Well, it had finally been decided: our first trimester of our second year (except for Asahina-san, who was still our senpai, though it was becoming increasingly harder to remember this particular fact) would be ending sooner rather than later, so it meant I only had precious few days to enjoy the sight of girls in our school's uniform. It was odd how you could take such a little thing for granted, but upon facing the prospect of losing it, would become completely and utterly consumed by it, especially so without the usual time to prepare as with the usual breaks. Sure, the girls always looked great in anything they wore, but our school's female uniform was just… just something else.

Spring had been exceptionally warm all in all (and felt like it had lasted forever), and with summer showing early signs of its invasion, I could only hope I wouldn't end up completely cooked and roasted by a belligerent sun. Of course, extremely hot weather had its benefits as well, ones that involved my current objects of observation and would no doubt only improve the sight of them. Soon even those cute uniforms would be too much to wear…

It was lunch break and I had decided to escape from Haruhi for once, to admire the other beauties the world had. After all, these are the things a normal schoolboy should have the rights to once in a while in his life, to relax and let the good things in life flow over him.

It really had been too long…

Littered about me in chattering groups of gossip, girls flocked about like exotic birds, complete with long legs and the dynamic plumage of their uniforms. Whenever my eyes would become overwhelmed, I would simply close them and let the soft susurrus of their soft voices leak into my brain.

With my lunch at my side and the joys of a young man's life around me, it was the perfect moment. Or it would have been if Koizumi hadn't found me. I sighed in preparation. The guy couldn't keep his mouth shut for all the gold in the world.

"Enjoying yourself?" Koizumi asked as he sat next to me, looking ahead at what I was looking at.

"I was."

"Ah, I see. My apologies for interrupting your… reverie."

"Did you have something to say then?" I asked, resigning myself completely to my grim fate. It felt as if most of the girls had evaporated thanks to some gender shared sixth sense when it came to maximizing my misfortune. Losing nice things is always worse than never having had anything nice to begin with.

"I merely thought to make a polite enquiry into the current state of you and Suzumiya-san's relationship."

He sure can talk about Haruhi, can't he…? Sometimes I really wish I could go and slide over to another timeline to yank the other Koizumi's from Yuki's world and have him just go out with Haruhi instead… although that guy hadn't either had the guts to tell his Haruhi how he felt. But my Koizumi on the other hand… well, the jury was still out in regards to him, to be perfectly honest. Sure, he had a perfectly logical pretense for asking me about this stuff due to his duties… but honestly, he could so easily just infer what really matters and not ask for the gory details.

"I've allowed you to have free reign in regard to her for what I feel quite a significant while now."

"Oh, you've allowed me, huh? Gee, thanks."

"It's just a turn of phrase."

"A phrase of a turn would be a turn of a phrase."

Koizumi raised an eyebrow at me but I just shrugged apathetically. It had been a joke, but not a funny one by any stretch. It would have been rather disturbing in fact if Koizumi had given it any more of a response than he had.

"Anyway… is it now safe to assume the two of you are… official?" Koizumi asked, still looking ahead, though there wasn't anything particularly interesting about anymore.

"I haven't received a badge or a certificate, so I guess not," I answered.

"You know what I mean."

"Nope, don't think so…"

"…Did I interrupt something monumentally important when I sat down next to you to receive this sort of behavior?"

"Can't say. You interrupted me after all."

"Yes, I'm sorry, but I'd really like to –"

"Just you? Not everyone in the world?"

"Well, yes…"

"Alright. Me and Haruhi…"

"…Yes?"

"Are at a… weird place," I said perfectly honestly.

"So the two of you are an item then?"

"No, that's not what I said, atall."

Koizumi simply stared at me, although it was far too clear what it was he was messaging.

"Look, if Haruhi and I really did get together –"

This remark received another funny look from Koizumi, but I pressed on, not wanting to indulge him with his love of semantics and gossip, sometimes both.

