Well, here's the next chapter, guys! I really hope you enjoy the big references in this. In addition, I'm informing you all of my big suprise from before.

Go on Youtube, and search The Attraction of Haruhi Suzumiya. There you will find a video with my story's name on it, from That Dude In The Shade's series, Fandom Paradise.

I would definitely watch that video. In short, someone recognized Attraction and the rest of the fics as something good. I was beyond psyched by this, as the person in question did a phenomenal job in reviewing The Attraction of Haruhi Suzumiya. After watching that so many times, I keep telling myself that all this writing really is worth it. Anyway, enjoy this chapter everyone. With college coming up this Thursday, I'm giving myself a week's break to get settled and everything. Till then, enjoy!

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

These days, Haruhi seemed to be acting like more of a concentrated storm than like the raging tornado she usually was. And with this concert coming up, it seemed like she was even more out of character and all the more controlling. And for her, two things like that is a bad combination.

It all started on the morning of the next day. I had initially hoped that she wouldn't be waking me up like she had mentioned, and that I'd actually get some of the sleep I deserved. These wishes were really hopeless when you got down to it, especially considering Haruhi's usual tenacity. And surprisingly, her recently changing personality might have made her less vocal and nasty, but it made her all the more governmental. It was like a hidden part of her was almost being released from inside...

I hated getting up on a morning like this, but the sound of my phone thrust me awake. Who else would call me on such a morning? Of course, it would be only Haruhi.

The boring and repetitive details of what Haruhi said to me over the phone were all the usual, minus the part where she usually talks with the pace of a hyena pumped on energy drinks.

"Good. You're up. Do you know how many times I've called you? You're really one lazy guy, Kyon. I think an atom bomb could go off in your backyard, and you still wouldn't wake up from hearing the blast."

Of course, Haruhi. Because that completely fits within the boundaries of reality. I sighed, but I got the feeling that she heard me do that on the other line.

"I want you at the station within the next hour, Kyon. The concert's supposed to start around four o'clock, and it's already late enough in the morning. The last thing is we need is to be late because you decided to oversleep."

I face palmed, wondering why I had agreed to go to this concert in the first place. As I had said before, free tickets were free tickets, but even stll, the idea of being anywhere with Haruhi was starting to stress me out more than usual.

"Fine."

"Don't sound so glum. It's not like you have anything to be worried about. Anyway, you better be on time. Because if you're late, then you'll be taking that job opening at the community center next week, whether you like it or not. And I don't think you want to be taking care of toddlers all by yourself!"

I could have easily given Haruhi a response and it if I did, it probably would have been one full of sarcasm and disinterest. But I said nothing, because to tell the truth, I didn't really have the energy to tell Haruhi off. Ever since yesterday, I've felt very depressed, I might have said. The mixture of stress and annoyance have come together and formed some sort of melancholic depression for me. I can't even find the power in myself to challenge Haruhi.

On the other line, Haruhi hung up without even saying goodbye. I didn't even sigh, because if felt like it would be a useless act at this point. Sighing gets me nowhere these days, and it only reminds me more of the problems I'm dealing with on a daily basis.

I checked the time on my phone, narrowing my eyes. Despite what Haruhi said, it was only ten, and we had more than enough time to arrive at the concert before it started. I wondered how many people were going to be going to this concert. And to tell the truth, there were some peculiar things I noticed the other night, after Haruhi and the others finally decided to leave.

Last night, my parents had been out, and in my bored state, I decided to use the computer in the den. I had nothing to do, or more like, nothing I wanted to do. Rest assured, however, as I wasn't using the computer to do anything X-rated.

No, I decided to look up the details on this upcoming concert. At that point in the day, I had already forgotten the name of the band we were going to see, and to tell the truth, I had become melancholic enough that I had decided looking them up would be an interesting thing to do with my time.

Apparently, the band's name was the Crescendolls, and they were marketing themselves as a house/electronica group. The site I went on wasn't really their's per se, but the site of whatever sponsor was allowing them to play at the stadium.

There was very little described about them. The four band members didn't even have pictures of themselves up on this website, nor could one find out any information about them besides what instruments they played. In fact, even their names were nowhere to be found for god sakes!

