EPILOGUE

The cultural festival had begun and I no longer had anything to do.

From a practical standpoint, I would have to say that people have the most fun during the preparation stage of an event. Once the event actually begins, everybody is hurrying around and time just zips by. The next thing you know, it’s time to clean up. That’s why I’ll be lounging around until then. For the next two days at least, I can do whatever I want without anyone complaining.

By now, Haruhi, the only one who might complain, was probably standing by the school gate in her bunny-girl outfit, passing out flyers. At least until homeroom teacher Okabe and the executive committee show up to stop her. Well, I wonder how many she’ll manage to pass out.

I left the club room and headed into the school grounds bustling with activity.

The alterations to reality we had feared had been quelled. That’s what Koizumi claimed, and Nagato had confirmed it, so it must be true. I realized it when Shamisen stopped talking. He’s as silent as Nagato now. It’d be kind of mean to kick him out at this point, so I’m planning on keeping him. My sister also seemed pretty happy about having a moving stuffed animal. I’ll tell my family that “the former owner ended up moving to his travel destination.”

The calico meows every now and then, which always makes me wonder if he’s actually trying to say something else. Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter.

Speaking of stuff that’s no longer around, I hadn’t been able to find a program in the cultural festival that would have featured that group of people I’d seen walking around in bizarre outfits.

I even checked the pamphlet issued by the executive committee and had a peek at all the classrooms that seemed remotely relevant (such as the drama club), but they weren’t anywhere to be found. I wonder who those people were.

“Huh,” I muttered for no reason before marching through the school building.

What if there were sliders wandering around our school? And the people in their world happened to wear fantasy-like clothing. Yeah, like what Nagato’s been wearing.

Wouldn’t that mean that Nagato had purposely walked around in that outfit from the beginning to trick Haruhi? As if to give Haruhi the impression that such costumes were merely part of a cultural festival.

Nagato never says anything so I can’t be sure, but it’s possible that she’s engaged in some battle somewhere outside of my knowledge. She was awfully quiet this time. If she had to save the Earth from destruction or something, she would probably just silently do it. She might tell me if I asked, but it probably won’t be anything she can communicate through words and I doubt I have the brains to understand her if she did.

That’s why I decided to keep my mouth shut. Especially when Haruhi’s around.

On a slightly related note, the SOS Brigade–produced movie was screened in the A/V room. Our film was screened with the Film Research Society’s as a double feature. Haruhi basically forced the film society into doing it this way. It was the only classroom with a projector. The film society disapproved until the very last second, but there isn’t a human on this planet who can go against a decision by Haruhi, so in the end Haruhi had her way and the cruddy commercial-loaded movie was screened.

By the way, the organization known as the SOS Brigade doesn’t exist as far as the cultural festival executive committee is concerned, so there isn’t an item labeled “The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina” on the cultural festival program. We should probably give up on placing first in the popularity poll. Any votes we get will probably end up going to the film society.

And on another slightly related note, remember the movie that had been broadcast late at night and had given Haruhi the idea of making a film in the first place? Upon further research, I discovered that the movie hadn’t even won a Golden Globe. The movie was something called Dake, which had been screened at the Cannes Film Festival a fairly long time ago. Did she make some kind of mistake? Just to make sure, I rented it. I fell asleep after thirty minutes. Therefore, I was unable to determine if it was interesting or not. I’m planning on giving it another try before I return it.

I decided I might as well watch class 1-9’s play.

Koizumi had a smile on his face the entire time he was acting his odd role, which met a rather stupid death at the end. About as stupid as Haruhi’s film actually, but the audience seemed to enjoy it. Maybe I was just biased because the leading part had been played by Koizumi. And the fact that Koizumi looked like he was just being himself instead of acting definitely hurt.

When Koizumi came out in response to the applause after the curtain call, he looked at me and shut one eye. I left the classroom before his creepy wink could reach me. I figured I might as well check out Nagato’s class, but by the time I reached the classroom holding the fortune-telling convention, there was already a long line. I peeked in to see a number of girls dressed in black costumes. Nagato’s inorganically pale face was among them. She was saying something in a flat voice to a customer as she moved her hands above a crystal ball placed on the desk. Try to keep it to lost items and the like, Nagato.

The film and the trouble caused by the film were dealt with by making Haruhi realize that “it’s all just fiction after all.” However, you can’t just say that the real world is fiction. You can’t say that “people like that can’t exist” when Haruhi, Asahina, Nagato, Koizumi, and I are all here. Eventually, we may all go our separate ways, but for now the SOS Brigade exists and the brigade chief and members are all together. That’s the world as I know it. Or as Nagato put it, “For me, at least.”

Well, what can I say? I have to wonder sometimes if this whole thing is just one big lie. Haruhi has no power. Asahina, Nagato, and Koizumi have just been putting on a grand show of lies. The white doves were painted. Shamisen was the result of ventriloquism or a hidden mike. The autumn cherry blossoms and the Miracle Mikuru Eye attack were all just tricks of some sort. Something like that.

Even if that were the case, I don’t think I would really care.

“Guess there’s no chance of that, though.”

At any rate, none of that matters right now. Simple arithmetic will tell you that there’s less strain on a person’s head when we’re all in this together instead of Haruhi and me being locked up somewhere by ourselves. The silver lining here would be that I’m not the only SOS Brigade member.

I’m the only normal one, though.

My eyes went to the clock in the classroom that was being used as a rest area, similar to 1-5.

Oops, this isn’t the time to be sitting around. It’s almost time. It’d be a waste not to use these coupons after they were given to me. And I’m also curious about what kind of costumes they’ll be wearing.

I hurried to the spot where I would meet with Taniguchi and Kunikida to head to the yakisoba café where Asahina awaited.