I do not own Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu.

Onward!

Chapter Eight

To call it flight would be incorrect. Flight is limited to birds, bats, insects, and machinations. Also, flight would mean that one had the ability to choose just how long he or she is in the air for. Finally, flight also implies that one has control over just how to come back down to land in a graceful manner.

I do not have the first two, but if I'm lucky I may get the last one.

But the feeling of flight is definitely there. I pushed off the rooftop with all my might and now I feel weightless. And I can see my house.

I look towards the ground and time seems to slow down. I can see heads of police turning towards me with their mouths open, stunned at the speed and distance I'm traveling at. I then turn towards the school building, and I can clearly make out and even recognize some of the faces of the students looking from the windows.

After some time of looking, I return my attention to the ground, noting that I am past the school boundary and have begun to descend. As the earth gets closer and closer, I move my body so that I land with a roll. And then I wonder why my legs are green and suddenly remember that I'm in a frog suit.

Time resumes its normal pace and while my form is right, it still doesn't stop me from rolling in a haphazard manner. My whole body is covered in pain, but I quickly get up and start to run, limiting myself to a slightly more humane speed. I need to get away from the school and I know that I can't return. Rumors spread fast. Considering how Haruhi and I will be the center of them, I can't take such a risk.

It would start with our disappearances. I would no longer show up at school and Haruhi would stop as well, as she's most likely being detained by police for questioning and placed under house arrest. Then they will start relating us to Taniguchi, and…

I don't want to think about Taniguchi. I don't even want to think.

…

Just keep running. Avoid being seen. Use sound to hear people. Climb over walls. It's an obstacle course and reaching home means I win.

I have to win.

…

I leap over a fence to hide behind and catch a breath. I take off the top. This suit is horrible. I'm sweaty all over, but it makes the air feel nice and cool.

I need to steal some clothes. The frog suit is too bright and easy to see. I begin to peak over the fence into yards, traveling through them and picking out a dark red t-shirt with darker blue sleeves and a pair of jeans. I quickly change and leave the frog suit on some unfortunate family's property. I forage through the items I brought with me and keeping only what I need, namely my cell phone, wallet, and keys.

I climb over the wall and return to the streets, looking very similar to a delinquent. Most people avoid me because they know that delinquents cause trouble. And nobody wants trouble. When people stare at me, I stare back and watch them avert their gaze.

Eventually, I arrive home. Unlocking the door, I enter and take off my – fuck. I have my school shoes on. I'll have to replace them eventually. They stand out too much. Maybe I could dye them…

I climb up the stairs and enter my room. I begin to grab everything that is important to me or will serve a useful function. That watch I got from my father's friend all those years ago. Sunglasses from who knows where. Clothes. Food. Cell phone charger. Small tools. Some writing materials. Flash light. All the money in my room, even the coins. The sterile mask from a week or so ago. Gloves. A thin black jacket. Face towel from the bathroom. Family picture…

On second thought, leave the picture behind. I can't – wait. Using a pair of scissors, I cut out the important parts and stick it in my wallet. I then grab the largest back pack I can find in the house and begin to put in as much as I can carry. Big things first, then smaller and smaller until I can fit no more. I put on the jacket and sunglasses and bring the backpack with me down the stairs. My eyes turn to the kitchen.

I should drink some blood, even if I hate it. I walk to the refrigerator and take out the carton, pouring the contents into a glass and quickly drinking it. I have another before putting it away and walking back to my stuff. I pass by the small memorial to my mother and realize that very soon, I will have disappeared from this place, leaving no trace behind.

…

…Disappear… hold on-

A hand forcibly turns me around while another holds me by my neck and lifts me up against a wall. Instinctively my own hands try to undo the hold on me, but I pause.

"I was wondering when you would come back," It's my father.

I kick and try to get him to release me, but nothing seems to work. In fact, I daresay that I may be at the hurting end of it. My mouth opens to speak, but only nonsense comes out. I can barely breathe as it is.

"So, even with the favor I called in, you still end up killing someone." He may not sound angry, but I know he is. "Do you know how hard your grandfather and I worked to keep this a secret? To fit into this god damn city? If people find out about us, we have to leave everything behind and run." His grip tightens on my neck. "This was our home. I fed you, I gave you clothes, I gave you an allowance. And this is how you repay me?" The edges of my vision are beginning to fade. It's getting harder and harder to move.

