This volume contains five stories, two of which are animated so far (first season). The stories are "Live Alive," "Asahina MIKURU no Bouken Episode 00," "Hitomebore Lover," "Neko wa Doko ni Itta?," and "Asahina Mikuru no Yuuutsu."
In "Suzumiya Haruhi no Tameiki" listing, I wrote all kinds of wrong information about Episode 00. I thought the anime was an original production, based on the second volume of the novel. It turns out, there is another chapter dedicated to the movie, which is on this volume. And the anime tracks that chapter very closely. I guess the lesson for me is to avoid jumping the gun, but then, if I had to wait until I read all the volumes before listing the earlier volumes, I still wouldn't be able to list any of them.
"Hitomebore Lover" is about Kyon's old classmate from Middle School (Jr. High?) who falls in love with Nagato at first sight. Actually, it's a bit more complicated than that, but I'm sure people who didn't read it are curious. Heck, I was curious, so I read through the chapter pretty quickly.
"Neko wa Doko ni Itta?" is the follow-on murder mystery game put up by Koizumi and his associates. This time, it occurs at one of (apparently) many Tsuruya-san's holiday homes. As far as the timing is concerned, it occurs right after "Yukiyama Soukougun" story in the last volume. Apparently, I'm not much into mystery novels, because I didn't enjoy it all that much. However, I believe there is a link between the way cat was featured, and the fact that Kyon, Mikuru, and Yuki still need to go back in time one more time at some point in order for the "now" to exist. Since "now" exists, that guarantees that they will make it back to the past at some point, unless the second copies of Kyon, Mikuru, and Yuki that appeared in the past were fakes! It's like guaranteeing your future by having set up the past, unless it wasn't you who set up the past. I imagine most people who didn't read "Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu" are confused. Sorry.
"Asahina Mikuru no Yuuutsu" is one of those rare chapters that focus on Mikuru-chan. She's feeling helpless because she doesn't know what's going on. Strangely enough, she does, at least the future version of her does, and even more strangely, Kyon actually knows it too, but can't say anything. Who'd have thought that it'd be Kyon who has to keep future information secret from a person who _is_ from the future.
