace, I clenched my fists at my sides. I was dead set on storming right up to the restricted and sealed doors that I had never passed through before, so carried away by my own thoughts that I almost forgot to drop by the classroom to provide Kurumi with her task for the day. I had for whatever reason that day not been scheduled to pick her up on my way in. I set thoughts about the whys for that aside, and set my things out on my desk.
“Good morning, Miss Miruku.”
“Good morning, Miss Kurumi.” I smoothed my skirt and with a deep breath let go of all my own concerns, opening my notebook and double-checking that I did indeed have the right lesson plan in mind. “So today, we're going to start the exercises with your TPDD. Have you brought it?”
“Ah, I think so, I... here!” Was it vain of me to think that the sight of my younger self fumbling around in her bag, face lighting up with success, was adorable? I liked to think that it was protective. I was distancing myself from, er, myself, enough that I could see her as an entirely different person. I was doing my job.
“Good, great. So the task for this week is to get you used to living slightly unpredictably. You won't always be able to know when a mission might go strange; if you'll need to stay isolated in hiding for a week, or be on a slightly different linear chronology to everyone else. Some times you will jump from night to day, or vice versa.”
“I see.”
I crossed my legs, and pulled out the copy of the schedule I had prepared for her. “To begin with, this will be simple. We will be engaging in a school-week schedule that is slightly dysphasic with your normal biorhythms. We'll be holding classes at night-time here, in the dark, and you'll be sleeping in the day. We start training with small and long-term changes like this, and then as you become more resilient to the interruptions to your sleep cycle, we'll eventually speed them up.”
Kurumi's eyes were wide as she scanned over the schedule I handed to her.
“So to begin with today, I want you to just go back to your room and try to rest. Sometimes you'll need to try and bank up energy, or pretend to be asleep. Those meditation exercises we've done together should come in handy. I'll see you at...?”
“At, um... 21:00 tonight?”
“Well done, yes. Don't forget to eat before you show up. Meals will be on diurnal schedules, though you and I shall be operating on our own isolated one. This may also come into consideration during a mission. Remember to not only be aware of your own chronology, but that of everyone else.”
Kurumi left looking happy enough. Though I could remember feeling quite unsure about the instructions, I obviously hadn't shown it visibly, and I had survived that first exhausting week well enough. The worst part of teaching myself was knowing when to pretend that I had no knowledge of the feelings in my student. It was important to her sanity, of course, but in some ways this simple occupation was far more dangerous than my mission in 2003 had been. At least I hadn't had first-hand experience of the entire mission before!
Free of my duties for twelve hours, I was able to finally gather myself to confront my superiors. I bit my lip, straightened my shoulders and after confirming that young Kurumi had indeed retired to her assigned room I strode along the corridors that would deliver me to central control.
When I was in sight of the secret and secure doors that seemed to separate me from all the knowledge I needed, without any warning or explanation, entirely unexpectedly, they swung open towards me. Lit brightly from behind, I squinted to see the shapes of one old woman slightly shorter than myself and a young girl of about twelve years old.
They walked towards me, the doors shutting behind them. I found my eyes skittering away from the older woman as they approached; her long grey hair was in a bun, she still was too familiar for my tastes. I was old enough now, to not need explanation or any false identities when I met a future version of myself. She acknowledged me with a short nod and a quick grimace of a smile - exactly how I felt inside myself - before we both turned our attention to the girl.
She was, what, a year or two older than Kyon's little sister had been when I'd seen her last? Her hair was a similar colour, too, and her eyes. But the cut of it, and the knowledge in her expression... this wasn't her, was it? I knew that face, at a different age. I recognised it, somehow.
“We are sorry to surprise you like this, but it is time now for two missions of great importance.”
Before I had the chance to say or do anything, the girl stepped forwards and unbuttoned the simple blouse she was wearing. She opened it just enough to expose her small barely forming breasts, and the very familiar looking mole that lay there.
“Please do not hesitate today. I have had full training, though I cannot myself use the TPDD. There will be time to explain when we reach out destination.” The girl's voice was determined, but pleasant and open.
It was only then that I made eye contact with my future, much older, self. Once our eyes had met, I couldn't look away. It was some morbid fascination inside me. I wanted to know why they'd come from behind the security doors, what lay beyond them at the core of the agency. Why this girl had the exact same mole as me. But more importantly that that, I wondered why... why...
“You're Sasaki, right?”
The girl laughed as if delighted, and nodded her head emphatically. “Yes! Ah finally, someone remembers me!”
“Enough. There is no time, here. You will both receive further instructions once you reach your destination. Your destination time is 0600 hours March the 11th 2000 C.E., Tsuruya residence.” My older self shrugged and with a flippant humour she had presumably developed with age she waved farewell saying, “Don't be late, dears.”
I took Sasaki's small and soft hand in my own, and while I held my breath I activated the TPDD.
The world twisted in and out of focus, and we were standing side-by-side in the calm and peaceful courtyard of the Tsuruya residence. Sasaki let go of my hand quickly and was scrambling towards the main building of the household, full of excitement and joy.
“I bet she'll be my age, oh wow! You can't believe what this feels like, Miss Asahina! Ah, actually, I bet you would, wouldn't you?”
I followed curiously, wondering who Sasaki was talking about. It would have made sense if she meant Tsuruya, but how could Sasaki have known that? Having seen the birthmark, I was suspicious that she was perhaps a long-lost sibling or maybe even my own future daughter. If she was calling me “Asahina”, then something was off.
“Have I... met you before? Do you not know my name, Sasaki?”
Sasaki turned in the doorway and pouted, hands on her hips and her lower lip jutted out towards me. “You don't remember me after all, do you?”
I was puzzled. “Of course I do, but I won't meet you for another few years, I think, in your linearity. I mean, not until we're all in senior high.”
“Oh come on, you can't be a time-traveller and be that stupid!” Sasaki smiled sweetly at me and gathered handfuls of her hair up, bundling it into a messy ponytail behind her head. “It's kinda hard now that I've cut it, but you've got to know who I am!”