But then he lets go. I come crashing down to the floor, gasping for air and moving away from him. For a moment, I wondered why he didn't just finish me. I had violated the rules of secrecy, but I realized that I already knew the answer. I slowly turn to face him, his eyes boring into mine.

"Dad…" I manage to croak out, "you killed Mom, didn't you?" I shouldn't ask now, but I want to know. I have to know.

It is as if he aged instantly.

"You can't kill me, because I remind you of her." Things have slowly begun to fall into place now. "Mom did something that forced you to kill her. That neck thing we all share. She acted upon it for some reason, and you had to kill her. She was having an affair, and you found out."

He says nothing, and I continue "You said she died in a car accident, but it was no accident. You killed her beforehand, then pushed the car off a mountainous highway in a snowstorm and made it look like one. The police couldn't find her because she was never in there to begin with. Later, you also made that man disappear as well."

Then the heaviest truth hits me. "My sister… she's my half sister, isn't she? You couldn't kill mom because she was pregnant and your morals went against it, so you waited until she gave birth and then killed her afterwards. Somehow you knew that the child in her wasn't yours."

There is a long pause before he speaks again, "Leave." It is a command. I thought he would go on and explain just what happened behind to my mother, but instead the single word strikes fear in me. It's not a loud voice, but a quiet one that instill fear. "You are no longer welcome here. From this day forth, I have no son."

I don't need another warning. I grab my backpack and school shoes and get out the door. It slams shut behind me and I begin to contemplate whether or not I made the right decision in saying all of that. Regardless, though, it's impossible to turn back. I put on my shoes, straighten the clothes that aren't mine, and begin heading towards the train station.

My next destination is the temple my family frequented. If my guesses are correct, then the fact that my father knows the high priest means that that man is also involved. He said himself that he knew of our vampirism some time ago and said that he presided over the wedding and the turning. My father must have informed him of the deed at some point in time.

My mother 'died' when I was seven. She cared for me and generally appeared happy around me, but what a child sees amounts to little when it comes to finding out her true nature. That priest must know something. He mentioned my mother, but didn't mention anything about her disappearance. It could not have been orchestrated by just one person, even if he's stronger than the average man. He has to hide it from officials and also find away to break it to the in-laws if necessary. What better way to do this than to contract help from someone that you can overpower and comes with the connotation of a holy man?

I'm deep in thought, but at the same time I'm not lost to the environment around me. As I ride the train, I can feel eyes staring at me. I'm an unusual sight to behold. A high school student looking like a runaway, along with some bruises on my neck. I put up my jacket collar to try and hide them, but I doubt that it does a good job of it. My sunglasses may hide my gaze, but I'm watching those who are looking at me. If they stare too long, I find myself turning towards them. Our sight connects for only a moment and it doesn't even look like I'm staring at them, but it's enough to get them to turn away. I would not be surprised if I look suspicious, but there is nothing I can do about it.

My phone rings and I take it out. It's Haruhi. For a moment, I contemplate picking it up, but I decide against it. It keeps ringing, and eventually stops. She must have been allowed her phone call if she's being questioned. Even though it would endanger my family, I hope she talks. It would be better for her to do it and remain safe.

The train comes to a stop and I get off. I leave the station and begin to climb the stairs that I'm too familiar with, and the back of my mind plays out what my father could have done so long ago. When I reach the top, I take off my sunglasses and put them away before asking for the high priest. I feel anxious about what I'm about to say, but it's something that I have to do for myself.

Eventually, the old man comes to see me. "It is good to see you again, Kyon. How are you today?" He has a smile on, but I doubt it will last for long.

"I see that you are alive and well," I want to keep communication to a minimum. Even if he is my father's friend, the idea of a corrupt monk sickens me. "But I don't want to waste time. I'm here for… business." I lean in and my voice lowers.

"Business?" I can see his smile slowly disappearing and his brows furrowing.

"It's about my mother. You had a hand helping my father deal with her body, did you not?" His face remains unchanged, but he keeps silent. "You knew about our family for some time and my father asked you for help. Where is she?"

He takes a breath, and exhales. "Your father and I did not expect to have to show you the truth at this point in time. For you to already know that she was murdered, I would assume that it is now time to show you the reason why your grandfather befriended me."

He begins to walk away and I follow him silently. We go through the main temple, past the bench where we first talked and walked down a pathway ending with a view of the city. He continues, however, and takes a slightly worn path that no one else takes, perhaps out of respect for the shrine grounds. It then curves down and behind the cliff that is shaded by a tree growing sideways.

