Chapter 1

I decided that I had to think about this now, while Haruhi wasn't here to endlessly order me around, no doubt for yet another one of her harebrained schemes. However, despite the fact that my mind was only utilizing a fraction of its processing power on the game, the rest being devoted to discovering the source of my discomfort, I still could not pinpoint the anomaly.

All I knew is that it involved either or both Nagato and Asahina-san.

I decided to actually let Koizumi win this game, so that I could spend more time on pondering the source of my troubles.

Eventually, he caught wind of this, and said, "Kyon, is something troubling you? Is that why you're letting me win?"

"Jeez Koizumi, at least finish the game already so I can move on with my problems."

"No Kyon, I declare this game a draw. It isn't fair to you." He smiled. "Let's just end the game now, so you can think about your problems in a more systematic manner."

Whatever. At the very least, you should've stolen a victory that I left dangling right in front of you. Idiot.

As we cleared the board, I surveyed the rest of the room once again. Asahina-san was still diligently cleaning the massive bookshelf in the corner, while Nagato was perusing an unusually small book in her usual corner. I could vaguely make out the title of the book to be Twilight. Familiar…

Apparently, she caught me looking at her, and Nagato slowly looked up to meet my eyes. We locked in a slightly perverted kind of staring contest. After about five seconds, I gasped, audible enough for Koizumi to hear.

"Hmm?"

"Nothing."

What made me gasp, you ask?

In the SOS Brigade, I pride myself as the only one who has the remotest chance of guessing what Nagato is thinking of just by looking at her face. The reason that I gasped was because, after three seconds of staring at each other, I saw her face flush a very, very, very light shade of pink. So light that after a split-second, the color faded from her cheeks. Half a second after that, she turned back to her book, as though nothing had happened.

However, me being Kyon, the only member of the – what the hell am I calling myself Kyon for!? Ugh. Anyway, I most certainly was able to process what my eyes were telling my brain, and, as unbelievable it may seem, Nagato actually blushed.

I tried to ignore this, and I succeeded slightly. Perhaps Nagato is finally feeling some emotion coursing through herself, despite the fact that she is a human purpose organic interface created by the Integrated Data Thought Entity to be a neutral observer pertaining to Haruhi Suzumiya.

I looked away from Nagato and turned to Asahina-san. She was cleaning the topmost part of the bookshelf, and, needless to say, despite her working like that, she looked absolutely gorgeous. Unbidden, my thoughts immediately turned back to the times that I had gone through with her. I remembered the day that she revealed her true identity and mission to me; she was a time traveler sent from the future to observe Haruhi Suzumiya and to discover why she, according to them, made it impossible to travel back further in time than three – no, four years ago.

I also remembered that Valentine's day, where we went on a wild goose chase for some treasure that was supposedly buried in Tsuruya-san's backya – I mean mountain. I ended up digging cakes made by Haruhi, Nagato, and Asahina-san. I especially recalled Asahina-san's cake.

With a short pang of anger, I remembered how that opposing esper, Tachibana Kyouko, had teamed up with that sneering bastard of a time traveler to kidnap Asahina-san. Fortunately, it was an Asahina-san that came from eight days from the future, with respect to the Asahina-san in that present time frame that was kidnapped. She basically acted as a decoy for herself.

As I laid my head on the table, I readily assumed the position of a student falling asleep in their History class, out of sheer boredom. All this thinking got me sleepy.

A last thought entered my mind. A thought that brought me mixed feelings. I remembered the Mikuru Asahina from that alternate reality. The reality that came about when the very same Yuki Nagato in this room remade the world. The image seemed to have been forever branded on my skull, that Asahina-san who didn't know who I was. She had physically hit me, after I had tried, in vain, to explain myself to her, using her star-shaped mole on her left breast as evidence.

I remembered feeling great sadness whenever that memory visited my mind. However, strangely enough, sadness did not grace my mind this time. I felt another strange feeling, an unidentifiable one, tugging at the very core of my being.

With a jolt, I suddenly sat upright. I finally knew what I had been feeling all this time. The source of my discomfort. And I was extremely shocked and pleased at the same time.

Koizumi noticed my actions, and gave me a quizzical look, a look that I simply ignored. Asahina-san was still busy cleaning, so she had her back turned and as a result, couldn't see what I just did. As usual, Nagato was just sitting there in the corner, reading her novel, which, upon further digging from my knowledge, was actually a romance novel. It all makes sense now!

My mind frantically raced back to that memory of Asahina-san. How I was severely repulsed by the thought of her not knowing me at all. I then realized why I kept dwelling on Asahina-san. The secret Mikuru folder in Haruhi's pilfered computer. Why I secretly wanted to end up getting paired with her when the Brigade would scour the city for mysterious and unusual events and people. Why I wanted to see her in that bunny girl costume.

It immediately hit me. What I had been feeling for Asahina-san all this time, was lust. Pure, carnal, lust.

I felt bad. I knew that such a sweet and beautiful girl like her did not deserve lust from anybody, much less me. So then my mind took on another train of thought. I then remembered the circumstances that allowed that situation to arise. Nagato wanted to be normal. She merely wanted to live a normal high school girl's life. And her actions in that alternate Literature Club room hit me again like a meteor assaulting the surface of the planet. The way she had tugged my sleeve, with an imperious look in her eyes, silently, pleading, beseeching me to join the Literature Club.

This time, this unspoken and very well hidden fact hit me with the same force as two planets colliding. If my deductions were correct, the human purpose organic interface named Yuki Nagato had already acquired the ability to feel emotions. Especially a specific emotion that is highlighted by affection, admiration, and adoration. The emotion named love.

If my deductions are correct, the person Yuki Nagato had fallen in love with would be me. What am I to do?