ACT IV – SCARLET SUPERGIANT
Part III: All You Need Is a Phone
Everyone in the Drama Club Room was as confused as Reimei after Ayli’s suggestion. Seeing that, Miss Scarlettail’s white-haired tiny classmate sighed with some annoyance and started elaborating.
(Ayli) ‘We have to hear Mara saying ‘hate’ to be put under mind control, right? Well, if we’re listening to something else instead, that can’t happen. We’ve all got phones and headphones, so we’ll just keep them plugged in all the time and the moment we’re left alone, especially while at Sunbird, we’ll put on some music to listen to.’
(Hikaru) ‘When you say ‘all the time’, you mean … absolutely always? I don’t think I’ll be able to handle listening to that much music everyday. It’s going to be too distracting.’
It almost seemed like Ayli had just been waiting for Hikaru to say that, pointing at him in particular with a wink and a charming smile.
(Ayli) ‘I’ve got your back, Hikaru! I’ll talk to Nali and the two of us are gonna make you just the right kind of soundtrack to keep you focused enough while safe from mind control!!’
From there, the others started giving their own comments on the matter, Reimei staying silent during that, because she was dealing with a very different and much more embarrassing issue than her classmates.
(Exo) ‘I’ll need you to make one for me, then, too, Ayli. Music is not really my thing, so I wouldn’t know where to start with finding good songs to listen to.’
(King) ‘I’ve got workout music I never get tired of it, so I’ll just keep playing that on repeat.’
(Yuki) ‘Yeah, I’ve got your songs on my phone, too, King, so I’ll do the …’
(Ayli) ‘No, no, no! Unacceptable!!! If you’re gonna be doing that, might as well put on earplugs instead! Listening to the same stuff all over again is the same as listening to nothing!! We’ll make soundtracks for you guys, too!!!’
(Vega) ‘Looks like you’ll be making soundtracks for the whole class, Ayli, so when you get to mine, just make sure there’re no drinking and party songs, OK? It’s hard enough to stay sober even without them.’
(Seiren) ‘I’ve got enough stuff to listen to, so you won’t have to worry about me, Ayli. I can even help with saving the rest of these losers from music purgatory, if you want.’
(Tokura) ‘I’m good, too. I’ve been listening to a lot of songs while walking around the city and keep on adding more and more, so my reserve’s pretty stacked.’ – then her classmate with raspberry-colored hair turned to Reimei of all people, to her great regret and even greater shame – ‘What about you, Mei?’
Miss Scarlettail was utterly horrified to answer, because she could feel her face that had undoubtedly turned red would give away whatever lie she was going to tell. And the more time passed after Tokura’s question, the more awkward the scarlet-haired beauty’s situation became.
Until Feoria, who was by her side, intervened to deliver salvation with a very serious look on her face.
(Feoria) ‘Mei doesn’t have a phone yet. The student support program used to send her to Deckstoru doesn’t have enough money to buy phones for deviants, so they just left her like that.’
As awkward as the silence before the skin-heating beauty’s revelation had been, the one that came after it was much worse. And Miss Scarlettail was so broken by it, she didn’t even dare to lift her gaze from the floor to meet the eyes of any of the others. All Feoria could do to console her was to put a hand on her shoulder, Obur being the one to dare talk again first by making a suggestion that surprised the youngsters.
(Obur) ‘Then why don’t we buy you a phone, Reimei? It’s something everyone should have. And not just for listening to music, but as a whole.’
(Reimei) ‘Sensei, I …there’s no need for a phone now. I’ll just buy some earplugs and that will keep me safe enough. Besides, phones are very expensive, so for you to buy …’
Before the scarlet-haired beauty could even finish her plea of dissuasion, Hikaru grabbed her by the blazer’s collar, roaring at her with a face as red as her own, but for due to a different emotion – he had become comically angry.
(Hikaru) ‘DO YOU THINK MONEY’S THE PROBLEM HERE, MEI?!?!! YOUR SAFETY’S THE FUCKING PROBLEM!!! LOOK AT THE DANGER EVERYONE’S IN WITH THIS MIND CONTROL PLOT AND ORDINARI HATING ON DEVIANTS IN GENERAL!!!
AND KNOWING HOW BAD THINGS ARE, YOU’VE BEEN GOING AROUND ALL THIS TIME WITHOUT TELLING ANYONE YOU DON’T HAVE A PHONE?!! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU, WOMAN?!?!!!’
