Naota closed the door softly and backed away. Whatever Haruko was doing in there was none of his business and he didn’t want to find out. If he offered his help, Haruko would probably ask him to do something dangerous and stupid, like hopping around on the roof on one foot with a satellite taped to his head. Better to let her tinker with the TV in privacy. Besides, he smelled really funky and Haruko would probably yell at him for stinking up the room. Naota grabbed a towel from the linen closet and walked into the bathroom.

He got undressed and as soon as the warm water hit his sore body, he was in heaven. He let the hot water warm his aching body, finding that the world disappeared under the cascade of water. He enjoyed his shower and forgot about cloaked figures, angry fake moms and everything else that had become messed up in his life. After an hour in the shower, he was rejuvenated and ready for his daily weirdness. He wrapped the towel around his waist and stepped into the hallway, almost accidentally running into Canti in the hall.

“Sorry Canti, didn’t see you there. Where have you been anyway?” Naota asked the blue robot that had been missing the last few days. With his unbirth and affair with Ninamori, Naota had nearly forgotten about the strange blue machine that he used to team up with to fight other robots. Canti’s head, which was actually a monitor, lit up and the Kanji for the word ‘city’ flashed on his screen/head.

“You went to the city?” Naota asked and the robot nodded curtly.

“What’s in the city that could interest you?” Naota asked, but before he could get an answer, a scream of rage, followed by something crashing came from his room. Naota groaned and went to see what Haruko had broken now. Opening the door to his room, Naota looked in carefully and saw Haruko with her fist imbedded in the wall.

“I suppose this is your way of saying welcome home,” Naota said dryly. Haruko huffed and pulled her fist free of the wall, she glared at Naota and then turned back to the TV she had been working on before Naota took his shower. Naota stepped closer and looked over her shoulder at what she was doing to his fathers cheap TV. It shocked him to see that Haruko had installed different flashing, multicolored circuitry to the inside of the TV. It now looked like it belonged on a space ship or in some kind of research lab. Whatever Haruko was doing to the TV, it was anything normal.

“You aren’t trying to get free cable, are you?” Naota asked, hoping his attempt at humor might distract Haruko from her grumpy mood.
“Nope, I’m trying to locate that cloaked wacko, by locating his N.O frequency.” Haruko said, making Naota scratch the back of his head in confusion.

“Huh,” he dimly said, trying to understand what the hell Haruko was hoping to accomplish by toying with the TV.

“I forgot, you’re too stupid to understand what I’m talking about,” Haruko snapped, still fiddling with the inside of the TV. “When we saw that freak last night, I felt him creating a N.O. frequency. I’m trying to isolate his frequency and find out where the bastard is, but this stupid box won’t tell me anything.” Haruko hissed and smacked the side of the TV/locater, but the screen remained blank. Naota looked at the TV and tried to think of anything to suggest, but what could a kid like him suggest that could help someone so far intelligent as him?

“Are you sure it’s plugged in?” Naota shrugged, hoping not to sound like a complete idiot in front of Haruko. Twitching, Haruko, looked across the room at the plug that was sitting by Naota’s bed. She got up, walked to the plug and pushed it into the wall socket. The TV screen came to life and started beeping and glowing. Haruko walked back to Naota and looked him blankly in the eyes.

“Don’t ever tell anyone about this, got it?” Naota nodded quickly, trying not to smile at getting one over Haruko. They looked at the screen and saw where the cloaked figure was located.