"– if we did get together… it wouldn't be like that. We wouldn't live in perfect harmony, with sunshine, daisies, and rainbow unicorn farts. We wouldn't go on dates –" that word still carried a nasty aftertaste to it upon leaving my tongue, especially when there was a little side helping of Haruhi in the mix. One awkward date in a parallel reality had been more than enough to last me a lifetime. "– we wouldn't live together happily for ever after or any of that crap. Haruhi will always be the kind for spontaneous exercises with her chosen band of vagabonds. No… I don't think either one of us would like that."

"Really? I would have taken you for the opposite kind."

"Well, if I really did want nothing but a quiet life… I guess it's true that I would have just walked away a long time ago."

Koizumi grinned. "I see that wall of self-denial is finally starting to crack."

"Shut it. There wasn't a wall. There were just thing that didn't bear minding. Just what kind of an idiot do you take me for anyway?"

"Hmm… I suppose it's always been a bit like this in relationships. Some people fall in love with an image, an ideal of a person. Then they try to make that person more like their ideal; make the lazy boy work harder, reveal and nurture the sensitive side of a tough guy, and so on… but sometimes someone gets lucky and they actually find the ideal person of their affection, and the worst thing that could happen is if they actually changed."

"Shut it. It's not like that. Haruhi and I just fooled around a bit, that's all. Don't make such a big deal about it. We aren't."

"Mmmm… 'we'." Koizumi said with a sly, contented smirk.

"Shut it. How many times do I need to tell you there's nothing special up with us before you believe it?"

"I'm not sure. How many times do you think it would take to tell me the Earth is flat in order to make me believe that statement?"

"Well here's something you should believe in… Shut it."

"As witty as ever, I see," Koizumi said, wearing a smile, that no matter what its initial intent had been, mocked me relentlessly. "I'm sure Suzumiya-san likes that about you."

"You're just sadistic, you know that?"

Koizumi snorted. "If you say so…" he said, before he turned to fully inspect me. "By the way, how is Nagato-san these days? I haven't had a chance to speak with her for quite some time…"

"Why do you wanna know about her?"

"Just curious."

"She's fine. We're fine. Everyone's fine."

"Well, however things are with her, or anyone else, I suggest some simple discretion."

"It's not like… never mind. You suck, by the way. And definitely not in the good way."

"Oh my… I shan't even ask about that comment."

I rolled my eyes.

"Anyway," I said a bit more forcefully than I had originally wanted to, "I've got some practical questions for you."

"Do go on."

"Now that she has actually encountered something supernatural, do you think she will start believing things such as Fuyumi are really possible? And if that is the case, do you think such things could become more common."

"Monsters, ghosts and the like?"

"Yes."

"Or perhaps she just thought it was nothing but a fluke. She witnessed a person who could seemingly teleport and pass through solid matter. Would you consider this likely even if you saw it happen?"

"Well no, absolutely not, it'd still be a one in a gazillionbazillion chance, something that goes against everything that makes the world tick," I answered, "but it would certainly open some doors… I mean, after getting proof of all your backgrounds, I found myself more accepting of anything new thrown my way

"Exactly, 'more accepting'. It didn't necessarily change your worldview in any significant manner. Within your head, was it ever a true paradigm shift?"

"Of course. Freaks like you actually existed for me now, no offense... by much."

"Hm... Yet you seemed to be equally surprised whenever anything new appeared, no matter how quickly you ended up accepting it. I believe you were always quick to point out how absurd something was, or how you believed it violated the laws of physics."

"…I think I'm starting to get what you're saying. It's like… well, like a fluke, like you said. I could win the lottery once, but that's no reason to believe it would happen again. If anything, given the probabilities, it's probably less likely now."

"I suppose," Koizumi said warily, not completely satisfied with where the conversation was going. He probably thought I was oversimplifying things again, but sometimes a cigar's just a cigar.

"So unless Haruhi keeps getting bombarded with weird things… but how did this happen in the first place? How did something supernatural finally appear? She was still as skeptical about it, wasn't she?"

"Probably but… perhaps it wasn't a question of skepticism anymore. Perhaps, something even more unlikely had occurred for her."

"What, our kiss?"

"Hmm…" Koizumi smiled one of those mysteriously satisfied smiles of his. "We are of course approaching this all from a pre-supposed solipsist angle, even if I do prefer it as such. Let's abandon this line of thought for now. I think we might be getting ahead of ourselves."

