Compressed Time

"Ah, whatever. I won't be seeing anything like that again anyway." Jiu Ming let out a long breath and puffed himself up. "I've got nothing to do, so I might as well go shopping!"

Shopping...

"What a wonderful era."

Carrying a huge pile of stuff, Jiu Ming found a small alley and set down the load that could have crushed someone flat!

He patted the pile, and all the items turned into a card at his touch...

As long as he dressed properly, even if people on the street noticed something was off, they wouldn't say much. After all, people with all kinds of supernatural abilities existed in this world. One more oddity wasn't a big deal. Back on the Earth Jiu Ming came from, someone would have noticed something was wrong and called the police ages ago!

"Hey! Someone called the police! Luckily, I gave the people at the station a heads-up beforehand. Otherwise, you'd be... Tsk!"

"...What!?" His phone rang. As soon as Jiu Ming answered, Wang Hai's voice came through. "Who'd be bored enough to do that?"

"How should I know... Anyway, I knew you wouldn't stay put. Next time, wear a mask or something. A body with a shadow but no head is pretty scary."

"Fine." Jiu Ming glanced at the ground. His clothes did give him a shadow, but a headless one would definitely make someone break into a cold sweat at first glance.

"You sound a little strange. Are you in a car?"

"Hm? I'm heading to the Frontline to wander around for a couple of days."

The Frontline? Jiu Ming had heard of it. It was the border region where people fought the Exotic Beasts. Most of the beasts had been confined to a few large areas. That was one result of the battles between humans and Exotic Beasts; otherwise, if powerful beasts could be found everywhere, human cities would never know peace.

"Oh? You're not taking a vacation?"

"...Isn't that obvious?" Wang Hai rolled his neck, sounding a little irritable. "Anyway, watch yourself. I'm hanging up."

With that, Wang Hai hung up on the call from the number full of garbled characters.

The students were on vacation, but the teachers weren't. Ha, this was starting to feel pretty miserable.

Grinning maliciously, Jiu Ming stepped back into the Mysterious Shop. Come to think of it, a couple of days ago, Suzumiya Haruhi and the others had talked about summer vacation. Jiu Ming had given Suzumiya Haruhi's patience a little more credit, since this place could change its scenery, sure, but it had one major flaw...

It was too quiet. That's right, in a place this huge, there usually wasn't a single decent person around!

"Phew, what a waste." Jiu Ming looked at the High-Energy Crystals spread beneath the sofa. Over the past few days, their value had dropped by a full point...!

Wasn't that a little too fast?

Whatever. As long as he was comfortable. If Wang Hai weren't away right now, Jiu Ming would've gone to see him again and traded for more of those low-grade, ordinary High-Energy Crystals.

With nothing to do, Jiu Ming yawned and waved the Sealed Card that held a great many items. A heavy pile of assorted merchandise appeared on the floor, all of it toys...

After shopping... Jiu Ming wasn't sure if Suzumiya Haruhi had been in a bad mood these past few days or what, but she hadn't come here at all. It struck him as quite strange. But even so, he couldn't go looking for them to see what had happened.

It wasn't that he was cold-hearted. He simply had no way to go find them.

All he could do was wait.

But then...

"Huh? Yuki?" Jiu Ming looked at the figure of the Three-No Girl standing in front of the World Crossing Gate. She seemed unreal somehow... almost like a projection.

"Is something wrong?"

"Mm... please bear with it for a while. Until Suzumiya Haruhi's problem is resolved, don't reveal anything about your experiences..."

It was a very strange thing to say. When she finished, the girl's body slowly faded away, leaving Jiu Ming completely bewildered. She hadn't come here lately because she'd run into some strange problem. Had she gotten herself into trouble again...? Wait, why did he say "again"?

Jiu Ming soon found out what was happening!!

What on earth was going on!?

The sounds around Jiu Ming suddenly became noisy, and the scene before his eyes seemed to go into an extreme fast-forward, flickering by at incredible speed. He saw himself talking with Suzumiya Haruhi and the others, and there were so many scenes of them passing through the World Crossing Gate! Their speech became a chaotic jumble as it sped up...

What had happened...!?

When the noise faded, Jiu Ming suddenly found himself sitting on the sofa, panting heavily. His head ached faintly, his Soul Body felt unstable, and he had gained some hazy memories whose contents were blurry.

Summer vacation...?

What on earth was going on? Was it related to Yuki's warning just now?

Jiu Ming tapped his forehead and let out a long breath. He checked the time, and his expression went blank. Although his memories from earlier were hazy, they'd left him with a clear sense that a long time had passed. But the clock showed that only one minute had gone by!

Who was he kidding!?

One minute later...

