“…………”
This ellipsis was all mine. I didn’t fully grasp what Nagato was saying, but was that just me?
“We’re quantized?” Koizumi said immediately. “This whole state of affairs?”
His hand leaped to his chin, considering that.
“By refuting the server concept, you mean to suggest the apparatus generating this virtual space is incorporeal?”
“Quanta are a form of corporeal,” Nagato replied.
“Oh, I see.”
What did he see? I saw nothing.
“Pardon me,” Koizumi told me. “Nagato, you mean we are neither the original’s mind alone nor virtual creations cloned from our minds, but have ourselves been quantized?”
He did not seem relieved to discover we weren’t copies.
I got why. Koizumi and I were one thing. Asahina and Nagato were just barely tolerable.
But it felt deeply dangerous for the real-ass Haruhi to be stuck in here.
Dropping Haruhi and her unknowable, unfathomable, mystery power in this maddening mystery space could not possibly end well. If Haruhi caught on that this wasn’t real, what would she wish for, and where would her unconscious thoughts take us?
But Nagato had cocked her head again.
“Our physical forms remain in the real world. The versions of us in this space are superimposed over our corporeal bodies via the principles of quantum mechanics.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“…Quantum superposition?” Koizumi parroted, looking stunned. It sounded like that was all the response he could manage.
Head still at an angle, Nagato’s whisper voice droned on.
“Strictly speaking, inaccurate. This is beyond Earth’s current understanding of quantum physics on a multidimensional and higher dimensional sense.”
“So the principles at work are noticeably different from the quantum mechanics we know?”
These questions spoke volumes about Koizumi’s current state of mind.
“That conclusion is substantially accurate.”
“So quantum theory is merely the best tool available to explain our current state.”
“Not the best, merely better.”
“Taken to heart. Let us call it a quantum-like.”
His lips managed to recover his default faint smile.
“Still, superposition? The five of us are simply one set of an ever-expanding sea of possibilities? Unevenly distributed in all directions?”
“Not that many. Likely two. Entanglement.”
“Quantum entanglement? Between what and…oh, our current selves and our real selves?”
“Not entirely accurate. But I estimate the situation is functionally similar. Unverified. Many unknown factors demand the suspension of definitive conclusions.”
There are few things as discouraging as listening to a discussion you even can’t begin to understand.
Quantum mechanics? Quantum theory? Entanglement? Have some pity on my brain.
“So what does this mean?” I interjected, trying to boil it down. “Are we copies or the originals?”
“According to Nagato’s suggestion,” Koizumi said, eyes rather distant, “both the versions of ourselves in the real world and the versions of us here are real. If I oversimplify it, there’s some form of dissociation at play; our real selves remain in the real world, but we’ve also been converted to quantum data and are trapped in this virtual space. Am I accurate so far?”
He glanced at Nagato, who nodded.
I think I sort of got it? We were here but also simultaneously in standard reality, and both versions of us were ‘real.’ I found that hard to believe, but truth was stranger than fiction.
What kind of logic was this? What did quantized mean?
Koizumi and Nagato exchanged glances, and she averted her eyes.
“………”
“Oh dear. Quantum theory—I’m afraid I can’t exactly explain that off the top of my head. Give me some time to marshal my thoughts. I’ll fill you in later.”
If it was bad enough for Nagato to pass the buck, this must be a real headache.
So be it. I could learn about quanta some other time. Before that, I had something to ask Nagato.
“As far as our current predicament goes, is there nothing your data manipulation powers can do about it?”
Eyes like freshly harvested black pearls turned my way.
“My cognitive functions are restricted here. Conjecture, but something’s occupying my processing power.”
So someone’s holding Nagato’s F5 button down and blocking her special skills?
“Not that aggressive. More like interference.”
Nagato’s tone was always calm, but this response did not fully alleviate my concerns. Fundamentally, she was our best hope in situations like this. A futureless visitor from the future, a psychic with powers he couldn’t use, and a thoroughly typical high school boy did us no good here.
Realizing her explanation was inadequate, Nagato elaborated.
“It feels more like a probe than an active attack.”
A probe? Like a scan? What does being scanned feel like?
“…………”
Nagato abruptly stood and raised both hands. Sketching a large rectangle with them, she crouched down, then moved her hands as if peeling an invisible rectangle from the space in front of her. My brain was filling in the gaps, assuming she’d opened an invisible portal.
Nagato stood back up, took a step toward the rectangle she’d drawn, then turned toward me.
“………”
Staring at me with cloudless eyes.
“Were you using pantomime to explain what being scanned feels like?”
“Not pantomime,” she corrected. “It always feels like that.”
What that was supposed to be honestly escaped me, but since Nagato had gone to the trouble of physically demonstrating it, I chose to go with gratitude instead.
I shot her a thumbs-up. “I kinda get it! So that’s what it’s like. I see!”
I could feel Koizumi stifling a laugh. I stifled a sigh.
“But you could have told us sooner.”
“I’m waiting for the right moment.”
Odd tense choice. Not “was waiting,” but she still is? For what moment?
“Escape.”
