abstract
| - It's the 7th of July, the day of the Tanabata festival in Japan. Haruhi decides the S.O.S. Brigade should celebrate by observing its rituals. She 'steals' a bamboo tree and brings tanzaku (rectangular pieces of colored paper) to the clubroom. A person writes their wishes down on tanzaku and hangs them on a bamboo tree. Two wishes, each one to be granted by the Gods, Orihime and Hikoboshi, represented by the stars Vega and Altair respectively. Haruhi points out though that the stars are a very long distance from Earth and it will take decades for any wishes they make to come true. Mikuru asks Kyon to travel back in time three years ago. They both end up sitting on a bench in a park, exactly three years ago. Mikuru falls unconscious and the adult version of her explains she needs him to assist a person at the school nearby. Kyon carries the unconscious Mikuru with him and finds the middle school version of Haruhi 'breaking' into her school. Haruhi orders Kyon to draw symbols on the large school grounds with a line marker, covering the ground with massive unintelligible symbols. After finishing the tasks, she asks Kyon whether he thinks aliens, time travellers, espers and sliders exist, except for sliders, he states the others are probably around somewhere. She works out he is from North High and when she asks his name, Kyon answers that it's 'John Smith'. Haruhi then runs off home. Kyon wakes Mikuru and she says her TPDD, which is "classified, but sorta like a time machine" is missing, so they cannot return to their present. Kyon then remembers Nagato gave him a tanzaku with the exact symbols Haruhi just had him draw. They find Nagato at her apartment and she returns them to the present.
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