Just want to share with all you Bigsoccer readers. So if you have a few free minute, check it out. It won't cost you anything and you will be entertained to no end. http://www.baka-tsuki.net/project/index.php?title=Suzumiya_Haruhi Preview: here's the prologue. Prologue When did I stop believing in Santa Claus? In truth, this sort of silly question holds no real significance for me. However, if you were to ask me when I stopped believing that the old man wearing the red costume was Santa, then I can confidently say: I have never believed in Santa, ever. I knew that the Santa who appeared at my preschool Christmas party was a fraud, and now that I think about it, every one of my classmates shared the same look of disbelief watching our teacher pretend to be Santa. Although I had never seen mommy kissing Santa Claus, I was already wise enough to be suspicious about the existence of an old man who worked only on Christmas Eve. However, it took me quite a bit longer to realize that the aliens, time-travelers, ghosts, monsters and espers in those effects-filled 'good guys versus evil organization' cartoons didn't actually exist either. No, wait, I probably did realize, I just didn't want to admit it. Deep inside my heart I still wanted those aliens, time-travelers, ghosts, monsters, espers and evil organizations to suddenly appear. Compared to this boring, normal life of mine, the world of those flashy shows was much more exciting; I wanted to live in that world too! I wanted to be the one who saved the girl kidnapped by aliens and imprisoned in a bowl-like fortress. I wanted to be the one who used my courage, intelligence and trusty laser gun to fight against villains from the future trying to change history for their own gain. I wanted to be someone who could banish demons and monsters with a single spell, battle against mutants or psychics from evil organizations, and engage in telepathic fights! But wait, calm down. If I really were ever attacked by aliens or whatever, how could I ever possibly fight against them? I don't even have any special powers! Well then, how about this: one day, a mysterious new student transfers to my class. Except he's really an alien or from the future, and he has telepathic abilities. When he gets into a fight with the bad guys, all I need to do is find a way to get involved in his war. He'll handle all the fighting and I can just be his flunky sidekick. Oh my god, this is great, I am so clever! Or maybe, if that doesn't work, how about this: one day, a mysterious power inside me awakens, something like a telekinetic or psychic ability. I discover that a lot of other people in this world also have similar powers, and then some sort of paranormal society recruits me. I'll become part of this organization and protect the world against evil mutants. Unfortunately, reality is surprisingly cruel... No one got transferred to my class. I've never seen a UFO. When I went to places that were rumored to be haunted, nothing showed up. Two hours of intense staring didn't make my pencil move a single millimeter, and glaring at my classmate's head didn't reveal his thoughts to me either. I couldn't help but get depressed at how normal the laws of physics were. I began to stop watching for UFOs and paying attention to paranormal TV shows because I finally convinced myself it was impossible. I even reached a point where I only had a sense of nostalgia for those things. After junior high, I completely grew out of that fantasy world and became utterly grounded in reality. Nothing happened in 1999, even though I kept hoping, just a bit, that something would; mankind hadn't returned to the moon or gone beyond it. I suppose, from the way things are looking, that I'll be long dead before you can book a round trip from Earth to Alpha Centauri. With those sorts of pedestrian thoughts in my mind, I became a normal, carefree senior high student. That is, until the day I met Suzumiya Haruhi. ------------------------------------ It's really really good. Read the first chapter at least. -------------- Chapter 1 After I had signed up for a local senior high school, I soon regretted it, as the school I was attending was sitting atop a long, steep hill. Even in spring, I would become so boiled and sweaty just from climbing the road that I would feel like I was climbing a mountain. Every time I remembered this, along with the fact that for the next three years I would have to repeat the same thing everyday in the morning, I already felt tired and depressed. I overslept a bit today, and perhaps that was why I walked so much faster, or perhaps that was why I was so tired then. I could have woken up ten minutes earlier, but, as all of you know, you sleep best right before it's time to get up. I didn't want to waste those ten precious minutes. So I realized I could never wake up early after all, which meant that I would need to repeat this early exercise for the next three years. This was just too depressing. That was the reason for my grim face during the entrance ceremony. Everyone else in the unnecessarily large auditorium had the "starting a new journey" look on their face. You know, the unique