Free The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya by Nagaru Tanigawa

for the next three years.
    I hadn’t actually thought about what I’d do after graduation, but I somewhat wanted to go to college, so I hoped to avoid doing anything that would be put on my record. But as long as I was with Haruhi, that didn’t seem very possible.
    What was I going to do?
    I couldn’t do a thing.
    I should have stopped Haruhi and made her disband the SOS Brigade, even if my arms were virtually tied behind my back.
    Then I should have soundly lectured Haruhi and convinced her to live a normal life.
    Forget about aliens, time travelers, and espers. Find some random guy and put your effort into a relationship, or work out your body on some sports team. I should have forced her to spend the next three years as an ordinary student.
    If only I had.
    If I had a stronger sense of purpose or will to act, I wouldn’t have been washed away by this current called Haruhi Suzumiya and forced to swim in an ocean of idiosyncrasies. The world would have retained its dignity. We would have lived normal lives for three years and then graduated in a normal fashion.
    … Maybe.
    The only reason I say this now is because I experienced things that were anything but normal. If you look at the flow of this story, you should have figured it out already.
    Where do I begin?
    I guess I’ll start around the time when the transfer student came to the club room.

CHAPTER 3
    Asahina, after being recognized as one of the two bunny girls, bravely recovered just one day later and showed up at the club after school.
    Not that our club had anything to do. I had brought an old Othello board I’d dug up from home and was currently playing a game with Asahina as we chatted.
    It was good that we had a homepage up, but seeing that the access counter wasn’t going up and we weren’t receiving any e-mails, it was pretty much useless. The computer was now used solely for surfing the Internet. This would make those Computer Society guys break down in tears.
    Yuki Nagato continued reading silently to the side as Asahina and I began our third round.
    “Suzumiya seems to be late,” Asahina murmured as she stared at the board.
    Her expression didn’t look overly downcast. That was a relief. All things considered, being in the same room as a cute girl one year my senior was enough to make my heart flutter.
    “A transfer student came today. She probably went off to solicit him.”
    “Transfer student…?” Asahina tilted her head like a little bird.
    “Some guy transferred into 1–9. Haruhi was overjoyed. She must really love transfer students.”
    Place one black piece. Flip one white piece.
    “Hmm…?”
    “In any case, Asahina, I’m amazed that you were willing to come back to the club room.”
    “Well… I was a bit hesitant, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have my concerns.”
    Didn’t you say something similar before?
    “What are you concerned about?”
    Click. Pitter patter.
Her willowy fingers flipped the pieces.
    “Umm… It’s nothing.”
    I suddenly felt something next to me and turned to find Nagato. Her facial expression resembled that of a china doll, as always, but for the first time, I could see glimmers of light in her eyes behind those glasses.
    “…”
    The look in her eyes reminded me of a newly born kitten seeing a dog for the first time. Her eyes remained glued to my fingers as I placed and flipped pieces.
    “Want to take my place, Nagato?”
    My question was met with a robotic blink of her eyes and a nod of her head so subtle that you’d have to be looking really hard to notice it. I exchanged positions with Nagato and sat down next to Asahina.
    Nagato picked up an Othello piece between two fingers and stared closely at it. Then, as though startled by its completely unanticipated mass and magnetic adhesion to the board, she drew back her hand.
    “Nagato, have you ever played Othello?”
    She slowly shook her head from left to right.
    “Do you know the rules?”
    “Negative.”
    “Well, you see.