We arrived at the bookstore and there were about 10 people gathered outside. There were 5 rows of 8 chairs in front of a small stage. On the stage was a table with some books which supposedly were the old man's masterpiece of nonsense. The conference was way smaller than what I originally thought it would be. Perhaps most people had enough of the tiresome crazy talk day after day, and they had crash-landed back to reality before the last day.

'Mr Hasegawa!' Haruhi excitedly yelling his name while waving.

The man appeared to be in his 70s. He did not resemble anyone we'd met before.

Mr Hasegawa shook hands with the girls one by one. 'Hello, Ms Suzumiya. Welcome to the last day. Ms Asahina, glad to see you again, I was worried I would not see you one more time. And, Ms Nagato, welcome back.'

'I want to introduce you to the rest of the SOS brigade members! This is Kyon.' I reached out to shake his hand but he simply nodded.

'And here's Itsuki Koizumi.' They shook hands. Was it my imagination he was avoiding me?

'It's nice to see fine young people carry on our mission! Ms Suzumiya, you have done well.'

I said, 'What's the mission?'

Haruhi said, 'Kyon, don't be rude!'

Mr Hasegawa said, 'It's alright. We ask questions, that's why we are here! Anyways, it's almost time to start. Please find yourself a seat. I'm going to talk about espers today.'

He looked at Koizumi.

Haruhi said, 'Yes! Let's go!'

While we're finding our seats, I asked Koizumi, 'Did he look at you when he said he was to talk about espers?'

Koizumi said, 'It's sort of obvious. He knew. By the way, let's sit on the second row. I want to be able to see both Mr Hasegawa and Ms Suzumiya.'

Haruhi sat front and center, with Nagato on her left and Ms Asahina on her right. Koizumi sat behind Haruhi and I sat behind Nagato, who turned to look at me and smiled. All my worries went away - for a short moment.

The old man spoke to the small crowd about the type of espers who did not have powers in the normal world but only in an alternate world called the closed space. Their powers were awakened by a God-like entity living among us and their jobs were to safeguard our world, although there were also espers who had different point of views. I looked at Haruhi and as expected, she was having a great time gobbling up everything this charismatic old man fed her with a 'why can't I be that entity?' expression on her face. I also tried to look for Asakura in her frog suit - but could not spot her. She probably found a better spot to hide this time.

At around 5 pm Koizumi got a phone call from his colleague from his organization. I recalled seeing the paper he showed me the other day with the list of time and date where closed space was to appear. Koizumi put away his phone and whispered to me saying his colleague confirmed a small closed space had appeared as predicted. He also said unfortunately at that point, knowing that the closed space appeared as predicted alone was insufficient to crack the mystery. He was obviously distraught from Mr Hasegawa's knowledge, as well as not able to connect Mr Hasegawa to the creation of the closed space. Haruhi was sitting right in front of us. If she didn't create the closed space, who could it be? Should I ask Sasaki if it's her?

Then I heard something I couldn't explain.

'Did you hear that?' I asked Koizumi.

'What?'

There were all kinds of noises. Mr Hasegawa on his microphone giving his presentation, plenty of background noises from passersby, vehicles, even birds. And then it was gone.

'It's gone... it sounded like... whispers right next to me...'

He moved even closer, and said, 'Like the way I whispered into your ears right now?'

'Not so close! I can feel your breath!'

'Okay, but what did it say?'

'I don't know. I don't understand it.'

Koizumi got another phone call from his colleague. 'The closed space has disappeared.' He said.

After the event Haruhi went up and thanked the old man and made us all bowed to him like he's a hero or something. The old man told Haruhi if she liked, he had some jaw-dropping evidence he could not show in public but he could have an appointment-only showing the next day for the SOS brigade. Haruhi was totally into it. She gave him her phone number so he could contact her later for more details. Everyone agreed to attend except for Nagato, who had cleaning duties . Haruhi tried to convince Nagato to swap with someone in her class, but Nagato said no. Perhaps she had enough of Mr Hasegawa's BS. It'd be better anyways, Nagato no longer had her powers and she would not be able to defend us in case the man turned out to be a very bad man.

After Haruhi and Ms Asahina left, Koizumi went up to Nagato and said, 'Ms Nagato. May I ask you something?'

'Yes?'

'You were at the event on Tuesday and Wednesday as well, right? Did you hear and see anything... strange?'

'What do you mean? We're at a supernatural conference... everything is kind of strange.' She smiled.

'No strange whispering?' I asked.

'Hmm... no.'

Koizumi looked at me and gave me a 'sorry-you-were-nuts' look, then said, 'Thank you. I'll see you both tomorrow at school. Goodbye.'

Nagato said, 'Kyon, shall we?' That's right, it's time for our 'date'.

