"Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies."- Aristotle
A Utopia. That was the only way to describe the sight before my very eyes.
As Aika dragged me along with her, I was both mesmerized and horrified, for the grounds which I walked on were none other than the wooden tiles of… "The mall?" I questioned Aika with a tilt of my head and raise of my brow.
Though it was a rather beautiful sight, it was one which we shouldn't have witnessed. Aika and I should've been at a studio coming up with our duet.
"Yup! I wanted to do something before I had to work! Plus I ripped my favorite cardigan and so I thought I should go looking for a new one and this mall is a practical town of stores!" Aika went off, letting whatever thoughts drift out from her mind and passed her peachy lips. Even if I was quite irritated with her procrastination, I couldn't help but to think what she said was true.
As the oak of my eyes glanced upon the immaculate space before me, all I saw was an indoor city. With glass roofs that seemingly touched the clouds, sunlight flooded the insides of the mall as if there was no ceiling at all.
Just at the entrance, I could see the practical houses of shops; each decorated with everything from canopies to even lush garden exteriors. Rows of wide, palace-like stairs lead to villages of shops and outlets. The dang mall even had lamp posts next to each and every bench.
The very air was embellished by tunes of pop music. But… but in all of its utopian beauty there laid a struggle in its foundation.
Not a struggle for anyone, just me in particular. Like the streets of New York, the mall was bustling with people. Just watching them come in and out caused my anxiety to shoot sky high. In such a place like this, Aika and I wouldn't survive the crowds of people that would swarm us.
Yet as I looked back at Aika, wondering what the beige-haired girl was thinking… her nails caressed the edges of my ears! In a wide-eyed panic, I jolted away.
"What are you doing!?" I questioned Aika with a furrowed brow and reddened face. Something was off, as if my tone was muffled by cotton. It didn't take long for me to realize what Aika was actually doing. I had a mask on.
"Sorry sorry! I thought I could sneak it on you because you were all spaced out and everything. My bad!" Aika gleefully apologized whilst putting on a black mask of her own.
"This way we can go unnoticed by fans. Like ninjas!" Aika added with a small swing of her hand, acting as though she was indeed a "ninja"
My stare was placid and unsurprised as Aika took a few more chops with "Wah!" sounds to go along with it.
We're not going to get anything done. My mind sighed while I watched Aika get lost in a world of her own. She took a few more karate chops, probably fending off "enemies" from her and I.
"Aika, when will we write the song? Do you even have a plan? Because it needs to be done by tonight or else both our butts will be on the line." I asked her. The beige-haired girl came to a stop as she realized why she was here in the first place. The foggy blue of her eyes looked to the sky as she tried to think of an answer. The tip of her finger grappled onto her lip, ever so slightly pulling it down as she thought about the question at hand.
"Hmmmmmmmm…" she hummed away, still staring off into the sky while thinking.
"Oh!! Duh! I almost forgot!" Aika exclaimed.
Finally, I thought.
"Let's go looking for a cardigan!"
Aika's fingers wrapped around my wrist, jerking me with her as she took off further into the utopia of a mall. My steps were staggered as I failed to keep up with the beige-haired girl's speed. It felt as though my feet were tied in knots as I tripped leg after leg. Yet the energetic girl known as Aika held tight to my arm and pulled me ever further no matter how many times I fumbled around.
While running, my eyes never ran out of new colors to soak in, for the mall was both a botanical garden and electric city. With each leafy, green shrub that I passed came a vibrant billboard just bursting with brilliant just dancing colors. The blue-haired girl selling pop in the advertisement was a dynamic abundance of energy and hyperness, somewhat reminding me of the girl who pulled me so. Her digital voice wavered over the sea of chattering crowds who oh so joyously spoke in youthful tones.
It didn't take a genius to know most of the people here were mere teenagers pondering the avenues and boulevard of the mall. To them, this was their city, a getaway from teachers and parents alike. A place where both lunch and dinner could occur; eating everything from Matsuya to Pepper Lunch. To say the least, it was a megalopolis for the young but nothing more than a shopping center for the older. Though I never experienced sociable things at their age, I guess galavanting around the mall with Aika was my late start to it all.
Something was off about the people who roamed the mall so.
Almost every single one of them had some kind of uncracked glow stick in their grasp. It left my mind pondering on what I wasn't getting. Yet I had bigger fish to fry. Aika had finally come to a stop as her gaze was hooked by an outlet.
My eyelids met my fingers as I rubbed them, trying to rid the stress of which filled my aching eyes.
We still need to get the song done.
