Chapter 1 ending rewrite

Yoohoo! Oh boys!”

Haruhi shouted enthusiastically at us from behind. I turned around to see—“

“Introducing: Battle Princess Mikuru!”

Wowza. She was dressed in some sort of fantasy leather armor – Sleeveless, form fitting, and with one of those pleated leather skirts, like a roman legionnaire or something. The ensemble even included a fake sword and shield, which she carried with absolutely no confidence whatsoever.

The outfit would’ve provided pretty much no protection whatsoever in an actual fight, but I’ll be damned it didn’t look great.

“Wow. If I must say, that looks absolutely stunning on you, Asahina-san.”

Yeah, stunning. That’s one way to put it. Where the hell did you get an outfit like that anyways?

“I know, isn’t it great? I just found this in one of the dressers over there; I figured it’d be totally perfect for Mikuru-chan.”

It is, but; what’s the point of playing dress up at a time like this?

“Come on, we’re fighting the bad guys here! Mikuru-chan has to do her part too! She might not be much help in solving this mystery, but she can at least take on the roll of warrior who inspires her teammates to victory with her courage and valor!”

That’s…

Just what the hell are you trying to do here, Haruhi?

“Huh? Kyon…”

Did you forget where we are? Did you forget what we’re up against? How the hell is cosplay at a time like this going to accomplish anything!? Asahina-san shouldn’t even be here in the first place. This is beyond stupid.

Haruhi was momentarily taken aback by my outburst, but was looking pretty angry by the time I was done. Growling, she grabbed me by the shoulders roughly and started pushing me out of the kitchen, until we were out of earshot of the others.

“Kyon you idiot! Can’t you see Mikuru-chan is absolutely terrified of all of this? And not just her, but Yuki and Koizumi-kun too. And you’re not acting like yourself, and even I’m… I mean, I had to watch you… Nobody is having fun here, Kyon!”

Haruhi admonished me with a harsh whisper. I could feel my own anger still growing, and I snapped back.
“So what? You think we can just smile, and pretend everything is okay? Laugh, and play dress up like this is a normal day at the club? You think that’ll make everything alright!?”

“Yes!”

Haruhi’s shouted, one word answer left an empty silence in the air between us, which held for several seconds.

…

What the hell am I doing?

Dejected, I slumped down on to the ground, and buried my face in my hands. Damnit. My momentarily flash of anger had drained away, leaving me simply feeling like an idiot. I’m sorry, alright? I guess I’m just… a little on edge here.

Haruhi gave out a long sigh, before looking down at me with a weak smile and extending her hand.

“You idiot. Come on, I’m not the one you should be apologizing too.”

I let her help me to my feet, and we both made our way back to the others. Koizumi was looking grim, but Asahina-san looked on the verge of tears. She probably blamed herself for this, too.

“Hey, I’m really sorry. You look great, okay?”

“Wha-? Ah, Kyon-kun, it’s no big deal, really…”

“Mikuru-chan! Come on, isn’t there something you wanted to tell him?”

Haruhi ran up and pounced on her from behind, giggling and then pushing her forward slightly as she let out a yelp of surprise.

 “Huh? Am I? Um… ah, Suzumiya-san was right earlier, I can’t really help you at all… I’m sorry.”

I balked slightly, wanting to offer some words of comfort or something to our poor, beautiful mascot, but she managed her own outburst before I could.

“B-but I’m really positive you guys can find a way out of this and I believe in you!”

An embarrassing thing to say, but it was clear she meant every word with all of her heart.

“You see! With a declaration like that, there’s no way we could lose!”

I found myself smiling for real, this time. Even if this is all kind of forced, it’s better than just sitting around getting angry and mope-y, right?

Everyone grabbed a sandwich, and some juice from the nearby fridge, and we all went back to sit and eat. Looks like those witches still aren’t back.

Everyone was chatting happily and enjoying themselves, but my mood fell again when I happened to glance back at the screen, the scene of the game still frozen in time.

Even if we were able to take a break up here and enjoy ourselves, the me down there is still stuck in a living nightmare. Damnit, now I feel guilty. Especially since I was somewhat dreading when this moment would end, and I have to go back to playing and watching myself suffer.

I guess that means that it’s not just our lives on the line here, but we have to someone save Piece-Me, Piece-Haruhi, and Piece-Battler as well. Whether they’re really sentient or not, I don’t care anymore. It has to be stopped.

But hey. We should have this, right? I think Haruhi said it earlier, but the bad guys always lose in the end.

Right?