"Yeah, let's."

"No… one of the most basic principles of the human condition is one of subjectivity. We see what we want to see in everything. Good and bad, beauty and ugliness, these are more often than not our reflections upon the world, revealing more about us than the world we perceive. It is the naturalistic fallacy: we draw conclusions from nature that are not truly logical. For example, can you tell me how a rock can be good or bad, is there some measurable property of goodness or badness within a rock, or even within a human? How many units of goodness do you possess, Kyon? If you were atomized, would I find even a trace element of justice, beauty of even wisdom in your remains? But when we occasionally do see something as it truly is, beyond our expectations… rarely can we accept it. We seek a distraction to avoid dealing with something we do not want to. We lie, most often to ourselves. We rationalize. And reason… is the ultimate lie."

"Okay, you know what? I can see right through you. I know where this is going. We've had this conversation a million times before. This is just going to lead right back to me and Haruhi's relationship."

"Yes, it's quite inescapable. You two are bound together by and for various reasons. Mine can mainly be boiled to your complimentary natures. But when this dynamic of balance was shaken up between you – for and within Suzumiya-san – perhaps she desired for a distraction. Perhaps she required an escape to her private, subjective world, away from the world where you were… something else to her, perhaps even something more. Perhaps she was afraid of losing her world of adventure."

I looked away, wondering how exactly Haruhi's words might have spawned a place for Fuyumi to enter the stage the evening she had appeared before me the first time. Haruhi had certainly been distraught then, and maybe I had had more of a part in all of it than I had thought, but…

"Fuyumi wasn't created then and there, was she?"

"Probably not, but who ultimately knows? But on the subject of Fuyumi, there's something Mori-san would like to see you about."

"What?" I sat up straight immediately, practically ready to jump at the slightest hint of danger. "You guys know something? What is it?"

"I'm afraid I am just as much in the dark about what Mori-san would like to tell you. The invitation was essentially offered to both you and me. I would have told you the other day, but… it didn't quite feel right at the time."

"You know..."

"Do tell."

"You're far more of a pragmatist than you like to let on."

"Am I?"

"Yeah... how you steer any conversation in your direction, how you've guided me and Haruhi, what you did to her back at the fair..."

"...Yes... I suppose so. It's a character trait I'm not too fond of. Sometimes I feel I fail to practice what I preach... I suppose... I lie to myself."

"...Heh..."

"What?"

"Just did it again. It's like you've got it all planned out before we even start. Like you've ran every scenario through in front of the mirror, so you'll easily be able to meet anything with cool, impassive face."

"Hmmm... Perhaps," Koizumi said with said cool, impassive face.

"Geez, what a thing to say. And never mind the pragmatism when it's all underlined by some perverse sense of sadism."

"Hmm..." Koizumi made an amused sound. "Perhaps," he muttered with a smirk.

"So, when's Mori-san want to meet?"

"Keep your calendar open is all I can say. She's been very busy lately."

Koizumi got up to leave, giving his back a little stretch and managed to take a few steps before he turned to me again. Great.

"Oh, and one more thing. Suzumiya-san is getting rather bored in the clubroom. Would you mind –"

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be over soon."

Sigh…


Haruhi clicked the mouse and I heard a short little gasp from her. I glanced at her, surprised to hear such a sound from her, and saw her staring at the computer screen with blank shock, her eyes slowly starting to skitter about the screen. Then her eyes suddenly shifted into a glare that changed its focus from whatever had shocked her on the computer to me. I quickly returned my focus to the game in front of me. When I did dare look at Haruhi again, her angry stare had lessened slightly, but it was now concentrated on Asahina-san who was completely unaware of the hostile evaluation she seemed to be getting. And it definitely was an evaluation. Haruhi's eyes went up, down and about Asahina-san's body with the same speed and anxiety a general might asses the latest images of a field of battle.

"You know, Mikuru-chan," Haruhi said as she crossed her hands and leaned back to put her feet up on her desk, staring at Asahina-san critically. "I don't think you need to wear that maid uniform anymore. Your school uniform will be good enough."

"What? Wh-why?" Asahina-san asked, shocked at the mere thought to remove what was like a second skin to her within the clubroom, blinking in incomprehension.

