Not much to say on this one. Thx to QS again *bows to her* and thanks to the readers. Enjoy!

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Amarao and I exchanged gazes of confusion as Kitsurubami began to toddle from her spot by the window over to where we were.

"How'd you get here so fast?" Amarao asked.

"I've been here for a while," she said in response as she stopped by me. Ninamori loosened her grip on me and looked up at Kitsurubami. "Yup. I knew you'd come here."

"What are you talking about?" Amarao asked. Another quake shook the room, this time more intense and the crash louder. Kitsurubami looked over to the window again then down at me.

"No time for small talk," she said. She leaned down and grabbed the back of Ninamori's shirt and lifted her up out of my arms, turned to the side, and dropped her into Amarao's arms.

"What are you doing?" I asked in a confused tone. I was also a little shocked; I wasn't aware that Kitsurubami was strong enough to pick up Ninamori like that.

Kitsurubami smiled at me then and leaned over to pick me up by my shirt, pulling me up from my kneeling position until my feet left the floor. I just looked on in a stunned way when Kitsurubami pulled her arm back and tossed me across the room.

"What the hell?" Amarao laid Ninamori back down on the bed and stood, taking steps toward Kitsurubami. No sooner did she realize that Amarao was approaching her than she pulled the bass guitar back like a bat and took a swing at Amarao, connecting hard and sending him flying back.

At this time I was more confused than worried about what Kitsurubami was doing. I stood to my feet just in time for her to turn around and notice me. When she started toward me my whole body flinched in fear. I wanted to make a run for it but I had nowhere to go. In no time she was face to face with me again.

"What are you doing?" I said calmly even though I was nervous and trembling.

She smiled evilly at me but said nothing. She just pulled the guitar back again and swung, hitting me flat across the forehead. It wasn't as hard a hit as she gave to Amarao but it was enough to send me stumbling back into the nearest wall.

I immediately began to throb in pain but not as much from the guitar hit as from the headache I had just acquired. A bolt of pain ran through my head and didn't stop. My head and my eyes began to feel hot, so hot that my vision began to blur, but I could still see Kitsurubami approach me. I slid down the wall and sat in pain while Kitsurubami stood over me looking down and smiling a familiar grin. She then kneeled down in front of me and touched my forehead, sliding her hand across it and then ripping off the bandage I had gotten from school.

My head began to feel hotter and then for some reason Kitsurubami's face began to light up; it was like a light was coming from my face and shining on hers. Whatever it was she was enjoying it, I could tell by the big smile that she got then, and she wanted it. I saw her pull her arm back and clench her fingers like a claw, then she reached towards me.

/_\

Another sharp pain ran through my head so intense that my eyes popped open and felt like they'd fly out of my head. My whole body went limp from this paralyzing pain and my vision went wild where I was unable to focus on one thing. When I was finally able to see straight, I saw Kitsurubami, still lit with that red light and her arm stretched straight out at and into my head.

More than anything else now I was scared. With every twitch and twist that Kitsurubami made, another bolt of pain ran through my body and I couldn't move to do anything about it; the way that she was moving, it was as if she were looking for something—but inside of my head?

"Ah hah," she finally said as she stood but with her arm still in my head. "I got it!" She then stuck her other arm in and began to pull, tugging my head forward with every draw. Whatever she had a grip on wasn't coming out easily so she pulled up her leg and jammed her foot into my face, using it as a base to help her pull. I closed my eyes and strained a scream as she continued to yank away at my head; each tug she made shot more pain through my body. I thought I was going to die.

The pain began to get worse. One pull she made hurt so much that it shook me out of the paralysis I was in. My first instinct told me to push her off but that didn't work to well. I moved my arms slowly up and grabbed a hold of hers but when I opened my eyes again and looked up I was shocked into letting go when I saw Mamimi standing in Kitsurubami's place with her arms implanted in my forehead.

Right after that another quake came, this one more intense than all the others. The shaking forced me to jerk forward and Mamimi to jerk backward which also tossed her off of me. A huge light flashed during the moment that she was flung away from me. My whole body felt weak and hot but the pain was gone and I could see perfectly again. I saw Ninamori staring at me and I saw Amarao struggling to his feet but I didn't see Kitsurubami or Mamimi anymore. When I looked at the body that had been flung away from me I didn't see Mamimi's blue sweater and brown skirt or her raspberry hair; I didn't see Kitsurubami's black suit and dark hair; I saw an ugly red vest and some black tights, tan gloves, bright pink hair, and those all too familiar green eyes that quickly locked onto mine.

"So it was you," Amarao said while holding his face and leaning on a dresser over by the bed.

"Haruko..." She smiled and waved at me.

I had a lot more to say but our words were cut short when we heard a loud crash and everything shook again as the entire front portion of the building got ripped away by the fist of that giant Canti that now stood before us kneeling down and looking into the room at us trough the hole it just made.

"Naota!" screamed Ninamori. Like I could do anything about this.

The giant machine looked over the people in the room, stopped, then it spotted me and its screen lit up a bright red, fading back down and showing a twisted, glowing red symbol. It was the same mark that had appeared on Canti's screen in the past and one that I was now familiar with. The mark of Atomsk.

What was funny is that it didn't reach for me or make any attempt to kill me at all, even though it could. It turned its attention to Haruko, who was still sitting in that same spot she landed in. She immediately popped up from her spot and jumped into a defensive position; in her arms she held her signature weapon, a bass guitar but not the blue one that Kitsurubami had been smacking people with. She now held a glowing red guitar, and just looking at it made my head hurt.

/_\

For a moment there was silence; no one moved or said anything. I still sat weak, leaned up against the wall, Amarao leaned against the dresser, Ninamori on the bed, and the giant Canti unmoving, all of us watching Haruko as she leaned forward and took off running, straight at the giant. When she got a few feet away from him, she jumped up at his screen and disappeared into it in a red flash. The giant stood up.

"Okay," Amarao said. "What the hell just happened?"

"I don't know," I said as I stood.

"Naota, are you okay?" I looked over at Ninamori and nodded. "What's that on your forehead?" she asked, pointing, and I looked up like I could really see it from here.

I walked back over to Amarao and looked at him. "It's the symbol of Atomsk," he said.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"You're asking me?"

"Yes. You told me that they came to destroy us, not pull crap out of my head!"

"I don't get it either. This is all wrong," he said. He then walked over to where Kitsurubami dropped the blue guitar before she had pounced on me and picked it up. "And she was an imposter. What happened to the real Kitsurubami?"

"I got rid of her a long time ago," someone said. It was Haruko's voice coming from the giant.

"What?" I looked up just in time to see Haruko forcing her way out of the giant's screen, doing so in the same manner as I had a year ago.

Another explosion of red light took place. When the flash dulled to the point where we could all see again, all out attention was shifted to the faceless red spot in the sky. It was Haruko and she was glowing with the same light that covered me that day, the day when I burst free from Canti, when I was taken by Atomsk's power. Her eyes seemed as nothing but white spots and her form was slightly distorted but it was definitely her and this was definitely a problem.

"Hey, Ta-Kun," she said, looking down at me. "Your head's a little stubborn."

"What?"

"You and I can play later but right now I've got something to take care of." She looked back up to the sky and then disappeared in another flash of light. The giant Canti didn't waste any time either. It immediately stormed away, after Haruko I'm guessing. Meanwhile, Amarao, Ninamori, and I just stood there looking at each other in confusion. ~