FLCL Fan Fiction ❯ Ride On Shooting Star ❯ Three Years Later ( Chapter 1 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
Naota Nandaba sighed as he exited his school building, his- or should he say Haruko's- guitar slung over his shoulder. Eighth grade is such a pain. Adjusting his guitar, Naota ducked as Eri Ninamori attempted to hug him from behind. Naota grinned; the time he had spent near Haruko had afforded him some experience with women's wiles.
Naota sighed again as he began to walk home, leaving a pouting Eri behind him; he hadn't seen Haruko in ages.

Three years to be exact.

Time had changed Naota. Instead of the scrawny pre-teen with scraggly brown hair who always wore a cyan jacket and carried his brother’s bat, a new Naota with hair to the back of his neck carried around Haruko’s guitar and wore a red cap and jacket. Three years had also added about three feet to his height, making him about even with Haruko, if he remembered right.

He briefly wondered if his alien crush had found Atomsk yet.

Needless to say, Haruko had left a hole in his heart as well as in his head.

After the day she left, taking Atomsk's/his guitar with her, things had gotten dull and calm again (with the exception being Ninamori's crush on him).

Sticking some money in his normal soda machine, Naota's head shot up as he heard Commander Amarao‘s voice. Naota couldn’t believe his eyes or ears. There the nutty guy was, screaming orders into a megaphone from the front seat of a jeep that was rocketing down the road, a convoy of assault vehicles slightly ahead of it.

“Come on, men, we don’t have any time to waste; that damn Haruko’s back, and we gotta stop her this time!” Naota’s money chinked as it fell to the ground. Mouth open in disbelief, the boy yanked Haruko’s guitar off his shoulder and started to run after Commander Amarao’s jeep.

“Wait! Wait Amarao! Take me with you!” Naota yelled after the jeep. Stopping to catch his breath, Naota couldn’t believe it when the jeep screeched to a halt and slammed into reverse.

“You’re a damned lucky kid, Naota. Come on, get in, we gotta stop that Haruko before she destroys the city again.”

Stop Haruko? Could I really do that? Naota mused as he climbed into the jeep.

“So, Amarao, where is Haruko?” Naota asked as nonchalantly as he could from the backseat.

“Look kid, first of all, it’s COMMANDER Amarao. See? I got the big eyebrows and everything,” the Commander wiggled his fake eyebrows from the front seat, making Kitsurubami, who was driving, gag, “and second of all, all we know is that she’s crash-landed that damn Vespa of hers in front of the fallen Medical Mechanica building.”

Naota nodded and looked at the toppled iron-shaped building that was slightly off in the distance. I wonder why nobody tears it down. Sure enough, a large smoke ring was floating near the building, indicating where Haruko had crashed.

I hope she’s all right. Naota thought as sirens started to wail throughout the city, indicating immediate evacuation was required.

The closer the jeep drove to the impact site, the larger the hole seemed to be. Naota tried to keep his anxiety down, but the excitement was too much for him; holding his red cap to his head, he grabbed Haruko’s blue guitar and launched himself from the moving jeep.

“Damn it, Naota! Get back here before that damn alien brainwashes you again!” Amarao shrieked from the jeep.

Naota continued running to the crater with absolute joy and adrenalin running through his veins; everything but the movement in the crater escaped him as he ran down the steep, scorched edge of the enormous fifty-foot hole. He ran like a giddy schoolchild, with a grin he hadn’t worn in the last three years plastered on his face.

Naota felt his heart skip as he saw Haruko’s bubblegum-pink hair from behind as she slid her helmet off her head. Look, Haruko! Just look at me now! Please Haruko! Naota felt his heart cry with joy and love as Haruko turned to look at him.

Elated, Naota tripped and rolled down the slope, falling with a thud at Haruko‘s feet. His hat flew off and landed on her left shoe. Crying with the unsuppressed happiness of a teenage boy in love, he looked into Haruko‘s face, wanting to delight in her casual, natural beauty.

Only it wasn’t Haruko.