It had been a couple of months since my confession to Haruhi regarding the SOS Brigade's members. Surprisingly, the universe had remained almost entirely intact. Haruhi had done an admirable job of not destroying anything, and, according to Koizumi, enclosed space had almost entirely disappeared. The only sign that something was different was Haruhi constantly questioning Nagato, Asahina-san, and Koizumi with questions, only to be met with answers she didn't understand, classified information, and philosophical nonsense. Oi, Koizumi, why are you so difficult?

"You could say I just don't want God to become bored with the fantastic."

Liar, you're just trying to be mysterious for fun or something. In any case, with Haruhi having found the aliens, time travelers, and espers she had searched so desperately for, the SOS Brigade had changed into a sort of recreational club, that did whatever came to Haruhi's mind that day. Come to think of it that wasn't much of a change.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was that the ever stubborn Haruhi had believed me in the first place. Well, I suppose the revelations had explained some odd things, like Nagato's purple hair. Nagato, that's natural, right? I mean your roots aren't showing or anything.

"Yes, it's natural," Nagato said simply.

Suddenly, Haruhi burst through the door.

"Everybody listen!" she commanded. "I've found some supernatural activity to investigate this winter!"

What did I just say? Isn't this a little redundant?

"Of course not! Just because we've found the supernatural, doesn't mean we can just give up on finding more! I'll never forgive them! Besides, people are starting to get hurt."

"You're talking about Fuyuki City, I take it?" Koizumi asked.

"That's right!" Haruhi pulled a newspaper out of her bag and slammed it down on the table, sending the pieces of my and Koizumi's Othello game sliding all over the place.

"Several injured in gas leak?" I read aloud. "People actually buy that?"

"It's easier than believing something malicious or supernatural is at work," Koizumi explained.

"Read more, it looks like people were injured by some kind of spear too," Haruhi said excitedly. "Yuki, what does the scouter say about Fuyuki City?"

"Over nine thousand inhabitants," Nagato replied. There was a brief silence. "Ten years ago, several odd data fluctuations were observed in Fuyuki City, causing the Integrated Data Sentience Entity to take an active interest in the city. The result: several figures from Earth's past were summoned to the present, in possession of data altering weapons. A large creature was summoned, only to be defeated by a weapon of great destructive power. All but one of the figures disappeared before winter's end."

All but one, so there's still one of these people wandering around?

"Yes, the figures were summoned as data entities with the ability to assume a solid form. One appeared to be granted a permanent form. At the end of the incident, a data explosion occurred, coinciding with a massive fire enveloping the town. Recently, data fluctuations of a similar nature have begun occurring again, and several humanoid interfaces have been sent to Fuyuki City to investigate, however, the observation of Suzumiya Haruhi was considered the priority."

"See, Kyon!" Haruhi said. "It's important that we go there, there are data fluctuations!"

Stop pretending to understand what that means!

"Even if all that is true, wouldn't it be better to contact the authorities?"

"Like they'd believe us, we have to do this on our own!"

I sighed, hung my head, and waved my approval.

"Good! Yuki, make up some excuse for why we can go right now!"

"We will be assigned a cultural study of the area."

"Sounds good, SOS Brigade meeting adjourned for packing purposes!"