Seven Wonders Overtime

Seven Wonders Overtime (Nanafushigi Overtime, 「七不思議オーバータイム」) is a Haruhi Suzumiya short story that first appeared in the 30th anniversary Sneaker Bunko entitled The Sneaker Legend. It was later included in the light novel The Intuition of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Synopsis
Haruhi Suzumiya tells Kyon she is going to be late for the SOS Brigade meeting, displaying excitement about something. In her absence, Kyon, Itsuki Koizumi, and Mikuru Asahina play card games. A member of the Mystery Research Club knocks on the SOS Brigade's door, bringing a stack of books and files. She explains that at lunch she bumped into Haruhi, who asked if the Mystery Research Club knew if there was a "seven wonders" of North High. When she consulted the other members, they responded in the negative, but devoted the rest of the afternoon to assembling reference materials on potential "seven wonders" for Haruhi. Irritated at this because it will likely prompt Haruhi to create the "seven wonders" for real, Kyon is rude to her, flatly and repeatedly telling her to leave and take the reference materials with her, addressing her as "mystery clubber" despite recognizing her as a classmate of his and Haruhi's from Class 1-5, and, when she demands he call her by her name, telling her that her name is too long and refusing to call her by a diminutive. Before leaving, she says the Mystery Research Club was impressed by the literary magazine the SOS Brigade put out in "Editor in Chief, Straight Ahead!" and wants Nagato to contribute something to the literary magazine they are putting out. Nagato says yes.

Koizumi proposes that they try to provide rational, mundane explanations for any "seven wonders" which Haruhi suggests, but Kyon is confident that if they do this, Haruhi will just be incited to create wonders so fantastical that they can't possibly be explained away. He suggests they instead concoct their own completely harmless "seven wonders". Koizumi has his Agency connections in the school arrange for Haruhi to be engaged in a perpetual shogi game with the principal so that they have time to devise the seven wonders.

The four SOS Brigade members in attendance (primarily Kyon and Koizumi), with some help from the Mystery Club's reference materials, come up with the following wonders: (1) a statue of Ninomiya Kinjiro which changes composition slightly during a full moon to include a small amount of the fictional material orichalcum, (2) a piano which plays John Cage's "4'33" (a completely silent composition) during a new moon, (3) a staircase which gains an extra step at night, causing anyone who steps on it to have an ingrown toenail, (4) a mirror which causes the composition of the amino acids in anyone who is reflected in it at night to be reversed, (5) a bathroom stall which is always locked and causes anyone who enters it to be transported to another world for two months, returning with no memories of their adventures there, (6) an anatomical model which moves around, seeming to stalk students, and (7) a wonder which should remain unknown, because only its unknown nature makes it wondrous.

Haruhi returns to the clubroom, excited to come up with the seven wonders, and Kyon shows her that they already came up with them. Haruhi says she is proud of her brigade members for being so proactive, but Kyon realizes she feels frustrated at being left out of the seven wonders activity. He teases her into first admitting her frustration and then accepting the seven wonders the four of them came up with, albeit with some editorial revisions. However, she also insists on coming up with an eighth wonder on her own.

While Haruhi is occupied with this, Koizumi hypothesizes that the reason Kyon refused to call the Mystery Club member by a diminutive is because he is subconsciously discontent that he still doesn't call Haruhi by a nickname, feeling that even calling her by her given name without honorifics is insufficient for the level of affection he feels for her. Kyon does not challenge Koizumi's hypothesis and contemplates addressing Haruhi by the diminutive "Haru", only to find the prospect is still too emotionally daunting.

Kyon tells Haruhi about Nagato being asked to write a story for the Mystery Research Club.