FLCL

'Waaaah!'

Naota was sent flying as if a car had hit him.

Harsh, Amarao thought. He had taken countless hits from Haruko, but this one had been far more violent.

Naota's body flew up a good distance before it came crashing down, precisely into Canti's open abdomen.

As was always the case after he'd 'eaten' Naota, Canti immediately changed to a red color—and just as Amarao had predicted, the robot started merging as part of the terminal core.

And as the electronic brain that was its control center came online, the towering hand began to tremble.

'Look what you've done! This is precisely what MM wanted!'

Amarao had blamed Haruko for the mission and its problems, but he also was actually quite angry at Naota.

For her part, Haruko responded nonchalantly, 'Canti has to turn red or Pirate King Atomsk won't come out.'

'They're going to use Atomsk's power to activate the plant! They're going to destroy this planet!'

'I told you already: I know. As long as I get Atomsk, I don't care what happens to this planet.'

The towering hand was no longer trembling; now, it started to move. It was moving very slowly, but the large hand was definitely making its way toward the iron beside it in an effort to grab it.

Guon… guon… guon…

The palm that had been facing up now started to turn face down so that it could grasp the iron.

For that reason, it was neither the time nor the place for Amarao to be arguing with Haruko; he was, after all, standing on the palm, which was now turning downward. He scrambled desperately to get to the back of the hand, where he wouldn't be thrown off. But this was a fairly difficult and high climb. After deciding a route based on the hand's movements, Amarao had no choice but to climb a vertical wall without equipment to help. If he made one wrong step, then he would fall.

Annoyingly, Haruko was jumping from finger to finger of the giant hand with a calm expression.

Amarao tutted at his own misfortune. I told him that you can't trust this woman! She does only what's good for her.

Amarao had just about managed to make his way to the back of the hand—but by that time, the palm was facing the iron and moving steadily toward the factory. If the hand grabbed the handle of the factory, then the annihilation of the planet would begin.

But at just the instant it reached to grab the handle, the towering hand's movements stopped suddenly. It was in position now to make contact with the handle, so why wasn't it trying to close its fingers around it?

'Why…?' Glimpsing down through a gap in the giant fingers, Amarao saw something between the palm of the hand and the iron that was getting in the way of them making contact. Yes, he could see it: In between was the luminescent Red Canti!

It must have stopped itself from becoming a part of the terminal core and separated itself. And now, Canti was holding up the giant hand as if it weighed nothing. Canti really might be the infamous Pirate King!

From one of the giant fingertips where she stood, Haruko was watching, too. She looked delighted. This was the first time Amarao had seen her expression so full of pleasure and excitement. What they were witnessing was the power that she had been running around the universe to obtain—and now, it was right in front of her. She was passionately excited about seeing her true prey.

There was no doubt about it, Amarao thought—that Red Canti really had to be Red Pirate King.

But Haruko's expression suddenly turned to one of puzzlement.

Amarao quickly glanced at Canti. For some reason, the red robot was swiftly returning to blue. Yet its face monitor, which was facing skyward, was emitting a red light.

That red light was a sign of something just about to begin, something no one could have predicted.

Naota thought he must be dreaming. It was a dream that looked very realistic, though—a lucid dream. Moments ago, he'd been hit by Haruko and landed inside Canti's abdominal cavity. But stretching out before him, he could see a snowy winter landscape. The landscape was Mabase; he could tell, because he saw the burnt remains of the old elementary school. But there was no school building there. Oh, that's right, this was the future, Naota realized. His dream was of the future, but he was remembering a few months back in the future. He was surprised that he already had memories of a future time inside him—but because of this, Naota knew why there was no building among the school's remains.

That winter, or the winter in the dream, Mabase had been hit by a massive snowstorm for the first time in recorded history. Under the weight of the fallen snow, the building had listed. And because it became a dangerous place for the kids to play in, it had been demolished. The mayor had reacted quickly to the citizens' demands.

The sun shone over and over, and the scenery changed to spring. In his dream, the flow of time was disordered and arbitrary. Naota realized that he was now in middle school. He was in a classroom after school, and Masashi, Gaku, and Ninamori all were around him. They all had gone on to the same school.

'Naota, come to the basketball club with us,' Masashi said.

But Naota didn't reply straight away; he was thinking over what had happened to him as a middle schooler, recalling memories and trying to organize his thoughts.

He could see from the classroom window that the MM factory on the hill was still boarded up. The official announcement had declared that there was no hope for reopening it after an accident had occurred there. The giant iron still sat squarely on the hill, looking down at the town, but it no longer pumped out white smoke. The factory was dead. And because of that, there were now a large number of residents who had lost their jobs. The number of people leaving the city to find work was increasing by the day.

Mamimi had been one of the people to leave in this outflow, quitting high school and moving to Tokyo.

His route to school had changed, but Naota still crossed Mabase Bridge, and as he did, he would remember the days he had spent with Mamimi there.

Mamimi had said she wanted to become a photographer before she'd left. She'd won a prize for a photo she'd sent into a magazine, and she'd made up her mind as a result of that. The photo that had appeared in the magazine was one taken at that critical moment when Naota was hit by Haruko's Vespa, and she'd entitled the picture 'Goodbye Naota.' Mamimi had used Naota's real name—for the first and last time.

Home was the same as ever. Kamon was still operating the bakery and also making mini comics that he couldn't sell. And Canti was still at the Nandaba home, as well—alternately being used by Kamon or slacking off. His body color stayed blue for the most part, though.

The mystery surrounding their pet cat, Miyu Miyu, had deepened. Now, Naota suspected that the mysterious voice Haruko had been talking to all that time actually belonged to Miyu Miyu. He suspected as much because, later, he had eavesdropped on Kamon talking with that same mysterious voice, and only Kamon and Miyu Miyu had been in the room.

Moreover, the conversation that he'd eavesdropped on was an astonishing one. He'd been told that no one had any idea where his mother was, but from this conversation, Naota discovered that she was a colleague of Haruko. In other words, she was a member of the space police. Naota kept quiet about what he'd heard, though, and never questioned Kamon further about it. He knew the reason his father had hidden the information from him was because it was best for Naota that way.

Before Naota graduated from elementary school, his brother Tasuku had returned to Japan once—to introduce them to his fiancee. After he introduced that blonde girl to his family, he returned back to America. It looked like he was going to become a professional player over there, on a team that MM sponsored. Naota thought that everything probably would work out fine.

Shigekuni kept watching baseball, but Naota never wore his brother's hand-me-down Mabase Martians uniform again. Nor did he walk around carrying his brother's bat when he went out anymore. He'd had enough with baseball; it wasn't for him. Anyway, there were other things that he wanted to do.

'Come on, join the basketball club with us,' Gaku said.

Naota hadn't joined any clubs when he'd started middle school, although Gaku and Masashi had