As her squadmates whooped and tumbled out onto the mat and waved to the capacity crowd in the arena, Ranko followed trepidatiously. Her hands were shaking. Her eyes darted around through the audience. Looking for comfort. Looking for danger.
She took her mark at the front left of the mat, looking back at Shiori. Her eyes were a chasm of panic. Focus, Ranko. He’s not here. Dial in.
Someone off to her left held up a white posterboard sign encouraging one of her squadmates, probably Tamiko’s parents. The sudden flash of white made Ranko snap her head to the side, her eyes wide. Her knees bent a little, as if preparing to jump out of the way. Her breathing quickened, and she almost jumped out of her shoes when the first beat of her own song thundered from the sound system in the large auditorium.
With a two-minute time limit on their performance, Ranko and Jacob had needed to cut down the song to just a few of its verses, opting for the strongest ones. An almost liquid baseline oozed from the speakers, and the digitized voices Jacob added to the start of the track announced to the audience what to expect.
“You ignite and you… You ignite and you… You ignite and you RISE! RISE! Ri-ri-ri-ri-RISE!”
The audience roared in recognition as Ranko opened her mouth to sing, her voice quavering as her eyes frantically searched the sea of faces. Watching for the attack. Waiting for the sneers. The laughter. The malice.
“S… somehow, the shadows always track you down…”
She barely avoided flinching as Tamiko and Yori crossed in front of her doing chains of handsprings in opposite directions.
Near the very back of the arena, Akane turned to the woman in the seat to her left. “Oh, no… Something’s wrong.”
Kou and Shiori lifted Mizuki, launching her forward through the air. She perfectly executed a double tuck into a layout, falling into a basket catch executed by Kotone and Tanda.
Two long tables ran across the front of the mat. The one on the left sat three judges, a man and two women. The one to the right was home to two male commentators that were relaying the events for a radio broadcast. Ranko could hear the commentators between the notes of her songs.
“The Lions are off to a strong start here, but the singer, Tendo, seems to have just a little bit of the jitters…”
Ranko swallowed hard, spinning on her heel in synchronization with Yasuko on the other side of the mat. “And then, something s… stirs in you again…”
Breathe. Breathe.
Shaking her head, she started into a run, executing a front handspring into a back handspring, launching herself off her hands and spinning twice in the air. As she landed, she instinctively pulled her left ankle back to allow it to slide frictionlessly into the landing on the ice.
But there was no ice.
Ranko stumbled, catching herself. It took everything in her power not to curse under her breath, remembering at the last possible instant that she was wearing a hot microphone.
What the hell is wrong with her, Shiori thought from her position standing atop the hands of Kou and Kotone. She’s blowing everything!
The color commentator cringed, turning to his partner, his microphone with the logo of his radio station wrapped around the handle in his right hand. “Ooh, and Tendo can’t stick the landing on that twist, and that’s a mandatory half-point deduction. Those are the sorts of mistakes you just can’t afford to make if you’re trying to keep pace with the Archers we just saw, especially not on the easy stuff.”
Akane stood from her seat in the back of the arena, cupping her hands around her mouth and shouting at the top of her lungs. “WE LOVE YOU, RANKO!”
The redhead’s eyes snapped up and looked for the sound. Her eyes fell on the very back row of the arena, off to stage left. There stood Akane, the love of her life, wearing a black tee shirt with bold pink writing across the front of it – Ranko’s signature. One of the new Ranko and the Dapper Dragons merchandise products the label had just released.
To Akane’s left sat Hana.
And Ayako.
And Yui.
And Izumi.
And Mei.
They had all come. In matching shirts, even!
Ranko’s eyes sparkled in recognition of her family, and in an instant, the last year and a half rocketed through her mind. The time at the library when Hana first called Ranko her daughter. The late nights sitting on her bed above the Phoenix eating popcorn and talking with Yui. Standing up for Mei. Shopping trips with Izumi. Warm hugs and protective cuddles from Akane.
Her mind crashed back into the present, the cobwebs clearing. Whatever doubts she had, whatever fears lurked in the dark corners of the auditorium, they were gone. Mikado could not get her here. Nothing could.
Her family was with her. Akane was with her.
She was invincible.
“Dust off your hands, take a breath, take a stand and admit that you might have been wrong! Your heart still remembers the smoldering embers! THE FIRE WAS IN YOU ALL ALONG!”
Ranko’s posture straightened and she roared into the chorus of Rise with the widest smile imaginable. Each time she screamed the name of the song that was making her famous, another of her squadmates was launched into the air, performing a double twist. As soon as the flying girl was caught, she and the two cheerleaders that caught her ran to the end of the line so they could keep the chain going in a cascade from the right side of the mat to the left.
As at the Phoenix, the crowd joined in echoing the name of the song. But it was not two hundred people. It was seven thousand, two hundred and four. It was deafening. It was all-encompassing.
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They were hers.
No longer was the teeming audience a threat, like it had been that day with the Golden Pair. They had come to be amazed, and amazing a crowd was both Ranko’s specialty and her passion. They were an army at her back now, reveling at her command, and their every breath empowered her even further to do what she did best.
“RISE like a dragon and RISE from the agony! RISE, and rekindle the flame!”
She grinned up into the back of the auditorium, seeing Hana hop excitedly on her ankles with the music, thrusting her fist into the air and joining the chant. You rock it, mama. This is for you.
Standing in a line, Tanda, Mizuki and Yori all performed deadfalls onto their backs. As Ranko continued the chorus, they lifted their legs, kicking in unison and launching themselves off of their shoulders and back onto their feet.
