Concepts Chapter 4 - The Unwritten Law

[District 9, Johannesburg, South Africa, 8:33am 22nd December 2013]

Naluri blinked, "You don't know what happened on Doomsday?"

Sasaki lowered her arms, keeping her elbows on her knees, "I remember Doomsday very clearly. It's just that I think my memory's been tampered with."

"Why do you think that?"

"As Doom said, it's odd that Gensokyo managed to catch me. Reimu was the only person who knew how to create the Hakurei Barrier on Doomsday. But she was not an Invisible, I would have known what she was thinking, what she was planning. Having said that, Reimu did not know the Barrier would block our powers so I didn't know that either," Sasaki sighed, trying her best to remember, "The way I remember was that I handed myself to Reimu. But for some stupid reason I did it before I'd sorted out Miku and Canada. My future self knew what happened, I think. But if she doesn't want me to find out, so be it, I'll find out when the time is right. I can trust myself."

Naluri pulled the quilt around herself, the sacrifices of her and Sasaki's future selves fresh in her mind, "Is that how Reimu found out The Hakurei Barrier would work on Haruhi, because it worked on you?"

"I imagine so. Reimu didn't know me at the time but found out from Himekaidou Hatate, Aya's biggest rival in reporting. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But why? I don't understand..." Sasaki rocked in her chair in anxiety.

"Doom suspected you created The Unwritten Law," spoke Naluri, "Did you? Before you were caught?"

Sasaki sat up with a rather dazed look, "According to my memory, I did, and my memories of that moment are sound so I'm sure I did."

"Why did you create it?"

"Because I could and wanted to," Sasaki stood up, straightening out her skirt, "As Doom guessed, I realised quickly what happened on Doomsday. Then I decided immediately to create The Law while I still could. I could see the world would quickly descend into war. If a conflict was inevitable, I wanted no one to lose their lives over it."

"Surely Doomsday was the first ever native war with no fatal causalities?"

"It was," answered Sasaki as she walked through the only doorway onto the balcony, "And it remains the only one." She looked over District 9 below her, able to see everything and everyone below with vivid detail, despite being hundreds of floors above ground level.

"There's been something that's been bothering me about The Unwritten Law," admitted Naluri, leaning back onto the headboard, "But firstly, why an unwritten law? Surely more people would obey a law that's set in stone?"

Sasaki looked up at the other Arks towering over the District, "Which would you rather obey, a written law that catches your eye or an unwritten law that catches your mind? Many people will dismiss written text without a second thought, but when you have it in your head, you can't help but think about it." Sasaki turned to Naluri, leaning back on the balcony railing, "When did you find out about the Law?"

"An hour or so into Doomsday, in Lesotho. I overheard two people, natives, I think, and they were discussing The Law and I distinctly remember them laughing about it. I couldn't tell why."

"They were laughing because it was obvious. The vast majority of natives already believed in The Unwritten Law. While a majority of newcomers do as well, a considerable proportion do not. I needed to keep the others in check. Stop them from doing something stupid." Sasaki turned her head to the side, "We can see how that turned out," she murmured quietly with a frown.

"Why not go all out?" questioned Naluri, asking the question burning inside her, "Why not say 'No one can die'?"

Sasaki hesitated to answer, a sad look on her face, "I was afraid of going too far, of being too intrusive. I don't want to get involved in people's personal lives. And then I was also concerned about those that I have no influence over. There are many out there who are immune to my powers and ones that can even fight back. If The Unwritten Law was 'No one can die', what would happen if an ambitious Invisible decided to take control, who would stop him?"

Naluri gave it a moment's thought, "If he had no fear of dying then no one could stop him, if he's strong enough against the other Invisibles."

"As much as some of us hate fighting," began Sasaki, sitting down on the floor, "Conflict defines a lot of us. The Unwritten Law was a constant reminder to those who waged war or piece of mind to those who wanted nothing to do with conflict."

"So you thought The Unwritten Law would work because of fear?"

"It worked for a year until Haruhi," Sasaki pointed out.

"But only because of the barriers separating the The Anti-Humour Society. Once those were down, The Society hit back."

"The Society did not attempt to kill anyone until they were threatened by destructive time travel," defended Sasaki, folding her legs.

Naluri ran a hand through her hair with unease, recalling the events of the day before in vivid detail, "So was Ilse wrong to send us to The DeLorean?"

"No, we needed to bring Haruhi back. We needed inconsistent destructive time travel to do that."

"Wouldn't Mikuru's TPDD have worked?"

"No, proper functional TPDDs, such as Mikuru's, use consistent soft time travel. They are good for observing the past without changing it, in a manner of speaking. Had we gone for a TPDD, Doom would not have cared and we would not have saved Haruhi."

