36th "Oh shit..."

[slave_of_suzumiya]

[Today, Kyon has encountered Yuki Nagato who is a lot more lively than usual. ... However, her eyes are dead. The bright spark behind that unreadable mask was gone, leaving nothing but an empty shell behind.]

No... Nagato... It can't be...

Uh... It's Kokutou. Yuki Kokutou, remember? Are you feeling okay?

Just go away!

[A: And Kyon'll leave school, running through the halls. He's not really looking where he's going so he might run into you.]

[B: Upon reaching home at 915 Bilko Boulevard, he'll boot up both his desktop computer and laptop simultaneously and attempt to open a certain program...]

No, no, no, no... Respond dammit!! Ugh...

[And he'll slam his head into the desk.]

[Later, outside the library he may be found...

C: Shouting and beating his fists on the wall.

D: Sitting slumped against the wall, completely despondent, his hands scraped and bleeding...]

... Why her? Why!? Nagato...

Comments

[slave_of_suzumiya]

Nothing that exciting, I'm afraid. Just an ordinary high school student.

[forgotten-titan.livejournal.com]

That...is the best news I've heard so far!

(Yes, after a few days surrounded by grouchy Australian mercenaries and emotionless pirate hunters who are also students, someone ordinary is a godsend.)

What year are you in? Maybe we have classes together!

[slave_of_suzumiya]

I've never seen anyone so glad to meet an ordinary human before. Anyway, I'm in the eleventh grade right now.

[forgotten-titan.livejournal.com]

Oh. We're not in the same grade then.

(She sighs. So much for normalcy.)

Well, I'm just an ordinary student back home too. It's just great to know that I'm not the only one here.

[slave_of_suzumiya]

What year are you in then? ... And yeah, this place does tend to draw all kinds of odd folks.

I have no idea how the American system is like...sorry!

[forgotten-titan.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm 15 this year...so maybe the ninth or tenth grade? I lost a year when I was back home, so it's sort of a bit messed up at the moment...

I know what I know from American TV and then kinda just assume the rest to be the same as here.

[slave_of_suzumiya]

Ah, well unfortunately time can be confusing like that sometimes. Especially when you're arbitrarily dropped in a place like this.

(I wonder if I can start getting something like frequent flyer miles for time travel and other dimensions or stuff like that?)

[forgotten-titan.livejournal.com]

No, I mean...I think the town has me as a tenth grader, but I'm actually only in the ninth grade back where I come from. I had to lose a year because of an accident. It's been a bit hard, catching up on all the work.

[slave_of_suzumiya]

Ah, I see. Well, I suppose that's tough too... Honestly, I wouldn't worry about the effort if I were you. It's not like they actually teach us anything important here.

[forgotten-titan.livejournal.com]

Really? The teachers seem OK though. Maybe they'll teach us useful stuff instead. The ones who aren't zombified, at least.

[slave_of_suzumiya]

Well, it's your decision. But if you just ignore most of the work they give you, it seems you get one less thing to worry about.

[forgotten-titan.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I just feel like...like it's something that I can do, you know? It's something from home that I'm used to. Dealing with homework and math and history, instead of homicidal people and kidnappings.

[slave_of_suzumiya]

I suppose that is also a rather valid point there.

[forgotten-titan.livejournal.com]

Where are you from Kyon? Your name sounds Japanese, I think, but I'm not too sure.

[slave_of_suzumiya]

Nishinomiya, it's a town in the Hyogo prefecture. Just a bit north-west from Osaka.

[forgotten-titan.livejournal.com]

Cool! I've never been to Japan, but I'd love to see it one day. I'm from Jump City in the US.

[slave_of_suzumiya]

Jump City, huh?

(... Sounds like something out of a shonen manga. ... Specifically, Shonen Jump probably.)

What's it like?

[forgotten-titan.livejournal.com]

Well, it's a city near the sea, and everything's pretty relaxed there, apart from the bad guys that always seem to like wrecking everything. We've got the Teen Titans though, so they've always managed to keep Jump City safe.

[slave_of_suzumiya]

Teen Titans, huh? Sounds like something from an American comic.

[forgotten-titan.livejournal.com]

Well...I guess it does. Maybe a little. But I'm sure you've got super hero teams in Japan too.

[slave_of_suzumiya]

Yeah, every year we tend to get all kinds of new Tokusatsu programs, Super Sentai and stuff like that.

[forgotten-titan.livejournal.com]

What are those? Are they the names of your super heroes? We've got Batman, Superman...all kinds.

[slave_of_suzumiya]

Well, yeah. The ones you see on TV anyway. Real live superheros are somewhat more elusive.

(... I suppose Koizumi and his lot can be somewhat considered to be some kind of "Mighty Morphin' Esper Rangers".)

[forgotten-titan.livejournal.com]

Really? In America, we read about'em all the time in the news. There's always someone causing trouble in Jump City. But we're lucky that it's mainly robberies; Gotham City gets the really bad villains. The ones who are actually out to hurt people.

[slave_of_suzumiya]

Most major threats back home tend to take place on another plane of existence. Bubbles of distorted space, giant blue glowy things, timequakes... It's all pretty weird.