FLCL

'She's in love with him.'

Naota silently walked away, ignoring Amarao.

It was raining that day, too, when several children holding umbrellas gave chase. Takkun was a small weak kitten and couldn't run away. The chasing children looked like ordinary elementary school kids, but they were actually demons, residents of the demon town Endsville.

That day, the other girls in her class had been teasing Mamimi again, and her shoes had been washed away in the river in the aftermath. For Mamimi, whose feet were small, it was always difficult to find pretty shoes that would fit her. She'd just bought some she liked, but now they'd thrown them into the river, saying that the style was against school rules.

Walking along the street without shoes was pretty pathetic. Mamimi's feet got hurt easily. But as soon as she'd seen the kitten being chased around by the kids, she'd run over barefoot and picked it up. And she had glared at those little demons.

If those kids teased Takkun again, then she was going to do a whole lot more than just stare at them: She would hit them with rocks, that's what Mamimi decided. As if she should care about them. They were demons.

'Takkun, where have you been?'

She had been searching for almost two hours for him. The wind blew off the river, chilling her. Even though the rain had finally ended, her soaked clothes stole away her body heat. Tired, she put a cigarette to her mouth and lit it.

She'd finally started to consider the possibility that maybe someone else had taken him in. Mamimi couldn't have pets at her place; if they'd had the money, then they would have moved straight away to a place where you could have pets—but that just wasn't possible now. And Takkun was a cute black kitten, so it wouldn't be too surprising if someone else were to pick him up to look after him. But that meant she couldn't have Takkun anymore, which upset her. Mamimi was really upset, because she needed a Takkun.

If I don't have Takkun, then I'm all alone.

At some point, Mamimi took her cell from her bag. There was only one number in the phone directory displayed on the tiny screen, Tasuku's number, in America. That was Mamimi's last link to Tasuku.

Of course, Mamimi had given Tasuku her number, too, so she always made sure to carry her cell with her. However, she had never once received a call or text from him. The phone had not rung once. She already knew that Tasuku was never going to call her.

Since Tasuku had gone to America, Mamimi had not called his number once, either. That was a number that she could never call herself.

'Well, see you sometime, Mamimi. Get yourself a nice boyfriend!' Tasuku had said to her, smiling as he departed the city.

She understood what he'd meant.

So, it didn't matter if she carried around the phone. It would be better just to get rid of it. But because she carried it, she was still attached. They were linked. Still… maybe, she thought, maybe, just maybe this will be the moment it rings. Maybe I'll get an international call—

'Hey, it's me. I'm fine. I don't like it here. No good girls here. You really are the one for me. I'm coming home next week, and I'm really looking forward to seeing you. I've bought you so many gifts.'

How long have I been waiting? I'm an idiot.

It was then that something weird appeared in the river—a small machine, in the shape of a small, four- legged table. It walked around on those four legs like an animal, and it was about the size of the palm of a human hand. It had crawled from the river about two meters from where Mamimi was.

Filled with interest, Mamimi crouched down next to it, and that machine looked at her, too. Mamimi and that weird machine stared (if it could stare?) at each other.

Thinking how cute it was and wondering what it was, Mamimi blew out a puff of tobacco smoke.

When she did that, the machine sucked in some of Mamimi's expelled smoke and started to move around, delighted. Clink clank. The machine used its legs to roll around by Mamimi's feet.

Not knowing what to do, Mamimi watched it for a little while.

'You're an energetic little thing.'

It was then that the machine, which had been, innocently moving in circles, suddenly jumped up at Mamimi and stole her cell phone. Perhaps it was going to play with it and kick it around like a small dog. Part of the phone was in its mouth.

Then, it opened its mouth wide and attempted to eat the cell phone.

'Tasuku's number! No! Stop that!'

Instinctively, Mamimi restrained it. The robot unexpectedly listened to her orders, and with its mouth still wide open, stopped exactly where it was. It looked like it was begging.

That had been close. That phone was the only place that she had Tasuku's number saved. If she lost it, then she would lose her link to Tasuku; he wouldn't be able to call her anymore.

Call me anymore…? Mamimi stopped to ask herself. Even if I carry this phone, is he going to call me?

Was he going to call her?

The link with Tasuku, this thing, gone… She'd never really had it in the first place.

When she looked back down, the robot was still standing there innocently, its mouth wide open, waiting for Mamimi's next order.

'You can have it,' Mamimi said.

The robot must have been hungry, because it chomped down greedily on the phone at first—but then it began carefully chewing and swallowing.

'You're responsible then,' Mamimi said. 'I'll call you Takkun.'

Chapter 2

Outside, it was as dark as if it were already nightfall. The autumn sun set early.

In the dullness of his unlit bedroom, Naota stared out the window from his bed.

On the balcony, the fog and the darkness of the night created a thick mass. It was like the bottom of the sea, dark and unreachable by the sun, Naota thought. A prisoner, trapped by water pressure. That's what I am now.

He heard the sound of a passenger jet flying high above the city. Perhaps that's a boat on the surface of the sea. They don't know about me, trapped in this underwater colony, and those tourists are probably traveling to some faraway land, a world outside that I don't know.

Naota lay on the bed face up. He was sleeping on the bottom bunk, so he could see the base of the bunk above him, the place where his brother Tasuku had slept until recently.

The people who had disappeared from Naota's life…

Leaning against the bed was the guitar, the one that had been pulled out of Naota's head when the satellite had descended.

She had smiled and told him it was his bat, and then she had left this petrified city. Where had she gone?

Getting up from the bed, Naota picked up the guitar and tried playing a chord. The single tone resonated across the bottom of the deep sea floor.

Finally, his father's voice called to him for dinner, and Naota descended the stairs. But when he entered the room, he instinctively stiffened and yelled.

'Aaah!'

It was her. There.