Summer was almost at an end. Kyon had his blue blazer slung lazily over his shoulder as he always did. Itsuki Koizumi, who was walking beside him, had his uniform as immaculate as ever. He was wearing his trademark Stepford smile while Kyon, as tradition dictated, looked tired.
His lethargy wasn't without reason. Haruhi, as always impulsive, suddenly decided that their activity for today needed them to be in their school uniforms. After the way she decided to pack a whole summer's worth of activities into two rushed weeks last year, she decided to pack two summers' worth into one instead. Thankfully, Kyon thought ahead and did his school homework early.
He cursed Haruhi silently for forcing him into actually being responsible for once. And to top it all off, she suddenly announced that they were heading to a small town in the United States to finish their summer of adventures. Apparently she'd found out that a series of strange, supernatural events had been converging there and she couldn't help but be attracted to it.
"I can't believe we're going to America," he said tiredly. "And she had to go ahead and fix up all of our documents for us too. How did she even get enough money to pay for our tickets?"
Koizumi replied in his perpetually optimistic tone. "Given Miss Suzumiya's skills, I don't doubt that she would have managed to retrieve some diplomatic passports for us given enough time. Be that as it may, you know how impulsive she is. And after hearing about all those strange phenomena in that town, there would have been very little we could have done in order to stop her. In fact, I seem to recall her mentioning that she might find John Smith there." Koizumi seemed to look at him knowingly as soon as he mentioned the name.
Kyon tried not to react. "Really?"
Koizumi shrugged. "In any case, whatever we find there in… Gravity Falls, was it? I'm sure it's going to be fascinating. My organization definitely believes that there is something there, and it just so happens that Miss Suzumiya's goals line up with ours."
Kyon sighed. "Of course they do."
"In any case," Koizumi continued. "We'd better start packing for the trip. I pulled what strings I could in order to facilitate our trip, and it would be a shame if it were all to go to waste. I made sure to pick the best hotels for us, and…"
Koizumi suddenly frowned. He stopped walking and looked up at the sky, towards the east. Kyon could have sworn that he saw something like a red flash for a split-second, but he dismissed it as a mere hallucination, likely brought on by his tired mind.
Despite that, Koizumi's expression caught his attention. It wasn't often that you found Koizumi outside his state of constant, distant amusement. A frown meant that something serious was going on, and it probably wasn't going to be good. "Something wrong?"
"Did you feel that?" asked Koizumi. He paused for a moment and shook his head. He gave the ghost of a chuckle. "No, of course you didn't."