A/N: You want plot? I'll show you plot!

High school Musical (pt. 2)

Written by: Typewriterman

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I remember my oh-so-faithful alarm waking me up, tearing me asunder from my non-REM sleep. Say, do you know about REM and non-REM? On second thought, forget about it…I'm too tired to explain right now.

Six-forty five? Thank you Haruhi, I've always wanted to wake up this early on a Saturday. It's been a big goal in my life.

Anyways, at first it was a bit difficult to roll out of bed on such a nice morning. I'd hate to admit it, but it seems I've gotten too used to my sister being sent in to deflate my lungs every morning. After I pondered such interesting life questions, I got ready with dressing up and cleaning up—including taking a shower of course—I managed to be downstairs at around seven-thirty.

As I adjusted my inside out jean pockets, I glanced towards the breakfast table to see a small girl eating a bowl of cereal. "Hey Kyon-kun!" my sister chirped up at me. Hey, what are you doing here so early?

"Mom's taking me to my friend's house. I'm sleeping over there, remember?"

No…

"You want me to make you breakfast, Kyon-kun?" I cringed just slightly as she poured almost a whole container's full of sugar into my "Breakfast of Champions" and then did the same for my water. Is this seriously what she has every morning, or is she just trying to mess with me?

One bowl of super sweetened cereal later, I was riding my bike up the hill to where Haruhi had ordered us to meet today. For almost ten minutes when I first left the house, my sluggish morning brain took me toward the train station, where because of familiarity and constant reinforcement, my memory had overridden my sense of direction.

I really don't want the death penalty…

This time I was walking down the hallway of the school. That's right; I'm in school on a weekend. It's not that I have some kind of key or that this is a sanctioned meeting by the board, heck no. For one thing, the SOS Brigade technically doesn't even exist in the eyes of the student council. It's just that they've pretty much ignored our existence of us even counting as an association.

Well that, and North High keeps its front gates unlocked. How ghetto is that?

The occasional bunches of wires that were sporadically taped from wall to wall led the way, eventually to what was once the Literature Club room. Like a flurry of snakes attempting to sneak into the room itself, it was a feat that the door managed to close completely without shorting out the wires or somehow not damaging them by skinning off the protective case.

Before entering, I prepped myself for Haruhi's complaints at my tardiness, despite me being here fifteen minutes earlier than expected. I stared down at the black coils softening my feet's pressure against the ground, wondering where she had managed to shanghai all of this length of wires. Ok, let's get this over with.

My hand reached tentatively for the bronzed doorknob then jerked without explanation to my eyes. It would only take half a second though to feel the slight static shock as a tiny blue jolt extending between my finger and the metal doorknob finally registered in my brain. "Geez, what a great sign…" I winced irritated to myself, and rubbed my finger sorely against the shirt. Frowning even more now, I extended my arm out once again, not learning at all from my last experience.

Success! My hand managed to curve around the knob without any further attacking of electrical discharge, and I followed through to push inwards to enter the room. Just as I thought things were sailing smoothly however, a second jolt nicked my left leg, causing me to slightly stumble inwards as I attempted to catch my balance once again. Luckily, someone caught me, and I thanked the Good Samaritan with a smile and approving nod.

I finally glanced toward the helpful person to see…

…me!?

"Oh, what's going on? I'm scared!" whimpered a familiar line, but the only problem was it came from the wrong voice! I turned toward where the voice originated from, and my eye let out a single twitch.

"Kyon…kun…?" the girl said it again, but the sight was just too disturbing for it to fully register in my mind. Her body trembled predictably at the strange situation; her arms curled and small hands rested just under her chin. Her eyes darted back and forth, watery and wide while her mouth was cutely shrunken to take deep controlled breaths. It was too out of character for that quiet blue haired girl! I mean, not only is she an artificially created human, but she's also the one who saved my life countless times and always kept her demeanor.

"Nagato, what's wrong with you?" I asked almost drunkenly, but the sound that was the outcome of my voice-box vibrating against air was just too wrong, and the hunched and terrified girl glanced at me for the first time with a confused look in her eyes. Oh no…

"K…Kyon-kun?" she whimpered again like a scared puppy in a thunderstorm, and she eagerly charged me. Rather than her petite body lightly bouncing off me, I ricocheted backwards from her momentum into the closed door behind me.

