Creative Works

[Poke_Nirvash]

KIGUMA

Here it is: my second official ficton that I'm posting here in AD. If you want to sign up for a character, the sign-up thread's still open. If you want to read more of my works, take a peek at my other fanfic, NIBAI MUGENDAI. No flaming, no trolling, no spam. Oh, and one last thing: don't post your review of a chapter until you reach the notes for said chapter.

I hope you enjoy reading this, and feel free to let me know what you think!

[Poke_Nirvash]

企画: 南雅彦

        竹田青滋

        勝股英夫

        峰岸卓生

Planning: Masahiko Minami

             Seiji Takeda

             Hideo Katsumata

             Takao Minegishi

The series starts out with that text on a black screen. When the text fades away the scene switches to a more natural setting: the skyline of a city in Japan. The city is Tokyo. The buildings are white and light grey in color. The heights range from nearly ten stories tall to forty stories, on average. The tallest looks fifty stories tall, and is cylindrical in shape, with a small light flickering from its top. The time of day is sometime in the afternoon, as white clouds, abstract in shape, float by in the azure blue sky hanging above the city, the sun peeking out between the clouds as they float by.

TOKYO, JAPAN: 20111.

原作: bonesx 濠沢彼太

Original Story: bones x Kareta Gohsawa

Cut to a close-up view of the city, the downtown. Pedestrians and businessmen are seen walking on the sidewalks past several of the tall buildings in the downtown area. The buildings, white at the base with several windows for each story, surround the streets, flooded with cars, in the styles of sedan, compact, and minivan; and colors such as red, dark blue, yellow, black, white, silver, and gold. Streetlights are lined up along the sides of the sidewalks, each light switched off because of the daytime setting. One row of cars along the right side of the street emerging from offscreen, that has stayed stationary for a second or two, starts up again as pedestrians cross on the crosswalk alongside that same street, in the same direction.

THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY HAS BEEN A PEACEFUL ONE FOR SEVERAL YEARS.

キャラクターデザイン原作: kohikki

キャラクターデザイン/総作画監督: 菊池聡延 (nomad)

Original Character Design: kohikki

Character Design/Chief Animation Director: Satonobu Kikuchi (nomad)

Cut to a closeup of the tall, 50-story, cylindrical tower that has dominated the city’s skyline. The POV starts from the bottom upward, showing its several stories, the elevators lining the outside moving up and down frequently. The more the POV moves up, the more the blue sky is shown, the sun shining through a few stray clouds, reflecting upon the top of the building.

WITH THE NEW GOVERNMENT “RYUDIS” IN CONTROL OF JAPAN, ITS ECONOMY STABILIZED WELL OVER THE NEXT YEAR.

美術監督: 永井一男

色彩設計: 水田信子

Art Director: Kazuo Nagai

Color Design: Nobuko Mizuta

Cut back to the establishing shot of the city skyline.

IT WAS BELIEVED THAT TIMES SUCH AS THESE WOULD ALWAYS BE THE SAME. HOWEVER…

Suddenly, a flickering light on top of the tall cylindrical building stops. And just as quick as it disappeared, a thin, bright beam of light shoots up from the top of the building. The beam of light seems to be harmless, but accompanying it is the sound of a large explosion.

(MUSIC: “Kiguma” by Takkyu Ishino)

メカニカルデザイン: 河森正治

3DCGIプロデューサー: 神林憲和 (オクティグラフィカ)

Mechanical Design: Shoji Kawamori

3DCGI Producer: Norikazu Kanbayashi (Octigraphica)

The next shot is of several pedestrians looking up at the large 50-story cylindrical tower, the one from which the beam of light emerged. The noise and light remain as the pedestrians look on.

A SMALL EXPLOSION CHANGED JAPAN FOREVER. HOWEVER, THE EXPLOSION THAT OCCURRED WAS UNLIKE ANY OTHER.

撮影監督: 木村俊也 (T2 studio)

編集: 野尻由紀子

Director of Photography: Shunya Kimura (T2 studio)

Editor: Yukiko Nojiri

Cut to out in space, a shot of the Earth, the POV looking down upon it. Above Japan, from where Tokyo is, the beam of light that emerged from the cylindrical building in Tokyo earlier is seen to be going into space.

THIS EXPLOSION, DUBBED THE “DESTROY EVENT” BY THE MEDIA, CAME WITHOUT WARNING TO THE CITIZENS OF JAPAN.

The next shot is one of space, Earth being in the lower right corner. The beam of light is extending from it and heading off into space, the shot portraying the beam of light to be going straight, towards the far reaches of the universe.

音響監督: 若林和弘

音響効果: 倉橋静男

音楽: 石野卓球

音楽制作: アニプレックス

Sound Director: Kazuhiro Wakabayashi

Sound Effects: Shizuo Kurahashi

Music: Takkyu Ishino

Music Production: Aniplex

A FOOT IN DIAMETER, THE DESTROY EVENT WAS VISIBLE TO ALL WITNESSES, AND IS SAID TO HAVE REACHED THE EDGE OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM AND BEYOND.

The scene cuts to a crowded city, presumably a few days after the Destroy Event. Cars drive by each other on the streets, and pedestrians pass each other on the sidewalk. On a television attached to one of the tall buildings in the area is a news anchor in his late thirties/early forties, describing what may be the Destroy Event. The music and narration block out his voice, but what implies this is a picture of the titular explosion seen from the city’s skyline in a small picture beside the anchor.

プロデューサー: 米内則智

                   松家雄一郎

                   丸山博雄

                   大山良

                   細川修

Producers: Noritomo Yonai

                Yuichiro Matsuka

                Hiroo Maruyama

                Ryo Oyama

                Osamu Hosokawa

CAUSES OF THE DESTROY EVENT REMAINED UNKNOWN, BUT THE EVENT NEVER LEFT THE POPULACE’S MEMORIES.

The scene cuts to the front of the 50-story cylindrical building. A sign is seen above the entrance reading “リュディス政府建物” or “Ryudis Governmental Building”, stating that it is the building belonging to the new Japanese government known as Ryudis. Past the entrance are several steps leading up to it, each one wide and made of concrete. These steps are crowded with several pedestrians. The only step left vacant is the top step, leading to the entrance of the governmental building, save for a podium and three men.

ESPECIALLY AFTER RYUDIS ANNOUNCED TO THE WORLD OF WHAT THE DESTROY EVENT UNCOVERED.

アニメーション制作: bones

                       KINEMA CITRUS

Animation Production: bones

                              KINEMA CITRUS

On the platform on the vacant step is a man in his mid-fifties, with white hair and grey eyes. He doesn‘t have many wrinkles, but just enough to recognize that he is of old age. He is wearing a white suit with a gold trim on the cuffs and collar, as well as the buttons lining down the middle of his suit. Both of his hands are on the podium as he speaks into the microphone, his speech muted by the narration and music. Behind him are two men wearing the same suit as him, their hands behind their backs in a professional manner.

WHAT WAS UNCOVERED WAS A CODE THAT HAD NO SPECIFIC SOURCE, COUNTRY OF ORIGIN, OR EVEN PURPOSE.

脚本/監督: 濠沢彼太

Written and Directed by Kareta Gohsawa

Cut to a closeup of the older gentleman, a full close up on his face as he continues to speak to the populace, despite his speech being muted.

NEWS OF THIS CODE SPREAD AND JUST ABOUT EVERYONE HEARD OF THIS CODE.

製作: 毎日放送

       きぐま求職者連合

       bones

A Production of: Mainichi Broadcasting

                       Kiguma Seekers Union

                       bones

The screen cuts to black as the last staff position shows up.

THAT CODE’S NAME WAS ONLY KNOWN AS “KIGUMA”.

Suddenly, as the staff position disappears, three beams of light emerge from the middle of the screen: one to the left, one to the right, and one to the middle. The one on the left: the upper part moves upward as a sort line segment perpendicular to it emerges from the sides; another line just like that emerges from the middle, and the last one stops short of being like the others and veers off to the left, meeting up below the line origin, its path having formed a half-circle. The one in the middle: the line forms as normal, only when the upper portion reaches the top, is veers off perpendicularly to the right, stopping short after a while; two very short lines parallel to the original line form under the vertical line. The one on the right; the upper and middle portions form the same as the left, only this time, the lower portion reaches the bottom, but veers off to the left, forming a half circle, and stopping a short while after it crosses the original line. These actions form the series title:

きぐま

KIGUMA

(MUSIC END)

After a few seconds of black screen, the setting switches to a small store on a city street. There is no sidewalk beside it. The building the store is located in is about two or three stories tall. A couple of tall flags hung alongside the majority of the poles hang on either side of the store entrance. Each flag is blue in color and has this text on it, the same on the steel sign above the entrance:

宮崎スポーツ

Miyazaki Sports

Inside the store is a majority of sports equipment. Lined up alongside one wall are several sports balls, and a couple of baseball bats and tennis rackets. Various sporting uniforms hang on a small kiosk near the center of the store. Opposite that kiosk, on the right side of the building, is the cashier counter, behind it a man in his mid-twenties. He has straight light brown hair going straight down to his shoulders. He’s wearing vision-correction glasses with a black trim, hiding his eye color. From what we can see at this point, he’s wearing a dark brown long-sleeved shirt, loose-fitting. His arms are crossed and resting on the counter he’s standing behind. An analog wrist-watch is seen on his left wrist. He stands there without a care on his face, like he’s overly serious. We don’t know much else on him except for a name tag clipped on his shirt. It’s simply white with a blue trim around it. In the middle of the tag, it reads the following, the person’s name:

宮崎亜紀

Aki Miyazaki

Resting on the counter next to Aki is a stand with various magazines in it, and a CD case: a grey base with red graffiti saying “TEKHOP”. A parental advisory sticker is seen on the lower right-hand corner of the case. Aki lifts up his wristwatch to check the time. The time on his analog wristwatch says “2:45”, the second hand ticking away from the 2 to the 3, as Aki looks at it. Suddenly, the sound of the door to the store opening is heard, causing Aki to lower his wristwatch and see who’s coming into the store.

Person: Hello, is anybody there?

The person walking in is about the same age as Aki. He has strawberry blond hair that goes down a little below his ears, short-cut and a little messy, and blue eyes, which hide behind his glasses. He has a mole under his lip on the left side of his face, as well as one on his right hand, pressed up against the right side of the door as he walks in. He is wearing a pastel blue cardigan and brown dress pants, as well as dark brown dress shoes. Once walking in, the as-of-yet unnamed person walks into the store, looking around with his hands in his pockets. He looks pretty disgusted at the surroundings of the store.

The person makes a sound like he’s cringing, and speaks up a little. “Geez, man, all the stuff in here looks pretty naff2,” he says as he approaches the counter, facing Aki, “don’t you agree?”

Aki just stands there silently for a few seconds, without a reaction to the person’s comment. At this point, the person gets a little angrier, but still polite. “Oi3, you! Didn’t you hear what I said?”

Aki stands there for a few seconds before responding to the person. “Yeah, I heard ya. You gonna buy anything or not?”

The person continues to look around his surroundings for a little. “Well, yeah, I am, but I’m afraid what I’m looking for might not be here,” he says before turning to Aki. “Do you carry the magazine ‘Young Record’?”

Aki stands there for a few seconds before pointing at the magazine stand. “Over by that stand, in the back.”

The man looks over at the stand. “Oh, thanks!” he says as he reaches behind the several other magazines in the stand to grab a magazine that looks like a pop culture magazine, with the words “ヤングレコード” or “Young Record” on the top in blue print with a white outline. Aki watches as the man takes the magazine, holding it in both his hands, staring at it in excitement.

“That’ll be 2000 yen, please,” said Aki, reaching his hand out to get the money from this man.

“Hm?” The man looks up from his magazine at Aki. “Oh, right.” He reaches into his pocket and takes out two ¥1000 notes, placing them in Aki’s hand. After Aki takes the money, the man looks up at Aki again. “By the way, the name’s Johnny.”

Aki looks at Johnny, not amused by his personality. Some of the light shining on his glasses moves to his right lens, the left lens showing one of his light blue eyes. “It isn’t necessary for me to know your name, weirdo.”

Johnny, surprised a little, backs up a little, shaking his hand in a way that supposed to imply that it isn’t his fault. “Hey, there’s no need to take the piss4 at me!” Johnny, done with his plea, looks down at the counter, noticing the CD next to the magazine stand. He points at the CD case, looking up at Aki. “How much is this disc? *reaches for CD* It may be Japanese, but one of my bandmates might find it to be good sampling material-”

Before Johnny could finish his sentence. Aki quickly grabs his wrist, preventing him from touching the disc. Johnny, surprised and cautious, looks up at Aki. “Hey, what in the bloody hell was that for?”

“Don’t touch that.” Aki said those words with extreme seriousness, looking right at Johnny very seriously. “That CD’s mine, I’m not letting any foreigners touch it.”

Johnny jerks his hand away from Aki, clutching the magazine to his chest. “Well, you're one to talk!” Johnny walks toward the door out of the store, his head partially lowered, his left hand forming a fist. “It’s a shame that you’re quite fit5 for someone like yourself…” Johnny said as he undid his fist to open the door, forming it back into a fist as he walked out.

Aki looks at Johnny walk away from the store, still as bored and cynical-looking as he has been. He looks upward at the ceiling, and sighs. And after his sigh the screen cuts to black.

第1話

きぐま

Episode 1

Kiguma

The weather outside of the sporting goods store is moderate, to say the least. The sky is a light grey, and the trees lined up along the street are nearly bare. Judging from the motions of the trees in the background, it’s lightly windy out. Waiting outside the sporting goods store on the barren sidewalk are two bystanders. The first person is a woman of average height, with bright red hair and some pretty large, but realistically proportionate, breasts. She’s wearing a tan jacket about the size of a shirt, unzipped. Under her jacket is a red long-sleeved shirt with the words “H DAD” on it in white (the ends cut off by the jacket), and a blue skirt going down to her knees. She’s carrying a small purse over her left shoulder. The other person is a man a that's about six inches taller than the woman, with shaggy black hair in the style of a thick, rockstar mop with fringe bangs. He’s wearing a black long-sleeved shirt with the AC/DC logo on it with white, skinny jeans that sag a little, and black boots. A closeup of the two shows that the man, his hands in his pockets, has a pendant around his neck, the actual pendant tucked in his shirt, and that the woman, looking at her wristwatch, has blue eyes, her red hair having a nearly invisible brownish tint to it, implying that it’s dyed. The sound of the door to the sporting goods store opening directs their attention toward who’s opening the door. The woman lowers her wrist and turns around, her bored facial expression changing to one that looks like she's slightly surprised to see who's at the door. The man, on the other hand, just glances towards the door without moving an inch. Standing outside of the sporting goods store's door, being looked at by the two people waiting outside, is Johnny, holding something behind his back.

“Junichi?” said the woman, revealing Johnny's real name. The woman's words have the slightest bit of concern in them, most likely coming from her observation of the serious look on Johnny's face as he stands there with his eyes closed.

After a few seconds, Johnny's serious expression turns into a small smile, which grows as he pulls out the magazine from behind his back, showing it to the two people standing outside before him. “I finally found it!”

(MUSIC: “OH DADDY” by Takkyu Ishino)

The woman lets out an unimpressed sigh while the man closes his eyes, moving back to his original position. “Good,” the woman said with some tsuntsun6 feeling in her voice. “We've been walking around for hours trying to find that stupid magazine of yours.” She looks up at Johnny. “Are you sure it's the one you like so damn much?”

Johnny looks at the woman excitedly, even though the weary smile on his face and the small comical drops of sweat coming down from the side of his face say otherwise. “Of course, Hekireki! I'm sure of it!”

The woman, Hekireki, closes her eyes and looks up as she walks off. “Okay, just wanted to be sure...” The man walks off in the same direction as Hekireki, his hands still in his pockets. Johnny, surprised to notice the two walking off so suddenly, lightly runs so he can catch up to the both of them, tucking the magazine under his shoulder.

“Hey, wait up, you guys!” After a second or two, maybe even three, Johnny catches up with Hekireki and the as of yet unnamed man who is with them. Johnny glances at Hekireki, moving to his right so he's closer towards the man with them. “You really shouldn't walk ahead of me like that, Hekireki. You know I'm not a fast walker.”

Hekireki tilts her head upward and to the left, looking almost aloof. “Sorry, I didn't notice you standing still back there.”

Johnny moves his eyes forward, moving a little closer towards the man beside him. “There's really no need for you to be such a prude, coz.”

Hekireki leans in towards Johnny, her aloof attitude immediately switching to one that's a little more apologetic. “Hey, come on, Junichi! I was just joking!”

Johnny moves even closer to the man beside him to get some space from Hekireki, to the point where he's sort of leaning beside his arm. “Well, joke or not, you really should slow down and wait for me in the future,” says Johnny as he's glancing at Hekireki. Johnny then moves his eyes back in front and closes his eyes in annoyance. “And you of all people should know that I want to be called Johnny and nothing else.”

“Get off of me, you d*mn Limey-lover7.”

The seriousness on Johnny's face disappears as the man he's leaning against finally says something. Johnny looks at the man and his voice goes quiet as he says to him, “Cujo?”

