Kuyou Suou

Kuyou Suou (周防九曜 Suō Kuyō or Suoh Kuyoh), like Yuki Nagato, is an alien Humanoid Interface, though unlike Yuki, Emiri Kimidori and Ryoko Asakura, Kuyou was created by the "Sky Canopy Dominion", a different entity from the Data Overmind.

Description
Little is known of Kuyou and the Sky Canopy Dominion. The Dominion was presumably made at a similar time to the Data Overmind, but was completely separate, and could not communicate at all with its counterpart.

Kuyou is unable to effectively communicate her purpose, observations, or even her name (whether it is Kuyou Suou or Suou Kuyou is unclear, and the name is presumably difficult to spell in Japanese). In response to Kyon's questions, she said things like "____ Ali.... en___? What's___ that___?" and "___ Your ___ Eyes_____ very _____ pretty." However, in The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya, she shows a more coherent form of communication, explaining in fragmented sentences that she is waiting for Kyon and wants him to "join her", and clearly having the ability to analyze threat levels of other people.

At the broken conference, she demonstrated an unfamiliarity with humanity by ordering a sundae and just allowing it to melt in front of her. Sasaki wondered if she had fallen asleep, but Kuyou said she had not.

She follows orders from Fujiwara and the Sky Canopy Dominion, even in cases where she doesn't want to; for instance, she felt that attempting to communicate with the Data Overmind through Nagato was a failure, and would have chosen to end that process if given a choice.

Appearance
Kuyou has a small, pale face that somewhat resembles a doll and is usually expressionless, but has exhibited wild bursts of emotion (such as joy and laughter), the former which prompted a witness to say she looked very beautiful. She has small silver eyes and ebony black hair that reaches all the way down to her calves with has bangs that cover her entire forehead and stop right above her eyes. She is usually seen in a Kouyouen school uniform.

Biography
In The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, she starts a relationship with Taniguchi during Christmas, having initially mistaken him for Kyon in an attempt to get closer to Haruhi. At the time she is identified only as a girl from Kouyouen, which was not revealed to be Kuyou until The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya. Apparently, when Yuki Nagato affected the world during that time, she was not affected.

The relationship started when Kuyou asked Taniguchi out. Taniguchi could not remember much about their "relationship". He would suggest a time and place for a date, and Kuyou would simply show up there. He noted that Kuyou liked fast food. On occasion, she would talk at great length about topics such as humans being great owners of cats (for two hours), the evolution of humanity and periods of time adding up to hundreds of millions of years. Taniguchi couldn't keep up, but he didn't care, because Kuyou was pretty.

In "Snow Mountain Syndrome", the Dominion interferes with the Brigade's plans, warping time, giving Yuki a fever, and trapping the Brigade in a mansion. It is unknown whether this is malicious or an attempt to communicate. In The Intrigues Yuki suggested the fever was actually an attempt by the Data Overmind to control communication between the Dominion and itself.

Around Valentine's Day, contemporaneously with the first meeting between Kyon and Fujiwara and Kyoko Tachibana, Kuyou noticed her mistake and broke up with Taniguchi. She kept a watch that he gave her as a present. Sasaki suggests this indicates that she has some feelings for him, but Kuyou indicates that she is fascinated with it as a timekeeping device, since discrete time is a largely alien concept to her.

Kuyou's first appearance was in The Dissociation of Haruhi Suzumiya, in which she is seen with a Kouyouen school uniform and long flowing hair. Sasaki introduced her to Kyon, saying Kuyou wished to "coexist" within close proximity of him. Kyon found communicating with her frustrating. She and Yuki stared at each other in a hostile manner.

Kuyou is considered a threat by Itsuki's Agency, though Yuki claims it is great communication progress to even know the Dominion's name (it was formerly known as the "Macrospatial Quantum Cosmic Existence").

β plot
While in a café meeting with Kyon and Sasaki, Kuyou grabs tightly onto Emiri Kimidori's wrist, the reason of which is unknown whether it is for communication, hostility, or analysis. She eventually let go after Emiri asked her to.

Kyon believes that Kuyou is behind Yuki's mysterious "illness" at the end of Dissociation. Kuyou confronts Kyon when he headed toward her school on Monday in The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya. She asked him to "join" her but was stopped by Ryoko Asakura, who was tasked with protecting Kyon. Kuyou and Ryoko Asakura battle, during which Kuyou demands clarification of terms such as "live", "die", "Sky Canopy Dominion" and "Data Overmind". Kuyou appeared willing to kill Kyon, in the opinions of Kyon and Ryoko.

