It's all coming to a close now. There's only two ch's left and this happens to be one of them. Sorry if it's not my best work. I was in a rush to finish so I put this together in about a half hour. Um....yeah. Thx again to QS, such a nice young lady and thx to the readers. Enjoy! =================================

Which is more shocking: the fact that Mamimi and Kitsurubami were imposters or that Haruko is back? For Amarao, I'm sure it's that his right-hand woman has been long gone. When Haruko said that she'd gotten rid of the real Kitsurubami, Amarao's expression alone told the whole story of how he felt. As for me, it's that Haruko is back.

Right now I'm not at all mad that she impersonated Mamimi and seduced me; I'm not at all mad that she impersonated Kitsurubami and stole from me or that she clocked me with that guitar and put me though all that pain. It hurt, but any anger that may have been there immediately disappeared when I saw Haruko's face. The trembling in my body and the pain in my head—it all went away when I saw her. All the confusion about seeing Kitsurubami act like that and knowing that the Mamimi that lived with me up until now was a fake, none of that seemed to matter. In my mind now there was only Haruko, I couldn't stop staring at her and even now while she's gone, off doing who knows what, I can't take my mind off of her.

"Naota. Naaoota!"

"Hm. What?"

"You daydreaming or what?" Amarao said. "You've been staring at that wall for that past five minutes now."

"Oh." I didn't realize I was doing that. "I was just thinking about something, that's all."

"About that girl, Harkro, right?"

"It's Haruko."

"Whatever."

"So what are we going to do?" I asked.

"Just like I told you before," Amarao said. "All she wants is Atomsk's power. She doesn't care about you or this town. We're practically finished."

"Well, she has it right?" Amarao and I both turned back to the bed where Ninamori was. Up until this point she had barely said anything at all. I smiled a bit, relieved that she was okay. "She should leave us alone right?"

"Yeah," I agreed.

"Well, theoretically that sounds about right, but I don't think she's going to leave us alone just yet."

"Why not?" I asked. Amarao didn't say a word; he just poked me on the head and walked off toward Ninamori. I hesitated for a second but followed.

/_\

Amarao convinced Ninamori to tell us what happened last night. Like I didn't know already. She said that she left from my house a little upset and just got angrier on her way home. When she came home she got a speech from the gate-watch and then another from each of her parents when she went inside for coming home so late. She refused to tell them where she had been, so then her father went on this trip that she was probably out messing with some boys. Ninamori said that he was probably just joking, but her mother took it to heart. They got into an argument and Ninamori was forced to listen to it until she ran off to her room. She said she sat there in bed all night staring out the window because she couldn't sleep.

She said that around three this morning it started to happen. She got this really bad headache that wouldn't go away no matter how much aspirin she took. Going outside for some air didn't help it either. "That just made it worse," Ninamori said. When she went back inside she collapsed in pain and blanked out. When she awoke later, we were there.

"That's a nice story," I said sarcastically. That got a little smile out of her.

"What happened at Naota's house that upset you so much?" Amarao asked. In fear that Ninamori would say something I didn't want her to, I jumped over to her and cupped my hand over her mouth. She didn't struggle at all, just stared at me strangely.

We stood like that for a few moments. I didn't plan to let go until Ninamori figured out what I was doing it for, but I ended up moving away earlier than planned when we heard a loud crashing sound and felt a strong tremor under us. What did it mean? Haruko was out there doing something.

"Which brings us back to this," Amarao said.

"What do we do?" I asked.

Amarao walked over to the window and looked out. "I've got a plan," he said confidently. "But we'll have to go back to your house first."

"Mine?" I said as I pointed to myself. "Why mine?"

"You'll see," he said as he continued to look out the window.

So we headed back to my place; Amarao, Ninamori, and I all packed into Amarao's little car and went.

On the way down to the car, I asked Amarao what his plan was, although I said it in a more rude way and for that I got a guitar thrown at me. It was the bass guitar that Kitsurubami attacked us with, the one that Haruko left behind, the one that Amarao picked up and held on to, and the one that hit me in the gut when Amarao threw it at me. I had completely forgotten that he had this thing and I felt a little strange holding it now.

The ride back was quicker and more silent than the one going to Ninamori's. I'd asked Amarao once more about his plan once we were all in the car, but he seemed to ignore me so I just let it go for now. Ninamori didn't say anything either, I guess because she didn't have too much to say. No more than ten minutes later we were back in front of my house. Amarao ordered me out first; he told me to check and see if Kamon was home. I'm sad to say that I had forgotten all about him. So I turned to do what Amarao asked me to do.

"We're all depending on you," Amarao said out the window. Like so many other times recently, I was confused, and I became even more confused when he threw the guitar out the window at me and again hit me in the gut. I didn't even get to speak again before he pulled off in the car, too fast for me to bother trying to chase. Was this his plan? If it was, it wasn't a very good one.

I was still confused five minutes later when I finally decided to go inside. I picked the bass guitar up from the ground and brought it in with me. I planned to just throw it back into the closet where it belonged, but I stopped in the kitchen to pick up something to drink before I went upstairs. I should have known something was up when I first got out of the car and my head began to feel hotter and hotter as I walked into the house, and even more as I began my way up the stairs.

But it was strange how quickly that heat subsided when I walked into my room and saw her sitting up on the top bunk, dangling her feet over the edge and looking down at the floor. She didn't spot me until I dropped my cup and the guitar on my shoe and shouted when my foot hurt. When I returned my gaze to her I was again greeted by Haruko's haunting green eyes and her completely lost gaze. No more than a second after that, she pounced on me from the bed.

