Ranko bounced gleefully between the tables in her favorite sparkly silver dress, giggling with her customers and dispensing drinks. She moved with more energy than the staff at the Phoenix had seen out of her in weeks. She’d been burning the candle at both ends and microwaving it in the middle since the school year had started, and most days only the adrenaline of physically being on stage could perk her up. Hana had been considering cutting her work hours back for a while now; she couldn’t stand how hard her youngest charge was pushing herself. She was incredibly proud of Ranko, but the pace the kid was keeping just wasn’t sustainable at her young age.
Crash and the rest of the band wouldn’t be in for a bit yet, so Ranko’s evening thus far had been largely constrained to cover songs from the karaoke machine and table service duties. Still, there was an unmistakable, exultant joy about her as she spun and weaved her way between the tables of her little domain.
Hana smirked, bringing two fresh bottles of orange juice to replenish Yui’s supply. She motioned to Ranko, singing to herself as she flitted between tables balancing plates on each arm. “Gods, Yui, how much Red Bull did you give that kid?” She nestled the plastic jugs into the steel bin of ice ust below Yui’s waist.
The blonde bartender laughed, leaning back on the counter. “I only know of one thing that puts a look like that on a girl’s face, mama, and it ain’t caffeine.”
With that, Yui had accomplished something she previously thought unachievable – she had made her boss and adoptive mother blush. “Huh? Wait… you don’t think…”
Yui nodded with a devious grin, affecting a mock dismay in her voice. “Mama, I think our little girl’s all grown up!” She laughed, leaning sideways into Hana’s shoulder. “500 yen says she and Akane can barely look at each other tonight. And it’s about damn time, too. I don’t know that I could have waited that long in Ranko’s shoes.”
Hana snickered. “Alright, you’re on!” Even as the bar’s matriarch accepted the bet, privately, she hoped she’d lose it. She and her youngest daughter had spoken many times in the past few months about Ranko’s worries as it pertained to Akane, and now that the couple were living together, it was even more imperative to Hana to see the two happy and communicating well with each other. She’d made it a point to leave the little apartment upstairs untouched for a while, just in case there was trouble in paradise and Ranko needed somewhere to escape to.
Ranko buzzed by the bar top, scooping up three frozen cocktails with a curious and somewhat accusatory smirk on her face. “Okay, what are you two cackling about back there?”
Yui raised her hands innocently. “Oh, nothing! Nothing at all. Carry on, little sister!” Hana couldn’t keep a straight face, busting out laughing to the blonde’s immediate left. Ranko spoke no words, but the radiant red color of her face as she shook her head had already all but confirmed Yui’s suspicion.
Mei popped out of the kitchen with a basket of onion rings, wearing a blue crushed velvet shirt under a black denim jumper. She handed the basket to Izumi at the secondary bar to pass back to a customer who was waiting for them. The little stool behind the service bar and dishwasher area had been Izumi’s fairly constant station the last few weeks as her pregnancy advanced, and given the toll it was taking on her, Mei doubted she’d be able to maintain that much longer either. She giggled, wondering idly if between Izumi’s maternity, Mei’s own class schedule in her fourth year of college, and Ranko’s extra course load, the search would soon begin for a seventh member of the Phoenix staff to pick up the slack.
“Oh, Mei?” Hana turned to her as her blue-haired daughter began pushing her way back through the swinging door to the kitchen. “A letter came for you today. I didn’t open it; it’s on my desk. I’m sorry; I forgot to tell you.”
Mei gasped excitedly. “Really?! Omigods!” She quickly slammed through the blue saloon door, making a beeline for the closed office door on her right.
Hana shrugged. “Apparently everybody’s got something interesting going on these days except me.”
Yui laughed, handing a smoking orange Dragonfire cocktail across the bar to a young female reveler. “Well, at least Izzi’s is showing, so we don’t have to guess there.” As she spoke, a loud squeal came from the back room. “What the…?”
Yui looked over her shoulder at the saloon door. She heard Mei’s voice call back from Hana’s office. “YUI! Get in here, quick!”
Shrugging, Yui looked up to the proprietress. “Apparently, I am the Sister Whisperer today. You mind, mama?”
Hana smirked, deftly spinning a steel cocktail shaker into her hands. “I think I still remember my way around back here. Get going. Sounds important.”
Yui walked behind the doors, making a quick right into Hana’s eternally-cluttered office, where her sister was bouncing on her heels with as much energy as Ranko had been before, her electric blue pigtails bouncing this way and that behind her. “Okay, what the heck is going on in here, Mei?”
“Shut the door, quick!” Mei waved a sheet of paper in front of her sister, who complied with her request.
“Mei, honey? Deep breath. What’s all this about?”