Johnny looks up at this man, Cujo, for a few more seconds before taking his magazine out from under his arm and starting to flip through it. As he does all of this, Hekireki, angered, turns to Cujo, pointing her finger at him. “Hey, wait just a second, you jerk! Junichi deserves more respect than that! You can't just go around in public like this calling him something as rude as 'Limey-lover'!”

Cujo glances towards Hekireki, not really showing any signs of care or apology. He's still wearing that scowl he was wearing ever since his first appearance. “Well, excuse me, Miss Thundert*ts, (but I personally don't give a sh*t about what you think. You may be my bandmate and all, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm better than you at all this music sh*t you love so d*mn much.)” (Hekireki reacts to the nickname Cujo gave her with disgust, but a cute-looking kind of disgust like she's embarrassed, blushing heavily at the possible humiliation of being called that. She then immediately closes her eyes and looks down on the ground, clenching her teeth and growling in anger as she clutches onto her purse strap, shaking it with the anger she's outputting.) All while Johnny is continuing to flip through his magazine.

Hekireki snaps and stops in the street, forcing her hand off of her purse and balling it into a fist. “YOU TAKE THAT BACK, YOU ASSH*LE!” Hekireki is about to throw a punch at Cujo, shifting her feet so she's facing him (or his right side) so she can get a perfect hit. Halfway through throwing her punch, Johnny, still looking at his magazine, comments on Hekireki's actions.

“Now, now, Hekireki, stop that.” Hekireki suddenly stops her punch, snapping out of her rage, looks at Johnny with the same concerned look she gave him when he left the sporting goods store. Johnny, him and Cujo having stopped alongside Hekireki, continues to flip through his magazine, having gone past half of the pages. “Cujo did nothing wrong.”

“But he-”

Junichi smirks slightly. “He's always like that, Hekireki. His nicknames and insults don't bother me at all.”

Hekireki gains a disgusted look on her face, not as cute as the one she had on before. “You're just saying that because you're gay for him.”

“Don't go around making excuses, now.” (MUSIC END) “Oh, and one more thing...” Just after he says this, Junichi changes his expression so that his eyes are comically indifferent, showing slight annoyance. Just as fast as his expression changes, a zoom out shows that the fist Hekireki was about to throw at Cujo stopped only an inch away, not from Cujo's right cheek, but Johnny's. “Try not to hit me the next time you attack Cujo.”

Hekireki notices this and moves her hand back, rubbing the back of her head and looking off to her left in an attempt to pretend it didn't happen. “Oh, sorry about that...” Hekireki starts nervously laughing to cover up her embarrassment, while Johnny goes back to flipping through his magazine.

“Yeah, whatever. *stops flipping, gasps in excitement* Found it!”

Hekireki looks at Johnny, a little calmed down, not because her sentence was interrupted by Johnny's out-of-nowhere exclamation. She stops again, and Johnny and Cujo stop as well. “Found what?”

“My horoscope.” Johnny looks a little closer at the magazine. “Let's see... Ah! Here we are. Gemini...” Johnny continues to read his horoscope (which isn't shown), while Hekireki and Cujo both reluctantly look at it with him. “My lucky colors are brown and dark blue... 'It is wise to take the first opportunity you see that may change your personality for the better. Grabbing that opportunity might result in success, yet the chances of that outcome are paired with the chances of new acquaintances being more than meets the eye.' Hm? I wonder what that's supposed to mean...”

Cujo looks away from the magazine. “Beats me.”

Hekireki looks away too, backing up while keeping her eyes on the magazine, sort of. “It sounds pretty mysterious, even for a horoscope. It could mean anything, if at all nothing.”

Hekireki, bored, looks up at a large TV screen on the building they're standing in front of. Out of the three, Hekireki's the only one paying any attention to the screen. A voice, that of a reporter, comes from the screen. “This just in: we have some new information on the KIGUMA code.” (MUSIC: “Kiguma” by Takkyu Ishino) The TV screen shows the reporter looking like he's in his forties, with brown hair, some wrinkles on his forehead, and a black suit with a matching tie as clothing. In a smaller screen in the upper right hand corner, is a picture of the really tall building from the opening sequence, the beam of light shooting out from the top. “For anyone who isn't aware of what the KIGUMA is, here's a bit of information: just last year...”

The reporter's voice is faded out by Hekireki's comment on the report she's seeing. “I still can't believe that it's been a year since the Destroy Event...”

Johnny closes his magazine and turns to look at Hekireki. “Hm? You mean that beam of light that shot out to the edge of the universe?

Cujo looks up, a sort-of cocky smile on his face. “Oh yeah... That was the explosion that killed nobody...”

Hekireki looks back at the TV screen. “It's weird... It's been a year, so everybody should know about the Destroy Event and the KIGUMA by now. There's no reason for that reporter to explain something nearly the entire nation knows about already.”

The reporter's voice fades back in. “...became known as the KIGUMA. Now, we bring you to reporter Iemi Fukuo. Iemi?”

The TV screen switches over to the front of the Ryudis Governmental Building. A female reporter with brown hair (with pigtails), brown eyes, and a dark red-colored reporter's outfit, stands on the top of the stairway leading to the building's entrance, holding a microphone. Behind her are two men. One is in his thirties with slightly tanned skin, short-cut brown hair, and a muscular physique. The other is taller, a little thinner, but still sort of bishonen with light brown hair hanging past his ears. Both are wearing white lab coats with business outfits underneath, like they're scientists. They are also wearing sunglasses.

“Thank you. I'm here live at the Ryudis Governmental Building with Hidehira Oobashi and Norikatsu Takagi, discoverers of the KIGUMA.” Iemi holds her microphone up to the mouth of the skintanned scientist. “What do you have to say about the new information surrounding the KIGUMA code?”

The man speaks. “Well, it's pretty complicated.” The camera zooms in on the man, the subtitle '大橋秀平 – KIGUMAの発見者' or 'Hidehira Oobashi – Discoverer of the KIGUMA' under him. “The studies we conducted over the past year really didn't yield any clear results.” Oobashi smirks slightly. “But that was before our most recent study revealed the KIGUMA's purpose.”

“Oh really? Well then, Mr. Oobashi, what's its purpose?”

“Well, the KIGUMA's primary purpose lies its nickname: 'The Modern Genie'.”

“'Modern Genie'?”

“The nickname comes from the Kiguma's ability. According to the results we got from our study, that ability is to alter the characteristics of the personality and appearance of any number of people or things, ranging from one to a million, even if it is impossible to do in a realistic spectrum. In short, it grants wishes.”

“Ooh, that sounds very interesting!” Iemi moves the microphone to the mouth of the other man. “Mr. Takagi, would you like to tell us the purpose of the KIGUMA?”

Takagi nods, as the subtitle '高木則勝 - KIGUMAの発見者' or 'Norikatsu Takagi – Discoverer of the KIGUMA' appears under him. “Certainly. The KIGUMA's purpose is to fix all the problems contained within Japan's society.”

Iemi holds the microphone back to her mouth. “That sounds like a pretty intriguing purpose. I don't see how it would benefit a society as problem-free as the one under Ryudis' control today,” Iemi turns to the camera, winking with her left index finger sticking upward, in a cutesy manner, “but still, it's pretty intriguing~!”

The sound of the TV starts fading out as the POV cuts back to Johnny, Hekireki, and Cujo. Cujo and Hekireki are looking at the TV screen, indifferent, but Johnny looks pretty peeved. “'Problem-free society' my arse! That has to be the dumbest bloody statement I've ever heard in my life!”

Hekireki, surprised by Johnny's outburst, turns to him, honestly surprised with small sweatdrops running down her face. “Whoa, Junichi, what was that all about?”

Johnny immediately goes from his peeved mood to his regular shy attitude. He turns away from Hekireki a little, maybe ashamed of his outburst. “Oh, sorry about that, Hekireki. It's just... what that reporter said. She said that this society is completely free of problems. You and I both know that's not true. I have that issue I have that's been troubling me for so long, remember?”

Hekireki's becomes concerned, her face gaining a blush as she holds her hand up to her face, in a cute sort of way, showing her sympathy for Johnny. “Oh... you mean your stage fright?” Johnny nods silently. Hekireki moves her hand away from her mouth as she turns to Johnny. “I know it's not a problem to that ditzy reporter, but still... a problem like that deserves attention!”

(MUSIC END)

Suddenly, something starts ringing. It brings the attention of Hekireki and Johnny a second after it starts. Johnny reaches inside his pocket and takes out his cell phone, holding it up to his ear. “Hello?”

A voice, boyish yet with a slight of maturity in it, comes from the phone. “Hello. Are you the man who started yelling at the television screen today in the uptown district?”

Johnny suddenly becomes surprised and a little scared. “Eh?” Johnny holds the phone close to his ear. “Tell me! Who are you and how do you know who I am?”

The voice continues from the other end of the phone. “Interesting... You're the first I've seen to have a problem within this so-called society free of problems.”

“How in the bloody hell can you see me? Are you some kind of stalker?”

“I don't have anough time to reveal any of that information to you, sir. Now then, if you want to fix your problem, come to Warehouse 4 in the Kameda Seika Incorporated Industrial Park in the Konan Ward8. Bring anyone else with problems like yours if you wish.”

“But-”

“Goodbye. You'll thank me later.”

The person on the phone hangs up, leaving Johnny to yell back into the phone. “Hey, don't hang up! You didn't answer any of my questions!”

Hekireki stands there, confused as all hell. “Who was that?”

Johnny looks at Hekireki, putting his phone away. “Oh, nobody. Just some weird kid who's able to see and hear us."Hekireki reacts with a disturbed look, while Cujo just closes his eyes. “He noticed us talking about my stage fright earlier, and told me that if I wanted to cure it, I had to meet him in the Kameda Seika Incorporated Industrial Park, Warehouse 4.”

“You don't think that he's going to have the KIGUMA fix your problem, is he?”

Johnny shrugs at Hekireki's question. “Don't know. I doubt that he would have access to the KIGUMA, since it's in the government's hands. And I doubt that they're going to use it on anyone, especially someone with problems like myself. But I don't really care, I'm going anyways.”

“Oh really?” Hekireki puts her fists up in a sort of pose. “What about all those times I tried to make you confident and confront your fear of stage fright?”

Johnny looks off to the side, sweating slightly with his weary smile on. “Yeah... All those times you did that, you just scared me out of even trying.”

“Seriously!? And you think the KIGUMA will do different!?”

Johnny shrugs again. “Who knows? From the sound of it, the KIGUMA will likely get rid of my stage fright faster than you ever will. But that's besides the point. Even if that kid isn't planning to use the KIGUMA, I'm still going, and you're going with me.”

(MUSIC: “Angelic Thunderstorm” by Takkyu Ishino)

“Huh?” Hekireki acts to Johnny's remark with surprise and a little anger. “Y-You're not serious, are you?”

“Of course I am. That kid said to bring anyone with problems like mine if I wanted to.”

Hekireki gets a little angrier at Johnny, pointing at herself. “That's crazy! I don't have a problem like yours!”

Johnny smirks slightly. “Of course you do. You have a lack of originality.”

“Lack... of originality?”

“Right. Everytime we practice for and perform our shows, you're always wanting to do cover versions or ripoffs of existing songs.” Johnny glances over at Hekireki. “Not to mention that when we try to do original songs, you always want to add samples to the background to cover up how terrible we sound.”

"Oh, really now? What about that one time we performed at that nightclub over in the downtown area, the 'TEC HAUS Ishino'? We did a perfect performance there without resorting to ripoffs and sampling! You weren't even as afraid there as you were at our other shows!"

"Yeah, but the crowd there was small, about two or three people. It wasn't enough to make me piss-scared."

“But I-”

“Just admit it, Hekireki. You need to fix your problem. You're the songwriter for this band, and we can't go on using samples and doing covers forever, especially with your lack of involvement in the band. Going to this kid with me's the best option.”

Hekireki stands there, looking frightened for a second or two, but then looks down. “Okay. I'll go with, if that's what you want.”

Johnny's smirk goes back into a regular smile as he gains a cheery expression in reaction to Hekireki's agreement. “Perfect!” Johnny turns to Cujo, his hand on his hip. “And what about you, Cujo? You have any problems?”

Cujo stands there for a second before smirking. “Heh. I don't really have any problems that need fixing.” Cujo turns to Johnny, showing a small smile. “But I'm gonna go along with you anyways, since I have nothing better to do.”

Johnny blinks slightly at Cujo's comment. “So you're just going to be there for the ride?”

Cujo shrugs. “Yeah, I guess so.”

Johnny turns around, his hands behind his head (one of them holding his magazine) in excitement. “Excellent!” Johnny starts walking off. “Now we can head off to that warehouse!”

As Johnny starts walking, Cujo turns around and starts walking too. Hekireki, surprised by the both of them going so soon, runs to catch up with them. “Hey, wait!” The POV cuts to a shot of them walking back the way they came from, their backs facing the POV. “What about our current jobs? And the band practices?”

“Don't worry about it, Hekireki. We're gonna stop by the funeral home before we leave to get our stuff.”

“Yeah, I know, but what about my job?”

“I'm sure you can call your boss and explain everything to him.”

The sound fades out as the music concludes, the shot fading to black.

(MUSIC END)

[Poke_Nirvash]

The setting switches to outside a funeral home in the an area of Niigata with not many houses around, but quite a bit of trees, sometime later in the day, nearing sunset. It doesn't look like a Japanese funeral home, but more like a modern American one. There is a side street going off of the road to it, forming a half-oval shape as it goes back onto the road. The home is white and two-stories on the outside, with some dormer windows above the second story, and a large porch. In the back is an part of the building that looks similar to a Christian church you'd find America. Inside the house is a small lobby area, with a desk for a secretary. A man in his fifties, with grey short-cut hair, a black suit and tie (the suit unbuttoned), black pants and black dress shoes comes out from the room to the left of the entrance, passing by humming an unidentifiable tune. He stops humming once he comes across the empty desk. “Hm? Junichi?” The man walks up to the desk and looks around, seeing a note on the counter. He picks up the note, written in English, and starts silently reading it. 'Dear Dad, I'm going to be gone for about a week or two, a month tops, for reasons that are difficult to explain. This doesn't mean I've quit my job, it just means I'm taking a break. Sincerely, Johnny. P.S. Take care of Gladstone for me while I'm away.' This man, Johnny's father, puts down the note. “D*mnit, that boy ran out on me. And what kind of nickname is Johnny anyways?”

The setting switches again to outside a pet store. This store looks like it's in downtown Niigata, with a yellow sign above the first floor. In a cutesy red font, it reads '新潟市ペットショップにゃんば~1' or 'Niigata City Pet Shop Nyanba 1'. The katakana 'ワン' lies within the '1', going down horizontally9. Inside the store are numerous aisles of supplies for pets, the cages with the actual pets in them (colored a sort of bold pink with a yellow outline) lined up against the back wall. The only place against the back wall where there aren't any pet cages is an open area where a staircase leads up to the second level. From the top of that staircase, a phone conversation can be heard between two individuals.

“What? You can't be serious, can you?” The man on the one end of the phone sounds a little gruff, like a boss or something.

“I'm sorry, sir. It just came up all of a sudden, that's all.” The person on the other end of the phone is Hekireki. Her voice is a little faded out, signifying that she's on the other end, the end not in the pet shop.

The man on the other end is a man in his late forties with brown hair, a firm build, and a business suit, identifying him as the boss/manager of the pet shop. He's talking with Hekireki on a cell phone. “Listen, Enzeru, I can understand you using your vacation days for something like this... but your sick days too?”

“Like I said before, sir, I'm sorry, but this trip I'm taking may last about a month, maybe even longer.”

The manager of the pet shop scoffs slightly at Hekireki's comment. “Fine, I'll let you go, if it means that d*mn much to you... But it means that if you're out of vacation and sick days to use up when you return, I'll make you work overtime as make-up for all your missed shifts!”

“Thank you so much, sir! I guess... Well, bye!” Hekireki hangs up on the other end.

The pet shop manager sighs as he puts his phone away back in his pocket. “Just what kind of trip is that girl going on anyways?”

Meanwhile, the scene shifts over to the outside of a warehouse at near-nightfall, white colored with the number 4 on the door. Cujo is standind outside, leaning against the wall while smoking a cigarette, a guitar case on his back, fit for holding a bass. Hekireki is standing quite a ways away from Cujo, closing up her cell phone and putting it back in her pocket, a series of stacked-up drum cases in a large bag on her back. “There! All finished!”

Hekireki starts stretching her arms above her head, her breasts bouncing slightly. Cujo takes the cigarette out of his mouth and blows out some smoke, turning to Hekireki. “You know, you could've just went to that store yourself and told him instead of calling him on your phone.”

Hekireki stops stretching and turns to Cujo, showing off her tsuntsun expression. “Hey, shut up! I already made one stop to get my drums and another to pick up some food, clothes, and cash! I wasn't gonna make another stop just so I could talk to somebody.” Hekireki turns around, her arms crossed. “Besides, what do you care about how I go about my communication methods?”

Cujo shrugs, putting his cigarette back in his mouth. “Just sayin', b*tch.”

Hekireki gets extremely annoyed at Cujo's comment, and prepares to turn around and tell him off, but is interrupted by the sound of screaming coming from inside the warehouse. Cujo barely reacts, but Hekireki reacts with her p*ssed-off expression turning into one of confusion. “What was that?”

