A/N: This marks the halfway point the next four chapters will be longer, I promise, much longer. Also, This is an especially short chapter, mostly just rounding out the story and introducing a couple new characters, so bear with me the next chapter will be action packed I promise.
Chapter 4: Answers
The young girl walked up the newly mended front door of the Ninamori household. She stepped cautiously around the still gaping crater in the front yard, and knocked o the door. To her shock a towering robot answered the door, glaring down at her in a manner not to unlike a curious puppy.
"Uh… umm." Tezzi stammered nervously staring into the robots face.
Naota squeezed in next to Canti, and looked down at the girl. "Can I help you?"
"I-is Oato home?" She asked not quite feeling better, now that the imposing man was standing before her.
"Yeah, just a second." He turned around "HEY KID, THERE'S SOMEONE HERE TO SEE YOU!"
Oato walked out into the living room, and panicked as he saw Tezzi, peaking passed the two in the doorway.
"Tezzi, um.. wh… hi." He blurted yelling at himself inside
:"Hi, Oato, do you want to go for a walk?" She said, obviously just trying to get the hell out of there.
"Um.. sure." He said heading out the door.
Naota walked back to the couch where he had spent most of his day, he hadn't watched TV in several years, and was beginning to enjoy it again. Eri walked into the living room and sat down next to him. She watched the TV for a few moments then turned to him.
"Can I see the remote?" She asked, and he obliged. The TV turned off "Tell me."
"Tell you what?" He said not turning from the TV
"Where did you go? What did you do?" She grabbed his chin and jerked his face toward her "Why did you come back?"
"So where have you been?" Tezzi said as she and Oato walked down the street "I haven't seen you in class."
"I haven't been feeling to good." He said looking at his feet
"Does it have anything to do with that weird bump on your head?"
"Sorta." He said ever aware of his forehead, hoping nothing was getting ready to jump out of it. "It's hard to explain. You probably wouldn't believe me
"I figured all I had to do was figure how to get that thing into space." Naota said "Eventually when I went crazy enough to try some strange things, I managed to get it out of the atmosphere."
"How?" Eri asked, genuinely curious
"Pixy dust and Faeries tears." He said sarcastically "So I got into space, I went looking for her." He looked down at his boots "I eventually found her in this run down solace port orbiting a backwater planet. But there was something strange about her."
"So are you coming back to school soon?" Tezzi asked sitting on a bench, Oato almost walked by before he noticed she wasn't next to him anymore
"I don't know, my mom wants me to stay home for a while. Just until the weird stuff stops happening." He clenched his teeth, he shouldn't have said that
"Weird stuff?" Tezzi said
Oato let out a heavy sigh, as he prepared to embarrass himself in front of the girl of his dreams.
"She didn't seem like the Haruko who left all those years ago. Something had changed inside of her." Naota said, his voice trembling "All those years chasing Atomsk, they sort of sent her over the edge, she was deranged, crazy. She saw me, and yeah she recognized me, but I wasn't the same person to her either, she saw me as a threat."
"Did she attack you?" Eri asked growing more and more concerned
"Yeah, and she wasn't joking around, she was playing hard ball, out for blood." His eyes closed "We destroyed that station, we killed every one in it. And then standing there on the desolate planet below, she wouldn't give up that smile, they stupid smile of hers." He looked up at the ceiling "I knew I was going to have to… have too…"
"What?" Eri asked
"These robots have been popping out of my head." Oato began, Tezzi looking at him as if he had three heads "Have you heard those reports on the news, about all the destruction in town lately?"
"Yeah?" Tezzi said skeptical
"That was these things. The Medical Mechanica plant is apparently trying to destroy the town, or the earth or something I don't know. It's called an N.O. Channel I think, It does something to your brain and sort of makes your head into this weird portal. And all these robots are coming through and wrecking everything up, that why that guy is living in my house, he'[s an old friend of my mothers, he used to live here, the same thing happened to him. He's trying to help me."
"Weird." Tezzi said, a little more accepting than even she was ready for
Oato's mouth curled into a smile, he was relived she wasn't running away.
"I killed her, Eri." Naota said with fear in his voice "She stared into my eyes, and she smiled, and I had to kill her, or she was going to destroy so much more."
"Oh my god." Eri gasped
"After that, I just kept going, further and further into space, deeper and deeper into madness, until I knew I had to come back, I knew that the town needed me again."
Tezzi and Oato stood on the door step of Oato's house. They looked at each other smiling.
"So, maybe I can stop by again, and we can go for a walk?" Tezzi said nervously
"Totally, that would be cool." Oato said smiling.
Tezzi kissed him on the cheek and walked away, Oato stood on the front step dumbfounded.
"All I knew was a name." Naota said regaining his composure, "Ninamori, and I remembered that, when I left, you were pregnant, so I figured it had to be him."
"Why hit him with a guitar though?" Eri asked
"I don't know." He said with a smirk "It made sense I guess."
"Are you going to talk to Mamimi while you here?" Eri asked
"I probably should." He said looking down again "I should probably at least try to meet my son."
