Introspection
by Moonraker One

CHAPTER ONE

A shockingly loud sound had very nearly the effect of kicking a sleeping young man in the teeth. Going from deep R.E.M. sleep to being wide awake in the space of an instant, a Japanese teenager sprung forward and to his left, landing on the floor. He pushed himself first to a kneeling position, then to a standing one. He wiped the sleep from his eyes, thrusting the covers he'd brought down with him to his right. He had set his CD alarm clock to awaken him not with a beep, but the opening sounds from Megadeth's Peace Sells album. It might not have been the best of sounds to awaken to, but it certainly had more "waking up" power than a standard talk radio station. He shifted his pajamas while turning up the volume on Wake Up Dead. Some days, such as the incident where Haruhi and himself had disappeared from reality and appeared in a new one, made the song seem very appropriate to rise from slumber to. He listened to the song and bobbed his head back and forth while getting his clothes from the closet. Then he shut the album off and went downstairs.

"Oi, Kyon-kun," his rather irritating younger sister chimed, warning him that he'd best steel his nerves to annoyance, lest he risk going off and getting a "talk" from his mother.

"What is it?" He walked into the bathroom the same time as her and began brushing his teeth.

"Are you doing any of that fun stuff?"

He rolled his eyes. He realized at once which "fun" activities she referred to, especially after the baseball game where, thanks to Yuki's data manipulation, caused everyone on Haruhi's team to hit home runs. This girl obviously didn't know what "fun" meant to Haruhi, and he hoped not to get her involved again. "No," he merely replied. This wouldn't be the day for "fun." There hadn't been a day he would consider "fun" in quite some time.

The little sister pouted. "Aw," she whined, brushing her teeth. She wanted more fun days.

Once they were finished, Kyon left the bathroom, and went into the kitchen. He picked up a piece of bread, and went to the refrigerator to obtain a jar of jelly. However, just like the day before, it refused to budge. He surrendered his chance to open it and went for a different flavor. Once he'd eaten, he began the walk to school. He cringed as he struggled to lift his backpack, then went on his way. The "almost summer" sun bore down on him as he forced his quickly fatiguing legs up the hillside and towards the high school. He wiped the sweat from his brow as the hill seemed to increase in angle.

He shook his head. Today is just not my day, he thought. Of course, that would prove to be an understatement. Just like he expected, Haruhi would turn his ordinary day of frustration into a deeper vat of anger. Of all the various activities he involved himself in, the daily desires of Haruhi Suzumiya certainly managed to aggrivate him to no end. Displeased, he sat in his usual seat and awaited the girl's arrival. Her bursting through the door seemed to increase the barometric pressure directly above his head, although only he would notice. "What do you mean I don't believe in God," he muttered to himself, mimicking the opening lyrics to Peace Sells, "I talk to her everyday." He then began humming the bass line of the song to distract himself from his rising sense of doom that came with her presence.

"Oi, Kyon," the girl beckoned.

Kyon rolled his eyes before looking around. "What is it?" He had learned by this point that when addressing the girl, it is best not to include her name, or you run the risk of drawing yourself in even closer.

"You may not necessarily like this, but I'm going to go ahead and skip today's meeting so that I can plan tomorrow's activities. Please try not to waste time by doing some pointless activity with the S.O.S. Brigade while I'm gone!" She then went back to her usual position.

He wanted to retort, "Why would I do anything more pointless than what we already do?" but he realized it wouldn't work, for once she would finish a statement, she tuned out because your response didn't matter to her. Furthermore, it meant that, despite the fact that tomorrow would be quite irritating and quite possibly painful to endure, today would be nice because it meant that he didn't have to put up with some cockamamie plan put together by the girl. He sat forward and paid attention to the chalkboard, smoldering with a mild anger for the frustrating thought that his opinion meant absolutely nothing to her and that she wouldn't listen to his thoughts after expressing her own.

That afternoon, when his classes were over, Kyon stepped into the club room for only a minute, so that he could tell the others about their commander's absence. He stepped in, and the first thing he saw would be Mikuru Asahina in her maid costume, pouring tea. "Hey, guys, I just wanted to let you know that Haruhi told me she would be absent today so that she could get tomorrow's schedule prepared." He blushed as he caught a glimpse of Asahina and imagined her wearing substantially less than the dress. Quickly, though, he caught himself and walked towards the chair Haruhi usually sat in.

"Do you want some tea?" Asahina politely squeaked.

