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After being admitted without a hitch, Miyokichi and I went to our seats in the middle of the single-hall theater; it was hardly what you would call spacious. Regarding how small the attendance was, the number of people entering was so sparse that it was virtually empty.

As for the kind of movie, it was one of those gory horrors. To be honest, it wasn't a genre that I liked very much, but just for that day, I couldn't help but listen to her wishes. At any rate, her tastes didn't seem to fit her quiet looks. Did she really want to see it that much?

During the show, she turned into an eager movie fan as she showed an appreciation for the screen, but here and there, during the scary scenes that were characteristic of horror films, she meekly gave a little start, turned her face away, and grabbed my arm once, which calmed me down for some reason.

But other than that, her eyes were glued to the images, and she looked so serious that if they were to see her with that much concentration, even the film makers would be satisfied.

At first glance, if I were to reveal my impressions of the film point-blank, it would go something like "This is a B-movie, isn't it?" which is something I couldn't just say. Though I don't think I lost anything by watching it, I didn't gain anything, either. I couldn't even recall learning anything from advanced reviews at all; they must not have done much work on their advertising.

Why could she have picked this movie?

I asked her,

"An actor that I like appears in it."

She replied with a bit of embarrassment.

The ending credits hadn't finished scrolling when the curtains closed, and we exited the theater.

It was past noon by then. Are we also going for lunch somewhere? Just when I was thinking if it was time to go home, she said in a voice that sounded nothing but humble,

"There's a shop that I want to go see, but is that okay with you?"

When I looked at her, she was circling the corner of the open page on her guide book with a red pen. The store was in an area that we could walk to from here.

After I considered it a bit,

"It's decided, then."

I answered, and started walking according to the simple map printed on the magazine page. As silent as ever, she walked diagonally behind me. We must have talked about a few things, but I don't really remember.

After walking for a while, we arrived at a cozy-looking tea shop. Seeing the stylish facade and interior, it seemed like it would take an extraordinary amount of courage for a guy to enter by himself; he'd feel like a fish out of water. I had unconsciously frozen at the front of the store, but when I came to look up at Miyokichi's worried face, it felt natural as I pushed on the manually-opening wooden doors.

As I had expected, most of the customers occupying the store were girls. It was spectacular. For some reason, I felt relief at how many mixed couples there were.

The waitress who had lead us to our seats, looked at Miyokichi and me with a smile, brought glasses of water with a smile, and finally asked for our order with a smile.

After scanning the menu for thirty seconds, I ordered a Neapolitan and an iced coffee, while she got the deluxe cake set. It seems like she had decided on what to order from the beginning, From among the ten types of cake the waitress had brought as samples, she pointed at the Mont Blanc without hesitation.

"You're okay with just the cake set?"

I expectedly asked.

"Won't you still be hungry with just that?"

"No, I'll be okay."

She straightened her back, put her hands on her knees, and said with a tense face.

"I don't eat much."

Was her unexpected response. Maybe because I had been looking at her steadily, she lowered her face. Panicking, I rushed to explain myself, and felt that way until I had succeeded in getting her to smile again. Thinking about it now, I said such embarrassing things that it had made me sweat. It would be useless to write something like, uh, she was totally cute just as she was. But, Miyokichi was indeed a beautiful girl. I would think that about half of the boys in her class must be enamored with her.

Once they had arrived, she took about thirty minutes to nibble on her Mont Blanc and sip her Darjeeling Tea. As for me, I finished my meal quickly; it took just enough time for the ice in my iced coffee to melt.

I had quite some time in my hands, but I still couldn't understand her, and as I threw some random subjects at her, she would just nod or shake her head....... Well, considering it now, I don't think I paid that much attention to it. I was just a bundle of sensitivity back then. And probably all nervous.

I was going to pay for the tea shop bill. But she wouldn't listen, insisting to the end that she would pay for her own share.

"Because I'm the one who wanted to go out today."

She said as her point.

Having finished settling our accounts, we started walking around in the bright sunlight. After the horror movie, and that gorgeous little tea shop, where did she want to go next? Or was it time for her to go home?

"............"

As we strolled, she went silent for a long while. And some time later,

"There is this one last place......"

The place she revealed in a small voice, was my home.

After all of that, I took her back to my home, and with my little sister, who seemed like she had been waiting for us to arrive, the three of us played games together.

