Yuki’s first week as a student at Sunbird High School had come to an end and like all of her other experiences since coming to Deckstoru, it had been one hell of a ride. The routine of the madness was something she had gotten used to at that point, though.
It was rather simple: wild breakfast at the Summerbolt residence, studying in the morning, fights during the lunch break, more studying along with some recuperation in the afternoon, cleaning up different parts of the school grounds and being tortured by the headmaster through to early evening to end the school day.
Then it was time to get back home for a short rest before cooking dinner started, on to a long and loud meal, doing homework, getting ready for the next day and finally going to sleep.
Had a normal person been faced with such a schedule after a very dynamic first weekend like hers, they would’ve been completely overwhelmed, but luckily Iceflame was a supergirl of sorts, so her body was fine with the stress. Her mind had now caught up to it and with her adaptation period having ended, she could focus on fully enjoying her time!
The start of that great time was going with Graid to the bar by the seaside owned by him on Friday night after dinner, Yuki having decided to ask Seiren to join her and Hikaru.
Blackscale had agreed, the assembly point for him and the three members of the Summerbolt family being a park next to the seaside street that run parallel with Deckstoru’s central beach.
Upon arriving there Yuki realized that while Graid wore a scarlet shirt with jungle green palms on it, cream shorts and sneakers that combined all those three colors, this was the first time she, Hikaru and Seiren were wearing the same clothes as on the day they met. Exactly one week had passed since then. It was a nice change from wearing the school uniform all the time and gave the baby doll a nostalgic feeling.
She might not have yet regained the memories from her time before coming to this city, but had managed to make many new memories ever since she had arrived. She wasn’t just an empty shell anymore. She had gained an identity. The name those two had given her finally had a substance to it instead of just being some words.
All of that had happened because of the mad bolt and the pervert.
Just thinking about it brought tears to Iceflame’s eyes, the rivals noticing that.
(Hikaru) ‘-Are you OK, Yu? You’re crying.’
The white-haired beauty hugged both of them then, now having the brightest smile on her face.
(Yuki) ‘-I just … I love you, guys.’
(Seiren) ‘-I think the stress from all the work and torture has taken its toll on this one, Summerbolt. She’s lost it. (Hikaru and Seiren hugged her back while making sure they won’t come in any contact with their rival) So long as you’re happy, though, Yuki, I’m fine with that.’
(Graid) ‘-Well, if you three are done with that, let’s get going. I need to get the bar up and running before the customers start arriving.’
The four strolled down the seaside street then, Yuki feeling the cool breeze tickling her skin.
It was a pleasant sensation, though, because that breeze carried the promise of the coming summer. A time during which all the little shops and restaurants Yuki and her friends passed by were going to be working and this street was going to be full of life.
Eventually Graid led the trio to his bar, which was called Octohorn Ring, letting the baby doll and the rivals have a good look-around while he got everything ready to open up. Yuki herself was truly amazed by the bar’s design.
The name it had been given was all too fitting because it consisted of nine rings, in eight of which there were horns.
There was a main very wide ring, inside which the drinks were made, the music was played and the counter was located, of course, after Hikaru’s uncle turned on the neon lights, the right half of the ring being lit up in scarlet and the left half – in jungle green.
The roof over the main ring was supported by a pillar propped up in its center and at the top of the pillar was placed the symbol of the bar – a small octopus statue that had a ring around each of its spread out tentacles and eight horns on its head – two larger ones of the bull type located the highest and six smaller ones under them.
There was a ring on each side of the main one that was a bit smaller than it and further down the sands of the beach stood six more rings, the two placed after the main ring being a bit smaller than the ones that were put to its sides while the ones after the side rings being smaller yet.
Many chairs were placed around each ring while inside the rings stood pedestals with a design that looked like a wound up octopus tentacle, atop each pedestal being placed a platform and within it – a bent horn that resembled that of a bull made of crystals. The crystals for each horn were of a different color and the rings around the pedestals the horns were placed upon were lit in a color matching that of the crystals.
The ring/horn on the main one’s right side was scarlet, the one on the left – jungle green, following the scarlet a pumpkin orange and a cadmium yellow one, following the jungle green an azure and an electric violet one, while following the main ring was a blackish (whose ring was black with gray lights above and beneath it) and finally a white one.
(Graid) ‘-What do you make of it, Yu?’
(Yuki) ‘-It’s … I’ve never seen anything like it. But all these horns … what are they?’
(Graid) ‘-You remember the eight energy compounds we talked about? The group my Daroid and Reloid are a part of?’
(Yuki) ‘-Yep.’
(Graid) ‘-Well, there are crystals in the universe imbued with the energy of each of those compounds, taking on some of their characteristics. Eventually, though, some genius discovered that when the crystals imbued with the energy of a particular energy compound are mixed with the right type of alcohol, that alcohol can in turn be affected by the energy compound. Whoever drinks that will hence experience various sensations.
Depending on the alcohol they drink and the type of crystals they want to mix with it, people can choose around which of the rings in my bar to sit and from there I provide them with a small hammer and shovel to dig out some crystals to mix with their drinks. Although the crystals I can provide the highest amount of are the relocrystals and darocrystals, fueled with a Reloid and Daroid like mine, I’m the only one in Deckstoru who can provide a bit of all eight types of energy compound crystals to my customers!’
(Seiren) ‘-As far as I know, there is only a small amount of all eight crystal types on Saiten. How did you even manage to get all of those?’
(Hikaru) ‘-He’s a very good businessman.’
(Seiren) ‘-Prone to violence during business negotiations?’
Graid chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his head when he heard Seiren’s speculation about his trading methods.