"Asahina-san, please calm down." I said. No, I mean, the person who looked like me said that. As the small girl backed off, embarrassed, my eyes glared over the boy who had disarmed the crazy Nagato look-alike. He looked like me, I guess, but there was just something wrong with the way he smiled. Not just that I never smiled, I sometimes do, but this Kyon's smile was just too insincere. Great, now I've got myself calling me by that!

Looking back to Nagato again, well, a whimpering and cute Nagato, I saw hulking down with his face towards his lap was Koizumi, only, it wasn't Koizumi. Somehow feeling my confused gaze, the usual fox faced bastard glanced back at me without that creepy smile.

"…" His eyes flickered slightly with that hardcover book resting on his lap.

"It seems that things have gotten a bit out of hand, hmm?" My doppelganger smirked towards me. I definitely wanted to punch that leering face standing next to me, but I was too busy twitching my eyes out of pure unfiltered grief to care at the moment. My legs felt bare, everything seemed much bigger than usual, and my hair was much longer than I was used to. I scowled out of realization and hunched my head slightly as the obvious finally dawned on me.

"Is this some kind of dream?" A third voice asked from the back of the room. Hers was a voice I'd have expected complete and utter panic from, as it would've squeaked cutely and was as silky as a formal promenade dress. Instead of a terrified childlike demeanor, the voice showed the type of casual disbelief a sane person would have when wondering about a strange situation. The petite time traveler girl in front of the computer desk glanced over her body, wondering hazily if this was some sort of hallucination. She glanced over toward me in surprise, although did not exclaim in any terror whatsoever.

Rather, she walked towards my direction out of curiosity and stared at me as if I were her doppelganger. Oh, the sweet scent of Asahina-san waved about just inches from my face, making the situation all that more awkward. "Asahina-san, are you alright?" My fox faced look-alike asked the demure girl, and even went so far as to place his hand on her shoulder.

She glanced away from my direction distracted by the touch, and towards me. No, I mean my doppelganger-me! Why is this so confusing?

"K-Kyon, what's going on?" the suddenly mature Asahina-san asked him. Although it was quite a fetching sight, I had taken this chance to slowly walk away from the chatting two to walk carefully to the quiet Koizumu. As I did so, I quickly glanced over the clothing that draped over my supposed body—at the moment anyways—to try to find some answers.

Before me sat the usually smiling Koizumi, who currently busied himself with a thick hard covered book. "Nagato, is that you?"

His face rose up to glance toward me in much the same manner that Nagato had in the past. In fact, his fox-like eyes were now more like or crow's; just black orbs staring at me without any emotion at all.

"…" quoth the Raven. I asked what was going on, and to this she...I mean he(?) glanced quietly past my shoulder. Which to be honest was much easier considering the sudden change in size between us.

"Kyon, what's going on?" I heard Asahina-san's calm voice ask the boy, to which he crossed his arms over his chest and began to ponder an answer. What the hell, I've never done that before! Stop that before someone sees you!

"In a hallucinogenic state, only minimal similarity to one's regular occurrences is required for belief to be registered." The boy stated from behind me. An idea struck me just then, knowing full well that I won't be able to find out anything more from the artificial being with Haruhi being around.

My plan involved me impersonating Haruhi to the best of my ability, and I had even begun picturing the last time she had gotten extremely mad at me—all the while hoping I didn't change the world, you know? But in the end, the other Kyon had managed some sort of sense into the delirious "Asahina-san" and they walked into the hallways, leaving the quiet Koizumi, the panicky Nagato and myself in the room.

I quickly jumped at the knob as the door closed, and immediately locked the door. From the direction of the window, the girl's whimper brought an awkward sense of déjà vu. "Wh-what are you doing?" the blue haired girl moaned and hastily rushed to the quiet boy's side. No Asahina-san, please don't think of me the same way as Haruhi! "Oh, s-sorry…" she seemed to calm down from her hysteric state and took a chair as I approached the two.

