When did this story begin? When I thought about it long and hard, I guessed it started in the future from the main portion of the story. Yes, that might sound pretty crazy, but since knowing Haruhi Suzumiya a year ago, crazy was the norm for me.

Not long ago I was dealing with one of the biggest conflicts in my life. That event ended with me time-jumped into the future and landed on top of Haruhi in her own bed - in the middle of the night. Seriously, someone upstairs had a very cruel sense of humor.

Much of what happened next that night had already been told. The other SOS brigade members showed up with a present that I supposedly picked out, and bailed me out from the extremely awkward situation. We congratulated Haruhi for the one year anniversary of forming the SOS brigade, and before long, Ms Asahina sent me back to the past.

Right before I returned to my time plane, as Ms Asahina was standing behind me making preparatation, I looked up briefly and noticed Nagato standing from a distance, looking at me. She slowly lifted her right hand, and appeared to be waving at me. Her face, expressionless as usual, carried a hint of sadness. Was it the lighting? It was time for a goodbye, so perhaps I was reading into it too much? Everything went dark soon afterwards, I was spinning like mad and landed on my bed back to my time.

Monday.

The day started off just like any normal school day.

I said down in my seat in the classroom, took half a breath before Haruhi started her usual greeting. 'Kyon, remember the supernatural convention I mentioned a few days ago? It starts today! Get everyone ready, we are going. This is a mandatory club activity!'

I turned around and dutifully informed her that as much as I would love to go, I would have to miss at least a day or 2 because my dear sister told me last minute about her science project due in 3 days, and she expected me to help. Deep down, even though I had no interest in helping my sister with her project, I had absolutely no need to listen to some amateurish nerds lecturing me about the supernaturals. I LIVED it. Haruhi was not amused by this but she did not protest too much. She told me to inform the others to meet at the literary club room during lunch. Why didn't she do it herself, you asked. Because I needed something to do, and she's done her part - barking orders at me.

At lunch break, I arrived at the literary club room and noticed the door was already unlocked. I was surprised to find someone in the room wearing the frog suit. Judging from the body shape, it was a girl.

'Oh, Ms Asahina? Why are you in the frog suit?' I thought that was pretty funny. What motivated her to put that outfit on? When she did not respond, I got slightly worried and said, 'Look, uh, if you are not Ms Asahina, you probably shouldn't be here.' I was pretty sure it could not be Haruhi. Could it be Nagato? Not likely...

Still no response. I said more firmly, 'Come now, take that off. I will go outside so you can take it off. Okay?'

She said in a muffled voice, 'Actually I would be borrowing it for a while if you don't mind.'

That's not good. I said, 'Look, personally I don't really care about that costume. But if our leader finds out that the suit is missing, she may not think it is okay, and we could be in a lot of trouble because of that. You could be in all kinds of trouble you could never imagine. Please…' I paused as I just realized something and said, 'By the way, how did you get in here?' I asked.

She removed the frog head, and surprise, surprise...

It was Ryoko Asakura, my favorite psycho-girl. She had returned once again.

'Why... are your here?' I quickly walked backwards and reached for the door knob just in case.

'Hello Kyon, we meet again. Do you miss me?'

I said, 'Don't you have something better to do than showing up here cosplaying? Don't tell me you are here to try to kill me again.'

With a smile and a wink, she replied, 'Oh no. On the contrary, I am here to protect you and Ms Suzumiya.'

'Why would we need you when we have... Oh no, don't tell me… something happened to Nagato?''

'Bingo! Ms Nagato is relieved of her duty.'

'What? Why? Where is she now?'

'Oh, you know… she was called back. The Data Integration Thought Entity had been quite weary with Ms Nagato's performance for some time now. Ever since her little incident around Christmas actually. She malfunctioned, changed the world, even wished the Data Integration Thought Entity out of existence. Then she attempted to communicate with the other alien entity and failed miserably. But the final straw was when she disobeyed her order and protected someone she's ordered not to. The Data Integration Thought Entity had lost confidence and trust in her.'

Asakura made it sound terrible, but none of them was really Nagato's fault.

Asakura continued, 'Anyways, I was given strict orders to protect you and Ms Suzumiya, and trust me, I have no intention to disobey my orders. Rest assured that I would keep my promise, so don't you worry about a thing okay? However, I am not supposed to return in full yet, so I needed a disguise. I was poking around in the school and found the frog suit and it looked so cute! So I thought it would probably be a better disguise than the knight's armor I materialized earlier. I do miss carrying the big sword though! Anyways, I'll see you around, okay? Actually, you won't see me around. I'd be so good at concealing my presence you won't even know I am there. Bye now.'

She put on the frog head, hopped and skipped out of the room. I did not try to stop her. We now had a killer frog on the loose. At least she's large, bright green, and easy to spot from a distance.

I sat in a chair, still processing the information. Our Nagato was gone? I pulled out my phone and called her. She did not pick up. Shortly after Koizumi and Ms Asahina joined me in the club room.

Koizumi saw my panicking face and asked, 'Why the worried look?'

I replied, 'Nagato… she might be gone.'

'Where did you hear that from?'

'From Ryoko Asakura… she's back. And she took the frog suit.'

They were both in disbelief. Asakura returned and took the stupid frog suit? It had to be a bad joke. I wished it were, but I witnessed it with my own eyes.

I thought for a moment then said, 'But Nagato could not be gone. Remember the night I time-jumped into the future? It is the upcoming anniversary day. That's like a week or so from today. She's there! You saw her too, right, Koizumi, Ms Asahina?''

Koïzumi forced a smiled and said, 'Actually that happens in the future for me, so I won't be there until that time and cannot tell you if she will be there.'

That's right... and Ms Asahina would not know either.

