[Haruhi Suzumiya] Rain and Demons: Part Eight
Title: Rain and Demons: Part Eight
Fandom: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Genre/Rating: General // PG
Characters/Pairings: Mild Koizumi/Kyon and some Kyon/Haruhi
Summary: While Koizumi tries to get to the root of his sickness, darkness begins to fall. Things are looking very bad for everyone...
Notes: 'Haruhi Suzumiya' is the property of Nagaru Tanigawa.
Previous installments:
A Camping Trip [Prologue], Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six, Part Seven
Rain and Demons: Part Eight
By the time Koizumi woke up, it was dark and long shadows were cast across the tent ceiling. Kyon was sitting on his sleeping bag, reading a book by torchlight. The wind was blowing softly against the tent, making the material crackle. A quiet splashing sound came from the lake outside, and the air was cold again.
“How long have I been asleep?” asked Koizumi quietly. He himself was tightly tucked into his sleeping bag.
“About six hours,” answered Kyon, snapping the book shut and gently tossing it aside. “It’s getting dark now.”
“I can tell. Where’s Suzumiya-san? And Nagato-san. I need to talk to Nagato-san.”
“They’re in their tent at the moment,” answered Kyon, turning to face the other boy. “Haruhi’s been in here several times. Asahina-san tucked you in and left you some dinner. You’d better eat it.”
“Ah, thank you,” said Koizumi, noticing the plate and flask next to his head. “However, it’s inadvisable for the sick to eat in a hurry. I hope you don’t mind if I eat it slowly and savour the taste.”
Kyon rolled his eyes, How can you still act like that at a time like this? And that’s Asahina-san’s food you’re talking about!
“I’ll be sure to thank her later,” Koizumi said, nodding his head, then: “Oh, hold on a moment.”
“What?”
“I still can’t move my arms.” He smiled weakly, but a sudden glint had appeared in his eyes. Oh no, I think I know where this is going! “I suppose you couldn’t, by any chance -”
I am not feeding your dinner to you! Absolutely not! There’s a line, you know!
Koizumi laughed. “That’s not what I mean,” he said, but Kyon knew otherwise. The crafty bastard had just changed his mind, that’s all! “Can you pull my left arm out of the sleeping bag? I think I know why I feel sick.”
Kyon pulled a face, but unzipped the sleeping bag anyway. It was better than feeding him. “You owe me for this.”
“I do. I’m very grateful. Now, about my hand,” Koizumi began as Kyon pulled his arm out of the sleeping bag. “Shine a torch on it. Do you see any splinters?”
Holding onto the other boy’s hand by the wrist, Kyon shone the torch onto his palm. He saw it almost instantly; a slim splinter embedded into his middle finger, just below the knuckle. It looked painful.
“Yeah, I can see a splinter.” Kyon honestly felt like a nurse. Maybe there was a future for him in medicine. “How long have you had it in for? You should’ve said something earlier.”
“I tried pulling it out myself, but it was too deep,” explained Koizumi. “And, as I said before, I assumed that my earlier symptoms were due to fatigue. I did not feel particularly sick until we passed the rock formation. I’m confident that the splinter is from the ‘tree’ that we scaled earlier. To put it simply, it is not your average bark of wood.”
You can say that again. “I’ll get the first aid kit,” Kyon placed the hand down and crawled over to his backpack. He paused for a moment, before asking: “Do you feel any better?”
“Somewhat. I’ve stopped shaking and I feel less sick, but my head still hurts. If anything, I feel colder.” His sleeping bag was still unzipped, and Kyon felt a little guilty. Koizumi had helped him whenever he was in trouble, and were this Asahina-san or Nagato, or even Haruhi who was sick, Kyon would be acting very differently. He felt a bit bad for it.
Tugging out the first aid box (he’d insisted on carrying it back at in the clubroom, when Haruhi had divided up the luggage), he crawled back over to Koizumi and pulled out the tweezers. Watch out, Koizumi! I won’t have any mercy. If I happen to pull off half your skin in the process, then so be it.
