This is a work of fiction. Names, characters,
places and incidents either are products of the
author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any
resemblance to actual events or locales or
persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
May 21st, 2010.
Darn, I lost again.
That's my 12th victory in a row!
You're still ten years too early to beat the Master.
One more time!
Please! Just once more!
60 seconds to go!
Hold on!
Hear that?! 60 seconds to go!
Akiho, Akiho!
Sleepy...
Her face seems troubled.
5... 4...
She's got a pig nose too.
3... 2...
Wake up! The rocket is gonna blast off!
1!
Amazing! It's amazing!
It took off!
Go, Hot Dog, go!
What's that?
A line from an old movie.
Kai, you should become a man who has The Right Stuff.
Four months passed before that incident happened.
Aki's late.
Behind the words passing by
The key of my closed heart is hidden
If setting your flag
Could save your smile
The late summer breeze
Turns into a midday squall
As we sync our wavelengths
I'm such a bad romantic
Can't even find
Any words with an edge
Still I aim for the blue sky
We can become one
As our dreams and confused tears
Draw us ever closer to the truth
That becomes our beloved
Magical keyword
Infrastructure
Human Resources
Funding
Let's build the giant robot of justice together!
As we lack technological cooperation in the Central Tanegashima High School Robotics club,
we request a 3-part partnership with JAXA.
Part 1: A facility to build the robot.
Part 2: Members of staff familiar with the industry.
Part 3: Adequate research funding.
A million at least.
A Million!?
Yes! We need that much at the very least!
I understand what you want to say.
But before that...
Dad needs to use the toilet!
No! You just want to evade your fate!
No, that's not it...
You're the president of the Tanegashima Space Center!
Why wouldn't it work out?!
My title is president, but it's just a middle-management job.
I still have to follow orders from above.
You're shedding any dignity you have as an adult and a parent!
Kai, say something, please...
The Robotics Club's GunPro-1 isn't just any robot!
It's the crystallization of two girls' dreams, in production since the days of Misaki!
I guess so...
Then let me talk it over with your mother.
Not her! You know she doesn't understand dreams and romance at all!
But you're different, Dad!
You have a burning fire within you,
and you reach for you dreams straight and pure.
I loved having a dad like that.
Akiho...
But I can't feel that spark or emotion from you now.
That makes me so sad!
So if you do have that spark,
then be the father I so loved and for our dream—
Hello?
Did you seriously go to your father's workplace just to beg for money?!
How shameless can you be?!
But...
There's no "but"!
He might be kind to you, but exploiting that is worse than—
Could this get any worse?
I almost blew her up with the Gunvarrel Ankh Striker.
Your demands are too extreme.
Not to mention that the TNSC is a rocket launch site.
I know! But JAXA has a space robotics division.
I told you before leaving that if you want the robotics division's help,
you'll have to go to Tokyo or Tsukuba.
All you have for me is quibbling?!
To me it sounds like the words of common sense...
Kai, you're taking Subaru's side?
And here I thought I'd let you pilot the GunPro-1....
What? I don't want that, definitely not.
Huh? But the pilots are the main stars! The heroes!
In which show?
I'd call that a living sacrifice.
You're so kind, Yashio.
I'd just quietly try to escape.
You two...
Very well!
Then I'll just use the money we won from the Robo-One,
and complete the robot by myself.
Listen closely.
I can't transfer the money.
I'm not talking about your wages. I mean the tournament prize!
I know.
Mitchie, do you want me to call the police?
What? You think I pocketed it?!
We're a public high school,
so the prize will be paid towards your club support fund next year.
Next year?!
Yeah, next April.
But we'll have graduated by then!
Unless you have to repeat a class.
Listen, younger Senomiya.
Don't call me "younger," Mitchie!
And you don't call me Mitchie!
You know, I—
CALL ENDED
CALL TIME
What should we do?
We still owe Doc too...
Giving up sounds like the only valid option to me.
And to me too.
I hate you two so much!
Kai?
I'm going home for today.
Sure, whatever.
Current location
Come here right away now!
This is...
Over there, right?
The Thunder Emperor?
Yashio, what are you wearing?
Listen now!
For times like this you wear your PE clothes so it won't be a problem if you get dirty!
That's Life 101!
I'm only here because someone called me.
I know.
I didn't know you knew Furugoori.
Furugoori?
Did you meet when we were in Tokyo the other day?
You impress me in a way...
Looks like it was just a prank. I'm leaving.
Stop!
Y-Y-You want to leave without helping... I've had enough of this island already.
Completely unacceptable.
You're... Frau Koujiro?
What's that? Your pen name or something?
So Furugoori is her real name?
Yeah, Furugoori Kona. She'll be transferring to our school tomorrow.
Kona...
W-Who uses cutesy names these days? Drop dead!
Giga yucky...
What's going on here again?
Let's get this done with, Yashio.
Get what done?
Moving, of course!
Damn principal...
Why do I have to help with a student's moving in?
Moving? Here?
I bought it all.
Who?
Me.
Hey, Yashio! Get over here!
I'm heading home.
If you want my help, defeat me in Kill-Ballad fir—
Remember that I provided you the p-programs?
Y-You should pay back your debts, duh.
I'm not a nice enough person to help you without expecting p-payback.
You want to remove the cockpit?!
The point of giant robots is that you ride them!
These blueprints are a decade old.
Nowadays, remote controlling is the norm.
We should get rid of this armor too.
That'd be uncool!
This robot's just too heavy.
As it is, it can't even walk.
Do you really want to take this piece of junk to the Expo?
Don't say it like that!
The GunPro-1 is the fruit of the past club members' hard work!
It's the history of the club itself!
We definitely can not stomp on all that!