"Phew."

Having written that much, I stopped my fingers.

The only other people in the room were Koizumi and Nagato. Haruhi was running around as usual, while Asahina-san went out to the Art Club for a final check on her drawings.

As I scrolled to the beginning of the article I had written, Koizumi's face came into my field of vision from the side.

"Have you written to the end? Or is there more?"

"No idea......"

I answered, but despite what I said, it felt like that was enough. If you think about it, what was the point of writing that stuff so diligently? For the Literature Club's sake, and, by extension, for Nagato's sake―――you could be enthusiastic about that, but it was all just a way for the SOS Brigade to continue keeping this clubroom as its headquarters, and just one part of the plan to alleviate Haruhi's boredom. With Koizumi pulling the strings behind the curtains, the president, who held abuse of authority deep within his gut, was Koizumi's pseudo-puppet. So to speak, this case was just one big roundabout put-up job.

At the same time, I had a feeling that Koizumi was hoping to avoid the second stage turning into all-out war against the Student Council. But mostly, it was Nagato who was at the forefront. I think I would want her to enjoy a peaceful student life as much as she could. I'd like to believe that I'm not the only one whose heart is set at peace when gazing at Nagato quietly reading a book in a corner of that clubroom.

"Well, that's fine, isn't it?"

Setting my jaw, I showed it to Koizumi.

"Before I show it to Haruhi, I want to hear your opinion. So read it."

"Then I shall read it, gladly."

As I looked at the thoroughly-absorbed Koizumi's face, I manipulated my touch pad.

The notebook computers that had been provided to Brigade Members were connected through a LAN, with the desktop computer on the Brigade Chief's desk acting as the server. With a little fiddling around, I was able to initiate the printer that had been placed in a corner of the clubroom, and it began spitting out the printed-on sheets.

A few minutes later.

Koizumi smiled after he finished reading, and made his comments.

"Well, I thought I was the one who was supposed to work on the mystery assignment."

As I had thought, was he able to see it?

"What do you mean?"

I said, feigning ignorance.

"I wasn't intending to write something like a mystery."

Koizumi's smile widened more and more,

"And there's another problem. It also didn't turn out romantic."

If that was the case, then what did I write?

"This is just bragging. About how you went out on a date with a cute girl."

I guess that's how it is if you read it normally. However, Koizumi. You must have noticed something else. In which part did you get suspicious?

"From the beginning. It was obvious, the way you made it. It's impossible to say that it isn't suspicious."

Koizumi set the manuscript in order, picked up a ball pen, and then started putting marks on some sheets. They were ※ marks. That is, he was the one who put in the (※) marks above.

"You're a pretty generous person, aren't you? You put in several clues one after the other. Even the most thickheaded readers should be able to see up to (4※)."

As I kept acting like I didn't know anything, I clicked my tongue, and turned to the side. I thought that by looking at Nagato's unmoving figure, I could calm my heart down. Though my eyes were set at ease, Koizumi dealt a final blow to my ears.

"The way it stands, isn't it missing the conclusion? Therefore, I have a proposal. Why don't you add one or two lines after this? The part that will give out the secret, so to speak. That shouldn't take a lot of work."

As I had thought, it'll be better that way, huh?

I resented having to follow Koizumi's advice, but at that moment, I had felt like I should just listen to him. If it's about psychoanalyzing Haruhi, then this guy's the expert.

But, wait a sec? Why should I be worried about Haruhi's book review? She was the one who had brought up that nonsense about writing a romance story, but the one who actually had to do that nonsense was me, the same as Asahina-san and Nagato. If we're going to assign blame here, it should be on Haruhi, who had arbitrarily taken the position of Editor-in-Chief.

As I gazed at the liquid crystal display, Koizumi let out a chuckle.

"I don't think you have anything to worry about. Since I could recognize, it's unlikely that Suzumiya-san wouldn't. Before you could get to cross-examining......ah."

Koizumi reached into his blazer pocket. It was sounding off like an insect buzzing.

"Excuse me for a sec."

Koizumi pulled out his cell phone and took a glance at the screen,

"It seems I have some minor business to attend to. I'll be stepping out for a bit. No, you can relax. It's just a report I have to make regularly, not one of those cases."