Besides that, there was really little besides the time of the concert and where to get tickets on this site. In fact, the sponsor was kind of mysterious as well. There were a lot of weird symbols that I could not recognize at all adorned all over the website, plus the fact that there seemed to be no way to contact the sponsor about this whole thing. I couldn't help but get a little worried about this, mostly because I wondered how angry Haruhi would be if she found out this was all actually a scam.

In the end, I got bored and eventually decided going to sleep was a better idea.

And now, coming back to Saturday morning, I found myself checking my watch, and walking along as I headed towards the station, where Haruhi and the rest of her merry friends waited. Not that I was very merry right now. In fact, I was far from it.

Goddamn her. This really is all Haruhi's fault. Everything seemed to just be falling apart these days, at least when Haruhi's involved. Why couldn't she have been nicer to me? Why did she have to act like such a nasty human being when we were actually dating? All she had to do was control her temper and her urge to control people, and we would still be together.

No. I didn't want to think about that. I didn't want to think about any of it. To be completely honest, I wouldn't have minded just forgetting about Haruhi entirely. I wouldn't have minded just making a whole new group of friends, and I certainly wouldn't mind just leaving the SOS Brigade either. Haruhi was the last person in the world that I want to spend any time with, and unfortunately, Koizumi didn't make any of this easier.

I mentally groaned when Koizumi's face entered my thoughts. This could have been some kind of plot of his. For all I knew, he could be laughing to himself, and maybe he wants Haruhi all for himself. It's not like he didn't treat her like God already. What's the next step for him? Having her put him on a leash so he could so her bidding even more so, probably.

Damn it. Now I was overreacting. It's funny how no one even gives a damn about all these things. I was the only one talking, and it's to me, in the recesses of my thoughts. For all I know, Haruhi didn't care about me anymore. Why should she, anyway? I wasn't her star pupil anymore. I didn't listen as easily as I used to. The servant and master relationship we've had was beginning to crumble, whether she wanted to see it or not.

In all the time I spent thinking, I realized that I had actually reached the station sooner than I thought I would. In the distance, I could see Haruhi, Koizumi, Nagato and Asahina-san, and it was clear that I had probably kept them waiting. Unfortunately for them, I was too stressed at the moment to even give a damn. Haruhi should just be damn thankful I even came in the first place.

"Do you know how late you are?" she said to me as her form of a welcome, her arms crossed and a very disapproving expression on her face. I glanced at her, and the look on her face was like some sort of visual poison. I looked away.

"Well? What do you have to say for yourself?"

I could hear the sound of Asahina-san whimpering in fear, while Nagato and Koizumi remained as silent as the grave. What was I supposed to say to Haruhi right now? There was nothing for me to say.

And so that's how it went. I said nothing to her, and I began to realize that's how it would probably be for the rest of this excursion tonight.

A few hours later on the train, my silence continued, and it seemed that it was actually affecting Haruhi's mood. The fact that I was ignoring her seemed to be an effective tactic in making her pissed off, and I might have relished this if I was in the mood for it.

Because of my silence, the rest of the Brigade seemed to be go silent as we all sat together on this crowded train heading towards the stadium where The Crescendolls would be playing. Well, I ended up standing with Koizumi, and as more people entered, Haruhi, Asahina-san and Nagato all eventually had to give up their seats to the elderly. And so, we were all bunched up next to one another, with Koizumi in the space between me and Haruhi.

I just hoped this band was good. Maybe their music would be able to distract me long enough that I could possibly forget about my current Haruhi-related problems. If they managed to do that, even for a single night, than I'd personally go out and purchase their album the next day. I wasn't kidding, either. I was that desperate.

It's safe to say that I was glad to be off that train once we finally arrived at the station right by the stadium where The Crescendolls would be playing. Asouko Stadium was big enough for a couple thousand people, though I highly doubted that many people would be attending this concert. This band seemed relatively unknown if you asked me.

And there's something else I'd like to point out about the train ride here. I hoped I was seeing things, but I thought I saw Haruhi getting as close as she possibly could get toward Koizumi during the train ride, all in front of me. Their hands touched multiple times, and Haruhi kept mentioning something about there being not enough space on the seven foot long metal pole for two hands to fit.

I didn't care. I shouldn't care. The problem was that I say that, but to tell the truth, I was thinking otherwise. I found myself caring quite a bit.

