01x08 - Remote Island Syndrome (Part Two)

[bunniefuu]

The season is summer.

The long-awaited finals are coming up.

Every bit of happiness that was inside me is now loitering around Brazil,

and it doesn't look like any of it's coming back.

Hey. Do you know what day it is today?

Your birthday?

No.

Asahina-san's birthday.

No.

Koizumi or Nagato's birthday.

You think I would know their birthdays?

By the way, my birthday is...

No one cares!

You have no idea how important today is do you?

All I see is another hot weekday.

Tell me what day and what month it is.

July th.

I was hoping for something else, but you're talking about Tanabata, aren't you?

Of course I am! It's Tanabata! {TL Note: Asian Valentine's Day.}

As a Japanese person, you should never forget it!

Is that right?

I take festivals like this one very seriously.

Starting this year, we're going to have a grand Tanabata with everyone each and every year!

And so it started.

Grave: Lead a materialistically simple yet spiritually fulfilling life.

Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody

There's a law that states that when Haruhi suggests something,

the rest of us will end up running here, there, front, back and sideways meaninglessly.

This law has governed my every day since this spring.

I'm starting to hate myself for getting used to this kind of lifestyle.

Yes!

Yo.

Good afternoon.

Hello. How's life?

I've felt like a crazy mess every day since entering high school.

Here.

Thank you very much.

You're most welcome.

How about a game?

I'm getting tired of Othello since we play it all the time.

Unfortunately, I don't know the rules.

That's too bad.

Now's the only time you have to take it easy, you know.

Once she comes up with something meaningless again-

Yahooooi!

'pologies 'pologies! Sorry I'm late!

Where did you get that and your greeting?

The forest behind the school.

Isn't that private property?

You bamboo thief.

Look! I made some paper strips too!

Everyone, write down your wishes!

Paper strips?

I see. It's Tanabata today.

But, there's a condition!

What condition? We haven't even agreed to it yet.

Kyon, do you know who the two responsible for granting the wishes on Tanabata are?

Aren't they Orihime and Hikoboshi?

Okay, I'll give you that.

points.

But do you know which stars Orihime and Hikoboshi are?

Nope.

Vega and Altair, right?

points!

Basically, that means your paper strips have to be facing towards those stars!

So what happened to the remaining points?

Let me explain.

According to the Special Theory of Relativity,

there's no way to go faster than the speed of light.

By the way, Vega and Altair are and light years away from Earth, respectively.

Vega

light years

Altair

Altair

light years

years

light years

Vega

light years


light years

Earth

Basically, the time it takes for a message to reach one of those stars is approximately the same amount!

You looked all that up just for this?

So that means our wishes won't get granted by those stars until after the time it takes to reach them!

Wishes like "I want a boyfriend before Christmas this year" wouldn't make it in time.

If that's the case,

doesn't that mean we're looking at around or years for our wishes to come true?

They are gods, so they'll do something about that.

Like a % off summer bargain.

Hey, what happened to the Theory of Relativity?

Take paper strips: one for Altair and one for Vega.

Then write down the wishes that you want to come true in and years' time!

I don't even know what I'll be doing in or years' time.

What the hell am I supposed to write?

She always comes up with the stupidest things that normal people don't.

Which universe did her common sense come from anyway?

You can't really say that.

Even though she acts like that, she knows full well what common sense is.

And how would you know that?

Suzumiya-san wishes that the world was considerably different than what it is now.

And she even has the power to rebuild the world from scratch.

But, looking at the world now, I don't think she's lost her sense of reason yet.

You there! Quit whispering to each other!

I hope I get better at cooking

I hope I get better at sewing

I think she's misunderstanding something.

Harmony

Reform

Home Safety

World Peace

Koizumi Itsuki

Koizumi Itsuki

Mine are just a bit typical.

Give me money

Give me a bungalow that has a yard where I can wash my dog.

How plebian.

Shut up.
Make the world revolve around me

I want the Earth to reverse its rotation.

Mine are way better than yours.

We just have different values.

Everyone, make sure you remember what you wrote!

The first checkpoint will be in years!

It's a race to see whose wish Hikoboshi grants first!

years, huh... What a long time...

After that, Haruhi seemed to be in abnormally low spirits and had an air of melancholy emanating from her.

That sudden quietness of hers was quite disturbing, to say the least.

It's scary to think about her reaction after being so quiet.

Would you like some more tea?

Ah, yes please.

She's cute.

Now!

Paper strip: After the club's done, please stay in the clubroom - Mikuru

Your wish is my command!

Book: When You're in Love...

I'm going home.

Take care of the keys if you're the last one.

Well then, me too.

Ah, you have my thanks.

Hey...

I'm leaving first.

Okay.

I'm glad we were left alone pretty naturally.

Is this something the others shouldn't know about?

Uh... yes.

Um... there's a place I want to go to with you.

All right. Where to?

Um...

To three years ago.

Thr-...

I'm sorry for saying something weird so suddenly!

