I have found out the problem to my weekly updating schedule…The chapters are twelve pages long on paper and my handwriting is horrible! So I have to type up twelve pages of story while deciphering my own handwriting…I mean I DO have a life…sort of…kinda…in a way…Anyways! As long as I get the amount of reviews each week as I'm currently getting, I'm going to acknowledge everyone's review! Just because I can and they don't take up THAT much room! Though I dream of the day when writing replies to my reviewers will take up like five pages on the computer…
fooly cooly: Everyone is so nice…calling my chapters perfect; calling my story the best…you're all great!
Jazze Al-Bhed-Girl: Great! The more readers the more fame and fortune for me! …oh wait…this doesn't get me any fortune…I might get fame though!
CerdicOfWessex: Thanks! This is the fourth time they're showing the FLCL series but it never gets old!
Disclaimer: Once upon a time there was a girl who wished she owned FLCL. Too bad she was just one of millions of others of girls who wanted it too. Short version: I don't own!
XxXThe birds were chirping, the sun was shining, there wasn't a cloud in the sky and there was no school today because it was the weekend! All of these were very good reasons for WHY Ato was annoyed at being woken up at eight in the morning by a loud motor being revved up repeatedly outside his window. Leaning halfway out of his bedroom window, his eye twitched slightly at the pink haired, hunched over form tinkering with the yellow Vespa.
"Haruko…Haruko? Hey! Haruko!"
Receiving no response whatsoever he grabbed a baseball cap, threw on some more appropriate clothes than the white shirt and shorts he was wearing, and vaulted out the window, grabbing onto the drain pipe so he would fall and break his neck. Dropping firmly on his feet he glanced at the Vespa, noting Haruko hadn't even noticed him leaping out a window.
"Crazy alien lady…"
"Yesss?"
Was the sickeningly sweet reply to his muttered words that seemed to flow naturally from his mouth.
Was she…?
Could she actually be…?
Was Haruko…really…
His train of thoughts were shoved aside as he focused more on the anger at being woken up so early.
"WHY are you messing with that stupid bike so early! People are trying to sleep you know!"
Haruko shrugged halfheartedly and turned back to the Vespa, absentmindedly throwing an abnormal part from the bike over her shoulder at him that he barely dodged.
"Not my fault people sleep too much…"
Unable to find a suitable response to that, Ato settled for glaring and walking off down the street towards his favorite hangout. The bridge was where he was heading but he paused at the rundown house his mother always avoided like the plague. He'd always wanted to go in there…and what was stopping him anyway? Mom was asleep and Haruko was being weird…as usual. Casting a cautious glance over his shoulder he pulled open the old door and walked inside.
XxXAto stepped carefully over boxes of old magazines and packages of bread far past the expiration dates. He glanced at an old, broken t.v. in what appeared to be the living room and suspiciously eyes a pack of Little Prince Curry Brand sitting on a table in the dining room. Mom never made curry much but he knew that he probably wouldn't like it. He just didn't like spicy stuff. Squeezing past the half open door he began up the stairs, his heart thundering in his chest as he climbed. There, was something up there, he knew it.
Pushing open the door, his eyes swept over a desk, a bunk bed in the corner of the room, a magazine pinned to the wall…and settled on an empty space in one corner of the room. Frowning at the weird feeling of disappointment he took his blue guitar from his back and placed it in the empty space, leaning back and studying it for a moment. For some reason, he felt like it belonged there, it just…fit. Picking it back up his eyes once again strayed to the magazine on the wall. Creeping closer he saw it was opened to a picture of a shadowy figure holding what looked vaguely like a guitar. There were other pictures tacked to the wall as well though. Most of them were of weird looking guitars, like Haruko's, or high tech machinery he didn't recognize.
But the others…he blinked, rubbing his eyes and leaning closer. Two MISSING posters, one of that robot thing, Canti was what Mom had called it? And the other…looked exactly like Haruko. Staring blankly at the girl looking, annoyed, at the picture taker his eyes wandered to the Last Seen date. If possibly, he was even more blown away, and was somewhat surprised he hadn't had a heart attack or something by now. The date was from over twenty years ago…that couldn't be Haruko…shaking his head fiercely he paid more attention to the other pictures. Younger Mom, younger mom, a hat…? And the teenage version of, his mother giving the peace sign to the camera, her arm slung around the shoulders of a kid with brilliant blue eyes and a mess of black hair.
The kid looked exactly like him. If it weren't for Mom in it, he would've thought it was one of his old pictures. Questions raced through his mind like a tornado, emotions bubbling to the surface only to be replaced by new ones before they could be identified. Vaguely, he felt something like a thousand pins being stuck into his head but the pain was somewhat by the emotions surging through his blood. With one hand clasping his forehead, the other gripping the guitar with such intensity that his knuckles were white, he staggered down the stairs and out of the house, only to come face to face with the mysterious Vespa lady, Haruko herself.
"What were you doing in there Tao-kun? Going into abandoned houses is dangerous you know. Especially THAT house."
If Ato had been paying more attention he would have seen the almost longing look Haruko gave the poor house. But no. HE was too busy dealing with a headache, his chaotic emotions, and his almost heart attack from Haruko leaping out of nowhere to pay too much attention to the girl in front of him.
"You're not my mom…and I AM fifteen!"
Yeah, that was his excuse for going into an old abandoned house. Obviously, he knew the excuse was just as bad because he kept his gaze firmly on the ground. Haruko, on the other hand, noticed exactly how Ato was obviously not trying to look at her. She had better noticing skills than a fifteen year old.
"What did you see in there Tao-kun?"
Her tone was light, carefree as always but at his lack of response a low, dangerous growl rumbled in the back of her throat. He'd seen something…and she had to find out what it was or else it might ruin her entire operation.