Mei handed her the paper, and watched Yui’s eyes with an animated intent as they traversed from one paragraph to the next, widening as they came to terms with what the elder girl was reading. Mei waited, her whole being buzzing, waiting for her sister to get to the end of the third paragraph.
When she did, Yui gasped and reached out, hugging her sister excitedly. “Mei, my gods! Did you do this?! When?! How?! How are you even going to tell her?”
The younger girl grinned proudly, nodding. “I’ll explain everything after the cat’s out of the bag. Just let me know when you-know-who gets here, kay? She should be here for this.”
Yui gave her another tight hug. “You got it. And hey. I’m proud of you, sis. This was awesome of you.”
The pair returned to their stations, Mei pocketing the folded paper in her jumper. Yui shook her head with a truly elated smile as she put her arm around Hana, who was just garnishing a pair of margaritas with lime wedges and little paper umbrellas. “Well, it’s definitely a red-letter day around here!”
Hana turned. “What’s going on, baby?”
Yui gave a mischievous grin in response. “You’ll see. But one of your girls is having the best week of her life.”
Ranko zoomed between two of her tables, spinning a large pizza on a metal tray over her head and humming happily, when she bumped into something and staggered back. Two arms flashed forward toward her; one caught the pizza tray in mid-air, the other wrapped tightly around her slender waist. “Whoa, easy there, you!”
With a giggle, Ranko shook her head, leaning back in the man’s grip exaggeratedly as if she were slow dancing with him. “Okay, I gotta ask. Is this why they call you Crash?”
Her guitarist and friend grinned, steadying her on her feet and handing her back the pizza. “Guilty as charged. We’re gonna go get set up, alright?”
Ranko nodded. “You bet! See you in a few!” She darted back in the direction of booth one to deliver the nervous-looking couple their dinner. Ranko guessed it was their first date from the awkward interactions she’d been witnessing, and she hoped for the poor girl’s sake that the food gave her something to talk about and break the ice.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
As she approached the front of the room, the front door opened to reveal Ranko’s very tired-looking girlfriend. With a wave and a telling blush, Ranko passed her, dropping off the pizza and picking up a few empty plates before returning to the vestibule to greet her lover.
“Hey, beautiful. How’s your night?” Akane smiled. There seemed to be something on her mind based on the look in her eyes, but Ranko was in far too good of a mood to think too much on it.
The redhead blushed even more at the compliment. Looking into Akane’s face, time seemed to stand still again. She thought, at that moment, she just might be the happiest girl on earth. “Great! The guys just got here, we’re gonna do our set in a minute. Perfect timing! How was your first practice?”
Akane gave a little frown, but hid it quickly enough, she hoped. She smoothed the white pleated skirt she wore nervously. “It was… well, ya know. It was practice. Lots of running around, running the same play two hundred times. You know how it is. Lots of sweating.”
Ranko blushed furiously. “Well, at least that, I can relate to.”
Shaking her head, Akane giggled with a deep blush of her own that put her guilt out of her mind for the moment. “You’re so bad, Ran-chan!”
Hearing the first notes of Jacob’s synthesizer testing the audio equipment, she gave Akane a soft little simper, biting her lip. Playing at being coy and sexy on stage was easy; it was all an act to get the crowd excited. Now that she actually meant it, it felt a lot more awkward, as if this new dimension to their relationship had changed everything in ways she didn’t yet know how to navigate. She felt just like that poor girl at table one did, she bet.
“I’m sorry, Akane. I can’t help it. I’m just a silly girl, after all.”
Yui smirked and motioned to the pair with a tilt of her head as she drained her cocktail shaker into a pair of margarita glasses. “Check it out, mama?”
Hana looked where she was directed and laughed, smiling broadly and giving a little nod. Without a word, she slid a five-hundred yen coin across the bar in front of her second-eldest daughter.
Yui pocketed the money with a wide smile. “Why, thank you for your generous contribution.” She really was happy for Ranko. The poor kid had gone through so much this past year, to say nothing of everything before, and she deserved all the happiness she was getting and more. She’d worked her ass off for it, and Yui couldn’t have been prouder of her.
Sticking two fingers in her mouth, Yui made a shrill whistle to be heard over the din of instruments being tested and a full bar eating and talking. “Mei!” She motioned to the door, where their youngest sister still stood twittering with her girlfriend.
Mei nodded, motioning to Shinji from her seat at the audio mixing station. He approached with an affectionate smile, his bass guitar already strapped across his chest. “Hey, Mei. What’s up?”
With an excited bounce, she waved him closer to the table so she could talk to him in some measure of secrecy, considering lowering her volume in the crowded bar wasn’t much of an option if she wanted to be heard at all. “Hey, Shin! I need you to do me a favor. Do Rise first tonight, okay?”
The tall musician gave her a confused look. “You want us to play the finale first? Seems kinda, I don’t know, ass backwards? But, what the lady says, she gets.”