Naluri scratched her cheek, with a rather sarcastically annoyed expression, "I must have missed that lesson about time travel."

"In fiction," began Sasaki, "Time travel is a very popular subject where people can present their opinions and theories on how it works, and they traditionally use that specific method for all their works. Doomsday and The Convenience Theory threw that exclusivity out the window, turning all theories into law, bringing in all sorts of time travellers and objects while keeping their style of time travel. But in short, The DeLorean is a paradox magnet but TPDDs have absolutely no effect on the past, in theory."

"I'm not sure how much sense that made."

"Some people would be more than happy to explain it to you. But I have a feeling you want to talk about something else."

"..." Naluri tapped her knuckle on her teeth, still in deep thought, "What about the Death Notes? Surely, you could have taken all the Notes so no one could have used them?"

Sasaki sighed, looking down at her lap, "I should point out that while Haruhi and I possess godlike abilities, wisdom was not one of them. Also, we are both introverts, we prefer to follow our own rules, not bound by the deeds of others."

"Selfish, in other words?"

Sasaki paused for a moment, taking a deep breath and ignoring Naluri's comment, "Sealing away dangerous newcomers and items did cross my mind but I could not make a decision before I was caught by Reimu. Imprisoning newcomers was out of the question, they have a right to live and as you could see with The Arctic Prison, it would have caused conflict-"

"In defence of Yamaha," Naluri interrupted, "Without them imprisoned, Yamaha would have been much more dangerous."

"Yes, for Yamaha. But if someone like me can keep an eye over them, there's no need for a prison. Like Haruhi did in North High. But getting back on topic, my main concern with interfering with items was the imbalance of power."

Naluri understood what Sasaki was talking about, "Like with Haruhi during the past year? As much as she tried to keep us safe and calm in North High, we didn't trust her because she was unchallenged in terms of power, until you came along."

Sasaki nodded, "Yes, it's the same concept. If I had confiscated, say, a Death Note, people would be raising their eyebrows, even though I don't need a Death Note to kill people," she said with a straight face.

A shiver went down Naluri's spine, "Uh huh..."

"Basically, if power, real or symbolic, gravitated towards one person, the world would be tempted to take it back. But the power would unlikely be spread out again, continuing down the vicious cycle. Things are best left as is while it is not at the forefront of people's attention."

"So, I get the impression you don't plan to brainwash anyone?"

Sasaki did not reply immediately, "I won't completely rule it out. In certain circumstances, I think brainwashing is justified... but I really don't want it to go that far. I prefer physical control rather than mental control if possible. But I think simple mental suggestions are the most moral method. Like The Unwritten Law."

"Is that why Reimu and Miku did what they did on Doomsday?"

"Yes."

"Why didn't you stop The Bad Apple Incident?"

"Because..." Sasaki paused before lowering her head. "Because I predicted the conflict would not happen, at least, not for a while. As you probably know, Reimu is an isolationist; she'd rather stick to herself then get involved with the military or government. Miku is normally very social and has more interest in singing than war. If there was proper dialogue between natives and newcomers with no need for brainwashing then there would have been a mutual understanding. There would have been no war and Reimu and Miku would drop any take-over plans they had. But I was interrupted and somehow ended up trapped inside a Hakurei Barrier box."

"Not the liquid Barrier?"

"No, the original solid variety. Ed Elric only created the liquid barrier yesterday. Once I was caught, I lost control of the outer world, with The Unwritten Law to fend for itself."

"Speaking of which," began Naluri, "Your Law... It put some newcomers at a disadvantage, didn't it?"

While Sasaki couldn't read Naluri's mind, she knew exactly what the latter meant, "Not so such much a disadvantage but it was unfortunate."

"Why couldn't The Law be 'No one should get hurt'?"

Sasaki rose her head to look at Naluri, "Would you listen to such a suggestion?"

"Yeah... No..." deduced Naluri with some reluctance, "People are hurt all the time. While it is wrong, it happens at a large enough rate to convince people to ignore The Law."

"Correct. In contrast, most people believe in The Unwritten Law, for many different reasons but it is also something people give thought to before any decision, whether good or evil. A good person would consider whether it would be cruel, counterproductive or unfair. A evil person would consider whether they could get more information, a ransom or even a new follower."

"So was there anything to prevent the disparity of pain caused by The Unwritten Law?"

