Disclaimer: I do not own the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya or its characters I do, however, own my character.

Here it is my biggest chapter yet! And right before Thanksgiving too. Thank you readers and reviews alike.

Chapter 8

The next day came too quick for my liking or maybe it was because of fear of what might come about because of it. Once again Kyon and I met up on the hill and walked to school together.

"Morning Kyon"

"Morning Kotaro"

Lovely conversation if I do say so myself. I was on pins and needles the whole walk to school wondering if I would even be allowed to live through today.

We arrived in class but this time Haruhi was waiting for us and promptly abducted us and headed off for what I presumed to be the clubroom. One thing I will never figure out is how she can drag us both at the same time. Kyon was the first to speak.

"What the hell is all this about?!"

"Shut up and sit down I have something to tell you."

I sat down but Kyon was still standing obviously wanting to resist even further, but the glare Haruhi was giving him made him think twice and he sat down without objections.

"It has come to my attention that we must do something more for the cultural festival this year. I know it's really early to think about such a thing but I've decided we will be putting on a play."

"Why a play if I might ask?"

"Because anyone can shoot a movie but it takes real talent to direct a play. Now I know this is out of the ordinary but you two will be in charge in coming up with the ideas and relaying them to me I will, however, have final call and choice on the topic."

Kyon was still sitting there in silence with his head down not wanting to offer any input on the conversation.

"Alright let's get back to class"

We arrived back in class just before the first bell to start the day rang. Never before had I been so glad that I arrived early. Class passed rather quickly and ending with me cleaning up the room and then heading off to the club room. Everyone was already in attendance except for Haruhi who showed up about half an hour later.

"Ok everyone get your stuff together we're heading out."

"Wait where are we going exactly?"

"Well Kyon we are going to spend some time looking through the city for anything along the lines of aliens or espers or time travelers."

"Again? Why would we even want to do that again?"

"Because I give the orders and you follow them. Any questions?"

There were none. We headed for the normal café and we were split into groups by drawing straws. Haruhi with Koizumi, Kyon with Nagato, and Mikuru with me, we finished off our drinks and headed out into the city. Everyone else knew where they wanted to go except us.

"So Mikuru where would you like to go?"

"Um…I know of a nice place would you like to go?"

"Sounds good to me, lead the way."

We walked through the streets stopping once and awhile to admire the birds flying overhead. We arrived after about fifteen minutes of walking and I could see why she wanted to come here. The air was fresh; the flowers in bloom, and the river had a nice deep blue color and flowed perfectly.

"It's quite the sight Mikuru is that why you wanted to come here?"

"Partly yes, I actually wanted to talk to you as well."

"I see what do you want to talk about?"

"Well it's about Suzumiya; does she seem a little off to you?"

"So you've noticed too? Yeah something seems to be up and I have no idea what it might be."

I dared not mention what had happened last night as I didn't need to have Haruhi kill me.

We walked over to a bench and sat down and continued to talk while watching the water flow.

"This is most worrisome isn't it Mikuru? I still understand so little about what is going on and yet something tells me it could go to hell real fast."

"Don't worry about it so much I'm sure it will pass in due time."

She put her arm around me as a gesture of comfort for my conflicting thoughts. It did help calm me down but I was still worried for what might come of this.

"Um…do you have any idea where we should start looking?"

"We don't need to; we already found what we were looking for we just aren't allowed to tell Haruhi, which gives us three hours to ourselves."

"Well what should we do?"

"I don't know what would you like to do? I'll treat you so don't worry about it."

"Well there is this movie I want to see, would you mind if we went to see it?"

"Of course not, let's get going so we don't end up running late if it's too long."

We set off for the theater luckily there was one near where we were already so we didn't have to waste time looking for one. As for the movie itself, it seemed to be a romance of sorts. While it was interesting it was hard to hear over Mikuru's sobbing, after two hours the movie ended.

"Well Mikuru was it all you expected it to be?"