"Tao-kun…"
Losing patience with the boy, her hand lashed out, knocking away the cap he wore and clasping onto his shoulder in a vice-like grip, her nails tearing into the skin below the shirt he wore.
"TELL ME NAOTA!"
Something inside the poor kid began to snap at that point, like a sharp knife continually wearing away at a thin string, and it had almost cut through. He jerked out of Haruko's grasp, giving the crazed woman one last terrified look, blue eyes gleaming with pure primal fear, he ran, shoes thudding quickly against the pavement as he went to the only place he could think of where he would be safe.
XxXHe sat beneath the bridge, the cool grass brushing dewdrops against his jeans as he shivered. Partly from the fear of Haruko, partly because even now his vision swam before his eyes, a spark of almost madness locked within the blue depths. His guitar lay by his side, a pen held between his fingers as he drew something on the back of an old ad that had been taped to one of the bridge supports. Leaning back, he studied his work with a lopsided smile, fingers brushing lightly against the ink.
A complicated symbol lay on the paper, images of a flaming red energy and a girl who he thought had loved him accompanying the figure. Ato didn't really try to make sense of what was happening to him, he just knew that when the pins began to feel white-hot and a burning sensation spread throughout his head, odd memories of a life that was no quite his began to surface from the murky depths of his brain. An almost unicorn-like horn sprouted from his head, pushing even farther outwards with each stream of memories that swept through his mind.
"A…Ato?"
He sun around at the stuttering voice, blinking at the girl with long, loose purple hair.
"Nina..."
The sound of his own voice, almost cracking with that one word, snapped him out of the crazed mind he was in. Remembering suddenly that there was a giant horn on his head he groped about blindly for something to cover it with, but his searching fingers found only the handle of his guitar.
Nina took a closer look at the boy who looked like Ato, and sounded like Ato, but when she looked into his eyes, she realized easily. This boy was NOT Ato. Her accusations sprung from her lips quickly, gaining strength as she continued until she was yelling by the end.
"You're not…You're not him…who…what are you? What have you done with Ato? Where is Ato?"
And then…it was gone. The string had disappeared, shredded to bits, and the horn on his head pushed forwards and began to take color and a definite shape as it emerged from Ato's head. First, the horn grew and curved, turning brown with a thick metal tip at the end. Quickly, the rest of the body began to emerge. Six legs, a long thin body, and finally a square head with four piercing red eyes and a large mouth that clicked with dozens of rows of dagger sharp teeth.
XxXA few miles away a certain pink haired girl with cat eyes was roaming Naota's home when her metal bracelet piece began to tremble and then clatter violently against her wristband. Haruko dropped the pictures of the machinery she knew all too well and, vaulting out the window with a sharp whistle, landed squarely on the seat of her Vespa.
"It's time…"
Grinning from ear to ear she revved up the engine and began speeding towards the bridge, where a thick cloud of sickly green smoke was coming from.
Meanwhile, within that cloud of sickly green smoke, Ato, poor kid, was running for his life from a robotic scorpion type…thing. Pulling Nina along as well, because he realized if he let her go, she would probably be crushed in three seconds flat. Every so often he would swipe at the thing with his guitar, having already knocked out one of its blood red eyes and completely smashed through it tail, though not before he had gotten an ugly gash on his arm that was now dripping a black liquid that he suspected was poison.
Following his instincts, he leaped to the side suddenly, pulling Nina as well just as a huge leg smashed into the spot they just were. Gulping and clutching his wound with one hand, he struck the scorpion with the guitar in his other hand, sighing in momentary relief as it struck on of the legs, crashing through the metal and, amazingly, not breaking the guitar either.
The metal scorpion, in revenge, swiped what was left of its tail at Ato. Blue eyes widened at the thick rod of metal flying towards him and Ato was still regaining his balance from the hit he had just delivered. Pulling Nina behind him he closed his eyes tightly, bracing himself for the bone crushing blow he knew was coming...Any second now. It really was going to come…really.
Opening one eye hesitantly, both eyes snapped open at the sight before him.
"H-Haruko?"
For there she stood, mere inches in front of him, double guitar held in both hands as she was locked in a stalemate with the metallic scorpion. She glanced over her shoulder at him…and grinned.
"What's up Ato?"
She turned back to the scorpion as it pushed forwards and Ato, having a sudden flash of memory, ran forwards and, squeezing his eyes tightly shut and praying that this would work, swung with all his remaining strength at the scorpions face. The blue guitar slammed into the scorpions head, crushing the three remaining crimson red eyes that were left and crunching through the scorpions metal head, crushing the metal and finally sending the thing spiraling into the air and landing with a titanic splash in the river, sending a tidal wave of water splashing over the river banks.
Haruko had stumbled backwards from the sudden lack of pressure from the scorpion, a breathless 'wow…' escaping from her throat. She knew she shouldn't have said it the moment it slipped out though because, at that moment, she realized that this was not Naota, and she would never be able to do the same thing to him that she had done to the kid. Never.
Ato stood motionless with his back to the two girls, the black liquid running down his arm and dripping on the ground. The small puddle of the stuff lay motionless on the ground, any and all plant life beginning to wilt near it. As if sensing their gaze, Ato turned, smiling at them.
"Did you see that? I just destroyed it…I just did something that he could never do by himself…heh…"
It was then that he collapsed to the ground, blue eyes sliding closed and his guitar, completely unmarked from the fight, fell to the ground with him.
Annnnnnd that's a wrap! Or whatever the directors say. I'm REAL sorry about taking so long to put this up, I kinda lost interest with it for awhile but I'm back in business and I'll do whatever it takes to keep this story running. I promise! Now….Review please!