Well that was an EXTRAODINARILY long hiatus for me. I seriously did not expect to be not writing for that long, but I can safetly say that I am back in the arena once again! I wouldn't give up on these stories so easily, especially with the amount of people reading. I may not be the biggest guy around here, but I'm something! And that is more than enough to keep me going. As always, enjoy this new chapter! :)

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When I think about what goes on inside Haruhi Suzumiya's head, I get this weird image of a giant, fleshy pink die rolling around inside her skull. Now that's a very strange and demented thought, but I can't somewhat help but find it kind of funny.

Anyway, the last few days with Haruhi have been both stressful and aggravating at the same time. She's been weirder than ever, and by weirder, I mean that she's not been herself. In fact, she hasn't really been herself since the summer vacation began.

Is there a coincidence there? Judging from what Koizumi mentioned about her personality being sporadic, I think we can all safely throw the word coincidence and all its synonyms right out of the window.

For some reason, our infamous Brigade Chief has suddenly found the urge to make us do community service on a daily basis. It's been a real pain, considering that she seems to be choosing only community service hours that take place from 6-8 AM. The amount of white hot rage that boils in the back of my mind because of this could probably destroy a city block.

But nevertheless, I keep my growing anger in check, and I basically let Haruhi go about as she pleases. And so for the last four days, all we've been doing is waking up early and undertaking some boring task of volunteer labor. This is all for our local community of course, but even that fact still doesn't make it any less fun.

And through all of this, Haruhi has remained to be a strict taskmaster over the entire SOS Brigade. Whenever you don't stab the aluminum can just right, she yells at you. If you didn't get enough grime out of the pond water, she yells at you. If you didn't pick up enough garbage out of beach sand, she yells at you. It's a terrible repetition that usually only involves Haruhi and myself.

And so, we arrive on Monday. Today, unlike most days, I feel the satisfaction of opening my eyes and looking at my alarm clock, realizing it is approximately 10:03 AM. My heart skips a beat, and a small smile forms on my face as I get the urge to just close my eyes and fall asleep again. With all this Brigade community service that we've been doing, you really can't blame me for wanting to rest.

I got a lucky break today. My calm and peaceful sleep lasted a few more hours, mostly because my mom and sister had gone out to do some errands. The fact that my mother dragged her along can do nothing less by warm my usually cold and empty soul.

My eyes snapped open, and it was not my alarm clock that had awoken me, but the sound of my conveniently placed cell phone. If I had any sense, I would have picked up the device and proceeded to throw it against my wall. Buying a new phone would certainly be much easier than going through the trouble of taking this incoming call.

But being a moron, I picked up the phone, and sighed as I can already hear a familiar voice speaking.

"You're so lazy, Kyon. I don't know how people like you even survive past age five. Sleeping this late in the day is like allowing the enemy to slit your throat!"

Haruhi's tone was actually calmer than usual, but her remarks weren't at all less annoying. I groaned to myself.

What enemy are you talking about? It's not like I need you're opinion anyway, Haruhi. I ask only for the miniscule right to sleep late, and I don't even get that from you.

"So what's the plan for today?" I asked in a grumble, knowing full well that our Brigade Chief would only call to inform me of the day's activities. Haruhi had effectively pissed me off now by ruining my once chance to sleep in without being rudely awakened by my younger sibling.

"Get yourself together and meet us all at train station in the next twenty minutes. Grab a bathing suit and anything else you need for an overnight trip. We need to get to the dock as soon as possible! Hurry it up, Kyon!"

And with those last loud words, Haruhi hung up, leaving me with a very indifferent expression. Am I supposed to expect anything different from this girl? Call me selfish, but I really hope she starts exhibiting signs of normalcy more frequently than she already is.

For once in my life, I decided to just walk to my destination. That destination was the local train station that we usually meet at. Why did I not go on my bike like I usually do, you ask? Truth be told, I kind of felt like taking it slow. In fact, I seriously wanted to make Haruhi wait for me. I'm crazy for doing such a thing, but I wanted to see her reaction. Don't ask why.

I sighed to myself as my feet trample along the sidewalk. It's not like I'll be able to stop thinking about this idiot anytime soon. Haruhi kept taking over my thoughts at the worst times, and it's driving me nuts!

Don't tell me…that I'm actually missing my relationship with Haruhi. That wouldn't make any sense if you ask me. Why would I miss a relationship that wasn't really even there in the first place? Why would I miss the constant orders and the fact that I was being treated like some sort of love slave?

Of course, all those things weren't actually completely under our Brigade Chief's control. But the matter of the Antithesis and the insanity it put us all through is something I'd really like to forget. I don't want to be reminded of that fiasco one bit.

"Who the hell do you think you are!?!"

