In the morning, Koizumi and I got to school early as planned, hid behind the school gate and waited for the student council president.

'Are you sure you want to go through with the fight?' I asked.

'The video indicated that the fight was a set event, an event as confirmed to have happened from the future's point-of-view. To avoid it would change history and we lose the advantage of knowing what we know.'

'I understand, but we do not know how it will end. It could end bad for us'

Koizumi smiled, 'Don't be so negative. Think about it like a jigsaw puzzle. Even if I am missing a few pieces, I have seen enough to visualize the complete picture. Besides, we are the good guys. Things will go our way.'

As if it was on cue, things immediately did not go our way. We were to talk to the student council president before Haruhi, but as soon as we saw the student council president approaching the school gate, Haruhi was catching up with him from behind.

'What do we do, Koizumi?'

'We will have to let them talk first then… Let's not intervene.'

We stayed hidden from their view and watched from far. Haruhi began the conversation with the student council president. Next we witnessed something truly cringing - she took a deep breath, as if to swallow her pride, and bowed, with people passing by to witness. Oh Haruhi, if only she knew what we already knew. Shortly after, she got furious and her face glowed red. Her voice was loud enough for us to hear…

'You have not heard the last of me, you hear? I will come after you!' She stomped off.

Koizumi and I avoided from being seen by Haruhi as she passed us. Then we approached the student council president.

'Not again.' he scoffed.

'I take you rejected Ms Suzumiya's request to re-establish the SOS brigade?' Koizumi asked.

'Correct.'

'Even if she offered to vacate her position as the brigade leader?'

'Correct.'

'What do you have against her? This sounds like something personal.'

'I told you never to speak to me again. Didn't I?'

'I have no interest in speaking with you either, but we have business to conduct. If you don't want to resolve this through talking, how about we settle this with a fight. Today, 4:30 pm, after school, at the bamboo field down the street. If I win, you recognize the SOS brigade as a school club with the use of the literary club room. If you win, we promise to never bring this up ever again.'

'Why should I accept the fight?'

'Because you owe me a fair fight. You injured me and I did not have a chance to return the favor.'

'Ha! So what? I am the student council president and it is within my power to disband the club and that is that. This conversation is over! Step aside for I will hate to have to -'

'...hit me? See - the way things are going now, we will clash one way or another. Just give me the fight, and let's not do it here and now with people around. You can name your condition if I lose. Unless you are afraid you will lose.'

That sort of got his interest. He thought for a moment, then said, 'Very well then. I want you to leave this school and quit the organization if you lose.'

'Okay. I accept.' Koizumi said without hesitation.

'I will make you regret this.' He walked away confidently.

Koizumi said to me, 'Well, the game is on. You remember what I told you to do?'

I said yes, I'd make the arrangements, but I couldn't shake the thought of how high the stakes had become.

First thing was to talk to Haruhi in the classroom I had to convince Haruhi that the student council president just spoke with me, and he had changed his mind. Since I knew she already spoke with him, unsuccessfully, I included it into my story by saying he sensed her sincerity with her apology (minus the screaming near the end), and decided that he was willing to reconcile. He saw our movie production from the last Cultural Festival and he would like to be cast as the main villain in the next movie. He wanted screen time but most importantly, being a fan of esper shows, he wanted full control over the choreography for the final battle scene against Koizumi. He specifically requested that Haruhi not to be at the shooting, as he felt threatened by her (conveniently explained as also the reason why he disbanded the SOS brigade in the first place). I continued by saying he was ready and he wanted to shoot the fight scene in the afternoon. It would have realistic esper-style battling scene, and I was worried that the president would be going all out and Koizumi might get hurt. I handed the camcorder to her and asked her to give the blessing to go ahead with the filming. She was surprised how convenient that I had the camcorder with me, but the idea of getting the SOS brigade back and getting back at the embarrassment she suffered from the student council president quickly put her in a cooperative mood.

'OK. bring me back awesome esper-battle footage with it (camcorder). Tell Koizumi to go all out with his esper powers against that no good student council president.'

That should do it for the first part. I'd take care of the second part during lunch break.

The time had arrived for the showdown. I was getting worried again, I couldn't help it. My hands were sweating. What if my sweat shorted the camcorder and changed the future, and everything went to hell?

The bamboo field where Haruhi pulled one for Tanabata was a beautiful field for a fight. Perhaps we should give them some samurai swords - it would look really awesome with them striking samurai poses, slicing bamboos and watching the cut portions sliding down diagonally still staying upright... Never mind that, we just wanted this over with. It's good Haruhi wasn't here, because she'd probably come up with crazy ideas like this along the shoot.

'Are you ready, Koizumi?'

Koizumi fixed his hair and said, 'Ready.'

I turned on the camcorder, and began the recording, then followed Koizumi into the bamboo field to meet the student council president, who was already there. Koizumi stopped about 30 feet away.

The president saw me, and asked, 'Are you recording?'

'Yes, we are shooting it for a movie.' Koizumi said.

The president laughed. 'I thought you would be bringing some real weapons. You seriously plan to judo-chop to victory? Are you trying to film me using my power and use it to blackmail me? Looks like you folks are spending way too much time with Haruhi Suzumiya, her corrupt thinking had spread to her cronies. No matter, record while you can. I am just going to beat Koizumi, then I'll beat you (pointing at me) and take the camcorder.'

'Sure, but please let our cameraman get to a good position.' Koizumi said.

I moved to the spot I needed to be, then said, 'Koizumi, go all out on him.'

