Whoa, it's long! In fact, it's the longest Japanese novel I've ever read, light or not. In the big scheme of things, it doesn't mean much since I haven't even read that many Japanese novels, but it does mean something to me.
This volume, despite being the longest so far, contains only one story, divided into seven chapters. As the title indicates, it's very intriguing. On one hand, Haruhi is plotting something during the whole two weeks this story takes place in. Fortunately for her, and not so fortunately for Kyon, there're many other twisted plots happening around her, with only Haruhi and one of two Mikuru(s) blissfully unaware of them. You read that right. There are two versions of Mikuru in this story, with only eight days of time difference. We'll call this version from the future (squared) Michiru. Actually, there's at least a few hours in which even the older version of her exists in the same time domain, but that's not important. And I said, one of two Mikuru(s) is blissfully unaware of what's going on, but then she's the same one who will end up getting involved in all the plots anyway, so I guess it's really only Haruhi who's immune to the mess that's happening all around her.Kyon has to complete a bunch of seemingly nonsensical tasks with Michiru (sic), while keeping her secret from everyone else. Oh, wait. Make that just Haruhi. Everyone else seems to know anyway. These tasks are apparently necessary to keep the future from veering off to a wrong direction. I'm not even going to try to summarize the story because it would take too much time, so I'll just throw in some key points.
Tsuruya-san is amazing! She's even more intriguing than I ever thought possible. She likely knows a lot, but doesn't seem to care! She just wants to enjoy being an audience, at least most of the time.
We already know that there are other organizations besides Nagato's "boss," Mikuru's futuristic organization, and Koizumi's secret organisation. There's that unexplained alien race from "Suzumiya Haruhi no Bousou." Koizumi also mentioned other organizations that have antagonistic relationship with Koizumi's organization. In fact, even in Nagato's group, there're many factions with differing opinions. I'm sure you remember Asakura Ryouko as one of them. In this volume, we get to meet someone from the future who is part of a group that has a different agenda than Mikuru's group. In fact, one of the present organizations tries to pull off something by joining forces with that group from the future.
All that politics aside, what's important is that SOS-dan is acting as a bridge, no, a bond, that ties Nagato's alien group (at least certain factions of it), Koizumi's organization, and Mikuru's futuristic group, together. You might even be able to include Tsuruya-san family, too. Haruhi has facilitated in creating a powerful institution without even knowing it. In fact, she probably made it possible for all these organizations to even exist! After all, if there were no aliens, no time travel, and no supernatural powers, none of these organizations would exist.
So where does Kyon come into this picture? I'm not sure. All I know is that he's the one running around doing all the work that Haruhi subconsciously creates.
And I just wanted to mention that this volume contains Valentine's day stories (warm and fuzzy, no?) and an exciting car chase. Yup, a car chase. Hmm, I wonder if a live action form of this story would make sense. Oh, I almost forgot. Don't forget to imagine Asahina-san and Nagato wearing Miko-san costume. Sweet....