As if to support those words, Koizumi kept a smile on his face as he left the clubroom. Contrary to expectations, could he, himself, be going out to meet some schoolgirl somewhere, in the shadows? Considering how clever Koizumi is, it wouldn't be strange if he's been doing something so normal in some place we didn't know about.

And so, that left only me and Nagato, who was still immersed in her reading.

Nagato never lifted her face. I felt like I should say something, but I was lost in the middle of my thoughts. Should I just accept it and write in that unnecessary addition?

In that silence, I closed the file for the pseudo-romance story that I had written, and opened up a new text file. A pure white screen was displayed on my monitor.

For the time being, shall we see what I could write? As Koizumi had said, let's finish it in two lines.

I hit the keys with a tak-tak-tak, and since my revision wasn't at all lengthy, I put in the command to print it as it was.

As I gave the sheet of paper that had come out of the printer a thorough look, I had wanted to just go and delete the whole paragraph. This is no good. It'd be embarrassing even if it were a folk-tale.

I folded up the sheet that had ended up becoming my closing page, and stuffed it inside the inner pocket of my uniform's blazer.

Then, at that same moment,

"Taniguchi ran away again. Tomorrow, he'll be writing even if I have to tie him up. You too, Kyon. If you don't complete it soon, the Editor-in-Chief is gonna get angry."

Haruhi had entered the room.

And then my manuscript, which Koizumi had left on top of the table, caught her eye.

Wait a sec, I pleaded in futility, as Haruhi plundered the printed-out sheets with god-like speed. She then sat down in her own desk, and started reading slowly.

As I was feeling torn between being resigned and being defiant, I watched our power-mongering Editor-in-Chief's face.

Haruhi was grinning widely at the beginning, turned expressionless somewhere in the middle, though her expression had faded away as she passed through a number of sheets, and when she finished reading the last page, her expression changed again.

That's unusual. I wasn't liking that vacant look on Haruhi.

"It ends there?"

I nodded quietly.

Nagato was saying nothing as she kept her eyes fixed on a page of her open book. Asahina-san was out somewhere. Koizumi had left for some reason. There was no human being anywhere who would give Haruhi any unnecessary information.

And so―――.

After dropping my manuscript on her desk, she turned to face me again.

And, she was smiling in a way that I didn't like. The same way Koizumi did.

"And the conclusion?"

"The conclusion to?"

I played dumb.

Haruhi smiled so sweetly that it was eerie,

"There's no way it ends with that, right? And that Miyokichi girl, what happened to her after that?"

"Who knows, maybe she's living happily somewhere?"

"Liar. You know, don't you?"

Haruhi joined her hands on Brigade Chief's desk, and just like that, she jumped over the desk and soared toward me. In no time at all, she had grabbed me by my necktie. That idiotically strong girl; was she trying to choke me?

"If you want me to release you, then start talking. Be honest."

"What should I be honest about? It's a story. And a fiction at that. The I that's written here isn't me, it's just a character in the first-person perspective story that I wrote. And so is Miyokichi."

Haruhi's smiling face drew closer and closer, and she held my neck with more and more power. This is bad; I really am in danger of suffocating.

"Just you keep lying."

Haruhi continued in an overly refreshing tone,

"From the beginning, I never thought you could write a whole made-up story. At most, you might've been able to transcribe something you remember hearing from someone you know. By my intuition, I can tell that what I read here was based on a true story. And that it's yours."

Haruhi's eyes sparkled glaringly.

"So who's Miyokichi? What kind of relationship did you have with her?"

As my necktie got tighter and tighter, I finally confessed the truth.

"She occasionally comes to my house and eats dinner before leaving for home."

"Just that? Don't you have something more to say?"

I reflexively checked the chest of my blazer. That was plenty enough for Haruhi.

"Aha. You're hiding the rest of the manuscript there, huh. Hand it over."

Just how sharp was her nose? I couldn't help but feel a sense of admiration. However, just as I was about to speak my words of praise, Haruhi had went on and resorted to force.

As I was struggling, she thrust her right leg between my thighs and executed, as I remembered from somewhere, a brilliant inside leg trip.

"Uoh!" I lifelessly raised my voice.

Putting all her weight on my body, Haruhi then pushed me down to the floor. Haruhi rode me like a horse, getting in the mount position. She was going to slip her hands inside my blazer. But I still resisted somehow.