To think Aika would bring us to the mall when Haijo strictly told us to work on the song was inane and foolhardy. Yes, Haijo was kind've a stickler, yet when you had someone who got as distracted as Aika and a slacker like myself… you had to be.
Case and point; us at the mall.
"I'm going in here if you need anything." Aika informed me as she pointed to the Pull D'amour outlet in front of us.
I watched as the smiling girl oh so nonchalantly walked in, ignoring my leers of blatant irritation as she did so.
"Wait up." I called after the girl as I went in after her. It might seem counterintuitive and perhaps a little like backpedaling, but following Aika around shopping was probably the only way we'd be able to write a song more so start one.
Once I set foot in Pull D'amour, all my eyes could take in was the plethora of fabricated colors that lay on rack upon rack. The store's front was deceivingly big, hiding this mall within a mall.
In the sea of clothes, I spotted the lioness mane of Aika's cream hair. Her head dawdled a bout in the men's section.
Without time to waste, I walked over to the girl. She looked amongst the hoodies with hands flipping through them and eyes analyzing their material as if she was turning pages to a book. Without sparing even the slightest bit of attention, Aika had asked me a question.
"What size are you, Zero?"
I merely shrugged. Even with the pressures of being a popstar, my clothing was none the more blatant and simple. So when Aika had asked me such a thing, I drew a blank.
While squinting, Aika eyed me from top to bottom. I tensed up. Her stares made me feel somewhat uncomfortable, as if her gaze was wriggling throughout my skin.
"You look like a medium to me." she guessed whilst pulling a piece of clothing from its homely racks. My eyes gawked at the sight before them, somewhat startled by what was being held in front of my face. A grey sweater roughly twice as big as the one I was currently wearing. My eyes could pick it apart knit by knit, for the stitching that held it together was loose and gave off an almost translucent look to it.
"Go ahead, try it on!" Aika prompted as she pushed the sweater as close as to brush the tip of my nose.
Even with the immense thickness of its stranded texture, the holes that poked away at it only made it seem redundant and chilly. Yet… in spite of it being out of my range of style, not even the most stubborn of people could say no to that smile of Aika's. Her grin beamed with proud giddiness, just waiting for me to put the "medium-sized" sweater on.
Hesitantly, I took the piece of clothing from Aika's hands, giving her a toothy, timorous smile as I did so.
As I wriggled my way into the stone-colored sweater, I felt like I had shrunken to nothing more than a twelve year old. Like a blanket, the shirt draped over me and left my sleeves handless. Its material brimmed with coziness nonetheless, but I felt like a small child wearing it.
Pitters and patters of petite clapping resonated from Aika's hands as she praised my appearance.
"It looks so good on you! Really gives off this cute, lofi-nerd type of vibe. Like you work at a library and go home to your calico cat and books. You don't know how to talk to girls, like at all, you're absolutely horrible at it and there's this one girl from your university that makes you super duper red'n stuff. Captain of the volleyball team AND Ms. Popular! Whenever you try talking to her, you just start malfunctioning like an overheating robot!" Aika told me, making up a fictitious, alter ego Zero as she did so. Her fingers strummed a harp that wasn't there as she continued on her rant-ful story, telling it not only with her mouth but dancing hands as well.
Like gophers popping out of a grey, woolly burrow, my fingers poked in and out of the holes of the oversized sweater.
"But spoiler alert! She likes you too and is always trying to strike up a conversation but YOU always go Error 404 on her and your brain completely crashes! Thankfully, your friend and older high school classmate, Aika, is there to save the day!" Aika haughtily declared as she struck a rather heroic pose. The beige-haired girl was oozing with pride and superiority, seeming almost like a braggart to some extent.
"I thought I was in college." I ever so blatantly remarked. The oak of my brown eyes grew duller and blander, knowing that I was the damsel in distress in this story; it left an annoyed twitch in my left eyebrow.
"So I set up this really convoluted scheme to set you guys up on a date! It involves walnuts, storage bins, the foot measuring thing in shoe stores, three fedoras, and me in a mustache! The–" "So how much does this sweater cost?" I tried to end Aika's seemingly endless rambling.
As my hands ruffled through the huge sweater, they stumbled upon a tag at the edge of the sleeve's inside. I flicked it out into the open. Yet when I did so… I felt as if just wearing the thing would cost four thousand Yen alone.
The fabrics upon my skin no longer felt cozy and warm, but a blistering fleece of fine silver. My mind was shrooming with smoke by how blown it was by the insane, almost idiotic, price of the sweater!
