This chapter... epilogue... whatever... was a nice white day fic. Nagato's one-liner after firing with her gun was hilarious. But it feels indeed like you did a cop-out. Kyon promised Haruhi to find out who wrote the letter which is a promise to the reader as well. The least, he should have done was present a scapegoat to his chief.

I really enjoyed the musing in this chapter (It's all so hilariously complicated!) but after you mentioned the word cop-out so often I'm now slightly worried of a cop-out.

Wow! This is a very entertaining story and it is on point of what Haruhi Suzumiya series is about.

Thanks for sharing this!

Vyglass - I don't want to post spoilers here, but you can read all the details of what happens in The Surprise at the Haruhi Wiki (haruhi dot fandom dot com).

Could someone remind me what happens at the end of Surprise again? The details are foggy and I don't want to read the whole novel again.

this felt just like something from the show! i could hear their voices perfectly in my head and everyhing! XD

Mostly a good wrap-up. I'm disappointed that we don't get a straight resolution to the mystery, not because I was all that desperate to know who wrote the letters, but because I wanted to see how Kyon was finally going to arrive at the solution. The odds were against an unsubtle guy like him figuring it out without help (he and Haruhi worked together brilliantly in "Remote Island Syndrome", but she couldn't really help him here because he couldn't tell her all the facts, and the rest of the SOS Brigade couldn't be completely trusted) but heroes beating the odds is what good dramatic fiction is all about. I also don't think that Kyon would be willing to completely drop the issue, even if the evidence has dried up. Hopefully that will be addressed in your later fics.

I really enjoyed how Haruhi dealt with the letter from "Kyon". I think she's pleased that Kyon reciprocates her feelings but she doesn't want him to be so direct about it. She's a tough cookie and it will take more than a simple confession of love to melt her.

At the same time, she is very emotionally vulnerable to Kyon, and I think the strong point of the ending (as in, the last scene of chapter 3) is it shows how Kyon refuses to take advantage of that vulnerability. At some level he knows she loves him but he accepts that she isn't ready for him to know it. It's an even stronger demonstration of his underlying tenderness towards her than his elaborate White Day gift. I'm pleased that that went down well, by the way. So many things have foiled Kyon and Haruhi's relationship in both the canon and your fics, so it seems fair to have things go their way now and then.

Understood. I have only read up until the Disassociation so I lack the specifics of what happens in Surprise other than an extremely brief summary on the wiki. As for the forshadowing, I guess I was too distracted of coming up with some theory about the sliders that I must have glossed over it. Regarding the sliders, I believe (according to the theory about Haruhi NOT being god, and instead 'just' a reality warper) that perhaps they (the sliders) simply avoid all dimensions in which Haruhi exists, or has her powers, and thus the lack of them in the narrative (of course, other than the fact that that would be defying Haruhi's will, but, hey, Kyon is living proof that one can do that and survive).

Godspeed,
The Golden Toaster

Interesting enough epilogue - for me too, it was less conclusive than I'd have liked (and judging by the last lline, maybe it will stay that way :) ).

Given the extent to which Kyon has already indicated to Haruhi that he's focussed on white day, worrying about who holds the doomsday device feels like overkill.

Curious reaction to "chief". It must be to the presence of chief rather than the lack of "partner", as only a few chocolates are exposed at the time.

Now I'm wondering if Haruhi can really not know who Tanaguchi is (likely she just wanted to deflect). The intonation of the question "who?" ought to have given away Haruhi's meaning

Heya TGT, I'm responding to your review a bit more promptly this time. Sorry to hear the ending was a letdown. As far as a love epiphany goes, though, I'm trying to keep my stories consistent with the canon, and by my interpretation Kyon had a pretty big love epiphany at the end of The Surprise. I don't want to do anything that would make that redundant. The plan is for the fic I'm working on right now, "Camping in High Heels", to be my last pre-The Surprise fic for the near future, so you might say we're getting there.

I don't know what you mean about there being no buildup to the treasure hunt; Kyon and Koizumi discussed it in chapter 2, and alluded to it again in chapter 3. Not to mention that at the end of The Intrigues Haruhi ordered them to make the most elaborate White Day hunt they could.

