A Furi Kuri Fan Fiction

by: Kite (kcc)

Rights to Furi Kuri belong to Tsurumaki Kazuya and Gainax.

If you haven't seen the OAV, then don't read this. This is my take on what happens after.

Words in italics = emphasis

Phrases and sentences in italics = thoughts

* * *

It was the summer of the year I turned twelve.

My brother, Tasuku was going to America to play baseball.

Take care of her for me. That's what he said as he handed me a Polaroid and an address scribbled on a torn edge of some newspaper.

I looked at the photograph of the girl and wondered why my brother was asking me to do this -- as though she was some stray kitten that was being passed around.

But seventeen year-old Samejima Mamimi was no stray kitten -- she was my brother's girlfriend and, in a few days, she was going to be my... what?

She was beautiful. Even through the unforgiving lens of a Polaroid camera, with only half her face in the picture, I knew she was beautiful.

Then again, my brother only dated the beautiful ones.

Mamimi was different, though. Her eyes were, at once, melancholic and thoughtful. Clear, innocent, soulful eyes, hiding a mystery begging to be solved.

On his last night in Japan, my brother gave me a thumbs-up and winked. This is the year you become a man.

He knew I wouldn't understand; didn't expect me to understand.

He didn't care if I did or didn't.

* * *

I met her for the first time at the airport. She stood there, leaning on a pillar -- a slim, unlit cigarette pressed between her pale lips.

Summer vacation began last week, and yet she was wearing her high school uniform.

She neither spoke nor waved goodbye to him.

She stood there, leaning on the pillar and waited for my brother to board the plane.

"So, what do you want to do now?"

Amidst the thunderous roar of the turbine engines, her voice -- that soft, feather-like whisper reached me.

She took the cigarette out of her mouth and flicked it into a nearby trash can. She reached out, grasped my hand and laced her fingers through mine.

"Ta-kun, what do you want to do?"

Ta-kun.

A nickname for me?

But I hadn't even told her my name yet.

"My name is Naota. I am not my brother."

She regarded me through hooded eyes for a moment. Then with her free hand, she took hold of the camera that dangled on her chest and took a picture of me.

"I'm bored, Ta-kun. Let's go do something."

She led me to the bridge. Her fingers loosened their grip on mine as we got nearer and nearer and by the time we reached the massive structure she wasn't holding my hand anymore.

I watched her run and disappear into the darkness under the bridge.

I didn't follow her.

"I think I'll go home." I said, turning around to leave.

"Don't leave me."

I stopped walking when she said that -- not sure of what to say or do.

She walked towards me and enfolded her arms around my smaller body -- crushing my face to her chest.

I could smell her faint perfume, mixed in with the scent of nicotine and tar.

Her heart beat loudly against my ear -- a regular rhythm, as though nothing out of the ordinary was happening.

The softness of her pressed against my cheek.

She allowed me to pull back slightly and let her head drop until her lips touched my ear. She kissed my earlobe.

"Don't leave me."

Her voice, the same soft whisper tickled my ear. I shivered slightly. Her hands moved up my spine and caressed my hair.

"I don't want to be alone."

Her lips moved lower, touching the pulse at my neck -- kissing it.

"I'm not even twelve."

I heard her smile -- that sudden expulsion of breath against my neck.

"I'll leave my mark on you."

She nipped at my neck, licked it and then sucked the inflicted area.

"I'm supposed to take care of you. I don't think this is the proper way."

She stopped, lifted her face until our eyes were level.

"This is the only way."

* * *

"I received a letter from my brother today. Did he write to you, too?"

"Ta-kun, lend me some money. I want to get us a drink."

I dug into my pockets and tried to sort and pick out the coins and handed them to her. "I don't like sour stuff."

She dropped the coins into the slot and pressed a button. I sighed in exasperation as a can of the sour soda rolled out.

"I'm thinking of bleaching my hair. Will that make me more American, Ta-kun?"

I knew then that my brother had not written to her.

"Mamimi--"

"Here." She handed me the can.

I looked at the can and saw slivers of her saliva glistening on the edge.

My brother had been gone for only three weeks and here I am, contemplating "kissing" my brother's girlfriend.

Disgusted, I tossed the can aside -- the drink fizzled as it came into contact with the pavement.

"I told you I don't like the sour stuff."

Mamimi grinned -- fuzzy interest flickered in her eyes.

What is she thinking about?

Like quicksilver, she covered the ground between us and kissed me. Kissed me hard. Her lips mashed against mine -- her tongue rubbed my lower lip, demanding entrance.

I couldn't breathe. My heart was beating at a thousand times per second.

In the next instant, she pushed me away.

I looked at her -- the question in my eyes. Why?

She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Trust me. You'll grow to like the sour stuff."

* * *

1. Mamimi calls Naota "Ta-kun." This could be taken as either a nickname for him or his brother (Tasuku) -- my take is that Mamimi deludes herself into thinking that she still has Tasuku in the form of Naota. (She loves him. She says so to Naota in the first episode of the OAV.)
2. Is this going to be a love story? Yes. At the heart of FLCL is love, which is the driving force behind each character. Each one searches for a different kind, but it is still love.
3. This prologue is written in the first person but the rest of the story will be written in the third person. I did this, consciously, because I wanted to show, in my prologue, what goes on in the mind of a 12-year-old in the midst of his curious circumstances.
4. This is still pre-OAVs. The next chapter is going to be about what happens after the OAVs.
5. The soda can scene is a recurring scene in the OAVs. I thought it was very symbolic and representative of Naota, which is why I included a soda scene in this fic.
6. The titles "Lost for You" and "In a Boy's Dream" are lines from "Crash into Me" by Dave Matthews Band.