Haruhi's voice sounded obviously mad, and there was no doubt that I knew something like this would happen. Apparently, I had been in thought during my entire walk, and it had actually gone much faster than expected. Funny how the world works against you like that.

There was no time to register Haruhi's movements. All I could feel was one hand fiercely grabbing me by the collar. While the rest of the Brigade stood behind her, Haruhi glared at me with a fiery rage in her eyes. I kept my composure, and glared back at Haruhi. Something about our current situation could not help but remind me of my earlier days knowing her.

"Are you trying to play some kind of joke, Kyon? Do you know that you're ten minutes late?"

"Last time I checked my watch…yes."

I smiled deviously. This seemed to only make Haruhi's expression worse, and I could feel her grip on my collar tighten. In fact, she was pulling me closer, and I could feel her breath right on my nose. I wondered if Haruhi had her other fist clenched, and in any second, she could punch me in the face.

"What are you trying to do? Do you want to ruin the Brigade?"

"What am I trying to do? I'm not the one who's acting like a fascist dictator. You make it sound like it's going to be the end of the world if I'm ten minutes late for whatever you're forcing us to do."

"It is the end of the world, you idiot!" Haruhi screamed in my face, baring her teeth like an angered jaguar.

"Why do I even bother with your stupidity? I've got so many better things to do then to be around you and your idiocy!" I shouted back, as my anger level was beginning to rise at this point. Let's hope it doesn't get to the level of white-hot rage. Eh, I have a feeling Haruhi will punch me out before it gets that intense.

"Then you don't have to come with us! It's not like I need dead weight for the boat anyway, because that's all you ever end up being!"

My expression contorted, and I felt myself becoming more and more pissed off at the brown-haired girl in front of me with each passing second. Sometimes, I really don't know why this girl is even a friend of mine. When you really get down to it, she's just a nasty human being who uses everyone else to gain her own ends!

"E-Excuse me…"

Both I and Haruhi turned to face Asahina-san, who had somehow found the courage to try and approach us even though we were loudly arguing. Behind the red-haired time traveler, Koizumi had his hands in his pockets, looking off into the distance out of boredom. Nagato stared blankly ahead, showing no signs of movement. I grimaced at the sight of Koizumi's utter ignorance of the situation, but I let myself cool down a bit to hear out what Asahina-san had to say. Her words were always worth listening to in my eyes.

"Can we please just be nice to each other? I mean…we should all be having fun on this summer break…and it wouldn't be fun without Kyon-kun…"

The time traveler in front of us was obviously nervous as hell, because she stared at her feet while speaking, not wanting to show us her face. There was a relative silence between myself and Haruhi now. I didn't look back on her, but judging by her silence, I kind of understood that perhaps she was thinking about what Asahina-san was saying.

"I don't know if I'd be able to stand coming along, Asahina-san…" I said in a sorrowful voice, as my soul cracked from having to tell this sweet girl such a thing. Haruhi remained silent, while Mikuru seemed to tense up. Damn. I should not have said that…

"Please…" she said quietly, with a slight sniffle in her voice. I couldn't go on much farther at this point. The breaking point had been reached.

I sighed to myself as I clambered aboard the spacious boat. As you might have all guessed, Asahina-san's crying had done more than enough to convince me in tagging along with the rest of the SOS Brigade. Frankly, I was actually close to not going, because I knew full well that being with Haruhi for extended periods of time is usually detrimental to my mental health. Unfortunately, Asahina-san's pleas managed to pull me like a salmon caught on a hook.

This then brings me to just what Haruhi had planned for us for the next two days. Apparently, Tsuruya-san had enjoyed us spending the night at her mansion so much that when Haruhi asked her is she could borrow her family's large and expensive fishing boat, the green-haired girl said yes without second thought. With this boat now in her possession, Haruhi explained to all of us (mostly me), what we were exactly going to be doing for the next two days.

"We're going on a two-day boat trip because I need some time to cool off and relax. You're all coming along because you're part of the Brigade, even though you were this close to being denied, Kyon. This trip is going to be just fun and relaxation, and nothing more. Consider it a reward for all the community service we've accomplished these last few days!" Haruhi had told us while we listened in the crowded train car on our way to the local harbor.

I would certainly be lying if I said I wasn't surprised at the way Haruhi was speaking to us. The fact that she's rewarding us in a sensible way for our hard work was surprising enough, because I remember that that one time that we were forced to do labor for her, and the only reward was a giant frog costume for Asahina-san to wear.

And so, I wondered what was in store for us as I watched the rest of the Brigade get comfortable on this large boat. For one thing, I had no idea who was going to drive, since I knew that I certainly wasn't cut out for that sort of thing. On top of that, I had a bad feeling that being around Haruhi like this for the next two days wasn't going to turn out too well. It's really bad enough that she's on my mind more than I want her to be, so you can't blame me for being nervous about all these upcoming events.