We headed over to the park where Ms Asahina told me she was a time traveler for the first time. Not for any specific reason actually, just that it's nearby and it's too early for dinner. The sun was setting, and as I looked at Nagato face, I noticed it was slightly flushed…. I wasn't sure if it was just the sunlight playing tricks with the lighting.

'Uh, Nagato, are you doing fine? You looked a little… red.'

She's turning redder. Goodness, what was I saying? She replied awkwardly, 'Oh, sorry, I'm perfectly fine.' Although we did meet alone the other night, this was probably the first time she recalled walking with a boy alone in a romantic setting…

No Kyon, that was just a programmed reaction.

'So, Nagato, what would you like to talk about?'

'Well, a few things. But first, may I ask why you...' she hesitated, then continued, '...why you always call me by my last name?'

That's a good question. I called Haruhi by her first name. I called Ms Asahina with 'Ms' in front of her last name. I just called Nagato 'Nagato'. Perhaps it's because she had been this awesome, all-powerful being, who saved me numerous times in the past, so calling her Ms Nagato or Yuki would not show enough respect. But I could not tell her that.

'Should I call you Ms Nagato then?'

'No… Nagato is fine.'

'Would you prefer Yuki?'

She let out a reaction that clearly showed that 'Yuki' was her preference.

'I see. You prefer Yuki.'

'Please, call me whichever you feel most comfortable with okay? You are making things weird here.' She looked genuinely embarrassed.

I laughed and said, 'Sorry about that. It is nice to be of your acquaintance, Yuki.'

'Same here.'

'Yuki, where is your family? Aren't you lonely living by yourself?' I decided to dig deeper into her programmed memory of her past.

'Oh… they live in Canada. My family and Ms Asakura's family are very close. I do miss them but I am having a great time at North High.'

Clearly, she had fake memories about having a family, but missing them? Was that really a programmed response? Could she be evolving, even just a little bit? I hoped so.

She paused, then said, 'Although I had not been able to contact them this week. I was going to ask them about Ms Asakura's stay.'

It sounded like her background story of a family living far would become an issue eventually once the current Nagato figured out something was not right.

'Kyon, actually the reason I asked you out today is because I want to ask you about this week. This week's actually been pretty strange for me. Some of my classmates looked at me like they were surprised when I spoke to them. Haruhi's commenting about me suddenly acted like a totally different person. You also asked me a bunch of weird questions the other night. Was there a reason why you asked me those questions?'

How was I supposed to answer here? Nagato no longer had her powers and she's practically a normal girl now. I would not think it's right for me to tell her the truth, at least not yet. She deserved a chance to live a normal life for as long as we could keep it going...

She continued, 'I wondered why I joined the SOS brigade?'

That should be an easy one.

'Remember? You were in the literary club, and Haruhi barged in and took over the club room, and made you a member of the SOS brigade.'

'That's not what I meant.'

What was she saying?

She continued, 'I could tell Ms Asahina, Itsuki, and Ms Suzumiya were… unusual. Strangely, I did not feel that way until this week.'

I sensed a landmine approaching. She's definitely still very intelligent and perceptive. 'Why would you think that?' I asked cautiously.

'Mr Hasegawa. His talks about time travelers, aliens, espers… that could not be a coincidence, right?'

'To be honest, I think Mr Hasegawa is just some crazy old man who is just as crazy as Haruhi.'

'To tell you the truth, I have doubts about Mr Hasegawa authored the books he was showcasing. I glanced through some of his books in the bookstore, and nothing he wrote matched the subjects he delivered at the conference.'

'So he's a fake?'

'I don't think so... his face does match the pictures on the back of those books.'

She paused for a moment then continued, 'The thing is, in the past three days I could not shake the feeling that meeting him was destined. First I had this deep, unexplainable feeling that Ms Asahina had something to do with time traveling. I wasn't sure originally who would fit being the alien, but today, I again had very strong feelings that he's referring to Itsuki as the esper and Haruhi as the God-like entity. Which means…'

'Which means I'm the alien? Hahaha, that's so ridiculous!' I knew it was a landmine but I led us in anyways. Although, it could be a good thing; maybe I could get her head out of this with some misguidance and humor, rather than having her thinking it over and over until she went crazy.

I looked at her. She was quiet. She finally said, 'No, Kyon. I meant me.' She paused for a while then she continued. 'The film. Remember the casting?'

I would not want to lie, so I said, 'Yuki, that was probably why you made the connection. Haruhi was just making a movie, for entertainment purposes. You just happened to be in a witch costume for your class fortune-telling activity and crazy Haruhi cast you as the alien witch. Sounds ridiculous does it? In any case, the most important thing is that we are a group of good friends and we have been through things good and bad, and having lots of fun together.'

Nagato smiled and said, 'Yes, you are right. It has been fun.' Her smile was warm and sincere, with a little bit of sadness.

Sounded like a perfect time to change the subject. 'So, Yuki, what would you want to become when you finish school?'