look: the hopeful, yet filled with uncertainty one that every new student wears when they enter a new school. For me, this was not the case — a lot of old classmates from my former junior high school were also coming to this school. To cap it off, a few of my friends were also here. Thus, I didn't look as worried-or excited-as other people did. The boys were in blazers, and the girls in sailor uniforms. Wow, that's a pretty weird combination. Maybe the principal giving a monotonous speech on the stage had some sort of fetish for sailor uniforms. As I was thinking about these useless things, the idiotic ceremony finally ended. I, along with my not-so-welcome new classmates, entered the 1-5 classroom. Our homeroom teacher, Okabe-sensei, with his practiced-for-an-hour-in-front-of-a-mirror smile, walked to the front of the class and gave a self-introduction. He first said that he was teaching PE, and was the coach of the handball team. Then he moved on to his bygone days like how, back when he was in university, he used to play in a handball team, even won the championship, and that this school was seriously lacking in handball players, so whoever joined the team would become a regular instantly. And then he continued about how handball was the most interesting sport in the world, and so on and so forth, forth, forth. Just when I thought that he would never finish, he suddenly blurted out: "Now, why don't you introduce yourselves one by one?" This kind of thing was already expected, so I wasn't really surprised. One by one, the guys in the left line of the class started to introduce themselves. They raised their hands, then announced their names, the names of their old schools, and other trivial stuff, such as their hobbies or favorite foods. Some people mumbled their way through it, a few made some pretty interesting intros, while some tried to tell lame jokes that lowered the room's atmosphere. As the other people introduced themselves, my turn was approaching. I'm starting to get nervous! You must understand how I'm feeling right now, don't you? After I managed to finish my carefully-thought-out, short-length introduction without stammering my words the best I could, I sat down feeling the relief of having finished something unpleasant but inevitable. The person behind me stood up for her turn and―Oh, I probably won't forget this for the rest of my life―said the words that would become a legend. "My name is Suzumiya Haruhi. I graduated from East Junior High." Up to this point the introduction was still normal, so I didn't even bother turning around to look at her. I just stared towards the front and listened to her crisp voice. "I don't have interest in ordinary people. If anyone here is an alien, time traveler, slider, or esper, please come see me! That is all." Upon hearing that, I couldn't help but turn around. She had long black hair. Her cute face was filled with a daring and challenging look as the rest of the class stared at her. Her seriousness and determination shone through her glinting eyes and long eyebrows. Her small lips were tightly closed. This was my first impression of this girl. I still remember how gleaming her white neck was — standing there was an astounding beauty. Haruhi, with her provocative eyes, scanned the class slowly, stopped to glare at me (I had my mouth wide open), and then sat down without so much as a smile. Was that supposed to be funny? At that moment I believe everyone's mind was filled with question marks, and that everyone was confused as to what his or her reaction should be. "Should I laugh?" Nobody knew. Well, judging by the conclusion, it wasn't a joke nor a matter of laughing, as Haruhi has never said any of them. She is always serious. This is based on my own experience—It can't be wrong. After the fairy of silence hovered around the classroom for about thirty seconds, the homeroom teacher, hesitating, signaled the next person to continue, and finally the tense atmosphere was lifted. That is how we first encountered. I solemnly swear ― I really want to believe it was just a coincidence. . . . Click to read the rest of chapter 1. All I can say is this is one of the most entertaining novels I have ever read. It's very popular in Japan (sold more than 30 million copies at the least). I believe all the translations into English are finished. Almost all for Spanish.
Story Synopsis Not your average Japanese High School Story! Kyon is a first year student at North High. Sitting behind him is an intelligent, energetic and very bored Suzumiya Haruhi who introduces herself as having no interest in "normal humans" and that any aliens, time travelers, sliders, or espers should come forward and join her. Why is she so particular about non-humans? "Because humans are no fun at all!" Kyon is soon wrapped up in this unusual girl's attempts to make life more interesting, and quickly discovers the world is a lot more amazing than Haruhi could ever be allowed to know. ----------more preview------------- After she grabbed everyone's attention on the first day, Haruhi reverted to being an innocent high school girl. This was the calm before the storm! I finally