The door to the warehouse opens, and Hekireki and Cujo peeking in. Cujo is still smoking his cigarette, much to Hekireki's annoyance, shown by a dirty-looking side glance at him. After a second or two, the screaming starts up again, and Hekireki again focuses her attention on the noise. The screaming is coming from Johnny, a keyboard case on his back, backing up slightly after screaming, and pointing his finger at someone offscreen. “Ah! No way! It's you!”

(MUSIC: “brain trip” by Takkyu Ishino)

The person Johnny is pointing at is Aki. Aki, standing there with his hands in his pockets, his glasses having light conceal his eyes slightly, raises his eyebrow at Johnny's reaction. “What did I do again exactly?”

Johnny, even more frantic than he was earlier, keeps pointing at Aki as Hekireki and Cujo sneak in and off to the side during the other two's argument. “Don't act like you don't know! You treated me horribly at that filthy sporting goods store you worked at earlier today! Don't you remember that?”

Aki looks up, his glasses covering his eyes as they become all shiny. “Oh yeah, that's right... You were that foreigner who called himself... what was it? Jimmy? Jenny?”

“IT'S JOHNNY, YOU WANKER!”

“Whatever. Like I care about what your name is.”

Johnny backs up slightly, regaining his cool, but clenches his fists by his sides, showing that he still has some annoyance from Aki affecting him. “Besides, what in the bloody hell are you doing in this grotty10 warehouse anyways? To mock me some more just for sh*ts and giggles?”

Aki looks off to his side, scoffing while he's at it. “None of your d*mn business. Why are you here?”

Johnny crosses his arms. “Like I'd tell someone with an attitude like yours something like that.”

Suddenly, the quiet sounds of footsteps come from out of nowhere, as does a boyish voice, similar to the one that spoke to Johnny on the phone earlier. “Could you two gentlemen please stop bickering?”

Johnny and Aki turn to the back of the warehouse to find where the noise is coming from. “What the hell?”

“Where's that noise coming from?”

The voice speaks up again. “You can save your argument for later, particularly in private. I don't want to put up with such petulant behavior at a time such as this.”

Mid-way through the voice's first sentence out of the pair, someone steps out of the shadows. This person, approximately 5½ feet tall (about 14, maybe 15, years old) with short-cut brown hair going past his ears and glasses with a thinner rim than Aki's, wearing a blue-grey long-sleeved shirt with a red and white bow pictured in the middle11, black cargo pants, and sneakers, is the person the boyish voice is coming from.

Aki is the first to react to this kid's appearance. “No way... A kid?”

Johnny is the next. “What the hell is a kid doing here?”

Hekireki follows. “Is this some kind of joke?”

Cujo barely reacts at all.

This kid just looks at the four of them, tilting his head upwards. “I can see you're all a little disturbed by my appearance here. Well don't be.”

Hekireki speaks up. “Why shouldn't we be? Are we all supposed to believe that a kid called us down here to this sh*tty warehouse to help us fix our problems?”

Aki slightly turns to Hekireki. “Wait, how'd you know?”

The kid lowers his head again. “It is quite hard to believe at first, but believe it or not, I am in fact the person that called you all down here.”

Johnny speaks at the mysterious kid. “But why? In fact, how do you know about me, where I was, and what my problem was!?”

Aki speaks at the kid too. “Same here!”

All the kid can do is smirk. “I'll answer those shortly. But first, how about you introduce yourselves first?” The kid's glasses lose the shine obscuring his eyes, showing them to be brown with sort of a gold ring in the middle of his iris, surrounding his pupil. “If you want to know who I am, what my job is, and what my problem is, you must do the same.”

A few seconds pass. After those few, Johnny turns to Hekireki. “Maybe we should do as he says.”

Aki turns too. “I have to agree with him.”

Hekireki acts surprised to Johnny and Aki's sudden reactions. “Seriously!?” She turns to Cujo. “Cujo, can't you talk some sense into your boyfriend and his so-called enemy?”

Cujo takes his cigarette out of his mouth and blows out some smoke. “Sure, the kid doesn't seem trustworthy, but I do want to know what his deal is.”

“Seriously, you too?” Hekireki sighs, defeated by Cujo's remark. “Fine!”

The kid smirks once again. “Perfect. The guys with the glasses can skip explaining their problems. I already know about their problems with empathy and performance... Now, come on, go ahead.”

Aki clears his throat and looks at the kid. “My name is Aki Miyazaki. Current manager of Miyazaki Sporting Goods over in West Niigata. Nice to meet you.” Aki bows.

“Junichi Ishimura, age 25, part-time secretary at my father's funeral home, as well as vocalist and keyboardist for my electro-pop outfit OH DADDY. But please, call me Johnny.” Johnny gives the kid a sort of graceful bow.

“Hekireki Enzeru. Part-time clerk at a pet store in East Niigata, and the songwriter and drummer for OH DADDY.”

“Very interesting...” The kid lowers his glasses, looking at Hekireki's chest. “And what is your problem, my lady?”

Hekireki reacts to the kid's actions with a sort of nervousness, a chill going straight down her spine. Geez, this kid is creepy...she thinks. “Well, my problem is that, well...” Hekireki looks off to the side, slightly blushing out of nervousness. “I have a problem participating with my bandmates. I'm just going through the motions, y'know?”

Cujo smirks. “I thought your problem was your lack of originality.”

Hekireki gets angry at Cujo's comment, and turns around. “Hey, shut up about me and tell that little pervert about you, okay!?”

Cujo spits the cigarette out of his mouth. “Heh. Fine then.” Cujo looks up at the kid. “The name's Kujo Nakata. I'm the bassist for their band.” Cujo points at Hekireki and Johnny. “And I don't really have a problem. So just tell us, kid. Who the f*ck are you and what's your problem?”

The kid smirks once again. “Sadly, my problem is far too complicated to tell you about this early on. All I can tell you are my name and my purpose. My name is Toshio Katsurada.” Toshio raises his head, looking straight at the four. “And I brought you here to cure all of our problems with the KIGUMA.”

END OF ACT I

(MUSIC END)

The four stand there, just looking at Toshio. Cujo and Aki just stand there, emotionless. Johnny and Hekireki are a little dumbfounded, their jaws dropping down at the shock of what Toshio said. Toshio just looks up, a little worried. “What? Is there something wrong with my plan?”

Hekireki speaks up, angered and clutching onto her purse string. “Of course there's something wrong with it! It's freaking stupid!”

Toshio pushes up his glasses, smirking. “Hn. I don't really think it is. In fact, it's a quite intelligent plan, if I may recall.”

Hekireki only manages to get louder. “What's so goddamn intelligent about heading just straight for the KIGUMA!?”

Johnny, his default frightened/excited expression visible, looks at a really angry Hekireki. “Hekireki's right. For all we know, it could be in the hands of the government.”

Aki looks at Johnny. “Or in another country.”

“Trust me. Without a doubt, the KIGUMA is in Japan.”

(MUSIC: “code break beat” by Takkyu Ishino)

“Well where is it?” Aki asked this question to Toshio with some intrigue in his voice.

“It's in Tokyo. In the Ryudis Governmental building.”

“Are you sure of that?”

“Very sure.”

Hekireki looks up at Toshio, not as angry as she was, but still pretty d*mn angry. “If you're so d*mn sure it's in Tokyo, then how'll you react when it isn't? HUH!?”

“Like I said, the KIGUMA is in the Ryudis Governmental Building. I saw it with my own two eyes.”

Hekireki drops her head, sighs, and sweatdrops. “Great. Not only is this kid a pervert, but he's a criminal too?' Hekireki sighs again. “Why aren't you in jail?”

“You've got me all wrong, miss. I didn't break into the Ryudis Governmental Building to see the KIGUMA.”

Hekireki sighs out of relief. “Oh, good!”

“Correct.” Toshio takes out a small laptop, about the size of a netbook. “I hacked into it instead.”

Hekireki facefaults at the shock of Toshio's reveal. Cujo looks down at her as Johnny speaks up. “You hacked into the Ryudis Building?”

“Correct.” Toshio shows the four his laptop, black in color with the words “HAK94” on it. “This baby can hack into any computer, security camera, or any other type of technology, as long as it's within Japan. Which explains how I was able to see and hear all of you.”

Hekireki gets up and speaks up again. “I knew it! You are a stalker! That's just proof enough I can't trust you!”

Toshio lets out a sigh. “I told you everything you needed to know, and you still aren't willing to go. It's a shame, really...”

Aki looks at Toshio, a small smile on his face. “Hey! Whaddaya mean nobody's willing to go? I'm definitely going!”

Johnny nods, and elbows the air, his fists showing before him. “Me too! If this is the opportunity my horoscope told me to grab onto, I'm definitely destined for success!”

Hekireki, shocked at Johnny's answer, looks at him, surprised beyond belief. “WHAT!? Are you serious!?”

Johnny turns to Hekireki, a little confused by her reaction. “Um... Yes?”

Hekireki turns to Cujo, still angry and surprised. “Cujo, you obviously don't think this dumb kid'll persuade you to go too, right!?”

Cujo smirks. “Actually, I am thinking of going.”

Hekireki, more angered and surprised, clutches her hair with her hands, raising her head in frustration. “NO WAY, YOU TOO!?”

“I don't trust this kid, and I don't really want to go, but staying behind seems boring.”

Johnny looks at Hekireki, his hand on his hip. “So, Hekireki, you coming with us?”

“OF COURSE NOT!”

“Come on, coz! Don't you wanna fix your problems?”

Hekireki looks down to contemplate. “Well, I do but...” Hekireki stands there for a few seconds before sighing and looking back at Johnny. “Okay, I'll go.” She looks up at Toshio. “But only if you quit acting like a pervert!”

“I'll try. Oh, and please, call me Toshio.”

Hekireki steps back and scowls. “No way.”

Johnny looks up at Toshio. “So, Mr. Toshio, when do we head out for Tokyo?”

“Tomorrow morning. Tonight, we'll bunk here.” Toshio turns around and walks to the back of the warehouse. “There are tents and futons set up in the next warehouse over. If any of you are hungry, there's some crates of snack food in there as well. If you need to use the restroom, the closest one is in the central building. Be sure not to get caught by security if you do!”

As Toshio walks off, Cujo and Aki look at him with blank expressions on their faces. Johnny looks back at Toshio with sort of a smile on his face, while Hekireki looks annoyed at Toshio. Johnny turns back around toward the exit. “Well then, let's go off and get some rest!” Cujo and Aki walk off as well, while Johnny looks back at Hekireki, still looking at Toshio as he walks away. “You comin' along, Hekireki?”

Hekireki snaps out of her staring when Johnny speaks to her, and stands up, trying to hide her anger with a look of mild aloofness. “Oh, right... I'll be there.” Hekireki walks out with the others, holding onto her purse.

(MUSIC END)

Hours pass, and the scene shifts to night, around 11:00 P.M. or midnight. Inside the warehouse are four tents, with a number of large stacks of crates in the back. Inside the first tent is Aki, wearing a black shirt and black jeans, sleeping in a standard position, his glasses resting on top of his bag. In the second tent is Cujo, sleeping on his back in his clothes, his arms spread out and his mouth partially open. Curiously enough, Johnny, wearing a striped pastel blue shirt and blue and green pants, is hugging onto his side, burying his face in his chest. Since Johnny isn't in the tent he's supposed to be in, the third is skipped, and the last one is shown instead. In the last tent is Hekireki. She is wearing a transparent white babydoll with dark red lacy lingerie underneath, and her dyed red hair is a little more wavy than normal, implying that she recently washed it. She is hugging onto a small doll she has with her.

Back in the other warehouse, where everyone was before, Toshio is sitting on a crate, talking to himself. Or is he?

“There were four of them. Two were enthusiastic to go and the other two weren't. The loud guy only went because he didn't care and the girl was goaded into doing it by that blonde man.” A pause occurs. “Yes, that girl was pretty hot, but that's beside the point.” Another pause. “Sure, getting them to Tokyo's gonna be a little tough, but I'm very positive that the government isn't gonna interfere with our goal.” Yet another pause. “I don't care if they deploy their entire army, I'm still going to lead them to the KIGUMA no matter what!” Another pause. “Fine, have it your way, Shiho.” One last pause. “I'm really tired. I don't have the time to argue. Good night.” After talking to... whoever, Toshio takes off his glasses, lays them on a higher crate, and lies down on the one he's sitting on, going to sleep. The shot fades to black.

The scene switches over to the next morning, at around 10:00 in the morning. The setting is Tokyo, the 50-story tall Ryudis Government Building as the most prominent feature. Inside the Ryudis Government Building, on one of the higher floors, is a large room shaded dark blue with a panel of various keys and buttons wrapping around to close in a certain area, the panel's top on the same level as the floor of the room. A small staircase breaks the panel into two in one area, offering some passage into the area. A holographic screen is being displayed from the panel below. Facing this holographic screen from inside the area closed in by the panel is a girl in her late teens slumped over the panel, sleeping. This girl has brown hair with two braids on each side tied in the back and some thin-rimmed eyeglasses. She's wearing a blue form-fitting shirt laying off one of her shoulders (showing her bra strap), a black pencil line miniskirt, fishnets, and black high heeled boots that go up to her knees. She has headphones on, these headphones like the ones that go with an iPod. She snores lightly a few times, before some muted music starts blasting through the headphones... (MUSIC: “the metal shreds the techno” by Takkyu Ishino ft. KYONO) ..waking her up. This girl wakes up, startled as she starts looking around nervously. “What the? Where am I?” She stops and looks up as she puts her hand up to her chin. “Oh right, I was staying overnight to check for something...” The girl looks at the screen for two seconds before her eyes shoot open slightly, shocked at what she found. She scoots her chair (the rolling one with wheels) over to a microphone and presses the button to turn it on, speaking into the microphone in a mixture of excitement and shock. “Mr. Kataoka, could you come over here this instant!?”

(MUSIC END)

The scene cuts to a pristine white hallway in one of the lower levels with a grey marble floor. Walking down this hallway is a man in his mid-fifties, with white hair and grey eyes, and enough wrinkles to tell that he's in his mid-fifties. He is wearing a white suit with a gold trim on the cuffs and collar, as well as the buttons lining down the middle of his suit, as well as white pants and white shoes. This man was the same one from the introduction. His hands are behind his back as he walks through the hallway. Suddenly, he hears the girl's announcement. “Mr. Kataoka!” The man, presumably Kataoka, turns his head as he listens to the rest of the announcement. “If you can hear me, come down to the main database this instant!”

Kataoka whispers something in response to the announcement, possibly the name of the girl who was giving the announcement. “Natsuko...”

The scene immediately cuts to the main database room, about a few minutes later. The girl, Natsuko is typing on one of the keyboards against the panel, looking at the holographic screen. The sliding door to the room opens as Kataoka appears and walks inside. “What is it now, Natsuko? I told you several times now, sites that are off the governmental database are OFF limits! You understand?”

Natsuko looks back, replying in a cutesy yet bitchy tone. “Yeah, I know. I just wanted to show you something.”

Kataoka steps down into the closed-in space via the staircase. “What is it?”

Natsuko looks right at the holographic screen and goes back to typing. “I managed to find out who hacked into the security cameras within the KIGUMA's storage room.”

Kataoka stops behind Natsuko, placing his hand on the chair. “Excellent. Do you know who did it?”

“No idea, sir, but I identified the computer used to hack into it.” A number of screens pop up on the holographic screen, displaying a CG image similar to the laptop Toshio used. “I secretly installed a tracking program into the computer's hard drive, that way I'm aware of our perp's location.”

“Excellent. You want me to send out our mecha pilots to wherever this guy is?”

“I already did, sir. They're heading towards Niigata as we speak.”

Kataoka slightly smiles. “You're really on top of things today, Natsuko.”

Natsuko closes her eyes as she continues typing. “It's my job, sir.”

(MUSIC: “NO EGO” by Takkyu Ishino)

Meanwhile, a really large aircraft that looks like a helicopter/airborne storage carrier the length of an airplane, the width of two airplanes, and the height of a 3-story building (with large helicopter blades), flies toward Niigata. A voice comes from inside the aircraft. “It's 'bout d*mn time!”

Inside the aircraft is a rather large hangar area consisting of a walking pathway on one side, and a storage area on the other side about 6 or 7 times as wide as the pathway. There are three white mechas in this storage area, with a staircase going up to the cockpit height of the mechas so the pilots can get in. Each mecha is approximately 25 feet in height and white in color. The mechas look humanoid, but instead of a face, there is a white sphere in its place with a cockpit on the inside, the sphere opened on each one (except the one closest to the front) partially so the pilot can get in. Embedded on each mecha's stomach area is a green light. Walking up the staircase to the cockpit of the mecha farthest from the front of the aircraft is a man in his early 30's, with short-cut dark brown hair and dark brown eyes, wearingn a white pilot's suit with blue trimmings along the collar, wrists (before going back to the gloves) and ankles (before forming the boots). He walks up the steps to the mecha's cockpit, his hands on his hips and a small smirk on his face. “After two long years, I finally get to show those Ryudis higher-ups what I'm made of!”

