The Theater of Haruhi Suzumiya - Novel 12

*MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*

Set in late November.

So for some reason all 5 members of the SOS Brigade are located in a medieval castles' throne room, with 'Haruhi the Hero' being asked by the king to 'vanquish the demon lord who has kidnapped the prince and princess'.

Is this a stage play, or an isekai? We the readers are not given an answer. However, Asahina is a mage, Kyon is a warrior (complete with armour and longsword), Koizumi a bard and Nagato a thief.

We readers are left to believe that everyone comes from their normal world. "My expertise with a sword was limited to some time with a wooden kendo sword in junior high gym class". So this is an isekai then?

Regardless, after negotiations with the king about a reward, it is decided that the boys and Nagato would carry chests full of gold coins.

They find the nearest pub to which Haruhi promptly orders 5 of everything 'on her', and pays for everyone's meals and drinks, starting a true party with the locals.

Kyon and Koizumi have a discussion in this pub. Neither can remember exactly what they are doing or how it came to be. It's like they are playing a game of some sort, and were simply sucked into it. Asahina suggests they were at an amusement park and went to a place where you pretend to role play. The boys call Yuki over and ask her. They didn't need to ask however, she simply states "simulation" but even she can't pinpoint how. It's like simulated space somehow.

Apparently there are end conditions to restore themselves to the real world, much like a game then; defeat the demon lord.

An old wise man comes into the pub and calls Haruhi the Hero as being a fool. He calls himself the 'Sage of the Forest', and will make sure the party will keep on track to defeat the demon lord, however he is shocked to find them still in town, and not halfway there already. Haruhi gives in, saying something like 'this was bound to happen anyway'.

This 'sage' takes them to their first trial. He leads them to the edge of a forest. They have to follow a footpath to a cave to reach a single treasure chest inside, of which contains a key to the demon lords castle. The sage tries to hold Haruhi back to explain something, but she just barges straight ahead, with the SOS Brigade following. They enter the cave and come across a huge dragon, and are instantly killed by its fire breath.

They then find themselves back with the sage at the edge of the forest, who explains that they have to carefully manoeuvre around the dragon without it noticing. Again, Haruhi doesn't listen and barges in again to everyone's death once more.

5 deaths later and Haruhi finally admits they need a plan.

The sage says he has an orb on his person which can help the dragon not to attack, but in order for him to give it to the brigade members, they first must go to another location to collect a herb to help with his ailing body. Haruhi promptly dismisses this idea and points a sword to his throat. Nagato takes the orb. In fact, the team then proceeds to take more of his possessions to help bypass other fetch quests.

Not too long later they are at the demon lords castle. Without a plan, both Kyon and Koizumi are worried, however Haruhi reveals her secret plan is to help Mikuru tap into her dormant mage powers. Mikuru herself is kinda reluctant, saying she doesn't wield powerful magic, however after some persuasion from Haruhi, she unleashes 2x of the most unbelievable spells ever known.

The Demon lords castle is obliterated. So is everything within a 20 mile radius. Nagato had to send everyone to a hill on the outskirts of the blast, in a fraction of a second.

The game world quickly changes and they all find themselves in space. Their objective to win the previous game is proven "incomplete".

They are on a space ship. A guy appearing at the console looks extremely like the king from the previous game world, and is saying to the brigade that they must 'save the universe and the Prince and Princess from space pirates'.

Haruhi agrees to save them "this time", meaning that was what they were supposed to have achieved last time, and simply forgot.

Kyon is the pilot, Haruhi is the captain (I mean, of course she is lol), Nagato is the navigator, Asahina is supposed to be Comms officer but is currently acting like a waitress, and Koizumi is copilot. They are all in uniform, and the girls are showing a lot of skin.

After following Haruhi's hunch, they travel to a part of space that probably has space pirates. After only an hour, they are caught in a tractor beam. They are surrounded by hundreds of ships.

They are hailed by a man that looks like the forest sage from the previous game. It becomes clear they turned up at the head of a fleet preparing for a sneak attack on another faction.

Haruhi works out that this enemy fleet has most probably kidnapped the royal children. The main ship uses a tractor beam to bring our heroes inside. Nagato hacks their computer to work out that they are indeed on the same ship as the missing royals.

Koizumi suggests Nagato should hack in to make the fleet obvious to other vessels, as they are due for a sneak attack, so by doing nothing other than turning off their jammers, other factions would be aware of the pending assault. He says that 'stealth units that have been revealed tend to be rather flimsy'.

Panic and chaos ensures. The guards that previously guarded their ship at the dock have run off. The SOS brigade go in search of the missing children, blasting their ray guns at any opposition along the way. They find the children and scramble back to the ship. They blast their way out the flagship doors and find a safe place in space to communicate to the emperor. The emperor is glad, but asks them to stay back in hiding whilst they obliterate the opposing side. Nagato reveals they actually rescued decoys; robots, so therefore they lost the game.

The scenery changes to the American Wild West. Haruhi blurts out their new mission; to rescue the rancher’s son and his bride from outlaws. She is facing a quick-draw duel in a rather typical Western fashion. We do a quick time skip to just before this happens where the Sage is now the mayor, talking to our heroes. Kyon and Koizumi are deputies, and the girls are a well known bounty hunter trio called the 'SOS Brigade', a natural fitting name for it for once. lol. The Sage/mayor requests Haruhi go stand in for him in a duel with the local opposition, over land ownership arguments where tempers have risen to the point of gun fights.

The time skip catches up to the present, however Nagato swaps out realistic western buildings for an indoor soundstage, where everything is a prop for a film, and makes the ceiling lights fall down.

From here on out things start being noticeable to be less about video games and more about movies / TV shows. A car smashes its way into the indoor western themed soundstage to kidnap the actors that were the rancher’s son and his bride, and another car comes along just behind (with no driver). They take this cue that they are supposed to give chase, so the mayor takes the wheel and Haruhi sits up front, with the others squished in the back seats.

Everything now plays out like a black and white gangster movie, set in the prohibition times. They have to go to a speakeasy and play poker to gain access to the kidnapped duo. Naturally the gangsters want to cheat, but Nagato changes into her witches costume and uses her wand to swap the cards around. The gangsters call foul play, but then the cops arrive. The SOS Brigade flee from a back exit whilst the gangsters and coppers have a gun fight. They jump in the getaway car and speed off, again with the sage or whatever, doing the driving.

The setting changes again, and now they are in a 17th century English setting, and the car replaced by horse drawn carriage. The girls are all dressed very fine and dainty, and the boys dressed in something you would wear to a wedding. The sage is driving up front.

Turns out they are tasked with preventing the assassination of a young king and queen. They stop the attack but get caught up in the explosion, only to find themselves in Europe during the Second World War. The new task is like Mission Impossible to capture an Enigma machine, so they go from Dover through occupied France, to Berlin. They manage to steal the code machine and sneak onto an American submarine under cover of night in Calais, but a German destroyer sinks it but they get away by rowing in a rubber dinghy with the destroyer up in flames.

They pass out to arrive in a police drama setting, where a serial bomber leaves them with riddles to solve, and they have to disarm ticking bombs. Next is an Heian-era setting with nobles locked in a nasty courtroom power struggle, to which Kyon mentions its worthwhile to see the girls in their twelve-layer kimonos. After this they are vampire hunters, invading a vampire’s lair. Then after this cleaning berserk robots out of a post-apocalyptic ruin, then after this an Arabian Nights setting, stealing a lamp, then an Edo-era zombie story, then another submarine for a "nerve-racking deal involving nuclear missiles", then on a failed mission to turn Jupiter into a sun, then escape from a labyrinthine death game, then time travelling back to fight dinosaurs, and on and on and Ariston.

