The Assassination of Haruhi Suzumiya

Chapter 1: Old Board Games

After Haruhi's disappearance, I was slowly beginning to reaccept the familiar world that had disgracefully abandoned me a couple weeks past.

Everyone was fine. I was able to catch up with Nagato over phone once the whole ordeal was done and I was released from hospital in order to make sure that she was ok. Her silence as usual was not concerning so I took it to mean nothing was out of the ordinary. That, and after everything that had happened, I trusted Nagato to let me know if anything was up or was troubling her.

I longed to get a chance to meet up with the gorgeous Asahina once I was released but could only manage a quick phone call discussion over the festive break. She reassured me that the universe was in track and whatnot, and I was quick to accept that as fact. She was not quite aware of the whole disappearance incident and she took surprise at me checking up on how the universe was going. Yet regardless, she was quick to reassure it with much confusion that I willingly accepted. I was not looking for another time-distorting incident on my hands to deal with, no thank you. I would be willing to pass up on those for the rest of my life if I could help it.

All seemed well with Koizumi too, and by seem I meant that I hadn't bothered to catch up with him on the private world saving matters as I knew that if the man wanted to say something urgent, he would have no problem calling me himself no matter what time of day it was- or night for that matter.

As for Haruhi, well, Haruhi was Haruhi. She remained completely oblivious to all traumatic phenomena that had occurred in my recent chronology of events but to be honest, it was somewhat of a relief to me. I was happy to see her be her usual demanding self, and even for a while I was willing to put up with whatever crazy idea she threw at me. She naturally felt an obligation to schedule all sorts of strange events after my recovery that we will get into another time. But amongst all this chaos, I was yet to have the chance to visit the others individually on issues that Haruhi Suzumiya could not overhear that were eventually settled by telephone at my reluctance to leave my house midst cold winter weather.

School had resumed, and there had been ever so slight noticeable changes in the weather. The nights remained cold, but we had been experiencing a strange string of warm days lately that made it harder to get out of bed early as I fought the temptation to remain wrapped up in my blankets and sleep until midday. Even my little sister couldn't be bothered dragging herself all the way to my room to collect Shamisen before I  could force myself up.

It seems that after a school break, everyone returns to school appearing much more tired than they had been before the break started. Probably because of the wakeful nights and long sleep-ins experienced by most high schoolers during a vacation. Even I had my share of later nights and sleep-ins but if Haruhi had planned something for that day, she would practically make it impossible for any sort of sufficient sleep ins to occur.

Even Haruhi was tired. She arrived much earlier than I did and struggled as much as the next guy to keep her eyes open during all her classes. It was our final period of the day and midst our teacher's lecture on Classical Japanese literature I turned my head back and looked at the girl who's seat occupied the desk behind mine. And sure enough, there was Haruhi, with her head resting on her arms flat on the desk with her head tilted to look out the window that ran parallel immediately to her left. I was surprised she hadn't given up and gone home already, although it was rare for her to skip out on club activities.

After classes, I dragged myself over to the club room that was technically reserved for the literature club's use, that had now become the eventual headquarters of the infamous SOS Brigade. Although I had arrived early, I proceeded to knock on the door to avoid walking in on any of the club members changing. Once I was given an all clear by the sweet voice of Miss Asahina, I quickly opened the door and allowed myself inside.