I gaped. My mouth hung open as Sasaki grinned triumphantly at me, and as a twelve-year-old Tsuruya cried out in joy and ran towards me, calling me by name. I ignored the clamouring of “Miss Kurumi!” from beside my hip and summoned my voice to say it aloud. I... of all things, this shocked me the most.
“You're Kyon's little sister?!”
Sasaki nodded her head happily. “And that's Aunt Sasaki to you, my dear niece out of time. Betcha never wondered why you had a congenital mole, but Haruhi never had one, right? Right?”
I rubbed a hand over my face, and kindly disentangled young Tsuruya's arms from around me. “Actually, no. I was too... too busy being creeped out by Kyon, er, Dad's behaviour about it all at the time. I never really thought about it.”
Sasaki laughed. “Ah, Kyon, what a perverted older brother I have. It's going to be so weird this year, you know?”
“Come on you guys, everyone else is already here!” Tsuruya led us through the house with her usual exuberance, if anything more intense than ever with the energy of childhood. I suspected that very soon in my future I would be required to make another visit slightly earlier in Tsuruya's life. She very obviously was well acquainted with me already, and I began to wonder about the very nature of our easy friendship during senior high.
“Come on!” I succumbed to Tsuruya's eager tugging and followed her into a tidy traditional style room with a low table covered in delicate looking food and tea things. There were several young faces that were quite familiar to me, all looking with strong interest and curiosity beyond my elbow at Sasaki's face. I did not turn back to look at her, there were too many questions to be asked, and I had no idea what information these children had about myself, the agency, or any of the mess that lay ahead of them.
“I am Kurumi, and you've been introduced to Tsuruya. This is Sa-”
“Sakaki, yes. Suou Kuyou, SCD interface.” A solemn faced small girl with long dark hair leaned forwards and extended her hand in a very artificial looking gesture. Despite her efforts, she seemed even less sociable than Nagato had been at the start of the S.O.S Brigade.
“It's a pleasure to meet you.” Sakaki nodded and we all sat down, gathered around the table. Sakaki turned to the next in this lineup of child operatives, the lot of them looking with the tea set like a child's party playing at a spy game. I must have been, what, the mother figure? As a niece to one of the children beside me, the idea felt a little off. No, scratch that, very off. Surreal.
Sasaki smiled broadly in the face of the next child's expression. His curiosity slaked, he had retreated into a dark scowl. He was quite cute, looking as if he was trying to take his job way too seriously. It reminded me of my first mission, and I was quite glad that my family and I had all had longer to grow up before we were thrust into our roles. Even Nagato had the benefit of many years of reading and leisure and observation before there was any active contact.
“Fujiwara.” He said sternly. “She knows what I do.” He nodded upwards at me, and turned to the table to select himself a biscuit with the weight of a tortured soul slowing his hands.
I had to bite the inside of my cheek to not grin or laugh at him, right then and there.
The final girl was smiling happily, her hair that vibrant reddish colour that I had always wished for; my slightly browner hue was always in my mind less striking than that brightness. She waved hello to Sasaki, and shrugged with a laugh. “Tachibana Kyouko, and thank you Miss Kurumi, though I've always been more partial to chestnut tones myself.”
Fujiwara paused in the middle of raising the biscuit to his mouth, and glared at the both of us. “Show off.” He muttered. He looked like he might have said more, but Sasaki was shuffling around to greet Tachibana with a huge hug. She rocked back to a more stable sitting position and surveyed the three assembled before her.
“To begin with, I assume you've all been briefed by your organisations and informants? I don't want to start with anyone lagging behind, we haven't got the time to play catch-up.”
Fujiwara sighed, and shrugged. “We received the information transfer from The Agency if you must know, yes.”
The way he capitalised those words rubbed me the wrong way entirely. I had to be the adult, though, and resist the urge to glare at him.
“Confirmed.” Suou was straightforward.
“Oh yep, though you're projecting so much that I hardly needed to!”
Sasaki had the grace to look ashamed when Tachibana said that. “Sorry, that wasn't part of the emergency training. We only had two years to fit it all in.”
“To fit what in, precisely?”
Damn, up closer and younger, Fujiwara sure wasn't any nicer.
“I have been trained in more rational and peaceful ways of life. The inequality, neglect and disgust I suffered at the hands of my older brother was only the starting point; I envision a world of equals, where everyone's will and desires are recognised and understood. Even my awful brother is worth loving, for his flaws and his positive points.”
I recognised something in Sasaki that I made a personal note to discuss with her once this meeting was over.
“So you are like Suzumiya, but sane. That is one positive thing, at least. Though I still do not like the idea of being forced into a group situation.”
Sasaki shrugged. “You obviously haven't read the info-dumps we've been sending you, if you think we're going to work as a group on this.”
The sudden shock amongst the children assembled was amazing. Perhaps it was their inexperience? I had always known to fully prepare myself for any mission. But no, I was not a teacher today, not for them, at least. I kept my mouth busy with a weak cup of genmaicha and hmmned rather than spoke.
“I won't tell you our final objective, but we're going to operate as independent agents until the time is right,” Sasaki held up her hand, confidence growing with her smile as she picked up steam, “and you'll know when that is. We won't all band together. The idea is to provide foils and distractions to serve the purposes of our organisations and the universe at large. When we do come into conflict with Kyon, I'll have developed a strong list of excuses and justifications we can present to our rivals. We can keep in touch and discuss these without having to meet or collaborate.”
Even Fujiwara seemed in a better mood. “So we can do our own thing? I'm not your subordinate after all?”
Sasaki shrugged. “I might need you, but I doubt it. As far as I can tell, we've got at least three years until anything of concern for us happens. And like I said, we're all equals. So just write down your contact details, and I'll see you in a few years.”