Once we all got situated on the boat, Haruhi decided to announce our plans. As it was only midday, we still had plenty of time ahead of us for whatever "fun" she had planned. It was decided (more like we were told by Haruhi), that we would be heading out a few kilometers out into the sea, where we would just relax, swim and possibly even go fishing. This boat of Tsuruya-san's was large and well-supplied with food, comfortable beds, and even a nice flushing toilet. Clearly, it was really some sort of mini-vacation. Knowing facts like these were certainly helping me to relax.

"So once we get out there, it'll pretty much be free time for all of you. Do whatever you want, as long as you don't bother me. Koizumi brought some of his fishing stuff, so hopefully we can catch ourselves a big plesiosaurus or something. And none of you are allowed to go anywhere without my permission! The last thing I need is to lose Brigade members to sea monsters because of their own stupidity."

As you could obviously tell, Haruhi took the utmost care to inform us all of the nature of our excursion. It all sounded a bit boring to me actually. It's not that I don't like to swim or anything. I just might get sick of it after awhile, unlike Haruhi or Mikuru. Plus, I really didn't know what lived in these waters, and call me a coward, but I'd rather not take the chance. With Haruhi around, there's the possibility that some undersea monstrosity could swallow me whole if she happened to get annoyed or something.

But all that aside, I know that eventually I'll just get bored on this boat, and unfortunately, it has no life boats whatsoever.

Unsurprisingly, the problem of not having someone to drive the boat in question was solved in a heart beat by none other than Nagato.

Apparently, the human interface was easily able to convince Haruhi that she had "previous experience" in handling a boat like this. I'm no idiot, so I knew it probably took the alien only a few seconds to analyze the boat and figure out exactly how it worked. With Nagato now silently driving, I watched wakes form around it as we began to leave the harbor behind us. I'm still partially reeling over how Haruhi was able to get all this to work out in the first place.

The sun is bright in the sky, burning my eyes every time I have the notion to look up. This is truly a hot summer, and my clothes stick to me from sweat. The sea breeze is cool enough, but I still can't help but feel hot nonetheless.

"Look more alive! We're out here to have fun you know!" Haruhi said behind me, giving me a hard pat on the back and abruptly breaking my train of thought.

"I certainly hope so. As long as nothing kills us out there…" I replied, saying the last part under my breath.

"What was that, Kyon?"

I looked back at Haruhi, pondering over the sight of her surprisingly innocent expression. In the back of my mind, I felt some sort of sadness. It's like looking at Haruhi was hurting the fabric of my very soul. I've tried time and time again to ignore it, but nothing seems to work. I turned around, a melancholic expression on my face as I sighed before I answered her.

"It's nothing. Don't worry about it."

If I had to describe the next few hours in a nut shell, it would be easy to say that it was certainly easy on the eyes. After Nagato efficiently brought us out about 8 kilometers from shore, we could pretty much see nothing but the sea around our boat. Once that happened, Haruhi proceeded to go into the lower cabins of the boat and change, and Mikuru followed. I think what surprised me most was the fact that I didn't hear our Brigade Chief forcing herself upon Asahina-san like she usually would. It could have just been that they were changing where we probably wouldn't hear them, but it still kept me wondering just a little bit.

After a little while, Haruhi and Mikuru both came out, with Haruhi in a red and black bikini and Mikuru in her usual pink and frilly one-piece. Of course, both women were candy to the eyes, and it's really hard not to stare at them. Unfortunately, I didn't have much staring time at all, since they both proceeded to get into the water as soon as possible. Well, it was more like Haruhi just kind of pushed Asahina-san in, and while the girl was kicking and screaming down below, Haruhi dove in after her. If they had not both been wearing life vests, I'm sure Asahina-san would have drowned by now.

It's great how much Haruhi cares about the well-being of her Brigade members, don't you think?

After an hour of them swimming, Haruhi got bored, and decided that she wanted to try her hand on fishing. Like she had mentioned a while before, stupid Koizumi had just so happened to bring all of his fishing poles and equipment. I personally think he stole them or something, because he really doesn't strike me as a fisherman at all. Koizumi just mentioned something about his colleagues lending them to him. Either way, I found myself sitting right next to Haruhi, lazily holding onto the fishing pole in my hands as I looked up into the cloudy sky with boredom written all over my face.

"Where are all the fish?" Haruhi asked in an annoyed tone as she tugged on her fishing rod. I obviously wasn't one to answer her question, but I kind of couldn't help it anyway.

"Maybe they ran off because they were afraid of being forced to join the Brigade."

I probably should have said, "Fishing is a sport of virtue and patience, Haruhi. You need to learn how to wait, or you'll never be good at it." That would have been a more productive answer.

