This newest confrontation with Slider!Wataru had some interesting insights, regarding his angry demeanor, and the alien controller attempting to regulate his mind. I recall his furious remarks about Kanae, making her out to be a monster disguised as a young girl. He may have a point in that her headlong "flight" through parallel worlds may have caused them all to be attacked and subsumed by the "Combine" as their agents followed her trail. Not that they might not have become a target of the Combine eventually, but Kanae may have doomed them prematurely. But, as Kyon pointed out regarding his own experience with being responsible for destroying a parallel world, he only has one frame of reference, one life to lead, and he wanted to live it in a world with the Brigade. In that sense, from what Kanae told the Brigade, her friends told her to flee, that she must use her sliding powers to deny the Combine those selfsame powers. It's always possible that something terrible lurks within her being, but it seems quite unlikely, with Yuki, and Haruhi constantly around her, and Mikuru hasn't gotten any warnings from the future (Well, if its predetermined, they wouldn't warn her anyway...).
For that matter, we have yet to actually meet Combine!Kanae. The question there is, does Wataru know that there is a version of his sister that is a Combine agent, that probably is the very monster he claims Kanae is? He admitted that he had voluntarily joined the Combine to protect those that were important to him, but that doesn't mean he was sucessfull, or maybe he hoped to trade himself for someone else, as it were. His deliberate stoking of his anger might be sustained then by his disappointment or sense of betrayal, for not having protected his "real" sister (since Brigade!Kanae doesn't remember a brother, maybe she _doesn't_ have one- she's gone through a large number of "different" alternate families after all), and anger at a "copy" of his sister that remains free. Or anger at the creature embodiying "other" Kanaes, hoping to somehow yet save his sister. Kanae may be suppressing painfull memories, so perhaps she is in fact Wataru's sister- I guess only you know the truth at this juncture, Brian. =)
I'm enjoying the hints of the relationship blooming between Koizumi and Kyokou, if he doesn't get a lot of "onscreen" time, at least he's got a girlfriend. =)
Fortuitously, the present constellation the Brigade now comprises apparently brings a combination of skills, powers, and personalities that none of the previous worlds had, able to stymie the Combine for the nonce. Lucky World! ^_^
By far, my favorite parts of the chapter was the kidnapping of Haruhi and Sasaki. You confirmed for me that Sasaki's powers seem dependant on her direct perception of something, rather than a "field" effect. Or at least, if she does project a "rationality/low probability field" Haruhi own powers are strong enough to dominate when Sasaki closes her eyes. I still wonder if Sasaki's powers are more connected to her own understanding of the world, rather than some kind of intuitive comprehension of what potential quantumn waveforms/real world events are most rational/logical? If she were to visit a high energy physics laboratory, would the chance of observing an unlikely event that could shape the understanding of the universe be practically nil, or would her own ignorance, or simple fascination of that field of science keep her from interfering?
While I'm on this sort of thread, I've been wondering just what Kuyou is actually an avatar of. It seems pretty obvious from her speech and the analogies she makes, that she must be the personification of a celestial object. A big one, considering all the talk of occlusion, orbits, etc. The way she manipulates gravity, and the fact that she didn't have the concept of memory, or I think, it was the concept of a _sequential_ memory she didn't have,
that brings to mind the idea of the event horizon- a region of space time where theoretically, the creation and eventual evaporation of the singularity would be one eternal moment. My WAG is that Kuyou is actually the avatar of a black hole, likely one of the supermassive galaxy center ones. Well, okay, I don't know how the creation of pocket universes fits in with that, other than event horizons have theoretical implications for travel to parallel universe, time travel, etc.
So, yeah, I liked the efforts Haruhi was making to get Sasaki to accept the sequence of "lucky coincidences", and Sasaki's efforts to rationalize the results of Haruhi's stunts. Especially the bit with the fence. I also enjoyed the way both girls were actively analysing their situation, and neither was resigning themselves to their fate. The exposition on Haruhi's fears and frustrations of not being able to use her powers openly in front of Sasaki was good, giving a strong basis for her later suggestion to Kyon of bringing Sasaki "inside" . Of course, the cavalry arrives in the nick of time to save the damsels in distress. =) Some strong scenes there as well, with Kyon working to calm Tsuruya down. I think Kyon has actually gained several levels in "girlfriend wrangling" with all that he's gone through. =) He's getting good at reading hints given to him from the other girls, and is starting to take his own initiative as well, as he becomes familiar (if not entirely _comfortable_ =P) with his situation at large.
