Chapter 5: Chock Full O' Memories

Kyon dropped his satchel on the floor, and slumped into bed, taking out the slip of paper Mikuru had handed him and holding it above his eyes with a dreamy expression. After about a minute of wistful gazing, he slipped his hand under the bed and drew out an old, battered-looking tin box. His aunt had given him a box of chocolates one Christmas, and his younger self had converted it into a treasure box stuffed to the brim with the baseball cards that he used to collect so fervently. Nowadays though, it was mostly filled with trivial things not worth sparing a second glance at. But still, Kyon kept them safe.

Opening the box, he placed the piece of paper on a small pile of differently shaped notes; Asakura's: the time she'd tried to kill him, Nagato's: the time she'd told him she was an alien, Asahina-san's: the time her adult self had appeared before him for the first time, and Nagato's again: given on the day he went and drew those lines on Haruhi's school field.

Wondering vaguely why she'd given him the note a full day in advance, Kyon slowly started to undress.

Author Speak: The story's nearly done in my head now. That's what I'd been doing this past two weeks. My apologies to those who've been kept waiting…. Chapter 6 is under construction. I don't know whether this has been done here by anyone else, but I'd like to upload one of my later chapters (the last but one, to be precise) right now. You can treat it like a "sneak peek" of sorts. Enjoy!