So everything you just said is rejected!
Whatever. I just tried to fulfill my duty as a club member.
We can't... throw it away...
How's it going?
It couldn't be worse.
Then let me tell you it already is.
You remember the Space Candy I'm always eating? Guess who's the president of that company.
How should I know?
It's Mitchie's uncle!
I feel horrible just thinking that I was pouring my money into the Nagafukada family's pocket.
They should give some of it back.
Then I could use that for the club.
Thank you for the inte—
Praiseworthy as always.
Your legs are faulty?
It's just the usual maintenance.
I should at least do this much by myself.
15 years have passed since the crash, and I've been using these for 4 already.
They're working hard.
Misa sent you them, so you can't just throw them away either.
Hey!
I've brought you some food!
Huh?
Thx.
You totally look like a ghost.
What's this?
Skal. You don't see it in Tokyo, do you?
Thx.
Thx?
TY.
What?
Damn! You don't get it! Facedesk!
Whatever you say.
Anyway, I'm going home. You'll be fine by yourself?
The refurbishers are coming tomorrow.
Security is our greatest priority.
What if someone found my BL folder?
There's way over 1TB of that stuff... Ufufu.
If you want that, wouldn't you be better off in a normal house?
BUT I REFUSE!
The condemned look is moe as hell, duh.
Now just get me a hot half-naked guy, kthx.
How about your parents?
Make a thread about it.
Time to fap.
D-Dad's in Tokyo. I know that.
But M-Mom...
But Mom?
I'm back!
Subaru! I heard there was a robot tournament last week.
Really? Not that it's got anything to do with me.
I'm done with robots, after all.
Space Candy Co. Ltd.
Look at that! Mitsuhiko's teaching cuties like you?
He must be turned on during class all the time.
Come on, they're kids!
So vulgar... That's the Nagafukada family for you.
So... as for what we discussed earlier?
This whole sponsorship deal lacks impact.
What impact?
You know, like overflowing youth! Or explosive power!
Hooters! Hooters! Hohooters!
Yep, exactly like that!
Um, what are "hooters"?
Girls with huge knockers!
Uncle, you're being rude to her... Right, younger Senomiya?
Ah, you're right.
She's a fragile girl, so take care.
Gunvarrel Ankh Striker!
Yashio...
How unusual of you to come to chat, Pleiades.
Stop that.
There's something we need to discuss.
Next month, the first Robo-One World Cup will be held in Las Vegas,
and I get to represent Japan there.
Isn't that great?
Please team up with me and—
I'll pass.
I haven't finished yet.
You don't have to. I won't listen anyway.
We can stand our ground against the world if we team up!
We fought, so I know for sure!
Just to make sure...
Are you a homo?
Excuse my rudeness, but I hate you.
How wonderful.
But that has nothing to do with your operator skills.
Your eyes are burning holes in my shirt...
Then fight me in Kill-Ballad.
If I win, you listen to me. That should be fine, right?
Or are you afraid of losing?
So much time wasted for nothing...
Kai?
You lost?!
You? In Kill-Ballad?
In the 22nd game after 21 victories.
I messed up. Should've capped the round count.
What?
It's funny to see you subject yourself.
The pride of the fighting gamer.
So if I defeat you, I can stand above you too?
I guess.
Though I doubt you could ever win, even in a hundred games.
I can see the light!
Just not the right one.
And where's Subaru?
At Frau's place.
He seemed interested in our control program.
Frau?
She moved to Tanegashima.
Password.
Nice to meet you. I'm your classmate, Hidaka—
Um... Hello?
The program is hers, so if we can't get her permission, there's nothing we can do.
Come on, then I'm not going.
You agreed to do what I say if you lost.
Haha, Kai's getting bossed around!
Wait a moment. If you two are going to the world championships,
then what about the progress on the GunPro-1 during that time?
Not that we'd help much even if we weren't going.
Gunvarrel Ankh Striker!
Then let's begin.
Let's just consider the program's side done,
so you should focus on memorizing the M45's characteristics.
It's a patience game, isn't it?
Yes.
I stand ready waiting for the opponent to rush at me.
Then I grab and throw.
That's not my style at all.
And to overcome the range limitations, there is the pile bunker.
How do you aim?
I don't.
From this distance to the opponent, fired at this speed...
it's unavoidable.
Come on, don't use our honorary president for experimenting!
Yet you avoided it.
Your reaction time at that point was beyond human.
I can't just ignore it and call it nonsense.
Could you do that again?
I don't wanna.
No matter how much I think about it, I can't figure out the trick.
How did you do it?
I don't wanna tell you.
Kai...
What I can tell you is that it definitely wasn't some fighting game trick.
Four months after we all watched the launch of the H2 rocket,
on September 11th, 2010,
the mass fainting on the SS Anemone occurred.
We were traveling by ferry on our school trip,
and on the way back from Kagoshima it happened.
Even now, no one knows what caused the mass fainting.
But only Aki and I suffered permanent effects after we regained consciousness.
An alteration of time perception, called the Elephant-Mouse Syndrome.
I let my junior provoke me...
I still have a long way to go, huh?
TAGIRINGER?
What's going on?
Sister Centipede?
Am I out of radio range or something?
Can... hear... me?
Can you hear me?
The blinding light of childhood memories
Turns the scenery of my dream
Into monochrome as it lies forgotten
And vanishes from my eyes
But you've always been
Looking straight at the future
And you paid the price in tears
So we turn our hesitation
Into strength by the power
Of our connected hearts
Feel it! These overflowing emotions
For that someone in the sunset
I'll use what little courage I have
And overcome the rage of the wind
Because I want to protect you
Tune in next week too!
TY.