As this man steps in the piloting seat, another pilot looks from the cockpit of her mecha, right next to the man's. This woman, who looks like she's in her early 20s, has short, reddish-brown, curly hair with brown eyes. She is wearing bright red lipstick on her lips, and a white pilot suit not unlike that of the man from earlier, only this one's trimmings are emerald green rather than blue. She looks at the man, a little annoyed, her voice raised. “Daisuke, why're you acting so d*mn boisterous today? We're taking down a hacker, NOT showing our government who's boss!”

The man, Daisuke, grips the vertical handles inside the mecha's cockpit, giving the woman who talked to him a dirty look. “You're one to talk, Iva. I know I'm supposed to use this mecha to destroy the enemy, it's just that there's been nothing fun to do at Ryudis since I joined.”

The woman, Iva, glances at Daisuke. “Don't lie, Daisuke. I know you've been having fun looking at staff around the governmental building. Especially that Russian consultant to the Minister of Defense.”

Daisuke and Iva continue their argument as the shot cuts to the third mecha, the one closest to the front. The cockpit is closed, portraying it as a sold white sphere with a small black dot in the middle with a flickering green light. As it shifts to the inside, a majority of the cockpit is filled with smoke. Sitting inside the cockpit of this mecha is a man in his early 20's with a cute boyish face, glasses, and shoulder-length shaggy bleach blonde hair. He is wearing a pilot outfit like Daisuke and Iva, only with red trimmings.

“Shut up! God, why can't you just be quiet like Kichirou? He's always quiet!”

Iva fires back at Daisuke's comment with her own. “Well that's probably because he's MUTE! He can't speak worth a sh*t!”

Daisuke looks back at Iva one last time. “Just because he's mute doesn't mean doesn't have feelings.” Daisuke looks back to his front, closing up the cockpit. “Anyways, I heard the aircraft stop. We must be at our destination.”

Iva looks to her front and does the same as Daisuke. “Perfect. Time to show this hacker what we've got!”

As both their cockpits close, the floors below the mechas fall open. As they fall open, the mechas start to fall out of the aircraft onto their destination.

(MUSIC END)

[Poke_Nirvash]

The scene shifts to a convenience store with a small parking lot. The sign above it says '旧ケ大尺利便性店' or 'Kyugadaishaku Convenience Store' in red. From inside, the voice of a cashier is heard. “Are you sure that that's all? One magazine and a bag of kaki-pi12?”

The inside of the convenience store looks pretty standard: several shelves to one side, an area for the cashier on the other side. Toshio is standing at the counter, talking to the cashier. Hekireki and Johnny are standing near the entrance, while Cujo and Aki stand a little off to the side, on the other side of the door out. “Yes,” Toshio says to the cashier.

“Okay then, that'll be 2150 yen.” The cashier bags the magazine and snack food bag in a plastic bag, and hands it to Toshio. Toshio, meanwhile, takes some money out of his pocket, and hands it to the cashier. “Thank you for shopping.”

Toshio takes the bag from the cashier's hands. “You're welcome, sir.”

Hekireki glances over at Toshio as the cashier takes the money from his hands. “I don't understand how a kid like that could have that much money.”

Johnny looks over at Hekireki, as Toshio takes the magazine out of the bag and hands it to Johnny, who takes it from him. “Hey, there's a lot that's mysterious about him.”

“Hmph. Like his plan to get to the KIGUMA?”

“Exactly.” Hekireki looks away from Johnny, a little disgruntled. Johnny opens his magazine to the back pages and hands it to Hekireki. “C'mon, coz, you look sorta pissed off there. Want to read this?”

Hekireki lightens up slightly, but still looks disgruntled. “Shouldn't you be reading that? You're horoscope's in there.”

“C'mon, I can read it later. Why not try reading yours, just for kicks?”

Hekireki grabs the magazine from Johnny's hands. “Fine!” She starts reading. “Let's see, Virgo... Lucky colors are dark blue and yellow... 'Intellect and perversion hide a person's true beauty. No matter the reaction, surprise is assured.'” Hekireki, a little more disgruntled, shoves the magazine back into Johnny's chest, almost knocking him over. “It's official: those horoscopes of yours make no sense.”

Johnny balances himself and takes the magazine from Hekireki, placing it under his arm. “Hey, c'mon! They make sense to me!”

Hekireki loosens up, sighing. “Keep telling yourself that.”

Suddenly a rather loud crash is heard from outside. Hekireki and Johnny turn towards the entrance to see what they heard, as do Cujo and Aki. Toshio does the same, the crash interrupting him opening the bag of kaki-pi. A look of immense shock and fear comes upon Toshio's face. “No way...”

Outside, after two seconds of silence, a large boom comes from out of nowhere, shattering the windows of the convenience store. Hekireki, Johnny, Cujo, Aki, and Toshio all put their arms up in front of their faces to shield themselves from the shards of glass. After that, the force from the off-screen crash accompanying the boom rips the front of the convenience store off of its foundation, causing it to tip over on its back. Johnny is the first to react, becoming really, really frightened at the tipping over of the building. In an attempt to prevent crashing onto the ground, Johnny tries grabbing onto the area around the broken window's bottom, but he's only able to do it with one hand before the building tips over completely. Hekireki does the same with both hands. Both of them crouched down on the ground to grab onto it, and their bodies straightening out when the building tipped over. Cujo and Aki use the same method. Toshio... is nowhere to be seen. After the building tips over, Johnny places his other hand on the edge of the broken window and coughs, seemingly to get dust out. “D*mnit...” Johnny looks up and his face turns from his standard expression to one that is more fearful. “Holy sh*t!”

(MUSIC: “sound of suspense” by Takkyu Ishino)

What Johnny saw is the impact of the crash, and what caused it: the three mechas that came from the aircraft from above. Their impact nearly wiped out the intersection they landed on, causing cars to go flying, and asphalt to rip off of the ground, leaving only a small, shallow dust crater whose diameter is the same of the width of a city street. The three mechas are standing around, the central one looking around a little. The voiceover from inside the mecha confirms that the person inside that particular mecha is Daisuke.

“Okay, our target's supposed to have a tracking device in his laptop, right?”

Iva's mecha turns towards Daisuke's mecha. “Yeah, so that narrows it down.”

From inside the cockpit, Daisuke turns towards a screen to his right, displaying Iva's face, replying to her remark. “Hey, shut up! It won't take long for me to find our target.” Daisuke looks at the screen in front of him, displaying the intersection and the buildings in each four of the corners. The middle of the screen has the text 'SEARCHING TARGET', as well as a loading bar about ¼ of the way full, layered over it. “I mean, my mecha is programmed for such a purpose.”

Back at the convenience store, the other three people on hanging onto the edge of the building's window ledge look at the mechas. Cujo is the first to react. “No f*ckin' way... Are those robots?”

Next is Aki. “Impossible...”

Followed by Hekireki... “What's something like that doing here?”

Johnny follows up with a second reaction. “Perhaps they belong to Ryudis...”

Hekireki turns to Johnny, a little concerned. “Hey, where'd that kid go?”

Johnny shrugs the best as he can as he still holds on. “Beats me.”

Suddenly, Toshio's voice is faintly heard. “This... can't be...”

Hekireki and Johnny are the first to notice, and look down. Johnny yells to see if he's really down there. “Mr. Toshio! Are you alright?” Cujo and Aki look down right after.

Down at the bottom of the tipped-over convenience store is Toshio, his back against the shelf in the very back of the store. A bit of blood from the cashier's arm, sticking out from the counter, drips onto his face, showing extreme fear and shock. “I never thought... that they'd release their mechas... this early...”

Hekireki yells down at Toshio. “What're you talking about!? Who's 'they'? Ryudis?

Meanwhile, from inside the cockpit of Daisuke's mecha, the loading sign for the target location disappears, and a target point is locked onto a spot near the area where the convenience store is. “There! Got it!” The target screen turns from flat to 3D, showing a model of the convenience store, the target focused on where Toshio would be if the convenience store was still upright. Daisuke grips onto the handles inside his mecha's cockpit, and turns them so that they are horizontal rather than vertical. “Time to show this punk what this baby can do!”

Daisuke thrusts the right handle inside his cockpit forward, causing his mecha to hold its right arm out, forming a fist. Daisuke then presses a button on the side of one handle, and the mecha's fist opens up, and a missile shows up.

Back in the convenience store, Toshio continues to cower heavily, tearing up a lot. “Please... save me...”

Johnny looks down, a little concerned for Toshio. “What?”

Then, all of a sudden, Toshio screams out at the top of his lungs. “SAVE ME, SHIHO!!!”

And at that time, Daisuke presses the button on the side of the right handle inside his mecha's cockpit. “FIRE!”

The missile shoots out of the mecha's fist, and is immediately brought to the attention of Hekireki, Cujo, and Aki. Hekireki, however, is the first to take a vocal reaction. “Sh*t! Duck!”

Hekireki lowers herself back into the convenience store area, with Cujo and Aki following suit. For Johnny, it takes him a while to notice. He turns around to see the missile coming in closer. Frightened, he ducks too. The missile flies over their heads and moves in towards Toshio. Toshio's tear-filled eyes open to show the reflection of the incoming missile in his right eye, the yellow ring within his iris glowling and overtaking the rest of his iris.

(MUSIC END)

A second passes before a small explosion bursts out of the back of the tipped-over convenience store. Johnny, Hekireki, Cujo, and Aki all look down at the result below, still clouded with dust. Their assumption of what happened shows a bit of concern in Hekireki and a lot of fear and possible sadness in Johnny. Cujo and Aki, however, remain pretty much the same with their expressions.

From inside his mecha's cockpit, Daisuke smirks. “Mission accomplished.”

Meanwhile, back at the Ryudis Governmental Building, Kataoka and Natsuko are watching the events from Natsuko's work station, the events that transpired displayed on the holographic screen, from the perspective of a security camera. Kataoka smirks as well. “Is Daisuke sure that he hit the target?”

Natsuko responds in her cute yet cold and bitchy tone. “I'm very sure that he did, sir.”

Back near the convenience store. Johnny continues looking down near where Toshio was, his tears lessening. “What happened? Is Toshio alright?”

Hekireki turns to him. “I'm not sure! I can't tell from all the dust and debris!”

Suddenly, after a second of silence, something shoots up from the dust and debris cloud formed by the explosion, startling Hekireki and Johnny. “What the hell?”

The object flies out of the cloud and hits the ground, clinking against the ground and stopping right at the foot of Daisuke's mecha. The cloud of dust covering it disappears, revealing its identity: the missile, only crushed at the tip. Meanwhile, with the others, the sound of someone's voice is heard from inside the convenience store, preceded by a sigh. “D*mn... I nearly lost my head there...” Johnny and Hekireki look at each other, confused by the feminine voice that they heard.

Back inside the store, someone who is only partially seen is shown scaling the vertical floor, gripping onto a piece of the tile floor, a large chunk of it cracked off. Back outside, the voice can be heard a little louder. “He just had to call me out at a time like this...” The hand scaling the floor grips her hand onto the window edge, frightening Johnny and only slightly surprising Hekireki. “It's un-frickin-believable, but still, I'm glad to get out once in a while.” As the voice continues, the person who just put their hand on the edge, presumably the owner of the voice, gets up onto the top of the building (or rather, what the top would be at this point. She takes something off of her back, startling Hekireki a little more. “Don't you agree?”

Hekireki looks at the mysterious person, shocked and confused. “I don't believe it...”

Johnny reacts as well, just a little less frightened than he was before, but still frightened and a little confused. “Mr. Toshio?”

Back in the Ryudis Governmental Building, in Natsuko's work room. Kataoka looks at the screen in slight amazement. “Is that who I think it is?”

Natsuko replies in her same tone. “It is, sir.”

Daisuke is also looking at the mystery person from inside his cockpit, the screen displaying the map no longer there. “You mean... our target was...”

(MUSIC: “butterfly swimmer” by school food punishment)

“...a woman!?” As Daisuke finishes his sentence, we get a good look at the person who everyone is right now looking at: a woman in her late teens with dark blue hairtied in a ponytail, and yellow eyes. She is wearing a black tank top, faded olive green jeans, and combat boots suited to fit a female. A small black collar is fastened around her neck, and in her hands is the object she just took off her back: a black sniper rifle.

This woman looks down, gripping onto her sniper rifle. “Everybody, stay back here. I'm just gonna take care of those mechas for ya.”

Hekireki reacts, shocked and angry at the woman. “Are you insane? You'll die out there!”

The woman lowers her head, focusing in on the mechas. “Trust me. I know what I'm doing.” The woman suddenly starts to hot-bloodedly scream and jump into the air. Hekireki and Johnny look up as she jumps very high, with Cujo and Aki only slightly paying attention. Hekireki just looks for a few seconds before screaming out a few words that pretty much describe her feelings of the situation:

“JUST WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON!?”

As Hekireki yells this the woman, still in the air, continues to hot-bloodedly scream as her sniper rifle is raised. Just when she's about to land, she swings her rifle so that it's pointed at the screen, a little down and off to her left. And then it cuts to black.

つづく

TO BE CONTINUED

声の出演

桂田寿夫: 豊永利行

桂田志保: 清水愛

エンゼル霹靂: 折笠富美子

石村『ジョニー』淳一: 小野大輔

中田『クジョー』久条: 小西克幸

宮崎亜紀: 杉田智和

片岡鉄平: 若本規夫

山本奈津子: 釘宮理恵

高橋大輔: 諏訪部順一

泉アイバ: 小清水亜美

大橋秀平: 辻谷耕史

高木則勝: 中村悠一

ナレーター: 若本規夫

脚本: 濠沢彼太

原画: 原田大基  山本尚志  上田峰子  阿部尚人  三輪和宏  織田広之  大梶博之

        亀井治  伊藤岳史  大下知之  樋口香里  坂口竜太郎  内田信也  肥塚正史

        大沢政典

第二原画: 鈴木彩史  仁井宏隆  寺田完  橋本純一  前田義宏

             P.A. WORKS Wish ハヤシ

動画検査: 岩長幸一

動画: ボンズ

         浅井悠可  高橋優  高田小知代  玉置敬子  増子裕美  朴好英  河崎友子

       Wish

         西田政司  中島香子  小野あゆ美  孫家隆   田津奈々子  鈴木優介

       P.A. WORKS  ガイナックス  M.S.C.  作楽クリエイト  動画工房

       プロダクションリード  プロダクションI.G  サテライト  Aniade

色指定/仕上検査: 佐藤香穂莉

仕上げ: Wish

            千葉陽子  高橋友子  伊藤敦子  加藤明美  高橋祐  砂原直子

           Aniade

特殊効果: 星美弥子

背景: 草薙 (KUSANAGI)

         川本亜夕  井上京  田中貞彦  宋震環  伊藤弘  若松栄司  金沢友幸  岡本好司

         西俊樹

3DCGI: オクティグラフィカ

            神林憲和  齋藤勝彦  増渕雅子  伊藤安利

撮影: T2 Studio

         木村俊也  加藤千恵  加藤絵梨  田沢二郎  金珍熙  刀根有史

編集スタジオ: ウインズ

HD編集: キューテック

             深沢美津奈  藤田哲郎  入山真二

HD編集助手: 新井淳一

HD編集制作担当: 田畑孝之

録音調整: 野口あきら

録音助手: 松下春香

録音スタジオ: サウンドチームドンファン

音響効果助手: 西佐知子 (サウンドボックス)

音響制作担当: 好永伸恵

音響制作: フォニシア

エンディングテーマ:『butterfly swimmer』

                  歌: school food punishment

                作詞: 内村友美

                作曲: school food punishment

                編曲: school food punishment  江口亮

                       (エピックレコードジャパン)

エンディングアニメーション

  絵コンテ/演出: 京田知己

  作画監督: 水畑健二

  原画: 菊池聡延  水畑健二  コヤマシゲト

  背景: 永井一男

  撮影: T2 Studio

キャラクタークリエイティブチーム: 濠沢彼太  kohikki  千頭悪戸  ボクサ  mg天使

                                     cid猫

設定交渉: 小倉信也

モニタデザイン: 海老川兼武

アシスタントプロデューサー: 松本美穂

宣伝プロデューサー: 瓜生恭子

宣伝: 安藤ひと美  柴田亜矢  小森健一

プロモーション協力: 博報堂DYメディアパートナーズ

セールスプロモーション: 小野木航

編成: 関谷祐輔  田村健彦

協力: 亀田製菓株式会社

制作デスク: 天野直樹

設定制作: 和田純一

制作事務: 中村真樹子

制作進行: 堀口信哉

作画監督: 川元利浩

絵コンテ/演出: 森邦宏

アニメーション制作: bones

                       KINEMA CITRUS

製作: bones  毎日放送

        きぐま求職者連合

          キネマシトラス  博報堂DYメディアパートナーズ  アニプレックス

PREVIEW

(MUSIC: “Typeset Interface” by Takkyu Ishino)

Toshio: The boy who suddenly disappeared. The woman that made a mysterious appearance. Are they two different people, or are they one in the same? Next time on KIGUMA, episode 2: “Who's That Girl?”.

(MUSIC END)

[Poke_Nirvash]

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my second original fiction, KIGUMA. I put plenty of hard work into it, so I hope that it was to your liking. If you want to tell me what you think, go ahead and post your reply. I'm not forcing you or anything, iit's just that one day, your reviews could inspire other people to read this.

