Chapter Three

 Chapter Three: It Goes To Eleven

"P...please get your face out of my chest!" Mikuru blurted out, her face coloring red.

The first year student started, realizing where she was, then scurried beneath the table and clung to one of Kyon's legs.

"Sempai!" she whimpered. "Save me!"

Placing another stone at the board, Kyon remarked, "I'm threatening your piece, Koizumi; atari." Bending to look at the shivering girl who had grabbed onto him, he added, "I don't think we've been introduced properly yet."

He took a moment to study her features, while she shivered in fright, clinging to him. Her brown hair was shoulder-length, and very curly just at the tips — fairly distinctive, he thought. She was probably as tall as Yuki, but with an even slighter frame, not quite gangly, but not yet grown into her height. Her dark eyes stared up at him pleadingly.

"That all but confirms it," Haruhi declared, clapping her hands together and standing guard at the locked door. "Okay, initiate, state your name and let go of the vice commander,

or I will issue a severe penalty!"

"I-I really shouldn't," the girl stuttered. "Sempai! Why aren't you helping me?"

"Alright," Kyon relented. "I'll help you out, but I need to know who you are, first."

"Um! I'm Michikyuu Kanae," she said. "What's going on here?"

"It's my fault," Kyon said, sighing. "Haruhi asked me what was up with you, and I said you probably knew alternate universe versions of us from sliding through dimensions."

"You already know!?" the girl yelped, trying to jump away from Kyon,

but only smacking her head and jolting the table, scattering all the pieces across the board.

"Just as well," Koizumi said with a shrug. "I don't think a six stone advantage was going to help me much."

"Wait, you mean you're really a slider?" Kyon asked, eyes widening in surprise. "I was joking!"

"Kyon, Kyon, Kyon," Haruhi chastised him, her grin even wider as she shook her head. "Shame on you! You really thought that kind of thing would be a throwaway comment?"

"...ow," Kanae moaned. "My head...."

"Okay, this is very quickly getting out of hand," Kyon decided. "Nagato?"

The quiet girl had watched everything without remark so far, so contributed, "Quantum displacement agent. Through the accumulation of distortions through the fabric of space-time, she can create a ripple and then ride the wavefront of that ripple into alternate, similar realities."

"So, that means slider?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Michikyuu-san, come out from the table and take a seat. I'll try and keep Haruhi from molesting you. Since you're a slider, please allow me to introduce you to the SOS Brigade," he said, gesturing to the others. "It seems Haruhi has already decided that you've joined the club. Obviously, you're in good company, with one possible exception."

"But don't hold him being a normal person against him," Haruhi added quickly.

"Yes. That was precisely the exception I was thinking," he deadpanned.

"Mikuru-chan! Give our newest member a cup of tea and prepare the accords to record the addition of a slider to our ranks!"

Gathering the loose stones from across the table, Koizumi remarked, "Perhaps we shouldn't record more than her name and that she joined the brigade. We wouldn't want certain information to fall into the hands of others too easily."

Mikuru poured a cup of tea and set it at the table,

while Kanae slid a chair next to Kyon and huddled in it, trying to hide behind him from Haruhi's line of sight. "U...um...." she whimpered. "Y...you're not supposed to know who I am so easily! I only meant to tell Sempai."

"Hmm. You must be very close with Kyon in your world," Haruhi remarked, eyes narrowing.

Koizumi gave an uncomfortable twitch.

"Eh? Yes! Of course! In every world I've been to, Sempai is always willing to help me when I'm in trouble, even if he doesn't believe my story! And he's always very polite, and so kind...." She coughed, nervously picking up her tea and sipping at it.

After a taste, she said, "I'm, um, not usually so impolite. I'm just a bit on edge...."

"'Every world'?" Haruhi echoed,

her eyes suddenly turning sympathetic as she stepped away from the door and sat next to Koizumi, opposite the younger girl. "Do you mean, you're lost, Kanae-chan?"

Kanae nodded, frowning. "That's right," she agreed. "And I'm still trying to find my way home. I've been through over a hundred worlds by now, ever since before middle school! But Sempai almost always tells me that it's big trouble for you to know I'm a slider, even when he doesn't believe me."

Turning to Kyon, she asked, "Sempai, why is it okay for her to know this time?"

"I told her yesterday," he said, considering. "Michikyuu-san, are you telling me that in alternate realities, I went to middle school with Haruhi?"

"Yes, sometimes," Kanae agreed, smiling. "And sometimes junior high school as well. Mostly in those realities, I think it was because of a zoning change that had one or another of the schools you usually go to removed. Sorry, after so many worlds, I tend to pay more attention to where you are than why you're there. But please, call me Kanae-chan, Sempai."