She looked up at me with eyes full of tears and reddened cheeks. If you couldn't tell she had been crying I feel sorry for you.

"I…it was very sweet, it almost made me wish I had someone for myself…"

"I'm sure you'll find someone Mikuru, I'd place my life on it."

We still had roughly an hour left so we went for some ice cream. She seemed to be enjoying herself and I almost didn't want to tell her we needed to head back and spoil her fun. We got two more cones to go and headed off to the café. We were the first to arrive, not to my surprise since we made good time, with twenty minutes to spare. We reserved a six person table and ordered drinks while we waited for everyone else to arrive.

"I wonder if they found anything?"

"I doubt it; it's really hard to search blind especially since we have no idea where to look or what they might look like. In short it's like going to use an ATM with a card you've never seen before."

"That wouldn't stop Suzumiya after all she has made us do these hunts before."

"Really? Did anything turn up?"

"Not at all but we did have fun with it and that's what mattered, it was also the time I had to tell Kyon about where I'm from and why."

"Alright you don't need to go into details, as much time as we have, we don't need to risk Haruhi walking in on the conversation."

We continued talking about anything that came to mind, books, animals, costumes, ect. Kyon and Nagato were the next to arrive. They walked in with Kyon looking extremely bored and Nagato still wearing the same face as always and with a book at her side.

"Hey you two nice of you to join us, did you find anything interesting?"

"Not at all, what about you Kotaro?"

"we did but we can't tell Haruhi about it that's for sure."

"Really, what did you find?"

"We found time travelers, Mikuru found me and I her."

"Of course…guess that means I found an alien."

"Yep but remember you can't tell Haruhi."

They came over and sat with us at the table and ordered drinks. I was going to treat this time because Kyon might be tired of always paying the bill. After another five minutes Haruhi and Koizumi walked in. Haruhi looked disappointed and Koizumi was still smiling. They walked over and sat down.

"Nothing, nothing at all? We need to do this again tomorrow we're bound to find something sometime!"

"I found it to be most informative to myself as it helped me learn the layout of the city better."

"Hmm…Ok! Tomorrow we will meet in the clubroom as per usual, dismissed!"

I stayed back and covered the bill. It was around 8:00 by the time I got out of the café. I headed toward the hospital to pay Ryoko a visit. Along the way I stopped in a store and bought a drink. I arrived around 8:30 and went to her room. I knocked and was greeted.

"Come in."

"Good evening Ryoko."

"Oh, good evening Kotaro. I didn't think you'd stop by again till later this week. How is your work coming along?"

"Well today was a bad day for me to work on it."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well I still have yet to go home and Haruhi has us scheduled to do another project tomorrow."

"That's no good, you need to catch up or else you won't have a pleasant school year."

"No need to tell me twice but it's been hard to find time since I seem to be getting dragged all over the place."

"But you could have started tonight but you came to see me instead hmm…I wonder why?"

"Is there a problem with visiting a classmate in the hospital? It's not like I don't work fast so I'll be sure to get it done."

"Well I hope so or else you'll have to deal with me breathing down your neck all the time."

"That could be a problem seeing as Haruhi is always doing that and it's also a conflict I would rather avoid."

"That's true, so if it comes down to it I'd just use another method like…notes or even class announcements."

"Notes I'd be ok with but the announcements wouldn't be in my best interests."

"All the more motivation for you to get to it, no more excuses."

"I suppose you have a point there but I don't know when I'll have any work time."

"As long as you get it done it won't matter."

"Very true, now I have something I wish to ask you. If you could suggest a play for the cultural festival what would you want to see?"

"If I had a choice I'd like to see a play about the warring states era of Japan, you know what that is yes?"

"Indeed I do and I agree that it would make for a nice play, thank you I'll be sure to suggest it."

"To whom? I'm in charge of what our class will do so you aren't going to suggest it to me…could it be Suzumiya?"