After another bad ending, they are now the Pirates of the Caribbean, looting ships for treasure with a packed crew of NPCs as well as the SOS Brigade. Eventually on a quiet but sweltering day out in the calm ocean, Kyon, Koizumi and Nagato are trying to work out what on earth is going on with their lives, whilst fishing. Why is it every time they remember they are not of this world, their memories become hazy?

They try and work out if they are the real versions of themselves, or more simply digital copies somehow placed into an ever changing computer programme of some sort. Logic would dictate that the only real people in any of these worlds are the members of the SOS Brigade, whilst everyone else are NPCs.

Maybe their real world bodies are lying in beds, all connecting their brains up to a machine? But why?

Nagato says it's not the Data Overmind doing this, as it doesn't seem likely. Regardless, her link is severed. Kyon notices its the first time in a long time that Nagato uses body language to convey her thoughts and feelings whilst being questioned. Her answer is this: "We are not on a computer server. We are not data in any sort of mechanical memory conduit. We are quantum information in a data space".

Explanation becomes too complex, but essentially they are the real versions of themselves, whilst the real, real world versions of themselves are living their normal lives simultaneously. They are stuck on a different plane of existence, against their will, and are being observed when put under different tasks to achieve. The user only has a short grasp of life on earth, mostly data collected from Movies, TV shows and video games it seems. Nagato is playing along trying to figure out how to escape.

Nagato explains her cognitive functions are being restricted with something occupying her processing powers. Every time she tries to overclock herself to work things out, she breaks down. Kyon prods her further and she says she wore a witches outfit in the prohibition world because she felt they had made a movie in the real world. This causes her to crash like a blue screen of death. Kyon instantly regrets probing her and vows not to do so again.

The Spanish Armada arrives to blow them out the water so they forget about their little chat. Nagato comes back to her senses and they naturally forget everything they just talked about.

After the battle, Kyon notices a piece of paper in his pocket, with Nagato's straight handwriting which reads "Remember me".

Fog covers everything and they find themselves in a new world, one of which based on both Roman and Greek mythology simultaneously.

The 3 girls of the SOS Brigade are now goddesses. The boat has now changed to an ancient trireme which has loads of oars to help steer the ship.

Haruhi is Goddess Hera (wife of Zeus), Asahina is Goddess Aphrodite (goddess of beauty) and Nagato is Goddess Athena (goddess of wisdom).

They land ashore of Troy, and are escorted to an amphitheatre. The three goddesses are escorted to their own seats, with Haruhi's throne being centred and laden in gold and lilies. Kyon and Koizumi are just men so they don't count. But they are seated at a table nearby.

A play goes ahead on stage. “Witnessing a play about the Trojan War in Troy during said war…,” Koizumi murmurs “What a layered construct. Two—no, three layers deep”.

During a moment everyone is eating, Kyon calls Nagato over via hand signal and she comes over to sit with them. They discuss their adventures and how to escape.

The Sage turns up out the blue and joins the boys and Nagato at their table. He is now Zeus in this world.

In turn they discuss their predicament and the Sage explains things from his NPC-main-guy sort of way.

He senses the being that has trapped them there to be not of evil and very protective. He continues to say he has more power in this world purely because he is playing the part of Zeus. He mentions it feels like everyone is in a 'canopy' of some sort.

He requests to be taken to the real world if possible, to join them in their escape. He is curious about a world written with law and order. He gives Nagato the power of Goddess Artemis (daughter of Zeus).

Nagato allows the boys to see Haruhi through the eyes she has, therefore they can see her true radiance.

Kyon goes up to Haruhi. She questions “Done with your nefarious scheming?” lol she knows a lot but we readers only see hints like this from time to time.

Kyon only has one thing to really say to her; "I want to go home".

Haruhi and Asahina join the rest and they all hold hands. Haruhi 'feels like she could do anything', and jokes about if they are calling up a UFO. Nagato harnesses the other two girls goddess powers to her own as well as Zeus's. She turns the sage into an owl, and they all escape the weird quantum plane of existence in a mix of goddess wings and halos.

Things black out and the words "Mission complete" can be heard.

The fall breeze hits Kyon as he is now tied into his real world self. He has a vague feeling of spending a decade in the local amusement park they are walking away from, having come here to celebrate the success of their home movie.

The sage and the two young victims are able to escape into the real world disguised as a balloon which drifts off into the sky, from the hands of Kyons tired sister, now sleeping on her brothers' shoulder from a long day out with his friends. Kyon reaches into his pocket to find a note that simply says "Remember me".

---

7-10. This story marks the official introduction of the antics caused by what would later be known as "The Heavenly Canopy Domain". Spoilers if you are reading this in context with the timeline. Sorry not sorry lol.

This novel, in my opinion, is the long-awaited sliders storyline. It’s not exactly how I imagined it would go, yet it has to be it, right? I imagined the SOS Brigade travelling from universe to universe, trying to return to their original world. Basically, exactly the same premise as the 90s show of the same name. This was a bit different however, yet essentially the same. I guess the author Tanigawa had to think of a way of supressing Haruhi’s memories somewhat so she considers everything happening to be normal.

Talking of which, those new readers following the timeline order will now read Kyon bang on about wanting to see the Sliders show up, and think "Yeah, we already had that Kyon". However, us readers up till this point, in 2025, had been waiting for the sliders storyline what felt like forever.

Nagato wasn’t quite herself in this novel. As she was cut off from the Data Overmind, she started acting a little more human, showing a little bit more emotion and overall being less restrictive in her own demeanour. It was nice to see. I hope to see her a lot more like this if the series progresses past the middle of 2004.

Haruhi’s personality shined through in this one. As always. She didn’t give a fuck and was always up for whatever they faced, loving to dive into whatever was up next. To me, it was obvious she knew what was going on really, but as per usual keeps it to herself.
Throughout the series released so far (as of when I’m writing this), She’s given hints before that she sort of knows more than she lets on. But in this story with EVERYTHING being really obvious, her blind eye to it all comes across as really funny.

Interestingly, we finally learn more about Asahina’s time travel device, the ‘TPDD’. Apparently it is embedded into her DNA, and only surfaces when needed. It may explain the star-shaped mole on her breast, as some sort of visual representation of its installation.

I'm pleased the book itself is canon. Going into it, I assumed it was more like alternative versions of themselves (as sliders), but I had also a vague thought it could be like a silly non-canon story thing made up for fun. I say this as the original release dates for parts 1 and 2 were released in 2004 and 2006 respectively, in The Sneaker. So yeah, the characters go back into their real world selves at the end of the day.

It’s possible the publishers pitched the initial idea to Tanigawa with the suggestion of building upon what was already written, with him only having to write half a books worth of story in order to reap the rewards of a completed novel, and all the crazy money and prestige he would get from that.
He had to have read the first two shorts before starting work on the Wild West story, as his continued writing seems to be on par with the early work, like the way the first two short stories are written is in line with his heyday at the hight of his creative freedom, so he must have re-read them before starting to write. Somehow the buzz of the early day writing style rubbed off on him for the rest of the novel.

Apart from in a few places.

The only issue I have with this book, is that once again, Tanigawa decided to teach us readers a lot of rubbish that is inconsequential to the Haruhi storyline. He REALLY went off on one with his research in order to fill pages, probably to justify the necessary word count. In this novel in particular, it was about quantum mechanics- or something. My god he really waffled on and on about it, pages and pages and pages of it. True filler content, especially in the last third of the book. Just rubbish. I ended up listening to this kindle book via the Alexa app.