The president, posing cool like someone in an esper manga, conjured up a red energy ball the size of a tennis ball, and without hesitation, fired at Koizumi. Koizumi, doing his cool dodging maneuver while zigzagging between the bamboo trees, avoided getting hit by it.

A bamboo trees took the damage from a second energy ball the president fired, who apparently could become quite talkative when he was overconfident. He said, 'You think the bamboo trees would give you an advantage? I'll just use smaller ones! It will hurt just as bad!' He held out his hands in front of him, fingers spread wide. Energy 'bullets' appeared in front of his fingertips and sped towards Koizumi.

Koizumi was quick on his feet dodging the 'bullets' without attacking. The president fired several more rounds as Koizumi kept making his way towards the president - as if he could read the president's move.

'You try to tire me out or something? It won't work.'

Koizumi got within striking distance, but the president was prepared. He moved his hands together and within split-second created a volleyball-sized energy ball, and fired it at Koizumi.

It's too close to dodge.

*Bam*

Koizumi generated a force field with his left hand and blocked the energy ball. The president did not anticipate the counterattack and the colliding force pushed him backwards. Not allowing the president time to process what just happened, Koizumi immediately generated his own orange energy ball the size of a volleyball with his right hand and swung it at the president. The president desperately tried to block it with his left arm, and the clothes on his left arm was scorched. He then jumped backwards and kept a safe distance from Koizumi.

'So… you have actually come prepared. But how?'

'Lucky you. I am still new to my powers, or else I would have taken you out in one move.'

'You are beginning to piss me off.'

'I'm counting on it.'

I had to say, Koizumi's move was pretty impressive. Offense and defense in one move. What the president didn't know, however, was that during the time Koizumi reviewed the recording, he told me he noticed his facial expression when he created the energy ball. Koizumi said he made that face when he fought the giants only when he was at his limits. Darn it, I wished he would tell me what his trump card was, or at least, what he thought his trump card was.

The president stood up straight and patted his left sleeve. It did not appear he's hurt. 'Well, you've lost your element of surprise. I guess this is it for you.'

'Don't be cocky.'

The president's back on the offense. He fired several dozens of needle-like beams at Koizumi - similar to what Asakura did when she tried to kill me. Koizumi created a force field with one hand and dodged them all, then created a volleyball-sized energy ball with the other. If this happened in a movie where lives were not at stack, I could have enjoyed this.

The president laughed, 'Same attack? You lack imagination!'

Pulling off another surprise move, Koizumi fired the energy ball to the opposite direction of where the president was. He turned the wrist of the same hand, and snapped the fingers. The energy ball vanished and reappeared behind the president just inches away. It struck him on the back of his head as he fell to the ground face first. Super awesome.

I could have been more surprised had I had not seen it before. So far the battle sequence was on the recording from the camcorder the elder Ms Asahina brought back from the future. Koizumi and I knew that move would work - we just did not know how to explain it in science terms.

The president was a bit shaken from this. A moment ago he thought Koizumi was a pushover, now he realized Koizumi could actually fight. He got up slowly, then looked up at me. He figured out that the camcorder was not just for filming. He said, 'I see. That's how it's done.' We knew this part too.

That's right, the magical camcorder. Just as Haruhi 'wished' Ms Asahina's color contact lens could shoot laser beam, we had Haruhi 'wished' the camcorder would give Koizumi esper power in the real world - all in the name of making a movie. I wondered why Haruhi would not let Koizumi conjure something much more powerful and knocked out the enemy with one move. Perhaps she secretly wished for a more intriguing way to defeat the enemy?

The student council president dashed towards me with his arm raised. An energy ball began to form. Koizumi called to me, 'Watch out!' and conjured up an energy ball himself, running towards me.

This would be the last action sequence from our movie stars on the recording. Time for me began to slow down. What would happen next? The adult Ms Asahina said I gave the camcorder to her, right? So I did get out of this alive, right? But what if I was dying when I gave it to her? She never said whether I made it out alive! What if my job was just to make sure we got the SOS brigade back? I stood there frozen like a deer in front of headlights. Oh dear -

The energy ball was within 3 feet from my face and I could feel the heat from it… Instinctively and seemingly in slow motion my body began to turn to the right as my left arm move up to try to protect me from the impact.

A white flash of light came blasted from my left side, blocking the energy ball, missing my left hand, and slicing nearly a third of the front of the camcorder off. It also nearly took my right pinky with it.

And there stood Nagato. She was here. Ms Kimidori was also here, standing in a distance.

The president jumped backwards, turned to check if Koizumi's still charging. Koizumi had actually stopped - Neither he nor I expected Nagato would appear.

...Koizumi's energy ball was still in his hand.

...The president noticed the energy ball as well.

Nagato said, 'Itsuki Koizumi, you have to finish this now.'

Koizumi appeared to have trouble maintaining the energy ball in his hand.

The president pointed his finger at Nagato and said, 'You two stay out of this.' His eyes began to flicker, his head twitched in strange ways. The fact that Nagato and Ms Kimidori were both here, the way he told them off, and the way his eyes flickered like a broken television, pretty much confirmed what Koizumi and I suspected all along - the Data Integration Thought Entity was involved.

Nagato said again in an alarming tone, 'Itsuki Koizumi. Now.' Why didn't she do it instead?

The president's eyes stopped flickering. He turned his head towards his left and looked into a distance. He figured it out - there's a second camcorder. He dashed towards the direction he was looking at. Koizumi fired his energy ball trying to stop him, but missed.

Nagato remained still and said, 'Unexpected event in progress. Risk level is now high.'

The president's heading towards where Ms Asahina was.