Sasaki grinned and helped herself to a small cake. Suou mechanically and awkwardly fumbled her details onto a piece of paper, and left before Fujiwara had even picked up her discarded pen. He strode out full of pomp and once he was gone I finally allowed myself a soft giggle.
In the corner, Sasaki was assuring Tachibana that they didn't have to avoid each other for three years; that yes she'd love to go for coffee someday soon. Tachibana agreed readily, but then glanced worriedly across the room at me.
“But why'd you travel with her agency? Wasn't Fujiwara's good enough?”
Sasaki rolled her eyes. “Family. They'd have worried if I let anyone else help me get established here, of course.”
“Oh, yeah, of course. I hate family politics.”
I politely ignored them as best I could while they said their goodbyes. Before I knew it, the sweet young Tsuruya was showing Tachibana to the door and I was alone with Sasaki.
“I knew your name, from my paperwork,” I told her apologetically, “but Kyon never introduced you by name. For some reason, you were always in my mind as Kyon's sister, not Sasaki.”
Sasaki smiled. “...And you probably know my future self better? I know we end up, er, working together.”
“Yeah, that too.” I was relieved that she seemed to understand. She was a very welcoming and kind girl, just her presence set me at ease. “So I assume I am here to establish you in this time period? You will be attending North Junior High, correct?”
“Yep.”
All right, that was something to work with. I stretched my legs out and offered her my hand. I would return to take my leave of the Tsuruya family later. For the moment I wanted to get Sasaki settled in her new home.
The apartment block was familiar, it was the one where I had lived for three years, though of course it itself was three years younger than I had ever known it. As per standard operation procedures, there was a key waiting for us hidden in a particular place near the correct room.
Sasaki's eyes widened. “Wow, how'd you do that?”
I shrugged. “Well, I'm a time traveller. Now that I know which room you are staying in, I shall at some point travel back in time and lease it on your behalf, and hide this key in a place I can find it.”
“Oh. That's... surprisingly obvious and boring.”
We let ourselves into the room and I sighed heavily. “You should try doing it for a living. It's... well, repetitive isn't a strong enough word for it. Recursive, maybe. Oh, and what size are you? I expect I will have gone shopping for clothing for you as well.”
It took Sasaki a moment to process my odd grammar before she smiled and whispered her sizing in my ear. I won't tell; it's a very sensitive and private subject for many women, after all. Sasaki seemed to be settling in quite happily, especially since all she really needed to do for the immediate future was be herself. Not part of any agency, she wouldn't have any reports to write or objectives to meet.
“I wanted to talk to you,” I said finally once we'd gone food shopping and cooked a simple meal in the small apartment kitchen, “about going to school with Kyon. I mean, I know my experience was different... I never knew him before I went to high school. But I recognise that emotion in your eyes. The temptation to try and get what you missed out on in early childhood somehow, that father or older brother figure... be careful. Not of him, but your own self. Your heart will get broken.”
Sasaki's eyes met mine, very knowing and sad for all their youth. “I know.” She said. “You've told me that before, you know? And I know better than to try to meet myself or change anything. I've got, er, lists, from the agency, so that I can avoid the worst times. I'll be safe, my dear sweet old-woman niece.”
“Well, Aunty,” I teased her back, “make sure you do. I-”
But what I wanted to say would never be heard, and I would very soon forget what had been on my mind. My TPDD beeped, and I checked to discover that I had a mission update. When I hadn't technically been given a mission at all yet, it was a little silly to call it a mission update, but anyway... I was due in 2003 ASAP.
It wasn't the first time I'd had to return to my old high-school and it was really amusing to think that to Kyon I was “adult” Asahina, when I had only been a student there myself a few months before. A few inches of height and three years of oestrogen working on my breasts and hips apparently were enough to fool him. He'd asked me more than once about my age, but I'd always passed it off as “classified information.”
“I, um, have to go. I have an errand to run for my superiors.”
Sasaki smiled and poked her tongue out at me playfully. “Gotcha, miss time traveller! I'll see you in three years, or minus three years, depending on which way you're counting!”
I raised an eyebrow. I hadn't known that Sasaki had met an older me before, though given that she'd apparently spent two years in training with her capabilities, it was inevitable. Perhaps I was the one who would recruit her?
“It's almost a shame your powers manifested like this,” I told her honestly, “You'd have made a great time travel agent.”
“Oh? Oh, you have no idea. Just you wait until you find it all out.”
I made a note in my head to come back some day and question Sasaki about it all later. I did not want to put off my duties any more than I had to; I would run the risk of arriving back in my natural Time-Plane too late to get any sleep at all before young Kurumi's night-time class.
As was becoming fast habit, I travelled discreetly through time to 2003, arriving in a quiet and unnoticeable place within the apartment building's corridors. I had arrived on the designated date early in the morning, so that I could visit Nagato in her home and request her help in not only identifying the purpose of my visit, but in sneaking into the school.
What I found was quite serendipitously hilarious. Thanks to Sasaki's exposed breasts earlier in the day, my mind had been going back to the first time I'd found out about my mole. It had come as a shock, more from the disgust of thinking about Kyon looking at my breasts again, but I had soon realised that I had begun to stumble into the causation loops that I'd studied in a lot of depth. Nothing was linear, and so it was more laughable than scary that now my body and mind had both returned to this day.
Nagato nodded to me, and having identified the date and reminded me not to open the bedroom door in her apartment, she left me there alone. A quick data transfer was all I needed to comprehend the destabilisation that this time-plane was going through from Suzumiya's growing dissatisfaction and depression. But wait, there was more. A small addendum at the back of the data-file, a set course based on Nagato, Koizumi and my own past self's research into Suzumiya's moods and needs, as well as Kyon's own behaviour and personality. Just one idea, that I had to plant in him. But knowing the sense of humour that my superiors had with my mission assignment timings - and I was becoming quite suspicious by that point in time, I was pretty sure I knew who was pulling the strings, and she wore her hair in a bun these days - there was more. I had to be cunning and somehow without disgusting myself or encouraging Kyon's boyish hormones reveal the location of my congenital mole.