How… w-why… why is it!? "F-F-F-F-Forty one thousand Yen?" I hoarsely stuttered. Just looking at its price tag made me woozy with disbelief.
Aika tilted her head, her lips puckered and her brow furrowed with confusion.
Ever so skeptical she was as she plucked the tag from my frozen fingers and looked at it herself. Like a virus, my shocked bewilderment contaminated Aika.
"Wh-What!?" The beige-haired girl exclaimed. Her foggy eyes fluttered in awe at such a crazy price!
"Only forty one thousand!?"
… WHAT!?
Aika pulled the tag closer to her face, scanning it for any misconception, yet her mumbling disbelief only furthered the more she looked at it.
"What do you mean only forty one thousand!?" I practically squealed at the girl as I swiped the tag out of her grasp.
"Geez, cheapy. I can buy it for you if you'd like." Aika retaliated with.
Twitch. Twitch. Twitch my eye went as those words fell from Aika's mouth and into my ears.
To say I didn't know what to think was an understatement, for my mind was completely frizzled with frenzying static. How ironic it was that Aika's story had come to life and I was but a malfunctioning robot in her midst. I simply couldn't process all these dubious claims, everything from a multi-thousand Yen sweater all the way to Aika shelling out money like it was nothing. I understood that she was wealthy, but to spend so much on a piece of oversized clothing, it seemed ridiculous. But as is, that's how someone would describe the life of a popstar; ridiculous.
"So do you want it? It looks really good on you, Mr. Timid'n'shy." Aika asked with a tilt of her head and a sly smile. Her creamy hair hung to the side, its wavy strands ever so faintly waving back and forth.
I lifted my arms to inspect the greyed out cashmere before me. My fingers leaked from its loose pelt. My eyes veered from my fingers to Aika's foggy blues and then back to my fingers. I could just as easily buy it as Aika could've, yet the expression on her face told me otherwise.
She really wants to buy this for me, huh?
"Yeah, I really like it." I responded. Such enthrallment springed from the eyes of Aika. Her excitement was truly peaked as her hands twittered with small claps.
"Okay! Let's get it!" Aika exclaimed as she once again grabbed me by the arm.
Oh no! Not agai– I was whisked away not only from my thoughts but from the place where I stood.
As Aika ran with me in her grasp, I didn't know if I was abnormally weak or if the girl before me had a grip of iron and the strength of a lioness to go along with it. Nevertheless, Aika and I zoomed across the outlet. Flurries of fabricated colors crowded our field of view as we passed through a practical hall of racked clothing. Thankfully, the checkout wasn't as far as I'd thought it'd be.
As Aika grabbed my sleeve to find the price tag, I noticed the dreary stares of the girl on the other side of the counter. What an oddity her looks were too. Though awfully crabby and bitter, her eyes were all the more stunning. Pigmented a sea foam emerald, her irises weren't inviting yet they couldn't be ignored either. Her green eyes complimented the short, pink hair that sat upon her head.
With a scan of my tagged sleeve, the grumpy girl spoke.
"That'll be forty one." she announced with snappiness in her voice. The ice cold aura of the girl even made the loudest of people silent in her wake; in particular, Aika.
The beige-haired popstar held out her debit card. As soon as the tips of the cashier's fingers touched the card, Aika jerked back her hand as if she was feeding a mouse to a snake.
"You know, they sell the same sweater online for a fraction of the price." the cashier commented as her grumpy glare switched from Aika to the card she was swiping. Both Aika and I stood in silence. If we were to say yes, we would look stupid. But if we were to say no… we would still look stupid.
So with that, it was a checkmate of quietude.
Without a second word to spare, the cashier held out Aika's debit card for the grabbing. The cashier's arm stood motionless as she awaited for Aika to take her card back. For some reason, Aika didn't take it. Hesitance filled her fidgety fingers as the debit card remained untouched. I don't know what kind of abhorrent fear had consumed Aika's mind as to look so scared to take back what was rightfully hers. Then, Aika snatched her card back as fast as she could.
"Thank you." The beige-haired girl mumbled as she began walking away. With one last look at the icy girl on the other side of the counter, I followed Aika out of the store.
Aika shivered, rubbing her hands against her crossed arms with a shudder.
"Why is the Ice Queen working retail?" She asked with another shiver. As those words met my ears, I only grew confused.
"Ice Queen?" I repeated with a tilt of my head. Aika's chills disappeared as she shot me a look that screamed with a sarcastic "really?"
The beige-haired girl took a breathe in as she prepared to ramble a bout.
Here we go.
