Unfortunately, simply because Haruko held the ukulele in her hand didn't mean it was going to turn into a super weapon. The moment she brought the instrument down on the metal robot's body, it splintered into tiny bits. 'Ukulele no good.' After uttering such a nonsensical statement, Haruko whistled with all her might.
In a flash, the Vespa that had been parked outside Shigekuni Bread started its engine, turned on its lights, and drove off.
There wasn't anyone on the scooter, so it had to have been summoned by Haruko's whistle.
The driverless Vespa headed straight for Mabase Elementary School.
The classroom had descended into a panic.
The lemon squeezer had integrated Ninamori's body as a functioning part of its own and was running wild.
Moving like a bug's jaw, the two pale schoolgirl legs gnawed at Naota's body.
'Let me go!' Naota insisted, trying to pry apart Ninamori's legs, which were wrapped around him tightly.
Haruko snickered cheerfully as she looked on. 'Ooooh, that looks dirty!'
With Naota still in its grips, the lemon squeezer aimed its sensor eye at Canti. It seemed the control system had merged with an impure entity and had meaninglessly captured the young boy; however, it suddenly remembered what its original prey was.
With an exaggerated holler, Haruko jumped into the corridor with Canti by her side.
Still holding onto Naota, the lemon squeezer used its remaining three legs to chase the antagonistic duo.
'Let me go!' echoed Naota's futile scream down the corridor.
After kicking open the metal hatchway and exiting onto the roof, the lemon squeezer searched the surroundings for its fugitive prey.
'Up here!' yelled Haruko, gazing down from the water tower. Behind her, like a faithful dog, was her Vespa. Haruko smiled cruelly before opening the Vespa seat and retrieving her guitar-shaped, time-space interference weapon from the storage space. 'Better get ready. Time to meet your maker!'
'Stop!' Naota screamed, still in the lemon squeezer's clutches. He already assumed Haruko wouldn't spare a thought for him or Ninamori and would go all out in her attack on the lemon squeezer.
Naota was right. With an evil smirk, Haruko started the hand-operated generator on her weapon.
Sensing the threat from its opponent's shining weapon, the lemon squeezer took a few steps back and prepared to fling Naota in the direction of Haruko. Ninamori's long legs hurled Naota's body, turning it into a weapon.
'Waaahhh!' Naota screamed as he shot through the air.
'Get out of my way!' Haruko demanded, mercilessly knocking Naota aside. It was only a halfhearted swing, but it nevertheless sent Naota's body high up into the air like a fly ball. That guitar was a terrifying weapon.
'Hiii-ya!' With her super weapon in hand, Haruko leapt from the water tower and used all her strength to inflict a blow on the lemon squeezer's round body.
All of a sudden, a lightning-like bolt illuminated the midday roof. Immediately afterward, the lemon squeezer began to emit a cranking sound as though something wasn't working properly, and it then began to move irregularly, stumbling around the rooftop without direction. It appeared to be in great pain.
'Uggghhh!' Practically in sync with the lemon squeezer's groans of pain, Ninamori began shrieking in anguish. Her legs thrashed about, and her body twisted and squirmed as if she were being administered electric shock treatment. The violent thrashing alone would've been enough to break her bones, but fortunately, the struggling girl managed to separate her body from the lemon squeezer before falling limply to the ground.
Haruko smiled boldly.
In the meantime, Naota, who'd been thrown high into the air, was thinking that he must be the most unfortunate person in the entire world. His misfortunes seemed to have infinite variations. After Naota reached the apex of his flight, his body made a small arch and was pulled down by gravity.
Canti stood on the roof at Naota's exact point of landing, as if the robot had been predicting the boy's course all along. Opening up a part of his frame, the robot gobbled up Naota's flying body. It was a nice catch.
In an instant, Canti's dark blue body changed to a deep crimson, and his humanoid appearance once again evolved into a giant cannon, the form it took when he was in autonomic gun mode.
The fight was decided in a single shot. At light speed, a red laser shot out from near Canti's cannon mouth, locking onto the position of the lemon squeezer. With a great blast, the cannon ball pierced straight through the middle of the lemon squeezer's metal body, destroying it, and proceeding to create a gigantic hole in the roof of the school gymnasium on the other side.
'Oh, that takes me back. I was in a play when I was in middle school. This is the picture my father took of me in the lead role. The cat boy—he was my first love. He's kind of cute, isn't he? It's nice that you can say such things lightly as you get older. Oh and that—that's not a spotlight. When we did a performance, there was a big hole in the gymnasium roof, and that's the light coming in. I look pretty tall, don't I? I was the tallest in the class then, you know. And the glasses, they were…'
A couple of days later, class one of the sixth grade at Mabase Elementary School performed
The tension mounted as the sound of the announcer's voice and the echo of applause filled the hall.
Ninamori was at the side of the stage dressed in costume, waiting for her entrance. In the end, it was decided that the play would be performed with Ninamori in the lead role. No one in the class ever mentioned the rigging of the votes again.
There wasn't sufficient evidence to prosecute Ninamori's father, either, so he continued as city mayor. Ninamori didn't completely object to her father's shameless attitude, however. She was his daughter, so she would grow up more brazen than her father ever was.
'You cheated to get the lead role?'
'You became a robotic monster and ran amuck?'
Ninamori's father had told her she should transfer if she didn't like all the rumors that were going around, but Ninamori stayed in town. That was Eri Ninamori's decision at the age of twelve.
'You'll do wonderfully, Ninamori,' Miyaji encouraged her.
Ninamori nodded.
Dressed as the cat, Naota seemed surprised when he saw Ninamori's face. She was wearing glasses. The role of the Marquis de Carabas didn't require glasses, so why was she performing wearing the very glasses she'd tried to hide before?
Ninamori poked her finger through the rim of the glasses, showing Naota there were no lenses. They were fake.
Suddenly, a bell rang and the curtain lifted.
Ready to play the part she'd rehearsed to perfection, Ninamori took a step out onto the stage.
Full Swing
Chapter 1