Nagato thought for awhile, she said, 'I think I may become a writer.'

I said, 'Really? That totally makes sense since you are in the literary club! Have you written anything, aside from the story you wrote for the SOS brigade's only publication?'

'I don't write much but I have quite a few ideas. I can do it if I want to.'

That's the spirit. Finally we were heading in the right direction. 'I would love to read them.'

She blushed a little and said, 'I will try my best. How about you?'

'I actually have lots of ideas in my head! I probably can write a dozen light novels with those ideas!'

'Kyon, if for some reason I am unable to become a writer, would you… become one? That way, I can live my dreams through you.'

That's a pretty strange request, which I wanted to quickly move off from. 'We can both become writers - how about that?' I said.

'Sounds good to me!' She said with a brilliant and dreamy smile.

We walked for a while and stopped as we watched a street performer playing some very catchy anime music on his electric keyboard. When he started playing one of those songs that had a popular dance routine, a couple girls shrieked and began to perform the dance along with the music. We watched, we laughed. In the middle of the song one of the girls came over, took Nagato's hand and wanted her to dance along. Nagato in turn took my hand and I was pulled to the performing area. Standing to the right behind Nagato, she turned and told me to follow along. She danced like a professional along with the other girls and I was dancing like an idiot. Despite making a fool of myself, I was having a lot of fun watching Nagato having fun. Is fun a programmable emotion? I hope she's experiencing fun...

At dinner time I took her to a nice BBQ place and her eyes were so filled with joy happy tears almost rolled out of them. She really loosened up a lot after the silly little dance. She admitted she danced, sang, and could play the electric guitar. For a moment, I saw a Nagato that was as human as she could be. That happiness looked genuine and I would do anything to keep it this way. When danger came, we would find a way to protect her, and we would make it through. She was enjoying life as a normal high school girl. She had a dream to become a writer. She was charming, smart and fun. She could live the life she wanted.

I walked her back to her apartment after dinner. She bowed, and thanked me for listening and treated her to dinner. It was my pleasure, I said.

Just one more thing.

'So, you are sure you aren't coming to meet with Mr Hasegawa tomorrow? It would make Haruhi super happy if the whole brigade is there... I am just curious why you were so certain about not going.'

Nagato said, 'I don't know for sure, I just have a feeling I should be at school tomorrow.'

Feeling... that word again...

'Okay, as you wish. Good night, Yuki.'

'Good night, Kyon.'

I arrived home to see my sister waiting for me. She gave me a big hug and thanked me for helping her getting an A for her project. I was such a pushover. Then she told me a package came the day before and she forgot to mention it to me sooner. It was from Nagato. I asked her where it was now and she gave me a blank look and said she misplaced it.

'When you find it give it to me okay? It could be important,' I said.

Just to be safe, I called Nagato and asked her.

'Hey Yuki, did you send me something?'

'Oh, it came already? That was quick.'

'What is it? Is it important? My sister sort of misplaced it...'

'It's not important at all. You asked me for an idea for an anniversary gift, so... anyways, it's kind of embarrassing, I don't know why I thought it was a good idea at the time, sorry...'

That was cute hearing her mumbling along like that.

'Hey, thanks. Good night again, Yuki.'

'Good night to you too.'

Friday

Haruhi was getting grumpy and impatient as she had not yet received a confirmation from the old man. Perhaps he was the real deal and some Men in Black or aliens abducted him before he could reveal more secrets. The school was over and the call finally came. Haruhi hung up the phone and told me, 'Kyon, Mr Hasegawa wanted you to stay at the club room. He's going to conduct an experiment and he needed you here.'

'Did he give you any details?'

'He said something about conducting an experiment using telepathy. He wanted Koizumi, Mikuru and me at the coffee shop near the train station. You will need to be in the club room at exactly 4 pm. You get that?

After she assured me that Koizumi and Ms Asahina would be with her, I reluctantly agreed. I called Koizumi and he assured me that he would be with Haruhi at all time, and members of the organization would be around to back him up in case anything were to happen.

It was 3:58 pm when I arrived at the club room. I opened the door and someone was already there - it was Asakura, although I was no longer shocked or anything for it had happened far too often now. She's not wearing the frog suit.

'Asakura, what are you doing here?'

'To protect you, what else? I intercepted the phone call about the strange old man wanting you to be here. Call it my killer instinct, but watching him the last few days led me to believe that Ms Suzumiya was not the one in danger. I had to make a choice between protecting you and Ms Suzumiya, and I have decided that you need my help more than Ms Suzumiya.'

'That's ridiculous. Mr Hasegawa is miles away with Haruhi. He is the dangerous one right? You should have stayed with her -' There's a strange sound outside the door - a sound I had heard before. Someone's outside.

Asukua gave me her I-told-you-so look.

The school clock rang 4:00 pm. The wall appeared to 'flicker'. I had a very bad feeling about this...