I gave Nagato some time to get out of sight, and scanned the area to the best of my ability before I headed out myself. There was three hours before school started, and in that time I had to find some stationery and post a letter.
At lunch,
I'll be waiting in the clubroom.
- Mikuru
Signed, sealed, delivered, I was presented with a dilemma. I had been too efficient and vigilant during my mission, and there wasn't really anywhere on the school grounds that would be safe to hide. Then again, I couldn't really walk out across the empty schoolyard without being noticed. I settled for what was probably a terrible idea, but the only place I was pretty sure my past self would not visit. I returned to the S.O.S Brigade clubroom and kept one hand in my pocket on my TPDD just in case. I sat on the floor with my back against the door, and hoped that nobody could see me through the window. It was an awkward angle from the ground, I was sure it was safe.
This part wasn't something that Kyon had ever realised about time travel; we'd always been lucky enough to show up at the right time or find a way around meeting ourselves without too much fuss. It was one thing to spend a week as Tsuruya's or Nagato's guest, another thing entirely to know of the minutes and hours often spent simply waiting. Sometimes time was like that; you couldn't be precise with some events, and even when you could it wasn't always possible to simply pop in at the right time. Time travel... involved a lot of shopping for the basics like socks and underwear. A lot of waiting around just in case. A lot of days like this one, where I had anywhere between six hours or immeasurable days before I could entice Kyon to meet me in a secluded location.
Would it be the first time he'd ever seen my adult self? Maybe it was, who knew. I should have been practising lines in my head, teaching myself the spiel so that it would flow naturally when the time came. But instead I was just feeling guilty that I'd never recognised the similarities between Kyon's sister and Sasaki before, and that I'd run off so soon after implanting her in 2000. Prompting Kyon to stabilise Suzumiya was important, I knew that theoretically, but I had always been a sucker for family connections and that my biological aunt knew me, seemed to like me, was what I focused on. It was indulgent and silly and would do more for me than it would her, but I spent a good few minutes composing a letter to her in my head wistfully. Then I remembered the stationery I had bought just that morning to write the letter to Kyon, and dropped my head back against the door in exasperation with myself.
Of course I could send her a letter. I knew her address, I knew her name and she knew my name, and I could quite easily drop it by on my way back home once I'd dealt with Kyon. There. I wouldn't step on the toes of my past self, wouldn't have to reveal any details about anything. I took my time thoughtfully composing a letter that I hoped conveyed love, support and pride. Telling her that I understood the Asahina that Sasaki would soon encounter would be irritating at times, but to bear with her; she was a young girl who had so far lacked the guidance of a real Aunt, after all.
I signed off simply and in a way that few people in the time-plane could possibly recognise; I wrote my own name (no surname of course) in small tidy characters at the bottom of the letter, then I sealed it and tucked it into my bag for later.
I must have taken longer than I thought composing the letter, because I could hear footsteps coming down the hallway. For appearance's sake I crossed the room to stand at the window, to give Kyon the impression that I had been reminiscing about school life rather than crouching beside a door in an undignified position, to hide any hint of my nefarious communication with his not-so-young sister and previous classmate.
I did honestly miss him, and when the clubroom door opened my smile was genuine. It was just wonderful to see him safe and looking at me with that good old confused blank expression. Maybe I was just becoming hardened and cynical from all my experiences in time-travel, but I found it far too easy to slip back into my hysterical girly persona to distract Kyon from thinking too hard about my artifice regarding the mole and to make sure that my serious expression and tone impressed upon him the utmost importance of fairytales and folklore.
( part thirteen)
Rating: PG
Length: 5809
Warnings: Time travel, spoilers, book canon, some coarse language and science fiction themes.
Summary: Kurumi hasn't been sent on an escort mission for some time. Precisely who she is escorting is quite hard to define, and really depends on your chronological perspective.( Earlier chapters 01| 02| 03| 04| 05| 06| 07| 08| 09| 10| 11)
Disclaimer All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
2025, March, the agency, Tokyo; 2000 Tsuruya Residence, Tokyo; 2000 Sasaki's Residence, Tokyo; 2003, North Senior High School, Tokyo
Nobody ever really gets enough time to rest, not really. To truly have respite you need to not only recover from your exhaustion but also have the time to build up reservoirs of energy in surplus. As it was, I was fortunate enough that I had a month to stress over our revelations before I began to take on more work. Being a time travel agent isn't really a career you can walk away from or abandon, especially when you're in it as knee-deep as I was.
I was allowed to visit home on the weekends, as I had during my childhood training. It was quite odd, however, to be living as my own teacher. To know that I had once shared the same bed and bedroom and routine as my student. The same old spluttering washing machine. That there was in my cupboard an old pair of socks that were too cute to throw out, but too small to wear; probably the same ones she tugged back up after a physical training session. We both had regular meals with what was effectively the S.O.S Brigade. Even though young Kurumi had no awareness of these things, and we were separated by approximately ten years of age (this was still early in her training, you see, before junior high) I couldn't help but see echoes of her during my time off. It was like my memories had been displaced into a kind of false present day. I could swear I heard old arguments with Mum and games of chess with Uncle Itsuki even when I was the only person at home. That our chronologies did not match (which made for some spectacularly odd lesson plan diagrams, let me tell you!) only made matters worse in some ways. I had to think about what she was studying, how old she was; I tended to remember exactly what her weekend would have been like.
I was legally an adult, I thought to myself. The agency had arranged for me to sit a make-up high school graduation exam, too. I had officially graduated and become a full-time time travel agent. Perhaps it was time to move out, to find somewhere fresh to live? To have a home that wasn't an agency rental or Mum's, but my own?
Perhaps it might have been the right time, I sighed sadly, but I had too much responsibility and selflessness trained into me. I had to do right not only by myself and my needs, but by the needs of the Ideal Timeline. As Aunt Yuki and Uncle Itsuki and I all agreed on the matter of closed spaces and motherly love, I could not ethically move out until I had either confirmed our suspicions regarding my own capabilities or until Mum seemed a little less attached to the reformation of the S.O.S Brigade.