It was short walk to the stadium, and the relative silence remained for all of us. I found it hard to comprehend that my lack of speaking is causing everyone else to be quiet as well. I looked back at Nagato, as she read a novel while still walking behind us in this more unfamiliar part of the city. The silence must be golden to her. Maybe it's a moment like this she's been waiting for all this time...

Haruhi looked pissed, despite her lack of words. She stomped along in front of me, refusing to give me a glance or anything similar. The silence is nice. What sucks was that it's going to be ruined once we finally reached the stadium up ahead.

The process of us getting inside was actually very easy, and there was no line to speak of, at least in the side we were entering from. This didn't make me feel any better, but at least we wouldn't be baking in the sun for a long time in some godforsaken line of people. That was certainly a plus.

Even as we went through one of the stadium's inner chambers, the silence between us continued. I glanced back and forth, noticing posters on the walls that said "The Crescendolls Live" with the words "One More Time" above. The text on the posters was nice and stylized, but as of yet, I hadn't gotten much of a hint of what this band even looked like. Not that I really cared in the first place.

When we all got into the stadium, even I had to admit some awe from the sheer amount of people inside. There were definitely at least a thousand of them, all finding their seats as the five us had just entered. We were lucky to win these tickets, because when Haruhi actually found the time to read them, they said that we were all right in the front, where we would literally have a front row seat to the performance. Of course, this could be a very bad thing if the band sucked. I hoped that wasn't the case.

"Wow. There are a lot of people here..." Asahina-san said softly as she looked around with curious eyes. Haruhi didn't seem to be in the mood to say anything nice, so she responded with a indignant tone.

"I've seen so many more, Mikuru-chan. These people are just another drop in the ocean."

Those words sent me back a little, to a time where Haruhi had told me something our of the blue. It was about how insignificant she had felt at a young age, and how she had always considered herself to be an important and special person. When she'd found out just how much of a small percentage she was compared to the rest of the world, her outlook on life had suddenly changed. I wondered if this was also giving her nostalgia, and perhaps she was getting all pissed over it. In the end, I decided not to care.

We found our spot in this stadium, and it was right in front of where the band would be performing, with a big metal barricade between us and where the four band members would playing. Their instruments were all set up on stage, and they consisted of an electric keyboard, a full drum set, an electric guitar, and a large slim-necked bass. I checked my watch, annoyed by the sound of people moving around all around us as I did. The concert would start in approximately ten minutes. We had cut it quite close, considering that the last few hours before getting on the train involved me treating Haruhi and everyone else the entire time. I found it surprising that I've been able to carry out the silence since then.

"So where are they?"

I figured Haruhi would be the first to ask that. God, she's really impatient. Doesn't she understand that not everyone likes to move at a super fast pace like she does? Of course she doesn't. Haruhi's too thick-headed to care about anyone else these days.

"It seems the band is probably still preparing. I can imagine this is probably very stressful for them." Koizumi commented, with that goddamn smile of his on his face.

Like you would know about stress, you esper bastard. Don't you ever shut up?

After Koizumi's comment, everything felt so much worse. However, even in my supposed depression, I caught myself doing something I really shouldn't have. As we waited in our boredom, I began to just glance back at Haruhi, and marvel at her beauty despite the fact that I had been telling myself I wanted nothing to do with her this whole time. I had been lucky enough that she didn't notice, but I still wanted to hit myself for being so stupid. Now I just wanted this concert to start already.

Finally, people began to quiet down as a man in a tan suit came on stage, walking past the instruments that had been set up. Everyone stopped what they were doing in the stands above, and calmness came over all of Asouko Stadium as he began to speak.

To be honest, I barely listened to any of what he said. He just mentioned something about The Crescendolls on their way of being the next best thing, and that they're "not really from around here". No doubt they were a foreign band, at least from what their website said. I kind of just wanted this guy to get off stage and let them preform already, to tell the truth. Their music would probably keep my attention for just a little while.

Finally, he excused himself, and told us all he hoped we would enjoy the show. All of us stared at the stage ahead, waiting for something, anything to happen after that guy left the stage. For a minute, everything remained silent, and the instruments remained untouched as the whole stadium watched in suspense.

Suddenly, there was bright flash of light, and it was bright enough to blind me, and probably the rest of the Brigade, since we were all in front. It lasted a few seconds, and when it finally dimmed, we were greeted with a new sight on stage.