He stops in the darkness and turns to me. "Your grandfather knew that with extensive tests to see causes of death, your existence as vampires was threatened. He paid us to construct a grave, but left the truth to your father to explain to me."

Beneath the tree is a large stone that looks like it can easily be moved by me. I say nothing as I begin to push it aside, revealing a tall entrance. It's dark inside, but I can see clearly in the dim light. First I pass a male body that must be my grandfather. However, I see that he looks too young and is dressed too young to be one. The body has begun to decay, but at a very slow rate. The skin is only beginning to turn color at the hands. If not for the bruise around the neck, I would have assumed that the person is merely sleeping and not dead for so many years.

"I'm sure your father has told you this, but at some point in time, your body will stop aging."

I had always thought that my father looked young. "So… we're immortal?"

"Precisely. Your grandfather had been running from town to town throughout his life. When I first saw him, I thought he was your father's brother. He tired of it and had his son suffocate him, the easiest way to be killed."

I move on to the next body and gaze at the body of my mother. The priest says nothing more, as everything there is to know is already known to me. So I was right. My father did kill her, also by asphyxiation. He was tired of killing those he knew and loved, and thus I was spared.

I have seen all I want to see. I thank the priest and leave the shrine, taking first train available to the next closest city. I don't even know where I'm going, or how I will survive in the new city.

When I arrive, I wander around, ignoring phone calls throughout the day. Darkness falls and I eat some of the food I brought before wandering some more until I find an overpass. I go beneath it and do my best to make myself comfortable on the cold concrete. When I finally lay still, the day began to catch up with me.

To think that just twenty four hours ago, I was still a high school student. Now I'm just a homeless teenager with a better chance of survival compared to the other ones. I killed my best friend, endangered Haruhi, and have been disowned. Life has never looked so bleak before.

I cry before falling into an uneasy sleep.

---

When I wake up, it is night time, but the light is strange here. There is no moon and there are no stars, but there is some sort of light that is almost unnatural. I look around and realize that I'm no longer underneath the busy bridge, but that I'm back at school, sitting on the soccer field. I get off the ground and look at my clothes. Sure enough, I'm wearing the school uniform.

I should have expected it after such an incident, but once again I'm in the Closed Space, and I have a feeling that Haruhi is nearby. Between being held and interrogated by the police, the scolding I'm sure she's gotten from her parents, and most importantly my escape and disappearance from her life, such a result seems almost natural.

For the two times that I've been here, I've had to do something to free ourselves from this plane of existence. The first time, I admitted that I liked her. The second time, she realized something when I raped her.

I'm almost scared of what I'll do when I see her again. And what is it that Haruhi wants this time? Last time I was lucky that my instincts were in the right direction, but this time Koizumi and Nagato isn't here to guide me. I would have to find Haruhi and see just what she wants, but I feel that there is nothing I can give to her after all this.

"Kyon!" it's Haruhi. I turn around to see that she's running at me before coming to a stop. "There you are."

"You sound relieved to see me." I did put her through quite a bit.

"After seeing you jump off the school roof, of course I was worried!" she puts her hands on her hips and begins to stare at me with an angry look, ignoring the fact that I'm taller than her. "What's worse is that you left me to the police."

"How did that go?"

"Terrible."

"Did you talk about me?"

Her voice kicks up a notch. "Of course not! You told me to believe in you, right? And how did you make that huge jump anyway?"

I remain silent. I can't tell her what I really am, even if she knows that I'm something else. She saw me leap off the building at such an incredible speed and she knows that this ability of mine is somehow related to last Saturday. If she weren't detained by the police, I would have told her immediately. But I want to protect my family, even if they're not anymore.

"Whatever," she walks towards me. Grabbing my hand, she starts to drag me along with her. "There's got to be away out of here somewhere."

"It would only be more trouble for you. You should just tell the police what you know."

She stops in her tracks and turns around. "Are you serious?"

"Yes. It's for your own good." I wouldn't spill a single word against my family. If she talks, then at the very least Haruhi would be out of trouble.

"Kyon, I'm not about to rat out a member of my club, especially not you." She begins to drag me along again. "You're the most interesting person I've run into in my entire life. I don't intend to just give you up so easily. And I don't think you want to just give up on our relationship, right?"