"I've realized there can be something as too titillating… for some people. There's a lot of weak willed, sneaky lechers in this world… and we hardly need to feed their sick desires, do we?"

"N-no… but I – I rather l-like it…"

Haruhi's face soured, quickly gestating into an angry glare.

"Oh, you like getting that sort of attention, do you?" There was an oddly accusatory inflection from the queen of attention grabbing acts as she stood up. "Here I thought you were just putting your heart, mind and body to the service of the Brigade, but it seems you're just doing it for some cheap thrills! I thought you had only our best interests in mind, but turns out you do it only for yourself!"

"No!" Asahina-san's denial came rather sharply for her. "O-of course not!" she added a bit more like her nervous self.

"Get over here!"

Asahina-san froze, pressing a tray to her chest, quivering in place as she stared at her mistress with a face gone pale as the moon. All Haruhi would have needed to do to get the girl moving was to shout even louder, but instead she did something that was probably even more insidious in a subtle way: her glare narrowed into one that promised hell and worse if you only stretched your imagination even only slightly to lengths beyond demons and to those of a human's, like those of Haruhi's. Slowly Asahina-san approached the Commander's desk, like it was the executioner's block. None of us could guess at what Haruhi was up to. Even I had been shocked by the sudden anger and was only now starting to slowly think that I should maybe do something about the situation, but before I could even get up from my seat, Haruhi pointed her seat and Asahina-san, after a short pause and a nervous gulp, sat down in Haruhi's chair.

Haruhi's face scrunched up into a disapproving frown as she weighed some of Asahina-san's hair in her hand like one might judge a freshly caught fish, wondering if letting it go or not was the correct response.

"Maybe we should cut your hair too. You've had this same totally boring style for over a year. I think we have some scissors around here somewhere…" Haruhi said as she strode off to a corner, rummaging about through boxes of miscellaneous items.

"EH? N-n-noo! Please, not that!" Asahina-san whimpered shrilly.

"Come over here!" Haruhi brusquely ordered as she waved a pair of scissors in the air.

I finally found the levers for operating my jaw. "Hey, stop teasing Asahina-san, will you?"

"Oh yeah, and what'll you do to stop me, huh? She's mine to do with as I please," Haruhi shot me an angry glare before she took a bunch of Asahina-san's hair in a fist and without even a second for pause or hesitation, snipped off a chunk of Asahina-san's pretty auburn hair.

"AAHH!" Tears broke out immediately, quickly drenching Asahina-san's face.

"Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Shut up!"

I finally got up and rushed forward to grab Haruhi by the wrist before she could do any more damage with the scissors.

"Get your grubby hands off me!" Haruhi shouted in my face.

"The hell's wrong with you?"

I felt like punching the idiot, I honestly did! But this time I was able to resist the urge all on my own, even if it was as hard as completely chewing my nails off to do so.

Haruhi yanked herself free from my hold and turned around with her arms crossed, standing perfectly still.

"Haruhi."

She twisted about and gave me a terrifying glare, but after staring back at her with what I hoped was even half as angry that glare of hers, Haruhi relented. She turned to face us with her hands clasped tightly to her hips. With her lips pouting, eyes and face scrunched up, eyes looking away, Haruhi took a few steps closer to Asahina-san, whose face was still red and wet. "Sorry, Mikuru-chan," Haruhi said half-heartedly. "Can I go now?" she quickly asked the room in general immediately afterwards, much like a child might.

Asahina-san was still quietly sobbing in Haruhi's chair. "I-it's o-o-o-kay, I've b-been meaning to… to… c-cut my h-h-air anyway…" she said as she stood up, doing her best to smile and look at us in the face, though it was as clear as anything how hard it was for her. Even though she was facing me, I could easily spot the little window that had been formed in her hair near her neck.

"Don't. Don't do that," I told her before I returned my steel hard focus to Haruhi. "Why did you do that?"

"Stop it already! I know I was out of line! Can't you just drop it already? I said I was sorry, didn't I? Isn't that enough?" Haruhi asked hotly, looking rather flushed.