The splinter was quite far in, but with a bit of squeezing from Kyon, it began to edge itself out. As it did so, Koizumi began to talk again. He sure is talkative for someone who can’t move his own limbs… “Thanks to this incident, however, I am highly confident of one thing. The exit mechanism within the house is similar, if not the same, as the one I deactivated earlier. That splinter was undoubtedly used as a tracking device of sorts, used to guarantee our position and to identify us for those in charge of this parasite dimension. Using myself as the host was, if I say so myself, a clever idea. They knew for a fact that I could deactivate their panels, so by rendering me incapable of movement and consciousness, they guaranteed that I could not do the same again, ensuring that we stay trapped. What they haven’t realised, however, is that Nagato-san is just as - no, more capable than I when it comes to handling the devices.”
“That’s good to here,” muttered Kyon, tweezers poised.
“May I ask what the four of you have been doing in the last six hours?” asked Koizumi.
“Nothing really,” confessed Kyon, shrugging. “Everyone was worried about you. Haruhi told me to stay in here with you, and phoned mountain rescue -”
“Really?” Koizumi sounded surprised.
“Well, yes. You were unconscious. They haven’t arrived, and if your stuff about ‘parasite dimensions’ is right, they never will,” grumbled Kyon. “We ate tea. Haruhi had some arguments on the phone with the mountain rescue team, who couldn’t find us. Asahina-san was really upset, even Nagato wasn’t reading anything… they’re all in their tent at the moment. You caused quite a fuss.” The splinter slid out, and Kyon gave a victorious smile. “There. It’s out.”
Koizumi sighed with relief. Kyon shone the torchlight on the piece of wood. It looked like a perfectly ordinary piece of bark.
“As I said before, I think I received it when I fell off the tree,” said Koizumi happily. “As I fell down, I felt something snag my hand. The entire tree must have been rigged with such traps to catch interferers. It well and truly caught me.”
“What do I do with it now?” asked Kyon. The splinter was one centimetre in length and looked ridiculously sharp.
“Find Nagato-san and show it to her,” instructed Koizumi. “In fact, now that the splinter is taken care of, we should turn to the more urgent matter in hand. We are still trapped here, it is dark and we are cut off from outside sources. We are well and truly at the mercy of our captors.” He glanced up at Kyon. “Can you find Nagato-san and bring her over here. I need to talk to her. Take the torch with you.” He smiled happily. “I certainly do owe you a lot.”
“Don’t worry about it,” muttered Kyon, although even as he spoke, he was thinking of all the ways Koizumi could repay him. Perhaps he could do his maths and physics homework for the rest of the year. “You sure you’ll be fine without any light?”
“Yes, I’ll be fine,” replied Koizumi.
Moments later, Kyon was outside and knocking the side of the girls’ tent. There was a lot of noise coming from it, and Kyon was amazed that he couldn’t hear it in the boys’ tent. “Hey! Hey, Haruhi, quieten it down! What are you doing in there?” he shouted.
“I win again! No-one can beat me!”
“Haruhi!”
There was a sudden silence, and Haruhi’s head popped out of the tent door. “Kyon! Why aren’t you watching Koizumi-kun?”
“He’s awake, where’s Nagato?”
Haruhi’s eyes widened with delight. “Seriously? He’s alright! Kyon, why didn’t you say so earlier?”
“Hang on, he wants to see Nagato,” said Kyon quickly, before Haruhi threw herself towards the boy’s tent. “I think he wants to talk to her about something. You can visit him afterwards.”
Haruhi looked annoyed, but turned around and shouted back into the tent: “Yuki! Come over here! Koizumi-kun wants to see you. He’s awake!”
The tent shook slightly and Nagato slowly crawled out. Inside, Kyon could hear Asahina-san cry with relief. Haruhi’s head disappeared from the tent flap and he could hear her voice from within the tent. “It’s alright, Mikuru-chan. Don’t cry, he’s fine now!”