Also, I must apologize for this chapter's late release. I meant to post it a week earlier, but things were a little too confusing for me. I'll try my best to post a chapter of this fic every week until its end. But one has to wonder how I'm going to go between writing it AND finishing up NM's first half. If you haven't gotten the chance to read NIBAI MUGENDAI yet, try it out. You don't have to read it, but it's worth a try.

In the meantime, here are some notes:

TOTAL TIME: 24:29

JAPANESE VOICE CAST

Toshio Katsurada – Toshiyuki Toyonaga

Shiho Katsurada - Ai Shimizu

Hekireki Enzeru - Fumiko Orikasa

Junichi “Johnny” Ishimura - Daisuke Ono

Kujo “Cujo” Nakata - Katsuyuki Konishi

Aki Miyazaki - Tomokazu Sugita

Teppei Kataoka – Norio Wakamoto

Natsuko Yamamoto – Rie Kugimiya

Daisuke Takahashi – Junichi Suwabe

Iva Izumi – Ami Koshimizu

Hidehira Oobashi – Kouji Tsujitani

Norikatsu Takagi – Yuuichi Nakamura

Narrator - Norio Wakamoto

ENGLISH VOICE CAST

Toshio Katsurada – Johnny Yong Bosch

Shiho Katsurada – Philece Sampler

Hekireki Enzeru - Michelle Ruff

Junichi “Johnny” Ishimura - Ethan Murray

Kujo “Cujo” Nakata - Steve Blum

Aki Miyazaki – Crispin Freeman

Teppei Kataoka – Michael McConnohie

Natsuko Yamamoto – Cristina Valenzuela

Daisuke Takahashi – Crispin Freeman

Iva Izumi – Lauren Landa

Hidehira Oobashi – Patrick Seitz

Norikatsu Takagi – Derek Stephen Prince

Narrator - Michael McConnohie

Other Voices – Kaiji Tang

                     Xanthe Huynh

                     Patrick Seitz

                     Paul St. Peter

                     Keith Silverstein

BOARD MEMBER COMPARISON (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)

Aki Miyazaki - SenseAcct

Junichi “Johnny” Ishimura - Kohikki

Hekireki Enzeru - mgangel1124

Kujo “Cujo” Nakata - _Boxers_

Toshio Katsurada – Poke_Nirvash

Natsuko Yamamoto – cidthekittyisfun

Teppei Kataoka – Poke_Nirvash

Daisuke Takahashi – Kohikki

Iva Izumi – SenseAcct

Kichirou Shuuta - _Boxers_

Shiho Katsurada – Poke_Nirvash

Oobashi and Takagi are original characters that have no comparison to any member of the ASMB.

()() - Denotes two things happening/being said at the same time, but only if they are close to or are next to one another.

Rated TV-14L for suggestive dialogue, profanity, mild blood, and moderate violence

Any and all songs by Takkyu Ishino that do not have links are fictional music pieces made up by me for the fanfic. Imagine them any way you want. Except for the ones that are linked because, well, they already have a tune that goes along with them.

FOOTNOTES

1: CAPITALIZED BOLD PRINT means that the narrator is speaking.

2: “Naff” is British slang for something cheap and of low-quality.

3: “Oi!” is the British equivalent of “Hey!”.

4: “Take the piss” is British slang for “to make fun of”.

5: “Fit” is British slang for “hot”.

6: “Tsuntsun” refers to one of the two default dispositions of a tsundere: tsuntsun being the part that harsh, aloof, or even irritable.

7: “Limey” is a slang term for a Brit. “Limey-lover” is just a creative insulting nickname Cujo gave Johnny.

8a: Kameda Seika Incorporated (亀田製菓株式会社) is the largest confectionary manufacturer in Japan, headquartered in Niigata.

8b: The Kameda Seika Incorporated Industrial Park (亀田製菓（株）亀田工場工業団地‎) is located in the Konan ward of Niigata.

9: The title of the pet shop contains two puns: “nyanba”, which is number (nanba) with the Japanese onomateopeia for a cat's meow (nya) in place of “na”. “Wan”, on the other hand, is both the romaji for “one”, and the Japanese onomateopeia for a dog's woof.

10: “Grotty” is the British equivalent of “disgusting, dirty, and/or filthy”.

11: The image pictured on Toshio's shirt, as well as the color of his shirt's background, are the design and background, respectively, for the cover of Takkyu Ishino's album Berlin Trax.

12: Kaki-pi, or Kaki peanuts, are a popular Japanese snack food, a combination of peanuts and kakinotane (small crescent-shaped pieces of senbei).

[DangerHikky]

I enjoy Cujo muchly.
The format was still quite script like, but it sort of mixed a traditional narrative style in there as well. Interesting format. Easier for me to digest than the full on teleplay one anyway. A+
I like the dynamic between the characters, lots of constratin' personalities and what. You did a good job showing off their personalities in this chapter. :3
D: Aki you are entirely too mean.
D'awww, I like the band~ You wrote them nicely~

Magical stalker phone guy!
O_o Pervy kid.
Hekireki's so feisty. She's kind of adorable. She's like the sole sane (wo)man.
Hay thar, sleepin' Cujo and Johnny, shippan tiem? Yes plz.
Hekireki's scene seems sorta fanservicey.
Oh Toshio you are absolutely positively 90000% suspicious.
The pilots bickering is fun times. I enjoy them.
D'aww Johnny, you and yer horoscopes. I like how the horoscopes seem to apply directly to the situations yet to come/at hand.
Oh snap. Mecha tiem.
....Crazeh **alf** seems crazeh.

[Poke_Nirvash]

Glad to hear that you like it. I started this chap immediately after the character thread went up, but I put it on a 3-month hiatus while I was trying to finish up NM19 ('tis very difficult to write it so that it can be viewed as an actual anime; but the plot does build up a lot later on). Once I went on vacation (I took my new laptop with me there), I worked on more of it, and I finished it up when I got back. During all the driving portions of my trip, I took the time to integrate the band's personalities into their conversation. However, time constraints forced me to cut one scene, but it'll be worked into chapter 3.

BTW, yes, Hekireki's sleeping scene WAS sorta fanservicey. No "seems" in that scene.

[mgangel1124]

Aww, I like the band. They make me smile.

Cujo's my favorite, and Johnny is adorable. I agree with Hikki, it's shippin' time.

I like what you did with Hekireki. She's great!

Toshio is a weirdo.

Mecha time!

I like the sniper chick.

[SenseAcct]

Gotta love Aki~ Iva was hilarious too. Though if it weren't for Johnny they would have stolen the spot light. This is gonna be a really awesome Fanfic~

PS: Loved the way it's sorta like a script with prose in it. Awesome~ Kinda wish I would have thought of it haha.

[Poke_Nirvash]

@Angel: Yeah, my characters can be like that.

@Sense: Even though Johnny, Hekireki, and Cujo will get the most screentime out of the supporting characters, I'll make sure Aki and Iva get their fair share of moments in the spotlight.

[WavemasterRyx]

ahaha man i am unlucky... 

well it was quite an enjoyable first chapter, and it seems like you've got some solid central characters going

i'll look forward to chapter 2

[Poke_Nirvash]

Thanks! But why are you unlucky?

Also, I managed to get 1/3 of the next chapter done yesterday. If I keep it up, I'll probably release it by Friday or Saturday this week.

[SenseAcct]

Keep up the work Poke~ I wanna read moar!

[Poke_Nirvash]

Mhm! I plan on working on more of the chapter today. I'll have it finished probably by tomorrow, and it'll most likely see a release date on Saturday.

If you're feeling a little impatient waiting for it, you could catch up on NM to see how far I've gotten with it. It's just a suggestion.

[WavemasterRyx]

Spoiler

it wasn't a minor character like i had believed - somehow i managed to come up with a character that was so close to your idea for the freakin main character - i ask, how that isn't unlucky? heh

[Poke_Nirvash]

Spoiler

Well, don't worry, I'll keep your character in there. Besides, my character is different from your character in a number of ways, despite their similarities.

[WavemasterRyx]

Spoiler

believe in the me that believes in you

*cough* what i mean to say is - you're really a good writer, so if you say you think you'll be able to come up with something i have faith that you'll be able to, and i'll most definitely be looking forward to it - and the rest of the story naturally

having Chapter 2 up by Saturday is really fast, considering the effort you put into writing, you must have gotten into a sweet groove with it or something

[Poke_Nirvash]

NEWS

KIGUMA chapter 2 has been completed. Expect it to show up later tonight.

[Poke_Nirvash]

Okay then, here's the second chapter of my original fiction, KIGUMA. Just letting you know, since the broadcaster of this series if it were an actual anime is Mainichi Broadcasting, there'll be a scene just after the credits (Japanese staff listings) and before the notes. Try your best not to skip it!

(MUSIC: "Kiguma" by Takkyu Ishino)

OPENING NARRATION (KATAOKA)

IN THE YEAR 2011, THE WORLD WAS SUBJECT TO A HARMLESS YET POWERFUL EXPLOSION KNOWN AS THE "DESTROY EVENT". THE EVENT, LIKE ANY OTHER, CAME AND WENT AS TIME PASSED, BUT WHAT THE DESTROY EVENT UNCOVERED STAYED WITHIN THE PEOPLE'S MINDS: THE KIGUMA, A MYSTERIOUS CODE OF UNKNOWN FORM OR ORIGIN WHOSE PURPOSE IS TO FIX THE PROBLEMS THAT LIED WITHIN THE JAPANESE PEOPLE. FOUR INDIVIDUALS FROM NIIGATA, LED BY A MYSTERIOUS KID IN HIS EARLY TEENS, SET OUT TO SEARCH FOR THE KIGUMA ON THEIR OWN. THE PROBLEM IS, THIS KID ISN'T WHAT HE WAS, AT FIRST, BELIEVED TO BE...

(MUSIC END)

企画: 南雅彦

        竹田青滋

        勝股英夫

        峰岸卓生

原作: bonesx 濠沢彼太

キャラクターデザイン原作: kohikki

キャラクターデザイン/総作画監督: 菊池聡延 (nomad)

美術監督: 永井一男

色彩設計: 水田信子

メカニカルデザイン: 河森正治

3DCGIプロデューサー: 神林憲和 (オクティグラフィカ)

撮影監督: 木村俊也 (T2 studio)

編集: 野尻由紀子

音響監督: 若林和弘

音響効果: 倉橋静男

音楽: 石野卓球

音楽制作: アニプレックス

オープニングテーマ: 『WoNdeR WomaN』

                   歌: MiChi x the telephones

                作詞: MiChi

                作曲: the telephones

                編曲: Akira Ishige

                       (ソニーミュージックアソシエイテッドレコーズ)

プロデューサー: 米内則智

                   松家雄一郎

                   丸山博雄

                   大山良

                   細川修

アニメーション制作: bones

                       KINEMA CITRUS

脚本/監督: 濠沢彼太

製作: 毎日放送

       きぐま求職者連合

       bones

RECAP

まとめ

The episode starts where the last left off: a portion of Niigata where there is a crater in the ground, occupied by three white mechas. At the edge of the crater is a convenience store, tipped over on its side. Holding onto the edge and looking out, their heads, arms, and upper torsos poking out of the windows of the store are four of the five people there: Aki, Cujo, Hekireki, and Johnny. The fifth is on the top (or side, if it weren't the way it is) of the convenience store, partially crouched down and partially kneeling as she holds a sniper rifle in her hands. This woman, in her late teens, has dark blue hair tied in a ponytail, yellow eyes, and a small black collar fastened around her neck. Her clothing consists of a black tank top, faded olive green jeans, and combat boots.

The woman looks down, gripping onto her sniper rifle. “Everybody, stay back here. I'm just gonna take care of those mechas for ya.”

Hekireki reacts, shocked and angry at the woman. “Are you insane? You'll die out there!”

The woman lowers her head, focusing on the mechas. “Trust me. I know what I'm doing.” The woman starts to suddenly starts to hot-bloodedly scream and jump into the air. Hekireki and Johnny look up as she jumps very high, with Cujo and Aki only slightly paying attention. Hekireki just looks for a few seconds before screaming out a few words that pretty much describe her feelings of the situation:

“JUST WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON!?”

As Hekireki yells this, the woman, still in the air, continues to hot-bloodedly scream as her sniper rifle is raised. Just when it looks like she's about to land, she points the sniper rifle at the screen, a little down and off to the left. (MUSIC: "creatures of the night" by Takkyu Ishino) As she starts to land, about a few feet off the ground, the woman fires her sniper rifle at Daisuke's mecha, a shell ejecting out of the rifle as a bright yellow flash of light goes straight for the right arm of Daisuke's mecha. Just as fast as this woman fired the gun, Daisuke's arm is hit with an explosion that causes it to flinch back, but not before damaging it a little.

Daisuke grits his teeth inside the mecha's cockpit, either angered that his mecha got hit, or that he's actually feeling the pain the mecha is. It's hard to tell. “D*mnit! That little b*tch hit me!” After a second he looks back out the screen to see if there's anything else. He's instantly surprised by the woman rushing right at the mecha and jumping on his cockpit. While in the air, she does a semi-backflip, travelling upwards while upside-down, pointing her sniper rifle right at Daisuke's mecha, its “head” turned upwards to see her better. Daisuke, his head turned upwards as well, smirks from inside of his cockpit. “Aww, you think you have the advantage...” Daisuke's smirk turns into an evil grin. “Well we'll see about that!” Daisuke brings his head back to level position and grips the handles for his mecha on either side of him again. “ACTIVATE DEATH SPEED MODE!”

Suddenly, the green light within Daisuke's mecha's 'eye' starts glowing red. It then quickly turns around to face the woman, who's viewing the mecha from the POV of her rifle scope, the target pointed at the mecha's 'eye'. “Now!” The woman fires at the mecha, but the mecha quickly disappears, causing the shot the woman fired to hit the ground instead. The woman reacts, surprised to see her shot fail, growling slightly. “Sh*t!”

The woman starts to go back down to the ground, preparing to land on the cockpit of Iva's mecha. She reacts a little roughly, shaking her head before looking straight at the woman. “Hey, whaddaya think you're doing!?” It's too late, as the woman lands on the “head” of Iva's mecha, crouching as she quickly takes two bullets out of her cargo pants and puts them into her sniper rifle. From Iva's POV, she has a nice view of Shiho's rounded, yet clothed, butt through her cockpit window. “Hmm~... Nice ass...”

Shiho then jumps off Iva's mecha heading towards Daisuke's, over near the edge of the crater, on the other side of where Iva was. The woman points her sniper rifle at Daisuke, looking very, VERY pissed off. She fires again, but Daisuke's mecha disappears again, just as quickly. “Huh?” The woman looks up in immediate confusion.

Suddenly, Daisuke's mecha appears right behind her, about to swat her away with its left arm. “Too slow, girlie!” Daisuke's mecha swats the woman away, as she reacts with a scream. She doesn't fall to the ground though. She skids on the street as she's thrown past the crater, point her gun at Daisuke's mecha again. She fires yet again, but Daisuke's mecha disappears again, two seconds after her shot. A second afterwards, he reappears again, pointing his injured but functional, missile-loaded right arm at her.

“Sh*t!” The woman says after Daisuke fired the missile right at her. She jumps onto the missile, and jumps into the air again, landing on the “head” of Daisuke's mecha.

As the woman crouches down on the mecha and reloads her rifle with two more bullets, Daisuke raises his head as he speaks to her. “You like my technique? It's called 'Death Speed', and it enables me to move my mecha at any speed.” Daisuke lowers his head, still smirking. “It's a rather impressive technique if I say so myself. This mecha was built solely for that type of defense.”

The woman stands up. “Oh yeah?” She takes her gun and points it at the joint connecting Daisuke's mecha's right arm to its body. “Defend THIS!”

The woman fires her sniper rifle, breaking off the joint connecting the right arm. The arm falls off, but not boringly. Instead, it's blown away by an explosion of orange and white, affecting the joint and arm only. Daisuke reacts rather angrily from inside the cockpit. “Oh, GODDAMNIT!!!”

The woman then jumps off Daisuke's mecha, turns around in mid-air, and does a back-flip, her sniper rifle aimed point-blank at the mecha's “eye”. The woman smirks before firing, and the shot she fires doesn't break through the cockpit, but causes the visual of the outside to go all staticky, accompanied with a rocking from the preceding boom. Daisuke starts to fall back in his mecha while he screams. On the outside, an explosion of white, yellow, and orange comes from what was the “eye” of the mecha. After it falls on its back, the woman jumps out of the smoke surrounding it and runs right for Iva's mecha, reloading her rifle in the process. Iva turns her mecha around to look at this woman, and she scowls as she looks right at it. “You little b*tch...” Iva grips onto the handles inside her mecha, causing its hands to rise up... “Time to put a girl like you in her place!” …and points them at the woman. The fingers in the hands open up, transforming into machineguns, and start firing wildly at the woman. This woman dodges all the bullets by running around them, following it up by jumping in the air and shooting twice at the top of the “head” of Iva's mecha, causing indentations and minor exploslions, but nothing to actively destroy it. The force of the explosions rocks Iva's cockpit, causing a bit of screaming from her. She automatically yells back from above her. “Oh, it's ON now!” She grips the handles she's holding onto harder. “ACTIVATE DE-” Suddenly, a look of dumbfoundedness appears on her face. “Oh wait, I don't have that, do I?” Suddenly, the cockpit is rocked by two more explosions, causing the same reaction from Iva. Only the second one causes the visual from outside the cockpit in front of her to go staticky like Daisuke's.

