This the third, and my fav so far, part of the story. Let me know what you think by reviewing plz...
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Naota ran up to his room after crying and slammed his door.
'She made me cry.' Naota was thinking to himself, as he faced his door.
Just then, behind him, one of the Rickenbacker guitar strings were plucked, sending a music note floating to Naota's ear.
He quickly turned around, "Haruko--" But to no avail. Haruko was not there, but it's been a while since the guitar did that on it's own.
'She's messing with me...' He thought.
Flash of black and white Haruko. Her face saddened. "You're the one I saw first, Ta-kun..."
Why was that vision constantly playing in his mind? Was it because he'd thought of that moment so many times that it was embedded into his mind and he could no longer control his thoughts of it?
He looked at his mirror, which was right above the guitar. To his suprise, his expression was one of anger, not sadness.
If Haruko had been behind him just now, playing the guitar, what would he have said? He'd clearly started to say something before he'd realized it wasn't her, but what was it?
He then noticed that it was night, and his lights were not turned on. So he clicked one of them on and sat down, staring at the guitar as if waiting for something.
But nothing came.
Why am I staring at the guitar?' He thought, 'it's not like it's gonna move or anything...' He shrugged it of, and laid down in his bed, and drifted off to sleep.
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"Where am I?"
Naota had woken up to find that he was under the bridge he and Mamimi used to lay under. "Oh...Wait, what am I doing here? I don't even remember coming here..."
"Ta-kun!"
He turned around.
"Come here, I need to show you something." Haruko was there, sitting down next to the river!
So Naota complied. He walked over and sat down next to her. "What is it?" he asked, looked into the water, where she was looking. He also wondered why he wasn't happier to see her...
"Someone is drowning, Ta-kun. Are you going to save them?"
"What are you talking about? No one's--" But then Naota saw it, a person under the water that was once shallow. It was unbelievably deep now. And the person drowning was Mamimi! "Mamimi!" he called.
"Oh, it's that girl...Well, are you gonna go save her? Or are you gonna stay her and be with me while I have only today to be with you?" Naota looked at her. Did she really expect him to choose? "If you pick her, I might as well leave right now...what with all the help she'll need, we'll have no time to be together, Ta-kun."
Naota's expression changed durastically. It went from an emotion of confusion to worry. 'If I don't be with Haruko right now, I might never see her again...' He looked in the water. 'But if I choose to save Mamimi, maybe she'll be with me...'
"Hey!"
He turned around.
"You're not really going to save her, are you?" Ninamori! But why was she there? How did she know where Naota would be? "I mean...she is pretty dumb if she fell into the water like that. And what about our date, Naota?"
Their date? How could she be thinking about a date at a time like this? Mamimi was in trouble, and neither Haruko nor Ninamori cared! "Ninamori, I need help saving Mamimi! Could you go get some rope and--"
"So you'd rather save her than be with me?" Haruko's neko-face was made. "Gee, and I thought we'd spend a ton of time together...alone."
"We will, Haruko. But I need to help Mami--"
"Then forget our date!" It was Ninamori's turn to interrupt. "I'm not going if they're going to be there!"
Naota's head was spinning, and hurting. Suddenly a flash of white.
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Naota woke up in his room. He sat up and looked around.
No Ninamori, Mamimi, or Haruko. Then a sharp pain pulsated in his head.
"Augh!" He let out a cry of pain and cupped his head in his hands. "What a wierd dream...And my head really hurts...Dammit.."
"Naota...Are you planning on taking school today?" His father shouted up the stairs.
"No, tell the teacher I'm still sick." He rubbed the tv on his head. "What the hell is this thing anyway?" Of course, he knew it was a tv, but was it a part of something bigger?
"Naota-kun, you've been absent for almost three days now. Do you need a doctor?" This time his father's voice came from outside his door.
"No! I'm fine!" Naota yelled quickly, trying to get his father away from the door in case his head pounded and he let out a cry of pain again.
"Well if you're fine, you can go to school."
"No, I'm fine. But I'm...uh...recovering. You know, you're supposed to stay home couple days more for reccuperation after the sickness has left you." He tried to sound like he knew what he was saying.
"Whatever you say, Naota..." It didn't sound like Kamon believed his son for a second.
Naota sighed and stood up, stretching. Then he walked over to the mirror. He seriously needed a bath, and he knew that. So he quickly undressed and ran into the bathroom.
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While in the bathroom, Naota heard his father talking to one of his customers.
"...I'm sorry...sick right now...back later..." was all he could hear of his father, then a female voice.
"Oh...tell him...back tomorrow...stopped by..."
Next Kamon again, "Will do. Have a nice day!"
Naota wondered who it was, and finished up his bath quickly. It didn't sound like Ninamori. But it couldn't have been Haruko.
He ran into his room and dressed. He put on baggy green cargos, and his brother's old black baseball shirt. He was about to go downstairs and ask his father who was on the phone when he remembered that he still had the tv on his head.
Naota searched around the room for something to wear on his head. Anything. Ah. He picked up his brother's (also) old black cotton "Chaos" hat-beanie. He put it on over the tv. "This'll work. Too bad we can't wear hats in shool..." Then he ran downstairs.
"Hey dad. Who was here for me? I heard someone talking to you." He said, walking over to his father who was rolling dough for bread-making.
"Oh, just some girl. She had red hair pulled back into a spider-bun...and a hoody on with baggy black pants. I don't think I know her from anywhere, but she said she'd be back tomorrow to see if you were feeling any better.." He looked up, "My boy Naota-kun is growing up so fast..." he pretended to cry and wipe a tear away, smudging dough on his face.
