The loud exclamation had Asahina-san waking up in surprise from her daydreams as well as catching the attention of Koizumi and I. Haruhi released her hands from Asahina-san’s hair, which was tied into a bundle…
“Now, on to the main agenda!”
She then smacked the white board,
“Listen carefully, especially Kyon and Koizumi-kun!”
Haruhi gave the smile of a strategist and talked to us like a cram school teacher teaching her honest yet dim-witted students,
“We’ll begin with the planned activities for March!”
I glanced at the calendar for next month and said,
“For Hinamatsuri??”
Haruhi went speechless for a while,
“…Ah yes, that one as well,”
I’m amazed you forgot.
“Of course I remembered! It’s only through refreshing one’s memories that one can discover new revelations, so there’s no way I’d forget. March 3rd, huh? Right, we can toss rice cake offerings from the top floor corridor!”
Now that’s the first time I’ve heard of such a silly activity for Hinamatsuri.
“Let’s leave that aside for now, aren’t you forgetting another bigger festival in March?”
Haruhi’s smile is as the stars from the center of the Milky Way shining through the powerful lens of a super-telescope.
“Today I specifically want Kyon and Koizumi-kun to think on what they’ll have to prepare for that day!”
So what are you trying to say then?
“I’m talking about White Day! On March 14th, when a guy receives an obligation chocolate or whatever confectioneries on Valentine’s Day, they’ll have to repay the favor by thirty times!”
She’s like a wild stallion running blindly with blinkers on, why must Haruhi choose the moment when everything is going right for her to get back to normal!? Returning thirty times the favor was probably calculated using Haruhi’s inflation rate.
“Yuki, Mikuru-chan, you can now ask for whatever you want! These two will do everything to get it for you!”
She pointed at me and Koizumi,
“They’ll get anything you want! Crane Maidens repaying their kindness are out of fashion, in this day and age people should offer things that are thousands of times more valuable than cloth!” (Story of the Crane Maiden)
Haruhi then smiled pridefully,
“Just as reference, let me give you an idea of the stuff that I want. Though I still haven’t decided which one to get exactly, so I’ll announce that in a few days time! I won’t purposely ask for something that’ll be impossible for you to obtain within a month’s time, so don’t you worry!”
Haruhi spoke without reservations, just like how Kaguya-Hime comes up with ridiculously impossible tasks for the suitors who had came to ask for her hand in marriage. While hoping she isn’t going to be asking for non-existent stuff like “Authentic Artifacts of Yamataikoku” or the “Elixir of Life from Horaijima”, I said to Haruhi,
“Just so you know, we may take into account the amount of effort we’ll spend on finding your treasure,”
By the time I realize my retort may backfire, it was already too late.
“No problem!”
Haruhi’s eyes glittered brightly, totally eclipsing the brilliance of the entire Pleiades constellation.
“That’s the attitude I want! As long as it’s anything that I want, I will get it even if I have to go all the way to Mars! Isn’t that right, Yuki, Mikuru-chan?”
Seeing Asahina-san looking awkward and Nagato nodding her head while keeping her eyes glued to her book, Koizumi and I both shrug our shoulders at the same time, as though it had all been rehearsed before.
Author’s Notes
Why is it that one knows not what one will do in the future, nor what one thought of it back then?
Rather than speaking of not knowing, many would say instead that “I have forgotten what I thought about back then.” Therefore to make sure that you won’t forget, you should make notes. Although there will be times when you won’t even remember what such records mean. For example…
…before I started the epilogue, I dug into my previous records and there are many ambiguities in what I recorded. I can’t help but think, “why is it that I just don’t understand the things I did?” It should not be on account of changes in my way of thinking, but rather I must have picked up some strange, enigmatic transmissions back there and then subconsciously jotted them down in my note.” “Myth of millions strands of “Beni shoga” and “Medley of Pavlov” are things that puzzle me every time when I try to make sense of their meanings. Why is it that I would write such things down?
I must have thought this: “As long as I write them down, I should be able to immediately remember these things when reading through them the next time.” I guess I was full of confidence in my memorization skills back in those days. Whereas today I have absolutely no clue about the tiniest bit of the original questions. At any rate, they must have been some meaningless trivialities. However if they were something interesting, I would be quite furious over losing out to myself of the past (?some part of my past? - sounds better and keeps more in tone with Ch07).
A lesson to learn here is that one must document ideas carefully when taking notes. Although another lesson is that you might still have no idea what you jotted down…
This novel is the longest in the entire series.
Since Disappearance, the stories in the novel have been set during winter, and finally winter ends here and now. After this I will be penning the tales from the following spring. Though I might mention that my favorite season is early summer, because in this time you can hear the idling frogs and the busy singing of birds, their sounds mixing in a duet. By then, you’ll be away from the cold for a good long while. How nice is that! Even the trip to the convenience store at night is not nearly as painful an affair.
Let’s leave it at that. Because of your endless support I am able to continue to write these stories. As I am writing these words down and looking back, it suddenly hits me that I have actually finished so many novels, and will have more to come. Needless to say, I am part surprised and part concerned. I wonder what everyone has to say about it after reading all of this?
Thank you all once again, and please keep supporting me if you like my stories.
With that, see you all.
—Tanigawa Nagaru
Table of Contents
Volume 7 Title
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Epilogue
Author’s Notes
Volume 7 - The Intrigues of Suzumiya Haruhi Page 30