If this had been the Haruhi a year ago, yes, it would have, but now… she damn well knew better. I wasn't going to let her slide out of it this easily.

"What's done is done! I can't go back in time, now can I?"

"No, but you can fix it, can't you? I seem to recall someone having quite a talent for hairdressing when I first met her."

Haruhi's jaw was tightly clenched, her lower lip crumbled up in a fearsome jab upwards, her face turning red with anger as she glared up at me.

"Fine!" she shouted as she turned about on her heels, throwing her hands up in rare defeat. "Mikuru! Sit back down!"

I see she's lost the 'chan'…

"Sit!" Haruhi yelled at Asahina-san, who had remained petrified. "I'm trying to help you!"

"It's okay. I'm here," I quietly whispered behind her.

"Uguu…" Asahina-san moaned before she took a step forward that seemed to require an immense amount of willpower.

"Sheesh…" Haruhi muttered, as she looked about, annoyed, with one foot tapping against the floor.

When Asahina-san finally arrived in Haruhi's chair, her legs and hands pressed tightly together to box herself off, Haruhi walked around her, half-bent with her chin out as she inspected Asahina-san's hair with a glower, careful not to make eye contact with the still sniffling girl.

When Haruhi stopped circling like some buzzard behind Asahina-san, she gingerly lifted the cut hair on her palm. Asahina-san shivered slightly at that.

"Will you stop sniffling already? It's really annoying. It's ill-fitting of not only a Brigade member, but a human being. It'll grow back. It's just hair."

I wonder how you'd like it… then again, you would probably just turn a ruined hairdo into a mark of honor and stride about the place with your jaw out, daring anyone to say anything about it.

"We could put her hair in a pony-"

Haruhi's free hand twitched, nearly forming a fist again. For a brief moment I would have missed if I hadn't been watching her so warily for any further vandalism of a natural treasure of our country, a deeply annoyed grimace passed through her face. She however scrunched up her face in determination after a deep intake of breath, an even faster glance at me, and went ahead and tied Asahina-san's hair into a ponytail with a little spare ribbon she seemed to have had on her person.

"There! You happy now?" Haruhi snapped, making Asahina-san start. Haruhi then let go of Asahina-san's hair with the same sort of flourish of emotion someone might reserve for throwing away a mousetrap, done with its function. Then she went and turned away to sulk in the direction of an empty corner.

I gave Haruhi a few moments to fume to herself, also making sure Asahina-san was okay (at least her polite smile didn't feel quite as forced now), before I would face the little dragon once more.

"Why did you do that?"

"…Such a philosophical question. How rare from you," Haruhi said without turning to face me. "Why does anyone do anything? It's all either going to be unachieved or be achieved leaving you with nothing to do until everything just swirls down a cosmic toilet like the crap it is."

"…Don't even bother. Everything happens for a reason. I just can't understand what could have caused you to start acting like a snotty little brat again. I really thought you were better than this by now. I thought the people in the SOS Brigade mattered more to you by now. After everything, knowing how close we've all come to losing each other."

"…Shut up, Kyon," the girl said sulkily, though I could also hear a soft hurt in her voice as well.

"What's wrong with you this time? You know you can talk to me."

"…It's nothing…" Haruhi said in a quiet voice. "Nothing important. Just… just something stupid." She placed her hand on her forehead and shook her head. "So stupid…"

Well, that was something at least. She knew she'd overreacted and it looked like she was feeling a little ashamed, not as much as a normal person might, but still enough for now.

Haruhi crossed her arms again and took to window gazing with a stern expression of thoughtfulness. Something was brewing inside her head and none of us left like opening that barrel of laughs before it had all at least gotten some time to ferment.

I looked about the room. Both Koizumi and Yuki were still watching me silently, oserving our interactions as per usual. Asahina-san on the other hand was preoccupied with her hair, now standing near her clothing rack, and very carefully, as if she feared it might fall, she patted at her new ponytail…

She looked great with it, I had to admit to myself.

"Well, I suppose we should all be heading home by now anyway," Koizumi said as he stood up, making a show of him checking his watch in the most conspicuous manner.

"Yeah," I agreed with a mutter.

