FLCL

Shigekuni and the other players had gone somewhere else to hold a second 'meeting of reflection,' which meant they probably went to the barbeque restaurant near the station.

When Naota made his way back home, he found Haruko on the living room floor, still wearing her uniform, and Kamon massaging her back.

'Ooh, it hurts. Not so haaard,' Haruko moaned.

'Sorry, Haruko.'

Naota was more than a little shocked by what he saw. Kamon was openly giving a massage to Haruko, who was calmly accepting it, as if it weren't strange whatsoever. It was strange. When had they forged such a comfortable relationship?

'Welcome home, Naota. Dinner soon,' Kamon declared cheerfully.

'What are you doing?' Naota asked dryly.

Kamon ignored Naota's question and continued his suspiciously sordid massage. He was now using his own chin to press down on Haruko's back and rub her.

'Oh, your beard!' Haruko exclaimed with delight in her voice. 'That feels good—like an electric massage.'

Naota felt as though a cold hand had ripped out his heart and sensed that he'd been betrayed. 'But I saw you first…'

The night Haruko had first come to the Nandaba house, she'd uttered that very phrase to Naota. She'd insisted she'd come to the house because Naota was there. That moment had been special to Naota, if only a little.

'You stink of sweat. At least change out of your uniform!' Naota suddenly complained in a vicious tone.

'Takkun isn't sweaty at all. Oh yeah, that's right—you just stood there.'

'Why are you playing for the other team, anyway?'

'Part-time job,' Haruko replied. 'I thought I should pay a little something toward the electric bill.'

The Nandaba house's electric meter had been running at least ten times higher than usual. Naota wouldn't find out the reason for this until later, though.

Canti, who was wearing an apron and had made dinner, carried the dishes from the kitchen. The robot was an ideal housemaid who worked for no pay at all, but his repertoire of dishes didn't exceed that of an elementary school home economics class. Tonight, the menu comprised a large plate of fried eggs, sunny side up.

'Oh, Haruko let me…' Kamon insisted, taking one of the fried eggs in his chopsticks and offering it to her in a sensual manner. Haruko opened her mouth wide to accept the egg. It was exactly like something a newlywed couple would do.

Needless to say, Naota was incensed. 'What are you two doing?' What he really wanted to say was, When did you two start having that kind of relationship? but nothing came out.

What Naota was feeling was simple jealousy, although he wasn't going to admit that to himself. That's why he couldn't complain. All he could do was grip the bat tighter in his hand. When he could bear it no longer, he left the room, enraged.

'What about dinner?' Kamon called out. 'We have your favorite—genetically modified bean curd!'

To Naota, Kamon's jovial voice sounded like nothing more than antagonistic.

Naota darted out to the front of his house and instinctively hit a guardrail with the bat in his hand, leaving a scratch on the rail and causing a metallic sound to ring out.

You said I was the one you saw first! Naota shouted to himself, lifting the bat high and hitting the guardrail at least three more times. This time, there was a large dent left in the white rail.

'Hey, you're damaging public property!'

Surprised by the man's voice, Naota turned around. Standing under a streetlamp was a man he'd never seen before. The man was dressed in a suit and was tall and muscular like a professional swimmer.

'Look at the poor rail getting hit by a bat,' the man said.

That incident with the bat was the first time the man appeared.

Chapter 2

Dusk had fallen at Mabase Bridge.

Naota was sitting with Mamimi on the bank.

'So, you had a fight with Haru?' Mamimi asked.

'As if I'd argue with her.'

'Ha! So grown up!'

Naota remembered that Mamimi had looked up to Haruko in the recent past. She often said how cool she thought Mamimi was or how sexy she looked. Naota, who'd been fuming about the dodgy relationship between Kamon and Haruko since yesterday, had reluctantly revealed all the things he was unhappy about to Mamimi. He couldn't talk to his classmates about it, so he didn't have anyone else he could talk to.

It was at times like these that Naota wished his brother were around, but if Tasuku were around, Naota wouldn't be spending time alone with Mamimi. He had mixed feelings about it all.

'Why is your head bandaged?'

'It doesn't matter. That has no bearing on anything.'

The truth was that the injury to Naota's head was Haruko's fault, too, but he didn't really feel like explaining that. Perhaps he didn't want to tell Mamimi that he'd struck out three times and was hit by a pitch.

Mamimi, who'd been sitting back to back against Naota, turned around and stared into his eyes, as if searching for something. 'You're in a bad mood, Takkun. Why?' Her eyes smiled, revealing that they'd seen his thoughts.

Mamimi's eyes got on Naota's nerves, too. Somehow, it seemed as though her eyes were saying, 'Takkun likes Haru.' After all, one only gets in a bad mood after fighting with someone one likes.

You must be kidding me, Naota thought. Who could ever like that untrustworthy witch?

All of a sudden, Naota remembered the face of the man from the night before, who'd also assumed that Naota liked Haruko. When Naota had snapped and started hitting the guardrail with the bat, that strange man had suddenly spoken to him.

Who was that man anyway? Naota wondered.

After the guardrail incident, the man had come into the shop, and with a tray in hand, started choosing bread. Naota didn't think he'd seen the man before, but nevertheless, he was grateful for a customer, who placed the unsold bread onto his tray one by one.

The well-built man appeared to be in his late-twenties, and he had two strangely thick eyebrows. They were really unnatural eyebrows. If inspected closely, they appeared as though they'd been drawn on and were shifting from their original location.

'Very spicy curry rolls,' stated the man as he read the label on the counter and furrowed his bizarre eyebrows. 'You didn't stock these before, did you?'

At that moment, Haruko's gleeful voice emanated from the back of the store. It sounded like the selfish laughter of someone who could enjoy life without worries or stress.

The man peered toward the back of the store with a sideways glance. 'Seems you guys have more and more pointless things. They don't sit well with me.'

Naota knew that 'pointless things' both referred to the curry rolls and to Haruko, who was responsible for the curry rolls' existence in the shop. The rolls had been added at Haruko's request when she'd first come to the Nandaba house.

Naota was on his guard, perplexed by how this man knew so much about Naota's family.

'How about you? Haven't you noticed that if you force yourself to eat it, you become addicted to it in the end?'