It’s taken me a while to get this review out. Half a month in fact! I don’t have the time these days and I was waiting for Yen Press to release a limited-edition paperback version set to the original release cover art style, to satisfy their oldest fans of the novel series. Alas, they didn’t release anything. So I got the cheapest option which is the kindle edition. I guess Yen press did throw a bone to us though, as page 2 or whatever has the artwork on a simple white page in what was designed to be it, had they gone ahead. The art this time being two swords over what looks like a swirling vortex. I do feel extremely miffed about this though.

I wanted to cheat for my synopsis above, by copy and pasting and reworking something found elsewhere on the internet, but there isn’t one.

This is it folks!

The only synopsis for the Theater of Haruhi in English, on the internet, so far at least! So I had to go back and write it properly.

The Kindle version has a way of copy and pasting, so I was able to grab some sentences here and there, and get the pictures. I have included most of these as they are glorious.

The picture of Kyon and Koizumi fishing, looks to be from a rowing boat. However in the story they were fishing directly from the pirate ship. I’m pretty sure. Oh well.

I didn’t understand quite what The Sage wanted at the end. As a last-minute thing he took the kidnappees with him into the real world. And they were transformed into a balloon which flies off into the sky. What happens when the balloon pops? Maybe that’s the point, flying away is a metaphor of the data life forms being set free to exist somehow without any physical body? Oh, here’s a thought!; What if they somehow turn up at a later date when our heroes are all indisposed from an enemy attack, and they can’t get out of the situation they’re in, and just when you think it’s all over, the Sage turns up completely out the blue to save everyone! Well, you’ve heard it here first folks! XD

Oh and to all those fans that claim we ‘already got the ending to the series’, and ‘anything else we get is just filler epilogue stuff’- how completely wrong you are. We have not had the ending! The author has been in a slump. Even said he is getting over his sleep deprecation in the Afterword to this book. The final ending storyline will be something to do with the metal rod found from Tsuruya’s estate, probably.

If this novel was a TV anime, they could make it 26 episodes Very Easily. Like Tsubasa Reservoir Chronical. It would be a very interesting take on a Haruhi TV series too, with 2 or 3 episodes set in each world. Hollywood loves a good multiverse story (for some reason), so why not adapt this then, Japan? Hu? Hu??

The stuff written in the synopsis about the 17th century England, moving forward to WW2 and the submarine, then moving on again etc, all of that was just one or two paragraphs in the actual book. What I wrote could be longer than what was in the book itself!

Asahina fans would be crying after reading this novel, as she was here, present in this book, but hardly talked or mentioned at all. The least focused character in this for sure.

I’m happy the book told us when it was actually set in the timeline- despite only saying it once or twice. It was enough.

The Sage only mentioned the word ‘Canopy’ once. That was enough to let us readers know what the hell is actually going on. Oh, sorry to readers that are reading this in timeline order for the first time, you guys will have to stay as clueless as the characters for a little bit longer.

I would have preferred this novel to be set a lot longer down the timeline, however the author probably felt he had to cram it into the end of November due to what was already said and published from the first two chapters, released way back when. Oh well.

Overall, really happy with this novel. A solid 7-10 from me. I hope he has gotten out of his slump to write more content, and hopefully it will be set after everything written so far, AKA the middle of 2004 onwards, as a proper sequel storyline. Well, see you in the next one, whenever that may be!

Up next: The Day Of Sagittarius.

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The Publication Mess of Haruhi Suzumiya: Tsuruya's Challenge

 *MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*

Tsuruya's Challenge- the third short story of "The Intuition of Haruhi Suzumiya" (novel 11)

Set in June, apparently.

The SOS Brigade are in the club room after school. The nameless mystery club blonde girl who was in the last story (Seven Wonders Overtime) is now named simply as "T". The reason is revealed towards the end though.

Koizumi and Nagato are having a conversation with T in one corner of the room about their favourite mystery novels, whilst Mikuru is agonising over which move to make in a tabletop game with Kyon. T had dropped by the clubroom just to hand a borrowed book back to Nagato, but struck up a conversation whilst being there.

Haruhi finally enters the room having been stuck in a beautification committee meeting that she somehow found herself in. They get an email from Tsuruya to the SOS brigade email address (which Asahina has recorded the line "you've got mail" for). She is not in school due to having to run errands for her family, so that's why she's emailing. However Kyon reads that the attachment is a challenge set for them.

With her best Tsuruya impression, Haruhi reads the attachment. It's a story that is presumably about one of Tsuruyas adventures whilst travelling around the world with her father. At a fancy party where she had to wear a fancy ball gown, she met a girl equally dressed up and bored, so they decided to go to the hotel tennis court and start volleying, completely dressed up. In the locker rooms after their showers they discovered that one of the dresses was bugged, so they dressed up in the tennis clothes that were initially provided by the hotel staff when they got the balls and rackets, and then headed to the lobby. They discarded the bug on some passerby and headed to her hotel room where they spent a lot of time chatting. Eventually they hid under the bed in anticipation of being tracked. But the next thing she knew she was drifting off and eventually found herself in bed properly with the other girl not there.

The club members can't figure out where the challenge lies with this passage, but then Haruhi assumes that the trick is that the reader assumes that it was about Tsuruya in the first place. They deliberate it some more and realise that the trick to the story is that it simply took place in her past. A second email arrives to confirm this. Tsuruya simply wanted to share her story from 7 years ago to a bored audience. Who better than the SOS brigade?

Attached in the second email is a second story that took place in the fall of last year, also when she was abroad and also with the same friend again. The story is about ditching their parents and minders from GPS trackers, taking a hot springs together and joining in on a local autumn festivals' grape stomping competition.

At the end of the story they print out copies for themselves and read it again for clues to whatever mystery they should find within the text. Mikuru chimes up to ask why would they hop aboard a train if they were going to a party via car?

They also mention something about how Tsuruya speaks without quotation marks, much like the author of this series does.

They all realise that the minder is a guy, and they gave him the slip when they aboarded the train.

Tsuruyas last email comes through once passage 2 is deducted. Apparently the GPS trackers became so advanced that they are now invisible to the naked eye. The technologies being pushed to their limits created a breakthrough of computing power on a DNA scale, and Tsuruyas new party she had to attend with her father this time was in celebration of this new discovery. All because they had to make GPS trackers smaller and smaller to keep tabs on 2 teenage girls. Anyway they meet a guy at this party who could possibly be a suitor to the friend of Tsuruya. In this story though she is named only once as being "Shouko". This suitor is assaulted in a nearby room to the party hall, and it's Tsuruyas' question to the SOS Bridge as to whom it was.

 

They try to work out the culprits name based off of what he said in his 'final moments' using wordplay for the English of 'Do Not Ingest' and 'Do Not Swallow'.

Tsuruya sends over a few more hints and it seems Haruhi and Koizumi work it out.

Eventually Nagato stares at Kyon to get his attention, then adjusts her head to look at T. Kyon doesn't get it, so she uncharacteristically gets up and sits at the table and stares at T some more. Kyon finally gets it. T is in on it. Kyon gets up and shouts "HAH!" at T's face. T's mobile phone starts chiming so she answers it and puts it on speaker. It's Tsuruya. Kyon realised that T was bugged by a listening devise being used by Tsuruya (a hair pin), and that T herself is actually the unnamed girl of stories 1 and 2.

It comes into conversation regarding the nickname of 'T', and that it was decided upon from her classmates due to her confusing real name, which is actually "Ottilie Adrastea Hohenstaufen-Baumgartner". There is even a 'von' in there which she omitted. Lol. In Germany it is pronounced "ogh-till-e-air" (in English as "Ogh-tilly").

