FLCL

everyone saw that he had cat ears.

They saw them! Naota thought in horror. Although he'd taken great care to hide them, everyone had found out that he had cat ears growing out of his head. He hoped that if he covered the unsightly things with his hands, no one would believe from merely a glimpse that he actually had cat ears. They all would simply shake their heads, wondering why someone as cool as Naota would want to wear such an ugly hat on his head. They'll think they didn't see properly, Naota assured himself. There was always a way out… always a way out.

In mid-panic, Naota let his mouth get away from him. 'You're one to talk. You're the one who rigged the votes so you could play the lead role!'

Ninamori's face froze and turned white.

Within seconds, the classmates' eyes moved from Haruko to Canti to Naota's cat ears, before stopping and staring at Ninamori— or so she felt.

'Argh!' the class president screamed, clutching her head and doubling over.

At the same time, Haruko's chain link that was attached to the bracelet on her left hand started to move, reacting strongly like a magnet, and then pointing toward Ninamori. Haruko's green eyes became unusually serious and had a cruel glint to them.

Ninamori's body started to convulse, and suddenly, all the onlookers noticed a strange change: Her pores started to ooze out sweat before their eyes.

Several girls ran to Ninamori and screamed into her face.

'Eri? Are you okay?'

'Get her to the nurse!'

'Owww!' Ninamori screamed in pain.

Much to her classmates' horror, Ninamori began to transform. Somehow, cat ears suddenly started to grow from Ninamori's head.

'A magic trick?' asked one of the girls who'd rushed over.

The person who was most surprised, however, was Naota. The cat ears that were now growing out of Ninamori's head matched his exactly. But when Naota put his hands to his head, his cat ears were gone.

Meanwhile, at the MM factory, which Ninamori's father had lured to the city back when he was committing fraud, the battle watch commenced once again. It was a Saturday, so there wasn't a single person working in the building. The warning siren blared to no one. In one of the rooms, the host computer started to receive battle reports.

«MMR Class [L].PS, whose appearance was halted at the cranium, has found another exit that has opened at close distance. At short notice, testing the change in approach. 13:13.

In addition, presence of MMR Class [K].001 Atomsk is confirmed at the expected area of emergence. 13:13.

Executing the capture or destruction of [K] 13:13.

Good luck to PS in executing battle strategy. 13:13.»

Ninamori screamed as the insuppressible transformation took over her body.

Not knowing what was going on, her classmates stood there dumbfounded. Only Naota understood what was happening to Ninamori's body.

The spectacle was analogous to seeing a monster jump out of someone's head.

Naota guessed that, at the moment, Ninamori was probably hearing a loud ringing in her ears and was having to deal with the horrible feeling of her own head pulsing. He'd experienced it twice in recent past, after all. The first time, the robot Canti, who was standing beside him, had jumped out; and the second time, the one-armed robot Canti ultimately damaged had jumped out.

Wait, Naota thought. Does this mean a strange robot is going to leap out of Ninamori's head—in the middle of the day, in the classroom?

Ninamori's cat ears were extending up to the ceiling in the form of long metal arms. The bits everyone assumed were ears were actually more like foam pads attached to the tips of the arms. There weren't only two arms, either. Another one resembling the first two had appeared at the back of Ninamori's head, making a total of three.

Each arm bent at the joints, and the suction pads at the ends latched onto the classroom floor. It was very reminiscent of a camera tripod—a gigantic tripod, actually. Ninamori's head attached at the center, where the three legs joined, and her body suspended in midair. Extending from her gym shorts, her long legs didn't touch the floor and were violently kicking the air with all their might.

No one continued to think this was some sort of magic trick.

Suddenly, an elongated egg-shaped metal ball popped out from Ninamori's head at the center of the three legs, causing gasps of surprise from her classmates. Well, of course—the metal ball was several times larger than the girl's head. This was the first time Naota had witnessed such a large metal monster appear from such a small portal. It was an absolutely grotesque scene. It seemed as though 'they' were able to distort space to pass through.

The robot revealed itself completely. It was probably a robot, anyway, as it wasn't human-shaped. Its form resembled a three-legged octopus more than anything else. The three legs bent considerably, no doubt because the thing had to stoop down on account of the classroom ceiling being too low.

Lemon squeezer, Naota thought. On the only occasion he'd visited Mamimi's house with his brother, Naota remembered Mamimi's family had a lemon squeezer that looked very similar.

Everything above Ninamori's nose was melded into the robot's rounded body. As if she'd lost all power to fight back, her legs and arms were covered in sweat and dangling limply. The only things that moved were her lips to breathe.

I have to do something. I have to separate Ninamori from this lemon squeezer thing, Naota told himself.

When the one-armed robot had appeared, Naota's head hadn't fully separated either, and he'd lingered on the border between life and death for a short while. Ninamori's situation felt a lot more urgent, though. The lemon squeezer was treating Ninamori as if she were part of its own body.

«PS has integrated the route device as part of its own body 13:14.

No problems with battle movement. 13:14.

Possibility that the route device's conscience will interfere with the control systems…»

Ninamori's classmates stared, speechless, at the transformed body of their class president.

All of a sudden, the lemon squeezer started moving, heading straight for Naota.

'Argh!' Naota grimaced, finding himself pinned against the wall by the monster's amazingly quick movements.

For some reason, the lemon squeezer was trying to push a part of its metal body onto Naota's mouth. It almost appeared as if it were trying to kiss him.

'What are you doing? Stop that now, Ninamori!'

The class' homeroom teacher, Miyaji, screamed hysterically, and the lemon squeezer immediately stopped moving. Miyaji, who'd come to oversee the play rehearsal, had observed the chaos and decided it was Ninamori's doing.

'If I'd known it was going to turn out like this…' Haruko gave a little tut that she hadn't brought her guitar weapon with her, but she was relieved when she noticed one of the boys nearby had a ukulele in his hand that he'd been using as a stage prop. 'Let me borrow that,' Haruko demanded, snatching the ukulele and raising it high above her head.