I waited for her to go off, explaining everything from top to bottom. But no speech came, for all her attention was caught by something behind myself. Even with a mask, I could see the awed gape of her mouth. The blue of her eyes gleamed like the ocean top Marmoris as her foggy gaze was sucked into the words before her.
I turned around to see what the girl was ogling about and… with glass-paned walls and doors of cherry red… laid a brand new KitKat store.
Quickly, I wanted to pull Aika away before she snapped out of her trance and rushed into the chocolatey store. Yet I knew her love for chocolate would overcome my strength. I had only spent so much time with Aika before, but about half that time she either had chocolate or Oreos with her.
"Zero…" She called out to me in a voice that could only be described as a mesmerized daze.
Slowly, Aika approached the store like a moth to the light. To her, this KitKat shop was a temple. To me, it was an opportunity. If Aika had food by her side, she would be satisfied and we might actually! Maybe! Perhaps! Could start on a song.
"Look at it… it's beautiful… it's truly, truly beautiful…" Aika squeaked as she stared at the plethora of silk wrapped goods on the other side of the transparent wall. I couldn't ignore it either, with her love of sweets… the chocolate was practically calling out to her through the barrier of glass.
It was quite poetic actually. Pertaining somewhat to the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe. Two lovers in which were separated by a wall yet still communicated by a tiny crack in it. But in this case, Thisbe was chocolate and if I didn't let Aika into the KitKat shop, she might "fall to her sword" just like Pyramus did.
With a huff of a sigh, I walked over to the tall, red doors of the shop and rested my fingers upon its long, gold handle, opening it as I did so. Before I could even open it all the way, Aika had slipped past the small crack of a gap like a cat zipping through a tiny pinch of an opening. It had caught me by surprise, such speed for a girl that ate so poorly.
I pulled down my mask for a moment so I could let out a breathy groan of a sigh before I followed in the catty girl. I should've covered my ears when I had entered, for the squeaking yelp that uttered from the beige-haired girl was so loud, it startled even passerbys outside the shop.
Though awfully plain and even a little dim on the inside, the chocolate store held sure to its sugary name.
Dark, opened drawers brimming with gold wrapped bars of chocolate sat on the sides of the shop.
Brown goodness enfolded in paper cases with that classic velvet red laid on the long, dark brown of a display counter.
Different colored pyramids cascaded amidst the tops of the display counters, stacked next to each other and "ripe" for the plucking.
Even the crystal chandeliers blared with the word KitKat as they illuminated their classic red upon the mahogany floor.
With a swing of a turn, Aika had shoved a teal box inches away from my face.
"They have rum raisin! I can't find rum raisin anywhere! Isn't this place amazing!?" Aika exclaimed as she swung away and continued her plucking of all the sugary goods.
A bit too fancy for chocolate I would say.
I was beginning to notice the difference between her hyperness and her joy. Even in their energetic similarities, there was a difference between the two. One was a nonstop myriad of thoughts which she expressed oh so fluently. The other was a distraction from that, a real joy that could be as equally as loud, but still pure and utter joy nonetheless… and how well she expressed it too.
Even if her hands still played the piano on that teal box as she fidgeted a bout, I could see that even with such restlessness laid contempt. I wish I could've felt that, a delight so great it was overwhelming to some degree.
A memory of auric honey eyes flickered over the film of my gaze, making my stomach drop to the pits of my waist, as if my intestines were made of lead. I wondered why I pictured her eyes, surely that staggering feeling of what could only be fear was not joy. Yet as the flickering gold eyes came for a second time, I could but only feel sick for some reason.
That's definitely not joy.
"Ready to head out?" Aika's voice sounded from the side of me. I looked over at the girl, expecting to see her cloudy blues and masked grin, but instead my eyes were greeted with the cardboard of rum raisin KitKat boxes. It was a skyscraper of chocolate. How she kept it all balanced was but a wonder to my mind and eyes.
"L-Let's only buy a few of these." I told the beige-haired girl, unearthing those blue eyes of hers as I took a good few boxes from her building of rum raisin KitKats.
Where I expected smiling eyes, I only saw the ones of a puppy dog; as sad as ever that I would take away from her amazing, chocolatey structure.
I felt guilt sully my heart as I looked at such disappointed blues, yet to my word I would stick.
"Go put those away. We'll buy the ones I'm holding, okay?" I told her. Aika let out a childish huff as her puppy eyes turned ravenous with frustration. The beige-haired girl turned around, grumbling as she did so. Through the mumbling of a sotto voce remark, I heard the words "stick" and "ass"
It didn't take long for me to decipher the murmuring language of Aika-nese to know exactly what the irked beige-haired girl had said.