The woman lands on the ground, reloading her sniper rifle yet again. “Just as I thought. Another weakling. Guess I'll have to be tough on this one.” The woman runs at Iva's mecha again, screaming hot-bloodedly all the way as she jumps in the air again.

Iva tries yelling back at the woman from inside her cockpit, implying that despite losing visuals, she hasn't lost any audio. “Hey, who're you calling weak?” She's interuppted by another explosion, causing her mecha to fall back. The woman, in the air with her sniper rifle pointed at the mecha, smirks as she hot-bloodedly screams again, doing a flip as she throws herself towards the glowing green core in the middle of the mecha, her gun pointed right at it. She fires a single shot, hitting it point-blank, but the explosion is delayed until the woman herself hits it, going straight through it. The resulting explosion is orange with shades of red, yellow, and white. After having landed, the woman immediately runs before the mecha completely hits the ground. She stops and starts reloading again. From inside her defunct mecha's cockpit, Iva tries to get up. “Sh*t...” She forces open the front of her cockpit and pokes her head and upper torso out, talking into a walkie-talkie the size of one from back in the '80s, only silver. “Hey, Kichirou! Can you hear me?”

Inside Kichirou's fully functioning cockpit, covered with smoke, obscuring his features, listens to Iva over the loudspeaker inside his cockpit. “Oh, what the hell, of course you can. Look, you see that girl over in front of your mecha? Try hitting her with your 'Smoke Bomb'! That'll be sure to take her out!” Kichirou nods his head and takes the cigarette out of his mouth, sticking it in a full ashtray in front of him. He grips onto the handles beside him, and presses the buttons up top. That turns the screen before him black. The area on the mecha's “head” surrounding its “eye” starts to become more apparent, showing a circular shape. The “head” lowers itself slightly and the circular opening opens up, resulting in a thick stream of secondhand smoke to shoot out of the cockpit right towards the woman.

“Huh?” The woman looks right at the Smoke Bomb coming towards her. “Sh*t!” The woman runs out of the way of the Smoke Bomb and tries running to the back of Kichirou's mecha. But Kichiro's mecha turns around, dragging the Smoke Bomb it's attack with along with it. The woman tries to outrun the Smoke Bomb, jumping up in the air to escape it. Kichirou's mecha raises its head, moving so the Smoke Bomb moves closer to the woman, soon englufing her. From inside his mecha, Kichirou smiles. “You think that attack would stop me!?” The woman's voice causes Kichirou's smile to fade again. The Smoke Bomb stops firing, and the woman breaks through the smokescreen, pointing her sniper rifle right at Kichirou. Kichirou reacts rather coolly, lowering his head as he presses a button on the control panel in front of him. Kichirou, as well as his pilot's seat are surrounded by a smaller white sphere within the cockpit, labeled '脱出莢' or 'ESCAPE POD'. The smaller sphere jets up and out of the mecha's “head” as the eye shows up again. The woman fires at it twice, first causing a small explosion, following it up by a bigger one, englufing her entirely.

Back near the tipped-over convenience store, the four have been watching all that has happened. Cujo doesn't react, Aki shows a partially open mouth, and both Hekireki and Johnny have their jaws dropped.

Hekireki speaks first. “What the...? What just happened?”

Johnny speaks after. “That woman... She's so reckless.”

Hekireki goes back to normal, scooting in a little so she can take a better look. “You think she's dead?”

Johnny shakes his head, going back to normal as well. “Beats me.”

Back near the explosion, which is pretty **alf** big now, someone is seen walking out of it. It is the woman, her hands by her sides and her sniper rifle on her back. She's wearing her serious face. She walks away from the explosion behind her like its nothing, reaching the very edge of the crater, and grabbing onto part of the tipped-over convenience store's foundation, using it as sort of a ladder to climb up. (MUSIC END) She reaches the top, resting her arms on the current top of the building. “Are all of you alright?”

Johnny nods, smiling slightly. “Yeah, of course.”

Hekireki nods, showing more of a small scowl, like she's still confuseed and freaked out by the whole thing. “Definitely.”

The woman smiles, closing her eyes (^_^) “Good!” She turns to Cujo and Aki. “And you two?”

Aki reacts first, rubbing the back of his head “Oh, I'm perfectly fine!”

Cujo raises his hand slightly. “Same here.”

“Perfect.” The woman gets up onto the “top” of the convenience store and jumps in through the shattered door, hitting the current “floor”, the one Toshio was pressed up against previously. She crouches down and picks up the unopened bag of kaki-pi and Johnny's “Young Record” magazine. After grabbing those two things, the woman looks up and jumps up out of the door. Hekireki and Johnny look up in amazement as the woman lands back on the “top” of the store. She hands the “Young Record” to Johnny. “Here ya go.”

“Oh...” Johnny uses one hand to grab his magazine. “Thank you very much!”

The woman smiles back. “No problem.” She stores the bag of kaki-pi in her cargo pants and reaches her hand out towards Hekireki.

Hekireki reacts to the woman's offer in a way that isn't really all that kind. “Eh? What's your deal? I'm not gonna hold your hand! I don't even know who the hell you are!”

The woman sighs, realistically sweatdropping. “I'm just trying to help you out of here, god!” The woman grits her teeth as she says the last part of her sentence quietly but with more emphasis.

“Alright, fine! Geez...” Hekireki reluctantly takes the woman's hand, causing the woman's annoyance to turn back into a sort of happiness.

“That's good.” The woman holds onto Hekireki's hand as she supports herself, getting out of the convenience store and onto the top of it. The woman jumps down, dragging Hekireki, who screams in reaction down with her. The woman lands, with Hekireki landing too. The woman, looking a little concerned, holds a pissed-off Hekireki's hand with both of her own. “I didn't hurt you any, did I?”

Hekireki forces her hand away from the woman, and yells at her. “No, but I would have if you didn't act so reckless!”

(MUSIC: “who dat girl” by Takkyu Ishino)

The woman puts up her hands, shaking them as she realistically sweatdrops again. “Hey, I'm sorry about that. There's no need to get angry at me.”

Hekireki looks at her again, yelling even more. “Oh, really!? There's no need for me to be angry at you!? I said before, I don't even know you!”

The woman reacts to this, unfazed by Hekireki's comments, brushing her own hair off to the side. “You should know plenty from what I just did back there.”

Hekireki backs up, showing more annoyance and a little less anger. “Yeah? Well some weirdo sniper chick with superhuman abilities doesn't really say much about you.”

In the background, Johnny gets up and out of the store, jumping down onto the ground. Aki and Cujo do just the same.

The woman sighs. “Okay, if you're really that anxious to know who I am,” She said as she shrugged, “I might as well just go ahead and tell ya.”

Hekireki reacts some more. “So what are you waiting for? Spill it!”

Johnny approaches Hekireki from behind, softly putting his hand on her shoulder. “C'mon, coz. There's no need to yell...”

“Fine, fine...” The woman turns so that she's facing Johnny, Hekireki, Cujo, and Aki. “If it's that important for you to know about me, my name is Shiho Katsurada. And if you don't remember, I just saved your ass from those mechas back there.” She points behind her to the wreckage within the crater.

Cujo reacts first. “Mechas?”

Aki reacts next, rubbing the back of his head. “Yeah, speaking of which, where did they come from?”

“Those mechas back there belong to Ryudis. Your government apparently put a bounty on my head or somethin', and is doing all they can to get it.”

Johnny moves in a little, his hand on his chin. “Really? Very interesting...”

Hekireki, her arms crossed, turns to Shiho. “Do they have names or something?”

Shiho shakes her head. “Not that I'm aware of. I decided to call them 'Shirotero' for the time being.”

“Shirotero?” said Johnny, a little confused.

“Shirotero. It means 'White Terror', which is basically what they are.” She looks back. “They come in two kinds: standardized with machineguns as their only offense, or custom, which act as either defense like that 'Death Speed' one, or offense like that 'Smoke Bomb' one.” She turns back. “You can disable them by shooting the power source in the mecha's 'eye', but hitting the engine in its stomach area totally incapacitates it.” Shiho sighs in a slightly disappointed manner. “Sadly, the engines of the standard Shirotero are the only ones that are visible.”

“Who's bright idea of a design was that?” Aki replied, snarkily.

Shiho shrugs. “Beats me. Probably whoever designed it, I guess.”

“Wait!”

“Huh?”

Shiho turns to Hekireki, who points at her a little threateningly. “You said that your last name was Katsurada, like that kid who was with us earlier, right?”

Shiho nods in response. “Mhm. The exact same.”

“Well, what's your relation to him!?” Hekireki tightens her grip on the bag on her back, moving in closer towards Shiho. “His wife? His sister? His mother!?”

Shiho smirks. “Hn. Not even close. It's pretty complicated, but in a way, me and Toshio are the same person.”

Hekireki's jaw drops a little more, showing her sudden disbelief. “W-w-what the...”

Johnny turns to Shiho. “Wait, you're saying that you're actually Mr. Toshio?”

“Not exactly.” Shiho lowers her head, shaking it. “I'm not really him in retrospect. I'm more like a split personality than anything else.”

Johnny blinks, a little confused. “Split personality?”

Hekireki forms a fist in her right hand, holding it up for Shiho. “So you really ARE that perverted kid!”

Shiho shakes her head again. “I said before, it's not like that.”

“QUIT LYING, YOU LITTLE B*TCH!” Hekireki throws her punch at Shiho, hitting her square in the jaw. Shiho bleeds a little from her mouth as she hits the ground, Hekireki standing over her with some steam coming off her fist. She breathes heavily, then calms down and walks away. “C'mon, let's go back.”

Johnny starts running after her. “Hey, wait! Hekireki, what in the bloody hell do you think you're doin', walking away like that?”

Hekireki stops and turns around. “You already know! I've been dragged into something that I don't even want to be a part of! You forced me to admit my problem, you goaded me into listening into that kid yesterday... What do you think you're going to do about that creeper chick back there?” Hekireki points at Shiho, the latter attempting to get up off of the ground.

Johnny turns back to Hekireki. “Well, you could be a little nicer to her.”

“HOW CAN I!? I don't know whether I should trust her or not!”

“You probably should.”

“Why?”

“Well...” Johnny turns around to see Shiho standing up and walking over towards them, wiping the blood from her mouth. “She's the only one here who knows what's going on. She claims that she's part of Mr. Toshio, and he was the one who was leading us... Maybe she can lead us for now?”

Hekireki stands there for a little while before sighing in defeat. “Fine.” Hekireki walks over to Shiho. “Okay, you win.”

Shiho blinks in confusion. “Win what?”

Hekireki points her finger at Shiho. “You know what I mean, girl!”

“It's Shiho.”

“Whatever! Just go ahead and take us to the KIGUMA or whatever, I don't really care anymore!”

Shiho immediately cheers up, shaking Hekireki's hand, much to her surprise. “Perfect!” Shiho starts to run around the edge of the crater to the street on the other side, taking Hekireki with her. “Go ahead and follow me, 'k?”

“Hey, let go of me!”

Johnny notices Shiho running off and starts running after her, holding onto Cujo's hand. “Oi, wait up, girls!”

Cujo's reaction to being pulled is a little startling. “What the f*ck are you doing!?”

Aki just opts to follow them at a standard pace. As soon as they get to the other side of the crater with no current threat in sight, the current groups slow down. Shiho and Hekireki slow down first, followed by Johnny and Cujo right behind them. While Johnny still holds onto Cujo's hand, Hekireki forces her hand away from Shiho's. “For someone who's supposed to be a competent leader, you sure are touchy-feely, y'know that?”

Shiho looks ahead, her hands in her pockets. “There's no need to point out stuff like that, Mistress.”

“What was that!?”

Shiho giggles in response. “Oh, nothing...”

第2話

フーズザットガール

Episode 2

Who's That Girl?

(MUSIC END)

[Poke_Nirvash]

The scene switches over to the hacking room within the Ryudis Government Building, where Natsuko and Kataoka were in the previous episode. Natsuko is seen tying on the keyboard in front of her. Kataoka leans in to see the screen. “So? Have you got a signal up yet, Natsuko?”

Natsuko looks back, a little annoyed. “I'm trying to, sir! Just be patient!”

Natsuko resumes typing, causing Kataoka to realistically sweatdrop. “You don't have to be so aggressive...”

“Got it.”

Kataoka looks up, surprised. “You did?”

Natsuko nods. “I hacked into a nearby security camera, and it seems that all of the pilots we sent out are fine. Mr. Takahashi's mecha looks just okay, save for a missing arm and a currently unoperative power source, but its engine seems to be intact. Ms. Izumi is alive and well, but her mecha has been destroyed. Mr. Shuuta is also fine. His mecha is currently unoperative like Mr. Takahashi's.”

“Wait, how do you know that Shuuta's alive?”

“I noticed his escape pod.”

“But what about Takahashi? Is he alright?”

“I can't tell, sir.”

Kataoka growls under his breath as Natsuko continues typing. “Okay, then. Send out a grappling craft to help load their mechas' parts onto the transport copter.”

Natsuko stops typing. “It's been done, sir.”

(MUSIC: “rise down” by Takkyu Ishino)

The scene switches to back where the pilots and the crater were before. The setting is the mid-afternoon, with the sun in the middle of the sky. The sky itself is still pretty blue, but it is a little cloudier. The central focus is on Daisuke's mecha, which is still lying on the ground, missing its arm. After five seconds or so, the no-longer-functioning “eye” of the mecha is kicked off. Daisuke tries to make his way out of the mecha's cockpit by getting through the hole he made by kicking off the “eye”. He manages to get through mostly, getting his head, arms, and the majority of his upper torso out. After struggling for a second, he punches the outside area of the cockpit with both his fists, extremely frustrated. “Goddamnit!” Daisuke heavily breathes for a few seconds before someone steps up on the mecha, forming a shadow over him. Daisuke looks up, still frustrated, but a lot less so. “Huh?”

The person there lends his hand out. Standing there above Daisuke is Kichirou, smiling rather kindly. A better look at him shows that his shaggy shoulder-length blond hair is bleached, and his glasses are obscuring his eyes. He's smoking a cigarette, the smoke drifting off the cig into the air.

“Kichi...” Daisuke grabs onto Kichirou's hand and gets out of the makeshift opening in his mecha's cockpit, stepping onto the surface. Kichirou leads Daisuke right off of the cockpit, much to Daisuke's intial surprise. But Daisuke just willingly goes along with it, standing beside Kichirou as they reach the ground. The two look up to see what looks like a giant claw-grabber clutching onto Daisuke's mecha. They look up a little more to see that the claw-grabber is connected to the bottom of what looks like a grey helicopter with a smaller cockpit and more machinery on the bottom. It flies off and up in the air towards the transport copter (the aircraft the pilots flew in on in the previous episode), taking Daisuke's mecha with it.

“So that's the grappling craft they sent out to help us, I bet?”

Kichirou nods in response.

“Hey, guys! Over here!”

Iva's voice quickly grabs Daisuke and Kichirou's attention. “Huh?” The two of them turn in the firection the grappling craft is travelling at, to see Iva standing near the left-side entrance of the transport copter (or rather, the entrance behind the main one, leading to what looks like a small hangout room for the pilots), waving her hand to get their attention. She quickly gets in the entrance, which Daisuke notices quickly. “Hey, wait! Don't leave without us, Iva!” Daisuke runs toward the transport copter with Kichirou following suit. Inside the hangout room, Iva sits on one a steel bench opposite the entrance she just went in. Daisuke runs up to that entrance and puts his arms in the way of the entrance. “What did you think you were doing?”

“Chill out, Daisuke. The grappling craft needs more time to load our mechas onto the copter. You had plenty of time to catch up.”

“Well don't surprise me like that again!” Daisuke gets in the entrance and walks over towards the opposite end of the hangout room, going into narrow hallway off to his right, a sliding door on the wall to his left leading into what seems to be a changing area.

“Oh, c'mon! It was just in case we didn't have the time!” As Iva says this, Kichirou boards the copter and sits next to her, taking out his Nintendo DS, silver in color.

Daisuke steps into the changing area, zipping down the front of his piloting suit, showing off a bit of his chest. “Well, I can buy that. How long until we get back to headquarters?”

“About 2 hours or so, but the grappling craft still needs to load our mechas, and who knows how long that'll take!”

Daisuke presses a button on on the wall in the changing room... “Hopefully long enough for me to change.” …and the door closes.

Iva looks up at the ceiling, as Kichirou continues to play his DS. “I dunno, it may take longer...”

(MUSIC END)

The scene switches to later in the day, at about 7PM. The sun is setting and the sound of birds making their noises can be heard as they fly off in the distance. Walking down the street of a suburban subdivision full of long grass, dead plants, and wrecked cars, is the group of Kiguma-seekers. Shiho is in the lead looking determined as normal. Following behind her is Hekireki, still a little pissed at Shiho; followed by Cujo, walking without an expression as he holds the case for his bass in his hand, since Johnny is resting on his back, his arms wrapped around him; and in the tail behind is Aki, still walking with his hands in his pockets, wearing the same expression he always is.