It was ludicrous and hard to explain, but now that I was Mikuru returned in her eyes, her perception of our improvised family group had changed. She didn't just want Aunt Yuki and Uncle Itsuki to help her research the topics for her show; she wanted us all as her co-hosts. Special sub-topics given to each member of the brigade, and everyone assembling under Mum, the obvious leader. And when she said “obvious” it was without any speck of humility or irony, she truly did believe this all in her heart.
With all this on my shoulders, you can imagine that I never really got the respite I needed following my failed mission. While I was not going to become an implanted agent for a long time, however, times were tight and I was still listed as On Active Duty. Facing the choice of undertaking errands for the agency or being press-ganged into becoming a “believe it or not!” TV host's underling, you can imagine what I chose. I at least knew that within the duties of being a time agent there was always the emergency recall option, and that the emergency rooms did contain a thermos of tea.
That I had brewed. Which was, in a way, quite creepy. But there was a roster for refilling and attending to the emergency rooms, and as long as I didn't think too much about what I was doing, that job had the comfort of predictability. Cold tea goes out, hot tea brews and goes in. First-aid kit is checked and replenished, towels are washed and folded. You couldn't get much safer than something like that.
I did have minor concerns, of course. What if I agreed to travel in time and space? Since my epiphany regarding the TPDD and my own abilities, I hadn't tried to travel in time outside of the agency headquarters, and then only for the purposes of collecting young Kurumi from home. It wasn't as if I had faced a large or unexpected jump, and I was a little scared that if I was the power behind the time travel and not the TPDD, if that was the reason there were so few agents, and if the real control over time travel was not in the TPDD's display but my own mind, that I might unintentionally risk destroying the universe or create a large closed space.
I shivered, and shuffled my feet to stay warm in the cool early air of the morning as I waited for the bus that would take me from my house to the agency. Around me commuters and students were mainly all turned inwards, all of us contemplating the week of work ahead of us. I myself was trying to gather my resolve up, to contact the higher superiors that I had not yet met in person, to demand a more satisfactory explanation of the TPDD and the nature of time travel.
The trip in passed in a daze, and as I mounted the steps of my preposterously illogical workplace, I clenched my fists at my sides. I was dead set on storming right up to the restricted and sealed doors that I had never passed through before, so carried away by my own thoughts that I almost forgot to drop by the classroom to provide Kurumi with her task for the day. I had for whatever reason that day not been scheduled to pick her up on my way in. I set thoughts about the whys for that aside, and set my things out on my desk.
“Good morning, Miss Miruku.”
“Good morning, Miss Kurumi.” I smoothed my skirt and with a deep breath let go of all my own concerns, opening my notebook and double-checking that I did indeed have the right lesson plan in mind. “So today, we're going to start the exercises with your TPDD. Have you brought it?”
“Ah, I think so, I... here!” Was it vain of me to think that the sight of my younger self fumbling around in her bag, face lighting up with success, was adorable? I liked to think that it was protective. I was distancing myself from, er, myself, enough that I could see her as an entirely different person. I was doing my job.
“Good, great. So the task for this week is to get you used to living slightly unpredictably. You won't always be able to know when a mission might go strange; if you'll need to stay isolated in hiding for a week, or be on a slightly different linear chronology to everyone else. Some times you will jump from night to day, or vice versa.”
“I see.”
I crossed my legs, and pulled out the copy of the schedule I had prepared for her. “To begin with, this will be simple. We will be engaging in a school-week schedule that is slightly dysphasic with your normal biorhythms. We'll be holding classes at night-time here, in the dark, and you'll be sleeping in the day. We start training with small and long-term changes like this, and then as you become more resilient to the interruptions to your sleep cycle, we'll eventually speed them up.”
Kurumi's eyes were wide as she scanned over the schedule I handed to her.
“So to begin with today, I want you to just go back to your room and try to rest. Sometimes you'll need to try and bank up energy, or pretend to be asleep. Those meditation exercises we've done together should come in handy. I'll see you at...?”
“At, um... 21:00 tonight?”
“Well done, yes. Don't forget to eat before you show up. Meals will be on diurnal schedules, though you and I shall be operating on our own isolated one. This may also come into consideration during a mission. Remember to not only be aware of your own chronology, but that of everyone else.”
Kurumi left looking happy enough. Though I could remember feeling quite unsure about the instructions, I obviously hadn't shown it visibly, and I had survived that first exhausting week well enough. The worst part of teaching myself was knowing when to pretend that I had no knowledge of the feelings in my student. It was important to her sanity, of course, but in some ways this simple occupation was far more dangerous than my mission in 2003 had been. At least I hadn't had first-hand experience of the entire mission before!
Free of my duties for twelve hours, I was able to finally gather myself to confront my superiors. I bit my lip, straightened my shoulders and after confirming that young Kurumi had indeed retired to her assigned room I strode along the corridors that would deliver me to central control.
When I was in sight of the secret and secure doors that seemed to separate me from all the knowledge I needed, without any warning or explanation, entirely unexpectedly, they swung open towards me. Lit brightly from behind, I squinted to see the shapes of one old woman slightly shorter than myself and a young girl of about twelve years old.
They walked towards me, the doors shutting behind them. I found my eyes skittering away from the older woman as they approached; her long grey hair was in a bun, she still was too familiar for my tastes. I was old enough now, to not need explanation or any false identities when I met a future version of myself. She acknowledged me with a short nod and a quick grimace of a smile - exactly how I felt inside myself - before we both turned our attention to the girl.
She was, what, a year or two older than Kyon's little sister had been when I'd seen her last? Her hair was a similar colour, too, and her eyes. But the cut of it, and the knowledge in her expression... this wasn't her, was it? I knew that face, at a different age. I recognised it, somehow.