With a few beeps and scans, the two of us were back out onto the booming streets of Kyūden with bags of rum raisin KitKats in each hand.
Once again I had noticed the oddity of uncracked glow sticks. Whether they be shoved in pockets or fiddled amongst fingers, people had them. Besides that, something was off… off by a fair amount as I noticed the tunes which blew by my ears like a subtle breeze. The melodic wind sang away as the speakers of the mall hushed them like vents to air. The whispers of lyrics wreathed around the electric R&B beat as the words followed the bumping path the tempo had laid.
I checked my lips to make sure they were still, and sure enough… they were.
So it wasn't me who twisted those words into the arriose atmosphere, leaving only one explanation to the singing of which was both my own and not.
My oaked eyes swerved from screen to screen as the electric banners danced with a character who was too familiar! One that made this mask I wore obsolete and totally useless!
Messy, black hair that flopped along with the bop of a virtual head, digital eyes that were plain yet evermore unique when brought into the light of day, a face that was both tired and dolent… the person which sung upon every food court TV screen and towering billboard was none other than me.
Horror. Nothing but complete and utter horror as I heard the melancholic down tempo of my song; Your Love Is A Night Blooming Cereus.
"Hey, it's your song!" Aika called out with a small nudge. Her shoulder pressed into the back of mine, smudging the gentle fabric of her black sweater against the iron grey of mine. The ardent but tender tone in my song was a nostalgic spell to all who heard it, for it spoke what had been and what could've been.
From mute lip to mute lip, my redolent song was syncing to each mouth of everyone near me.
"You are the flowers to my garden, the lilies to my soul, the princess of the night. If you're not there, I would be a simple empty pot, waiting for another Dama De Noche to take your place."
The music video showed a virtual me from head to toe, singing the wistful ballad of a short-lived love.
Blossoming one night and dying the next, the Night-Blooming Cereus was a flower that truly earned the nickname Princess of the Night.
The ivory ball gown of its paper mache petals were a sight to behold. Floral vanilla was the perfume it wore. The fragrance of its uniqueness held me under its trance and for one night I was in love with the beauteous flower.
Yet, as the life of a Night Blooming Cereus, the Princess of the Night only bloomed for one night before dying… how melancholic it was…
I shook myself from the nostalgic paroxysm, trying to rid myself of the past.
Rarely I would revisit my creations, perhaps because of this memory I thought I had cast away in a lyrical cage of inkened "bars"
I didn't want any reminiscent remnants of the old Zero; the younger Zero.
But as I saw myself singing that song, I couldn't help but revisit the pain of it all. Even with such emotions barging into my brain, there was a bigger problem at hand.
Almost as if acting like a wanted poster, the vast screens that lit ablaze with my image only called my appearance out ever further.
Gazes that switched onto me then to my virtual twin then back at me started to realize the similarities. Mask or not, I was Zero, the red streak in the painting of white.
With widened eyes, angst ran through my body as more and more people started to realize the phenomenon of my presence. Chocolate filled bags slipped from my hands as they clasped onto Aika's.
"Huh? What are you–yaahh!" The beige-haired girl yelped as I took off into the distance with my hand shackled to hers, leaving nothing but two bags of Rum Raisin KitKats in our place. It felt somewhat nice to drag her around, seeing how she did the same to me not long ago.
Around the city of Kyūden Mall we ran, trying to escape our own identities. Yet to no avail, screens upon screens still played my image as if I was wanted dead or alive.
No matter what street of Kyūden we ran down, there was always a person to flicker notice at my appearance. Such a shame it was.
"Hey!" Aika shouted.
"Wait a second! Why are we running so much!? We're missing all the good stores!" she whined while trying to escape the clutches of my grasp.
Aika was nothing more than a ball and chain. Her feet skid across the cascading browns of tile while she struggled against my grip like a puppy against its leash. Wrapping and rustling bags shook ever so jauntily with each hurried step Aika took.
"Zero, I swear if you don't slow down right now I'm gonna scream bloody murder! I'm not joking! I'll do it! Three, two…" the beige-haired girl threatened. With eyes scrunched close, she inhaled and readied herself, cheeks like a chipmunk's as she held all that air in.
The running had come to a stop as my voice fell silent. I looked at the screens above. With a tune of unfamiliarity and a feminine voice to follow, I let out a sigh, huffing out my anxieties along with it.
Rae, the top singer and songwriter in Japan had overran the TVs and billboards alike.