Kyon, desperate not to end up seeming more perverted than he must already seem, merely nodded. The green tea poured into his cup and he took a sip. The computer didn't have any purpose today since their leader wasn't going to show up, so he sat there for a few minutes staring into space. He thought of the baseball game in which Yuki had to rewrite the data of the bat to allow them to win the game. Such a situation, he thought. He had a brilliant plan to show Haruhi that you can't always get what you want, and what ended up happening? They had to give her what she wanted, or else the world would end. He got tired of thinking about the things he probably could never change, and pulled from his pocket some comics to pass the time. He didn't know quite what it was about Superman comics that interested him. The stories he read weren't terribly original, the characters tended to be more than often one dimensional in personality, and very seldom did there seem to be any question as to whether or not the good guys would win. Heh, Superman. Now wouldn't that be interesting? Haruhi would certainly go ape, and I'd finally be more powerful than her. His thought process got interrupted by the door banging open.

"I wasn't going to show up today, but I need to get my backpack," Haruhi beckoned. She walked over and grabbed her pack, then over to Kyon. She pointed to his comic book. "You're doing pointless activities! I told you not to! Go home already and quit wasting club time!"

He had dealt with painfully difficult classes and wasn't about to take her abuse today. He merely flicked the comic at her and walked away. "Fine. I'll go home."

Haruhi nearly had a conniption. "Don't take that tone with me! I'm the S.O.S. Brigade captain! I'll penalize you tomorrow for that!" She grumbled and picked up his comic, putting it in her pack since he'd left it behind. She then addressed all the others. "What are you waiting for? I said I didn't want anyone wasting club time on useless activities! Dismissed!" Like lemmings, the group scattered.

Kyon grumbled all the way down the hill pathway to his house. Perhaps it amounted to little more than growing weary at the ever present antics of the girl whose presence could not be avoided. Or maybe it amounted to something more. Either way, he felt as though the world weighed upon him. Despite knowing his value in the group, he needed, on occasion, to feel as though he would be factored into Haruhi's thinking. When he didn't feel as though she took him seriously, he began to get a bit frustrated, which led to days like today.

He pushed the door open. "Do you want your dinner, Kyon-kun?" His mother asked. He set his bag down and headed towards the table. He allowed himself to sit and free his mind from the stresses of the day. The food proved to be rather good, as his mother never let the family down with her cooking. It almost made him completely calm from Haruhi's intrusions. However, he still simmered a bit as he went upstairs and did his homework. He put in the Metallica album Kill 'Em All into his alarm clock and set it.

Dammit, I left my comic in the club room. Oh well. It isn't like Haruhi to find such ordinary comic book material interesting. If she did, she might turn the world upside down without knowing it. He closed his eyes.

Haruhi, a few minutes after and a few kilometers away from Kyon's abode, set up her alarm clock to go to bed. She opened up the comic book Kyon had left behind in the club room. She rolled her eyes as she flipped through the pages. Such a standard and straightforward storyline with such predictable endings, she thought. It reminded her of Kyon. This man, Superman, had such power at his fingertips and yet he had such a simple and pathetic existence, she considered it sickening that he had such might and wanted nothing more than a boring life. That more than anything was Kyon. She laughed a bit as she thought of it. Kyon? Superhuman? I don't think so. He's about as boring as it gets. Maybe if he DID have superpowers, he'd be more fascinating. She closed her eyes with a humor smile on her face. Kyon needs to have something interesting happen to him. He should be Superman.

A loud banging of drum line at the start of a metal song jolted Kyon out of bed. It was the audible equivalent of being kicked in the teeth, yet he thought it most effective. However, today proved a bit difficult to wake up, because he felt groggy as he pulled himself up. Usually metal woke him up completely. He must have been too tired. He pulled open his clothing drawer, and noticed he had forgotten to remove his watch from the night before. It struck him as abnormal, because he believed he had taken it off the night before. Still, he did the ordinary thing and took it off. It beeped as he removed it and threw it on his bed. Once the watch left his wrist, he felt fully awake and rejuvenated. He wiped his eyes in amazement; perhaps all he needed was to get to moving a bit to get his blood pumping to wake him up. He grabbed his clothes and headed out.

"Oi, pass the toothpaste, Kyon-kun," his little sister chimed. He handed her the toothpaste and began brushing himself. Once he'd finished his teeth, he waited for the girl to complete her tooth care, and he took off his pajamas to take a shower. As an afterthought, he caught himself in the mirror. Wait, I don't remember that, he thought. He looked at his reflection. His entire torso had muscle tone more defined than he remembered. He ran his finger down the line where his pectoral muscles met, and then traced around his six-pack abs—which he didn't remember having before. He raised an eyebrow, but quickly dismissed it. No, if this was Haruhi's doing, I'd have grown an alien tentacle or something. It's probably just the P.E. class paying off. He stepped into the shower and washed off. The water seemed very tolerable. Ah, father must have gotten the water fixed; usually, I turn it on and it's scalding hot for about five minutes. He washed himself off and dried, dressing up after.