Too shocked to act by the young Summerbolt’s outburst, Reimei needed to be saved by Yuki and Seiren’s intervention, the former using her superstrength to free Miss Scarlettail from Hikaru’s grip, the latter releasing a point-black range blast of vermillion fireworks at his rival to push him aside.
(Yuki) ‘OK, Hikaru, that’s enough. I think she got your point.’
(Seiren) ‘Stop bullying my scarlet-haired queen, Summerbolt! That’s not how you’re gonna convince her!!’
Luckily, the mad genius’s own phone had survived the explosion the young Blackscale had hit him with, because in the aftermath of that it rang to prevent a fight starting between the rivals. After making sure Reimei was OK, Yuki gave Hikaru a hand to get up, all anger disappearing from his face when he took out the phone from his pocket and saw who exactly was calling him. For a moment before picking up, he looked up at all his classmates.
(Hikaru) ‘It’s my aunt. She should be at work right now and she NEVER calls while at work.’ – shifting his focus to Iziya’s voice on the phone, the young Summerbolt started talking with her while everyone around him was listening intently – ‘Hey, auntie, what’s up? You … Graid’s at the salon with you and you’ve got who? My … girls from my class? But why?’ – the mad genius quickly went from confused to shocked after hearing whatever Iziya said next – ‘You what?! Hold on. I’ve got a lot of the class and Segune-sensei with me here, so I’ll put you on speaker. Everyone should hear this.’ – pressing the speaker button on his phone’s touchscreen as the Literature teacher and the hot heads perked up their ears even more, Hikaru addressed his aunt again – ‘OK, you’re good to go.’
(Iziya) (from the phone) ‘Right. Listen up, brats … and Obur. Remember how we agreed yesterday to split up the main stuff to do about the mind control plot between us? Me and Graid said we’d take care of finding Jill Lahala and to do that, I remembered we could use a certain someone.
That girl from your class, Kataleya, she’s a regular at my salon. And you said she’s in Jill’s Dance Club, right?’
(Hikaru) ‘Yeah, but … what exactly did you …’
(Iziya) (from the phone) ‘I managed to convince her to get her ass to the salon after school today for a special styling session along with the other two girls from your class that are in Jill’s club – Vix and Aria.
As that bitch Jill’s a no-show at Sunbird and someone needs to prepare the Dance Club for Presentation Day, I also used the excuse I want to talk about coming to the school to train the girls in her place to make them come to the salon. I’ve got some experience with dancing and they know that, so all three came.’
(Hikaru) ‘And um … after they came in, what did you do to them?’
Another voice joined the conversation now, Reimei quickly recognizing it belonged to Hikaru’s uncle, Graid.
(Graid) (from the phone) ‘I was hiding out back when those three came in and once Iziya had them distracted enough, I came out, so we could get to the questioning. We wanted to find out if Jill had put them or anyone else from their club under mind control and it looks like she hasn’t for now.’
(Obur) ‘Sorry for interrupting, Graid, but just to be clear, to get them to talk … you didn’t have to hurt them or anything like that, right?’
As all the youngsters still seemed to remember what a state he, Zoran and Aguaro had brought Mara and Rafael to while interrogating them, they looked at their Literature teacher with a great deal of confusion in their eyes after he of all people asked a question like that. Obur tried to ignore them as best as he could while waiting for an answer from Graid.
(Graid) (from the phone) ‘Don’t you worry about that, Obur, you old dog. The girls are totally fine. We just had to scare them a bit, that’s all.’
Some tussling was heard from the phone then, the scarlet-haired beauty guessing Hikaru’s aunt and uncle were having some kind of fight over who would be talking, which was confirmed when the voice heard after was once again Iziya’s.
(Iziya) (from the phone) ‘We got a bit sidetracked thanks to Graid, though, so let’s get back to the main point. The girls gave us some important intel about Jill that we thought you should know about, cuz we might need your help for the next part of the investigation.’
(Hikaru) ‘Alright, then. What is it?’
(Iziya) (from the phone) ‘Jill works as a freelancer at a translation firm housed in Eura Kin Tower and from what the girls told us, she comes around that firm quite a lot despite not needing to as she can just work from home. Turns out Eura Kin and especially the platform on its roof are favorite spots of Jill’s.’