understand it all now. Anyway, everyone in this school came from one of the four junior high schools in the city — people with so-so exam marks. This, of course, included the East Junior High School; therefore, there should be people in the class who graduated along with Haruhi who knew what her silence symbolized. Unfortunately, I did not know any guys from East Junior High, thus, no one could explain to me how serious the situation was. Consequently, a few days after the absurd introduction, I did something terribly foolish—I tried to talk to her before class! My dominoes of misfortune had begun to fall down, and, I was the person who pushed the first block. You see, when Haruhi sits quietly in her seat, she looks just like a normal, cute girl. After all, I was supposed to sit right in front of her, and I just thought I might as well get close to her. I actually believed this would work. How naïve of me. Someone, please, beat some sense into me. Of course, I started the conversation with that incident. "Hey." I turned my head around, with that casual smile all over my face. "The stuff you said in your intro, how much of it was serious?" With her arms crossed in front of her chest, lips sealed tight, Suzumiya Haruhi kept her stern posture, staring right into my eyes. "What 'stuff in my intro?'" "The stuff about the aliens and all that." "Are you an alien?" She looked quite serious. "... No, but-" "If you are not, then, what do you want from me?" "... No, nothing." "Then, don't talk to me. You're wasting my time." Her glare was so cold that I found myself stuttering "sorry" in reaction, even before realizing it myself. Suzumiya Haruhi then removed the glare from me disdainfully, and started to frown at the blackboard. I was going to whip back a line or two, but, I couldn't think of anything good to say. Thankfully, at that moment, the homeroom teacher came into the classroom, and I was saved. Feeling lost, I turned my head back to my desk. Then, I noticed that several classmates were looking at me with a look of great interest on their faces. After I stared back at them, however, I noticed that they all had the same expression on their faces as though they were about to say, "No wonder." Some even nodded at me in sympathy. This somehow made me feel annoyed! But, later on, I came to know that all those guys were East Junior High graduates. Given that my first contact with Haruhi had ended in morbid vain, I figured that I should keep my distance from her for now, for safety's sake. With that in mind, a week passed by. But, still, there were always naïve guys who wanted to talk to Suzumiya Haruhi, who was always frowning her brow and pursing her lips. Most of them were those fussy girls who just wanted to give a hand to a lonely fellow female classmate. This is a good thing, but, at least they should have checked their target beforehand! "Hi, did you see that soap opera last night? The 9 o'clock one." "No." "Eh, why not?" "Who cares?" "You should try it. Even if you started from the middle, you won't be lost. Do you need me to go over the previous stories for you?" "Now, get lost. You are annoying!" Well, that's how it went. Rude and expressionless. She could have shown them an ounce of manners! This just made her victims believe that they did something wrong. At the end he/she would have no choice but to say, "I see... then, I'll just...", and ask themselves, "What did I say wrong?" and whimper away. Don't be so sad; you didn't say anything wrong. Something is wrong with Suzumiya Haruhi's brain, not yours. Even though I didn't mind eating alone, I didn't want others to think I was a loner while everyone else was happily eating their lunch with their friends. That's why I ate my lunch together with Kunikida, my old junior high school friend, and a boy named Taniguchi from East Junior High, whose seat was close to me. And, at last, we happened to gossip about Haruhi. "You tried talking to Suzumiya, didn't you?" Taniguchi asked abruptly. I nodded. "And, then, she said some weird stuff and dissed you cold?" You're telling me. Taniguchi put his sliced, boiled egg into his mouth, chewed, and said, his mouth full: "If you're interested in that girl, I won't drag my words. All I can advise you is, 'Forget it!' You should know it by now―Yeah, she's a wacko." He added he was in her class for three years in a row, and he knew her very well. Then, he came to a bunch of anecdotes about her. "Her behavior is totally outta common sense. I thought she'd at least try to control herself once she got into senior high; but, apparently, she hasn't. You heard her introduction, right?" "You mean the alien stuff?" Kunikida, who was busy picking bones out of his fried fish, had butted in. "That's it. Even back in junior high, she always said and did lots of weird things. Yeah, that reminds me―The school vandalization incident, for instance!" "What's that?" "You know that gizmo you use to draw lines with chalk powder, don't you? Wonder what's it called... Anyway, she sneaked into school at night, and, with that thing, drew a huge pictogram in the middle of the athletic field." Taniguchi started to smirk—maybe he was