My grip loosened and my hands lay low to my sides, lankily hanging from my shoulders as I felt exasperation overcome my angst. My head hung along my arms while my eyes remained winced.
How stressful. My thoughts whined. As if my nerves couldn't get anymore wracked, from behind myself, bloody murder shrieked from Aika's perfect pipes.
With a staggered jolt of a turn, I squabbled to the side and faced Aika. Startled was an understatement when it came to the pure heart attack that wretched at my aorta. Though her scream was short lived, nothing could've sounded more shrill or ear-splitting than the pip of a scream that emitted from Aika's mouth. Thankfully, the scream didn't seem to cause much more attention than a side glance or quick flicker of startlement.
"We stopped running! Why did you scream!?" I asked Aika whilst looking around to see if anyone was still watching the two of us. My brown gaze picked up no eyes staring back at us.
With a simple shrug, Aika excused herself by saying, "It was delayed. Like ya know when the doctor hits your knee with one of those tiny hammers and your leg moves a second later? Yup, it's like… hey, what's this?"
Her span of attention didn't last long, for it was stolen by something behind my shoulder. Aika handed her KitKat bags over to me. Like she was in a trance, she walked past me, drawn by whatever was behind my back.
I turned around, wondering what those baby blue eyes were stuck on. Yet before I could I see, Aika had already plucked it off the wall. She walked back to me, carrying with her a flimsy piece of paper of which her gaze remained glued upon. She looked in awe, the twinkling mist of her foggy eyes said so.
"What is it?" I asked the mesmerized Aika. With a tiny trill of a squeal behind the girl's mask, a smile stretched from beneath its black fabrics. She was filled with excitement for reasons beyond me.
"They're having a concert on the main floor in half an hour!" Aika oh so enthusiastically informed me. The beige-haired girl flicked the paper into my view, showing me it while she bounced up and down. Realization hit me harder than a freight train.
That's why there are so many people here today.
A concert was taking place in the mall city of Kyūden, and it was being held by none other than Rae Coal, Ms. Number one herself.
Of course this was surprising but no more than that. Rae was known for doing free concerts all the time, so doing it in one of Japan's largest malls was no doubt something she would do.
"We gotta go see her!" Aika exclaimed. Her face appeared right in front of mine as I slowly looked up from the paper. I jolted back, startled by both Aika popping my personal bubble and the beige-haired girl recommending such an idea.
"Us? Go? To one of Rae's open concerts?" I asked, my eyes widening with each question I had asked. Aika nodded her head in a sporadic way that kind of reminded me of a pink bunny; why I thought such a thing, I did not know.
What I did know was that going to Rae's show would be ten times worse than walking around without a mask. I ever so plainly told the energetic girl before me, "No."
As if I had just shattered her heart, Aika's expression broke to one of shock and despair.
"What!? Why not? We're music artists, Zero! We! Love! Music! It's our duty to go and support our fellow music artists. Plus Rae is such a good singer! Plus plus inspiration for our song! So yay or nay!?" Aika tried to sway me over to her reasoning, using a confident and riveting tone that honestly gave off the same energy as a car dealer might. Yet, I wasn't interested in buying any of Aika's "cars"
"No." I boldly stated for a second time. Aika's eyes soon started to look like mine as she grew fairly annoyed with my answers. Like dead fish looking at dead fish, Aika and I had a five second staring contest of utmost tiredness and dull irritation. With a grumble rumbling through her throat, Aika lost as she broke out in a pouty fit.
"Mmm! Why!? Why don't you want to go, Zero!?" Aika grumbled with a whining glare pinned onto me. I let out a few blatant blinks as I continued to stare at the beige-haired girl in all her frustration. The longer I stared at her, the more I started to realize this wasn't like the oversized sweater or KitKat ordeal; Aika desperately wanted to go, and with her type of personality, she wasn't one to ditch me to go see it.
Though I wish she would.
"Aika, I don't…" I started before looking at the beige-haired girl once again. Pure desperation, as if it was life or death.
With a huff of a sigh and anxiety already running throughout my body like fire ants were in my veins, I hesitantly agreed.
"I… yeah, I guess we do need to support Rae. But if we go, there's two things you have to do."
I held up two fingers as I looked into Aika's blue eyes with such sternness, my gaze was practically made of iron.
"One, we are going to write a song IMMEDIATELY after the concert. Two, stop calling me by my name in public. It makes me paranoid that someone might notice." I told the beige-haired girl. Aika flung the paper up in the air as she grew excited once more.
"Sweet! A concert AND code names! I'll be Aiko and you can be Gerald!" Aika declared a bit too happily. I didn't think she would be that excited, nor did I ever think I would be known as "Gerald", but I got what I had wished for… kinda.
