"Timeout, timeout! I said timeout!" Naota yelled. "We get three timeouts."
Upon hearing this new rule, Canti protested unhappily, but without words. There's no such thing as timeouts, it seemed to say with its silence.
"Don't give me that look," Naota shot back without hesitation. "Okay! I just made it up right now."
It was at that moment that a three-wheeled truck approached the boathouse from a riverside road and honked its horn.
"Hey, Naota," Naota's classmate Gaku waved from the passenger side. Their classmate Masashi sat in the driver's seat.
What? Naota played it cool, but on the inside, he was surprised. Since when did Masashi start driving that car?
"We're helping at the shop," Masashi said nonchalantly.
"Delivery. Part-time job," Gaku added casually.
No way!
On the truck were the words "Masamune's Sake." Naota knew that Masashi was the son of a sake storeowner; he had even heard that Masashi helped out by delivering goods. But to actually be at the wheel of a truck…
"It's okay! We won't get caught. We only drive beside the river."
Masashi's calm explanation made Naota all the more surprised. Does he… does he do this all the time?
"You look pretty cool." A girl's voice spoke.
When Naota looked for its owner, he saw Eri Ninamori relaxing on the back of the truck, sucking on a popsicle.
You're in on this, too? This was behavior unbecoming of the class president.
"But," she asked casually, "it's only a toy, right? Does it shoot bullets?"
When Ninamori had said Naota looked "cool" only a second before, she must have been referring to the air gun Naota was holding. Naota now felt awkward and tried to hide his gun, flustered.
What's going on? he panicked.
His classmates, who were doing really grown-up things like driving a car and working part-time delivery jobs, must have been wondering if Naota Nandaba liked playing war.
Well I don't really like it…
"No, I mean. This is, well, I mean… Oh, Canti… go and get us some drinks."
Trying to cover up the fact that he had been playing with a toy gun, Naota turned to Canti at his side, trying to shift focus to the robot. However, Naota's confused brain didn't really handle this very well, and his attempt to hide his embarrassment became terribly obvious.
The domesticated housekeeper robot launched upward immediately in response to Naota's stammered request.
Canti always had the ability to fly through its gravitational controls—but once again, it had chosen not to use this advantage during the survival game. If there was work to be done, though, the robot would immediately change modes.
Of course, Naota's classmates knew what Naota was trying to do; they could see it as clear as day. But it wasn't as though Gaku, Masashi, and Ninamori were making fun of Naota. They were actually thinking, "Oh, survival game. Looks cool." Naoto's worrying was really just a product of his personal pride, and it came from his insecurity and shame. He wanted to believe that he was more adult than anyone else, cooler than everyone.
When Canti received Naota's order and flew off, it surprised his classmates.
Indeed, Naota had gotten used to living with this robot, so giving Canti orders, like telling it to buy something, had become an everyday thing to Naoto. But wasn't controlling this robot as he wished so much more amazing than driving a car?
"Did you hear, Naota?" Gaku asked as watched the robot fly off, using an unusually calm tone for Gaku.
"What?"
"The rumors?"
"What rumors?"
Gaku exchanged looks with Masashi at his side. They seemed to be using their eyes to consult with each other about how much they should ask. Ninamori, who kept sucking on her popsicle, quietly glanced at Naota from the side.
Naota felt an eerie mood descend; it felt like there was something that only he didn't know, something that involved him being hidden from him.
"What? What rumors?"
"You know, that satellite thing that happened?" Gaku said. "Everyone is saying that it was you who saved the city. And didn't you interact with the robot that time at the school, too? Everyone's saying you can pilot the robot!"
The time at the school—when they'd been practicing for the class play, a robot had come out of Ninamori's head and run amuck.
Naota already knew there were rumors going around that Canti had crushed that violent robot. It seemed those rumors had grown, and now it was going around that the person who controlled Canti and had resolved the satellite crisis was Naota.
Hmm. It's not entirely untrue, Naota thought.
To be more precise, Naota hadn't used Canti to resolve the satellite crisis; rather, he'd smacked the sphere back with a guitar in his own hands—meaning Naota was more a hero than they thought. And, well, it was kind of true that he had operated Canti; Naota had become a part of Canti and smashed wild robots twice now. Just as the rumors said, he had operated the robot and saved the city.
However, Naoto had taken a secret pride in the fact that he couldn't disclose these details to people. He knew that no one would've believed him if he'd said, he'd hit a bomb back into space with a guitar during the satellite crisis. But now that those events had entered the realm of rumor, all bets were off.
"Oh, I didn't know you guys knew so much."
"So, you really did save the city then?" Masashi confirmed.
"Really, really?" Gaku was pretty excited. "That's pretty amazing!"
"Well, you know…" Naota beamed proudly.
Yeah, I guess I really am something. The impatience he had been feeling immediately changed to an air of coolness. I guess I really am amazing.
But then, with a "hey, hey, hey," Haruko suddenly appeared behind the beaming Naota, embracing him and recklessly grabbing his groin.
"Look, Takkun."
"Hey, stop that. Don't touch me."
"Doesn't it feel good?"
"That's not the point!"
"Hey, we won the game!" Haruko was holding the game flag in her hand. "With this, I'm all Takkun's!"
"I told you not to touch me!"
Seeing this open display of indecency with a minor, Gaku and Masashi could only stare transfixed. They thought to themselves that this housekeeper of Naota's was no ordinary person, after all, but their minds didn't make the connection between this sensual girl and the light-speed Vespa woman who they had once told scary stories about at school.
"Huh?'
Ninamori spotted a shadow over the embankment. It was a high school girl who was gazing toward Naota and Haruko with a sad air.
Mamimi Samejima.
Haruko noticed Mamimi and waved the flag cheerily. "Hey! Mamimi!"
Having been called to, Mamimi looked perplexed. She had planned to stand there unnoticed, but having been spotted, she had nowhere to run.
Naota also raised his head as he looked up at Mamimi. However, considering he was being embraced by Haruko, Naota felt awkward, as well.
For a moment, Naota and Mamimi met each other's eyes, and then they both quickly looked away.
Chapter 3
What kind of disaster are those three involved in? Ninamori thought.
Having separated from Naota and the others, they were once again driving the Masamune's Sake truck alongside the river.
"Bye! See you in school!" they'd said. "We still have some deliveries to make, so we'd better get going." But the truth was that they didn't really have any work left to do; Masashi simply had the good sense to get out of there.
It was a wise decision. When Mamimi turned up, the atmosphere had become quite uncomfortable.