“Whoa,” the color commentator said, turning to his companion. “I don’t know what’s come over Tendo here, but she’s like a girl possessed out there now! Is it enough to make up for the previous mistakes, though?”
“When life turns to ashes, you go get the matches, and SEAR AWAY ALL OF THE SHAME!”
Ranko leapt into the air, tucking into a ball and flipping backward onto her feet. She couldn’t do terribly complex stunts while needing to maintain her singing. Each of her movements had an almost violent snap to them, as if she was exerting even more energy than was necessary to increase their speed, precision, and power.
“BURN like a demon and EARN what you’re dreaming!”
She extended her right arm, pointing to the back row at stage left and its six occupants. Even over the din, she could hear all of her sisters, her mother, and Akane squealing at the acknowledgement. She delivered the line in less of a singing voice, and more of a defiant scream.
“THE PHOENIX INSIDE NEVER DIES!”
Kotone, Tanda and Mizuki all were catapulted into the air at once, performing double layouts in perfect time with the final usage of the song’s title in the chorus.
“You ignite, and you RISE!”
Shiori, Tamiko and Yori all ran toward Ranko in a single-file line diagonally across the mat, with about two meters of space between them. Shiori dropped into a tuck roll on the mat just in time for Ranko to handspring over her, landing between her and Tamiko. Tamiko then also rolled as Ranko’s second handspring cleared her, and then her third vaulted her over Yori and into a double twist to her feet.
“You were lonely and scared, and nowhere near prepared! There were lessons you needed to learn! But now, it’s your mission to start reignition. Your heart is just waiting to BURN!”
As before, each time Ranko uttered the name of the song, backed by the chants of some thirteen thousand raucous onlookers, another girl was launched into the air to execute a double tuck. First, Aoi and Moriko tossed and caught Ayame. Then, Tanda and Koe tossed Kotone. Then, Mizuki and Yori tossed Shiori. Each time a girl was caught, she lay flat on her back between her two catchers on the mat.
“RISE like a dragon and RISE from the agony! RISE, and rekindle the flame!”
With each of the hardest notes of the second line, one of the girls that had flown in the previous line took the hands of the two catchers, and was flung forward into a front handspring.
“When life turns to ashes, you go get the matches and sear away all of the shame!”
Two lines of six cheerleaders formed a V formation centered on Ranko, each executing a double back handspring in perfect synchronization. Only Kou stood still, a few meters behind Ranko.
“Burn like a demon, and earn what you’re dreaming!”
Twelve of the cheerleaders split off into four groups of three, two on either side of Kou in the center. Ranko herself jogged to the back of the formation, behind Kou.
“The PHOENIX INSIDE never dies!”
As the pre-recorded echoes of the last line poured from the speakers, each was punctuated by a girl being lifted to a standing position atop two of her squadmates and thrusting her fist into the air.
Kotone straddled the palms of Tamiko and Yori. “Never dies!”
Shiori was lifted atop Aoi and Ayame. “Never dies!”
Tanda next rose up into the palms of Moriko and Mizuki. “Never dies!”
Finally, Chinatsu was propelled to her feet in the arms of Etsuko and Momoe. “Never dies!”
As the four pyramids were created, a loud grunt of exertion was broadcast through the arena through Ranko’s microphone as she threw herself into a dead run toward Kou from the back of the formation. She sprung forward after five steps, twisting her front handspring into a violent back handspring, and then another, at dizzying speed. Each explosive motion was precisely calculated to build momentum and velocity. Potential energy, right, Mr. Iwata? Or is this kinetic? Whatever.
They’re not going to see me lose. Not today. It’s time to see a phoenix fly.
She launched herself off of her legs as she completed her third handspring, twisting once and clearing Kou’s head while upside down in the air. Kou cocked her elbows back, as they had practiced so many nights on the bleachers, and Ranko did as well. As soon as their hands connected, both girls pushed outward with all the force they could bring to bear, and Ranko was launched an additional six meters into the air as she flew over Kou’s head.
In the crowd, Akane gasped as she watched Ranko twist her body in a corkscrew motion once.
Twice.
As Ranko spun into her third twist, Shiori watched nervously from her perch above her squadmates. Okay, Ranko. You nailed it, girl. Straighten it out, straighten it out…
But Ranko’s motion did not stop.
Oh, no, Shiori thought, her eyes widening in horror. That crazy girl! She’s trying to…”
Ranko smiled. She could sense that there was plenty of space under her feet to attempt a landing. But then, she realized that the audience was upside-down, and the table where the judges sat was getting awfully close.
Four.
Shiori’s mouth hung open as she watched her squadmate plummet head-first toward the mat without a catcher. Oh, gods… Ranko…
With a last desperate effort, Ranko flung her legs forward, trying to get enough rotation to at least try and land on her backside as opposed to her face. She felt her left foot strike the cushioned mat, and as her momentum carried her forward and her ankle gave way, she bent her right knee and planted her right foot as hard as she could into the vinyl mat. Her head came to a stop less than a meter from the edge of the judge’s table.
The crowd went berserk.
The color commentator shot out of his chair. “Did she just… Holy mother of miso, folks! Ranko Tendo just landed a quadruple twist with a front layout! The stunt that ended the legendary career of Mieko Suto! We’ve just seen history, cheer fans!”
One of the judges looked down at Ranko with an expression somewhere between awe and terror.
I know the feeling, lady, Ranko thought. I thought I was gonna eat it there, too.
Still, she flashed the judge a smile, pushing off with only her planted right foot to a mostly standing position from the crouch she had landed in and thrusting her right fist into the air.
As the last word of the song left her lips, all four of the girls atop their pyramids were launched into synchronized double twists and caught by their bases.
“YOU IGNITE, AND YOU RISE!”