“We are sorry to surprise you like this, but it is time now for two missions of great importance.”
Before I had the chance to say or do anything, the girl stepped forwards and unbuttoned the simple blouse she was wearing. She opened it just enough to expose her small barely forming breasts, and the very familiar looking mole that lay there.
“Please do not hesitate today. I have had full training, though I cannot myself use the TPDD. There will be time to explain when we reach out destination.” The girl's voice was determined, but pleasant and open.
It was only then that I made eye contact with my future, much older, self. Once our eyes had met, I couldn't look away. It was some morbid fascination inside me. I wanted to know why they'd come from behind the security doors, what lay beyond them at the core of the agency. Why this girl had the exact same mole as me. But more importantly that that, I wondered why... why...
“You're Sasaki, right?”
The girl laughed as if delighted, and nodded her head emphatically. “Yes! Ah finally, someone remembers me!”
“Enough. There is no time, here. You will both receive further instructions once you reach your destination. Your destination time is 0600 hours March the 11th 2000 C.E., Tsuruya residence.” My older self shrugged and with a flippant humour she had presumably developed with age she waved farewell saying, “Don't be late, dears.”
I took Sasaki's small and soft hand in my own, and while I held my breath I activated the TPDD.
The world twisted in and out of focus, and we were standing side-by-side in the calm and peaceful courtyard of the Tsuruya residence. Sasaki let go of my hand quickly and was scrambling towards the main building of the household, full of excitement and joy.
“I bet she'll be my age, oh wow! You can't believe what this feels like, Miss Asahina! Ah, actually, I bet you would, wouldn't you?”
I followed curiously, wondering who Sasaki was talking about. It would have made sense if she meant Tsuruya, but how could Sasaki have known that? Having seen the birthmark, I was suspicious that she was perhaps a long-lost sibling or maybe even my own future daughter. If she was calling me “Asahina”, then something was off.
“Have I... met you before? Do you not know my name, Sasaki?”
Sasaki turned in the doorway and pouted, hands on her hips and her lower lip jutted out towards me. “You don't remember me after all, do you?”
I was puzzled. “Of course I do, but I won't meet you for another few years, I think, in your linearity. I mean, not until we're all in senior high.”
“Oh come on, you can't be a time-traveller and be that stupid!” Sasaki smiled sweetly at me and gathered handfuls of her hair up, bundling it into a messy ponytail behind her head. “It's kinda hard now that I've cut it, but you've got to know who I am!”
I gaped. My mouth hung open as Sasaki grinned triumphantly at me, and as a twelve-year-old Tsuruya cried out in joy and ran towards me, calling me by name. I ignored the clamouring of “Miss Kurumi!” from beside my hip and summoned my voice to say it aloud. I... of all things, this shocked me the most.
“You're Kyon's little sister?!”
Sasaki nodded her head happily. “And that's Aunt Sasaki to you, my dear niece out of time. Betcha never wondered why you had a congenital mole, but Haruhi never had one, right? Right?”
I rubbed a hand over my face, and kindly disentangled young Tsuruya's arms from around me. “Actually, no. I was too... too busy being creeped out by Kyon, er, Dad's behaviour about it all at the time. I never really thought about it.”
Sasaki laughed. “Ah, Kyon, what a perverted older brother I have. It's going to be so weird this year, you know?”
“Come on you guys, everyone else is already here!” Tsuruya led us through the house with her usual exuberance, if anything more intense than ever with the energy of childhood. I suspected that very soon in my future I would be required to make another visit slightly earlier in Tsuruya's life. She very obviously was well acquainted with me already, and I began to wonder about the very nature of our easy friendship during senior high.
“Come on!” I succumbed to Tsuruya's eager tugging and followed her into a tidy traditional style room with a low table covered in delicate looking food and tea things. There were several young faces that were quite familiar to me, all looking with strong interest and curiosity beyond my elbow at Sasaki's face. I did not turn back to look at her, there were too many questions to be asked, and I had no idea what information these children had about myself, the agency, or any of the mess that lay ahead of them.
“I am Kurumi, and you've been introduced to Tsuruya. This is Sa-”
“Sakaki, yes. Suou Kuyou, SCD interface.” A solemn faced small girl with long dark hair leaned forwards and extended her hand in a very artificial looking gesture. Despite her efforts, she seemed even less sociable than Nagato had been at the start of the S.O.S Brigade.
“It's a pleasure to meet you.” Sakaki nodded and we all sat down, gathered around the table. Sakaki turned to the next in this lineup of child operatives, the lot of them looking with the tea set like a child's party playing at a spy game. I must have been, what, the mother figure? As a niece to one of the children beside me, the idea felt a little off. No, scratch that, very off. Surreal.
Sasaki smiled broadly in the face of the next child's expression. His curiosity slaked, he had retreated into a dark scowl. He was quite cute, looking as if he was trying to take his job way too seriously. It reminded me of my first mission, and I was quite glad that my family and I had all had longer to grow up before we were thrust into our roles. Even Nagato had the benefit of many years of reading and leisure and observation before there was any active contact.
“Fujiwara.” He said sternly. “She knows what I do.” He nodded upwards at me, and turned to the table to select himself a biscuit with the weight of a tortured soul slowing his hands.
I had to bite the inside of my cheek to not grin or laugh at him, right then and there.
The final girl was smiling happily, her hair that vibrant reddish colour that I had always wished for; my slightly browner hue was always in my mind less striking than that brightness. She waved hello to Sasaki, and shrugged with a laugh. “Tachibana Kyouko, and thank you Miss Kurumi, though I've always been more partial to chestnut tones myself.”
Fujiwara paused in the middle of raising the biscuit to his mouth, and glared at the both of us. “Show off.” He muttered. He looked like he might have said more, but Sasaki was shuffling around to greet Tachibana with a huge hug. She rocked back to a more stable sitting position and surveyed the three assembled before her.