Unexpectedly, Ms Asahina said, 'Actually Kyon, Koizumi, I have something I have to tell you...'

Ms Asahina explained that the night before Nagato contacted her and asked to be brought to that future date so she could be there for the anniversary. When Ms Asahina asked why, Nagato said it was a special day for her, and she wanted to be there for Haruhi and everyone. Ms Asahina said she had no trouble getting permission for the request from her superiors, and she was even given instructions to inform Koizumi and I about it if I were to bring up the topic. We were instructed not to act unusual on the anniversary day. I suspected that the adult Ms Asahina granted this favor for Nagato, and she wanted us to know exactly what was to happen and how to act.

'Did you travel back in time with her together?' I asked.

Ms Asahina had trouble answering the question. 'You see, I don't know for sure, because… she vanished during our trip back.'

'What happened exactly?'

'All I know was we were about to time jump, and she began to disappear. I was worried at first, but she put her left hand on my shoulder, and I had a feeling that…'

'That?'

'Everything will be fine.'

Famous last words...

I was getting impatient and angry. What should I do? I remembered a promise I had once made to our alien friend.

'When I was hospitalized for allegedly fell off the stairs, Nagato visited me and told me the Data Integration Thought Entity was evaluating the punishment for her doing. I told Nagato to let the Data Integration Thought Entity know that if they ever tried to punish her or take her away, I swore I would convince Haruhi of the truth and she would use her power to find Nagato, we'd even wipe out the existence of the Data Integration Thought Entity just to have her back. You think perhaps they don't think I am not going to serious enough to go through with it? They had certainly gotten aggressive recently… then they dared to punish Nagato for the mess they created! If they thought I was bluffing… I guess they don't know me that well!' Yes, I made a promise to Nagato. I could not back down now. I saw both Koizumi and Ms Asahina's faces, and I could tell they were feeling uncomfortable with my decision. They might have to worry about the world but at that moment, Nagato was the world to me. I did not care if Koizumi tried to stop me this time. If he tried to stop me I would shove his smiling face into the table so hard so fast he would still be smiling after he went through the table.

Koizumi said, treading softly on the subject, 'Consider the Data Integration Thought Entity being so powerful, I thought they could have avoided your retaliation by secretly altering your memory, but they didn't.'

'Who knows. Maybe they are afraid of Haruhi's subconscious powers. Who isn't? More the reason we have to act quick…'

Out of the blue a book fell off the bookshelf and startled all of us. I walked over and picked it up. It was the book Nagato lent me a while back. That had to be a sign, right, Nagato?

I flipped through it quickly, and indeed there was a bookmark in it, which said, 'Same place, same time.' I giggled like a child as I felt that all might be fine again, as I had a hunch where and when it referred to…

Before I could say anything, Haruhi came through the door. She looked a bit confused.

'Mikuru, if you are here, then who's in the frog suit out there just now?'

Ms Asakura was outside listening all that time? Surely that was not something I could tell Haruhi. I had already prepared a lie for the occasion. 'Ms Tsuruya came by earlier asking if she could borrow it for a costume party.' I said.

That worked out just fine, as Haruhi smiled brightly and said something about 'See I knew the frog suit was a hit.' Shortly after, Haruhi turned the focus on me. She was not happy when she found out I had not yet told Koizumi and Ms Asahina about the convention. I said I was distracted because Nagato was missing.

'Oh? Do you know where she is? Have you tried calling her?'

'I don't know where she is. I did try calling her but there was no answer. Although, I have a good feeling I may be able to find her later today.' I decided to hold off telling Haruhi about her being a God and so on so forth, and Koizumi knew it. He looked relieved.

'Okay, keep me updated. Hopefully she's not sick again or something.' Haruhi then went on to inform Koizumi and Ms Asahina about the convention, that I had an excuse for not attending, and asked them to join her.

Koizumi said, 'I have families coming from far and I have to entertain them this week, I am afraid I will be a bit busy too. Sorry.' It's hard to believe Koizumi spent any time with his family. Then I got the chill when an image of Koizumi and a dozen of his relatives doing the same creepy smile at the same time came into my head.

Haruhi was getting really annoyed now. 'Mikuru, how about you? Got any excuses?'

Ms Asahina said, 'Oh I guess I could go with you.' She was taking one for the team - thank you!

'Okay, great! And you two better wrap up with what you have to do quick for I expect you to join us later this week! You are in the SOS brigade and you all need to get educated on these important subjects!'

Important? Funny… With that, we're dismissed and everyone headed back to class.

After school I went home but I did not recall what I did for my sister's project, I only remembered a few screams of disapproval with words like 'what are you doing?' and 'wake up!' and 'that's not how it's done!' and even one 'Shamisen could have done better!' I was just too eager to find Nagato.

At 7 pm I arrived at the park where Nagato waited for me and later gave me a speech about Haruhi and alien stuff. I sat down at the same bench and waited. I wondered if I could be mistaken. What if it was a message sent by Asakura, as she's luring me out to kill me? Now and then a few people walked by and looked at me funny, probably thinking that I had been stood up by a girl. 30 minutes went by and I began to lose hope. Nagato would never be late. I was feeling depressed. Did I see the last of Nagato, without saying goodbye? How many times did she save my life again? What had I ever done to show her my gratitude? I even hurt her recently saying some pretty dumb stuff. Man, I felt really bad. I knew I was loud and assertive when I declared in front of Koizumi and Ms Asahina about telling Haruhi the truth, but would I be able to convince her? As desperate as Haruhi was, always wanting to find the supernatural, she was practically blind as supernatural people and events were literally crawling under her nose frequently and she did not know. She was also practically deaf when it came to listening to any serious stuff I said.

I then felt a mild breeze, and as I looked up, there's a girl standing before me.

'Hello Kyon!' said the girl, with a smile.