FLCL

Just as Kitsurubami had predicted, the reason Amarao had gone to the hairdresser was to prepare to meet Haruko. The woman he'd told the stylist he hadn't seen for a long time was, in fact, Haruko. Although he had a strong attraction to Haruko, though, she also was a source of fear for him.

'You must have noticed,' Amarao said reasonably, 'that when the robot turns red, it has some connection with Atomsk. If we don't do something soon, MM is going to make a move. They're ready to destroy this planet.'

'So what?'

Just hearing her rude words set off Amarao's primal fear, and he ran outside on impulse. It was no good. He couldn't take her alone.

Seeing their boss running out the building for his life, the subordinates who had been waiting outside the hair salon grabbed their own guns.

'Wait!' Amarao screamed, but his subordinates fired at Haruko when she showed herself at the shop entrance. It seemed all the people who worked under Amarao were lacking in battle experience.

Suddenly being shot at, Haruko smiled boldly and waved some metallic object in her hand.

Amarao and his inferiors watched. In front of their eyes, all the bullets had been cut cleanly in two and were now laying on the floor.

Haruko wore the cruel smile of a carnivorous beast.

The metal object in her hand was a razor that had been on the hair stylist's counter.

Amarao was reminded of how terrifying this woman truly was.

'She's really something.'

'She's nothing,' Naota assessed Haruko as he pulled Mamimi along by the arm to the front of the station. 'She's nothing but an idiot.'

'That hurts! Why are you pulling me?'

Naota had kept a tight grip on Mamimi ever since they'd left the riverbank, and she'd complained about it again and again, but Naota hadn't paid attention to her protests at all. It was like none of Mamimi's words reached Naota's ears.

'Seriously, since she came, she's been nothing but trouble. We haven't been able to spend time alone, just the two us, for ages. It was better before.'

Today, Mamimi is going to be mine.

That's how much he liked Mamimi—he'd decided the girl he had always been thinking of was going to be his. Naota was excited. Three months ago, he had made a decision about his relationship with Mamimi. He didn't like his position of being his brother's substitute, and he was going to tell Mamimi the truth: Mamimi's ideal partner— Naota's brother, Tasuku Nandaba—already had a girlfriend in America. Naota was going to come clean with the hidden reality.

As a result, even Naota didn't know what would happen to his own relationship with Mamimi. He thought that perhaps all the time they had spent together up until now might mean nothing. He knew that she didn't have any particular attraction to him. Yet Naota came to understand that he couldn't just stay being a substitute. Still, Naota had become stuck on his final decision, and had kept playing around with Mamimi to put it off.

Now, however, the situation had changed: Haruko Haruhara had appeared.

Amid the unpredictable chaos and disaster that had surrounded him ever since she'd arrived, Naota had held on to the ill-defined situation with Mamimi… and bit by bit, something between them had changed.

Probably, above all, he himself had changed, Naota felt. He was stronger. Different from before. Tougher. More manly. He had saved the town. He had grown up, and the world had opened to him. Now, Mamimi was jealous of his relationship with Haruko. Mamimi was in love with him. Now… now, he was going to be able to pursue his relationship with Mamimi.

'How about here?'

Finally, Naota stopped in front of a small coffee shop. Of course, elementary school kids couldn't go into coffee shops unaccompanied. But that was why Naota had chosen a coffee shop. He was going to break the school rules and shatter the stagnant situation, all with one stone. He was going to do today all the things he hadn't done, the things he wasn't allowed to do. He was going to become someone new. His heart was pounding, but he opened the door to the coffee shop, maintaining the pretense of being cool.

'Are we going in?'

'Is there a problem?'

'Why this coffee shop?'

'You came here with my brother, didn't you?'

A coffee shop—a place Naota considered to be where real lovers spent time together and shared real words of love together. If they could spend time here together, then it would mean they were real lovers.

Though Naota's thinking was a bit humorous, the fact was that it wasn't that far from the truth. You might say it was unexpectedly accurate.

By the river, the two of them had played around like lovers— but only when they were on the riverbank. The pair had never had anything more than a riverbank relationship. Naota had noticed at some point that the riverbank was simply the place where Mamimi spent time with her 'substitute' boyfriend. That was part of the reason Naota had brought her to this coffee shop. Today; we're going to go from a riverbank relationship to a coffee shop relationship.

But at about this time, Mamimi managed to break loose from Naota's grip. Angrily, she said, 'What are you doing?'

'What?'

'Why are you doing this?'

'But don't you—' like me, was what he was about to say, but he suddenly got nervous and couldn't say it.

Mamimi looked really angry. She was really angry that he had brought her to a coffee shop. She looked as though she didn't like this.

Naota grew anxious. Was he wrong? Did Mamimi not like him? But then why was she jealous of Haruko?

'This is because of Haru, isn't it?' Mamimi asked.

Naota managed to get a little of his confidence back when he heard that. He'd been right: Mamimi was jealous of Haruko. She did like him. Yeah, she likes me, so there's no point in being nervous.

'Don't worry,' Naota said. 'I'm not involved with her.'

'How much do you like Haru?'

'No, I like—'

'Takkun, you like Haru, don't you?'

What are you saying?

Mamimi was looking at Naota sadly. Behind her eyes were thoughts that Naota couldn't comprehend. In the overconfident state that Naota was now in, he wasn't able to understand the meaning of the loneliness in her eyes.

Mamimi had watched Naota messing around with Haruko on the riverbank with sadness—but it wasn't with a jealous heart as Naota had suspected; Naota had it wrong.

The truth was that, as she'd watched him hit the satellite, Mamimi had seen a certain kind of manliness in Naota. And although seeing something more manly in Naota had improved her opinion of him as a man, it didn't mean that she now desired him. In fact, it was precisely the opposite: Manly Naota was not what she wanted. What Mamimi needed was a substitute Takkun.

Naota had lost interest in being a substitute, but Mamimi didn't need him as anything but a substitute. She didn't need a manly Naota, because to Mamimi, a real man was someone who might throw her away..

Of course, that was Mamimi's made-up logic. It would have been useless to try to explain to Naota.

Mamimi looked down at Naota silently; however, Naota could see only Mamimi's soft lips. There they were, a boy and a girl, each with thoughts not understood by the other.

Naota stood on his tiptoes… Naota stood on his tiptoes, grabbed Mamimi, and tried to kiss her.