Sasaki stood up and made her way to the blank wall closest to the foot of Naluri's bed, sliding her hand across the wall, "As you say, some newcomers have not been as well treated as others. Invincibles-" A picture of Suzumiya Haruhi and Izumi Konata appeared at the top left of the wall, "Immortals," Black★Rock Shooter and Fujiwara no Mokou appeared to the right, "Machines," Sora and Miku, "Undead," Flandre and Yuyuko started a new line underneath, "Regeneratives," Alex Mercer and The Incredible Hulk, "Reincarnates," Cirno and Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes, "Digital," Nagato Yuki and Omegamon, "Giants," Atlas and Galactus, "And gods," Odin and Zeus, "All these groups suffered more in combat than their opponents, if their opponents were strong enough to fight back. Many of them still harbour hate of those who caused them harm and there are strong desires for revenge in some cases," Sasaki paused again before turning round to Naluri, "So, what should I have done?"

"Err..." mumbled Naluri, not expecting the question but knowing Sasaki's opinion, "Nothing?"

Sasaki rose an eyebrow, "That's not how you would have honestly answered the question, is it?"

"No," agreed Naluri, leaning forward, "I understand why you don't want to forcibly change a person's attitude, personality or memories for the sake of every person having the right to live. But I believe even if everyone has the right to live, not all of them live right. I think there are times when it would be better to tone down a person's attitude for everyone else's benefit. A few for the many, so to speak. We can't always rely on you and Haruhi being here to keep the peace. You can't predict the future and there of those out there who you can't see that might be even more powerful than you. You need to take some precautions, not everyone in the world is as good natured as you."

"And what would the Invisibles do once I do that?"

"Well..." Naluri realised the weakness in her plan.

"Your ideology is sound but it is impractical without something that can control everyone. We've covered this," noted Sasaki, sitting on the end of the bed, "If I do anything immoral, whether right or not, it will trigger others into action. The Unwritten Law is best left as it is. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Surely something or someone has that ability?"

"If there is, he, she, it or they are doing a very good job of keeping hidden. Which reinforces my point. If it doesn't exist, we need to work for our peace. If it does exist, we mustn't provoke it."

Naluri sighed in resignation, covering her mouth with the quilt, "Just keep people safe."

Sasaki took hold of Naluri's hand, "I can't promise a future without pain, Naluri. For now, all I can do is direct some of the pain to those who can take it."

Naluri's eyes looked at Sasaki, "Can I take it?"

"You were willing to take it."

"That wasn't me-"

"You are The Daughter of Liberty," interrupted Sasaki, "But with a future. You cannot deny it. The DeLorean proved you would have done exactly the same thing." Naluri did not reply, looking away again with a frown and an expression of dejection. Sasaki tilted her head in concern, "Are you sure you won't come to the meeting? It's a chance to influence the world going forward."

"No," Naluri decided, "I'm going to take a back seat on this one. I have things to think about." She took her hand away from Sasaki.

Unwillingly, Sasaki stood up, "I'll keep you updated."

"Thanks," responded Naluri simply, laying down and pulling the quilt over her head.

Sasaki gave Naluri a final look before leaving the room, closing the door behind her. With her hand still on the handle, she bowed her forehead on the door, "We have a lot of work to do, Haruhi."

"Get some rest, Sasaki," Haruhi replied as looked longingly out a window at the stars of The Milky Way, "You didn't have an easy time this past year either."

The metal sliding door behind her moved to the side, accompanied by the sound of gas powered motors.

"Empress, you wanted to talk?" Konata greeted, with a smile, the taller Hiiragi Kagami behind her. While Konata had come in her winter school uniform, despite not being a member of the school anymore, Kagami was in casual clothes. Kagami was looking around, having never been on the Normandy before.

"Just Haruhi is fine, Konata," Haruhi welcomed as Konata entered the Port Observation Deck of the Normandy SR-2, "How did you know I wanted some company?" she asked, though she already knew why.

"You're still leaking your thoughts to the rest of us," responded Konata in an odd sort of serious sarcasm, "It's something you might need to work on."

"Hmm, I guess," waved away Haruhi, not taking the suggestion to heart, given she had leaked it deliberately, "Take a seat," she offered as she sat down on the cushioned bench.

"But why do you want the company?" Konata sat down right next to Haruhi. Kagami took a more modest seat and sat further away.

Haruhi lowered her head down, "I'm in a fragile mood at the moment... The Hand Canon worked. Sort of."

[However, all time travellers fall into four main categories depending on how they deal with causality and fate." On the wall in front of Naluri, near the foot of the bed, a two by two grid appeared. The word 'Causality' was above it, while the word 'Fate' was to the left. "For Causality, the time traveller can be either consistent or inconsistent." 'Consistent' and 'Inconsistent' appears above the columns. "Consistent time travel forces the timeline to be logical with absolutely no time paradoxes. Inconsistent is everything else.]

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