Johnny is the first to speak up. “How long have we been walking?”

“About 9 hours,” Shiho replies, looking back at Johnny, “8 if you skip the stops we took.”

“There was only one stop, and that was just to grab a bite to eat!”

Cujo sighs. “And yet you're still too f*ckin' tired to keep followin' this b*tch on your own two feet...” Cujo then looks up at Shiho. “By the way, when the f*ck are we gonna find a place to stop and sleep for the night?”

Shiho smirks as she turns and walks up flight of outdoor steps, leading up to the end of an elevated dead-end street. “It'll come up in just a couple of minutes.”

“Are you sure about it this time?” Hekireki said in response.

“Definitely.” Shiho reaches the top of the steps and looks in front of her, smiling a little more. “Here we are.”

“Where?”

(MUSIC: “ORENJI SUNSET” by Takkyu Ishino)

Right before Shiho are two different suburban houses on either side of the street. Both look the same: an entrance surrounded by an elevated wall with plants on top, two stories, with a small enclosed yard/garden in the back. They look small enough to have two bedrooms each at most, but big enough to fit three or four people.

“These houses here are where we're going to be staying for the night.”

“Are you sure? They look like they already belong to somebody.” says Aki.

“There's no need to worry about it. This area's been uninhabited for a while now. It's strange... all the people just up and left, and didn't even bother to take their belongings with them... Like their food and their beds... It's like they didn't even want them.”

Cujo looks at Shiho confusingly, taking Johnny off of his shoulders. “Wait, how long did you say this place was empty?”

“About a month or so. I can't remember the cause of what forced them to leave, but I'm 100% sure they left without taking a single thing.” Shiho turns around to face the others. “Now, then. These two houses here are the safest to your health in this entire neighborhood. *points to her left* The men can take the house on the right, *points to her right* and the women can take the house on the left.” Shiho puts her hands on her hips. “There are two bedrooms in the men's house, and one bedroom in the women's. The same number goes for the bathrooms. *smirks* We clear on that?”

Aki responds first. “Yeah, I guess...”

Cujo replies next. “Sure, why not?”

Johnny replies afterwards. “Just so I can rest peacefully tonight...”

Hekireki replies last. “Well, I guess it's fine...”

“Perfect!” Shiho steps out of the way, waving her hand towards the rest. “See you all tomorrow morning!”

(MUSIC END)

The three men there start walking into their respective house, Johnny walking very closely to Cujo as Aki follows from behind.

“So, Cujo, how about we share a bed tonight?”

“What? You shared my bed last night! Can't you sleep somewhere else?”

“Well, I'm not sleeping on the couch OR with that jerk following us!”

Aki reacts like he's offended or something, scoffing in response. “Please! Like I'D ever sleep with YOU!”

While all of this goes on, Hekireki watches from the outside of her respective house, showing a small smile and a bit of laughter under her breath. This small moment of joy for her is interrupted as Shiho grabs her hand, changing her expression to one of disgust and fear... or something like that. Shiho, on the other hand, looks ecstatic. “What are you doin' standing around out here? Let's go inside so we can do, oh, you know...”

Just as Shiho pulls her onto the top step, Hekireki turns around... “NO WAY!” and kicks Shiho square in the stomach, (MUSIC: “Angelic Thunderstorm” by Takkyu Ishino) knocking her down on her butt out in the street where they were before.

Shiho gets on her knees and looks up at Hekireki as she rubs her injured ass. “Hey! What was that for?”

Hekireki stands at the top of the steps, crossing her arms menacingly. “Oh, you don't know? You probably haven't gotten the hint that I don't like you!” Hekireki lets out a somewhat evil smirk. “Not to mention that we're NOTHING like that, understand?”

Shiho quits rubbing her sore area and puts her other hand on the ground, making it look like she's on all fours. “Can't I just come in there with you? I'm a girl too, you know!”

Hekireki lets out a pretty impressive, yet short, evil laugh. “Oh, please! You call yourself a girl!? You said yourself that you and that smart-assed kid were the exact same person! You aren't worthy of being in here, or going into that other house!” Hekireki leans in slightly, her breasts jiggling a little as she puts her hands on her hips. “Freaks of nature like you deserve to sleep out here in the cold!” Hekireki turns around, walking into the house. “See you in the morning!” She says this rather evilly as she slams the door behind her, (MUSIC END) leaving Shiho at the edge of the steps up to that house on all fours, her eye twitching as she contemplates what Hekireki said earlier.

“F-F-Freak of nature?”

END OF ACT I

The setting switches to later in the night. We can't see it outside right now, but the current scene states otherwise: the shower in the bathroom of the house Hekireki's staying in for the night, running as she stands there in the shower, naked, with her arms crossed, concealing her chest as the water coming from the shower head continues to spray water onto her, washing the last bits of soap from her hair, now a little wavy like it was the previous night. Hekireki reaches over to the faucet controlling the shower and turns it to the left, turning it off. Afterwards, she walks out of the shower room in her lingerie, a lacy red bra and matching panties, as she dries off her hair. “I don't get what that girl's deal is...” Hekireki throws the towel onto the rack back in the bathroom as she closes the door behind her, walking over to the queen-sized bed in the middle of the room, her transparent white babydoll nightgown lying on the sheets. “Just coming into my life, trying to get into my pants while acting like just as big a smartass as that perverted kid...” Hekireki picks up her babydoll and starts putting it on. “Then again, she is sort of a capable leader, and she saved me, Junichi, and those other two from those huge robots earlier today... Maybe I was a little too hard on her, leaving her out in the street like that...” As she finishes putting on her babydoll, the POV zooms out of Hekireki's window to show a small crack made by the blue curtains closing up the window.

(MUSIC: “unwilling mistress” by Takkyu Ishino)

Standing on the ledge outside Hekireki's window, her palms flat against the wall surrounding the window, Shiho is seen looking in through the crack made by the curtains in Hekireki's room from outside, where nightfall hit recently, from the looks of it. Shiho shows a perverted smile as her sight focuses on Hekireki. “Yes... Just like that...”

Shiho's view through the window shows Hekireki sitting on the bed, stretching her arms above her head, her breasts jiggling slightly as she does. This causes Shiho to grin even more, speaking to herself quietly. “I might not be allowed in there, thanks to you, but that won't stop me from spying on you like this! *dreamily sighs* She has such a magnificent body...” Shiho's spying is interrupted by a dog's barking. She looks down to see a stray brown dog barking at her from the street below. She turns around to face the dog, her palms still flat on the wall behind her. “Hey, be quiet!”

Shiho's slightly louder tone of voice grabs Hekireki's attention while she's stretching. She looks in the direction of the window, puzzled. “Hm? What was that?”

Outside, Shiho's attempt to make the dog stop barking only makes the dog bark louder. This angers Shiho who stands up and takes her hands off the wall, pointing her finger at the dog. “Hey! What did I tell you before, you mangy mutt!? BE QUIET!” As she points and yells at the dog, Shiho starts to lose her balance, about to fall off the edge of the window. She regains her balance, but looks back to see that she's about to crash in through the window behind her. “Sh*t!”

Back inside her room for the night, Hekireki continues stretching, but is interrupted by the sound of the window breaking and Shiho falling into her room, landing on her butt again. This sound nearly frightens Hekireki, turning towards the window with her hands held up to her chest. “Who's there!?”

On the floor, Shiho rubs her butt to eas her pain again. “D*mn... Why do I always have to land on my ass?” Shiho looks in the direction of Hekireki, who's really angry at Shiho's presence in her room. “Hm? Oh, hi there, Mistress.”

Hekireki, now even more angered, throws a punch at Shiho. “You dumbass!” She hits Shiho, who was starting to stand back up, right in the cheek, slamming her into the wall/broken window behind her. “You... What the hell are you doing in my room!”

Shiho stands back up, rubbing the back of her head. “Well, you see, I-”

“Don't go lying your way outta this, you freak!” Hekireki interrupts Shiho as she points her finger at her. “You were spying on me through that window! *smirks* Isn't that right?”

Shiho stops rubbing her head and looks back at Hekireki. “Wait, how'dja know?”

Hekireki scoots back a little, still on her knees. “Ha! Like you deserve to know! Now leave!”

Shiho smirks. “I don't think so.”

Hekireki scoots back a little more, her hands held up to her chest. “Eh?”

Shiho starts to crawl onto the bed, towards Hekireki. “It's rather cold outside, y'know? So I thought, maybe, just maybe...” Shiho crawls up towards Hekireki, their heads face to face, Shiho's a little lustful and Hekireki's a mixture of frightened and angry. “I could spend the night here with you.”

“I ALREADY TOLD YOU NO!” Hekireki kicks Shiho in her side with her left leg. In reaction, Shiho is knocked off the bed, hitting the floor before slamming up against the back of the wall, seemingly being knocked out. Hekireki turns around to face her, her arms crossed. “I already told you we're not like that, you understand? Now go ahead and leave already!”

“M-M-More...”

“What?”

Shiho tries to stand up, holding onto the wall behind her as support. “The words you say... Sure, they hurt a whole lot... But the way you yell at me...” Shiho crosses her arms over her chest. “It turns me on more than anything else!” Shiho starts walking over to Hekireki again, freaking her out even more. “So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and yell at me some more, my Mistress...”

Once Shiho puts her hand back on the bed, Hekireki throws another punch at Shiho, aimed at her chest. “I AM NOT YOUR MISTRESS!” Hekireki's punch hits Shiho right in her chest, causing her breasts to slightly bounce as she falls back onto the floor.

Shiho quickly turns over and starts supporting herself, showing a small nosebleed. “Yes! Just like that! Hit me some more!”

Hekireki stands up, more pissed off than she's ever been. “NO WAY!” She grabs Shiho by the D-ring on the collar around her neck, pulling her behind her as she walks out the door. “Looks like I'll have to do this myself...”

Shiho looks in front of her as she's led out, Hekireki starting to drag her down the stairway leading from the entrance up to the second floor. “Wait, what are you doing, Mistress?”

Hekireki evilly smirks again. “You should know what I'm doing, you little b*tch!”

“But I-”

Hekireki stops at the end of the stairs and opens the door... “GET OUT!” ...and throws Shiho in front of her, right out the door. Shiho screams as she's thrown out onto the street on her side, looking up to see Hekireki standing at the door. “AND STAY OUT!” Hekireki slams the door to the house shut. (MUSIC END) She turns around and starts brushing her hands together, trying to get whatever she got on them, physically or mentally, off. She then smirks as she puts her hands on her hips, walking up the stairs as she answers her question to herself from earlier. “Nope! Masochistic lesbian freaks like her deserve to stay outside like wild animals!” She starts to evilly laugh under her breath.

Outside, Shiho is on the ground, looking back at the house Hekireki's staying in as she rubs her cheek in pain. “What was that all about? Mistress is really mean...”

“Hey, you.”

“Huh?” Shiho turns around to see Aki standing outside the door to the house he, Johnny, and Cujo are staying in for the night. Shiho, a little confused, points a finger at herself. “Me?'

Aki responds in his default tone. “Yeah, you. Come inside with me. You must be getting cold lying around out here.”

[Poke_Nirvash]

(MUSIC: “never the same” by Takkyu Ishino)

Back inside the house the guys are staying in, Shiho is sitting on a couch in the living area, a coffee table before her. A bowl of stew with beef and potatoes (a spoon sticking out) is placed in front of her by Johnny. “Here you go.”

Johnny, wearing a pastel green apron over his pastel blue sweater, walks back out of the room. Cujo is in the couch perpendicular to Shiho's right, playing his bass guitar. Aki is sitting on the chair to Shiho's left. An oil lamp in the middle off the room is lighting the room up. Shiho picks up the bowl of stew. “Why'd you let me come stay here for the night? I told you I was going to sleep in the other house.” Shiho starts to eat the stew from the bowl.

Aki turns toward Shiho. “Face it: if you stayed back there for another hour with that red-headed chick, you were obviously gonna get yourself killed.”

Cujo chimes in. “Yeah. It's better to sleep here than outside or with Miss Thundert*ts back there.”

Shiho looks at Cujo confusingly after finishing another spoonful of the stew she received. “Thundert*ts?”

Johnny comes back in the room with two more bowls of stew. “That's the nickname Cujo gave Hekireki.”

Cujo strums his guitar again. “It really fits her, don'tcha think?”

Shiho picks up another spoonful of stew from her bowl. “I dunno. I think 'Mistress' is a lot more fitting than 'Thundert*ts.'” Shiho starts to eat her current spoonful.

Cujo turns back to his guitar, sighs, and resumes strumming. “Suit yourself.”

Johnny walks over to Aki and places one in front of him, glaring at him rather deviantly. “Here you are.”

Aki looks back at Johnny in his default expression, taking the bowl of stew into his hands. “Hmph. Thanks.”

As Aki starts eating the stew, Johnny turns to Cujo, holding the bowl of stew he has in two hands like he's expecting Cujo to take it from him. “Cujo, hon, you want any of this stew?”

Cujo looks back at Johnny. “No thanks. I don't wanna get any of that sh*t on Diablo2 here. How about you take my bowl instead?”

Johnny puts it on the table rather roughly, shaking his head and hands as a denial of Cujo's offer. “No way! I'm not gonna eat anything that came out of a Japanese cookbook!”

Shiho finishes another spoonful as she directs her attention towards Johnny and Cujo's conversation, Cujo talking back to Johnny. “Hey, c'mon! I'm trying to be nice for once here! Besides, I thought it was something British!”

“Oh really? For your information, British stews are a LOT MORE different than Japanese ones!” As Johnny responds to Cujo rather in a rather irritated manner, Shiho lightly smiles at enjoyment from their conversation. Not a smirk or a grin. Just a smile.

An unknown amount of time passes, switching over to the empty bowl of stew Shiho ate. Aki speaks up. “So, what's your deal?”

Shiho, relaxing with her arms behind her head, turns in confusion to Aki's question. “Hm? My deal?”

“Yeah, your deal. I mean, what's this whole thing with you and that kid we met yesterday being the same person?” Aki said in a serious manner.

Johnny, sitting on the arm of the couch Cujo's on, chimes in as well. “Yeah, I wanna know too!”

Cujo smirks. “Same here.”

Shiho sighs. “Well, I can't tell you a whole lot about my connections to Toshio, but I can tell you that we aren't the same person.”

“So you share his body, then?” Aki asks.

Shiho sweatdrops in embarassment. “Well, no, not exactly. I do share his body when I'm not the dominant personality. But when I do take control, my own personal body comes about, interior construction and all, while Toshio lies within my conscious.”

Johnny looks at Shiho. “That just makes it more confusing.”

Shiho shakes her head and hands in response to Johnny. “Look, never mind about the details. All you need to know about my deal is that I come out whenever Toshio is scared to death, and he takes control 24 hours after I take control.”

Aki replies in even more curiosity. “But what's the reasoning behind all of that? In fact how-”

Shiho puts her hands up, stopping Aki from speaking any further. “I'm not in the mood to talk about it. If I'm under any serious threat that might kill me, I'm sure Toshio will tell you every single detail.”

Aki nods. “Okay, but I still have one question.”

“And what's that?”

“What exactly is your problem?”

“Oh? My problem or Toshio's?”

Johnny replies instead of Aki. “I'd like to hear Toshio's.”

Cujo smirks. “Same here.”

Aki replies last. “Well, I was going to ask you to tell us both, but if they want to hear Toshio's so badly...”

Shiho laughs under her breath at Aki's response, but in good heart. “It's okay, I'll tell you my problem first.”

Aki backs up in his chair while Johnny sighs in disappointment, Cujo going back to playing his bass guitar. “Okay, so what is it?”

Shiho looks down on the ground, blushing lightly. “Well, at the start of our trip, I never really had a problem that needed solving.”

Aki: “Wha?”

Johnny: “Seriously?”

Cujo: “Figures.” (strums guitar string again)

Shiho continues looking down, blushing harder. “But ever since I came out for the first time in a long while... *closes eyes* I knew what I wanted the KIGUMA to make happen for me.

Aki leans in a little closer. “And what was that?”

Shiho opens her eyes again, her blushing increasing a little more. “To make Mistress love me.”

Aki backs up in his chair, visibly shocked and surprised. “S-S-Seriously!?”

Johnny reacts the same, only without the backing up. “You want the KIGUMA to make Hekireki love you!?”

Shiho nods. “Yes. And I wouldn't have it any other way.”

Cujo looks over at Shiho. “But what do you f*ckin' see in the girl? I mean, her temper's so short you can set it off without even trying... Not to mention that she really f*ckin' hates your guts!”

Shiho looks down, still smiling. “I don't care. I still love her, and in the end, I'll make her love me, KIGUMA or no KIGUMA.”

Cujo looks back and continues strumming his guitar. “Whatever.”

Aki leans back in towards Shiho, a little more calm than he was earlier. “So, enough about your... obsession. What's Toshio's problem, then?”

Shiho lowers her head and closes her eyes, sighing as her smile fades into seriousness. “I told you that I reside in Toshio's body when he's in control, right?” Aki nods. Shiho responds by letting out a small sigh. “Well, the problem that Toshio wants the KIGUMA to fix, the whole reason he started this journey to find it... it's that he wants me out of his body.”