It seemed however that whether or not she knew it was Nagato, Asahina-san still couldn't muster any courage to sit with the quiet Koizumi. I guess almost no matter the situation, Nagato's cold seeming exterior just repels Asahina away. Although, it definitely isn't the same feeling for a meek Nagato to cling onto me while I'm stuck in Haruhi's body!

Alright Nagato, what's going on?

"…" The boy in front of us, rather than speaking immediately, simply stared at us for what was the longest few seconds of my life. Of course, for all I knew, she could've just been taking an extremely deep breath for the mind numbing explanation that she usually delivers. "As expected, Haruhi Suzumiya is the one responsible for the recent events that have occurred. She had intended to radically alter data involving the personality traits of myself, Mikuru Asahina and herself as well. The inter-transfer of multiple entities had found complications however, when Mikuru Asahina had taken possession of my body. Upon which immediately involved Itsuki Koizumi, who was currently in the room as well, to take part in the transfer…"

Um, ok…

"An outside electrical discharge interfered with the secondary inter-transfer," she looked directly at me, "further complicating the process and making any simple solution to this event impossible…" Did, did you just say that this is my fault?

"Negative." Nagato said without blinking, "The process was only complicated by your arrival. It was not the cause of the reaction." Great, that makes me feel a whole lot better.

"Wh-what does that mean, then?" Asahina-san finally managed to ask, clearly confused by the situation report given to us. (Although, she definitely looked a lot less lost than I felt.)

"What does your superior say about all of this?"

"Because of the transfer," this time she turned her gaze toward the emotional blue haired girl, "I am unable to establish contact with the Integrated Data Entity." I found myself glancing toward the Out-of-Character Nagato, regretting the fact that this was in fact an interesting look on her.

"…" I quickly returned my attention to the Koizumi-faced Nagato when from the corner of my eye I noticed her piercing glare.

I predictably lost the impromptu staring contest between us and resigned to moping on the long table in the center of the room. "What the heck did you do now, Haruhi…?" I mumbled out loud to myself.

People often have fantasies about switching in anime and mangas, but how the heck did we end up like this? I looked around the room as if some clue would highlight itself if I stared long enough or out of the blue, a mouse cursor would float about and designate what would help me. Maybe if there was a blue paw print somewhere…?

Let's see…towards the window was the desktop computer that Haruhi had blackmailed the Computer Society out of, and neatly placed in a nearby basket was the set of laptop computers that we had won from them. There was the kitchen stuff, the board games, Asahina-san's clothing rack of costumes, the drum set, a pair of guitars…

And then it hit me. My eyes raced back to the blue haired Nagato with Asahina-san's personality. My mind rewound itself back to last year's festival, when Haruhi with her natural skills had mastered the guitar without too much difficulty. And then there was the fact that Haruhi herself was now in Asahina-san's body…

"Geez Mikuru-chan, if only you had 'her' talent…although, 'she' could always try smiling once in a while…"

"…alter data involving the personality traits of myself, Mikuru Asahina and herself…"

"Oh, no way, Haruhi…" I sighed out loud. Rubbing my temples with my feminine and well manicured fingers, I wanted nothing more to do with this crazy dream. This was just a dream, right? Anyway, I turned back to the two questioning girls—I guess Koizumi counts as a girl just this once, don't you think?—and took a deep calm breath before explaining what I had figured out.

Several loud thumps against the door sang out just as I finished explaining my theory, to which Nagato-Asahina-san dutifully fulfilled her obligations as the Brigade's maid by going to open it. Now I'm really curious as how she'd look like in a maid outfit…wait a minute, just snap out of that!

"Nagato, is there anyway we could switch back to our bodies?" Before she could answer however, a cell phone immediately rang. It had to be Koizumi's, since the blank faced boy fished through the jacket pocket and answered. Behind me, fox-faced me and the calm Asahina-san returned to the room. The look of frustration pasted on her normally luxuriously smooth frown free face made my heart sink, but also gave me a hint as to what the cell phone call was all about.

Standing up from his chair, apathetic-Koizumi began to head to the door but stopped when I latched a small hand on his shoulder. Where do you think you're going, Nagato!?

"Something has come up I guess?" fox-face managed to deduce with a smile. Koizumi turned back to face me, his face still blank to telltale signs of emotion.