Nagato looked at Kyon, almost expectantly. He beckoned and the two of them walked back into the boys’ tent.
The last sun beams faded from the horizon. Night was fast approaching.
“I understand,” was what Nagato had said once Kyon and Koizumi had filled her in. She held the splinter between her finger and thumb, and stared intently at it.
“Do you know if Koizumi’s illness was caused by this?” asked Kyon, referring to the splinter. Nagato paused for a while, before speaking.
“Yes,” she said. “It contains anti-bodies designed to kill the host within twenty-four hours. It is an illegal security measure.”
Kyon’s stomach lurched with horror, and he shared a worried glance with Koizumi. As he’d said before, he wasn’t fond of the esper, but he didn’t want him to die. “Can we do anything about it?” he blurted out.
To everyone’s relief, Nagato nodded. “I have the cure programmed within me in case of such an encounter. Administering it to a non-infected host causes instant death, so I am only authorised to use it if I am one hundred percent sure of infection.”
“Are you?” asked Kyon, checking his watch. It was just over twelve hours since Koizumi deactivated the panel. Over half way there…
“Yes,” said Nagato, who gently picked up Koizumi’s arm with both hands. “There are side effects. You will be in pain for approximately five hours afterwards, with muscle contractions and nausea.” And on that note, she leant down and bit him; the usual method of administration from nurse Nagato. Kyon felt the tension in his chest disappear. Sorry Koizumi, you’re not getting away from us just yet.
“The side affects will begin in approximately ten minutes,” she said afterwards, sitting back up.
“Excellent, thank you, thank you very much” said Koizumi, relieved. He was smiling broadly. “In that case, let’s get this over with quickly. Nagato-san, do you know where the panel within the house is?”
She nodded.
“Where exactly?” asked Kyon.
“In the roof,” she said, as Kyon reached into his pocket and pulled out the letter from earlier.
“Do you know how to deactivate it?” He just wanted to check.
Nagato nodded again.
Kyon unfolded the letter and re-read it.
It has taken centuries to arrive, but it is here.
Please go.
Do not get caught in its trap.
Get out now.
“Nagato,” said Kyon. “The ‘it’ in this letter… Do you know what it is, or what it will do?”
“This area is technically a forbidden zone,” she said monotonously. “It is being used as a breeding area for an alternative faction. My presence could cause conflict.”
“These parasite dimensions must be a type of prison,” added Koizumi quietly, “designed to trap intruders. Either that or they were specifically designed to capture us in order to gain possession to Suzumiya-san… Nagato-san, is that possible?”
“It is possible.”
I hope it’s not the latter, thought Kyon.
“The lifeforms within this breeding area are chained to this dimension. Were we to deactivate the dimensional panel, they would not leak into the original area,” continued Nagato. “However, I have just received information that the lifeforms contained in this area are nocturnal and carnivorous.”
Crap! “Are you serious?” gasped Kyon, which was a silly question. Nagato nodded anyway.
“I see,” said Koizumi. “This is very bad. We must deactivate the panel as soon as possible. Nagato-san, I apologise for asking this, but could you?”
Nagato nodded solemnly, but Kyon wasn’t having any of that.
“She’s not going out on her own,” he said firmly. “I’ll go with her. Koizumi, I’ll get Haruhi and Asahina-san to come in this tent, and don’t let them leave. Nagato, is there anything you can do to prevent these… things from attacking this tent?”
“Garlic,” she said with a perfectly straight face. “They dislike garlic.”
Oh for the love of God! Vampires! Please tell me you’re not serious?
“Thank you, I’ll ask Asahina-san if she has some on the way,” Kyon began to make his way towards the tent entrance. “Nagato, are you ready?”
She nodded. As he unzipped the tent, Koizumi called out to them: “Be careful.”
“Get some sleep,” replied Kyon, not looking back.
