Sometimes it took a single look to bring something back.
Lately Bowen had been having all sorts of strange and different memories, flashbacks. It all started with the memory of a girl.. but now it was growing into something more, detailed, convoluted. Faces upon recognition bringing feelings of recognition, more thoughts, recollections. First it was that one guy, this.. seemingly normal guy, a student in the same school, just a glimpse and he was already someone the blonde knew.. but now.
He was getting again, from another fellow student, another man.
A casual pass in the hallway and suddenly the face is imprinted from something he can remember, he can hear his voice without even actually listening to it! A voice that seemed to match his somewhat smiling demeanor. Who was this guy? Apparently he seemed pretty popular, A lot of the girls seemed to give this fellow adoring looks.
How lucky.
Maybe he should try and get a moment to speak to this guy for real. It was easy to find out his class through a walk around as everyone was coming to class for the day. To get his attention.. a note! Yes, if he's got admirers he should be used to that kind of crap shouldn't he? 'Meet me on the roof of the main building after school. It's important'. Hopefully that should be enough. Continue on as per usual until the final bell.
And as quickly as he could the blonde would make it onto that roof hopefully before the other guy did. Actually if he's familiar.. put the armband on. Yes, that armband, the one that gives him off vibes whenever he puts it on despite the fact that he made it himself off of another memory. It served for two things. To keep him on this task of finding out why he was getting these memories (and the physical side effects of recollection) and.. to see if anyone else could pick up a memory, from something like this.
Anything to help him, help him figure out where this all came from.. what it all means.
Not to mention how lucky Bowen was to catch up with the very girl in his class, to enquire about another person that she was talking about with other classmates earlier today.
Kuyoh Suoh.
A student at Kouyouen, very well known. The easiest way to distinguish her is from her hair. Very noticeable black hair. Right, that was something he was sure to hold in mind. There was also the notion some might consider her to be a life-size living doll... well according to what his classmate said anyway.
He didn't have much time to go through everything, just enough to find her should be enough. How long had it been since school ended? No wonder he was running, again. He kept to the left hand side, feet taking him so incredibly fast, though as fast as his legs could really take him. Really there could be any direction she could be leaving that school and it might again come to a stroke of luck that such was, in his direction.
It was.. crazy, to go to such a length of commitment for this bookmark, this note, but he treated it as a priority. It was still odd, to deliver a note that had such strange little lines at the back, that such lines were important. Why? What did they mean? Would he know? Does he wish to know? It wasn’t for him at all, but natural curiosity still filled his mind.
Even if this wasn't connected at all to this odd recollection of 'memories', it was still a good deed regardless. Now he was starting to entertain the thought that they might be memories, or some strange form of memories. Yet, there was just this feeling that it might be. He's not sure how, but maybe. Just... maybe. He wasn't going to rule it out.
As he neared the grounds, he just hoped he wasn't too late. Though he soon did slow down from a run to a walk, keeping close to the fence, rather than going through the middle and creating some fork-beacon for everyone to stare at. This was the time to keep calm, remain calm. Who knows what this could be, if he'll even know.
What mattered to him, first and foremost, was that she gets this bookmark note.
Y’know I haven’t even thought about an actual Disappearance!Bowen yet, though I do have a few ideas.
- Third year North High student just going through life, tends to hang around Kitaguchi station a lot and actually works part time there on station duties. Originally from Australia, lives permanently in Nishinomiya. Wants to become a train driver. This one is probably the most likely scenario and the most normal.
- Similar to the first idea except he goes to Kouyouen. Might know Haruhi in that case? Not sure.
- Most obscure idea where he has a ‘club’ (one man club at the beginning) focussed on having fun to the fullest, like the outer aspect of the SOS Brigade but without the paranormal stuff... maybe. Least likely scenario but was an idea I had.
- Could do something where he retains his memories similar to Kyon. That in itself would be a fun experience if he’s the one that has to change stuff. (10/10 I would actually be game for it)
I do wonder how he’d fit into the overall experience of Disappearance but certainly would be happy to throw him into the ring if feasible!
So to clarify in regards to the TMoHS verse tags (Particularly for the Disappearance Event):
-TMoHS!Bowen refers to the Bowen who’s in the proper world, slider, part of the SOS Brigade that kind of stuff.
-Disappearance!Bowen refers to the Bowen in the changed world, who isn’t a slider, is trying to figure things out based on fleeting memories of a previous version.
Generally a day that someone like Bowen wouldn't pay too much attention to, not on the surface anyway. Even with what was going on, this roller coaster of a ride he's been on, it wouldn't have crossed his mind as to what it meant.