Um... you don't want to?

Are you talking about time travel?

Yes, I am.

I have no qualms about going, but...

Why me? For what reason?

Well, you'll... understand once you get there.

Probably.

Please!

Don't ask any questions and just say okay!

Or else... I'll...

I...

I'll be in trouble.

She's really cute.

Well...

Okay, I guess.

Really?!

Thank you!

So damn cute.

What a relief.

Come to think of it, me believing that she was a time traveler wasn't just based on her word alone.

And, speaking of proof, the existence of adult Asahina-san is the only bit of proof I have.

That would make this quite the perfect chance to see for myself whether she's really from the future or not, wouldn't it?

So where's the time machine?

We'll go from right here.

Right here?

Kyon-kun.

Sorry.

Oh, you're awake!

Um... if you don't get up soon,

my legs are going to fall asleep.

Why was I asleep?

Sorry, I can't let you know how to travel through time.

It's classified information.

Um... are you angry?

Nah, not at all.

If it were Haruhi, I'd have punched her already.

But since it's you, Asahina-san, it's all okay.

That's a relief.

So we're now three years back in time?

This is July th, three years ago.

I think it's about o'clock at night.

Seriously?

Seriously.

This is the same park that Nagato called me to last time.

Is this a mecca for weird people?

Asahina-san?

Um...

Is she trying to imply something with this?

Kyon-kun, good evening.

Asahina-san.

So this is what I looked like back then.

It was her job to guide you to this place.

From here on, guiding you will be my job.

Were you the one who put Asahina-san to sleep?

I can't let her see me since I hadn't seen myself when I was her.

Go down that road and you'll see a school.

Help the person who'll be standing in front of the school gate.

I'm sorry, but please carry my old self over there with you.

This feels like a game event.

Do I get some kind of item as a reward?

Reward?

Let's see...

I don't have anything to give you.

But you can just steal a kiss from my sleeping self over there.

Only when I'm sleeping, though.

Thats... a bit...

In terms of my beliefs and the situation,

that goes against my values.

However. Nah. But...

It's time. I need to go.

And please keep me a secret from her.

It's a promise, okay?

Pinky promise.

Pinky promise!

Goodbye, Kyon-kun.

See you again.

I wonder how long it'll be before I meet the adult Asahina-san again?

It feels like she hasn't changed at all since we last met.

More importantly, is this really three years ago?

I need to find a way to make sure.

Should I call ?

East Municipal Middle School

East Middle, huh?

Hey!

Who are you?

This really is three years ago.

Suzumiya Haruhi, at the moment a first year middle school student.

I asked you who you are!

A pervert? A kidnapper?

What're you doing here?

Isn't it obvious? I'm illegally trespassing.

I can't believe you openly declared your criminal intent.

I don't know who you are, but if you've got time, come and help me.

If not, I'll report you.

It's Haruhi. There's no mistake about it.

This way.

Thank goodness it's dark.

That way she won't be able to get a good look at our faces.

I don't think the Haruhi from three years in the future seemed to have the faintest recollection of us, after all.

Otherwise, I get the feeling we'd get into trouble if that wasn't the case.

I hid this stuff after taking it out of storage this evening.

Pretty clever idea, don't you think?

I'll take that for you.

You grab the line marker.

So what do you want to do with this?

Draw the lines according to my instructions.

Me?

Yes. You.

I need to be the one directing after all.

That line is crooked!

What're you doing?!

This girl is calmly ordering around a high school student that she's never even met before.

Just like I thought, that's so Haruhi-like.

Even if this was the first time I met this middle school girl,

I probably would've thought that she's pretty messed in the head.

So, following Haruhi's instructions,

I was running left and right drawing white lines on the sports grounds.

I never would've thought that the message Taniguchi was talking about the other day was drawn by myself.

Hm. It's passable.

Sorry it's not perfect.

Do you think aliens exist?

That was sudden.

Answer my question.

They do, don't they?

What about time travelers then?

I wouldn't be surprised if they did too.

And espers?

They're probably all over the place.

People from parallel universes?

I haven't met any yet.

That's North High's uniform, right?

Yeah.

What's your name?

John Smith.

Are you stupid?

Let me keep my anonymity.

Who were you carrying?

My big sister.

She has a sleeping disorder that makes her suddenly fall asleep.

She can fall asleep anywhere and anytime.

So I end up carrying her.

And?

What exactly is this?

Isn't it obvious?

It's a message.

Don't tell me it's for Orihime and Hikoboshi.

How did you know?

Well, it's Tanabata.

You just remind me of someone I know who does this kind of stuff too.

I'd love to meet that person.

Is there someone like that at North High?

Yep.

North High, huh?

I'm going home.

I've completed what I came to do.

See ya.

Not even a word of thanks for all that help?

Asahina-san.

W-W-W-W-Where is this?

What? Why? What time is it?

Um...

The TPDD is gone!

Eh?

It's gone!

What happened?

What's a TPDD?

It's classified so I can't explain,

but it's something like a time machine.