remembering the incident. "It startled me! I went to school early in the morning, and I could see big circles and triangles on the ground. I had no idea what they were supposed to be, so, I went up to the fourth floor to get a bird's-eye view. That didn't help―I still didn't know what that symbol was." "Oh, I think I saw that before. I guess the newspaper had a story on it? It depicted a photograph taken from the sky! The symbol looked like broken Nazca lines," Kunikida said. I have never heard of such a thing. "Right! I know! The headline was something like 'Mysterious Lines in a Middle School Athletic Field,' right? Well, care to guess who pulled that stunt?" "Don't tell me it's her." "She admitted it herself, so, there's no mistake. Of course, that baffled the teaching staff. She got summoned to the principal's office. Every teacher was there, and, they interrogated her." "Why did she do it, then?" "Beats me," Taniguchi answered flatly, as he tried to swallow a mouthful of rice. "I heard she refused to say anything. Of course, when she glares at you, you're gonna give up whatever you were about to say. Some said she drew the symbol to call UFOs, others said it was a magical symbol and was used to summon devils, or that she was trying to open a portal to a parallel world-thingy, blah-blah-blah... There were many speculations, but, as long as the culprit keeps silent, we may never know if those rumors are true or not. To this day, it's still a mystery." For some reason, an image of Haruhi, with her serious look, busy drawing the lines in the middle of the school field at night, floated into my mind. She definitely took the drawing tools and the chalk powder beforehand from the storage room; maybe she even bought a flashlight! Under its dim yellow light Suzumiya Haruhi might have looked quite grave, if not determined... OK, this was just my imagination. But, truth be told, it seemed Suzumiya Haruhi was honestly expecting the UFOs or monsters, or even dimensional portals, to appear. She probably worked on it the whole night in the field, but, as nothing showed up, all she was left with was depression, I thought to myself. "That's not all!" Now Taniguchi had finished lunch, and was tidying up his desk. He went on: "Once I came to the classroom in the morning and discovered all the desks were moved out into the corridor, and there was a huge star-shaped painting on the school's rooftop. Another time, she was wandering around the school putting O-fudas all over the place... you know, those talismans, like on a Chinese vampire's forehead. I just don't understand her." That's right, Suzumiya Haruhi was not inside the classroom right then, or else we wouldn't have been having this conversation. But, then again, even if she did hear us, she probably wouldn't have cared. Usually, Suzumiya Haruhi left the classroom immediately after fourth period, then came back right before fifth period. She didn't carry a lunch box, so, I had assumed that she went to the cafeteria to enjoy her lunch; but, it doesn't take the whole hour to eat lunch, does it? Furthermore, at the end of every period, she disappeared. Where did she go anyway...? "But, she's very popular with the guys!" Taniguchi piped in: "She's cute, athletic, and smart. Even though she is peculiar, if she keeps her mouth shut, she's actually not bad." "Where did you learn all this gossip?" Kunikida asked, his lunch box twice as full as Taniguchi's. "There was a period of time where she switched boyfriends non-stop. From what I heard, the longest relationship lasted a week, and the shortest one ended 5 minutes after the confession. In addition, the only reason Suzumiya gave for dumping her boyfriends was 'I don't have time to socialize with normal humans.'" Taniguchi seemed to be speaking from experience. After he noticed my stare, he became a bit flustered. "I heard this from other people! Honest! For some reason, she wouldn't turn down a confession. By the third year, everyone understood; so, no one wanted to confess to her anymore. I have a funny feeling that history will repeat itself in senior high. So, I am warning you now: give up. This is coming from someone who was in the same class as her." Say whatever you want, I was not interested in her in that way. Taniguchi put his empty lunch-box back into his bag, and let out a sinister giggle. "If I had to choose one, I would choose her, Asakura Ryouko." Taniguchi nodded his chin towards a group of girls a few desks away. In the middle of the conversing group, with a rosy smile on her face, was Asakura Ryouko. "Judging from my analysis, she definitely enters the 'Top Three Cutest First Year Girls' list." "You have every single first year girl in this school checked out?" "I group girls into 'A to D' categories, and, believe me, I only remember the names of the A girls. You only get to go through high school life once— I want mine to be as happy as possible." "Then, that Asakura Ryouko is an 'A'?" Kunikida asked. "She is an 'AA+!' Come on, just look at her face. Her personality must be first class." Even ignoring Taniguchi's egoistic comments, Asakura Ryouko was quite a different kind of cute girl than