Set directly after book one, it is the first week in June, and Haruhi decides to sign the SOS Brigade up to a local baseball tournament. She announces this to the members 3 days before the event., but they need 4 more people to make a team. Taniguchi and Kunikida are pulled into the team, Tsuruya is introduced for the first time ever (Her introduction in The Sigh doesnt count), and Kyon pulls in his little sister, hoping she will handicap the team for an early lose. Another UNEXPLAINED TIME TRAVEL EVENT happens. Asahina (dressed as a nurse now lol) is hit by a ball, and Kyon helps her to the nurses office. She says something like 'please dont get too close to me, otherwise it will happen again'. In the first book the adult Asahina requests for Kyon not to get too close to her (younger self), but now we have the younger Asahina telling Kyon the same thing! Seems like Mikuru has met Kyon before he met her, and maybe they reacted on their feelings for each other?? Who knows for now...
Anyway back during the game, they cheat by using Nagato to put a spell on the bat so that it always hits the ball, and after Kyon tells her to stop using this approach, they get her to put a spell on the direction the ball swings, so that the opposing team looses on strike outs. In the end they win, but Kyon tells Haruhi that they shouldnt go onto the next round because of how distraught the opposing team was, and how it would be a drag anyway because everyone is feeling tired and want lunch. Haruhi listens to Kyon and agrees. She blatantly fancies him, its obvious to us fans. The loosing team therefore move on to the next round. A few days later and Haruhi comes into the club room holding flyers of football tournaments for them to participate in, much to the delight of the rest of the brigade members (down the line however these are never mentioned again as ever taking place, so maybe Kyon persuaded her not to bother).
Up next: Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody.
Part 2: Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody.One day in early July the SOS brigade are celebrating the Tanabata Festival, or Summer Star festival. Haruhi brings in this bamboo shoot and gets everyone to write a few wishes on card to place on it. She comes up with some excuse of the wishes being directed at two gods who are represented as stars, therefore using light years the time taken for the wishes to come true are 16 years and 30 something years, apparently. Anyway this may prove important at some point because the two wishes that Haruhi writes are for the 'world to revolve around me', which it already does, and more importantly the second wish 'I wish for the earth to rotate the other way'. This could spell trouble in the future.
Kyon carries Mikuru to the middle school to find Haruhi Suzumiya breaking into it, only she is much younger, which means he did actually time travel to the past. He never shows his face directly to her, but somehow he gets roped in to helping her draw some weird shapes out of lime on the school grounds. Kyon remembers Tanaguchi telling the story about her doing this back in middle school but never would have guessed that he was the one having to do the work while she directs him what to do!
After he's done, she scoots off and leaves him to clear up. He wakes Mikuru up and she starts frantically searching for her time travel device (TPDD), which she claims to have lost. Surely this is an UNEXPLAINED TIME TRAVEL EVENT as its implied that the older Asahina stole it, but why? Kyon looks at the symbol he was forced to draw on the school grounds. It reminds him of Nagato. He pulls out Nagato's note from his pocket that she gave him earlier in his day. It has lettering that looks similar. Kyon decides that they need to visit Nagato's apartment even though they are 3 years in their past, in hope that she's there. They go there and in their luck, they find her. She's even physically the same as her older self in 3 years time, and is also in her North High uniform. Somehow she remotely connects to her older self in 3 years time, and synchronises so she has the same memories (but Kyon still says that somehow her personality is not as softened as it becomes in the future). Nagato tells them both that in order to go back to the future, they need to sleep in her spare bedroom. Nagato sets out two futons and they climb into them. Nagato sets a verbal spell on the room, turns the light off and closes the door. Kyon and Asahina fall instantly asleep. Next thing they know they are waking up with Nagato standing in the doorway. They had been sleeping for 3 years in a time locked room. Nagato has awoken them on the day they left, and alls normal again. What should be noted from this story is that somehow Haruhi's made up alien symbols is actually somehow correct, with the massage being "I am here". Most importantly however, is that Mikuru has lost her time travel device, so now cannot time travel at all.Up next: Mysterique Sign.
A girl seeks the help of the SOS brigade. She is their first customer and her problem is that her boyfriend has been missing for days. Its unclear why the police are not involved, but apparently his family live abroad and he lives alone. according to the girl, named Emiri Kimidori, hes not the type of person to skip school. then we realize exactly who he is, hes the computer club president, the one who had to fork over his most expensive computer to the SOS bridage because of one of Haruhi's traps he fell into. Poor bloke.
They all visit his apartment and try the door. Its locked. Whilst she contemplates breaking and entering via a back window, Nagato uses her 'magic' to unlock it. They all enter the room. Nagato and Koizumi soon start suggesting that they should leave. Kyon and Mikuru understand their urgency in their few words and so try to get Haruhi out pronto. After they leave the apartment, Haruhi calls it a day. After ten minutes the gang reassembles back outside, apart from Haruhi, and they go in. Koizumi says the room feels like closed space, similar to what he's used too, but Nagato explains that there is another dimension sitting on top of it. She starts using verbal program language for them to access this other dimension, which turns out to be a vast desert landscape. soon a giant cave cricket arrives on the scene which Nagato explains is somehow the computer club president. Its not really explained what causes all this to happen, only that Haruhi is partly to blame, though we dont know how. Koizumi uses a ball of red light to kill the insect and release the computer club president. They return to his apartment and leave him unconscious there. Nagato explains that this whole fiasco is caused by an SOS brigade logo that Haruhi created and forced Kyon to upload on their website. Apparently it hold tremendous amount of data (not terrestrial data) on it which a dying alien species attached itself too as a kind of lifeline. Or something. So the club president accessed the site in his apartment and caused all that weirdness to happen. Nagato and Kyon rearrange the logo so that it now says ZOZ brigade, but its hardly noticeable. Anyway that fixes everything apparently. Interestingly the president was single the whole time which implies that Emiri Kimidori's mind was manipulated by Nagato. Kyon wonders why Nagato created this whole scenario when she knew about it and could have sorted everything rather quickly without anyone ever knowing anything out of the ordinary. Hummm it was probably to keep Haruhi from being bored.Up next: Remote Island Syndrome.
Haruhi announces just before the start of summer break that they are all going on a trip. This is thanks to Koizumi whose extended family invited him on a trip to a remote island. I'm sick of this and no one is reading this anyway. They have fun on the beach, get drunk on the first and second nights, Kyons sister never goes unlike in the anime, though she did try to hide in his carry pack so that is still canon. There is a storm on the second day so they dont do much. like I said they get drunk on two nights running in a row, this never happened in the anime. The owner pretends to be stabbed because he, as well as his brother, the maid and the butler are all espers belonging to The Agency. Its a plan organised to stop Haruhi from getting bored. she went to the island looking for a murder, so naturally thats what she got, or so she thought. Hopefully she wont be quick to expect bad things to happen from now on. Oh, as for the shadow Haruhi supposedly saw in the anime version, yeah that never happened. Endless eight should happen next, but alas the publication order is up the creak, so next up its The Disappearance, set in December.
Up next: Endless Eight.
---
7-10. I said that Haruhi should work better in a collection of short stories, and it does, but I dunno, something was missing in this book. Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody was by far the best, though this could be because im a sucker for time travel stories.
Remote Island Syndrome took up half the space of the book, and was OK. I liked them getting drunk twice and was sad to see that it didnt happen in the anime after I re-watched it. I wasnt really bothered by Mystérique Sign or The Boredom, but both lead to character development, which to be honest is probably the best thing about this series.
Click here for easy navigation around my Haruhi articles
