FLCL

cheek, licked and nibbled his neck, and left love bites on him.

'I didn't ditch school. That rehearsal doesn't have anything to do with my grades,' Naota insisted.

'I was in a school play once. It was so embarrassing, but it made me happy, too.'

'Why did it make you happy?'

'Dad and Mom came to see me together, so I remember it very well.'

'What did you play?'

'When I was in kindergarten, Sailor Mars; in elementary school, the Little Match Girl; and in middle school, Carrie.'

'Why are they all about burning things?'

A vision of the fire remained in the back of Naota's mind. Naturally, he recalled what had happened to the two of them that night. In the end, the police never caught Mamimi for starting the fire. They were still looking for the culprit, but there hadn't been any fires since, so it seemed as though the case would never be solved.

No, it can't happen. They mustn't catch the criminal! Naota thought to himself.

'Takkun, you saved me, didn't you?' Mamimi muttered in a serious tone.

'What?'

'That night. You drove Lord Canti. It was so cool.'

'Yeah…' Naota replied, attempting to duck the issue.

Although Naota had thought he and Mamimi should talk about it, the fact was that neither of them had bothered to mention what had happened that night until now. A robot coming out of Naota's head, Mamimi starting the fires—they hadn't spoken about any of it, in favor of 'playing around.' However, this was to be expected. The pair were too used to enjoying their days without speaking about important things. That was precisely why they'd started this 'play' — to escape the important things on their minds. Of course, anything having to do with Tasuku had been put on hold ever since.

Mamimi must know by now that my brother has a girlfriend in America. Naota didn't have the courage to find out for sure today, but it was quite possible that Mamimi knew and was bluffing that she didn't. Mamimi might even know everything.

The only thing was that Mamimi had a gross misunderstanding about what had happened that night. Or perhaps it wasn't a misunderstanding as such. To be fair, Naota didn't really understand what had happened either.

Mamimi thought Naota had been operating Canti that night, and it seemed as though she thought he'd done so to save her.

Mamimi's words—'You drove Lord Canti. It was so cool' — rang in Naota's ears. However, in reality, Naota didn't even remember that night clearly. From the moment he'd been sucked into Canti, Naota had wanted to protect Mamimi from the one-armed robot. He'd panicked because of his desire to protect her.

Naota wanted to believe his thoughts were heard by God (or something like God) and that the deity would become one with him to defeat the violent robot. He wanted to believe that he'd fought for Mamimi's safety. Unfortunately, after Naota had been sucked into Canti, Naota didn't have many solid memories. He'd felt his body stiffen bit by bit in the blackness. Everything about the experience was vague.

'Thank you,' Mamimi said, under the impression that Naota had done something heroic.

Naota, who didn't feel bad about being thanked, started to think that because his memory was vague, perhaps he really had controlled Canti and saved Mamimi. At least he'd wanted to save Mamimi in his heart.

After that night, Mamimi had stopped following Canti around as much as she had previously. It seemed as though she still considered Canti an important friend, but the thrill had finally worn off, and most of her interest was back with Naota. The result was that the love bites on Naota's neck were increasing in number. In all honesty, though, Naota was quite fond of the whole situation.

Mamimi yanked off Naota's hat.

Naota panicked, trying to cover his cat ears, but it was too late, as Mamimi's eyes had already spotted them.

Damn! Naota thought to himself.

Within a second, Mamimi's expression had turned to one of fascination, and she started to say things like, 'What are those?' and 'They're so cute,' as well as 'So adorable!' as she smothered Naota's cat ears with love. 'They're so soft… so much fun!'

Naota felt that the world had lost all common sense when people didn't bother to question the presence of cat ears on his head.

Ninamori's footsteps were heavy as she walked home with a copy of Come on Mabase in her hands.

That shady-looking man had no way of knowing Ninamori was the daughter of the mayor of Mabase. Regardless, to give a girl carrying a schoolbag on her back that kind of tasteless comic meant something must've been wrong with the man either way.

The magazine had even worse things than she'd imagined in it. It was almost as if the writer hated her father or wanted revenge, because it delved into scandals in both his private and business life. The first topic covered was the work scandal. It was reported that Ninamori's father had cooperated with a property company to lure the MM Factory to Mabase, and that he'd also received illegal income. At that time, the current Mabase mayor had merely been an upstart in an unknown city, who'd earned his money buying and selling land illegally. He'd ultimately used that dirty money to buy his way into the mayorship of Mabase.

As for Ninamori's father's personal life, the comic featured an expose on the affair he was having with his secretary, accusing the mayor of being unscrupulous, using pictures of the two of them leaving his house as evidence.

Ninamori felt sicker with every word of the article she read, but she assumed that pretty much all the things it asserted were true. It was a melancholy feeling. The magazine had been passed around the classroom and everyone in the class was now aware of her father's ugly scandal. Naota had seen it, too. Naota had seen it, too! It was unbearable.

At the very least, the situation had made Ninamori want to chase that horrid woman out of her home. Ninamori remembered that very morning the woman had said she was a skilled secretary and wouldn't ruin Ninamori's father's image. But all it required was one look at the comic to see how badly the woman had messed up. Ninamori was going to chase her out today, and she was going to get revenge. She almost wanted to thank the horrible man who'd written the magazine.

After having nearly reached her house, Ninamori glanced up, stopping in her tracks. 'What?'

There was a large crowd of people gathered in front of her front door—dozens of them—and they all appeared to be reporters. There were several cameramen, too. Like lunatics, the horde swarmed around Ninamori's front door.

As Ninamori stood frozen with astonishment, a girl strolled along the road, quickly heading toward her. It was the secretary, wearing sunglasses as if to disguise herself. The woman's unforgettably revolting perfume hung in the air.

The secretary came to a stop after noticing Ninamori standing there. 'Oh, this is ridiculous. I can't even use the back door anymore.'

Ninamori peered intently at the woman.

'It's dangerous for you to stay here, too,' the secretary added.

'I see you're very skilled at running away,' Ninamori observed bitterly.

'Of course. I'm a grown-up,' the secretary answered before she fled.

Ninamori watched her leave with hatred in her heart. Grownup? What does being a grown-up mean? A stupid adult who's all talk? Perfumed hag.

The woman Ninamori had wanted to kick out had beaten her to it by running away. Ninamori had felt the woman was no good from the moment she'd met her, and that first impression really cut to the core of what the woman truly was. Speaking of true colors, when the woman had been caught for breaking the speed limit the month before, she'd ranted on and on about how it was her first demerit. As Ninamori's dad comforted her, the woman