For something as simplistic as calling herself "Aiko", it wasn't the most brilliant idea, but at least it was one.
"Come come, Gerald! We have a concert to attend!" Aika exclaimed, dragging more attention with her rambunctiousness than she would just by saying my name over and over again. The proof was there; passing glances stared the two of us down until we were out of sight.
One part of me believed it's because they knew, but the smarter part of me believed it was Aika being her normal, noisy self.
Off the beige-haired girl marched, following the current of the crowd. With one last deep breathe, I went after the so called "Aiko"
Despite all the people, the crowdedness, and the huge chance of having my identity exposed and being blinded by flashing phone cameras and being ripped to shreds by crazy fans… I was looking forward to seeing the savant of a vocalist, Rae Coal.
Rated the number one singer in Japan and fifth in the world, Rae was renowned not only for her music but her careless, nonchalant apparel and long, inky blue strands of hair. So rich and so oceanic, her undone hair was a beautiful mane that went as far down as to touch her knees.
Aika and I came to an abrupt stop as the sea of people froze. Looking from every angle her tippy toes would let her reach, Aika tried to find what the hold up was.
"Tch! They're full already!? I can't even see the stage!" Aika complained with a grouchy stomp of her foot. It was truly peeving to be this far, yet for a concert that didn't have admission… this was only fair.
I told Aika, "Well, we'll just have to watch the show from the second level."
I looked up to the escalators, watching as even those got crowded with people.
"We should get going before–" I was saying till I looked over to my side where a beige-haired girl was supposed to be. It was odd not seeing her there, it surprised me as if it was my own shadow that had gone missing. Yet as I let it sink in, I should've guessed that Aika would've magically vanished without a hint's notice.
I should go looking for her.
I worried that she might get herself into some trouble or even be noticed at that matter.
"Nope, I'm done. I'm just going to go watch the show from the second level. Gerald will be fine on his own." I told myself. I was released from the shackles of Aika. The girl had been driving me crazy all day. Though she was rather fun, when I had to work with her it was just as peeving as it was impossible.
I made my way to the escalators, trying to abandon the thought of a wandering Aika. She deserved whatever was coming to her when she was being as sporadic as she was.
I stepped onto the moving blacks of the escalator.
Total waste of a day. I thought while looking down at the bags in my grasp. I carried two bags full of a girl's chocolate, holding them in my sweater-covered palms…
Maybe I should go back.
I shook myself, trying to stick with logic rather than morality. She made a false promise to Haijo, dragging me down with her into this rabbit hole of madness. Her version of writing a song is buying chocolate and clothes. She didn't have a care in the world, whether it be me or even music itself. But I did wonder where she went. Knowing her, she probably got distracted by a butterfly or a KitKat.
I made my way through the crowd ahead, veering from gap to gap as I slipped past people. Even up here held the same town-like atmosphere as the main floor.
At last, my eye had spotted an open railing where I could watch Rae perform. Even as far away as I was from the railing, I could still see some of the concert decor that hung from the ceiling.
Speakers the size of refrigerators hung from metal wires.
An island of a stage sat in the middle of the mall with an ocean of people surrounding it.
Spotlights with tinted lenses gazed at the glass ceiling and at the floor below.
It was astounding to say the least, that they would go that far just for a simple mall concert.
I started to walk towards the open railing… only for ivory to catch my attention.
Hair of white slipped passed my gaze, walking passed me as if I was but another person in the portrait of life. With widening eyes, I watched as the same white-haired girl from the subway seeped into the depths of the crowd. Perhaps I was mistaken, yet how could I be? With fragile skin so pallid and long hair so pure, who else could have such distinct, abnormal features as her?
Go ask what her name is. Something in my mind had told me.
With a few blinks, I wondered what that particular something was. Not quite a voice nor not quite a thought either. It felt like… it felt like fate speaking. It was rather perplexing and odd, seeming how it struck from nowhere and in such a place as this.
I could still see the silvered whites of the girl's hair bob amidst the crowd.
Go.
Without much thought, I found myself walking towards her. Though I grew near, the white-haired girl remained distant as she floated away in the dozens upon dozens of people. Sliding and swerving, I shuffled between person and person, my eyes hooked on ivory and my mind set to reach her.
Yet nevertheless, no matter how many people's feet I stepped on or how much I tried to reach her, I was but a foot or two away; blocked off by the moving labyrinth known as this crowd.