Yuki, with machine like precision and swiftness, closed her book with a little snap, placed it in her bag without looking and then calmly headed out the door. And that was as good as a judge's gavel ending the day. Asahina-san quickly followed, still patting at her ponytail. Koizumi glanced at me warily, before he too followed. I was just about to close the door behind me when:

"Kyon…" Haruhi spoke so softly I nearly missed it.

"Yeah?"

"Don't… don't go yet."

"Okay, sure…"

I closed the door and walked halfway across the room, unsure if I should go any closer.

After a while, when I could see her features relaxing: "So, you wanna tell me what this was all about?"

Haruhi turned to look at me, staring at me with something of a resentful but also contemplative look. She didn't say anything after that and simply walked out without a single word.

What the hell had happened?

I immediately went to the computer and opened up the web-browser and checked out the history, hoping to find some sort of clue for today's events. Haruhi had been on the computer before this weirdness had happened. She'd seen something… something that had shocked her… What kind of thing could make Haruhi gasp in surprise? What could have caused such a strong reaction from her?

Haruhi's browser history seemed to consist mostly of the most random and esoteric searches on various different search engines, sometimes even the same searches on different engines. The SOS Brigade's homepage was also a commonly obsessive place of visitation. Anyway, the latest pages Haruhi had been to were a typical news site, a site listing supposed UFO sightings, a forum with an impossible to remember address made out of random numbers and letters where people were discussing forensic and detective work relating to what sounded like actual cases (it seemed legit, because of the level of technical jargon involved), a Wikipedia page on Babylonian mythology and a page with a funny and highly suggestive cartoon strip.

Well, that all seemed like something Haruhi would check up on. The cartoon was crude but despite the subject being brought up, which might have caused someone like Asahina-san to faint, I could only see Haruhi either sniggering at something so ridiculous or huffing derisively at the lack of imagination from her point of view.

So what the hell had made her gasp?

What if… what if it had been something… odd. I mean, we knew there were rogue data entities out there, more like animals than humans. One had been in Rousseau the dog and another had been in the Computer Club President… the president had been fallen victim to the SOS Brigade's symbol… but Yuki had changed that, hadn't she?

I went ahead and pulled up the crappy homepage, but nothing seemed to jump out at me.

What if something had jumped out and gotten into Haruhi this time? Was that even possible? And if it was… shouldn't Haruhi be sick like the other two dogs infected before by data bugs (no offense to Rousseau)? Or what if… what if this thing could somehow use Haruhi's powers?

No way. I'm just scaring myself.

But what if I wasn't?

Haruhi just acted weird. It's not like that hasn't happened before. If Haruhi didn't act weirdly, something would be off. Then something would be weird. But this was different. She hadn't acted like this in months. The last time she'd treated Asahina-san this badly was back when we'd been filming her dumb movie… but she'd gotten better.

What could have prompted such a momentary regression? What could have shocked her like this for a moment, made her act out so childishly, so… so… insecure… hmmm… was that really the word I wanted to use here?

Haruhi had been shocked by something, she'd then focused on Asahina-san and decided to strip her of what I assumed Haruhi thought of as 'moe-factors'…

I crossed my arms and leaned back in Haruhi's chair to search the ceiling for inspiration.

Honestly, if this was any other person than Haruhi, I'd say the person was indeed feeling insecure, maybe even jealous. But this was Haruhi and I couldn't spot anything that could have prompted any kind of significant reaction in Haruhi's browser memory out of the blue like that. Jealous outbursts didn't start with shocked gasps at computer monitors.

I couldn't rule out data entities, but I couldn't understand how one could possibly have returned after Yuki's treatment. Then again, I didn't really understand the first thing about the data entities, let alone the wild ones.

Jumping to 'demonic' possession seemed a bit too much to me right now, especially since Haruhi seemed to have snapped out of it and apologized fairly easily, for her of course. A regression had occurred, but it had indeed been momentary, a kind of passing moment of passion. Once I'd stepped in and told her to stop as sternly as possible, she seemed to snap out of it. That in itself wasn't possession but more like the childish psychology I felt could be applied to Haruhi on a bad day. She might have deep motives and insights but on a more casual level the girl was simply childish and self-centered.