- To Be Continued -
Next Chapter
Fandom: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Genre/Rating: General // PG
Characters/Pairings: Mild Koizumi/Kyon and some Kyon/Haruhi
Summary: While Koizumi tries to get to the root of his sickness, darkness begins to fall. Things are looking very bad for everyone...
Notes: 'Haruhi Suzumiya' is the property of Nagaru Tanigawa.
Previous installments:
A Camping Trip [Prologue], Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six, Part Seven
Rain and Demons: Part Eight
By the time Koizumi woke up, it was dark and long shadows were cast across the tent ceiling. Kyon was sitting on his sleeping bag, reading a book by torchlight. The wind was blowing softly against the tent, making the material crackle. A quiet splashing sound came from the lake outside, and the air was cold again.
“How long have I been asleep?” asked Koizumi quietly. He himself was tightly tucked into his sleeping bag.
“About six hours,” answered Kyon, snapping the book shut and gently tossing it aside. “It’s getting dark now.”
“I can tell. Where’s Suzumiya-san? And Nagato-san. I need to talk to Nagato-san.”
“They’re in their tent at the moment,” answered Kyon, turning to face the other boy. “Haruhi’s been in here several times. Asahina-san tucked you in and left you some dinner. You’d better eat it.”
“Ah, thank you,” said Koizumi, noticing the plate and flask next to his head. “However, it’s inadvisable for the sick to eat in a hurry. I hope you don’t mind if I eat it slowly and savour the taste.”
Kyon rolled his eyes, How can you still act like that at a time like this? And that’s Asahina-san’s food you’re talking about!
“I’ll be sure to thank her later,” Koizumi said, nodding his head, then: “Oh, hold on a moment.”
“What?”
“I still can’t move my arms.” He smiled weakly, but a sudden glint had appeared in his eyes. Oh no, I think I know where this is going! “I suppose you couldn’t, by any chance -”
I am not feeding your dinner to you! Absolutely not! There’s a line, you know!
Koizumi laughed. “That’s not what I mean,” he said, but Kyon knew otherwise. The crafty bastard had just changed his mind, that’s all! “Can you pull my left arm out of the sleeping bag? I think I know why I feel sick.”
Kyon pulled a face, but unzipped the sleeping bag anyway. It was better than feeding him. “You owe me for this.”
“I do. I’m very grateful. Now, about my hand,” Koizumi began as Kyon pulled his arm out of the sleeping bag. “Shine a torch on it. Do you see any splinters?”
Holding onto the other boy’s hand by the wrist, Kyon shone the torch onto his palm. He saw it almost instantly; a slim splinter embedded into his middle finger, just below the knuckle. It looked painful.
“Yeah, I can see a splinter.” Kyon honestly felt like a nurse. Maybe there was a future for him in medicine. “How long have you had it in for? You should’ve said something earlier.”
“I tried pulling it out myself, but it was too deep,” explained Koizumi. “And, as I said before, I assumed that my earlier symptoms were due to fatigue. I did not feel particularly sick until we passed the rock formation. I’m confident that the splinter is from the ‘tree’ that we scaled earlier. To put it simply, it is not your average bark of wood.”
You can say that again. “I’ll get the first aid kit,” Kyon placed the hand down and crawled over to his backpack. He paused for a moment, before asking: “Do you feel any better?”
“Somewhat. I’ve stopped shaking and I feel less sick, but my head still hurts. If anything, I feel colder.” His sleeping bag was still unzipped, and Kyon felt a little guilty. Koizumi had helped him whenever he was in trouble, and were this Asahina-san or Nagato, or even Haruhi who was sick, Kyon would be acting very differently. He felt a bit bad for it.
Tugging out the first aid box (he’d insisted on carrying it back at in the clubroom, when Haruhi had divided up the luggage), he crawled back over to Koizumi and pulled out the tweezers. Watch out, Koizumi! I won’t have any mercy. If I happen to pull off half your skin in the process, then so be it.