"I'm not a liberty to disclose that information at this time."

"So I'll take that as a yes, how was your day?"

"Well, it's been very tiring but all in all it was pretty good and it let me get to know someone better."

"That's good that you're connecting with people. Oh yes I want you to give this to the teacher when you go to school tomorrow. It contains some information that the student council needs."

"Alright I'll take care of it. Well it's getting late I'd better get going so I don't end up being out late again. Goodnight Ryoko."

"Goodnight Kotaro, thank you for visiting again."

As I was walking out of the hospital I went to put Ryoko's note in my pocket and there was another note in there. I pulled it out and read it.

Last night is never to be known by anyone. It was just a show of appreciation.

Haruhi Suzumiya

In one way it was a great relief and in another I still felt something might be wrong. Haruhi never does anything like that to anyone. My phone started to ring, I pulled it out and saw it was Koizumi calling. How did he even get my number?

"Good evening, Kotaro speaking."

"Good evening this is Itsuki, I have something I wish to discuss with you could you come by the park?"

"Sure I'll be there in about five minutes."

Now what could Koizumi want to talk about, could it be about Haruhi's recent mood change? I was approaching the park and Koizumi was standing near the middle under a street lamp. He turned to face me while I was walking up to him.

"Sorry for calling you out so late, I hope I didn't wake you or interrupt anything."

"Don't worry about it; I was already out and about. What did you want to talk about?"

"Well you deserve more of an explanation about exactly is going on. First off roughly three years ago something happened no one could explain but we know the cause is Suzumiya. This world was created then making it impossible to travel back further then that. At the same time I suddenly gained my powers, I thought I was going to lose my mind until a member of the Organization found me and took me in and taught me how to use my powers. Espers do battle in places known as closed space. Closed spaces are basically a section of a place that is copied and closed off to everything but espers and celestials. Celestials are blue giants that destroy anything. They are how Haruhi releases her frustrations."

"That's a lot to wrap my head around not to mention hard to believe, however, seeing as I am from the future and you got Kyon to believe you then I don't have much choice but to believe you. I would like to see a closed space for myself if you could find a way to do so."

"Easier said then done that's for sure but I'll see what I can do. See you at the meeting tomorrow, goodnight."

"Goodnight, thanks for the explanation."

We headed off in different directions to our residences. I finally got home and did one page of math and called it a night. Fun as today was I wish I wasn't so tired.

Tomorrow rolled around faster then I wanted it to but I can't control time so I had to get up out of bed and get ready. I met Kyon at the bottom of the hill and we proceeded to class as usual. We managed to avoid getting dragged of by Haruhi again. I blew off today's lesson to work on my absentee work and managed to get about half of it done but I also have to get today's work done as well which means I'm still swamped but at least I'm less swamped.

I was tired, lack of sleep and lots of running around can do that to you. I sluggishly made my way to the clubroom wishing that today would be over quickly. Despite my sluggish pace I was the second to arrive. Sitting in the corner was Nagato reading as usual.

"Good afternoon Nagato."

"Hello"

"Is that a good book?"

"Sufficient"

"I see do you expect to find anything today?"

"Yes but the data cannot be conveyed to Suzumiya."

"True enough."

"Yes"

No matter how hard I try it's next to impossible to get her to talk. I know she is like a robot but isn't she supposed to have human like characteristics? You'd think she'd talk more for the sake of cover. I took my usual seat and waited for everyone else to show up. Mikuru was the first to show up: she didn't bother changing since we were supposed to be leaving after everyone arrive, but she did brew her tea like usual which is always a nice treat. We started to play some card games but she isn't exactly the brightest when it comes to this.

Koizumi was the next to arrive and I dealt him in on our little game. He seemed to be rather lucky with the cards almost to the point where I'd want to call him out on it. I asked Nagato to join us and to my surprise she did. It took her a few hands to get a grip on the game but when she did she was as fluent as the rest of us.