Mikuru makes some bad tea which both Kyon and Haruhi consume. She forgot to add sugar. After that its Ok.

After that they think that something still isn't quite right. After some more deductive work T admits that stories 2 and 3 are somewhat made up. Story 2 is embellished. The bit about the festival is actually world famous. Story 3 is mostly true up until it becomes a 'murder mystery'. After this it's purely made up.

The planning and development of this whole so called 'mystery' was actually derived from the mystery club president, with T and Tsuruya supplying the ideas and supervising. The SOS brigade were actually test subjects for the mystery club's cultural festival event. So from this they will tweak the stories to iron out the issues to make it harder to solve when used for real at the culture fest.

One last thing to solve was the first sentence of the 3rd story; "Where am I?"

Haruhi has a hunch that Tsuruya is close by, and sure enough the door bursts open with Tsuruya at the door, back from her family excursions. Turns out she just made it home before sending the emails, getting dressed in her school uniform to join the gang and actually setting out towards school the end of her 'challenge'.

After the day's finale, Kyon and Itsuki escape from the escapades of the club room just so that Koizumi can do his usual spiel at the end of these stories, probably just because the author wants him too. Again, if they are so worried about Haruhi's unconsciousness, why not seek out Yasumi for help? The only thing of relevance from this conversation between the two guys was that Koizumi thinks Kuyoh Suoh is still a threat, but that needs to be figured out between Kyon, Yuki and Kuyoh at a later date, (and might involve the metal rod from the treasure map story).

Back in the club room, Kyon asks Asahina what she was staring so intently at during a passage of episode 3. Turns out it's the bit about DNA Computing. She couldn't say anything to Kyon with Haruhi in the room, so she just puts her fingers to her lips to let him know that its 'classified'.

Kyon wonders about these new listening system & GPS tracker technologies that are most likely embedded within both T and Tsuruya, naked to the eye. Maybe the hair pin was a decoy? He then wonders whether Nagato was interfering with them when she was staring at the two girls earlier, as a way of sending their parents into a spin, like in the stories. Kyon thinks he sees Nagato have a very wry smile regardless.

---

5-10. One thing that I have noticed over the course of this short and Seven Wonders Overtime is that the author Nagaru Tanigawa is making his characters act as mouth pieces for his interests in talking about other forms of literature, which is quite irritating to be honest. As if Koizumi has magically read all these fantastical novels. I can see Nagato doing so, yes, T, yes, but Koizumi? When would he have the time? During the middle of the night when fighting celestials? Come on. What's more, I only care for THIS novel series, not what the author wants me to care about. This is the first time I have decided to skim read anything in the Haruhi series.

Luckily after the first third of this chapter it gets much better. Its like the author gets back into the grove of writing again.

If the author ever gets on with it, T could be a great girlfriend for Koizumi. Similar interests and both transfer students. I think something regarding the two of them will happen. May or may not be love related. Just a hunch.

I'm so sorry it took me years to get around to reading this. I'm just as slow at reading as the author is at writing, apparently.

Next up is 'The Theater' according to the publishers. If Tanigawa ever gets around to finishing writing it. It might be about Sliders? I hope so!!

Up next: Nothing for now....

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The Publication Mess of Haruhi Suzumiya: Seven Wonders Overtime

*MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*

Seven Wonders Overtime- the second short story of "The Intuition of Haruhi Suzumiya" (novel 11)

Set at the end of May.

Kyon and Koizumi are trying their best to play a classical Japanese poetry game in the literary club room, with Asahina trying to help the boys, and Nagato instantly coming up with the answers.

After giving up that game, they just start getting into a new card game, when bam! The club room door is hit hard from the other side. Everyone looks at the door and then a tap tap could be heard from the bottom of it.

Asahina opens the door to be greeted by a blonde girl holding a mountain of books and notes. That explains the door kicking, thinks Kyon. The student asks to be let in. She is apparently helping 'Haru' by delivering these books to the SOS club room. Standing there, she asks Kyon for help with the books, saying his name wrong. She catches him off guard by calling him 'Kyam', saying its hard to pronounce his 'Kyon' nickname (Later on, Koizumi thinks this could pose troublesome if Haruhi finds out that a girl has a new nickname/pet name for Kyon).

Kyon helps the girl, recognising her as a fellow classmate from 2-5. The books are all supernatural based. The girl explains that Haruhi ran into her during lunchtime that day, asking her if she knew anything of the schools '7 wonders'.
The girl explains that she is a member of the Mystery Research Society. She goes on to say that after Haruhi asked the question, she went to the chairman of her society and asked if there was anything regarding a possible 7 wonders that could have been passed down from previous generations of pupils. The answer was no, so the girl reported this back to Haruhi.

Kyon asks the girl how she ended up having to carry such a large amount of books to the SOS club room. She replies that even she doesn't know. He asks her to take them back, but she refuses, implying he is being rude. She then asks him why he doesn't call her by her name, in which he replies that he cant remember everyone's names from the new class after only 2 months of school term. Besides, she is a transfer student for this new school year.

The girl turns her attention to Nagato, requesting politely of her to compile a club journal for the mystery society. She pleads for it to be ready for the cultural festival in the autumn, saying that Nagato is a great writer. Nagato looks up to Kyon, questioningly. The girl takes this as a form of a positive response. She quickly shakes Nagato's hand, then eyes up a book she likes from the bookshelf, almost in disbelief of the fact its a first edition. She again pleads with Nagato to borrow the book, once more asking Kyon to translate Yuki's answer of 'Yes'. The girl once more shakes Nagato's hand excitedly and takes her leave.

Koizumi and Kyon discuss these 7 wonders, hopeful they dont turn into a reality of Suzumiya's making. Koizumi picks out a book left by the girl from the mystery society. He tells two stories in Japanese folklore about instances of demons being recorded, but also explains logically how it was humans who were involved after all.

The group are trying to come up with a plan to dispel any weird consequences of Haruhis current interest. They conclude that whats needed to be done is to create North High’s seven wonders themselves, under a safe environment and not just magically created by Suzumiya. Kyon says it would be a bad idea to plan such a scheme in the club room, in case she bursts in with their notes and plans scattered on the long table, but Koizumi rests assured that his people know where she is, and is keeping him up to date on her location via his phone. They share their thoughts and wonder if Haruhi could jump ship from school wonders into full blown looking for world wonders instead. Kyon says that she would make a great archeologist, but Koizumi retracts that by asking about the repercussions of finding something that could change humanities known past (This reminds me of the metallic object they found on Tsuruyas estate).

One idea they come up with is to change the alloy composition of a possible Ninomiya Kinjirō statue, that could magically reveal itself in the school grounds, so that it could potentially change its look slightly at night, returning to its original composition when the sun rises.

Another idea is to have some sort of music playing in an empty music room, playing it off as being an alarm once Haruhi catches wind of it.

Another idea is to create a mystery around a school passageway mirror, so that in the dead of a night with a first quarter moon, if a person’s whole body is reflected in it, the molecule structures of their body’s amino acids are then reflected. Also, if they execute the second round of radio exercises, their reflection in the mirror will have a slight discrepancy in the stopping action at the final moment. Occasionally, a doppelganger might come out of the mirror, but chance of that happening is very low. It is rumored that even if the doppelganger does show up, it immediately disappears.

Their next idea is a door which seldom opens. They say the mystery could be a toilet cubicle that upon exit, takes you out of the cubicle door next to it. But if this is too boring, it could be a door where a person could be transported to a different world, in which they live in for two months. However, on their return, they find that only one hour has passed in the real world, and they also lose all their memories of the other world. Without ironing out the finer details, they move on to the next mystery.

