The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya by Nagaru Tanigawa Page B

That was definitely the familiar face of the book-loving girl. The Yuki Nagato I remembered.
    “Why are you wearing a North High uniform? Did you already enroll?”
    “I have not. I am currently in standby mode.”
    “Standby… You’re going to stand by for three whole years?”
    “Yes.”
    “That’s just…”
    That’ll take a world of patience. Won’t you be bored? But Nagato shook her head.
    “That is my role.”
    She stared directly at me with clear eyes. “There is more than one method of time travel.” Nagato spoke in a flat voice.
    “The TPDD is merely a device for controlling time. Both unreliableand primitive. There are a number of theories concerning the process of movement through the time continuum.”
    Asahina squeezed my hand again.
    “Um… What exactly do you mean…”
    “When transportation of organic life forms is conducted with the TPDD, noise may occur. We believe it to be imperfect.”
    By we, she means the Data Overmind, right?
    “You’re capable of perfect time travel?”
    “The process does not matter. The transfer of identical data suffices.”
    “Going from the present to the past or to the future, huh…”
    If Asahina can do it, maybe Nagato can do it too. I assume that Nagato’s the one with an excess abundance of power. In fact, after doing some comparing to Nagato and Koizumi, I’m starting to suspect that Asahina’s the one who really has no idea what’s going on.
    “That’s nice and all.”
    I interrupted Asahina and Nagato. “Now isn’t the time to be discussing the finer points of time travel. We need to figure out how Asahina and I are going to get back to the future three years later.”
    However, Nagato simply nodded.
    “It is possible.”
    She then stood and opened the sliding door that led to the room next to the living room.
    “Here.”
    It was a Japanese-style room. With tatami flooring. The fact that the room was completely empty except for the tatami mats was what you would expect from Nagato, but why were we being shown into this guest room? Could there be a time machine hidden in here? As I wondered, Nagato removed a futon from the closet and spread it on the floor. And then a second one.
    “I’m pretty sure I’ve got the wrong idea… but are you telling us to sleep here?”
    Nagato, still carrying a futon, turned to look at me. I could see Asahina and myself reflected in her amethyst eyes.
    “Yes.”
    I glanced next to me to find Asahina fidgeting with her face completely red. That’s how I’d expect her to react.
    But Nagato didn’t seem to care.
    “Sleep.”
    Don’t be so direct.
    “Just sleep and nothing else.”
    Well… That was the plan. In any case, Asahina and I looked at each other uncertainly. Asahina’s face was bright red while I just shrugged. We had no choice but to rely on Nagato in this case. If she’s telling us to sleep, then that’s what we’ll do. Just hope that it’s as simple as waking up in the morning to find ourselves back in our world.
    Nagato reached toward the switch on the fluorescent lamp next to the wall. Then she muttered something. I was wondering if she was saying good night when the light disappeared with a click.
    It appeared that I had no choice but to sleep so I pulled the covers over myself.
    And the next thing I knew, the light turned on. The fluorescent lamp made clicking sounds as it flickered and stabilized. Huh? Something feels wrong here. It was still dark outside.
    As I sat up, Asahina also woke up, clutching the edge of her blanket.
    The expression on her lovely, childlike face was one of bewilderment. She looked at me questioningly, but naturally, I had no answers.



Nagato was standing there. She had her hand on the light switch, just like before.
    It didn’t seem like Nagato’s face. I could feel some emotion as I stared at the pale face. Like she had something she wanted to say but was unable to because of conflicting interests. It was the slightest expression of emotion that