Chapter IV

"When did you get back?"

That wasn't what I wanted to ask, inside of me, there was one question just dying to escape my lips. "Why did you come back?"

I rubbed my eyes and waited for an answer. Now that I got a good look at her I realized that aside from her clothes, she looked exactly as she had when she left; these years had been pretty damn good to her. The smoke from her cigar was making my throat dry, so I coughed. She must've gotten the hint because she immediately put it out; she still hadn't answered my question. I asked her again, "When did you get back?"

This time, however, she answered, "A couple of hours ago, why? Didn't 'cha miss me, Chief?" She stressed that "Chief" with a smile and I sighed. Of course I had missed her, she had been the only thing I had had going before and after Haruko left. I couldn't say that, though, it'd be kind of awkward. I may not have been long in this world but I knew that much. I answered, "Yeah, of course. What's the occasion?"

"Here on work-related stuff, y'know?"

"Ooh."

"Yeah, but I figured I'd pay ya a visit before I started. (Plus, I gotta take a few good pictures of this place.)" She added as an aside.

There was a silence that fell between us for a couple of seconds. I decided to break it by asking, "Where are you staying, anyhow?" She looked kind of embarrassed for a second and answered, "I kind of don't know. I ran out of my boss' office before he told me." She stuck out her tongue and conked herself on the head. I laughed. I couldn't let her stay on the streets, could I? I doubted my dad and grandpa would mind…if I didn't tell them right away.

"You could always stay here, y'know?"

This must've caught her by surprise because she just looked at me funny. She probably thought this wasn't like me and she was right. I wouldn't normally do this for anyone, and the last time a girl stayed over – not counting Haruko – it had been pretty uncomfortable.

Mamimi smiled and gave a big "O.K" sign to me.

"You can sleep on my bed; I'll take the couch, ok?"

She shook her head and said, "Nah, I'll sleep on the floor. I don't think I could bear to kick you on the coach, I'll just sleep on the floor, 'kay?" That settled that.

…

The next day I woke up and found Mamimi wasn't in the futon I had lent her. I quickly got up and dressed and headed downstairs. Sure enough, my dad was interrogating Mamimi, asking her question like, "What did you do with my son last night, huh?" or "Did you come back just for a little drilling from Nao?" The usual things a pervert of a father would normally ask a girl who stayed the night in his son's room. Mamimi just looked amused and was stifling back giggling.

"Hey, dad, what's for breakfast?"

I had to get the topic off of Mamimi sleeping in my room. My dad looked up to where I was and smirked, "Nao! Good morning! You had a good night's "sleep," I take it?" He was smiling a very twisted smile and it annoyed me. I went downstairs and grabbed Mamimi by the arm, "We're eating out, ok?" We ran out of the house and toward the nearest restaurant.

By some cruel twist of fate the first restaurant we found was "Café Bleu." I couldn't help but curse my horrible luck. This was the exact same place I had taken Mamimi before the gun-robot had come out of my head. I had tried to woo her – had even tried to kiss her, but nothing she just refused my advancements. After that incident I tended to avoid this place anyway I could, it brought back embarrassing memories. I hoped she didn't think I wanted a repeat of that incident. I looked at her; she had a sheepish grin on her face. "Um, want to go to the restaurant down the road?" I asked. She just grabbed my arm and dragged me into to the Café.

The inside of the place turned out to be a lot more dull than the flashy purple sign outside made it seem. It was just a simple red and blue color-scheme with a single big chandelier in the middle of the room, not very impressive if you ask me. We got a table at the far end of the room and the waiter handed us the menus. Mamimi was avoiding my gaze and she seemed to want me to notice she was doing so. It was unnerving, why did she drag me into this place and the suddenly ignore me?

"This place doesn't seem too bad, huh, Takkun?"

"N-no, the interior could be better, kind of boring."

She dropped the menu to the table and smiled, there were glints of water in her eyes. Now what?

"Brings back memories," she said, "doesn't it, T-takkun?"

She called me "Takkun". After all these years I finally hear someone use that nickname for me. I had told her not to call me that on that day years ago that I allowed myself to be eaten by Canti just so I could save her. It was funny, I was the one who was supposed to save her and yet she was calling out for my brother. That's when I made the connection, "Tasuku" – "Takkun"; I was just a replacement for my brother. That was all I had been to her and that's why I had ignored her. She hadn't left me – I had left her. I had left her! I laughed out loud causing everyone in the restaurant to look at me.

"Sure does," I finally said, calming down a bit. We finished our meal in almost total silence, except for when we wanted something from the waiter. I paid the bill – which had actually been less than I imagined – and we left. I decided that we needed to have a good talk and catch up so I led us to the bridge we used to hang out under.

When we finally reached that little spot near the river I sat down and made myself comfortable. Truthfully, I hadn't been to that spot in ages. Only once or twice since Mamimi had left and that was only because Eri had dragged me there. She had insisted I "make peace with my demons," whatever that meant. Anyways, now was not the time to be thinking of such things. I had to ask Mamimi what I had dragged us here to find out.

"Why did you call me Takkun? I'm not my brother…I told you never to call me that again, remember?"

Mamimi sat down beside me, her hands clutching her knees and said, "Mamimi never said that you were your brother, did she? I'll admit, you were, um…an outlet for me to take some frustrations out on, but you were never a replacement. Ever think that Takkun was just for short? Nao-ta-kun, Takkun," she stressed the "ta" in each word, "you see? It's just for short."

I chuckled. Was it true? Was it really just "for short" like she said? I didn't bother looking into it anymore.

The next couple of hours were sheer bliss, we caught up and she told me about what she had been up to in America. We had just passed the abandoned Medical Mechanica plant when I heard Mamimi say she needed to tell me something important…concerning my brother?

"I saw Tasuku-sempai a couple of days ago. He's got a family and a kid now, Takkun. You're an uncle, a-aren't you happy?" I could see tears forming in her eyes now. So, she had finally found out about my brother and the blonde girl. I hadn't hoped she wouldn't find out, at all. I remembered what had happened last time I mentioned my brother in America and his girlfriend. For her, finding out he gotten married to the girl would be…well, disastrous.

I didn't know what to do. She had her face in her lap and I could hear her crying. I couldn't bear to watch her crying. I went over to console her – I wasn't a kid anymore, this was the "normal" thing to do. I remembered Amarao's words, that crazy bastard.

I was walking towards her when I heard a loud buzzing emitting from the "abandoned" plant. Why was it buzzing now, after all these years? Then that smoke, that white smoke that covered all the cities' exits and told us we weren't allowed to leave. It spread out over the city, going into my lungs and causing my eyes to water. I closed my eyes and reached around for Mamimi. My head began to hurt.

"Naota, your head, there's something coming out of it!" I heard Mamimi scream. I could feel something pushing its way out of my skull. My head felt like it was being squeezed by invisible hands. They were trying to push something out of my head. Then, a pounding, a pounding…I felt light. I opened my eyes and saw something pulling its legs out of my forehead. My bandage fell to the ground in a graceful dance.

I looked up at the thing; it was a robot, no doubt about it. It looked like Canti, but it wasn't. This Canti-like robot was red, with green lines trailing its whole body, and on its screen was…the sign of the Pirate King! What was going on!

"There you are, Atomsk! I finally found ya…hey," a voice yelled, a high, scratchy voice that seemed oddly familiar, "where are you going, you bastard!" In a flash, the robot disappeared and there was only Haruko hovering on a guitar.

I went to where Mamimi was, the smoke still covering the city.

…

Everything's changing way too fast.