The mention of Eura Kin Tower and Jill Lahala in the same sentence in the aftermath of Feoria’s recent revelations about the mind control plot made everyone in the Drama Club Room look at each with eyes overly widened from shock. Though not all of them had been to the Tower themselves, there were facts about it each one knew – just like every other person in the city and beyond.
Eura Kin was the tallest and most technologically advanced building in Deckstoru and most of Barilia. Supposing Seiren’s suggestion about how Jill was controlling the mind slaves from a distance via some equipment was right on the money, there would be no better place for her to do that from than the rooftop of the Tower.
After he took a good look at everyone else one more time to make sure they were all on the same page, Hikaru finally answered Iziya who kept asking what was going on from the phone.
(Hikaru) ‘Sorry, auntie. It’s just that we got some new intel today, too, and it’s actually in line with what you said.
About Eura Kin … I guess you want to go check out that firm Jill works at and the roof of the Tower?’
(Iziya) (from the phone) ‘Yeah. But we’ve got no idea what we’re gonna find in there, plus Eura Kin is not such an easy place to infiltrate with just two people. So I thought some of you brats could help. You done with your club’s rehearsal at Sunbird?’
(Hikaru) ‘We’re done, yeah. How about you? Can you close the salon early today?’
(Iziya) (from the phone) ‘It’s my place, brat. I can close it whenever I want. This stuff is more important, so my clients are gonna have to wait.
If we’re all set, me and Graid will grab the girls and you bring your crew over, so we can meet up and deal with this.’
Hikaru was about to answer, but then he looked at Reimei in particular, embarrassing the scarlet-haired beauty enough to make her look away, as she did that, noticing his gaze had quickly shifted from her to Obur’s face. The two nodded to each other with encouraging smiles for reasons unknown to Miss Scarlettail, the young Summerbolt making sure to answer his aunt who sounded like she was getting nervous again as fast as possible after that.
(Hikaru) ‘Got it. But we’ve got some other stuff to do first and we’ll need your and Graid’s help on that, too, so how about meeting us at the mall downtown before we get to Eura Kin?’
(Iziya) (from the phone) ‘Sure. You need me to bring something special with us?’
(Hikaru) ‘Your music- and Graid’s tech-savvy will be enough. Oh, and bring some money, too. The money we’ve got with us here won’t be enough, I think.’
Graid couldn’t help joining the conversation again when money was mentioned, taking charge of the phone once more after another short tussle with his sister.
(Graid) (from the phone) ‘How much money are we talkin’ about exactly, Hikaru? You’re not gonna be buying some stupid shit, right? Cuz that’s just not gonna fly.’
(Hikaru) ‘I’m the best money spender in the family, old man! Mei from my class doesn’t have a phone yet and we decided we’re gonna buy her one together!!’
Hearing that left Reimei in almost as much shock as Hikaru’s outburst earlier, so she herself couldn’t intervene with some kind of counter argument, the mad genius’ words seeming to have had an effect on his uncle as well. Instead of calming down Graid before he lost control, as was typical for all Summerbolts, however, it made him even angrier, shouting so loudly from the other end that his nephew’s device started vibrating.
(Graid) (from the phone) ‘THAT’S THE BIGGEST BULLSHIT I’VE HEARD!!!! WE’RE DEFINITELY GONNA BUY THAT GIRL THE BEST PHONE!!! JUST GET OBUR TO GIVE YOU SOME MONEY, TOO!! YOU BRATS SEE WHAT YOU CAN PUT TOGETHER AND IF YOU CAN COVER HALF THE PRICE, ME AND IZIYA WILL PAY THE REST!!!
NOW GET MOVING, CUZ THERE’S TOO MUCH TO DO TODAY AND NOT ENOUGH TIME!!! CALL ME OR YOUR AUNT WHEN YOU GET THERE!!!!’
The phone call ended then, right after Hikaru taking a deep breath, putting the phone back in his pocket and spreading out his arms with open hands – one directed at Obur, the other – at the rest of the youngsters.
(Hikaru) ‘You heard the man. Pay up.’
Mr. Segune got out his wallet, Seiren, Vega, King, Exo and Tokura starting to go through their pockets in search of money, all the while talking between themselves and with the others and not paying any attention to the ashamed Miss Scarlettail’s desperate pleas.
(Reimei) ‘I thought you’d let that go! Enough already!! I told you I don’t need a phone!!! Let’s focus on the investigation and not this stupid stuff!!!’
(Seiren) ‘You think you’ve got this, Summerbolt? We can’t come to Eura Kin cuz we’ve still got stuff to do with our clubs.’