I'm curious about what Shinobu has to say to Haruhi, but I have a feeling that its probably something of a welcoming to the team (or even the family) of those supporting Tsuruya. Perhaps thanking Haruhi for not trying to cut Tsuruya off from Kyon? I forsee a great need of group hugs, and perhaps small group snuggling sessions with Kyon this night. =)
Come to think of it, I think Yuki is long overdue for some hugs. Would she have also caught on to the deepening of the relationship between Haruhi and Tsuruya? She has that connection to Haruhi doesn't she? Yuki wouldn't have any problems with a more intimate relationship with the other Brigade girls, since all she has to go on is the "theory", and whatever social cues she learns to understand from interacting with the Brigade, and observation of her surroundings. She's already offered to practice kissing with the other girls before, once Haruhi, Tsuruya, and Kyon explain things, she'd have no hesitation in applying the "new rules". That could make for a cute scene or two, where she surprises Mikuru with this new ploy.
I guess the next "mission", probably commencing "tonight" in the storyline will be to explain to Sasaki what's truly been going on around her. I do think a proper application of Occams Razor, and that quote of Sherlock Holmes ( when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?) will present a strategy for arguments to convince the girl. True, much of what's been actually going on is _very_ improbable to Sasaki's mind, but if one lays out the context and sequence of events since the forming of the Brigade, and her own "befriending" by the "anti-Brigade", and the very pertinent point that there must be _something_ about Sasaki that would make a Yakuza clan and the other (Esper) Organization invest so many resources into controlling her...
Come to think of it, is there any evidence in canon, or your fanon, that Sasaki had the same kind of ephiphany at the same time Haruhi had hers at the baseball game? I've always viewed the two sides of a coin, Haruhi expressing emotion, energy, adventure, and Sasaki logic, calm, and rationality. From what I can remember of Sasaki's relations and discussions with Kyon in middle school, she used logic and rationality to convince Kyon to give up his interest in the fantastic, to accept a dull, mundane world. To the point that she disabused him of the whole idea of "true love and friendship". Which is fairly uncommon, considering that a girl of her age would normally be _interested_ in those things. So, why not? It's been a speculation of mine, that Sasaki's father has never been mentioned, in the scenes where Sasaki's mother has appeared. How does the time of Haruhi's incident match up with the period of time where Kyon and Sasaki had their discussions, and Kyon's illusions and fantasies were dashed? My speculation is as follows- Right around the time that Haruhi went to the baseball game, Sasaki's father dropped out of her life, because of an affair/divorce, or just leaving (abbandonment). Sasaki was very close to her father, and the way he left (disappeared, died, etc) forced her to realise that the world can be a cold, uncaring place, and that all the wishes and love in the world won't change reality (in this case, anyway). So, she focuses on logic and rationality, and rejects emotions as not being important in understanding the world and getting on in it. Unknown to her, she's actually making the world around her conform to those ideals, as far as she understands them. It wasn't until she realized she had pushed Kyon away, that she started having doubts about her philosophy. So, we have the situation where the "anti-Brigade" assembles herself around her, and Sasaki finds that as much as she prizes her Vulcan ideals, loneliness is not combatable with logic and rationality. She accepts the companionship of Kyouko, Kuyou, and "smirking bastard" =P, and events build up to the confrontation at the cafe. So, does this mesh at all with any of your ideas, give you new ones, or am I just flying down a blind alley? =)
Added 13.07 Of course, it occurred to me that a very good argument to convince Sasaki that all the improbable/impossible things the Brigade, and her own group have been up to should at least be considered to be possible is the number of times in earth's own history that the accepted "truth" of the world was changed- Flat earth to globe, Geocentric to Heliocentric, the existance of atoms, evolution, Relativity, Quantumn theory, etc. There's been quite a number fundamental shifts, haven't their. Heck, if I remember correctly, Time travel doesn't violate the Theory of Relativity, either.
This, has become fairly long hasn't it? I also wanted to mention how much I loved the kitchen scene with Akane and Imouto. A good thing that Okasan is still fairly in the dark as to what's really going on, or I think she'd have had a real nervous breakdown. Nice to see that she can still jump to conclusions with the best of them, when she assumes Sasaki's family has been involved with the Yakuza as well.
Hope my rambles provide some help and inspiration, or at least evidence that I enjoy your story enough to ramble on at length about it. ^_^