Koizumi raised a hand.
“I do hate to keep asking, Nagato. I understand that you three received divine powers with fortuitous timing, and you plan to concentrate that power within yourself. But will that alone truly allow us to escape?”
If Nagato said it would, leave it to her.
“It won’t,” she said. “Within this fictional world, the divine power will merely be a starter / booster. What I actually need is the unanalyzable energy Haruhi Suzumiya radiates and the alignment Mikuru Asahina possesses.”
Haruhi I get, but Asahina’s alignment? Klutzy moe maid?
“Time traveler.”
……Oh, right. That should have been my first thought; you win. Moe maid was just dumb.
Koizumi crooked his head.
“I assumed you needed something reversible to turn time back to the moment when SOS (r) + SOS (f) = 1 was possible. Is that how?”
“Mikuru Asahina’s intrinsic concept.”
“I see, travel from the future to the past—you extract the concept of time travel and use it as a variable. A concept quantum?”
“Yes.”
“And you can also control Suzumiya’s desire actualization powers?”
“Yes. Here and now, only.”
“If that’s actually feasible… No, I’ll leave that unsaid. In this place, anything goes.”
Koizumi smiled like he’d had a breakthrough. He threw up his hands in resignation—but to my mind, the fact that he could actually follow Nagato’s train of thought was legitimately impressive.
“But, Nagato, rather than do something with the concept of time travel, wouldn’t it be faster to simply ask Asahina to borrow her time machine?”
“The time machine is installed inside Mikuru Asahina’s body.”
That wasn’t a statement I could let pass without comment. You weren’t about to tell me Asahina was an android, too, right?
“She is human. Flesh and blood. But a type of DNA computer is built into her brain. This is the software that carries out the time travel process and the switch to do so; most of the time it’s left in sleep mode.”
My main takeaway from that was she likely didn’t have the ability to use it now. The older version of her floated into my mind—would I ever encounter her again?
Koizumi tapped the side of his head, as if trying to ensure he did not forget this discussion.
“Is there anything we can do?”
“Wait.”
We both completely stopped moving. Nagato blinked.
“First, I must construct the logic. That requires calculations. And time.”
I had no clue how many weird virtual settings were out there, but even I could handle a task like waiting.
“How are you calculating? Will you need a scientific calculator?”
“No,” Nagato said. A whole heap of clay tablets hit the table.
Her slender hand reached for a silver skewer.
“Commencing calculations.”
She flipped them over and began scribbling equations. The skewer scratched into the dry surface.
“Normally, they use soft clay, not yet hardened… But I supposed that doesn’t matter here.”
She must be writing after considerable thought. Her hands were anything but fast. The bulk of the symbols and digits written were nothing I’d ever seen.
“Heisenberg…no, the Schrödinger equation in bra–ket notation?”
Koizumi squinted like he was trying to memorize it, but as more mystery writings—I could not believe they came from Earth—appeared, he shrugged. Clearly too soon for humanity.
“There are theories and formula only known to higher beings, as yet unknown to humankind.”
“…………”
Nagato didn’t look up.
“Theorems discovered by aliens, as yet unknown to Earth scientists.”
“…………”
“I imagine Nagato’s head is filled with laws and equations that humanity has yet to obtain.”
“Meaningless if you don’t find them yourselves,” Nagato said firmly.
She reached for a second tablet. The sound of her scratching unknown equations was oddly comforting.
“…………”
The organic android was absorbed in her calculations, her expression unaltered, but her head was undoubtedly running at full speed. My body felt warmer, like I was sitting next to a space heater.
I felt like the divine glow around Nagato was growing more colorful.
With nothing better to do while I waited, I looked back down at the stage.
The Greek army was marching onto the beaches near Troy, and the Trojans weren’t exactly standing around waiting. Paris’s brother and Troy’s greatest hero, Hector, led a fearsome attack against the invading host. Arrows and stones rained down, and Greeks toppled over or went flying. But Achilles was nigh invulnerable—save his notorious weakness—and he charged into the enemy formations. He wrought devastation befitting a demigod, tossing the Trojan soldiers around like so many scarecrows.
Sensing panic in his armies, Hector ordered a swift retreat, moving them all inside the fortress walls. The Greeks established a camp on land and pulled their troops back to it; both sides had lost many in this initial clash, and the prologue to the long Trojan war drew to a close.
At this point, I sensed a familiar presence behind me and turned even as his voice echoed in my ears.
“You there!”
That same white-bearded old man, dressed like a Greek philosopher, a gnarled walking stick in hand.
I was wondering when we’d see you again. You’re the main NPC in charge of making sure we avoid dead-ending the storylines, right? Been a while, old-timer. What message did you bring us this time?
“So cavalier! I am Zeus, you know? Show some respect.”
He plonked himself down across from me. I guess he did have the same glow the girls did, like his edges were bleary.
“Bleary, my foot! A voice is whispering in my ear that I would have infinite time before my faculties are in any way diminished!”
I topped up his cup from a decanter filled with a wine-like beverage.
“You’re not here to chat?”
“The girlie in charge of you lot, the hellion currently one and the same as my wife, Hera—she’s up to no good! Any way of stopping her?”
He knocked back the wine, and I made eye contact with Koizumi.
“Old-timer,” I said, speaking for us both. “What do you know about Haruhi’s power? How are you seeing it?”
“I know nothing and see nothing. But that power is having a negative effect on this world. Likely a destructive one! It was weak enough at first, but since she got here it’s going out of control. It won’t end well—you’ve got to do something!”
He pushed the empty cup across the table, demanding a refill.
“……is what whoever sent me here is whispering in my head,” he added.
Considering they’ve trapped us here, they’ve got a lot of nerve. Who is this whisperer, anyway?
“Hmm, from all the expressions I have available to me, the best I can manage is the creator—or the maker.”
The one who made this world, then. Effectively the god of all who dwelled in this fictional space.
“I could use more of a hint,” Koizumi said, pushing a platter of meat toward the old man. “We’re assuming this being is extraterrestrial in origin. A data life-form, life from another planet, an inhabitant of space—do any of those phrases ring a bell?”
The old-timer tossed a bit of mystery meat in his mouth, chewing this over.
“Hmm, as Zeus, I am all-knowing, but even with that knowledge, I have only the vaguest impression of this being. Just a hazy sort of notion.”
He emptied his second cup.
“Unseen, yet in heaven. Blanketing the world. We are in their realm. Not that I’m in a position to tell, but I sense no evil. It feels protective.”
If he’s your god, it would feel that way.
“You’re under its protection, too.”
It may not be evil, but anything that put us here without consent for whatever experience, observations, or even trials this was supposed to be—well, it could hardly be considered benevolent.