"Good morning, mother, father." He opened the refrigerator. He looked at the jar of the better jelly. He wanted to spread it on his breakfast, but the top almost always held solid as if it were welded on. He figured he'd try his luck. He gripped the bottle and the top, and gave a slight twist, expecting the lid to be immovable. Instead, he heard a pop of the air pressure out and inside equalizing, and the metal sound of the lid coming off. He examined the lid. Man, that's rusted. I'm amazed I was able to get it off without serious effort. He set the lid and the jar down and spread the jelly. "I'll be heading out now. See you later!"

"Make sure you're careful, dear!" his mother cried.

"I will, mother!" He hoisted his backpack onto his back. Wow, I must be getting stronger. This usually weighs a ton. He pushed the door open slightly and headed out. He headed up the hill, thinking about how easy the day has gone thus far, and how he had this sense of...one of those new age folks would call "positive energy," that just made him feel good, and he couldn't explain it. He chalked it up to how easy the day had gone thus far, combined with the fact that it was karma paying him back for the shitty day previously. Even the thought of Haruhi and her "plan" for the club's "activities" couldn't crush his good mood. Why, he felt as though he could stand in front of a train and not die.

Taniguchi and Kunikida approached from behind and began walking alongside Kyon. "Oi, Kyon," the more sexually driven of the two, Taniguchi, announced. "It's really hot today. You'd think global warming hit a high note." The two wiped their brows and sweat developed quickly.

"I don't know what you guys are talking about," he shot back. "It's cooler today than it was yesterday!" He didn't feel fatigued or sweltering at all.

"Kyon, you're nuts. It was three degrees hotter yesterday," Kunikida corrected. "You know man, I don't know how you climb this steep hill and walk all this way to class every day and yet you never seem to be tired."

Kyon looked at him. "I must be getting used to it. Or maybe I'm just getting more athletic. Who knows?" He thought about it a moment; just yesterday, he had even more exhaustion and sweat upon climbing the hill than they did. He soaked his white shirt from sweat and couldn't wait to change into something more comfortable during gym class. Now, not only was he not sweating, he felt great. Perhaps something had happened after all, he entertained. Then again, Haruhi would definitely have made something dramatic. No, it had to be him just getting more athletic.

"You're just a ball of energy, Kyon. I've never seen anyone quite as energetic as you are." He wiped his neck. "You know what? Why don't you run to school then, mister 'maybe-I'm-just-getting-used-to-it.' Show me that you're getting worn out." Just then, their friend seemed to disappear. "What the hell?"

Kyon took off running the moment Kunikida egged him to do so. The hill seemed to zoom by at an incredible speed as he made it up in about an eyeblink's time. Wow! He thought. I've really gotten athletic! Gym class must really be paying off! He looked down at his friends. He began walking along, looking back at them. You guys are too paranoid...oof! He tripped over someone's feet, not watching where he was walking. Luckily, he stumbled, not falling. He brushed himself off and got his bearings. He was standing, which was good that he hadn't fallen, but he stood in the middle of the street.

Time seemed to move in slow motion as screeching of brakes and rubber scraping the road sounded loudly. An unbelievably loud bang, followed by several loud crunches, right after another, shot at over seven hundred miles per hour through the air as a pickup truck slammed into Kyon at more than fifty miles per hour. The driver whipped quickly forward and back, his movement slowed by the successfully deploying airbag. Shattered glass shards peppered the area, with students agape at what had just transpired shielding themselves from glass spray. Metal bending and tearing made a horrid noise as the vehicle came to a stop, with various fluids leaking out. The vehicle's front end had been smashed in in the shape of Kyon's body. It was a total wreck. The most startling piece of info, however, would be Kyon himself.

He looked at his hands, noticing no damage whatsoever. He stepped back from the wreckage. There were minor cuts on his outfit, nothing major, and as he felt around, he felt no damage to his skin. All of his parts still functioned free of harm, and he felt no pain whatsoever. Uh, ah...what the fuck is going on? How in the fu...?

Suddenly he remembered having left his Superman comic with Haruhi.

He looked at the truck.

"HARUHIIIIIIIIII!"