She becomes emotional during the battle and even smiles in a very unearthly and scary way when Ryoko defends Kyon. She vanishes and escapes after Asakura tries to capture her. During the battle, Ryoko and Emiri gained some information about her.

After the battle, she thanked Kyon for the encounter at another meeting with Sasaki, Tachibana and Fujiwara on Tuesday after school. Kyon told her to hold their fight elsewhere. Kuyou commented that her attempts to communicate with humanoid interfaces was inefficient and harmful. She was willing to stop if Fujiwara told her to.

According to Fujiwara, Kuyou actually wanted to study Haruhi, but could not due to interference from the Data Overmind. Fujiwara also said that she was the one who could transfer Haruhi's power.

When Sasaki objected to holding Nagato hostage, Kuyou burst out laughing, saying these people were too funny, and laughed for a considerable period of time. After the meeting broke up, only Kuyou and Sasaki waited with Kyon. As they left, they encountered Taniguchi, who recalled having dated Kuyou previously. Kyon was surprised. Kuyou told him she didn't plan on returning the watch he'd given her, but he was fine with that.

Taniguchi eventually left, and Kyon asked her about her relationship with him. She said she dated him through a mistake. She'd been looking for Kyon, but her information source was muddled, probably deliberately. She confirmed that she'd been on Earth before the world was changed by Nagato, and was unaffected by the event.

Her discussions about time and it's non-linear nature (according to her) confused Kyon to the point he thought her kind of alien thought in a completely different manner than humans.

Later Sasaki called Kyon to a meeting at North High after school hours on Friday. Fujiwara and Kyouko Tachibana accompanied them, but Kuyou wasn't seen. The area became Sasaki's closed space.

Combined timeline
Fujiwara confronted Mikuru Asahina (Big) and, unable to change her mind (about altering their pasts) and being faced by Itsuki Koizumi (who was able to enter the closed space because it was also Haruhi's space), ordered Kuyou to transfer Haruhi's powers. Haruhi appeared attached to a cross; Kuyou was using her powers to suspend the cross in the air. As Fujiwara grew angrier, he ordered Kuyou to kill Haruhi. Kuyou's actions confused even Fujiwara, but Kuyou confirmed that dropping Haruhi from such a height would kill her.

Haruhi was dropped, but Kyon jumped out to rescue her. They were then picked up by a Celestial. Kyon vanished.

Later in the merged timeline, Kuyou returned to Kouyouen, attempting to gain autonomy. Yuki Nagato was assigned the role of observing her.

Powers
Kuyou Suou has the power to make herself invisible or at least have people ignore her.

When a battle took place in Ryoko Asakura's data jurisdiction space (a field she specializes in), Kuyou demonstrated strength and speed on par with Asakura; she was able to stop Asakura's knife throwing, but could not wrestle Asakura's arm off of Kyon.

Kuyou appeared to be able to assume a two-dimensional form very quickly and at will, enabling her to dodge Asakura's attacks.

Kuyou dodged one attack by either moving extremely quickly or simply teleporting into the air, then slowly descending. Asakura was unable to track her movements (but Emiri Kimidori could).

Asakura attempted to capture Kuyou in a data containment field. However, Kuyou easily broke it, and while fleeing, escaped from Asakura's data jurisdiction space, which immediately collapsed, forcing Emiri Kimidori to repair the surrounding space.

When summoning Haruhi into closed space, she bound her to a shadowy cross suspended in midair. It did not seem to be made of wooden planks and was described as looking very dark. Kuyou may have the power to manipulate shadows themselves into actual shapes or is able to create constructs out of thin air.

Mental capacity
Kuyou never needed to "ask permission" from the Sky Canopy Dominion to use abilities. The Data Overmind interfaces theorized that she might be a direct extension of her Dominion.

Kuyou's behavior suggests she has an "immature mind" who does not know her own purpose let alone the Sky Canopy Dominion's.

The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan
In The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan, she attends Kouyouen, now a co-ed school. She collides with Taniguchi there, who had tired himself out trying (and failing) to impress the girls there. Taniguchi drags her to the nurse's office and afterward they start dating. Kuyou has trouble meeting Taniguchi on time for dates, however.

As with all of the characters who were humanoid interfaces in the original series, this version of Kuyou is drastically different from her original series counterpart. She is quite shy and soft-spoken, and her hair is a tad unkempt. She also wears glasses.

None of the chapters in which Kuyou appears were adapted into the anime version of The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-Chan.

The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya
In this manga series, Kuyou appears as a cat called "Kunyon".

Trivia
Her name Suou (or Suō) is the name of an old Japanese province, located in extreme western Honshū; this province was located just to the southeast of the contemporaneous Nagato province. The two provinces were located in what is today Yamaguchi Prefecture.