I actually don't think it's a foregone conclusion that Haruhi would never kick Kyon out of the SOS Brigade; in fact, there's an excellent albeit as-yet-unfinished fanfic called "The Depression of Haruhi Suzumiya" where she does just that. Her frustration with his performance seems genuine, and she sits behind him in class so it's not as though she would be ending their relationship. She has a stubborn belief that Kyon will eventually do something awesome for the club if given the right prodding, but that belief is not completely invincible.

Well, that was disappointing. Not that it was your fault, but it felt a bit cliffhangy, and anticlimactic as well. The slow burn in getting a bit too slow for my liking, maybe there should be at least a love epiphany in the next two works, and maybe we can start from there. The agent scene was confusing-there was no prior build-up that even hints about Kyon planning some "extravagant treasure hunt", and knowing him, the "I don't want to get kicked out" excuse doesn't work, as he at the very least knows that Haruhi values him too much to just kick him out of the club, unless that is your way of hinting that he really does care, but is still in denial (which, mind me, is an inordinate amount of time to do such).
Regards,
The Golden Toaster

What Kyon apparently failed to realize when volunteering his laptop to deliver the message was that the its final words would be "This message will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, SOS!"

It's also a pity that the "agents" cut the game short by bypassing the mapping puzzle. Otherwise by the time they arrived Kyon could have been waiting for them while sitting in a large, comfy chair and stroking a white Persian cat (or perhaps in a concession to budget, Shamisen).

Hey there! I've got a bit of a mixed review here.

First of all, I think the characterization here is spot on. The fact that you felt the will of a character going against your original idea for his actions is a good indicator that you nailed it's personality and the character became alive.

However, I've felt the ending was a bit underwhelming. In fact, I wouldn't have thought it was the end of this fic if I didn't recognize a bit of your writing style in it.

Unless I misunderstood, the conflict of the love letter origins and it's implications on Haruhi and Kyon's relationship feels unresolved and none of the protagonists really evolved from their experiences. (Except, maybe, Kyon during his chocolate making)

Of course, there's still the epilogue coming and since there are no rules in creative endeavors, just guidelines, you could close up that story neatly and nothing would be left of my previous griefs. It's just that I'm not used to epilogues being used that way.

Anyway! I'm still closely following your work and still being giddy every time I see you post something new. And as always, thank you for your hardwork!

Rather a belated response, but I much appreciate the review, TGT! I have been trying very hard to pace out the characters' relationships, so it's good to know that people are enjoying it.

I've been meaning to look more into Kyon's family. Kyon's sister got an appearance in chapter 3 specifically because I realized that I hadn't been using her as much as I should. Right now I'm working on a fic in a setting which pretty much precludes any of Kyon's family from appearing, but now that I think about it, it might be better to learn more about his parents through conversation as foreshadowing for a story where they actually appear anyway. I'll have to think about that, and maybe re-read "Mysterique Sign Returns" for inspiration.

I never got the impression that there was any story behind Kyon's loss of belief in the paranormal, merely that like anyone else he gradually came to regard established facts as the only reality. To me, Kyon was always an everyman who got caught up in (or as he later admits, eagerly dove into) a world of fantasy and adventure.

Interesting chapter; I'm not sure I learned much about the whodunnit, but it was a good read.

Entertaining dialogue with Haruhi and Kyon. It wasn't very clear (at least to me) what was distracting Haruhi's attention afterwards.

Koizumi's logic afterwards is so suspect its hard to avoid the feeling that he's deliberately misleading Kyon. Theres no particular reason the 2nd letter needn't be a reaction to the first, that the alien faction couldn't manage a letter (admittedly this is a little bit of a reach from canon), or that the time travellers wouldn't actively intervene - as they did in Intrigues. Interesting section about sliders; I personally don't expect any as Kyon didn't prime Haruhi in Bamboo leaf rhapsody, but Koizumi is surprisingly certain.

Kyon's logic at the end looks very sensible. Interesting turnabout in this story, Kyon is starting to get very keen on making Haruhi happy, while she isn't showing much devotion. Hard to see the Haruhi of this time plane as the author of letter#1, not that that is necessarily much of an obstacle. Its left even more unsaid who could have written letter#2.

regarding the notes - not sure a whodunnit without the exposition scene is very satisfying, but we haven't have the epilogue yet, never mind later stories. It doesn't feel like the story gives enough information to make it intuitively obvious, but that night be me :)