I'm rather impressed how well I've learned to break all of this down from Koizumi and Sasaki. But even so, I still hadn't learned enough to put it all back together yet myself.

My gut told me she had had something of an attack of jealousy... but caused by what? What was she jealous of? Why aim that emotion at Asahina-san all of a sudden? How could she just so suddenly turn jealous of Asahina-san? Seriously, in the blink of an eye…

I felt stupid for even considering it… and yet… it was still the best idea to come to me. Trusting my gut had usually worked, but this… felt both horribly wrong and absolutely right at the same time. No matter what happened between me and Haruhi, I would probably always feel this ambivalent about her. It was a comforting thought in a weird way.


That night, while resting at home on my couch with Shamisen lounging next to me at an ear-scratchable distance, my rather rare chance of TV viewing was interrupted by my sister marching in.

"Phone call, Kyon-kun!"

As I stood up to see what was up, my sister naturally seized my spot on the couch and assaulted Shamisen with a fierce tickling that would have earned me a scratching if I'd tried the same while all my sister received was a happy licking of the face.

"Kyon," it turned out to be Koizumi on the other line, "Did Suzumiya-san say anything after club activities?"

"No, not really. Why do you ask?"

"Hmm… I guess it's up to me then…"

"What is?"

"Don't worry, it's nothing monumentally catastrophic. I think I can get to bottom of this shortly. It certainly won't be a bother for me. It's actually something I'd been quietly wishing for."

"And that'd be…?"

"I think it'd be better if you knew afterwards. But don't worry; I'm quite confident I can sort this one out on my own. In fact, I'd rather appreciate the chance. Goodnight, Kyon."

The click and following beeping of an empty line followed. I stood there listening for a while, hoping the line would somehow magically open up and someone just for once explain to me everything in a clear and concise manner without any additional mudding of the issue.

I sighed, hung up, and walked back to the living room, determined to do at least one thing.

"Oh, Kyon-kun. Who was… why are you looking – hey, don't, not fair! Put me down!"

I plopped my little sister on the floor and took my rightful place on the couch, to the annoyed hissing of Shamisen. "Oh don't you start too," I told the dumb cat.

"No fair!" my sister wailed before she got up, looking like she might burst into tears and run off, only to rush forward with a smile and bounce on top of my gut.

"Whee!"

"Ooff!"

"You know, this is actually much better," my sister said with a bright smile as she settled down on chest. Shamisen quickly followed suit, leaping up on to the couch and then up onto my forehead for a balancing act that ended with him simply flopping down on my face.

Sigh

"I give up," I muttered as my sister proceeded to pinch my cheeks. I made my pointless last stand, and gave one of her cheeks a squeeze. I should have known it would only result in firmer retaliation. The battle for the couch's supremacy had been lost. Only the strewn bodies of my parents' children (and that of the cat's) remained to watch whatever garbage was being tossed at the public to see what would stick.

At least there were a lot of cute girls involved, even if their singing could be compared to Shamisen's mewling. My sister ate it all up of course; what little girls didn't love cute outfits and flashing light and the simple spectacle of a well put together show? I on the other hand couldn't help but wonder what the girls of the SOS Brigade would look like, dressed up like idols, performing on the main stage. At the very least they would have sounded better (it was pointless to even make a comparison in regards to looks, because no one could ever come close to those three for me).

The evening ended with my sister falling asleep on top of me. So it was up to me carry the little snot nosed princess to her bed, tuck her in, give her a little kiss on the forehead, leaving her none the wiser for my private showing of affection, even if she did smile a little to herself in her sleep. I then went away to engage in sleep as well, yawning mightily all the way until I was under my covers.

But strangely sleep seemed quite elusive once I was ready and waiting for it…

Tomorrow was going to be a bit awkward, wasn't it?

Oh crap! Speaking of awkward… I'd nearly forgotten hadn't I? I had something important planned for tomorrow, but with Haruhi always bustling about, making herself the center of my life whether I wanted or not, it had completely slipped my mind.

Damn, damn, damn…

I got up and frantically started searching my desk, then my bookshelf, and then all the pockets of my pants and jackets.

Where the hell was my library card?