The splinter was quite far in, but with a bit of squeezing from Kyon, it began to edge itself out. As it did so, Koizumi began to talk again. He sure is talkative for someone who can’t move his own limbs… “Thanks to this incident, however, I am highly confident of one thing. The exit mechanism within the house is similar, if not the same, as the one I deactivated earlier. That splinter was undoubtedly used as a tracking device of sorts, used to guarantee our position and to identify us for those in charge of this parasite dimension. Using myself as the host was, if I say so myself, a clever idea. They knew for a fact that I could deactivate their panels, so by rendering me incapable of movement and consciousness, they guaranteed that I could not do the same again, ensuring that we stay trapped. What they haven’t realised, however, is that Nagato-san is just as - no, more capable than I when it comes to handling the devices.”
“That’s good to here,” muttered Kyon, tweezers poised.
“May I ask what the four of you have been doing in the last six hours?” asked Koizumi.
“Nothing really,” confessed Kyon, shrugging. “Everyone was worried about you. Haruhi told me to stay in here with you, and phoned mountain rescue -”
“Really?” Koizumi sounded surprised.
“Well, yes. You were unconscious. They haven’t arrived, and if your stuff about ‘parasite dimensions’ is right, they never will,” grumbled Kyon. “We ate tea. Haruhi had some arguments on the phone with the mountain rescue team, who couldn’t find us. Asahina-san was really upset, even Nagato wasn’t reading anything… they’re all in their tent at the moment. You caused quite a fuss.” The splinter slid out, and Kyon gave a victorious smile. “There. It’s out.”
Koizumi sighed with relief. Kyon shone the torchlight on the piece of wood. It looked like a perfectly ordinary piece of bark.
“As I said before, I think I received it when I fell off the tree,” said Koizumi happily. “As I fell down, I felt something snag my hand. The entire tree must have been rigged with such traps to catch interferers. It well and truly caught me.”
“What do I do with it now?” asked Kyon. The splinter was one centimetre in length and looked ridiculously sharp.
“Find Nagato-san and show it to her,” instructed Koizumi. “In fact, now that the splinter is taken care of, we should turn to the more urgent matter in hand. We are still trapped here, it is dark and we are cut off from outside sources. We are well and truly at the mercy of our captors.” He glanced up at Kyon. “Can you find Nagato-san and bring her over here. I need to talk to her. Take the torch with you.” He smiled happily. “I certainly do owe you a lot.”
“Don’t worry about it,” muttered Kyon, although even as he spoke, he was thinking of all the ways Koizumi could repay him. Perhaps he could do his maths and physics homework for the rest of the year. “You sure you’ll be fine without any light?”
“Yes, I’ll be fine,” replied Koizumi.
Moments later, Kyon was outside and knocking the side of the girls’ tent. There was a lot of noise coming from it, and Kyon was amazed that he couldn’t hear it in the boys’ tent. “Hey! Hey, Haruhi, quieten it down! What are you doing in there?” he shouted.
“I win again! No-one can beat me!”
“Haruhi!”
There was a sudden silence, and Haruhi’s head popped out of the tent door. “Kyon! Why aren’t you watching Koizumi-kun?”
“He’s awake, where’s Nagato?”
Haruhi’s eyes widened with delight. “Seriously? He’s alright! Kyon, why didn’t you say so earlier?”
“Hang on, he wants to see Nagato,” said Kyon quickly, before Haruhi threw herself towards the boy’s tent. “I think he wants to talk to her about something. You can visit him afterwards.”
Haruhi looked annoyed, but turned around and shouted back into the tent: “Yuki! Come over here! Koizumi-kun wants to see you. He’s awake!”
The tent shook slightly and Nagato slowly crawled out. Inside, Kyon could hear Asahina-san cry with relief. Haruhi’s head disappeared from the tent flap and he could hear her voice from within the tent. “It’s alright, Mikuru-chan. Don’t cry, he’s fine now!”
