Yui pulled down the last of the spare glasses from the bar countertop, wiping a damp spot where the condensation from a beer bottle had left a ring on the polyurethane surface. The night’s patrons were a little on the lower-energy side, and drink sales hadn’t been as good as they could have been. It might not have helped that the main attraction of the Phoenix had yet to take the stage, or even so much as delivered a pizza an hour into service. Ranko was in a mood, and she wanted to try something a little different tonight.
Looking down at the floor behind the bar, Yui gave a little smirk. Her sister was such a tease with her fans sometimes, but she couldn’t argue with the results. It was almost impossible to believe the bar had been in dire financial straits less than a year ago, but the firebrand with the microphone had single-handedly changed all of their fortunes. If she wanted a little latitude to something crazy once in a while, well, it had worked before.
Taking one last glance down the length of the bar to make sure it was entirely clear of food, drink or debris, Yui slid her foot to the right, tapping it twice once it made contact with something. With a nod to Mei, the ambient music in the bar dropped to silence, and the ceiling mounted spotlights began to search the room as if looking for something. The unlit stage remained empty, but suddenly, the speakers roared to life with an angry-sounding feminine voice.
“Shot through the heart, and you’re to blame! Darling, you give love a bad name!”
As a furious rock guitar track began to pour from the speakers, the hidden redheaded girl lying on the floor behind the bar vaulted up onto the surface of the counter. She wore black jeans over black heeled boots, with a white lace knee-length skirt over top. The only other color she wore was the blood-red Phoenix staff tee shirt she’d donned under a black leather jacket. Silver chain earrings dangled a few centimeters from each ear, she wore a black lace choker with a silver heart swinging from it, and her red hair was blown out a wavy cascade around her shoulders. Her black eyeliner, expertly applied just before service began by her youngest sister, gave her eyes an almost vampiric appearance.
The audience went berserk.
“An angel’s smile is what you sell! You promised me heaven, then put me through hell! Chains of love got a hold on me! When passion’s a prison, you can’t break free!”
Ranko placed her hand on the thin column running from the bartop up to the ceiling, which carried the lines for the beer taps to the coolers in the back. She slid down the steel column slowly as she faced her roaring audience, her crimson fingernails almost leaving claw marks in it as she did.
“Whoaaaa! There’s nowhere to run! No one can save me, the damage is done!”
From the back of the room, leaning against the wall between the restroom doors, the bar’s owner shook her head, laughing. She could not believe what she was seeing out of her youngest daughter, but something had gotten into her tonight.
Ranko jumped as high into the air as she could from the counter, pumping her fist in the air as the chorus began.
“Shot through the heart, and you’re to blame! You give love a bad name!”
Ranko whirled on the bar top on one heel, bending down at the waist until she was singing less than a half-meter from Yui’s face. Yui grinned, twisting her shoulders and singing along with her even though Ranko’s headset wouldn’t pick up her voice.
“I play my part, and you play your game! You give love a bad name!”
“Excuse me, miss, could I get another…” A patron at one of the booths waved to his server, holding up an empty glass.
“Not now.” Akane’s eyes were transfixed on the bar, and the temperature in the bar room seemed to have inexplicably gone up several degrees in the last seventy-five seconds.
Putting her hands in the air, Ranko took two running steps along the length of the bar, launching herself forward. She planted her hands on the countertop, catapulting herself into a front handspring, twisting into a back handspring, and then vaulting across the gap between the two counters, landing in an almost catlike crouch with the fingers of her left hand and her right leg extended on the service bar.
“You paint your smile on your lips…” She curled her extended fingers like cat claws, showing off her crimson gel polish as she dragged her left hand across her face, her palm facing outward to the crowd. “Blood-red nails on your fingertips… A school girl’s dream, you act so shy! Your very first kiss was your first kiss goodbye!”
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Mei couldn’t hear Yui over the music from her place at the audio booth, but she’d had enough experience reading lips under the deafening roar of the eighteen thousand watts of sound the Phoenix’ audio system could produce to know “Holy fuck!” when she saw it.