(Hikaru) ‘I know, Blackscale. You get to that. With the Drama Club group here, my aunt, uncle and those three, we’ve got more than enough people anyway.’
(Tokura) ‘Make sure to update us later, OK? On all of it.’
(Yuki) ‘Sure thing.’
(Reimei) ‘Are any of you listening to me?!! Stop it!!!’
(Exo) ‘Since your uncle will be there, you should be able to pick a good enough model even without me. Tell me what you got later, though. Just in case.’
(Hikaru) ‘Will do, Ex. I’ll talk to my aunt about helping with the soundtracks, too, because we need those ready ASAP.’
(Ayli) ‘Iziya will be helping? Oh, that’s gonna be great! She’s got an even better ear for music than me!!’
(Vega) ‘I was saving this for buying some booze, but I guess I won’t be needing it now, so here you go. Better get Mei a damn good phone.’
(King) ‘Make sure you eat when you get to the mall, too, guys. All of you’ve been starving enough already and you’ll need a lot of energy for the Eura Kin stuff.’
(Feoria) ‘I’m with you on that, King.’ – after agreeing with the giant, the skin-heating beauty looked at everyone else who was only an unofficial member of the Drama Club – ‘Since the Drama group will be with Mei when she buys the phone, we’ll give our shares then. The rest of you guys pay up?’
(Obur) ‘I’m the only one left. About Eura Kin … I’m afraid I won’t be able to go with you either because I’ve got the other clubs to check on.
While we had our meeting at the Summerbolts’ house yesterday, Zoran told the rest of the teachers about the mind control plot and he said later they had agreed to take turns watching Mara and Rafael in their cell while the group that was doing that until now took turns looking after the others’ clubs.’ – he put a big stack of cash on top of the one Hikaru had already gathered in his hands then, getting ready to leave the room along with the five boys who had to head over to their respective clubrooms – ‘I hope this and the money from those two will be enough to buy a nice phone. Whatever Graid says is best, buy that one. We’ll hash out the expenses later.’
The young Summerbolt was just about to put the money in his pocket when Reimei completely lost control and unleashed a wave big enough to drown everyone inside the room while screaming, her breath having become shaky from the anxiety and embarrassment overload.
(Reimei) ‘I SAID YOU’RE NOT BUYING ME A FUCKING PHONE!!!!’
Miss Scarlettail realizing what she had done coincided with the lightning fast reaction of Yuki who was able to release a counter wave of ice so fast and wide-ranged that it froze all of her classmate’s water before no more than a few drops of it had been splashed across the faces of Obur and the other hot heads.
To further help her calm down, Miss Iceflame took her hand into her own right after, Reimei now being able to feel a soothing and refreshing wave of coolness passing through her body, making her reach a state so blissful that she closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, Yuki was still standing right in front of her with a gentle and cute smile, the others around the ice maiden all having encouraging smiles on their faces as well. Before the scarlet-haired beauty could apologize to all of them for her outburst, her white-haired counterpart said something while still holding her hand.
(Yuki) ‘Sorry about this, Mei. We really went about convincing you to get a phone the wrong way. All of us are just hopelessly stupid, you know.’ – she glanced at Hikaru with a wink for a moment while he crossed his arms with a small sigh – ‘Especially Hikaru.’ – her gaze returned to Reimei then, who didn’t look away from her as usual, because she couldn’t – that’s how mesmerizing Miss Iceflame and in particular her smile was – ‘We’re not paying for the phone as a gift to you. When you’re able to get money later, whenever that is, you’ll pay us back for it. It’s the same deal like the one I’ve made with the Summerbolts and everyone else who’s helped me since I came here.’ – having a thoughtful expression for a moment, Yuki paused before looking back at Miss Scarlettail with the same warm smile – ‘Actually no. It’s not a deal. It’s a promise. A promise that you’ll help someone the way we’ve helped you now. How’s that sound?’
(Reimei) ‘It’s … I …’
(Hikaru) ‘Just say if you promise or not, Mei, and that’ll be enough. Don’t overthink it.’
For the first time since the start of the whole discussion following Ayli’s suggestion to listen to music, Reimei was able to smile. And as it often happened with her when she did, she had tears in her eyes, because she was unable to control her happiness as much as all the emotions on the opposite end of the spectrum.
(Reimei) ‘I promise.’
(Hikaru) ‘Great. Now let’s get going.’