Nagato looked at Kyon, almost expectantly. He beckoned and the two of them walked back into the boys’ tent.
The last sun beams faded from the horizon. Night was fast approaching.
“I understand,” was what Nagato had said once Kyon and Koizumi had filled her in. She held the splinter between her finger and thumb, and stared intently at it.
“Do you know if Koizumi’s illness was caused by this?” asked Kyon, referring to the splinter. Nagato paused for a while, before speaking.
“Yes,” she said. “It contains anti-bodies designed to kill the host within twenty-four hours. It is an illegal security measure.”
Kyon’s stomach lurched with horror, and he shared a worried glance with Koizumi. As he’d said before, he wasn’t fond of the esper, but he didn’t want him to die. “Can we do anything about it?” he blurted out.
To everyone’s relief, Nagato nodded. “I have the cure programmed within me in case of such an encounter. Administering it to a non-infected host causes instant death, so I am only authorised to use it if I am one hundred percent sure of infection.”
“Are you?” asked Kyon, checking his watch. It was just over twelve hours since Koizumi deactivated the panel. Over half way there…
“Yes,” said Nagato, who gently picked up Koizumi’s arm with both hands. “There are side effects. You will be in pain for approximately five hours afterwards, with muscle contractions and nausea.” And on that note, she leant down and bit him; the usual method of administration from nurse Nagato. Kyon felt the tension in his chest disappear. Sorry Koizumi, you’re not getting away from us just yet.
“The side affects will begin in approximately ten minutes,” she said afterwards, sitting back up.
“Excellent, thank you, thank you very much” said Koizumi, relieved. He was smiling broadly. “In that case, let’s get this over with quickly. Nagato-san, do you know where the panel within the house is?”
She nodded.
“Where exactly?” asked Kyon.
“In the roof,” she said, as Kyon reached into his pocket and pulled out the letter from earlier.
“Do you know how to deactivate it?” He just wanted to check.
Nagato nodded again.
Kyon unfolded the letter and re-read it.
It has taken centuries to arrive, but it is here.
Please go.
Do not get caught in its trap.
Get out now.
“Nagato,” said Kyon. “The ‘it’ in this letter… Do you know what it is, or what it will do?”
“This area is technically a forbidden zone,” she said monotonously. “It is being used as a breeding area for an alternative faction. My presence could cause conflict.”
“These parasite dimensions must be a type of prison,” added Koizumi quietly, “designed to trap intruders. Either that or they were specifically designed to capture us in order to gain possession to Suzumiya-san… Nagato-san, is that possible?”
“It is possible.”
I hope it’s not the latter, thought Kyon.
“The lifeforms within this breeding area are chained to this dimension. Were we to deactivate the dimensional panel, they would not leak into the original area,” continued Nagato. “However, I have just received information that the lifeforms contained in this area are nocturnal and carnivorous.”
Crap! “Are you serious?” gasped Kyon, which was a silly question. Nagato nodded anyway.
“I see,” said Koizumi. “This is very bad. We must deactivate the panel as soon as possible. Nagato-san, I apologise for asking this, but could you?”
Nagato nodded solemnly, but Kyon wasn’t having any of that.
“She’s not going out on her own,” he said firmly. “I’ll go with her. Koizumi, I’ll get Haruhi and Asahina-san to come in this tent, and don’t let them leave. Nagato, is there anything you can do to prevent these… things from attacking this tent?”
“Garlic,” she said with a perfectly straight face. “They dislike garlic.”
Oh for the love of God! Vampires! Please tell me you’re not serious?
“Thank you, I’ll ask Asahina-san if she has some on the way,” Kyon began to make his way towards the tent entrance. “Nagato, are you ready?”
She nodded. As he unzipped the tent, Koizumi called out to them: “Be careful.”
“Get some sleep,” replied Kyon, not looking back.
- To Be Continued -
Next Chapter