“Whoaaaa! There’s nowhere to run! No one can save me, the damage is done!”
Ranko stalked heel-over-toe down the service bar, stretching her right hand out just enough that the people standing at the counter centimeters from her ankles could touch her fingers.
“Shot through the heart, and you’re to blame! You give love a bad name! I play my part, and you play your game! You give love a bad name!”
With a single running step, she kicked her right leg forward, hurling herself into the air, twisting twice vertically as she cleared the gap between the service counter and the main bar.
“Whooooooooooooa! Shot through the heart, and you’re to blame! You give love a bad name! I play my part, and you play your game! You give love a bad name!”
She pointed with both hands down to the crowd, waving her hands up to the ceiling and hopping on her ankles. As any regular to the Phoenix knew, this was the universal sign for you just got drafted to be backup singers. The occupants of the bar room roared into the chorus in response, Akane included.
“Shot through the heart, and you’re to blame! You give love a bad name! I play my part, and you play your game! You give love a bad name!”
Ranko bent down with her back to the crowd, generating no small amount of excitement from the bar’s masculine clientele, and retrieved the handheld microphone that Yui used to announce last call at the end of the night from its charger on the wall. Turning it on, she tossed it down to her blonde sister behind the bar. It wasn’t as if Yui could serve drinks with a cheerleader gone scream queen doing gymnastics on the bar top, after all.
Ranko bent down at the waist again to get closer to Yui, jerking her shoulders sassily into the chorus. “You give love!” She pointed a blood-red fingernail at her sister with a grin.
Yui laughed, blushing as she pulling the microphone up to her lips. “Whoa-oh, Whoa-oh-oh-oh-ohhhh! A bad name!” She stole a glance at the stool to her far left, where Sakura sat in a skin-tight blue dress. Her girlfriend made a show of fanning herself with a drink menu sultrily as she smiled at the bartender, enjoying watching her playing along with her little sister.
“Yeah, you give lo–oove…” The redhead jumped, tucking into a ball and tumbling twice into the air before landing on the floor in the gap between the counters.
“... a bad name.”
As the crowd roared, Ranko stalked into the room, and the crowd parted for her as she made her way to one of the booths against the back wall, crossing the path of the other server working the floor that evening as she did so. She shook her head, her hair bouncing on her shoulders as she laughed. She didn’t think anybody saw it, but the half a heartbeat that elapsed while the two passed each other was just long enough for Akane to give her a sneaky, playful little swat on the backside. How am I supposed to walk around like a badass in here, when you’re making me want to… ooooh, I’m gonna get you later, Akane…
She sidled over to table thirteen, leaning down close enough to be heard over the sound system. “Welcome to the Phoenix! What can I…” She sighed in recognition. “Oh. It’s you.”
The burly wrestler smirked. “Hey, Ranko. Told ya I’d see you soon. I’ll take a large shrimp pizza and your phone number.”
Ranko stood, rolling her eyes and backing away from the table. “Look, Kimura, I told you. I’m not looking to date anybody, and certainly not somebody who’s acting all creepy. Just back off, dude.”
“Not until I get your number. It’ll be so much easier than having to chase you around town.” The mammoth teen leaned back, putting his feet up on the chair across from him under the table.
“I told you, jerk! It’s not happening! Now leave me alone!” Ranko took another step away from the table, and her raised voice turned the heads of patrons at a few nearby tables.
“Oh, come on, baby. I’m burning with desire over here!”
As Ranko rolled her eyes, she felt a firm hand on her shoulder. She whirled, and was a split second from throwing a punch before recognizing her mother. “Ranko, honey, can you help Mei in the kitchen for a second?”
Ranko nodded, shooting an angry glare at Saburo. “Sure thing, mom.”
The redhead darted off, slipping into the kitchen. “Hey, Mei. What’s up?”
Mei motioned to a stool. “Sit down a sec?”
Blinking, Ranko straddled the stool. “Sure, whatcha need?”
With a giggle, Mei shrugged, swallowing the last of a potato skin she was eating. “Nothin’. Mama and Akane just wanted you to hang out in here for a few minutes while they ran that asshole off for ya.”