At first he was asleep, in his bed, at home, or rather 'home', a place he doesn't think is actually home. Something he has since well ascertained by this point with his own conclusions. It was going to be another day of school. Another day of investigation. In his sleep, in his dreams, there was a realisation coming to the front.
One which burst forth, just as his eyes did, opening instantly.
Something's wrong. More wrong than it was before.
Immediately, he sits up out of bed. There was this feeling in his stomach a really horrible, foreboding feeling. It was as if today... something was going to happen today. But what? Was it to do with what had been happening?
But wasn't that going to be taken care of? Weren't the Data Integration Thought Entity going to take care of everything.
If so.. why was he still... here?
Quickly did he shoot out of bed. He didn't even bother with the usual amenities. He just changed straight into his school uniform. Not even time for breakfast or greetings by his parents, even they were concerned when he left in the hurry that he did. There wasn't time for any of that. He was out the door and on the run in seconds flat.
There was no time.
Legs lifted, carried, speeds unimaginable, only once previously did he go this fast. Why was everything still like this? Why had it not gone back to the way they were? Why was he still figuring some sort of puzzle like it was the mystery of the century?
And why did he have an ominous feeling?
Clarity was coming forth. There was something he still could do, may do, had to do. Time was running out to make a last ditch effort on his own part, from his own conclusion, suspicion, that there was more to be done, more to make everything right again.
By the river, he sat, legs close to his chest, the blonde staring out to the water. How long had he sat here for? A moment of reflection, after all he had been through so far. That armband, he still had it on his left arm. Maybe he could take it off now, but he doesn't feel like he can... or should, not yet.
Maybe here, he can piece something together.
The discovery of the Literary Club room, of Yuki Nagato, of a note that would lead him on a chase back to Kouyouen, to Kuyoh Suoh. Such revelations from there, it.. was hard to get around at first. Here he was initially trying to piece a club together, who they were, what it was called, what they did, but very quickly this became something far greater than he had ever imagined.
Maybe it was always something so big.
From what he gathered, from Kuyoh, the dead are being recovered. Apparently this included him, Yuki Nagato, Itsuki Koizumi and... Haruhi Suzumiya.. along with, he believes, everyone else who was involved in that club.. maybe more? He didn't ask.
It was enough to paint a picture.
He still remembers theorising, at one point, this strong feeling, along with the evidence he now had, believed, that reality had changed. How else can one explain 'previous versions' of people and the likelihood that certain memories may have carried over, the club, the fun... the Haruhi he remembers. Indeed, further theories, with the boy who thought of her as god. It was speculation to suspect that she was the cause for the change in reality, that she made this happen.
That, was his belief as to the how.
The talk with Kuyoh Suoh. The delivery of the note. He asked what was going to happen, when all previous selves had been recovered. To his understanding, the previous versions of Yuki Nagato, of Itsuki Koizumi, are to come to the previous Haruhi, to apologise. Apologise.. for what? He has no idea. A natural belief that to apologise for something, it must be something bad, to which Haruhi, was the unfortunate victim.
Could it be, that whatever they did.. was serious enough to warrant.. this big of a change in reality? He remembers too, something, in that discussion on the rooftop. He remembers a point of speculation where the memories could have been either a game, to figure something out.. or, what the blonde himself believed to be.. a poor job of trying to change everything, that these memories were not to come back at all?
That, would suggest, that maybe whatever the Koizumi and Nagato did of the past, to Haruhi, that if it were true that she altered reality, would it have been because of that? It would mean trying to erase any trace of her from their lives... and his. But... he never did anything wrong.. or rather, he doesn’t feel that his past self did. Who was his past self anyway? What was his involvement in that club? With her? Needless thought, it didn’t have bearing on what was happening now anyway, not from the current standpoint.
Still, a belief he made as to the why. Something happened.. and maybe she wished them to forget about her, about all they did with her. That would explain a few things for sure.
So... what now?
Was there any more that he can do? It sounds like after that note, with what had happened with the... 'Data Integration Thought Entity'.. that it was all now to be taken care of. But.. was it? He doesn't even fully know. To think that with past selves being recovered that the world might have a chance to go back to what it was before. Will it? How would that even work? What about all this? Would anyone remember this time, when the world was different? What if this happens again? Would it all go back to something like this? Something different? What if next time, if there is a next time, these.. memories won't come back?
What if... she... can't be happy?
Man. Questions, questions, questions, more questions come right after the answers do. His head sinks a little into his legs. Happiness he might have felt before, but there were so many unknowns, even now..
He was over his head in it all.
Was there really anything more.. that he could do?