"Yuki, lend me a hand here. Go grab Kyon's hands."

As she said that, Haruhi had started taking my blazer off. Hey hey, don't you have any shame? Asahina-san is the only one you get to strip down, you crazy girl!

"You, stop it!"

I turned to Nagato as my eyes sought help, but when I confronted her delicately expressionless face, I got the impression that she was puzzling about what she should do.

Before I knew it, Nagato had opened the cover of her computer.

From when was that again? Since she had the skill to hack into the Computer Club's computer and rewrite their program, peeking into my computer would be an easy victory for her. But, umm, what would she see?

"............"

Nagato didn't help either of us, and just watched over me and Haruhi's ground battle with calm eyes.

And then, after that,

"I'm ba―――ehhhh!?"

Enter Asahina-san. What timing this person has. Just what was she thinking when she saw me on my back, and then Haruhi on top of me as she continued her reverse sexual harassment,

"I, I'm sorryyy! I didn't see anything! Really!"

She shouted misguidedly as she ran away.

"............"

While Nagato kept waiting watchfully.

"Didn't you hear what the Editor-in-Chief said? Now, hand it over!"

And Haruhi smiled ferociously.

As Haruhi handled me with both hands while in the guard position, a prayer went out from my heart.

Koizumi, you're the only one I can rely on, now! Hurry back!

About that sheet that had been printed last. Besides being hidden in the inside pocket of my blazer, this was what was written on it.

By the way, Yoshimura Miyoko, nicknamed Miyokichi, was my little sister's classmate, as well as her best friend, and at that time, she was a ten-year-old, fourth-year student in Grade School.

Even one year ago, Miyokichi had such an adult-like appearance, that you wouldn't think she was my little sister's classmate. Her height made me skeptical about how she could be a light eater, her figure was good, the expressions you would suddenly see on her were good, and it was all at such an extent that she looked about as grown-up as Asahina-san. With such un-grade-school-student-like looks, the person at the ticket booth of the movie theater and the part-time ticket collector would probably overlook it.

Though even if they did notice it, it would be a question of whether she would be stopped each time. They'd sell you tickets at the student price even if you don't present your student ID.

The movie that we went to see had received a PG-12 designation due to the Eirin. That is to say, it was required for children younger than twelve to be accompanied by a guardian. I was okay, since I had already turned fifteen.

The problem was Miyokichi. Even though she knew perfectly well. That her own appearance couldn't be seen as less than twelve.

However, she couldn't bring herself to go alone. Since her parents were relatively conservative in character, they wouldn't understand a gory, B-grade horror movie, and she'd be told off if she said she wanted to go see it―――was the explanation I heard from her.

But the only friend she could invite was my own little sister, whom you couldn't see in anything but early grade school, even up to now. The movie's showing would be for most of that March, and then it ends. She would lose her chance to see it if she didn't hurry.

So she thought through it. Which person could she go together with that they were likely to sell tickets to, normally?

That was me.

I've always been fond of small children from a long time ago, if I do say so myself. With most of my cousins being younger than me, I think it became a habit after being made to look after everyone when we were all gathered in the countryside.

Of course, having to deal with my little sister's friends was an everyday occurrence. Among those was Miyokichi, so she also knew me pretty well.

The big brother of a friend who was always in the house where she often went to play, and a guy who seemed to have a lot of free time during spring break. It turned out that I was someone who came to mind as being in the circle of friends of some fourth graders.

She thought that way as well. On the occasion of that movie, it also comes as a place that would be difficult for a kid to enter alone. And along those lines, she had selected that tea shop. The waitress at that time turned out to be pretty pleasant. It was a shop that a grade schooler standing on her tiptoes would feel awkward to enter alone, and even I, as a Middle School student, still felt nervous in that position. With Miyokichi and me at that tea shop. Even from the eyes of outsiders, we couldn't have been seen as anything but brother and sister.

Currently in fifth grade, and soon to be sixth grade, Miyokichi, Yoshimura Miyoko. If you wait five more years, you just might become a rival for Asahina-san.

Though somewhere, at Haruhi's look, I had stopped talking.

And now, it will be the post-fin from here.

We managed to finish the Club Journal by the deadline. It was just a booklet printed on copy paper that we stuck together with a gigantic, industrial-sized stapler, but as for the content―――removing any bias I may have―――you could say that it was fairly substantial.

