Prologue
BGM: FLCL – Sad Sad Kiddie
"Play ball!" I heard Hyuga call out, turning my gaze to Yuri.
He was scribbling on a photograph of himself, handing them out to excited children. It was constantly like that. Everyone paid attention to him, thought he was fabulous, and me? They excluded me because I was the freak.
Yuri shook his deep brown hair, before cupping his cap over his head. He whistled and waved at me, "May the best team win, right Joshua?" I know I'm not supposed to feel this way, but I can't help but feel moderately resentful, especially from the way Florina looked at him.
My gloved hand tightened the bat.
Episode Eight: Love for Baseball
"Autumn-sama, don't play so close to the water, you'll drown." Florina whispered, playfully rubbing the meowing cat behind its furry ears. She sprawled out upon the grass, under the bridge as always, her legs bent and black dress wrinkled, clumsily showing her underwear. "Baka."
"Urm…" A voice squeaked timidly out of the young girl's view, so she lifted her head, shifting her position. It was Tikal; she brushed her peach locks from her face, smiling comfortingly. "Hello, I couldn't help but notice that you follow Aria Ritsuki around."
"……" The angel pushed herself up, her red hair tumbling along. "Haaaaiii." Her voice sang, as the Australasian monotreme continued to smile.
Tikal offered a hand towards the girl, "I'd like to have a talk with him. Could you please tell the boy that I'll be by his house around noon?"
Florina blinked at the watery being behind the speaker, then took the animal's hand, a small card. "T…ti…Tikal." Her eyes skimmed quietly, then looked up at the other's visage. "Tika-san!" She giggled, hopping to her feet and threw her arms around the surprised echidna's body.
"Oh…oh my." She laughed. "It seems I've made a new friend Chaos."
BGM: FLCL - Stalker (Instr.)
A clock ticked loudly, the only sound in the lad's room other than the newly bought T.V., paid by Alyssa's family. A reporter represented the daily broadcast on the static screen, "We have just received a video footage of Sonic's victory over the Metal Overlord!"
Aria slumped his head backwards, staring at the ceiling as the reporter continued to ramble. His mood had dropped to a low depression, after seeing Father Kano taken so ill and has been doing nothing but lying around. He felt there really wasn't any purpose, to the point where the pistol, his father kept, peeking through the glass cupboard was starting to look like a good idea. "Flonne, hurry home…"
"Bored?"
Pulling his head back up lazily, Aria peered into the darkness a few feet in front of him. "Hey dad. No just waiting for Flonne to come back."
A smile slipped across the his father's face, adding a soft chuckle, "She's not coming back, son. A young echidna came to me, offering to care for her."
"What?"
Hyuga stared at the ground, allowing his greasy bangs to hang over his face. "It seems that they met up earlier, started talking, and well…got kind of close."
Silence.
The older man glanced back up at Aria, black eyes studying. "Hold on." He stepped forward, reached out to take his son's hand. "It's better for all of us now. You've been distracted from your schoolwork and that filth will no longer pollute your brain."
"Better for YOU maybe!" Aria screamed, slapping the hand away, "I want her back! Give her back!" Throwing himself to the ground, he started to hit the ground, sobbing just like a spoiled newborn. "Flonne…come…home!"
Hyuga drew in a breath. "Look at what she's reduced you to. There's a lot more in life than clinging onto a sluttish, needy, girl. Listen to me!"
"A-kun?" Her voice was like sweet air, he could almost smell it.
"Flonne…you came back."
"Why?" She heard a growl.
She turned to face Hyuga, three times her height, scowling at her. His hand held the kid's baseball bat. And Aria knew exactly what the man was planning, "Flonne! Run away!"
The child toppled over, before the bat could connect with her skull. Autumn screeched, leaping into the attacker's face, scarring it, but was quickly knocked aside, out the window, and into the streets."Autumn-sama!" Florina cried.
Aria plucked himself back up, swinging his backpack into the attacker's face. He yelled in shock by the counterattack, slamming the wooden bat at the boy's feet, tearing him off the floor.
The dazed youngster felt a sharp jab in his ribs, then pain in his back as he smashed into his bookshelf.
"Worthless! This is all your fault!" Hyuga turned back to his victim. "If you fell then…you ruined our lives!"
Florina shook her red head, as a tight hand scooped her by the collar.
"NOO!" Before Hyuga could get a chance to assault, Aria yanked the first thing next to him. HIS BIBLE. And smashed it over his father's forehead. He blinked, as the blood covered the Holy book, surprised, mind-clouding over-like his eyes.
"Oh my god!" Hyuga bellowed, swinging the bat, throwing Florina back to the carpet.
The world flashed before Aria, then images, memories of Florina's beatings. Causing him to stand again, to sway, before driving the Bible into the side of Hyuga's head, and you could say he even went mad, insane with anger, for he leapt onto the fallen body, and brought the book into his father's head again and again, until his arms grew too tired to lift the book.
Breathing heavily, he tilted his head weakly, to look at the horror-stricken face of his sister. "Flonne……"
Tikal walked up the stairs towards Aria's room, the door had been left opened after all. Strange. After approaching the entryway, she dropped the gift she'd bought instantly. Blood…blood everywhere.
Then a small figure, shivering in the corner and Joshua holding a baseball bat with the stained Bible in the other arm. His eyes darkened blue, stared indifferently at the grisly clump in the middle of the living room.
"Florina?" Stuttering, Tikal rushed over, quickly shaking the fragile frame. "What happened here! Are you hurt?"
Aria's voice echoed in Florina's mind, his screaming, after the gory murder.
"Noo!" She cried in denial.
"Florina!" The animal's voice shook her back.
The angel took one glance at the echidna and threw her arms around her, sobbing deeply into the tribal style clothing. Her head shook back and forth, "A-a-a-A-kun! Lu-lu…Lucifer-san!"
"It's okay. Calm down. Everything's going to be okay now…I'm taking you out of this place." She smiled weakly, then dropped as she looked up at Joshua who gazed straight at Chaos, then to the clump. That body...? "What?"
"A-a-a-A-kun! Ki-k-killed someone!" She continued to gargle like a baby.
"Oh God…Florina……"
"Papa-sempai!" Florina cried randomly.
When I needed a shoulder to cry on
You dried all my tears
When I wanted someone to rely on
That's when you came near
And when it comes to loving me
You're the best of all
You're always in the right place at the right time
To catch me when I fall
You've got perfect timing
You're not a minute too soon
Not a moment too late
You've got perfect timing
I can see when you move
I can feel when you wait
You hold tomorrow in the palm of your hand
Everything runs by your master plan
You've got perfect timing
When I had to have someone to count on
You were second to none
When I needed a friend that would hold on
You were the only one
And when it comes to loving me
You're the best of all
You're always in the right place at the right time
To catch me when I fall
You've got perfect timing
You're not a minute too soon
Not a moment too late
You've got perfect timing
I can see when you move
I can feel when you wait
You hold tomorrow in the palm of your hand
Everything runs by your master plan
You've got perfect timing