"!? Give me a break!!" Just before that noisy feeling rose up again, Jiu Ming let out a wail. He felt like this was some kind of revenge for making Suzumiya Haruhi unhappy!!

The chaotic, noisy sensation hit him again, and Jiu Ming went through it all once more. He checked the time. Another minute had passed!

The hazy memories that had been "forced" into his mind seemed a little clearer, too. If this happened a few more times, maybe he'd remember everything.

No! Please don't let it happen again!

Rubbing his forehead, Jiu Ming grimaced, his face twisted as if from a toothache. His head hurt!

One more minute later...

"Damn it!!"

Jiu Ming had figured it out. The chaotic, noisy episodes came at one-minute intervals, and each one lasted for a minute. In half an hour, he'd gone through that state three times. What on earth was happening!?

He let out a long breath. Unable to figure out what had changed, Jiu Ming decided he might as well leave for a few days and avoid the place.

"Right, Panel-kun! Has anything unusual happened here?"

The flow of time within a limited area near you has undergone abnormal expansion.

"...Huh? What does that mean?" Abnormal expansion? What was going on?

You can understand it as time around you having accelerated drastically.

"I don't quite get it." Jiu Ming scratched his head, looking confused. Time and space were too advanced for him. The flow of time in a limited area had expanded abnormally, meaning time around him had inexplicably sped up when Suzumiya Haruhi arrived?

That would explain why he felt as if a long time had passed and gained a lot of hazy memories, while only one minute had passed in the Mysterious Shop.

Because of Suzumiya Haruhi, when she came here, she forcibly brought the flow of time from her world with her, creating a rift between fast and slow time around you. Time accelerated for you, while the locally accelerated time was compressed relative to this place, causing your current discomfort.

"Ah!? I'm so confused." Jiu Ming's eyes twitched repeatedly. It took him a long time to understand the gist of it. The overall flow of time here hadn't changed, but his own had sped up. Since the overall flow of time in the Mysterious Shop hadn't been affected, his time had been compressed relative to the shop's.

For example, he might experience an hour within the accelerated time, while the overall time in the Mysterious Shop remained unchanged. So, from the shop's perspective, that hour he experienced had been forcibly compressed into a single minute!!

Time had been warped beyond belief!

What had happened to Suzumiya Haruhi that could have made the time axis around her so chaotic? The two conflicting flows of time were causing Jiu Ming a great deal of pain...

While they'd been talking, another minute passed. That chaotic, noisy feeling came again. This time, Jiu Ming was fully prepared, but even so, it still bothered him tremendously. What could he do? He wanted to swear!

The hazy memories became just a little clearer. Not by much. All right, it looked like he'd have to go through this a few more times before they came into focus!

"I'm going to die..." Jiu Ming lay sprawled on the sofa, panting heavily as if he'd just been chased for dozens of miles by a pack of wolves. It was tormenting him both mentally and physically. Even more frustrating, he could feel his strength had increased a little.

Maybe the differences in the flow of time had trained Jiu Ming's mind, or maybe the High-Energy Crystals had taken effect... Either way, was this suffering and pleasure at the same time?

Jiu Ming noticed that some of the High-Energy Crystals had grown dim. He couldn't even tell how long the "super-long time" compressed into a minute lasted each time the chaos hit.

"Memory, memory... I'm not some kind of masochist..." Jiu Ming rested his chin on his hand and stared at the Little Notebook on the coffee table, where three tally marks had been drawn. His eyes were a little red as he muttered. Just before that noisy, chaotic feeling struck again, Jiu Ming quickly added another stroke to the notebook.

When the chaos ended, the pen he'd been clutching tightly was gone. He eventually found it wedged between the sofa cushions, while the Little Notebook turned up beneath the sofa... This one-minute "curse"!

From those hazy memories, Jiu Ming had a vague impression that he'd tucked the pen between the sofa cushions and kicked the notebook underneath, as if to hide something.

As for everything else, it was still a blur!

"Damn it! Damn it!!" His eyes bloodshot, Jiu Ming stared at the Little Notebook covered in tally marks, his voice growing increasingly irritable. The chaotic episodes every two minutes made him feel as if his nerves could snap at any moment. Even when he tried to calm down, the intense mental strain made him feel like someone who'd been forced to stay awake for ages.

He could blow up like a powder keg at any moment!

At least there was one small comfort: the hazy memories were gradually becoming clearer as the episodes accumulated.

The clearest part was of Nagato Yuki, who had somehow taken on a lonely aura. Hang on a little longer... He couldn't give up halfway. He didn't know what he might miss if he experienced one fewer episode... He'd just have to endure a while longer.

Jiu Ming let out a long breath and snapped the Little Notebook shut in his hand.