Kyon arrived about five minutes later and looked rather shocked to see the four of us at the table playing together, but he came around and I dealt him in as well. The five of us kept playing until Haruhi showed up ten minutes after Kyon did.

"I hope you all had fun because it's time to get down to business. We will be going back to the café and taking another look around the city. Now to choose groups we will be using a random number generator. I have given you numbers already."

She slammed down a list with out names on it.

Haruhi

Kyon

Yuki

Mikuru

Itsuki

Kotaro

I have no idea what this order meant if anything at all. She ran over to the computer and pulled up a website and put in the numbers and the following pairs were made. Itsuki and Haruhi, Kyon and Yuki, Mikuru and me what were the chances that we'd end up in the same pairs as yesterday? Haruhi looked slightly surprised as did Kyon. We gathered up our stuff and headed out for the café. We ordered drinks and started to discuss the plans this time.

"We will be splitting up again for this assignment. Take these cameras so that we can capture any ghosts on film since just looking yielded no results."

She pulled out three cameras and gave one to Kyon and me; she kept the third for herself.

"Now let's get out there and find something!"

Everyone spread out again leaving just Mikuru and me. We just started wandering the streets with no destination in mind. We eventually made it to a park and took a break there.

"Odd that we would end up in the same group isn't it Mikuru?"

"Eh? I'm not too sure…"

"Well what is it you want to do today? We have plenty of shots to prove we did something and we still have a few hours left."

"Umm…how about getting some food over there?"

She pointed across the street at a nice looking diner. I agreed and we made out way there. We ended up in a table by the window which had a nice view but it was bad cover. We both ordered and waited for the meal to arrive, when it finally did we got to talking about this weekend.

"So what do you think of the trip this weekend?"

"I think it sounds like fun but I'm not too keen on the fact we are looking for supposedly dead things. I mean what do we do if we actually find a zombie or a walking skeleton?"

"Well I suppose it would fall on me to dispatch it since I can fight fairly well."

"That's relaxing. I thought we might have been in danger there."

"That doesn't mean it won't be dangerous but we also might not find anything either so let's hope it doesn't come to that point."

We finished our mean and set off to get back to the meeting point. We arrived last this time but at least we weren't late.

"There you are! Get over here so we can discuss today's results."

We hurried over there and sat down as to not hold the discussion up for much longer.

"Ok everyone show me what ya got!"

"Haruhi you need to get these developed first."

"I know I know, just for that Kyon you have to get them developed."

"What why me? Do I look like I never have anything to do?"

"Yes, now take these and get the developed by the time we leave this weekend."

"Fine"

Haruhi seemed to have it out for Kyon a lot lately. I wonder if she trusts him with everything or if he is nothing more then a flunky to her.

"Ok that's all for today, dismissed!"

Kyon was stuck paying this time for no reason other then Haruhi's demand. I headed home to do some work and get cleaned up. It was about 7:30 when I finished another fourth of my work. Today seemed to be dragging on and Haruhi seemed to have released up much earlier then last time. I'll just head over to the hospital and look in on Ryoko since I have some spare time tonight. I arrived at 8:00 and headed to her room and knocked.

"Come in"

I walked in and took a look around. It smelled faintly of lavender and honey. She looked at me with a smile.

"Good evening, how are you?"

"Good evening Ryoko I'm doing well and mostly caught up with my work now."

"That's good news! Is that why you decided to stop by tonight?"

"Yes actually, I can finish the rest tomorrow and be caught up before it's even due."

"Good that means you won't have to worry about me bugging you to get it done. Did you deliver the letter?"

"Yes I did, and I was wondering how you were doing. Perhaps you would like that book now?"

"Thanks for the offer but really I'm fine"

"I suppose you're right, maybe I'm just overly worried since I'm the one who put you here after all."

"Stop worrying about it, after all, I put you in the hospital as well remember?"

"That may be true but you didn't cause me to miss a month of school like I did."