“To begin with, I assume you've all been briefed by your organisations and informants? I don't want to start with anyone lagging behind, we haven't got the time to play catch-up.”
Fujiwara sighed, and shrugged. “We received the information transfer from The Agency if you must know, yes.”
The way he capitalised those words rubbed me the wrong way entirely. I had to be the adult, though, and resist the urge to glare at him.
“Confirmed.” Suou was straightforward.
“Oh yep, though you're projecting so much that I hardly needed to!”
Sasaki had the grace to look ashamed when Tachibana said that. “Sorry, that wasn't part of the emergency training. We only had two years to fit it all in.”
“To fit what in, precisely?”
Damn, up closer and younger, Fujiwara sure wasn't any nicer.
“I have been trained in more rational and peaceful ways of life. The inequality, neglect and disgust I suffered at the hands of my older brother was only the starting point; I envision a world of equals, where everyone's will and desires are recognised and understood. Even my awful brother is worth loving, for his flaws and his positive points.”
I recognised something in Sasaki that I made a personal note to discuss with her once this meeting was over.
“So you are like Suzumiya, but sane. That is one positive thing, at least. Though I still do not like the idea of being forced into a group situation.”
Sasaki shrugged. “You obviously haven't read the info-dumps we've been sending you, if you think we're going to work as a group on this.”
The sudden shock amongst the children assembled was amazing. Perhaps it was their inexperience? I had always known to fully prepare myself for any mission. But no, I was not a teacher today, not for them, at least. I kept my mouth busy with a weak cup of genmaicha and hmmned rather than spoke.
“I won't tell you our final objective, but we're going to operate as independent agents until the time is right,” Sasaki held up her hand, confidence growing with her smile as she picked up steam, “and you'll know when that is. We won't all band together. The idea is to provide foils and distractions to serve the purposes of our organisations and the universe at large. When we do come into conflict with Kyon, I'll have developed a strong list of excuses and justifications we can present to our rivals. We can keep in touch and discuss these without having to meet or collaborate.”
Even Fujiwara seemed in a better mood. “So we can do our own thing? I'm not your subordinate after all?”
Sasaki shrugged. “I might need you, but I doubt it. As far as I can tell, we've got at least three years until anything of concern for us happens. And like I said, we're all equals. So just write down your contact details, and I'll see you in a few years.”
Sasaki grinned and helped herself to a small cake. Suou mechanically and awkwardly fumbled her details onto a piece of paper, and left before Fujiwara had even picked up her discarded pen. He strode out full of pomp and once he was gone I finally allowed myself a soft giggle.
In the corner, Sasaki was assuring Tachibana that they didn't have to avoid each other for three years; that yes she'd love to go for coffee someday soon. Tachibana agreed readily, but then glanced worriedly across the room at me.
“But why'd you travel with her agency? Wasn't Fujiwara's good enough?”
Sasaki rolled her eyes. “Family. They'd have worried if I let anyone else help me get established here, of course.”
“Oh, yeah, of course. I hate family politics.”
I politely ignored them as best I could while they said their goodbyes. Before I knew it, the sweet young Tsuruya was showing Tachibana to the door and I was alone with Sasaki.
“I knew your name, from my paperwork,” I told her apologetically, “but Kyon never introduced you by name. For some reason, you were always in my mind as Kyon's sister, not Sasaki.”
Sasaki smiled. “...And you probably know my future self better? I know we end up, er, working together.”
“Yeah, that too.” I was relieved that she seemed to understand. She was a very welcoming and kind girl, just her presence set me at ease. “So I assume I am here to establish you in this time period? You will be attending North Junior High, correct?”
“Yep.”
All right, that was something to work with. I stretched my legs out and offered her my hand. I would return to take my leave of the Tsuruya family later. For the moment I wanted to get Sasaki settled in her new home.
The apartment block was familiar, it was the one where I had lived for three years, though of course it itself was three years younger than I had ever known it. As per standard operation procedures, there was a key waiting for us hidden in a particular place near the correct room.
Sasaki's eyes widened. “Wow, how'd you do that?”
I shrugged. “Well, I'm a time traveller. Now that I know which room you are staying in, I shall at some point travel back in time and lease it on your behalf, and hide this key in a place I can find it.”
“Oh. That's... surprisingly obvious and boring.”
We let ourselves into the room and I sighed heavily. “You should try doing it for a living. It's... well, repetitive isn't a strong enough word for it. Recursive, maybe. Oh, and what size are you? I expect I will have gone shopping for clothing for you as well.”
It took Sasaki a moment to process my odd grammar before she smiled and whispered her sizing in my ear. I won't tell; it's a very sensitive and private subject for many women, after all. Sasaki seemed to be settling in quite happily, especially since all she really needed to do for the immediate future was be herself. Not part of any agency, she wouldn't have any reports to write or objectives to meet.
“I wanted to talk to you,” I said finally once we'd gone food shopping and cooked a simple meal in the small apartment kitchen, “about going to school with Kyon. I mean, I know my experience was different... I never knew him before I went to high school. But I recognise that emotion in your eyes. The temptation to try and get what you missed out on in early childhood somehow, that father or older brother figure... be careful. Not of him, but your own self. Your heart will get broken.”
Sasaki's eyes met mine, very knowing and sad for all their youth. “I know.” She said. “You've told me that before, you know? And I know better than to try to meet myself or change anything. I've got, er, lists, from the agency, so that I can avoid the worst times. I'll be safe, my dear sweet old-woman niece.”
“Well, Aunty,” I teased her back, “make sure you do. I-”
But what I wanted to say would never be heard, and I would very soon forget what had been on my mind. My TPDD beeped, and I checked to discover that I had a mission update. When I hadn't technically been given a mission at all yet, it was a little silly to call it a mission update, but anyway... I was due in 2003 ASAP.
It wasn't the first time I'd had to return to my old high-school and it was really amusing to think that to Kyon I was “adult” Asahina, when I had only been a student there myself a few months before. A few inches of height and three years of oestrogen working on my breasts and hips apparently were enough to fool him. He'd asked me more than once about my age, but I'd always passed it off as “classified information.”