"Very funny, Kyon. You ought to be more thankful. It's not like I don't do a million favors for you."

What? What the hell are you talking about Haruhi? You? Doing favors for me? Are you trying to make a joke by saying that?

I groaned, trying to ignore her. I had a feeling we weren't going to be catching many fish today.

And I was right. We didn't catch anything in the entire two hours that we spent holding our fishing rods. Nagato had just been watching us the whole time like we were some sort of science experiment, and it was kind of unnerving to tell the truth. She could have easily caused all the fish to come our way, but I assume there was a good reason why she didn't. Frankly, I was glad Haruhi didn't get annoyed enough to cause a shark or something equally dangerous to bite my hook. The last thing I need is a watery grave.

And so, the rest of the day was relatively uneventful. We pretty much ended up being lazy and tanning ourselves to death in the sun, and the only exciting thing all day was the abnormally large wake that caused our boat to shift it's weight over quite a bit. It was like a really big wave, and although I initially didn't think about it, I could only wonder later what the hell could have caused such a massive wake. It was big enough to capsize a small motorboat, and from what we had seen, it had obviously originated from far away. Maybe it's nothing. I really hope so.

And now it had become night time, and I still held the same fishing rod in my hand. Koizumi sat right next to me, while Haruhi and Mikuru had gone off to God knows where. Hopefully they weren't swimming, because I'd hate to hear Haruhi's whining if I happened to catch her bathing suit top in my fishing hook. Not a bad thought actually…

"This is turning out to be quite a pleasant trip. Suzumiya-san seems to be trying her best to keep herself occupied."

I looked at Koizumi like he had a massive bug on his face. He's always one to state out the obvious.

"Keeping herself occupied usually means I have to suffer in some way. I don't see where the pleasantness is."

Koizumi had originally been wearing a smile on his face, but it quickly disappeared after he heard me say this. He narrowed his eyes as he spoke in a serious tone.

"You're still be bothered by it, aren't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just sick of it all. And I don't really like fishing or swimming in unknown waters."

"I doubt that fishing or what's underneath the ocean's surface is what's bothering you. It seems to have something to do with Suzumiya-san. You haven't gotten over her completely, have you?"

That was the question I didn't want the esper to ask me. I looked back at him, then back at the sea ahead of us. My fishing pole had not moved an inch the entire day. I remained silent, a melancholic expression pasted on my face.

"I just hope Suzumiya-san stabilizes. It could be a problem if she doesn't." Koizumi commented, and then he looked back at the sea ahead.

"Stabilizes?" I asked him quietly, suddenly becoming a little interested. It's only because Koizumi is making it sound like something remains to be wrong with Haruhi however.

"You've seen her changing personality. She's becoming..less charming as time goes on. Anyone would be able to see how much of a problem it will become if it's not taken care of in due time."

Right, Koizumi! She's lost all her charm already, you bastard! Damn! I still can't believe how much of a Haruhi kissass this guy can be sometimes.

"There's not much we can do. Just let her do her thing and hopefully she'll just get over it. I don't see why it's my problems when it's not affecting me. If you're so adamant about it all, maybe you should go and spend all your time with her. It's not like I want to."

Koizumi smiled again in response to this. I raised an eyebrow, because I really didn't think anything amusing had been said.

"An interesting idea, but I doubt it would work. Besides, it would only cause her unnecessary emotional confusion, not to mention making you even more stressed than you already are, Kyon-kun."

I looked back at Koizumi, glaring at him and his stupid smiling face.

"Like I even care. Go do whatever you want. I just want to be left alone for awhile."

With that, I decided that my talk with Koizumi was officially over. The moon was full tonight, but I figured I'd rather go to sleep than sit out there and have to listen to him some more.

As I headed towards the cabins of the boat, I stopped for a moment. Someone must had been just in front of the entrance to the lower cabins, because I heard quick footsteps signifying them running off after I suddenly came their way.

They'd been listening to our conversation no doubt. They'd been watching us both no doubt.

My eyes now beginning to tire, I continued on, trying to ignore what I thought I might have heard. It was only when I stepped on something and looked down to see what it was did I have a terrible realization.

There underneath my foot was an orange headband. It was Haruhi's headband of course, and it meant that she had no doubt been standing in this very spot, eavesdropping on the conversation between Koizumi and I. I picked up, suddenly beginning to get worried.

She had dropped it while running off.

My mind began to race. What exactly did Haruhi hear us say? Did she hear us talking about her? My heart started pounding, and worry wrapped around my soul like a black snake of death.

Holding her orange headband in my hand, I knew full well that a storm was well on its way. Be it metaphorical or not, it still worried me more than enough. I wouldn't be surprised if I develop a high-blood pressure problem in my later years, just from all the stress this girl gives me. With nothing to say, even in my mind, I simply sighed to myself in slight regret.