Of particular excellence, was the Adventure Story that Tsuruya-san had written. Every single one who read her romp of a short story entitled "Hard Cheese! The Tragedy of Boy N" had to hold his side in laughter. I, myself, had laughed so hard that tears came out. That there was such an amusing tale in this world―――I had this feeling for a long time after that. The only one who read it and didn't even move a muscle on her face was Nagato, but that slapstick story in Tsuruya-san's lively writing style was so funny, that I wondered if even Nagato would secretly read it in her own room and let out a few giggles.

Though I've thought about this a little, I felt again that it was true. Could she be some kind of genius? That person.

As for the other SOS Brigade affiliates, there were things like the terrible and uninteresting days essay written by Taniguchi, Kunikida's trivia-like study column, four-panel comics drawn by someone in the Manga Club; thanks to Haruhi eagerly running everywhere to commission writers and demand manuscripts, it had turned into something that was plenty thick for a Literature Club journal, and though it took some time and effort to bundle and staple each copy, the two hundred copies we prepared sold well in one day without us having to do any advertising. Maybe all of Haruhi's running around for outsourcing had inadvertently turned into advanced publicity, I thought.

But that Haruhi, after saying "I'm gonna write something, too!" only contributed a short piece aside from the self-important editorial postscript.

Entitled "Save the world by Overloading it with fun: Section One ・A Memo on the Formulae for Looking at Tomorrow," the article was loaded with figures or symbols which, according to Haruhi's explanation, are to be considered for the perpetual continuation of the SOS Brigade, and though that just seems like something she would say, I, at least, could not make any sense out of the text.

Order in chaos, is a figure of speech that expresses this uncertainty, and while it carries with it the impression that the contents of Haruhi's head had just spilled out on it, so to speak―――.

However, what surprised me was how Asahina-san looked like her legs were about to give out after reading that pseudo-article.

"But that's....... If that was how it was......."

Since she had looked so shocked and her eyes so wide open that it seemed like those cute pupils of hers would pop out, I asked her why, but Asahina-san replied,

"I can't talk about it much since it's classified information, but......"

After giving her refusal,

"This is the central foundation of the time plane theory. In my time period......erm, for people like me, it is the very first thing we learn. But who the originator was and which time it came from, has always been a mystery...... That it would turn out to be Suzumiya-san......"

She was speechless after that. I went along with her and said nothing, although coincidentally, a wild idea had sprung into my mind.

Haruhi would probably be bringing home at least one copy of the club journal we had made. And that club journal, you can't say that there won't be any chance it would catch that Hakase-kun-like, bespectacled kid's eye. Haruhi was that boy's special tutor, after all. Although Asahina-san and I had already given that Hakase-kun a lot of cues, I guess that wasn't all of it. Would Haruhi become the root cause, after all? Even if she didn't, it would probably be a mix of various elements. The number of questions I wanted to ask Asahina-san (big) had just increased by one again.

After completing the distribution of the club journal on that same day, Haruhi purposefully marched for to Student Council room to give that report. And it goes without saying that an aura of pride was flooding from her body.

The Student Council President couldn't even move his eyebrows at Haruhi's break in and matching introduction, and as his glasses simply shone,

"A promise is a promise. I will approve the continuation of the Literature Club. However, there is more to be concerned with yet regarding the SOS Brigade's existence. Do not forget that there is quite some time left on my term of office."

Leaving us with that crystal-clear parting remark, he turned his back.

Taking that as a declaration of defeat, Haruhi returned triumphantly to the clubroom, and danced victoriously with Asahina-san in front of Nagato as she watched indifferently. Ah well.

At any rate, I've told you about that one disturbance as everything ended. After that, there was nothing left but to wait for spring to arrive in full.

As it is, if nothing more were to happen, we would all move on to the next grade. If I had to say, it would probably be about spring break by the time Haruhi perpetrates something for the remaining events.

It's hard to say if it's been a long or short year. This is a secret, but I'm putting a circle on one spot of the calendar on April this year. The same day on April as last year's Opening Ceremony.

Even if somebody were to forget, or even if Haruhi herself didn't remember, I will remember the anniversary of that day without fail.

The day I met Haruhi, I'm confident I will never forget my whole life.

Unless I lose my memory, I guess.

(End of )

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