Suzumiya Haruhi was. First of all, she was very pretty; plus she always gave off a smile-like, caring impression. Second, her personality did seem to match Taniguchi's description. These days, no one dared to talk to Suzumiya Haruhi anymore, except for Asakura Ryouko. No matter how harsh Suzumiya Haruhi was, Asakura Ryouko still tried to talk to her from time to time. She was so passionate that she almost acted like the class monitor. Third, from the way she answered the teachers' questions in class alone, you could see that she was very smart. She always answered the questions correctly — in the eyes of the teachers, she was probably a model student. To top it off, she was extremely popular with the girls. The term had only been going for a week, and she was already well on her way to being the center of the female students in the class. It was as though she had fallen from the sky and had been born with extreme attraction in mind! Compared to the often scowling, science fiction-obsessed Suzumiya Haruhi, the choice was obvious. Then again, these two candidates were both probably too high up the hill for our hero Taniguchi to climb. No way was he going to get either of them. It was still April then, and, at that time, Suzumiya was actually behaving quite nicely. To me, this was quite a relaxing month. At the very least, there would be a month to go before Haruhi started going astray. But, even during this time, I'd observed some of Haruhi's eccentric behaviors. Why would I say that? Clue #1: She changed her hairstyle every day. Furthermore, judging from my observation, there was some sort of a pattern going on. On Monday, Haruhi would come to school with her long hair down, without tying it up whatsoever. On the next day, she would tie it up in a ponytail. As much as I hate to admit it, that hair style did look good on her. Then, she would tie two ponytails on the next day, and three ponytails the day after; by Friday, she would have four ribbon-tied ponytails on her head. Her actions were really enigmatic! Monday = 0, Tuesday = 1, Wednesday = 2... As the day of the week increased, so would the number of her ponytails; by next Monday, the whole process would start again. I couldn't see why she was doing it. Following the previous logic, she should have had six ponytails on Sunday... I suddenly wanted to see her Sunday hairstyle. Clue #2: For PE, classes 1-5 and 1-6 would combine and have PE together, with the boys and girls separated. When we changed clothes, the girls would go to the 1-5 classroom, and the boys would go to the 1-6 classroom; meaning at the end of the previous period, the guys from our class (1-5) would move to the other room to change. Unfortunately, Haruhi totally ignored the guys in our class, and removed her sailor uniform before the guys had left. It was as if, to her, the guys were pumpkins or potato sacks, and she couldn't care less. Without any expression, she would throw her uniform onto the desk and start to get into her sweatshirt. At that moment, Asakura Ryouko would drive the goggle-eyed, frozen guys, myself included, out of the classroom. According to rumors, the girls, with Asakura Ryouko as their leader, tried to talk Haruhi out of doing that, but to no avail. Every PE class, Haruhi would ignore the rest of the class and take her uniform off without so much as a glance. And so, we guys were asked to leave the classroom the second the bell rang— at the request of Asakura Ryouko. But, seriously, Haruhi has a really great figure... argh, this isn't the time to say that kind of thing. Clue #3: At the end of every block, Haruhi would go AWOL. When the school bell came rolling around, she would grab her backpack and shoot out of the classroom. Logically, I thought that she went straight back to her house; I would never have thought that she would go and participate in all the clubs in the school. One day, you would see her passing balls in the Basketball Club, and the next you would see her sewing a pillow case in the Sewing Club. By the following day, you would see her waving her stick in the Hockey Club. I think she also joined the Baseball Club. So, basically, she had participated in every sport club in our school. All the clubs tried to persuade her into joining them, of course, but she turned them all down. Her explanation was: "It is annoying for me to do the same club activity everyday." At the end of the day, she didn't join any clubs. What is that girl trying to pull? From this alone, news of a "weird first year girl" spread throughout the school almost instantly. Within a month, there was not a single person who didn't know who Suzumiya Haruhi was. Fast forwarding to May, people may still not have known who the principal was, but Suzumiya Haruhi was a household name. So, with all this stuff going on — and Haruhi was always the cause— May arrived. Though I personally think that destiny is even less believable than the Loch Ness monster, if destiny, at some unknown place, is actively influencing human lives, my wheel of fate had probably begun to turn. Conceivably, in some remote mountain, there was probably some old guy who was busy rewriting my destiny.