The next story is one that was actually reported from the mystery society, about a biology dummy that freaks people out by being in different places. But the more they research the incidents, the more they conclude that the mystery society probably fabricated the story just to please Haruhi.

The Seventh Wonder of the Seven Wonders is unknown, and cannot be known. That is the mystery of the Seventh Wonder.

Nagato types the rough notes into a polished copy within seconds, and prints it out. Haruhi then barges into the club room not long after, to announce that they should create some mysterious wonders of school. She says the school hasn't been around for such a long time, so naturally there wouldn't be so many stories, but that shouldn't stop them from creating such strange stories about the school, to pass down to future generations of pupils.

Kyon takes control of the situation and passes the printout to her. Reading it, Haruhi seems dejected at first but claims she is proud of her brigade members. All this time she was forced to play Shogi by the school principle whilst she was questioning him for school wonders (meaning he is on Koizumi's team). She gets upset that she couldn't help them coming up with ideas for the wonders, so she says she will think up an eight wonder.

---

6-10. This wasn't the greatest of continuations that I've ever read, but none the less at least it actually IS a continuation. So far this is the most recent we have seen the story go to, end of May 2004, other than the moment Kyon was taken to the future with an older Haruhi in college. The new girl could be very interesting indeed, but who knows! I look forward to a possible continuation with this nameless character.

You know I cant help but think if they didn't want Haruhi to create any 'seven wonders', they could have simply consulted in Yasumi and ask her not to do so? They should always have asked Yuki of Yasumi's whereabouts and simply requested for Haruhi not to do anything dumb. But I guess we wouldn't get any more stories if this happened? I dunno. This to me is still a major plot hole from here on out.

Up next: Tsuruya's Challenge

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"I'm Back everyone!"

REVIEW: The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki chan

The thing about the world we saw in the movie without Haruhi being a force of nature and all the other crazy stuff going on is that it was soulless. Just like the real world. It wasn't a world full of anime styled high jinks and stuff i would like to see happen in reality. It was just like this one. Its normal-ness hit Kyon hard like a ton of bricks. Its one of the most special things to see from an anime; a world that is as monotone as the one you are in right now. Its powerful. Its special. It gave me goosebumps.

This new anime series tarnishes that absolutely and completely.

To say this anime is crap isnt really the point. It angers me.

The Publication Mess of Haruhi Suzumiya: Rainy Day

*MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*

Rainy Day- a short story written by Nagaru Tanigawa included in Kadokawa's limited first pressing of both Surprise novels.

Sorry if Its obvious that I'm copying the Haruhi wiki here. I don't usually but I'm done with working on these Haruhi articles, and I have plenty of enough evidence to know that nobody is reading these anyway.

---

Set in early September 2002.

On a day near the beginning of September, Kyon lays by his school's pool towards the end of his final swimming class of the year. Sasaki, who is also in his class, joins him and they talk about Kyon's lack of desire to study and their plans for the upcoming high school entrance exams.

Kunikida from one of the other classes in the pool joins them and inquires about how close the two of them have become.

Kunikida and Sasaki talk about their favourite style of music with is american western. Kunikida talks about the CD Sasaki lent him for use in the school broadcast during lunch hour.

They sit and watch the rest of the students in the pool until the end of class.

Later that day Sasaki and Kyon continue their discussion about schools when the hottest girl in class, who is also the class leader Okamoto comes over and tells them to fill out their career plan forms. Struck not only by her beauty, but also by how close her face is to his, Kyon reluctantly accepts the form. She leaves and Sasaki continues her discussion, now about the flow of time. Kyon stores away the image of her smiling face in his memory.

They leave the school and meet Kyon's sister as he picks up his bicycle from outside his house. Sasaki accepts a rice cracker and apologises for not being able to stay and play with her and Miyokichi, of whom is also over Kyons house.

As soon as Sasaki and Kyon leave on the bicycle it begins to rain. They pull under a shutter to hide from the downpour, but their clothes are already soaked. Sasaki becomes embarrassed due to her wet transparent shirt clearly showing her bra and asks Kyon to turn away. Kyon almost forgets that Sasaki is a girl and she isn't exactly flattered.

Due to the uncomfortable situation and the questions Sasaki asks, Kyon can only reply with her trademark phrase "Yare yare." This was the first time he had ever used the phrase himself.

---
6-10. This short chapter wasn't included in the English release of The Surprise, which is disappointing.

As of this articles publication date this short story also marks the end of the Haruhi series until Tanigawa writes more material.

Sasaki turns out to be the person who made Kyon say 'yare yare' a lot, which I find interesting. Other than that, there isn't much to say about this short story. Kyon obviously never had romantic feelings for the girl. He saw her more of a boy which frustrated her a bit.

I hope we will meet again one day and I want to thank you for reading these articles. In the mean time why not check out my Spice and Wolf reviews?

Up next: The Surprise.

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Nagato: "This is the end?". Asahina: "It can't end here, can it!?". Haruhi: "See ya!".

The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya- novel 10

*MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*

Set in April.

β-
It is Monday, after school.
Haruhi charges ahead with Kyon, Koizumi and Asahina in tow. They have just got the news that Nagato has been at home, sick, so Haruhi decides that they should all go pay a visit.
Upon arrival they are greeted by Nagato who is in her pyjamas. Haruhi quickly escorts her back to bed.
Next, Haruhi orders the team to make her dinner. Koizumi volunteers to go shopping for groceries, leaving Kyon alone in the room with the bedridden Nagato.

Once Haruhi is clearly out of ear shot, Kyon asks Nagato when she first got sick. She says Saturday night. Kyon realises that was when he got the phone call from Sasaki. Thinking more into it he realises that it also explains why Emiri Kimidori stepped in when she did at the cafe. That was a task that Nagato would have been there for, not Kimidori.
Kyon realises that she is suffering an attack caused by the Heavenly Canopy Dominion.

Haruhi comes back into the bedroom and orders Kyon to the task of setting out the cutlery. Haruhi remarks that she prefers her own cooking to her mothers, and therefore makes her own food most of the time.
Haruhi gives Nagato the food on a tray. Kyon doesn't feel right standing there with the others just watching her eat in bed, so he excuses himself and heads for the bathroom. Once inside he wonders what the hell to do. His phone goes off. He opens it up but it goes black. A text cursor appears in the top left hand corner with the message:

yuki.n> There is no need for worry

Kyon converses with Nagato this way until her messages become scrambled illegible code. Kyon gets frantic and wonders what on earth is happening, until after a little while she replies back for one final time in eligible text:

yuki.n> going to sleep for a bit

Kyon runs back into the bedroom only for Haruhi to tell him off for disturbing Nagato just when she's fallen asleep.

Kyon knows what he must do. If she is being attacked by the Heavenly Canopy Dominion, he must find Kuyoh Suoh. His memory of the girl tells him that she dresses in the Kouyouen Academy uniform. He feels that there is no choice but to run there and demand to be given more information about her.

After leaving Nagato's apartment complex Kyon breaks into a run. He stops to catch his breath at the railway crossing and notices a figure on the other side, staring at him. The railway crossing blinkers. The shutters and alarm activate. Kyon notices that the girl on the other side staring right at him with her glass eyes is none other than Kuyoh Suoh herself.

The train passes. Kuyoh walks over the crossing to join Kyon. He demands to know what she did to Nagato, but she only says that she wanted to learn about Kyon. She asks him to follow her somewhere. Kyon wants to refuse but doesn't know how to handle her.