Mei nodded with a mischievous grin, reaching across the table and taking a handful of his red button-down shirt. She pulled him gently down to her level, giving him a quick kiss on the lips. “And don’t you forget it, boyfriend.”
Ranko hopped up onto the stage, picking up a small metal band from the hook on which it rested and placing it carefully over her hair, adjusting the plastic bit protruding halfway across her right cheek. She’d been skeptical of the change at first, but she had come to appreciate that the wireless headset microphone Crash had bought her made a huge difference in terms of her mobility on the stage.
Taking her spot at the front of the stage to a cheer from the crowd, Ranko waved happily. She couldn’t wait to start singing. She was full of so much joy and she needed somewhere to put it. She inhaled deeply, preparing to belt out the first line of Forever Your Girl, which started on vocals before the music picked up. At the moment, that song somehow seemed appropriate to her. However, just before she opened her mouth, Shinji tapped her on the shoulder, whispering in her ear. She gave him a bewildered look, and the bassist could only shrug.
She took a breath, trying to forcibly adjust her emotional state. The first verse of her original song was quite sad, and she was having a hard time tapping into that emotion at present.
“Alone, with no place left that you call home…”
Watching the woman she loved move on the stage never got old for Akane, even if the songs themselves sometimes did. Tonight, as she leaned on the side wall of the bar, the tables all being packed to capacity, she was especially enraptured. Something about Ranko’s entire demeanor had changed, and she had a suspicion why. She hoped she was right. Nothing in the world sounded better than being the reason Ranko smiled. So enthralled was she with her beloved’s performance that she didn’t notice Yui approach until the tall blonde’s hand was on her shoulder.
“Hey. I need you to go backstage.”
Akane turned. “Huh? Is something wrong?” She was a bit annoyed at having been interrupted during the performance.
Yui grinned. “No. It’s a surprise. Trust me.”
Pushing through the crowd, Akane barely made it to the right side of the stage by the time Ranko pumped her fist in the air, the traditional way she’d ended the song she had written earlier that year with Crash and Shinji’s help.
“You ignite, and you RISE!”
The crowd roared, and Mei grinned at Akane, who had taken a standing spot at the foot of the steps leading down from the stage. “Excuse me a second?” Akane stepped back as Mei departed the little table that served as her deejay booth and ascended the three stairs. She was even more curious now. What were Ranko’s sisters up to?
Mei hurried across the stage until she stood next to Ranko, a handheld microphone in her left hand. “What’s up, Phoenix?! That was Rise, from our very own Ranko and the Dapper Dragons…”
Ranko turned, watching Mei in befuddlement. This whole set was getting weird.
Mei turned to face Ranko, an ecstatic grin on her face as she continued her sentence.
“... and, as of today, the latest single from Yokai Records!”
At the base of the stairs, Akane gasped, covering her mouth with her hands.
Ranko turned to her sister, her eyes about to bulge out of her head. “WHAT?!” Her headset microphone was turned off already, but the crowd heard her without difficulty even over their elated screams.
Mei reached into her pocket, producing the letter. “You did it, little sister!”
Ranko snatched it from her grip and read it over, her hands shaking. She could barely process the words, both from her own brain going ten thousand kilometers a minute, and because the crowd was still going absolutely berserk. “Mei… how?!”
The blue-haired girl grinned. “I’ve been recording your performances and mailing them out to every record company I could find. I just knew somebody’d bite eventually!”
Ranko covered her mouth, a tear starting to form in the corner of her eye. It was real. She wasn’t just a karaoke girl anymore. She was a real artist. Sure, the record label might have only offered a trial contract for a limited run of a thousand copies, but it didn’t matter a bit to her.
“You… you did that for me?”
Mei grinned proudly. “Yeah, well, what can I say? I’m the cool sister.”
Mei was absolutely ecstatic for Ranko. She’d been working on this for months, since just a week or two after Rise debuted on the stage where she now stood. At first, she’d planned to try and solicit music executives to come out and listen to her live, but after the experience Ranko’d been through with Takao earlier that year, she’d decided her tactic to get a contract in hand first was safer in that it wouldn’t get her hopes up just to get her hurt again. She’d been terrified that it would backfire, in that the labels might not be willing to work that way. Apparently, all it took was finding an A&R rep that was also a woman to understand her concerns.
Beaming through her tears, Ranko wrapped her arms around her big sister, speaking quietly in her ear. “Now, you’re sure you didn’t just do this because you’re banging my bassist?”
Mei giggled, blushing. She really hoped all of the microphones on the stage were off. “I mean, it didn’t exactly hurt your chances…”
As Ranko laughed, she and Mei were slammed into from behind as Crash, Shinji, Jacob and Ken all rushed her, hugging her as a group.