Prologue.

"I am not interested in human beings. However, if any of you are aliens, time travelers, espers, or sliders, come find me. That is all."

I will never forget that, as long as I live. That brief moment that sent my entire life rocketing off the rails, and the one and only Haruhi Suzumiya who would keep it off for good.

I will never forget Yuki Nagato, the alien who has saved me countless times, and my unspoken promise to protect her in return.

I will never forget sweet Mikuru Asahina, who relies on me to protect her, and once promised to return the favor however she could.

I will never forget Koizumi Itsuki, the smug esper who has allied himself with us, although the actual commitment he vouched took much longer to say and was much more unnecessarily complicated in sentence structure.

You may doubt it, but I know it's true. These people and the events they either inadvertently or deliberately caused, have marked me so thoroughly that I know even after one lifetime or five hundred lifetimes, I won't ever be able to forget them.

Assuming, of course, that I can still remember anything at all.