The band members had arrived, in a form even I did not expect. First of all, they were all wearing these strange orange jumpsuit-like costumes, coupled with some kind of weird white headbands. Three of the band members were male, specifically the keyboardist, guitar player and drummer. The last was female, and she was obviously the bassist, silently picking up her bass guitar and tuning it as the other members got situated.

Now, the next thing I noticed was the color of their skin. It was blue. And I'm not kidding. These band members all looked like they had painted their skin a cerulean blue. Even in my slight melancholy, I found this ridiculous, and I wondered if this nodded to the fact that their music might not be good.

"Interesting." Nagato said quietly and out of the blue(no pun intended) as the band began to finish silently setting themselves up, but the last part of the word she said was drowned out by the roaring crowd around us. Obviously the audience liked this band even before they'd done anything.

I can't say I wasn't a little surprised by all this. The band was blue for godsakes. Were they trying to copy something else? I remember there being a duo of guys that also painted themselves blue. Eh, did any of this really matter that much? These are trivial things that hopefully wouldn't affect the quality of their music, despite how ridiculous it made the lot of them look.

When the band looked ready to start, the crowd around us hushed quickly. We hadn't said much this whole time, and the fact was that all of our attention was on the blue group of orange jumpsuit-wearing musicians in front of us. Finally, I could hear the sound of the drummer lightly tapping on cymbals, and starting up a beat.

Out of nowhere, the words "One more time!" came out of the keyboardist's mouth, and the rest of the band seemed to take that as their cue to start playing. I could hear the sound of thumping bass, guitar, and the sound of the beating drums. To my surpass, the music started off well, and I found myself already enjoying it. It was alleviating my stress, though only a little bit.

As for the rest of the Brigade, they seemed to be listening intently, and the large amount of people in their seats above seemed to be doing the same. I could see signs above that said "We love you, Crescendolls!" around us, and many people were cheering despite the relative silence of most of the stadium, save for the sound of the band.

As the song progressed, I couldn't help but notice some things even as I found myself enjoying it. The keyboardist wasn't actually using a microphone as he sang. Now, this isn't necessarily so abnormal, but the fact was that he was singing to a huge stadium of people, and his voice sounded very, very loud. On top of that, their were signs of distortion in his voice as he sang, and without a microphone, I kind of wondered how he could pull off such a stunt so easily.

I don't know what everyone else's opinions of all this music was, but I assumed they were positive from the fact that no one seemed to be complaining. I could see Haruhi's foot slightly tapping to the beat, despite the still slightly discontented expression on her face. I would have called this cute, but I didn't really feel in the mood for that.

Luckily, the music was making me feel a whole lot better. Call me crazy, but it was almost rejuvenating me, in a way. In fact, it felt like all my angry and depressed emotions were being sucked away with each passing second.

I glanced over to Nagato for a moment. To my complete suprise, she actually seemed more interested in this band more than the rest of us. She was staring intently at the bass player as she moved around on stage, strumming on her instrument as her long golden hair waved around her. Maybe it's just me, but I was getting this feeling that Nagato actually seemed to genuinely enjoying this performance. To me, that was something out of the ordinary, considering very few things actually interested this alien.

When the first song ended, I decided I would ask Nagato why she was so interested.

"What is it?" I said to the alien, who didn't turn to face me, and continued to stare at the stage. The others seemed to also be eagerly waiting for the next song, but Nagato was definitely the most interested in all of this.

"This sound. It's unique."

The answer was simple, but something about the way Nagato said it...I don't know. She sounded weirder than usual. Maybe she likes this kind of music and she just never told us. Who knows?

Alright. I have to admit that the rest of this concert put me in a much, much better mood. All the songs were actually pretty good, and the band played with an almost inhuman perfection, if I may say. The last one was especially good, and I could have danced to it if I had the spine to make a fool of myself. Later on, I got a hunch even Haruhi enjoyed, as I saw her lip-syncing the words of the last song as we waited for the stadium around us to empty.

After the band had actually finished, they picked up their instruments without a word of thanks or anything else, and they just went backstage. It's too bad we didn't have some sort of backstage pass or anything with those free tickets, because I was almost in the mood to compliment these musicians on their work.

So while we waited for the stadium to empty, Haruhi took Asahina-san with her to the ladies room, while Koizumi mentioned something about going and seeing what the gift stand had to offer. The band was good, but I really didn't want to waste any money on a shirt I probably wouldn't wear. In the end, I didn't go with him, and I was left alone with Nagato.

