It was a warm gaze. With flush cheeks, Haruko looked up at the brave figure of crimson Canti. Haruko Haruhara had become a simple girl in love with the one she loved right in front of her.
The girl whispered the name of her beloved:
The truck that Gaku, Masashi, and Ninamori were riding in finally reached the area where the action had unfolded. And because all the adults had been thrown into complete panic, there was nobody to stop the children for operating a vehicle without a license.
When they came across Mamimi, she was still staring at the side of the building. And when they turned their gaze in the direction of hers, they also became captivated by the bullet that had sunken into the side of the building.
The embedded bullet slowly peeled away from the wall and fell to the earth, making a heavy sound on the asphalt.
That 'bullet' was Naota Nandaba.
As the cellular stiffening mode dissipated, Naota sprawled out untidily in that place, his eyes still closed. From his light breathing, they knew he wasn't dead.
Mamimi muttered, 'Looks painful.'
The MM factory on top of the hill spewed out white smoke. Usually, this was only momentary, but today, the gushing did not stop. Mabase was immediately enveloped in that smoke, reducing the field of vision.
And within that mist, a large, eerie shadow became visible. As the upside-down sheet peeled off, the entire giant robot was revealed—and what appeared within the mist was a giant hand.
FLCLimax
Chapter 1
'Today, we're all going to learn how to use chopsticks.'
The school lunch menu that day at Mabase Elementary School was rice and mushrooms, and Miyaji was using this as an opportunity to instruct them on the correct way to hold chopsticks, a plan that must have been decided in the staff meeting that morning.
However, Miyaji couldn't seem to use chopsticks very well herself, so she was finding it doubly hard to teach. From the way she held her own chopsticks, it appeared that she'd grown up handling them the wrong way, by crossing the sticks—but to set an example for the students, she'd tried to correct herself quickly, all while attempting to maintain the respect of her students. Perhaps this was her way of giving her all to something that had come back to haunt her after she'd grown up enjoying her incorrect method.
Naota, however, was not showing even the slightest indication of interest; he was daydreaming and gazing out the classroom window. Recently, he hadn't been speaking much, instead spending most of his time staring out the window at the world outside, which was shrouded in a thick fog.
Since that memorable day, the white smoke had become like a fog and settled, covering the city of Mabase without any sign of clearing. Coming out of the center of that fog, you could see the imposing robotic hand, which the people in town called 'the towering hand.'
The giant hand extended from the earth upward, as if it were trying to grab the heavens themselves. And considering the robot the size of a building was in actuality one giant hand, its size was unparalleled. That hand was on the same scale as the MM factory, which it was situated next to on a large hill.
On a morning ten days earlier, the day after the incident, their homeroom teacher, Miyaji, had instructed them to make sure they didn't get close to the hand that towered near the factory, which only the day before had been a violent robot.
That warning—similar to the ones given when a typhoon was coming—was the only reference made to the towering hand at school; no other explanation was given.
But that towering hand near the MM factory was far, far, far more dangerous than a typhoon. In fact, it had the potential to be more destructive than a nuclear meltdown. The residents didn't know this scary truth, and so had not evacuated, instead continuing to live in Mabase. That was because the public authorities were skillfully working to manipulate information.
And so the school children went to school as normal, and now it was mealtime. It was truly reckless.
'Naota, do you want to help out with the part-time job?' Masashi called out. He was talking about his part- time job making deliveries with his truck.
'It's pretty nice,' Ninamori said. 'Next month, I'll be able to buy a new computer game.'
But Naota had no interest in his friends' invitation; he stood up, tray in hand, as if being spoken to had been annoying.
'Hey, Naota…' When Gaku saw the plates on Naota's tray, he was surprised; his classmate hadn't touched his food at all, having left all his mushrooms and rice.
It was a school rule that students weren't allowed to waste food. But Naota was permitted to leave the classroom, anyway, satisfying Miyaji by saying that he wasn't feeling very well.
'Why didn't Naota eat anything?' Gaku puzzled.
'He couldn't eat it,' Masashi said.
There were people who lost their appetite when they had a big responsibility, and Masashi knew that Naota was that kind. That was why he had invited him to take part in the part-time job—ever since that incident, Naota had been locked away inside himself.
The robot that he had boasted about controlling had been using him as a bullet. Though that was pretty amazing in itself…
Masashi thought that Naota held an unusually high ideal for his self-image.
For a while, his friends gazed worriedly at the door through which Naota had just left.
After leaving the classroom, Naota stood in the corridor, staring out at the outside world with a blank expression.
He really had no appetite anymore. He had an empty stomach, but he didn't have any desire to eat. Furthermore, no matter how much he ate, he wouldn't be able to fill the sense of loss he was feeling now.
The town was full of the white mist coming from MM Factory. Day and night, the white smoke came pouring out, covering the city.
Even if he looked straight up, he could no longer see blue sky, just overcast white fog. It had enveloped the town as if there was nothing existing in the outside world. Maybe there really was nothing outside this town. Maybe this place was a little island floating in another dimension. If so, that meant Naota always would be stuck in this place with his feeling of loss.
But then, where had they gone, the housemaid and the stupid robot? After the incident, Haruko and Canti disappeared from the Nandaba home, and the family hadn't heard from the two since.
But that was to be expected, perhaps. The duo were wanted fugitives now. There were posters with their photos posted up on the bulletins and walls in the town, all declaring that the whole incident with the giant robot had been their fault.
In the underground war room of the Department of Interstellar Immigration, Amarao and his subordinate, Kitsurubami, were watching a monitor that was displaying the giant towering hand next to the MM factory.