A girls voice from behind Kyon stops her and out of nowhere a knife is pointed at Kyons throat. He realises to his horror that Ryoko Asakura has revived, and is poised to kill him at any given moment. It turns out that she was never deleted, but can only activate on Earth whenever Nagato is resting. Asakuras intentions focus on Kuyoh Suoh, despite the knife at Kyons neck. She contemplates killing Kuyoh Suoh. Kyon realises that time has been frozen. This is Asakura's doing.

Asakura flicks her knife directly at Kuyoh. She manages to stop the blade which was thrown at the speed of light, but struggles to keep it from continuing its journey. Asakura disintegrates the world to one with weird geometry. Kuyoh moves out of the knifes path and lets it continue flying away, but it is caught yet again by a third girl, Emiri Kimidori. Kimidori tries to stop Asakura from fighting Kuyoh. Kuyoh dodges all of Asakura's attacks and somehow the knife finds its way back at Kyons throat. Kuyoh disappears and reappears a few times. She asks questions for definitions on things, unsure of whats really going on. The knife disintegrates and Asakura tries to trap Kuyoh in a mosaic of hexagons. Kuyoh disappears completely. Asakura is shocked that she managed to escape her spacial trap. The scenery returns to the real world next to the railway crossing.

Kyon refuses to look at Asakura in the face when she leaves. This means Nagato must be active again. Once Asakura's gone, Kyon talks to Kimidori. She says she is only there to watch the proceedings and not interfere, when she can. However she did stop Asakura from killing Kyon just by being there. Kimidori reveals that Nagato has been assigned the duty to establish communication between the Data Overmind and the Heavenly Canopy Dominion. Up until now it was deemed impossible, but with Kuyoh around somehow it is via organic life forms. Kimidori then heads off for the train station.

Kyon gets a call from Haruhi, asking where he is. He comes up with a story of rushing out to get Nagato a get-well present. Haruhi tells him exactly what to buy and he complies.

Back at Nagato's apartment Haruhi declares that they will help Nagato on a daily basis until she gets better. She says that they should meet here instead of the clubroom after school.

Back at home Kyon contacts Kyoko Tachibana and they arrange to meet after school the next day.

α-
The next day, Tuesday.

Koizumi and Kyon walk to school. He informs Kyon that the celestial incidents have suddenly stopped. He suggests that maybe Haruhi is too preoccupied with the freshmen now.
Kyon asks him whether its OK to just leave Sasaki's group alone, and he says it is.

After school, Haruhi doesn't dash to the clubroom. She says its best to be fashionably late. Instead she and Kyon go over some history notes for half an hour.

Out of the new freshmen to turn up today, there are 3 boys and 3 girls. Haruhi sets them a test with a question sheet on why they want to join, what they think they can contribute to the brigade, what they think of mysterious phenomena and what they would like to do if they could do anything they liked. Kyon later asks Haruhi why she set them such questions, and she says its because she wants to know how they tick, what their personalities are like and if they will prove to be suitable for the brigade.

Kyon tries to remember the faces of todays freshmen, having realised that some may not have turned up yesterday.

β-
The next day, Tuesday.

Haruhi nearly turns up late to class because she visited Nagato before school. When they get a chance to talk, Kyon informs her that he wont be able to make it to Nagato's apartment after school because of something or another. She accepts. She ends up asking Koizumi to stay in the clubroom just in case there are freshmen who appear who want to join the brigade.

When Koizumi speaks to Kyon during lunch, he says that the celestial incidents have suddenly stopped. He suggests that maybe Haruhi is too preoccupied with Nagato's illness.

After school Kyon meets up with Sasaki and her cronies as planned at the coffee house. Nothing is accomplished from the meeting other than Kyoko being even more fixated about Kyon choosing to help them move Haruhi's power onto Sasaki. Fujiwara even attempts to blackmail Kyon into making the decision by stating that all he has to do is give the word and he will ask Kuyoh to stop the pointless contact between the Heavenly Canopy Dominion and the Data Overmind, thus releasing Nagato from her burden.

Kyoko and Fujiwara leave, leaving Kyon, Sasaki and Kuyoh still in the cafe. Sasaki is equally as annoyed with her so called 'friends' because she doesn't want to have the power of a god, and even tried to explain in great deal why but alas to no avail. All three leave the cafe together. They bump into Taniguchi and Kunikida. Taniguchi recognises Kuyoh. They exchange a few words and then he runs off. It is explained that Kuyoh is the Kouyouen Academy girlfriend that Taniguchi had over the Christmas period.

When asked about this, Kuyoh says that during the events of the 'The Disappearance' her memories of the real past were also in tact, meaning it wasn't just Kyon who remembered everything from before.

Kuyoh also says that during her relationship with Taniguchi, he bought her a wrist watch, which she still uses.

α-
The next day, Wednesday.

Haruhi brings in her own lunch box and explains to Kyon that she woke up feeling the need to cook for some reason. She also tells him that her mother has always been a terrible cook. Kyon has a strange feeling almost like he's had the same conversation before...

She changes the conversation to the brigade membership exam. Kyon accurately guesses at what test she's thinking of giving the freshmen (the first to capture 101 hamsters). With it being a bad idea, she comes up with a few more suggestions.

After school Kyon gets another lecture from grandmaster Suzumiya, but only for 10 minutes. Out of the prospective new brigade members, only three boys and two girls are left.

Haruhi announces that the final test will be a sprint. She orders the freshmen to change into their gym uniforms. For once she understands that its only right for boys and girls to change separately. They head out to the school fields and acquire the use of the 400 meter track. Haruhi takes the lead, also in gym uniform, and starts running. Without so much as a word it becomes clear that the aim of the test is to simply keep up with her. The freshmen run round the track without a goal in sight. Kyon, Koizumi and Asahina wait patiently by the steps (Nagato didnt bother leaving the club room) as they watch the freshmen drop like flies. Other sports club members stop what they're doing and watch too. They even help drag the exhausted freshmen off the field.

During the race, Koizumi and Kyon talk about how weird things are. Koizumi explains that he feels like he is disappearing, like he is in a dream. They next talk about the mysterious freshmen girl. She is keeping up with Haruhi and is clearly going to end up being allowed into the brigade.
Koizumi says that there isn't any official reason for concern, but they both realise that this new girl is someone to keep a close eye on. Kyon now seriously considers her being a 'fifth power' but is unsure if she is a slider.

Even to Haruhi's surprise, this new girl ends up keeping up with her right to the very end as the only one standing. Back in the club room after the new member leaves, Kyon confronts Haruhi about the situation. She says that she really wasn't expecting anyone to join the brigade at the end of the day, but due to being fair to her democracy, feels it only right to accept her. Haruhi then shows Kyon her application form, and he reads her answers. Kyon turns over the sheet to finally read the name of this new girl: Yasumi Watahashi. Thinking about it some more, Kyon realises that this is the same girl that phoned him whilst he was in the bath.

β-
The next day, Wednesday.

Kyon over analyses his situation and realises that the Tsuruya household still holds that mysterious object.

After school Haruhi and Mikuru go straight to Nagato's apartment, leaving Kyon and Koizumi alone in the clubroom, board. Koizumi pulls out a box with baseball gloves and so the boys decide to go play catch in the courtyard.

Koizumi explains a hypothesis: What if an evil god created the earth? Then in that case the fact that humans even recognise 'good' means that the true good god would be in existence, however, he would be one who only observes earth without being able to or maybe not even wanting to interact with it. This in the context of Haruhi suggests that Kyoko Tachibana recognises Sasaki as that other type of true god. Koizumi also points out that Kyon is at the centre along with Haruhi.