She has me there, although I don't know if I can be called a person anymore. Before I can think of an answer, though, there is a dreadful roar and a bright light forms behind me. I turn to look and see that the giant beings, those Celestials, are beginning to rise from the ground.

"Kyon, we have to get away from them! I don't know why, but something tells me that they're dangerous." She runs now, continuing to drag me with her. "We need to find a way to get back to our world, not this one."

Our world. The real world, where everything exists as it should be, but where my life is ruined. As Koizumi said to me, I exist in this space because I was chosen by Haruhi. Perhaps that fateful choice of talking to her when I began high school made her pick me.

I start to realize just what it is that Haruhi wants. She wants to be together with me, regardless of what's happened in our world. When I kissed her, back when we first appeared here, it was a sign that I held interest in her and it prevented the restructuring of the universe. When I raped her, she somehow realized that despite the pain and the hurt we were still together and accepted what I was doing. Only when something threatens our relationship does this Closed Space appear to try and force me to amend my actions and convince her that we're still together. And if I were to fail, then the world will be remade, perhaps to one where we can be together.

The world remade…

Visions of what happened today flash before my eyes. I have nowhere to go and no future to pursue in the old world and I find myself letting go of her hand. When she realizes that I'm no longer holding onto her, she stops and turns to me.

"Kyon, what's wrong? Don't you want to return to our old world?"

I stand up straight and look at her. "No."

Her lips begin to turn into a frown and her eyes begin to slowly fill with water. I can clearly see that she's on the verge of crying, but she doesn't want to. "What about the SOS Brigade, the club that we made! Doesn't it mean anything to you?"

The club doesn't matter to me anymore. Even if I keep the world from being remade, I have nowhere to go. I may never see Haruhi again. I would have to live on the streets in a new city and I doubt that I will somehow get enough money to rent out even the smallest apartment to live in. I'm sure that Haruhi will make such a thing possible and I will somehow see her again, but I still fear the difficulty of waiting for it to occur.

"I don't want to go back."

"What are you talking about?" she almost can't believe what she's hearing. "You'd leave your family and friends behind? Don't you want to see them again?"

I don't even want to answer.

"What about me? Are you going to leave me behind, too?"

"Haruhi." I slowly walk up to her and gently begin to wipe away the fresh trail of tears on her cheeks. I then softly kiss her, hold her close to me and stroke the side of her neck. Perhaps I'm just selfish, but even I couldn't think of a world without her.

One of my hands moves away, balls into a fist, and delivers a swift strike to her abdomen. For a moment, her surprised look stares back at me before her eyes close and her body turns limp. I catch her before she falls to the floor and pick her up with two arms. Then I begin to walk in the direction of the Celestials, who have begun to level the city.

In this world, my blood along with other events has prevented me from being with her. I know that I'm running away from my problems, but I effectively have nothing. There are no guarantees about what the new world will be, but as person who has lost everything it's a risk that I'm willing to take. We may not be at the same place when this is all through, but sooner or later I'll find her. Maybe it was the way Koizumi phrased it when I first appeared in this place, but the fact that I was chosen by Haruhi means to me that in the end we'll be drawn to each other despite the conditions we're in.

And when the time is right, I'll turn her.

As I draw near to the giants, one of them takes notice of me. It turns to face me and begins to swing its arm down. I watch the appendage as it descends, tightly cradling Haruhi's form amidst the rapid beating of my own heart.

The new world awaits.

End Part One

A/N: You know, for the past three chapters I essentially knew just how this was going to end. While some of you probably disagree with how this came to a close, in reality this is only a portion of the story. It felt proper to end this portion here and I will most likely continue this with another story, given the context of how this ended.

As for a more important question that some of you have been asking or wondering about: Why does Kyon seem to be a bit out of character at times? While it's quite a question to answer, my original goal in this story is to change him. As one person put it, I was "gradually changing his character in a believable manner." As the story went on, particularly towards the end, we see that he becomes a bit manipulative, particularly in his relationship with Haruhi. In fact, it could be said that, at the very end, he had become obsessed in his relation with Haruhi. Whether it was successful or not comes down to personal taste, but the attempt is there. Like I said, this story doesn't fall under horror as much as it falls under dark.

Where the story goes now is generally questionable. I know what I want to do, but there are still a lot of situations and possibilities that need to be given much thought.

Also, the reason why this is a double update is because It's the end of the portion and I don't know how long it will take for me to get started on the second part. Therefore, it felt right to do so. Hi Hikaru1223.

Until next time.