The Wavering of Haruhi Suzumiya- novel 6- Where Did The Cat Go?

*MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*

Where Did The Cat Go?- the fourth short story of "The Wavering of Haruhi Suzumiya" (novel 6).

Set on new years eve 2003, the day after Snowy Mountain Syndrome, this is the story of the winter version of the murder mystery, with the same people that were on the remote island last summer.

The SOS Brigade have to wait until the afternoon before starting the Murder game. They all decide to stay indoors because Haruhi insists that Yuki needs time to recover, and it would be better if they all had fun together.

Yuki Nagato inspecting her abstract Fukuwarai portrait

As part of the murder game, everyone has to stay in the living room from 2pm-3pm, then have a 5min break before spending another hour in the room. They use this time to have fun with a homemade SOS Brigade board game, where Kyon ends up landing on tasks that requires him to do push ups and other exercises. They also play a game of Fukuwarai, a game much like Pin the Tail on the Donkey, but they have to use a picture and cut outs of a face, and in this case, the faces are similar to the participants. Tsuruya ends up in hysterics during this game.

The murder investigation then properly starts. Itsuki assigns himself as the games master, Keiichi Tamaru pretends to be dead in an out building, while Yutaka Tamaru and everyone apart from Arakawa and Mori serve as suspects. A snow storm outside serves as an ideal prop because it would cover up the murderers tracks leading back to the lodge. Shamisen the cat is also used as a prop because he is locked inside the out building along with the murder victim, despite the fact he was inside the living room with the others for much of the previous 2 hours.

Haruhi and Tsuruya end up as joint winners because they conclude that Itsuki must be the killer because he was the only one to have left the room during the time that Shamisen was away, and must have been using a fake Shamisen to fool everyone.

Joint winners Tsuruya and Haruhi

Haruhi goes to the bag that Itsuki has been using for the board games and out pops a new cat, one that looks identical to Shamisen but is female. He explains he spend months finding a lookalike calico and training it, and even went as far to dye the cat in places to make it as close looking to Kyons cat. Her name is Shamisen 2.

Haruhi liked the game so much that she declares that she wants next years summer game to be set in a castle overseas, and Tsuruya declares that she could arrange it. Itsuki sighs.

They have a party that night and see the new year in with the phrase "Omedetou Gozaiimasu!"

They plan on playing a Japanese style game of badminton tomorrow, and visiting a shrine when they get back home.

Welcome to 2004.

---

7-10. Not a bad short story, not as great as I was expecting, but fun none the less.

Up next: The Prologue to the Intrigues (part 1).

Click here for easy navigation around my Haruhi articles