"It is unknown if the latent abilities of Itsuki Koizumi reside within his mental construct or physical form. To minimize the probability of failure, both he and I must be in proximity of each other to ensure maximum effect of his powers." Ok that's great, but how does that help us out with our situation?

"In theory, the same has been hypothesized about Haruhi Suzumiya, however it is not the same for me…as an artificially created construct, my abilities are derived from my physical form." Is it really ok to talk about this with Haruhi here?

"Hold on there…" I latched at his sleeve before they left, immediately garnering the boys' glances right away. "What the heck do you mean by that? You know how to solve this, but why don't you just tell me, Nagato?"

"…" a single blink was all I received before I finally realized that the room had immediately gone silent.

"Nagato-san, why is everyone talking so weirdly?" Asahina-san technically asked herself. To this, the blue haired girl shrugged uncharacteristically, which strangely enough did not faze her as much as it does me apparently. You really don't know what Nagato is like, do you Haruhi?

Ok, so here's what I got so far…we don't know if the powers of Koizumi, Asahina-san and Haruhi stem from their body or their mind…but Nagato-san's comes from her body because she was artificially made…what?

"So, uh…Haruhi…I have to admit that this is a bit strange, but it's all a dream anyway, right?" the fair Asahina-san directed her question particularly to me, surprising me with her very calm outlook on the situation. What then is causing that Closed Space to form, then?

I glanced toward Nagato—whom I knew to be the real Asahina-san—with a look of confusion on my face. "…Haruhi, why is everyone acting so weird?" Oh, trust me, Haruhi…whether you know this or not, I'm unfortunate to say that this is all pretty normal at this point in my life… Simply looking back at Asahina-san, uh, I mean to say Haruhi, I couldn't help but stare into her lovely and wide hazel eyes. Her…eyes…?

"Nagato…" I looked back toward Koizumi…damn this is confusing!

"…" he answered in reply, causing Haruhi obvious confusion over who was talking to who.

"Your nanomachines…they work because unlike Haruhi or Koizumi, your powers are derived from your physical form, not your mental construct?" I tried to recite what she had just told me earlier as closely as possible. Although I had completely no idea what I was saying, there was at least some remnant of an idea in my mind.

"…" After a few seconds of silence and confused looks on the faces of the other three, Koizumi simply blinked. Yes! A good sign…I think.

"So you're saying that Nagato-san's nanomachines are the key to solving this predicament? So, theoretically, you'll have to introduce them into both Suzumiya-san's mental construct as well as her physical form. By way of using Asahina-san, who is currently in Nagato-san's body, no doubt?"

Damn it all, Koizumi, I really don't need your complicated input right now!

"I'm sorry…" he smiled in a fox-like manner within my body, "…please continue…" with that, he sat down in a chair, crossing my legs over and placed my hands on my lap. Please stop that…you're ruining my image…

"Kyon, what's wrong with you today?" Haruhi finally burst out in an aggravated tone, "You've been acting so weird! I don't care if this is a dream…I've always expected this from the others, but not from you!" While the girl was distracted, Nagato quickly and wordlessly grabbed Haruhi from behind, easily startling all of us.

"Nagato, what the heck are you doing?" I exclaimed, something that flew right over Haruhi's head as she cursed "Koizumi" for his sudden act of treason against the true leader of the SOS Brigade.

Turning around without a flailing Haruhi/Asahina-san in her strong grasp, Nagato looked past me and straight toward the blue haired Nagato. "Nanomachines" she simply said, thus coercing me to walk plainly to the confused blue haired girl.

"Asahina-san…" I said calmly to her, "…do you remember when we were making the movie, how Nagato managed to keep you from firing all of those lasers, beams and whatever?" She nodded glumly at the memory, and pouted oh-so-cutely over Nagato's so-called "treatment".

"Y-yes…" she answered my prodding question. It took a second or two for her to put the pieces together, and I knew she had finally figured out what the plan was when her eyes flared up in stark realization to something strange like say, seeing a cat talk. "N-no…" she quickly changed her answer, as if feigning ignorance would also change the plan in mind.