“I, um, have to go. I have an errand to run for my superiors.”
Sasaki smiled and poked her tongue out at me playfully. “Gotcha, miss time traveller! I'll see you in three years, or minus three years, depending on which way you're counting!”
I raised an eyebrow. I hadn't known that Sasaki had met an older me before, though given that she'd apparently spent two years in training with her capabilities, it was inevitable. Perhaps I was the one who would recruit her?
“It's almost a shame your powers manifested like this,” I told her honestly, “You'd have made a great time travel agent.”
“Oh? Oh, you have no idea. Just you wait until you find it all out.”
I made a note in my head to come back some day and question Sasaki about it all later. I did not want to put off my duties any more than I had to; I would run the risk of arriving back in my natural Time-Plane too late to get any sleep at all before young Kurumi's night-time class.
As was becoming fast habit, I travelled discreetly through time to 2003, arriving in a quiet and unnoticeable place within the apartment building's corridors. I had arrived on the designated date early in the morning, so that I could visit Nagato in her home and request her help in not only identifying the purpose of my visit, but in sneaking into the school.
What I found was quite serendipitously hilarious. Thanks to Sasaki's exposed breasts earlier in the day, my mind had been going back to the first time I'd found out about my mole. It had come as a shock, more from the disgust of thinking about Kyon looking at my breasts again, but I had soon realised that I had begun to stumble into the causation loops that I'd studied in a lot of depth. Nothing was linear, and so it was more laughable than scary that now my body and mind had both returned to this day.
Nagato nodded to me, and having identified the date and reminded me not to open the bedroom door in her apartment, she left me there alone. A quick data transfer was all I needed to comprehend the destabilisation that this time-plane was going through from Suzumiya's growing dissatisfaction and depression. But wait, there was more. A small addendum at the back of the data-file, a set course based on Nagato, Koizumi and my own past self's research into Suzumiya's moods and needs, as well as Kyon's own behaviour and personality. Just one idea, that I had to plant in him. But knowing the sense of humour that my superiors had with my mission assignment timings - and I was becoming quite suspicious by that point in time, I was pretty sure I knew who was pulling the strings, and she wore her hair in a bun these days - there was more. I had to be cunning and somehow without disgusting myself or encouraging Kyon's boyish hormones reveal the location of my congenital mole.
I gave Nagato some time to get out of sight, and scanned the area to the best of my ability before I headed out myself. There was three hours before school started, and in that time I had to find some stationery and post a letter.
At lunch,
I'll be waiting in the clubroom.
- Mikuru
Signed, sealed, delivered, I was presented with a dilemma. I had been too efficient and vigilant during my mission, and there wasn't really anywhere on the school grounds that would be safe to hide. Then again, I couldn't really walk out across the empty schoolyard without being noticed. I settled for what was probably a terrible idea, but the only place I was pretty sure my past self would not visit. I returned to the S.O.S Brigade clubroom and kept one hand in my pocket on my TPDD just in case. I sat on the floor with my back against the door, and hoped that nobody could see me through the window. It was an awkward angle from the ground, I was sure it was safe.
This part wasn't something that Kyon had ever realised about time travel; we'd always been lucky enough to show up at the right time or find a way around meeting ourselves without too much fuss. It was one thing to spend a week as Tsuruya's or Nagato's guest, another thing entirely to know of the minutes and hours often spent simply waiting. Sometimes time was like that; you couldn't be precise with some events, and even when you could it wasn't always possible to simply pop in at the right time. Time travel... involved a lot of shopping for the basics like socks and underwear. A lot of waiting around just in case. A lot of days like this one, where I had anywhere between six hours or immeasurable days before I could entice Kyon to meet me in a secluded location.
Would it be the first time he'd ever seen my adult self? Maybe it was, who knew. I should have been practising lines in my head, teaching myself the spiel so that it would flow naturally when the time came. But instead I was just feeling guilty that I'd never recognised the similarities between Kyon's sister and Sasaki before, and that I'd run off so soon after implanting her in 2000. Prompting Kyon to stabilise Suzumiya was important, I knew that theoretically, but I had always been a sucker for family connections and that my biological aunt knew me, seemed to like me, was what I focused on. It was indulgent and silly and would do more for me than it would her, but I spent a good few minutes composing a letter to her in my head wistfully. Then I remembered the stationery I had bought just that morning to write the letter to Kyon, and dropped my head back against the door in exasperation with myself.
Of course I could send her a letter. I knew her address, I knew her name and she knew my name, and I could quite easily drop it by on my way back home once I'd dealt with Kyon. There. I wouldn't step on the toes of my past self, wouldn't have to reveal any details about anything. I took my time thoughtfully composing a letter that I hoped conveyed love, support and pride. Telling her that I understood the Asahina that Sasaki would soon encounter would be irritating at times, but to bear with her; she was a young girl who had so far lacked the guidance of a real Aunt, after all.
I signed off simply and in a way that few people in the time-plane could possibly recognise; I wrote my own name (no surname of course) in small tidy characters at the bottom of the letter, then I sealed it and tucked it into my bag for later.
I must have taken longer than I thought composing the letter, because I could hear footsteps coming down the hallway. For appearance's sake I crossed the room to stand at the window, to give Kyon the impression that I had been reminiscing about school life rather than crouching beside a door in an undignified position, to hide any hint of my nefarious communication with his not-so-young sister and previous classmate.
I did honestly miss him, and when the clubroom door opened my smile was genuine. It was just wonderful to see him safe and looking at me with that good old confused blank expression. Maybe I was just becoming hardened and cynical from all my experiences in time-travel, but I found it far too easy to slip back into my hysterical girly persona to distract Kyon from thinking too hard about my artifice regarding the mole and to make sure that my serious expression and tone impressed upon him the utmost importance of fairytales and folklore.
( part thirteen)