Volume 01

A cute girl named Aiko transfers into Punpun's class and inspires his dream to colonize the star Punpunia. When she asks him to run away with her, his need for travel money leads him to none other than a haunted factory.

Chapter 1
Punpun's crush, Miyo, transfers out of his elementary class, but a girl named Aiko transfers in, and it is love at first sight for Punpun. He walks her home, and she tells him that soon humanity will go extinct and they'll have to colonize other stars. His dad gives him a telescope that night, and Punpun decides he wants to be a space scientist. Then he wakes up in the morning to find the house a mess and his father standing over his beaten mother.Suddenly, Punpun understood. "That's it. I'll study outer space. I'll get real smart and be a space scientist. Then I'll make it so mankind can coloinize the stars! That seems like a really cool thing to do. After that... just maybe... Aiko will actually fall in love with me!!"

Chapter 2
Punpun is brought to the police station and questioned until evening. Since his mom will be in the hospital for a while, his uncle Yuuichi picks him up and moves into the Punyama house for the meantime. The next day in class, Punpun stands up to read his essay about becoming a space scientist, but he is overcome with self-consciousness and runs out of the classroom to hide in the gym closet. Aiko goes to find him.

Chapter 3
Mr. Mori and the class goes looking for Punpun. Aiko finds his essay in the gym and tells Punpun that his dream of being a scientist is cool and he shouldn't care what others think. As they leave the gym hand-in-hand, Punpun confesses his love, and Aiko kisses him on the beak. Yuuichi is called to school to speak about Punpun's behavior. During choir class, Punpun thinks Aiko is surely his fated person. Harumi informs him that there will be a porno viewing at Shimizu's house tomorrow.

"At this moment, Punpun received a faint, but real sensation. Of course, as he was just a child, it was absolutely new to Punpun...but he felt that he might be fated to end up with Aiko."

Chapter 4
Yuuichi fully moves into the Punyama house to help out while Punpun's parents are away and because Yuuichi's parents are kicking him out. The two go to visit Mama Punpun in the hospital, who had to get a few stitches in her head and has been a little obnoxious to the nurses. Punpun hopes she won't be coming home soon. On the way home, Punpun asks if his dad will come back if he prays to God. Yuuichi sends Punpun on home with some ice cream money and says he has something he needs to do.As it happened, Punpun did not really like his mother. All she did was bug him about doing his homework, brushing his teeth, taking his bath, cleaning his room, and on and on. Punpun hoped she wouldn't be coming home quite yet.

Chapter 5
The group shows up at Shimizu's house to watch his porno, but he gives several excuses for why today is not a good day. As they leave, Seki complains about Shimizu's chronic lying and says they should stop hanging out with him. They go looking for stray porno magazines and find one crumpled on the side of the street. The boys are confused about most of the content, but a group of girls from their class, Aiko among them, walks up and interrupts. Harumi claims the boys were just planning out a summer trip, and when another girl scoffs, Aiko says she trusts Punpun not to lie. After a dinner with Yuuichi, Punpun's head is filled with thoughts of Aiko and the magazine. He fumbles under his blanket, and is shocked when a strange little puddle dirties his sheets.

Chapter 6
Punpun cleans up his bed and asks Yuuichi for a medical compendium to make sure he is not melting and dying. Yuuichi tells Punpun he will be fine but gives him the books to look through. Punpun browses through the strange pictures of strange body parts, then decides to play with his telescope. He sees a star move and rushes to show his uncle, daydreaming about winning the Nobel Prize for his discovery and colonizing this new star, Punpunia, with Aiko. He wants to tell Aiko about his brilliant plan but is too flustered to speak to her the next day. During gym, Komatsu rushes to find the boys to witness Harumi receive a love confession.And Punpun understood... A piece of my brain just shot out of my weiner!