"Yes but as I told you I am keeping up rather easily so don't trouble yourself with it ok?"

"Much easier said then done, but I'll do my best not to."

"Please do, there is one thing I need you to do though could you mail that package for me?"

"Of course I can, I'll be sure to send it out right away."

"Thank you, now to the subject of school, are you getting along alright?"

"Of course I am, it's not that hard and everyone is pretty nice so it's easy to get help if I need it."

"I see; I had to stop helping everyone with schoolwork because they started to exploit my help because they goofed off during class."

"That explains why no one asked you for help. I had actually wondered about that when I transferred in."

"I don't like it but it did help get everyone back on track so I'm happy with it."

"You really look out for everyone don't you? That's an admirable trait."

"If it helps them then I will try to do what I can but sometimes it's hard to follow through."

"But even when the going get tough the follow through is always important."

"Very true but this wasn't very tough."

"Well pep speeches are always a good thing though right?"

She laughed at this remark. I honestly never thought I was funny but people seem to find me funny so I guess I can accept it as part of my reality.

"That very well may be true but a pep speech won't do much good right now seeing as I can't leave and do anything."

"I see you have a point there but doesn't it make you feel better at least?"

"Indeed it does, thank you for the pep talk. Could you come over here for a second?"

I walked over to her bedside curious as to what she wanted. She gave me another smile and began to speak.

"You know you are the only person to visit for more then a day and I wanted to show you that I do appreciate you taking time out of your day to visit me."

She pulled out a box with my name on it. She handed it to me and told me to open it. Inside there was a note and a custom knit blanket with my name in different colors.

"Ryoko, thank you this is quite something."

"I thought you would like it, the note just says thanks for visiting so much."

I was still standing by her bed the whole time I was examining the blanket. She tugged at my sleeve causing me to lose my balance and fall over. I caught myself by placing my hands on the bed beside her on either side ending up almost right in her face. We might as well have been kissing if I hadn't caught myself where I was. Her eyes were as clear as ever if not more so. She reached up and gave me a hug placing her head on my shoulder. She was quite warm and I returned the embrace after my shock had faded. I had to look at least slightly red as I could feel the heat on my face. We stayed like the letting time mean nothing and the space we were in mean everything. We broke apart and stared at each other till she broke the silence.

"Oh my, you should be going it's starting to get late and you have school tomorrow."

"Ah, you're right. I won't be able to make it back again until next week because I need to put in some hours at work or I might lose my job."

"That's ok; I'll be back in school in a week and a half so it's not too much longer."

"Ok I'm gonna go home and get to bed. Goodnight Ryoko."

"Goodnight Kotaro."

I departed and it was roughly 9:00 and my phone rang. It was Kyon calling; now what could he want at this hour?

"Hello"

"Hey you need to get to the park ASAP Haruhi called us all together."

"On my way."

The park seemed to be popular recently. I hung up and started off toward the park. I arrived after about ten minutes and everyone was already there meaning I would probably pay be it literally or metaphorically.

"Good evening everyone, so Haruhi what's the occasion?"

"Well I thought it would be a change of pace to investigate after dark has fallen so we will be going to the cemetery and try to find something. We will only spend about an hour on this seeing as it's so late."

We set off as soon as she was finished with that sentence. Kyon must be too tired to resist and everyone else looked like they would rather be elsewhere. I felt fine but I was willing to bet I wouldn't by the end of this. We all headed in different directions. Mikuru was the only one that was reluctant to go but she eventually got to it. We made a most valiant effort but alas we were defeated.

"What?! You mean to tell me you all found nothing?! I suppose there is nothing we can do, dismissed."

She seemed to be getting back to normal. We were all quite tired and were dragging our feet. I arrived at home around 10:30, set my alarm, and crashed on my bed and passed out almost instantly.

R&R if possible and if not thanks again for reading my story. I really did use a number generator on the second day and the groups turned out the same…weird. Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it!