Naota smirked. "Thanks, dad. Let me know when she comes back tomorrow." He slipped on his sneakers and started walking out the door. "I'll be back, I'm just stopping by the book store."
"I thought you were recupperating.." It was Kamon's turn to smirk now. "Well, it doesn't matter. Just stop by the supermarket and get me some more milk would you?"
"Sure." And Naota closed the door behind him.
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Naota couldn't blame the girl who stopped by for him for wearing a hoody. It was a pretty brisk day for early autumn. The trees blew in the wind, and leaves fell from them.
He stopped while walking down a road that doubled as a bridge.
This is where he and Mamimi would hang out, and he was getting dejavou from his dream. He looked over the edge, at the place where they'd sit in the grass.
There was a girl sitting there! She was sitting next to the river, with her feet in the water and her black baggy pants rolled up. She was wearing a black hoodie that read "Sub Zero" and had her red hair tied into a spider-bun, with strands of it in her face.
"Mamimi?" He called down, and she looked up.
"Ta-kun!" She yelled. But then she hesitated for a minute. "I mean...Naota-kun!" She motioned for him to come down there. "Come here, Naota-kun! Your dad said you were sick, but Mamimi didn't believe him, nope!"
Naota smiled, which he hasn't done in a while. Mamimi was back to visit! And she had changed... She was no longer the seventeen year old airheaded pyro delinquent that left. She was the new, improved, goth-type Mamimi. When he got down to the grass to see her, he noticed she had several peircings around the cartilege of her ears, and a black streak in her hair.
"Mamimi...You look really different.." he said, staring up at her.
"You've changed too, Ta-kun...I mean Naota-kun. You've got a cooler hat now." She smiled and patted him on the head. While she patted him, she felt the tv screen under the hat. "Hm? Naota-kun has a hard thing under his hat..."
"Oh, you felt, huh?" He looked embarrased. What would Mamimi say if he said he thought Haruko was coming back? She never actually hated Haruko, but she might get scared. "Well...do you promise you won't get scared or anything? Cuz I don't want you screaming while we're down here, someone might think you're getting raped or something..."
She laughed a little. "Naota-kun wants to share a secret with Mamimi? Okay then, I promise." She smiled brightly. Same old Mamimi.
"Okay then." He took off his hat, revealing the black tv screen.
Mamimi just stared blankly for a few seconds. She sucked in alot of air, and Naota was moving towards her to keep her from screaming, but before he could she yelled, "Yay! Naota-kun's head is just like I remember it! Always something coming out of it! This time it's a tv. Does your tv have cable, Ta-kun?"
Naota was confused. "I thought you'd be scared. Or worried."
"Worried? Why would I be worried? It's fun watching things come out of Naota-kun's head!" She crawled over to Naota's head and poked the screen. "Does it hurt when I poke it?"
"No. I can't even feel it. The only thing I can feel is when it gets bigger, my head hurts..." Now if he were any other kid his age, he'd probably start laughing because of how wrong that sounded. But not Naota, he was mature. Mamimi was the one who started laughing as Naota replaced his hat.
"Naota-kun said something bad and didn't even realize it!" She laughed a little more then got serious again. "Does this mean Haru-san is still here?"
"No, she's not here anymore. She left. You saw her." He stood up, his back facing her. "Well, I'd better be going. Will you be by my house tomorrow to hang out with me again? Or...y'know..you don't really have to." He blushed.
Mamimi could see he was embarassed, and she smiled. "Yes. Yes Mamimi will be over Naota-kun's place tomorrow to see him again, because she misses her Ta-kun. Her Naota-kun."
Even though his back was towards her, she could still sense it. And her senses were always right. He was smiling.
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On his way home, Naota remembered what he wanted to pick up from the store. Bandages.
If he had to go to school tomorrow in order to hang out with Mamimi afterwards, he had to at least try to cover up the TV with bandages and make it look like an accident. He stopped at the nearest conveniance store he could find and bought them.
Again he remembered something. He had to pick up milk at the store for his father. By that time it was later because there was only one convenience store in Mabase and it was a fair distance from where he started at the bridge. And since the grocery store was on the completely opposite part of town, it would take him even longer.
He sighed. "Annoying..." Then he thought to himself, 'It's annoying how my dad always asks me to get stuff that would have taken a shorter time to buy if he went himeself, and it's annoying that the convenience store is so far away..."and it's annoying that he has to waste his money on bandages when I shouldn't even have to buy them at all because I shouldn't have a tv growing out of my head!" He'd said that last part alloud and hadn't noticed until he looked around and saw everyone on the street staring at him.
He looked around and continued home from the grocery store.
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Naota returned home and plopped the milk on the table, then walked calmly up to his room while holding the bandages. He was exausted. He needed sleep.
Besides, he had school tomorrow. And afterwards he and Mamimi had catching up to do. He laid down on his bed. 'What a day...' he'd thought to himself, then drifted off to sleep.
END THEME
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Yeah this time I tried to make it seem more FLCL-ish... cuz for some reason I'm having trouble keeping Naota-kun IC... And I added an end theme. Yeah, it's the same "Ride On Shooting Star", by The Pillows. I thought it'd be cool to add that to the end part of it, cuz I'm corny like that. Oh well, R&R plz.
Could you tell I can't wait to write the next chapter? XDD