Chapter 7
During gym, the boys discuss whether Harumi will date the girl who confessed to him, Sonoda. Seki says it only makes sense. Punpun wonders if he and Aiko should go out then and if going out means having sex. He falls over from the thought and is sent to the nurse. Aiko falls down on purpose and comes to the nurse with a scraped knee in order to see Punpun. She lays down on the cot with him and asks if he loves her, if he'll take care of her forever, and he says yes, though terrified by the promise of forever. After school, he and Komatsu ask Harumi about his new girlfriend, and teary-eyed, he tells them she played with his heart and dumped him after only half a day. He declares he's through with love and the three of them should stick to porn. As luck would have it, they find a porno video abandoned on the side of the road."If you like each other, you go out." To Punpun's ears, this was such a radical, fresh, modern concept.

Chapter 8
Yuuichi leaves the house to talk with a lawyer, and Punpun's friends come over to watch the porno they found. They put the tape in the VCR, and the video starts up, only to stop abruptly and play something entirely different. On the screen, a man stares into the camera and confesses that he has just murdered his entire family. It was an act of love, he claims, since he could not bear to watch them continue on with their meaningless lives. He poses the question, what is true happiness? However, he has a sense of guilt he doesn't understand, and releases his tension in a strange dance the boys follow along to. The man continues; he has stowed the bodies in an abandoned factory along with a great sum of money for whoever is corageous and curious enough to find it. He begs the viewer to search and to help this story go viral, and his video cuts out just in time to see the aftermath of the porno. Seki is upset they got a prank video, and the boys go home. Yuuichi returns with a movie to watch, and Punpun teaches him his new dance.

Chapter 9
Yuuichi is making curry, and Punpun asks to make it extra spicy because he knows his uncle likes it best that way. Punpun monitors the pot while Yuuichi answers a knock at the door — a woman and her child selling space cosmo water door-to-door to share the health and happiness of their god. Meanwhile, Punpun asks his own god when Papa will return and then goes to ask his uncle where the cheese grater is. Although Yuuichi repeatedly states his disinterest in this health water, the saleswoman does not relent, until Yuuichi screams at her that there is no god, just as Punpun approaches. Eye-level with the woman's small daughter, Punpun sees that it is none other than Aiko.Yuuichi: THERE IS NO GOD!! "Dear God, dear God, tinkle-tinkle hoy" was a special spell that Uncle Yuuichi taught Punpun three years ago...

Chapter 10
Mortified, Aiko takes off running, and Punpun runs after her. A bad runner, he only catches up when Aiko is hit by a bicycle and falls over. When she stands up, she yells at Punpun for lying to her about where he lived. She didn't want any of her new classmates to know about her mother's cult involvement, lest they think her a freak like at her old school. Punpun swears he doesn't think badly of her. Aiko says she will walk to Kagoshima to live with her rich, sane doctor uncle. Punpun holds her from behind, and Aiko makes him promise to come to Kagoshima with her at the end of the semester.Okay, Punpun. But if you break this promise, if you betray me again... I really will kill you. -Aiko

Chapter 11
Punpun asks his uncle about getting to Kagoshima, and is told that plane or train is expensive and it's too far to walk. Meanwhile, Seki tries to coerce his drunk, broke dad into reopening their lunch store. Shimizu's mother sends him on an errand. On the way out, he meets the God of Poop and complains that the kamemeha he taught him did not work. Seki catches Shimi being weird, and when Shimi tells him he just spoke with the God of Poop, Seki punches him. Seki sees Mrs. Shimizu's wallet and asks to borrow some cash, only to chide Shimi for actually agreeing. Punpun runs into them. Harumi and Komatsu, waiting for Punpun, entertain the idea of searching for the money in the abandoned miso factory, and Seki appears, with Punpun and Shimi, and offers to show them where the factory is just to prove that the tape was a prank and there's no such thing as free money.

Chapter 12
Punpun is eager to look for money so he can buy tickets to Kagoshima so Aiko won't kill him. Harumi is worried about the dead bodies. While the boys decide whether to go, the girls from their class walk by dressed in yukata on the way to the Tanabata festival. Aiko decides she wants to go on this test of courage with the boys instead. They get off the bus and Seki leads the remainder of the way on foot. He says he used to hang out at this miso factory since his family's shop got their supplies here, but when the factory went under, so did their shop. The factory is huge and silent and creepy. There's blood around the entrance, and when they peer inside, they see someone approaching. At this moment, Punpun realizes his bladder is full.