Mikuru Asahina - Background

Background

In the series, Mikuru is considered one of the most beautiful girls in the school by many of the male students, and was once even described as "an untouchable flower on the mountain". Her popularity among the boys, however, doesn't stop her from being very shy and easily embarrassed. Before being forced to join the SOS Brigade, she was originally a member of the Calligraphy Club. She's best friends with Tsuruya, who is also a second-year student like Mikuru. In addition to starring in the SOS Brigade's amateur-movie in the first episode, both Mikuru and Tsuruya were waitresses for The Acorn, a short-stop dine-in for fried soba that was run by all the girls in Mikuru's class during the school festival.

Unlike Haruhi and Yuki, Mikuru has no athletic ability. She does, however, show a gift for brewing and making tea and is often praised for it by Kyon.

Mikuru is actually a time traveler, sent back to investigate a massive timequake that occurred three years prior, the cause of which is Haruhi. As a result of this event, time-travel beyond that point had become impossible. Mikuru is very knowledgeable about the science and theories of time and time-travel, and shows it when giving Kyon a brief explanation about why she is in his time plane. She refers to her presence in the past as like adding an extra picture in a flip book. Because of the dangers involved with time-travel, as well as the sensitivity of the mission, most information regarding the future, Haruhi, Yuki, Itsuki and herself are highly classified, as she states this whenever Kyon asks her questions involving such topics, leading to her famous phrase "Classified information" (禁則事項, kinsoku jikō?). In fact, it's revealed in the first light novel that before going back in time, she underwent mental preparation and hypnosis so that if she reveals anything unnecessary, information regarding time travel will be blocked off from her mind. There have been instances when she was instructed by Kyon to travel back in time in order to alter certain events relative to the Brigade. For the most part, Mikuru strictly follows standard protocol and obeys any orders given by her superiors in her organization. Additionally, she is forbidden in engaging in any romantic relationships with anyone outside of her original time span.

An older, adult Mikuru from farther into the future occasionally travels back in time to give Kyon some critical information regarding future events relative to his time span. Although the laws concerning classified information is slightly more lax in this Mikuru's time, she is still unable to go into much detail and can only provide short, rather vague pieces of information. Since she has no memories of meeting her older self, adult Mikuru has to take measures not to be seen by young Mikuru in order to avoid a time paradox. Yet, despite all these precautions and limitations, she accidentally lets slip a small bit regarding the star-shaped mole on her chest, which she never knew she had until Kyon told her about it, when proving that she really was Mikuru. Kyon was completely unaware of this mole until she told him it was there, despite the past fact that she didn't know about it until he told her. He later related the mole to her younger self after confirming it in some photographs, thus creating a minor paradox.

In order to time travel, Mikuru uses a Temporal Plane Destruction Device (TPDD for short), which connects with information in her head to successfully time travel. She also has the ability to render people unconscious. She uses this on Kyon to prevent him seeing her time-travel methods, whilst adult Mikuru uses it on her younger self to avoid being seen by her.

In order to differentiate between the older and younger versions, whenever the older self is present in the same time span, Kyon refers to her older self as Asahina-san (big) and to the younger Mikuru as Asahina-san (small). Despite both names ending in -san, the differentiation is in the inclusion of (big) and (small) that is written in the light novels. When a Mikuru from eight days into the future appears in the seventh novel, The Scheme of Haruhi Suzumiya, Kyon gives her the alias of her twin sister Michiru to use in front of Tsuruya, referring to this Mikuru as Asahina-san (Michiru).