Aki gasps in shock and awe. “No way.”

Johnny replies the same way. “Seriously?”

Shiho nods her head. “But it isn't like he wants to kill me. He enjoys my company. It's just... he doesn't want to live with the burden of me and him sharing bodies.”

“So it's like he wants to make you your own separate person, giving you your own body and conscious while he retains his own?”

Shiho nods again. “It's exactly like that. And he nor I will give up on our search until we find it and make our problems come true: my own personal body for him, a relationship without being forced to give up control every so often for me.”

Aki and Johnny just look on in awe at Shiho's explanation. She stays quiet for a few seconds (MUSIC END) before asking rather cheerfully “So, where can I sleep tonight?”

Aki and Johnny both facefault while Cujo just continues to sit there, strumming his guitar. Aki stands up slightly, adjusting his glasses as he looks at Shiho. “Well, we're all taking the bedrooms upstairs. Maybe you could sleep on that couch?”

Shiho starts lying down on the couch, making herself comfortable. “Yeah, that's a great idea! I don't really mind it at all.”

Johnny also tries standing up from his facefault. “Really? I thought it would be as cruel as sleeping outside.”

Aki looks back at Johnny angrily. “Hey, I said NOTHING like that!”

Johnny replies angrily as well. “I never said you did!”

Shiho lies on her back, looking up at the ceiling. “Well, I don't find anything wrong with sleeping outside. It's just that sleeping on the couch is more comfortable.”

Aki stands up, walking over towards the stairs leading up to the second floor, Johnny preceding ahead of him. “Well, suit yourself then. *raises hand* 'Night.” Cujo puts his guitar back in its case as Aki and Johnny walk away towards the stairs.

Shiho smiles quietly as she looks up at the ceiling. “'Night.”

(MUSIC: “butterfly swimmer” by school food punishment)

The scene switches to later in the night. Inside the house she's staying in, Hekireki is sleeping on the bed in the room she's staying in, slightly moving around in her sleep to get comfortable. She also starts lightly talking in her sleep too. “What's that girl thinking? I'm not her mistress... Hell, I'm nobody's mistress... I don't own anyone... Especially not her...”

Inside the other house, everyone else is sleeping fine. Aki is sleeping in the bed in the room he's staying in, wearing a loose-fitting black shirt with black pants. Inside the other room, Cujo is sleeping on the bed in the same position he was the other night. And just like the other night, Johnny is hugging onto his side, only this time, he's touching his chest in a rather romantic manner.

Down in the living area, Shiho, still on the couch, looks up at the ceiling, thinking to herself.

“It's always been the same for me. Once I gain control, I can't be stopped. It takes me so long to calm down. And sometimes, it takes a little too long. Those times, I have to give up control right after gaining full control of my actions. I swear, I'm gonna change all of that... Change it so I won't automatically attack somebody every single time I take over. To create an identity as my own person before it actually happens. I swear, I'm gonna make all that happen. For Toshio's sake. For everyone's sake. But especially... for Mistress' sake.”

Shiho closes her eyes and the screen cuts to black.

声の出演

桂田志保: 清水愛

エンゼル霹靂: 折笠富美子

石村『ジョニー』淳一: 小野大輔

中田『クジョー』久条: 小西克幸

宮崎亜紀: 杉田智和

片岡鉄平: 若本規夫

山本奈津子: 釘宮理恵

高橋大輔: 諏訪部順一

泉アイバ: 小清水亜美

リュディス所員: 儀武ゆう子

脚本: 濠沢彼太

原画: 荒川めぐみ  浅井悠可  たないあやこ  金田尚美  坂口竜太郎  輿石暁

        小原太一郎  赤松タケシ  室井康雄  斉藤和也  手塚響平  小園菜穂  近藤高光

        砂川正和  畑伸幸  植田均  柳沼和良  りょーちも

第二原画: 遊歩堂

              東裕子

             ラストハウス  東京アニメーションセンター  P.A. WORKS  Wish

動画検査: 岩長幸一

動画: ボンズ

         浅井悠可  高橋優  高田小知代  玉置敬子  増子裕美  朴好英

       Wish

         西田政司  中島香子  孫家隆  田津奈々子  林洋子  鈴木三音子  海岸麻由子

         山本洋平

       P.A. WORKS  ガイナックス  C2C  遊歩堂  STUDIO4℃  TYOアニメーションズ

       ufotable  武遊  スタジオぴえろ  M.S.C.  プロダクションリード  FAIインターナショナル

       アゼータピクチャーズ  Aniade

色指定/仕上検査: 加藤里恵

仕上げ: Wish

            土岐智子  笹愛美  寺島伸弥  牟田智美  奥井恵美子  鈴木美代子

特殊効果: 星美弥子

背景: GREEN

          平良亜以子  内藤絵利子  宮本わかな  小林美代子
        風動画文化発展有限公司

          ZHANG YUANZHEN  MA XIAOHONG  LI SHIJUN  LIU JINGWEI  HUANG LIUHUA

          ZHAO XINGNING  JUN JUNREN  BEN ZHOULIN  QIU LIBO  QIU HONGHUANG

3DCGI: オクティグラフィカ

             神林憲和  齋藤勝彦  増渕雅子  伊藤安利  桧山有可  林太郎

撮影: T2 Studio

         木村俊也  加藤千恵  加藤絵梨  田沢二郎  金珍熙  刀根有史

編集スタジオ: ウインズ

HD編集: キューテック

             深沢美津奈  藤田哲郎  入山真二

HD編集助手: 新井淳一

HD編集制作担当: 田畑孝之

録音調整: 野口あきら

録音助手: 松下春香

録音スタジオ: サウンドチームドンファン

音響効果助手: 西佐知子 (サウンドボックス)

音響制作担当: 好永伸恵

音響制作: フォニシア

エンディングテーマ:『butterfly swimmer』

                  歌: school food punishment

               作詞: 内村友美

               作曲: school food punishment

               編曲: school food punishment 江口亮

                      (エピックレコードジャパン)

挿入歌:『creatures of the night』

     歌: 石野卓球

   作詞: 石野卓球 フランクミュラー

   作曲: 石野卓球

          (ki/oon records)

オープニングアニメーション

  絵コンテ: 入江泰浩

  演出: 五十嵐卓哉

  作画監督: 柴田淳

  原画: 織田広之  山本尚志  赤松タケシ  コヤマシゲト  菊池聡延  石川健介  藤田まり子

         秋山英一  松田宗一郎  金子秀一

  背景: 大泉杏奈

  撮影: T2 Studio

エンディングアニメーション

  絵コンテ/演出: 京田知己

  作画監督: 水畑健二

  原画: 菊池聡延  水畑健二  コヤマシゲト

  背景: 永井一男

  撮影: T2 Studio

キャラクタークリエイティブチーム: 濠沢彼太  kohikki  千頭悪戸  ボクサ  mg天使

                                     cid猫

設定交渉: 小倉信也

モニタデザイン: 海老川兼武

アシスタントプロデューサー: 松本美穂

宣伝プロデューサー: 瓜生恭子

宣伝: 安藤ひと美  柴田亜矢  小森健一

プロモーション協力: 博報堂DYメディアパートナーズ

セールスプロモーション: 小野木航

編成: 関谷祐輔  田村健彦

協力: 亀田製菓株式会社

制作デスク: 天野直樹

設定制作: 和田純一

制作事務: 中村真樹子

制作進行: 田中啓一郎

作画監督: 中田栄治

絵コンテ/演出: 宮地昌幸

アニメーション制作: bones

                      KINEMA CITRUS

製作: bones  毎日放送

       きぐま求職者連合

         キネマシトラス  博報堂DYメディアパートナーズ  アニプレックス

3The scene switches over to an aircraft landing bay on the top of one of the buildings connected to the main Ryudis Governmental Building. Walking out of the transport copter which has just landed are Daisuke, Kichirou, and Iva. All three of them are no longer wearing their piloting outfits. Daisuke is wearing a dark blue blazer over a grey T-shirt, accompanied by business suit pants and slacks. Kichirou is wearing a grey hoodie, the hood pulled down, with blue jeans and sneakers. Iva is wearing a fire-red hoodie, unzipped, showing a loose-fitting white tanktop underneath, as well as faded jeans, and sandals. While the three are walking from the transport copter, Daisuke raises his arms into the air, stretching. “Man, it sure is nice to be back!”

Iva looks over at Daisuke. “Why do ya wanta relax so much? This morning you were so ecstatic to use your mecha out on the battlefield today.”

Daisuke lowers his arms and looks back at Iva. “Hey, maybe I just feel like relaxing once in a while. I mean, that sniper chick wrecked our mechas pretty bad. Especially yours, Iva.”

Iva lowers her head, a little jaded. “Don't remind me.”

Daisuke turns his head back, looking straight toward where they're going, which is unknown. “Just sayin'.” He then notices the expression on Kichirou's face, which is rather angry, emphasized by how he's angrily smoking his cigarette. Daisuke turns to him a little concerned. “Hey, Kichi, what's with that look on your face?”

Iva turns to Kichirou, a little cocky in her attitude. “What's the matter, mutey? Pissed off cuz you lost on that little game of yours?” Kichirou responds by hitting Iva in the back of the head with a rather hard dope-slap with his fist. Iva is visibly annoyed by this and turns to Kichirou, angrily yelling at him. “HEY, WHAT THE F*CK'S YOUR PROBLEM, YOU LITTLE SH*T?”

Daisuke stops and turns towards Iva, trying to fake a smile. “C'mon, Iva. Kichi'll calm down in a little while if you stop acting so hard towards him.”

Iva stops and turns toward Daisuke, as Kichirou stops too. “You know I can't help it if I'm a b*tch once in a while.”

As Iva replies to Daisuke, a woman in her 20s walks out of the door in front of them leading into the Ryudis Governmental Building. She has brown hair going down to her shoulders, brown eyes, and is wearing a white suit with a gold trim just like Kataoka, but is wearing a skirt instead of pants and knee-high boots instead of work shoes. Her suit also shows a bit of cleavage. “Welcome back, Misters Takahashi and Shuuta and Miss Izumi.” She greets them by bowing before them.

Iva: “Hey.”

Daisuke: “Hello.”

Kichirou: (shows small smile while blowing some smoke out of his mouth)

Iva speaks up. “So, what are we supposed to do? Get back to work, or go home?”

The girl greeting them tilts her head to the side, smiling rather cutely. “Why, you can head straight home if you want!”

Iva puts her fists up in excitement as Daisuke side-glances at her, unimpressed. “Yes! Finally, some time to rest!”

The girl looks back at them, lowering her head as her smile fades. “Yes, but first, Prime Minister Kataoka wants to speak with you. Something about the failure of your mission this morning.”

The three pilots react in astonishingly different ways. Kichirou stands there unfazed by the whole thing, Iva stands there with her jaw dropped, stammering as she tries to understand what the girl has told her, and Daisuke facepalms, frustrated and speaking his whole opinion on the whole thing. “You've gotta be sh*tting me...”

つづく

TO BE CONTINUED

PREVIEW

(MUSIC: “Typeset Interface” by Takkyu Ishino)

Shiho: Six people searching for the cure to their problems. A shady government bent on putting a halt to the search by force. Between the two, who has the true advantage? Next time on KIGUMA, episode 3: Ryudis.

(MUSIC END)

[Poke_Nirvash]

So, there ends chapter two. I thought it was really fun to write, especially the mecha fight scene. I meant to finish this yesterday, but I ended up writing up the post-credits sequence this morning. At least I got it out tonight. Just like before, if you think what I wrote was good, or if you just feel like it, feel free to respond.

NOTES

TOTAL TIME: 24:29

JAPANESE VOICE CAST

Shiho Katsurada – Ai Shimizu

Hekireki Enzeru – Fumiko Orikasa

Junichi “Johnny” Ishimura – Daisuke Ono

Kujo “Cujo” Nakata – Katsuyuki Konishi

Teppei Kataoka – Norio Wakamoto

Natsuko Yamamoto – Rie Kugimiya

Daisuke Takahashi – Junichi Suwabe

Iva Izumi – Ami Koshimizu

Ryudis Staff – Yuko Gibu

ENGLISH VOICE CAST

Shiho Katsurada – Philece Sampler

Hekireki Enzeru – Michelle Ruff

Junichi “Johnny' Ishimura – Ethan Murray

Kujo “Cujo” Nakata – Steve Blum

Teppei Kataoka – Michael McConnohie

Natsuko Yamamoto – Cristina Valenzuela

Daisuke Takahashi – Crispin Freeman

Iva Izumi – Lauren Landa

Ryudis Staff – Rebecca Fordstadt

BOARD MEMBER COMPARISON (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)

Teppei Kataoka - PokeNirvash

Shiho Katsurada – PokeNirvash

Hekireki Enzeru – mgangel1124

Daisuke Takahashi – Kohikki

Iva Izumi – SenseAcct

Kichirou Shuuta – _Boxers_

Junichi “Johnny” Ishimura – Kohikki

Kujo “Cujo” Nakata – _Boxers_

Aki Miyazaki – SenseAcct

Natsuko Yamamoto - cidthekittyisfun

()() - Denotes two things happening/being said at the same time, but only if they are close to or are next to one another.

Rated TV-14DLV for suggestive dialogue, profanity, fanservice, mild sexual situations, blood, and intense violence

FOOTNOTES

1: The song is 6:08 in full. The version in this episode contains 0:00-0:16, 0:31-2:26, 4:50-5:32, and 6:01-6:04

2: “Diablo” is the name of Cujo's guitar.

3: This small, post-credits sequence is an allusion to the recent post-credits stingers that air at the end of series on MBS, such as Gundam 00 and FMA: Brotherhood.

And finally, lyrics for the insert song “never the same” (note: kanji/romaji/english):

あなたが言うその言葉/Anata ga iu sono kotoba/Those words that you say

彼らはただ逃すように見える/Karera wa tada nogasu you ni mieru/They just seem to slip away

毎日、移すを開始する/Mainichi, utsusu o kaishi suru/Everyday, you start to change

私はもうあなたがわからない/Watashi wa mou anata ga wakaranai/I don't know you anymore

移す, 移す, 物事移す必要があります/Utsusu, utsusu, monogoto utsusu hitsuyou ga arimasu/Changing, Changing, things must change

私はあなたが同じことを任せることはできない/Watashi wa anata ga onaji koto o makaseru koto ga dekinai/I can't let you do the same

人生、夢、永遠の幸福/Jinsei, yume, eien no koufuku/My life, my dreams, my everlasting happiness

私は何のために与えるされません/Watashi wa nan no tame ni ataeru saremasen/I won't give it away for anything else

記憶、未来、決して同じ/Kioku, mirai, kesshite onaji/Our memories, our future, they're never the same

私はあなたの行くも逃すなど任せることはできない/Watashi wa anata no iku mo nogasu na do makaseru koto wa dekinai/I just can't let go of you, even as I slip away

あなたの死の言葉と同じように/Anata no shi no kotoba to onaji you ni/Just like your dying words

逃げる恐ろしいしたい真実/Nigeru osoroshii shitai genjitsu/The horrible truth I wish to escape

[DangerHikky]

Crazy sniper lady is quite clearly crazy.
And she's fighting mecha on her own, without a mecha of her own. Betch is cray cray.
I enjoy the pilots though.
She gets a lot less insane when she's not fighting, I guess.
I really like the death speed ability you gave Daisuke's shirotero by the way. And the way you turned the smoke bomb thing into an actual offensive mechanism.
Poor Hekireki and her being the only sane person in a group of weirdoes.
Lols, I'm surprised Cujo didn't punch Johnny out for holding his hand. And riding on his back.
I still like the pilots. Poor Kichi, he's all quiet and stuff and Daisuke and Iva are loud-mouths.
Haaa, more Hekireki fanservice.
Oh lawded, Shiho totally is that perverted boy. >.>
D'aw, Cujo and Johnny are cute with their bickering.
Ahhha, So Shiho's like a defence mechanism.
I love how Aki and Johnny are like OMGNOWAI and Cujo's just "feh"
PBBBBBFFFFFFTTTTTTBBWAHAHAHAAHA Oh lordy. I guess in a way, it's sorta cute that the wish is for love, even though it's sort of weird masochistic love.
Oh Johnny, it's a good thing people can't beat you up when they're sleeping.
Mmkay, so Shiho's still a little cray cray in my book, but at least her heart's in the right place?
Heeeee, I love the pilots. I don't think Daisuke and Iva's bickering will ever get old.
D; Poor Kichi though.

Nice chapter, kiddo.

[Poke_Nirvash]

Thanks! I had a feeling it would turn out good.

And it's nice to know that you liked the ability I gave Daisuke's shirotero. You said you weren't good with mechas, so I decided to give you the custom ability for you. And, of course, Kichi's is the smokebomb. The abilities Iva has (mabe) will be explained in the next chapter.

One last thing... So you EXPECTED Cujo to beat up Johnny? Well, I guess I'll work that into the story later, but just for the moments where Johnny gets a little TOO friendly with Cujo. At a level that the boards can allow.

[DangerHikky]

Cujo, from his bio, seemed like the kinda guy who would deck ya if you looked at him the wrong way much less getting leaned on by some dude. Even if they are bandmates and what not.

I'm not saying I dislike the change, though.