Naota struggled to say words. "Ha-Ha-Haruko..."

"Yo." On the previous two encounters like this, was usually followed by shouting and questioning. But this time was different. There was no talking of Fury Kuri, or mysterious bumps on Naota's head, or the whereabouts of where Haruko was. This time, it was quiet.

"Takkun?" Haruko slipped some bread into her mouth. Through her muffled voice, she asked, "Don't you want me back? You do love me, don't you?"

The father, Nandaba Kamon, shouted out, "Of course he wants you back. Naota here has been moping around ever sinceLOVE HER? NAOTA LOVES HARUKO?"

Haruko just gave a smile. "Well, he did confess his love for me on the day of my departure, Monny"

"HE-HE-HE CONFESSED?" Kamon's face was shining a bright red of rage. "NAOTA! HOW COULDEh? Where did he go?" Where Naota was previously stand was now nothing. Kamon looked around the room. "And Haruko? THEY CAN'T BE DOING MORE THINGS BEHIND MY BACK!" The man ran upstairs towards Naota's room.

Again, in his room, Naota hid under his covers, hoping that this was all a dream, for he knew that Haruko's return wouldn't be for years, even millenia. He eventually fell asleep after a few moments. Monny bursted through the doors and saw a giant lump under the covers. His face now turned blue as he saw the lump shift slightly, Naota turning to face the other direction in his sleep. "NAOTA!" The father ripped the covers apart, only to find Naota alone, sleeping. And not fooling around with Haruko. "Where's Haruko? Haruko? Haruko?" Disappointed that he found nothing, he dropped the blanket on Naota's face and left the room.

Haruko hid outside the room on the rooftop. "He changed..." Haruko started to pluck random notes on her guitar. Meanwhile, just a few blocks away, a boy, Masamune Masashi, in his old truck could make out the sound of a guitar nearby. "You hear that?"

A second boy in the passenger's seat coud also hear the distant plucking. "Yeah. Do you think it's the Vespa woman?"

"You still into that fairy tale, Manabe?"

"Well, at least I don't have big lips that look like they were stung by wasps! And can't you call me by my first name, Gaku! Gaku! It's not that hard to say!"

"At least I don't have glasses!" Gaku gave a loud gasp. At the back of the truck, Eri broke into the conversation. "Shut up. The plucking sounds familiar..."

Masashi questioned the girl. "How do you know? You never heard it before."

"I did. It's not far from where I usually hang around." Suddenly, the old truck gave out a cranking noise and started to eject smoke out of the engine.

Masashi shouted out, "My truck!" An object appeared before the boy, a machine. Eri gave a small gasp. "I think it's one of those medical mechanica things..."

At the rooftop, the metal bracelet that Haruko bore on her left wrist started to ring. "Takkun!" Haruko swung into Naota's room, only to find the bed empty. "What about" A crash was heard throughout the streets of Mabase, followed by the bang of a guitar that Haruko used to make. "Canti!" Haruko raced out of the room, breaking the window as she jumped outside. And somehow changed her outfit.

A red Canti had just pulled a guitar out of its screen and smashed the little truck into a disfigured chunk of metal. The pirate lords' sign appeared on its' screen in red. Gaku barely made it out of the truck. "It's that robot that Naota controls! Why is it attacking me?"

Eri gave a disgusted look to the boy. "It's not just after you. It's after all of us."

Masashi yelled out, "Run!"

Without hesitation, all three kids ran for shelter, just before Haruko arrived. "I thought I broke your head you stupid machine!" Haruko entered the scene in a bright tie-dye outfit and a hat shaped like a toucan, ready to strike Canti at any moment. She swung her blue guitar towards the head, right when the medical mechanica machine turned blue. Haruko struggled to divert her bat into another direction, but she had put so much force into that swing and ended up denting Canti's head. Canti fell down and scraped his screen in the process, but Naota didn't come out. "Takkun? Canti?" Canti merely stood up with a question mark on its scratched up screen. Haruko asked, "Where is the boy? You should have pushed him out by now!"

"I'm right here..." The voice came from behind Haruko. "What is up with the rainbow pants?"

The alien blushed slightly, hitting herself in her imagination that she questioned the whereabouts of the boy. "Where were you? ... And how come you don't smell as bad as before?"

Naota just countered the alien's remark with a smile, which was then buried into the chest of the alien as he cried. "Where did you go?"

"Deja vu..."

"Huh?"

"Deja vu... You cried on me a few days ago... and asked me the same question..." Haruko raised the guitar up as she spoke the words, unnoticed by the boy.

"I did? But I" Bang. You could still hear the vibration of the guitar as Naota was knocked out instantly after contact.

"I still need more of whatever you got inside that head of yours..."

I cried when I saw her, as if we were long lost friends from years before. I didn't know why I cried now instead of when I saw her earlier... I just wanted her back... But what was strange was that Canti didn't swallow me... The question was, why did he turn into a red machine, and how? I wanna whack at him now... Maybe one at Haruko too... She had to hit me again...