Koizumi and I looked at each other. When had we least heard anything that proactive from Nagato? With our spotty memories, maybe that wasn’t the most useful question.
“Don’t suppose we can ask you to elabor—”
Not like I can read every minute shift in her expression, but her vibe definitely changed.
“—guess not.”
Whoever had flung us into this world was likely listening in. Offering spoilers here would be a sin.
“Nagato, if you’ll allow me to indulge in a moment of pure curiosity,” Koizumi said, eyes gleaming like a grade school student whose eyes have just been opened to the wonders of science during a classroom experiment. “I’m convinced this world is a quantum data space, but to make such an expansive virtual environment feasible, what sort of interface would that require?
“Interface unknown.”
“An example will suffice. What manner of thing would make it possible?”
“A quantum calculation processing system the size of a dwarf planet made entirely of photons.”
“That sounds like it would require a tremendous amount of energy. A Dyson sphere?”
“Given human technological capabilities, yes.”
“This world isn’t inside one, is it?”
“Unclear.”
“Is this more like the holographic principle?”
“Unclear.”
The Made-in-Cosmos synthetic android and the deeply fishy psychic boy’s academic debate was sailing right over my head, so I broke in. I had a question of my own that had been on my mind.
“Do you know when this is? If you’ve got memories from right before our arrival, I’d like to hear them.”
“They’re vague.”
Even Nagato wasn’t clear on this point. That spoke volumes about how nasty this place was.
“In the Prohibition speakeasy, Haruhi pulled that hat out of nowhere. Did that or the wand with a star help?”
Nagato responded with a three-second unblinking silence.
“……The movie,” she said, with a voice like squeezing all the juice out of a ripe fruit. “We filmed one.”
We made our own movie? What for? Oh…I guess Haruhi would.
“……I think.”
Nagato’s expression never shifted, but I could tell her brain was in overdrive. The light was fading from her eyes. I could no longer see my reflection in them.
Not good. I realized my error instinctively before my logic caught up.
“Enough, Nagato. No need to remember more.”
I waved my hand before her eyes.
“…………”
Too late. Nagato was unresponsive. It was like all her functions had locked up, her screen frozen. Something was attacking Nagato, interfering. She’d retreated deep inside, battling it, trying to recover the manipulated memories.
“Shit…!”
Digging into the blocked memories had been a trap. They were inaccessible, or set up to be. That’s why Koizumi (and likely Haruhi and Asahina) had unconsciously avoided prodding them.
Nagato had likely sensed something similar. But my careless question had made her step right into the trap she’d been carefully avoiding.
I’d assumed I’d remember eventually and tried not to force it.
But that sort of que será, será thinking didn’t apply to Nagato. If she had a record that made it possible to recover the memories, she’d try to access it—and get stuck in the spiral.
A fatal peril waiting for the unsuspecting. If this was the intent of whoever had created this space, we’d fallen right into their trap.
Damn, I’d let this harmless vibe pull the rug right out from under me.
“Nagato?” Koizumi said, unusually grim.
We couldn’t lose her here.
I put my hands on those slim sailor-suited shoulders. I tried shaking her, but to no avail.
Please, come back to us.
“Nagato!”
Panic rising, like my ice-cold organs were trying to escape through my throat.
Then—
“Ship! Spanish flags!”
Haruhi’s cry resounded from the heavens.
She plunged down a rope from the crow’s nest, landing—or falling—nearby.
“Ten o’clock! Three-ship convoy! No escorts!”
A moment later, her pirate hat caught up. She caught it and put it back on.
“Kyon, Yuki, snap out of it!”
Haruhi yelled right in our ears, loud enough for the whole ship to hear.
“Battle stations!”
She ran off toward the stern. Likely to fetch her weapon.
………………………No, that was for the best. Recovering, I turned back to Nagato.
“…………”
She was her usual expressionless self.
I removed my hands from her shoulders.
She blinked once, confirmed her position, and nodded slowly.
“Sorry, Nagato.”
“It’s fine.”
Her short hair shook with her head, then she considered things.
“That was careless,” she said. An accurate assessment.
Haruhi’s deafening voice had really bailed us out. Thank god those Spanish ships showed up in time. Koizumi smiled, looking equally relieved.
“Interrupted, for better or for worse. Was this uncanny timing intentional, or an accident?”
Dunno, but guess we’ll have to continue until this job’s done, at least.
“Our memories might get meddled with during the commotion,” I said, glancing at Nagato. “If possible, I hope you’ll manage to retain this conversation. But don’t force yourself. Be careful.”
“Understood,” she nodded. “I’ll put the highest-level alerts in place and constantly cross-check before engaging in thought.”
We almost never saw her so demonstrably determined.
Koizumi and I dropped our fishing rods over the railing. Now what lay at the end of the lines would remain an eternal mystery. Appropriate, since I’d never given a damn about the answer.
The three of us ran off to our stations, mingling with the crew.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nagato opening her book, as if checking something, but this was no time to ask why.
For now, I’d have to go back to dancing in the palm of someone’s hand. Role-playing a privateer attacking galleons laden with loot, I ran off to fight.