"Asahina-san…" I softly placed my hands on her shoulders. Looking directly into her eyes, I tried as hard as I could to keep a serious face, and not be distracted by simple things such as a pretty face…or cute nervous eyes…damn it, I really need to focus right now! "…you have to do it, Asahina-san…" I again kept my voice constant and calm. "…if you don't, not only will you not be able to go back to your future, but things will be stuck like this or even worse! Haruhi's frustrated as it is…"

Perhaps Nagato holding tightly against a protesting Haruhi could be part of the problem, but I guess that's a necessary one.

"…who knows what else could happen at this point if you don't do this…" Wow. I can be really sappy when I want to be.

Looking downwards in deep thought, Asahina-san took a deep breath and scrunched her face just so as she made her decision. When her face tilted back up, I knew she had mustered enough courage to help us all out. All right, Asahina-san!

We both turned to face the others, and proudly marched toward them as we prepared what we hoped would save us from yet another queer adventure. Nagato, using Koizumi's natural strength to restrain Asahina-san's flailing body stayed emotionless while Koizumi within my own body watched us do all the work. Please, remind me when I get my body back to punch that bastard squarely in the face!

"You ready?" I asked the now determined Asahina-san, who nodded silently as she tried to keep her composure. "Alright. Nagato?" To this, the apathetic-Koizumi released one of the small girl's arms and immediately wrapped an arm around Haruhi's neck to secure her from lashing out any further. Looking directly at me, it took me a second or two to get the message to hold onto the free arm, to which I did of course. "So, are there any special magical words, or…?"

"The process is automatic." Nagato responded.

"Hey, what are you guys doing!? Let…go of me!!" Haruhi yelped out like mad. In her wild restrained rampage, she managed to topple over the cymbals of the drum set over, noisily singing out in this ridiculous dramaturgy.

Asahina-san hesitantly leaned forward, taking forever to muster that final amount of courage and willpower to go through with it. Until finally, with small hands, she took a tremulous grasp of the outstretched arm, followed by her jutted out teeth.

"Nagato, I command you not to bite me! Nagato!?" Without noticing, Asahina-san had technically bit herself, which was definitely be a strange thing to do, indeed. Of course, people will do strange things if it really helps out in the end.

Alright, my turn.

I stretched out my "own" arm, which of course was technically Haruhi's. I really hope that no one remembers this. Especially me! Who knows what kind of repercussions would result as me being a girl, whether or not it was just a short term thing. Freud would have a field day with all the things I have to say about these horrible misadventures! Leaning in closer, Asahina-san nervously prepared to deliver a second dose of nanomachines. Well, at least it wouldn't be the first time I let Nagato bite me to save me…

-

My head throbbing, I stumble just slightly because of the bulbous amount of wires and cords under my feet. Catching my balance, I look around my surroundings. I'm in the hallway all of a sudden, as if my journey to the school was done half-asleep. Of course, that is true considering I woke up at nearly six o'clock this morning

A slight raucous rages just behind the door in front of me, the all too familiar Literature Club room that was no more than the SOS Brigade Headquarters now. Sighing to myself, I walk forward and grasp for the doorknob, only to be repulsed by a jolt of static electricity. "Geez, what a great sign…" I winced irritated to myself, and rubbed my finger sorely against the shirt. Sure that I've discharged by now, I quickly grab hold of the doorknob once again and immediately turn and push inward simultaneously.

I trip on a loose wire and fall flat on my face onto the bunch of wires which somewhat break my fall to the floor. I grumble, yeah, but as I get back to my feet, I notice that everything seems to have gone silent around me. Looking around the room, I notice Nagato in the corner reading her book, Koizumi sitting with his legs crossed at the table, while Haruhi stands next to Asahina-san, "altruistically" teaching the poor girl how to play a musical instrument.

Upon looking at me, Haruhi's eyebrows furrow, and she accusingly pointed her teaching baton or whatever at me. Almost growling, she stared at me intensely in a dagger-like fashion,

"DEATH PENALTY!"

Author's Notes: So yeah, Kyon finally gets to the first day of practice for the festival coming up in a month. Let's just hope nothing else comes up to interfere with the SOS Brigade Band's plans!

...legalities...

-Based on the story written by Tanigawa Nagaru

-chapter inspired by a fan comic in the SOS-Wiki gallery