/_\

I can't even accurately explain how scared I was when I saw her jump at me, her expression changing from that lost gaze to a sinister one. My heart beat so hard then that I thought it was going to break through my ribs and fly out of my chest. I was even more scared when she landed on me and pinned me down to the floor. I didn't know what to do but I couldn't move to do anything even if I did. I was trembling, my pulse was going out of control, and my eyes were wide open for a moment. That all stopped when she leaned over and licked me across the face. My eyes squinted up quickly and I stopped shaking, but my heart didn't beat any slower. I wasn't scared anymore, just confused again.

"Aak!" I screamed. "That's disgusting!" She smiled at me and let her tongue hang out like she was a dog.

"I was waitin' for ya, Ta-Kun. You come to play?"

"Um, no?"

"Aw, you're no fun," she said as she jumped off of me and went back up to the top bunk. I stood from the floor and walked towards her.

I didn't speak at first, I just looked over her. The first thing I noticed was that she wasn't glowing red anymore. She still had that red guitar at her side but she was no longer powered up by it. I guess that's a good thing.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Where are your friends?" she said hesitantly, purposely avoiding my question.

"They're not here..."

She hopped down from the top bunk and stood right in front of me. "Good. Then we can play without them getting in the way."

"What are you doing here?" I said again but this time in a lower tone.

"I came to see you, Ta-Kun. We got something to do."

"No. I mean what are you doing here, period? Why are you after Atomsk? Why's all this happening to me?" I didn't really expect her to answer any of that because I hadn't really planned on asking any of it, but it just came out anyway. Amarao made me think of it and if I had the opportunity to find out, I'd take it.

Haruko just stared at me for a minute with this stupid look on her face without speaking, grinning with one eye half closed and her arms crossed. "Okay Ta-Kun," she said finally. "If you really want to know..." She walked a bit closer to me and put her hand on my forehead. "But we're going to do this the easy way." There was a small flash of red light that came from her hand and a bolt of pain that ran through my head. Haruko closed her eyes, I closed mine, and I knew it all.

/_\

Haruko is a lot older than she looks. Maybe twenty-five years ago Haruko experienced what we would have experienced: the flattening of her planet.

Twenty-five years ago MM arrived on her world and a year later they flattened it, sucking it dry just like Amarao said they did. There were very few who escaped from all that and Haruko was one of the lucky ones. With nowhere to go, she followed MM around and watched them drain out dozens of other planets just like they did to hers. Just a few years after that she found herself following them here.

By the time Haruko landed on earth she'd known all about MM, representatives from a dying planet that can't live on its own, so they go around stealing what they need to keep their world running. Along the way, they captured a being of incredible power. They called it Atomsk; unfortunately for them, Atomsk escaped and apparently came here. MM and Haruko followed.

Haruko figured that if she was able to take Atomsk's power for herself, she would also be able to destroy MM but she didn't really know how. That's when she learned all about the N-O field and how it was used. Her first attempt to use it to pull out Atomsk failed. Her subject was a little boy, younger than me with reddish-brown hair and hazel eyes and thick eyebrows. His head worked just right but instead of pulling out power she pulled out a blue bass guitar. After that, his head stopped working so she just kept the guitar and left.

Between then and the time she found me, I had been born, MM had built the Iron Fist plant, and people just seemed to forget how they came or just didn't care where they came from. Typical of people from around here. And they would have gotten rid of us a long time ago, but they'd rather have gotten Atomsk back first. They saw us as no threat of stopping them from doing so. Then Haruko found me...

/_\

When I opened my eyes again, I was lying on the floor at Haruko's feet. I looked up at her and she was just standing there, smiling at me.

"Have any interesting dreams?" she said.

I stood up slowly and looked at her. "What did you just do?"

"I did what you asked me to do. I told you my story."

"I didn't ask for that."

"Yeah you did."

"Well, if that's what happened," I said, "then you're just some kind of stupid alien that's out for revenge." She just giggled at me.

"You're so gullible," she said, still giggling.

"So, that's not what happened?" I asked.

"Well," she said as she reached back onto the top bunk and pulled down her red guitar. "Haven't you ever heard what they say, Ta-Kun? Ask a silly question, you get a silly answer." She laughed a bit more.

"So, what did happen, then?" She shook her head at me and stepped back.

"That doesn't matter right now," she said. "It's time for us to have a little fun."

"Fun?" She nodded.

"Yeah, I didn't get it all last time," she said as she began to stroke her guitar. "The mark is still on your head."

I slapped my hand over my forehead after I realized what she was talking about. "So..." She smiled.

"Well, I can't just have half of it," she said. "So break off the rest of that eyebrow thingie and we can get to work."

"Work?" I wish everything didn't have to be so confusing all the time.

"The only way for me to get it out of you this time is by beating it out of you, but if this is going to be that last time we see each other Ta-Kun, I want it to be fun." I didn't want this to be the last time I saw Haruko, but it seemed that she didn't feel the same way.

What I thought was stupid though is that she told me to just pull the piece off. I've found out on several occasions already that this thing isn't just going to come off by me tugging at it—but it did. I barely touched it and it fell off.

From there it was just a matter of time. I turned around and picked up Haruko's blue guitar that lay on the ground behind me and I held it in my arms. The ground began to shake and everything became bathed in a light that seemed to come from nowhere. I couldn't see anything but I could hear Haruko laughing in the background.

It stayed bright like that for a while. During that time I felt like I had passed out because everything turned black and I couldn't see or hear anything, but when I opened my eyes I didn't see that light anymore, just Haruko standing there, glowing red in Atomsk's power and myself doing the same. ~