Pasta

Prologue
When did I stop believing in Santa Claus? In truth, this sort of silly question holds no real
significance for me. However, if you were to ask me when I stopped believing that the old man
wearing the red costume was Santa, then I can confidently say: I have never believed in Santa,
ever. I knew that the Santa who appeared at my preschool Christmas party was a fraud, and now
that I think about it, every one of my classmates shared the same look of disbelief watching our
teacher pretend to be Santa. Although I had never seen Mommy kissing Santa Claus, I was
already wise enough to be suspicious about the existence of an old man who worked only on
Christmas Eve.
However, it took me quite a bit longer to realize that the aliens, time-travelers, ghosts, monsters
and espers in those effects-filled “good guys versus evil organization” cartoons didn’t actually
exist either. No, wait, I probably did realize, I just didn’t want to admit it. Deep inside my heart I
still wanted those aliens, time-travelers, ghosts, monsters, espers and evil organizations to
suddenly appear. Compared to this boring, normal life of mine, the world of those flashy shows
was much more exciting; I wanted to live in that world too!
I wanted to be the one who saved the girl kidnapped by aliens and imprisoned in a bowl-like
fortress. I wanted to be the one who used my courage, intelligence and trusty laser gun to fight
against villains from the future trying to change history for their own gain. I wanted to be
someone who could banish demons and monsters with a single spell, battle against mutants or
psychics from evil organizations, and engage in telepathic fights!
But wait, calm down. If I really were ever attacked by aliens or whatever, how could I ever
possibly fight against them? I don’t even have any special powers!
Well then, how about this: one day, a mysterious new student transfers to my class. Except he’s
really an alien or from the future, and he has telepathic abilities. When he gets into a fight with
the bad guys, all I need to do is find a way to get involved in his war. He’ll handle all the fighting
and I can just be his flunky sidekick. Oh my god, this is great, I am so clever!
Or maybe, if that doesn’t work, how about this: one day, a mysterious power inside me awakens,
something like a telekinetic or psychic ability. I discover that a lot of other people in this world
also have similar powers, and then some sort of paranormal society recruits me. I’ll become part
of this organization and protect the world against evil mutants.
Unfortunately, reality is surprisingly cruel… No one got transferred to my class. I’ve never seen
a UFO.When I went to places that were rumored to be haunted, nothing showed up. Two hours
of intense staring didn’t make my pencil move a single millimeter, and glaring at my classmate’s
head didn’t reveal his thoughts to me either. I couldn’t help but get depressed at how normal the
laws of physics were. I began to stop watching for UFOs and paying attention to paranormal TV
shows because I finally convinced myself it was impossible. I even reached a point where I only
had a sense of nostalgia for those things.
After junior high, I completely grew out of that fantasy world and became utterly grounded in
reality. Nothing happened in 1999, even though I kept hoping, just a bit, that something would;
mankind hadn’t returned to the moon or gone beyond it. I suppose, from the way things are
looking, that I’ll be long dead before you can book a round trip from Earth to Alpha Centauri[1].
With those sorts of pedestrian thoughts in my mind, I became a normal, carefree senior high
student. That is, until the day I met Suzumiya Haruhi.