How did you lose it?

I don't know...

There's no way I could've lost it, but I did...

Is there anyone who can come save us?

There isn't!

In other words, what will happen to us?

We'll be stuck *hick* here.

We're stuck on the time plane of three years in the past,

and we can't go back to our own time!

That's quite serious.

It really is.

But right now, I don't even feel an iota of tension.

The one who took the TPDD thingy might've been the adult Asahina-san.

That was probably why she came back to the past.

Because she herself had already experienced losing the TPDD...

I think we may have a way out.

Is this the residence of Nagato Yuki-san?

Um, I don't really know how to put this myself, but...

Would it help if I said that I'm an acquaintance of Suzumiya Haruhi?

Yo.

Can we come in?

That's our story, and the reason why we're here.

Well, the you from three years in the future gave me this.

Understood.

This would be the first time you've ever met us, correct?

Yes.

Requesting access permission for memory of temporal variants in an external time period.

Download of reversible data from linked time planes complete.

The me from the temporal plane of three years in the future and the present me are now the same person.

Memory has been shared.

How did you do that?

Synchronization.

No, I don't understand.

Why are you wearing a North High uniform?

Have you enrolled already?

No. The me right now is on standby.

What do you mean by standby?

You mean you will be on standby for three more years?

Yes.

That a terribly long time.

It's my mission.

There is more than one way to move through time.

The TPDD is just a device for controlling space-time.

It's unreliable and primitive.

Um, what do you mean...

When a TPDD is used to transfer organic matter through time,

there are problems with limited range and noise generation.

To us that is not perfect.

By "us" you mean the Integrated Data Sentient Entity?

Nagato-san, you can travel through time with a complete form?

Form is unnecessary.

All that is required is to be able to transmit the same identity data.

I'm taking a wild guess, but...

Are you telling us to sleep here?

Yes.

Just Asahina-san and I?

Yes.

Sleep.

Straight to the point!

Just sleep.

Well, that's what we were planning to do...

W- W-Well... it looks like there's no way around this.

Yeah...

What? Really?!

What happened?

Is that your TPDD?

No, this is just a digital watch.

Thank goodness, we're back.

It's just past : on the day we left.

How did you do it?

By freezing a selected set of fluid data in space into stasis.

And then by unfreezing at the corresponding end point in the space-time continuum.

You mean you stopped time?!

Huh?

Nagato-san stopped time in this room for three years.

And today, she unfroze it.

Right?

Yes.

I can't believe it!

Basically, that means that when I first visited you and heard you talk about aliens and stuff...

Asahina-san and I were sleeping in the next room?

Yes.

I always thought you were hiding your true powers from us.

But doesn't this make you invincible?

That's not true.

This is an exception.

Emergency mode.

If there's no need for it, it won't be accessible.

Thank you.

No problem.

Can you read what it says?

I am here.

That's what's written.

Don't tell me, but this isn't a real language used by real aliens somewhere is it?

Nagato didn't answer me.

Forgive me. I... um...

I don't really understand myself...

I'm an underling.

No, a grunt.

No, it's because I'm more like a trainee.

Despite that, you're close to Haruhi.

That's only because no one thought that I would be the one Suzumiya-san would catch and pull into her club.

My superiors, or maybe even the higher-ups as well, just give me orders,

and I move according to those orders.

That's why I don't even know the meaning behind some of the things I do.

The superior is the adult Asahina-san, isn't it?

That adult version of Asahina-san probably knows what's going to happen to us already.

But it doesn't look like she told this Asahina-san anything.

Oh well.

People from the future also have their own rules and laws I guess.

Someone will tell me everything someday, once everything has settled down.

The next day.

In other words, the th of July.

In my head, it's just the next day.

But to my body, it feels like three years have passed.

What's wrong? Did you eat something poisonous or something?

Nothing's wrong.

It's just melancholy from reminiscing.

I've got some memories of Tanabata from the past.

Is that so?

Hey, Nagato, Asahina-san actually is from the future, right?

Yes.

In that case,

I get the feeling that there's a lack of consistency regarding the ability to travel through time.

What do you mean?

Asahina-san once told me that there was no continuity between the past and the future.

But I went back three years and granted Haruhi some of my wisdom,

and it seems like there's a distinct possibility that those ideas brought her to North High to look for people who...

aren't "just humans".

This means that there's continuity between the past and future.

Isn't that contrary to what Asahina-san said?

A standard axiomatic theory cannot be used to prove the existence of a paradox within a given incident itself.

That might've been an explanation by your standards, but...

You'll understand eventually.

That's just how it is.

Right now, my king is being checked by your rook.

This is troublesome. Where should I run to?

All right, now where's the paradox in me doing this?

Besides, a king doesn't really mean much to us.

The queen is the most important up until the very end.

Oh, is that so?

I've got no idea what's going to happen next,

but I just want something that won't give me a headache to happen.

I think peace and quiet is best,

but would you prefer something to happen instead?

You troublemaker.