With no one else around, I couldn't help but comment about her behavior before. It was making me wonder, and my sudden good mood was probably a part of why I asked this human interface what I asked.

"So what was so unique about that sound?"

Nagato's eyes glanced back at me, unchanging as she spoke in her usual robotic tone.

"The sound. Ordinary humans are not capable of replicating it. It's of extraterrestrial origin."

Now, I don't think you can blame me for having laughed after I heard Nagato say this. Basically, she told me that the band we had just heard were all aliens, just like her. With my mood suddenly not so bad, I guessed I could have laughed at hearing something like that without second thought.

"You're kidding, right? Is this your version of a joke, Nagato?"

"No."

I stopped myself. Nagato sounded serious as always, but her one word response was enough to stop me from laughing. Come to think of it, the laugh was kind of uncontrolled, and it came out without me even thinking about it.

"The sound is of extraterrestrial origins, capable of affecting human emotions. The Entity knows of a race like this. They exist in a far off galaxy, approximately 3,578 light years away from this planet."

After that, I felt like I didn't have much more to say to Nagato. I kind of shrugged, and tried my best to ignore what she said. All of sudden, the thought of seeing that monster back in the ocean was coming back to me. If these were aliens like Nagato was telling me, then no doubt they were a product of Haruhi in some way, shape or form. But being in such a good mood, I tried my absolute best to not even think about such an idea.

After a few minutes of silence between Nagato and me, Haruhi and Asahina-san returned, and Koizumi came shortly after. He had a black t-shirt in a clear casing with him, which Haruhi's eyes went wide at. Apparently, she actually seemed interested in the object.

"You got a t-shirt, Koizumi-kun?" Haruhi asked with excitement in her voice. "I need to go buy one before they all run out!"

As I listened to this, I saw Koizumi's expression change, and he looked a bit nervous all of a sudden. He replied to our Brigade Chief with an unsure tone of voice.

"I'm sorry to say this, Suzumiya-san, but I seemed to have bought the last shirt they had in stock. It is most unfortunate."

A silence erupted between us all again, and it was mostly in part that the stadium had nearly cleared up, and the cleaning crew was already coming out and picking up garbage from the stands.

Haruhi's face became sullen, and from what I could tell, it looked like she might have really wanted a t-shirt from this concert. To tell the truth, it might not have been that important to her at first, but maybe it had become so after the music turned out to be so good.

"I see..."

Koizumi's expression became surprised upon hearing a sad Haruhi, and he walked forward, a smile forming on his face as he handed his enclosed Crescendolls t-shirt to her. She looked down in surprise at his offer, and took it with an expression I hadn't seen in quite awhile. Haruhi was genuinely in awe, as if the encased t-shirt in her hand was an ancient alien artifact or something.

"You can just have mine, Suzumiya-san. I can see that it's more important to you than it is to me."

Somehow, Koizumi's comment actually put a sharp spike in my good mood. The way he said it just screamed to me that he was being a kiss-ass to her. I tried to ignore it, but what happened next took my attention unlike anything else.

As we all watched, Haruhi blinked curiously, walking up to Koizumi with the t-shirt under one of her arms. The esper looked surprised that she would come so close to him, and his eyes went wide when they were literally face to face. Without warning, we all watched Haruhi lean in a little, and give Koizumi a quick kiss on the cheek.

As you might have guessed, this broke my mood faster than I thought it intially would. Haruhi had been the product of enough stress for me, and Koizumi had been as well, but seeing something like this was just like shoving a metal spike into my brain. It was painful to watch.

Something was wrong. The way Haruhi did it seemed almost planned. The way she kissed him on the cheek, while it may have looked innocent, almost had malicious undertones to it. Everything about what she had just done was wrapping around my mind like a giant anaconda.

Even while Koizumi remained surprised, and Asahina-san looked confused, Haruhi glanced at me, with an expression I hadn't seen before. It was her way of getting my attention, and this kiss of her's was absolutely the same kind of thing. My face grew sullen faster than I could even register...

I really don't think I'll be buying that album like I thought I would be. I don't think any song can save my mood now...

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

On another note, if you didn't get the references in this chapter, I really suggest watching Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem. It's well worth it.