Kyon rides home on his bike. Entering his bedroom he's shocked to find Sasaki playing with Shamisen and his sister.

After getting rid of the sister and the cat, Sasaki tells Kyon much the same as Koizumi did, that being that Kyon is at the centre of it all, as the true representative of normal Humans with the key to solve this current dilemma.

α-
The next day, Thursday.

The end of the day arrives, and Haruhi doesn't bother with tutoring Kyon. They head straight up to the clubroom for Yasumi Watahashi's first official day in the brigade.
Asahina teaches her the practice of tea brewing, then Haruhi gets her fixing the website. Kyon and Koizumi go outside for a round of playing catch with the baseball gear.
Yasumi Watahashi throws a paper aeroplane out the window at Kyon, with the message "I found the MIKURU folder!"

Yasumi Watahashi leaves once the boys return back to the clubroom.
The website ends up looking much better but cluttered, and for some reason theres a link for 'The Day of Sagittarius 5', an improved online version of the computer clubs game.

Mikuru shows herself to be a true upperclassman by reacting to how cute the new girl is.

When Kyon gets home at the end of the day, he finds Yasumi Watahashi waiting for him in his room. Kyon tells off his sister for inviting in strangers she's never met before. The new girl doesn't stay very long, and she doesn't even have any real reason to be there.

β-
The next day, Thursday.

Haruhi wonders if they should make Nagato go to a hospital. Kyon suggests that if she does, she should consult Koizumi beforehand.

On his way to the clubroom after school, Kyon bumps into Taniguchi. Kyon presses him for information regarding his relationship with Kuyoh. He says they did the usual things couples do. He also says that at times she could be quite talkative, about random things like cats being more of an advanced life form than humans.

Kyon goes to the club room. Yasumi Watahashi is in the room. This is Kyons first time meeting the girl. She apologises and says she's made a mistake and shouldn't be there. She runs past Kyon out into the hallway. Kyon goes to see her out but she's disappeared.

Kyon notices a flower in the club room that wasn't there before, sitting in a vase.

Kyon ends up the only brigade member to attend the club room that day.

Back home, Kyon gets a phone call from Sasaki. she says Fujiwara is insistent on everyone meeting tomorrow to settle everything. She tells Kyon that everything depends on him.

α-
The next day, Friday.

Kyon finds a letter from Yasumi in his shoe locker. She's asking him to meet in the clubroom at 6:00pm.
Kyon agonises what its about. In a roundabout way he asks for Haruhi's advice. She says that he should find the answer by confronting the one asking the question. Using this advice, he sets off to find Yasumi during his lunch break. He finds Nagato in the clubroom, and decides to ask her whats going on. She says that Yasumi is "nothing", which only makes him think that she isn't a North High student. Nagato also says that he need not worry about her. Kyon heads back to room 2-5 in time for afternoon classes, albeit deflated and hungry.

After school Yasumi doesn't appear during club time. Asahina says she told her earlier that she wouldn't be able to make it today, and even Haruhi chimes in to say that she appeared to tell her the same over the lunch period.

Kyon notices a single flower in a vase by the window. Mikuru says that Yasumi brought it round earlier.

Koizumi turns up late, sees the flower, walks over to it, takes his phone out and begins to photograph it. Kyon notices and wonders if he is sending them somewhere.

At the end of the day Kyon pretends that he has left Taniguchi's super rare porno mag and runs back. He heads straight to the clubroom where Yasumi is waiting. Then they hear a knock on the clubroom door.

β-
The next day, Friday.

Kyon's sister wakes him up early after he apparently told her too. She says he told her too due to "something important" he has to do today, though he has no recollection of telling her anything. Could this be AN UNEXPLAINED TIME TRAVEL EVENT??

After school Kyon meets up with Sasaki, Kyoko Tachibana and Fujiwara by the station. Kuyoh isn't there but Fujiwara says she's bound to turn up at the right time. Apparently its a fixed time travel event that they have to arrive at their destination by taxi, which happens to be North High.

The tension is rife between Kyon & Sasaki with Fujiwara in the back of the Taxi. Kyoko is in the front seat chatting with the driver during this time.

They arrive at North High. Fujiwara tells Kyon to follow him whilst Kyoko settles the bill. After walking just a few short paces inside the grounds, Kyon instantly notices that he's entered closed space. Specifically, Sasaki's closed space. He looks behind him and sees that the taxi isn't there. Trapped, Kyon has no choice but to follow Fujiwara and Kyoko who has just arrived. Sasaki cannot enter her own closed space so she's been left behind.

Fujiwara reveals their destination to be the SOS Brigade clubroom.
Once they have walked up he knocks on the door and heads inside.

α&β merger-

Two Kyons, Fujiwara, Kyoko and Yasumi; all in the SOS Brigade clubroom which is somehow located outside of closed space (the sun is setting outside the window).

Stunned, the two Kyons look at each other and analyse each other to realise that each one is a real version of himself.

Yasumi grabs each of the Kyons hands and force each one to touch the other. Both Kyons then combine into one whole body.

Kyon comes round after processing his merged memories to find that Yasumi Watahashi has left the room.

Fujiwara starts having a go at his superiors from the future who he's probably in contact with. He is surprised that 'prohibition was released' before he got the chance to act.

A weird swirl in the sky starts to form. Kyon realises that Haruhi's closed space is somehow overlapping Sasaki's.

Kuyoh appears from nowhere and says that "This is the beginning. The Division point of every possible outcome". Fujiwara asks her if she has betrayed their plans. She said she hasn't.

Koizumi turns up at the door. Kyoko Tachibana raises her voice in wonderment at how Koizumi can enter Sasaki's closed space. Koizumi confirms that Haruhi's closed space has overlapped Sasaki's, hence why he was able to enter in.

The adult version of Asahina enters the room. Koizumi explains that he had also received a letter in the α line from Yasumi. Asahina the elder could not enter the closed space from the future, so needed Koizumi to help enter in. The β version of Koizumi was closely following Sasaki's group and Kyon from the shadows. Once inside, Koizumi found his other self and they merged in the same way as Kyon did.

Fujiwara gets upset for some reason and starts shouting at adult Asahina for interfering with his plans. He knew that altering his broken future was possible by arriving at this exact point in history, the center of all possible outcomes. In order to restore his broken future he needed Haruhi's powers to be moved into a more stable host, then by manipulating certain events in the future he would easily be able to create a better future. One where he can reunite with his sister, Mikuru Asahina.

However the version of adult Asahina that is currently in the room, which is the same version we've known all along, lives in a future where she has no brother.

Fujiwara reveals his plan and orders Kuyoh to execute his plan; killing Haruhi. Kuyoh makes Haruhi appear just outside the window above the courtyard, unconscious and suspended on a cross. Asahina says to Fujiwara that what he's doing would be a serious time crime. Koizumi's pent up anger starts to show and he begins to show his esper powers. Kyon gets frustrated too but Koizumi tells him he's got this one. Koizumi directs Kyon to focus on the girl outside the window, about to drop to her death.

Kuyoh makes Haruhi drop to the ground. Kyon leaps out the window and embraces her. Behind him, Koizumi uses his powers against Kuyoh and Fujiwara.

Kyon and Haruhi fall to the ground, but are saved by a Celestial which appears suddenly and catches them and safely puts them on the ground.

Kyon opens his eyes and looks around. He is lying on grass with lots of older students walking around.

Haruhi walks over to him. She's wearing stylish springlike adult clothes. He looks at her and realises she's older. She looks at him and asks him how he moved to the grassy area so quickly, then looks again at him and asks why he's dressed in their old North High uniform. Finally she looks at him again and realises he looks younger.

