The strange appearance of Haruhi Suzumiya

Chapter 3
Take me out to the...

Chapter Description: The group plays soccer!

Haruhi uncrossed her arms and came up to me. As I was still sitting, her face and mine were nearly level. She smiled a little girl smile full of innocence, as if suddenly shy, and only meeting me for the very first time.

She put her hands behind her back and moved her shoulders back and forth as she spoke. It was as if all her confidence at age 16 was slowly fading into that of a somewhat shy 12-year-old.

“Um, Kyon,” she asked, and then stopped before she mustered up the courage to blurt out, “Do you wanna go play some soccer with me?”

I looked into her hopeful face and figured that if I rejected her now, she’d be crushed, and afterward, she would either run off crying or I’d probably be wearing diapers because of her anger at being rejected.

I decided to accept her offer.

“Well, sure! But we’d need more members to have a really good game!” I added lamely.

“Okay!” she said, so happy now that she was bouncing off the floor with excitement, “Mikuru, go get changed!”

“Into what?” asked Mikuru

“A soccer outfit! There’s one behind the screen,” said Haruhi as she pointed at it. Mikuru quickly moved over to it and called out, “No peeking!”

“What about me?” asked Itsuki, “Can I come along? You need more members, right?”

“Well, yeah, I thought you understood that! When Mikuru finishes, there’s an outfit for you and Yuki back there, too.”

As if on command, Mikuru appeared in a loose red shirt with the number 3 on its front. She wore a pair of shorts, black knee-high socks, and a pair of regulation soccer shoes. I smiled at her and got a quick stink-eye from Haruhi for the merest of seconds before she resumed her little girl persona.

Yuki and Itsuki reappeared as 10-year-olds wearing similar garb. Itsuki’s smile had a gap where his right canine was just starting to show. If he didn’t like the change from 16 to 10, he didn’t show it. His demeanor was that of a smiling, happy child.

“Your turn, Kyon!” said Haruhi as she begged me to get up by pulling my hand in the direction of the screen.

“Hang on a minute, Haruhi! What about my little sister?” I asked, trying to come up with an excuse to delay what would happen next. I’d spent my whole life growing up as a teenager and wasn’t looking forward to going back to being a kid.

“Oh, we’ll see her at the park!” said Haruhi with a reassuring smile, “We’ll need a chaperon if we’re going to be out late, after all!”

Resigned to my fate, and out of excuses, I stepped behind the screen and changed into the tiny outfit that I found back there. As I put on the shirt, expecting it to be too tight, it slipped on and fit just fine. My body had been turned back to age 12 without me noticing it.

I finished up and stepped out from behind the screen. Haruhi took my arm in hers and we made our way out of the school to the local park.

My little sister was there waiting for us. She looked to be about 18 and fully developed.

“There you all are!” she said, “I’ve been waiting for 15 minutes! It’s about time you showed up!”

She came up to Haruhi and me. “Even if you are my little brother, I have only so much patience for you, ya know!”

What could I do except play along? “Thanks for being here for us, Sis! I’m certain you have a few boyfriends you had to disappoint today!”

She smiled and blushed at the compliment, then went to sit down on a nearby bench. Pulling out her phone as she sat, she became engrossed with whatever was on the screen.

Yuki took the position of goalie. She simply set herself up in the defender position and no one argued with her.

Mikuru, at her current age, was quick to move and able to handle the ball. My guess is that she has balance problems due to her bust size at age 16.

Haruhi latched on to whatever soccer moves I could throw at her with alacrity. She moved up and down the field with the ball seemingly following her moves as if she had magnets on her feet. Not bad for a person who had never played the sport!

Itsuki was a prodigy at this age, if he didn’t like puzzles and learning more, he would have had a crack at the big leagues.

We played one-on-one for an hour and then a game of Wembley Doubles for about 15 minutes more. Haruhi was out of breath but very happy! I hoped that she was getting her wish and that this game would end, allowing us to go home. But that, it would turn out, wouldn’t be the case!

We took a break and A happy Haruhi said that it was a shame that she hadn’t met me at an earlier age as I was so much fun to be with just before falling asleep with her head in my lap. Nothing had changed and we were still kids.

Itsuki postulated that we were in a micro-world created by Haruhi’s need to know me at an earlier age. Since we hadn’t left, we put our heads together to figure out what would be necessary to meet those needs.

My “older” sister said that she kind of liked it here and didn’t mind staying. She had gotten a taste of what it was like to be an adult and an older sibling and looked forward to bossing me around when we got back to the house.

Yuki suggested we make it harder for her on the pitch. She postulated a 55 percent chance that Haruhi would give up her micro-world to frustration after that.

Just as Haruhi woke up, the scene around us faded to black and I awoke back in the club room. Yuki, Itsuki, and Mikuru were all present. It was as if we were restarting the scenario from scratch, with one exception: We were still kids!

We had on our normal school clothes, sized to fit our smaller bodies, and the furniture had all changed its size to better fit our smaller stature.

“Well, this is interesting,” said Itsuki as he pondered the same Shogi move that he’d set up the day before. The book he studied hadn’t changed its size, and he had to lay it flat on the table as he read it, while placing a finger on the spot that he was reading from to not lose his place.

Mikuru came up to the table holding her tea tray with both hands. She had to place it on the table to serve its contents. She was still a bunny girl maid who looked extra cute due to her age!

“I wonder what she meant when she said that she wanted to meet you at an earlier age?” she asked as the hairs on the back of my neck started standing straight up.

“No! It can’t be!” I shouted, “If she wanted to meet me at a younger age at 16 and turned into a 12-year-old, then…”

The door slammed open and 6-year-old Haruhi walked into the room. She skipped up to her desk and, despite its smaller size, still had to pull herself up to sit on it. Her legs pumped back and forth energetically as she announced that she had a big surprise for us!

Mikuru asked what it was, and Haruhi jumped off the desk and grabbed her. She dragged the 11-year-old behind the changing divider and before Itsuki and I could get out of the room to give them privacy, she came back from around the divider towing a 5-year-old Mikuru behind her.

She walked up to me and asked to play some soccer in the park. I couldn’t disagree, and my “older” sister showed up to walk us to the park. It was a little embarrassing to have to hold hands to not get lost, but we made it there. The only thing different about the park was that it was now midday instead of evening.

Haruhi at this age was very easy to tire out. It was almost doubly quick after she got worn down trying to kick a ball that came up to her ankles. She still enjoyed playing with it and kicking it awkwardly around her friends.

As she lay down next to me in the grass, drowsing off, she said those chilling words again before dropping off for a little nap.

I was appalled upon hearing it as the world faded to black once again.

(To be continued.)