(Graid) ‘-No, no, not at all! Due to these crystals being present in such low quantities on our planet, some of them are not sold in the most pleasant of places and not everyone would risk going to such places to get them. Graid Summerbolt fears nothing, though, and thanks to that I have acquired all these! Ha-ha!!’
A group of six people approached the bar then, Yuki being the first one who noticed them.
(Yuki) ‘-I think your first guests are here.’
Graid let out a mighty roar directed toward the skies in response to that, already having taken a bottle with some kind of alcohol in each hand.
(Graid) ‘-Time to get this party started then!!! Come in, ladies and gentlemen, and let’s have some fun!!!’
Those were the opening words of the night and no more than an hour later pretty much all the seats in the bar had already been taken, music playing, cocktails being made, people enjoying their time to the fullest.
The one responsible for all this was Graid himself, who run the bar alone, using his Daroid to quickly prepare the drinks everyone ordered and then play another great-sounding song to assure the customers’ spirits were as high as the heavens.
Yuki, Hikaru and Seiren were provided with seats around the main ring, of course, being the youngest there and the only ones consuming non-alcoholic drinks as they were underage. The atmosphere was fantastic enough in its own right, though, so the trio needed no alcohol to feel great, the baby doll clearly enjoying her time the most.
Currently her attention was focused on the people who had already got off their seats and had started dancing around their respective rings and horns or mixing with other groups, Graid having left the bar shortly to join the fun. Suddenly he pointed at Iceflame with a smile and a wink.
Hikaru had also seen that, sighing with a small smile.
(Hikaru) ‘-There he goes again.’
(Yuki) ‘-I think he wants us to join him.’
(Seiren) ‘-Go ahead, Yuki. Just watch out for the others cuz there may be hidden perverts among them.’
(Yuki) ‘-Don’t you two dance?’
(Hikaru) ‘-No, not really. Don’t worry about us, though. Go and have fun.’
The baby doll got off her chair and patted both her friends on the back with a charming smile.
(Yuki) ‘-I’ll be going, but the night’s still young, so I won’t give up that easily. I’ll get you two on the dance floor as well.’
She went right next to Graid, having already caught the rhythm of the music and observed the people around her enough to know how to dance like them, just going with the flow from there on.
Seeing how much into this she was, Hikaru’s uncle started dancing back to back with her, eventually the two starting a conversation while glancing at the rivals at the bar every now and then.
(Graid) ‘-I’m glad you’re not like those two stiffs, Yu! It’s much better to have fun like this, isn’t it?’
(Yuki) ‘-I’m surprised Hikaru doesn’t like dancing with you as his uncle!’
(Graid) ‘-Well, on a different occasion he may have agreed to dance, but I guess today’s not his day.’
(Yuki) ‘-Is there something special about today?’
She turned to Graid then, seeing he had stopped dancing and although he was still smiling, his smile was now sad.
(Graid) ‘-It’s already past midnight, so a sad anniversary for the family has come.
You’ve never asked about Hikaru’s father since becoming a part of the Summerbolts, have you? If you had asked any of the others about that, they would’ve surely told me.’
Yuki turned her eyes away from Graid’s face, afraid to look at him.
It was something she had thought about, of course. She had seen pictures of Saya, her husband and Hikaru around the house, but Hikaru was just a baby in those and Iceflame had found that strange.
No one addressed the subject in any of the conversations she had been a witness of, however, so she found it inappropriate to ask, hoping the Summerbolts would tell her where her friend’s father was one day. She had never expected to learn like this, though.
(Yuki) ‘-No, I haven’t. I didn’t think it was appropriate to ask.’
(Graid) ‘-He’s not some scoundrel who left his wife and son, Yu, don’t worry. Hikaru’s father … he died. Sixteen years ago.’
The amnesiac was sort of expecting to hear something like that but was still not prepared mentally upon hearing it. She couldn’t help but look at Hikaru back at the bar with only pain in her heart in that single moment.
(Graid) ‘-Hikaru was just a baby then, so he has no memories of his father. I’ve tried to fill the gap left in his absence as best as I can, but Hanaru … he was one of a kind. I suggested bringing the two of you to the bar with me tonight to help Hikaru not think about that, but I guess it didn’t work. (Graid let out a deep sigh) Now that I think about it, Seiren has a sad anniversary today as well, so it’s appropriate those two are together right now.’
(Yuki) ‘-It’s the anniversary of him losing a family member as well?’
(Graid) ‘-No, not that. My nephew and Seiren have been rivals since kindergarten, so the Summerbolts and the Blackscales know about all the major moments in the other one’s life. I’m sure you’ve noticed that sleeve the boy always wears on his left arm and the stocking covering the lower half of his right leg?’
(Yuki) ‘-I have. I thought it was a fashion statement.’
(Graid) ‘-It’s not. He and his younger brother were in a terrible accident some years ago on this date. His left arm and right leg will forever be scarred by that, so he always wears a sleeve and a stocking to cover up the scars. Hikaru’s told me it’s not just to hide those scars from people but from himself as well. Seiren doesn’t want to ever look at them and be forced to remember that accident. Just like his rival, though, it seems not looking at the scars is not enough to erase the pain.’
(Yuki) ‘-W-what can we do?’
(Graid) ‘-We’ve done all we can, kid. It’s up to those two from here on. At times like this their rivalry actually seems like a good thing because it helps them not focus on the pain from the past. Maybe that’s why they started it in the first place. To help each other heal the pain they both feel, masking their feelings by constantly fighting.’
The more time Yuki spent with Hikaru and Seiren, the more she realized they were so much more than just a person with anger issues and a pervert. She still didn’t know what pain was hidden in her past but she now knew about the pain in theirs.
Maybe helping them heal their old wounds was how she could truly repay them. And she was going to do everything in her power to achieve this one goal – to make them whole again.