Kyon is at their future university campus. College age Haruhi gives Kyon a warm smile as he time travels back into the past, where he lands face down on top of Haruhi's bed as she's sleeping.

She wakes up and looks directly up at his face which is only centimeters apart from hers.

Both are stunned. Instead of screaming like a girl like one would imagine would be a normal reaction in this type of situation for a girl, Haruhi causally pushes him off from on top of her and asks him to cover himself with the bed sheets as she gets up and changes. However Kyon doesn't comply and looks for a bedside clock as she changes.

Kyon confirms the date to be one month in the future from when he should be at. It is a day in May which just so happens to be the 1 year anniversary of the SOS Brigade.

A tap at the window from a stone indicates someone is outside. They go to the window and see Koizumi, Nagato and Asahina outside. Kyon thinks on his feet and says that the whole thing is some sort of crazy surprise that she wouldn't think of, for the 1 year anniversary. He says he climbed up the drain pipe and entered through her unlocked window to climb on her bed as a surprise. She buys it.

Koizumi throws a present up to Kyon. Its to Haruhi from the SOS brigade. Kyon gives it to her and she escorts him gingerly downstairs as to not wake her family. They head outside to meet the rest of the Brigade members and she thanks them all for the surprise present. She then heads back inside.

Kyon confirms what has happened. Koizumi tells him that he (the Kyon from that time) told them about events from today and gave specific instructions for them to follow and be at Haruhi's house at that time in the morning, with the present. He also said that he better not be there. Kyon also chose the present for Haruhi.

Armed with the knowledge of what he must do once back in the past, Mikuru makes him time travel back to that Friday in April he belongs in, at 8pm.

Kyon rests on Saturday and calls over Nagato and Koizumi on Sunday to talk through the events.

Nagato is well again. Koizumi reveals his theory about timelines and alternative futures. He says that time can split into multiple paths but soon find a way to reintegrate into one outcome again. For them they experienced two splits that merged back into one. For Fujiwara he was experiencing a different split from the adult Asahina they knew, however given time even those time paths would re-integrate. Koizumi also reveals that Yasumi was a person created by Haruhi's godlike subconscious in order to protect Kyon and Nagato from harm in the β line- the line that was originally meant to be canon. Yasumi's hair piece turns out to be the same one Haruhi had lost just before starting middle school. Her name is confirmed to be an anagram of 'I am Suzumiya' (not for this english translation however), and Kuyoh is confirmed to still be attending Kouyouen Academy.

On Monday Kyon heads to the classroom where Haruhi reveals that Yasumi visited her over the weekend to apologize for pretending to be a high schooler. Her claim was that she was still in middle school and thus wouldn't be able to join the Brigade. Haruhi becomes slightly depressed.

They have one more day off from Brigade activities so Kyon goes to shop for Haruhi's present. Upon reaching the station he finds Sasaki waiting for him. She thanks him for preventing her from becoming a god-like being. She talks about how much she misses talking with Kyon during their middle school days and reveals that she was asked out by a boy the week before, and she has plans to settle down and marry in the not too distant future.

They part, and somehow Kyon gets the feeling their lives will cross again soon enough (college anyone?).

The next day Kyon walks to school and meets Tsuruya. They talk about the flower viewing party next month at her house. Immediately afterwards, Kyon meets Kunikida and Taniguchi. Kunikida talks about how much he admires Tsuruya and reveals that she was the reason he came to North High. He thanks Kyon for giving him the chance to meet her.

The SOS Brigade meets again in the clubroom. Asahina is upset and stays by the flower Yasumi brought (which Koizumi earlier confirmed to be a new species). Haruhi barges in and so they begin planning for Tsuruya's garden party, including a stage show to be performed in front of all the high ranking guests. Oh brother...

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8-10. This cannot possibly be the last volume. There is just too much potential story, especially with the thought of what their lives become like as young adults, with crazy stuff going on or not. The characters are just too good to leave. But in the mean time there is potential for a short story for White day, obviously the flower viewing party show and also the mysterious object that is located at the Tsuruya household. Not to mention the other unexplained time travel events.

This storyline was LOOONNNNNG, covering 2 novels, 3 in Japan. Overall it was told very well, but it doesn't touch the class of The Disappearance.

After my re-read of this novel, Koizumi explains that Haruhis' unconscious godlike power willed itself into existence after suspecting Sasaki's 'friends' when Haruhi met them at the start of the story at the train station. Thus Yasumi Watahashi was created from that point onwards, with a name that is an anagram of "I am Suzumiya". Wa-ta-shi-ha-Su-zu-mi-ya' when reading her official kanji as Yasumizu Watahashi. This girl inserted herself into 'always having existed' within a family unit with a sister that attended North High, so she could borrow her clothes and successfully sneak into the SOS Brigade even though she is only a middle school student (on purpose to use as an exit strategy at the end of the conflict). Her first act of god though was to create the β time split to allow the natural course of events to transpire, whilst in the α time split she willed the anti SOS brigade not to act. When it was time for the anti SOS brigade to act in β, Yasumi's plan was to make the α time split canon when things got sour. She allowed β to exist as a means of observation more than anything, and in the end decided to merge the two back together. Easy stuff for a god. It is unclear if Yasumi flitted between the two time splits, or if there were two versions of herself living in both splits. What is known is that she retained her personal memories of both time splits simultaneously.

Those characters of which met themselves before the α β merger were the only people to fully remember both splits, and have no knowledge of what things were like once the two splits were merged. These characters being Kyon and Koizumi. The aliens and Yasumi are the only characters to have memories of 3 timelines; α, β and the merger.

I now have a clearer understanding of time travel and the natural healing process of time itself once its been warped or tampered with. In short its like a living being that gets a cut. The cut analogy is time travel itself and what time travellers do. Given a lot of time, the past repairs itself so it ends up exactly how it originally was. In short, the timeline will have it that Asahina never even visited the past to begin with. This probably wont come into affect until those with living memories will pass away, and most evidence will disappear. In many ways a bit like Back To The Future. Koizumi even explains that bad time lines could possibly simply peter out and fade away. Its probably the whole reason why Fujiwara travels back into the past to a moment of time where all future possibilities could be chosen as canon. Fujiwara simply wants his future with his sister to exist, instead of petering out and becoming nothing. Its more probable though that his bad personal timeline will merge with adult Asahinas good timeline and nobody would end up knowing the difference. What we do learn from this novel is that the healing of timelines could take place very quickly, however in this case I suspect that was Yasumis doing. If left to its own devises naturally, the same result would have happened a lot later in the timeline.

I'm really annoyed that the upcoming short story 'Tsuruya's Challenge' is NOT about the flower viewing party that is set towards the end of April during the beginning of Japan's annual 'Golden week' holiday. I can only imagine the SOS Brigades show they put on involves using their costumes they have collected up until this point. Kyon in a reindeer suit anyone?

OK is it just Sasaki who has her own closed space? Are there any other candidates out there that we don't know of? Why would they exist anyway? If Haruhi/Yasumi surely was god, why would she decide to let others be candidates for her power? This may or not be explained in another novel.

The Yuki from α probably didn't act during the climax due to knowing what Yasumi was, and knowing that she would sort things out. β Yuki would have been the girl on the roof along with the other aliens from that same timeline.Talking of which after everything is said and done, the Data Overmind has decided that she isn't suitable as an interface with Kuyoh, so her new role is to act as an observer for Haruhi and the SOS brigade.

Kyon and Haruhi's relationship is moving forwards though they dont really realise it.

Up next: Seven Wonders Overtime.

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