In the snap of an instant, my treading was fruitless. I had lost her in the maze of people, barely even noticing the ivory of her hair vanishing in the midst of everyone else.
A small frown stretched across my face. Such familiarity in a girl whom I had met only once, a practical stranger at that matter. It was mesmerizing and concerning, yet evermore sickening all at the same time. I grunted at my own stupidity.
What am I doing?
Fate was not calling, for it was only but a blurt of a thought. The shuttering of light itself had dragged me from out of my ivory thoughts as it escaped from out of the glass ceiling and out of the city of Kyūden.
A beat palpitated from those hanging speakers. Crisp crackles and boney snaps echoed from out of the sea of people as glowing colors began to pulsate throughout the mall. Glow sticks sprouted out like luminescent flowers with arms instead of stems, waving to no sun but the star that would soon show.
I walked over to the railing, wondering what was going on. The brightest darkness I had ever seen beamed throughout the mall's corridors, making shadows dance ever so fervently.
What the…
Downtown neon… that was the only way to describe the vibrant district that raved with purple shadows and banging glow sticks. Even in all its darkness, this place was set ablaze by dancing, shivering colors. Painted in luminescence, people raved on to the beats that were swiveling in the air. The show had yet to start yet the mere background music drove their movements mad with energy.
Like needles, hair stood on their ends by the bass that shivered not only through the floor but the very atmosphere itself.
In the core of it all, standing five feet tall was a circular stage made out of the same speakers that hung from the ceiling. Like their names foretold, the large speakers howled vibrations throughout the air… marking the beginning of musicality.
In a matter of minutes, if not seconds, the day became night, the light became neon, and Kyūden mall had been turned into a concert hall.
My eyes awed as they widened, watching as I entered a whole new world entirely.
Like wolves unto the moon, the crowd went wild with bouts of shouts and cheers. But no waning moon did these people howl at. No, but from the dark figure with strappy high heels upon the stage. Nothing more than a silhouette this person was, a mere shadow that walked to the middle of the stage. Yet it was obvious nonetheless.
Rae.
The music started to climax, tightening the air with its tense thread of beats. Not even the screaming sea of people were a match for the melodies that ruptured from the coned lips of the speakers. Through their metal grated mouths they heaved an earthquake of brilliant treble and extreme bass. Yet lingering, they were not. For the massive waves of music became moribund and apathetic; just an electric heart beating its deadline melody.
Like the quiet notes, the crowds of people became still and placid. Quite a cliffhanger it was, standing here near the rail and waiting for that dip back into madness. Suddenly, the shadowy figure moved, lifting something up to her face. "... Bela, Bela, Bela, Bela, Bela… you're not my–Bela, Bela, Bela… mour." An abrupt string of words pulsated, her tongue tinged by a hint's worth of sorrow.
My gaze became furrowed as it narrowed upon them. I wish I had put in my contacts or my glasses at the very least. But I didn't, so here I was squinting a glare at the shadow onstage.
In a lingering, mellifluous tone, the voice started to speak oh so melodically. "Finest in my tune, my heart to you will never bloom. Reaching to this darkness… Why would it be just like this? Just like this…"
Such silk was spun from the cords of the shadowy figure! Yet… yet in all of its beauty lay an unfamiliarity and indistinctness that was not, could not, be Rae Coal.
My eyes narrowed down at the mystery girl, wondering who was behind that veil of ebony.
"So far so deep, I can barely speak. Who knew love could be so bleak, fallen out almost every week… Eek." the girl sang once more, letting her slow but mellifluous voice spill into the air. Talented nonetheless, this girl… this girl was still no Rae.
"You're not my Bela, Bela, Bela, You're not my–Bela. Bela… Mour."
The darkness was whipped off like a blanket as the true form of what sang was revealed to the city of Kyūden; a girl swallowed by the toxins of glow sticks irradiated the stage.
Her long hair was dyed with the vibrant darkness of navy blue. Orange stitched around her lips and stretched across her jaw, imitating the skeletal maw of a hyena.
At the sight of this neon woman, Kyūden ruptured with immaculate roars and screams. Insanity was in the air and, with ease, it danced around with the purple shadows.
In a frenzy of pirouettes, the atmosphere stirred with madness. Kyūden was a mall no longer, no, the very building itself had turned into a complex of raving mobs and a neon goddess.
My eyes grew wide with petrification. Smitten by the surprise in the dark, I stood breathless in the wake of this iridescent girl.
"Can't stand to sit, listenin' to all your shit. Pullin' what you can, never bringin' me home."
There was no doubt in my mind this was… this was… Aika.
It had been such a long time since I heard the dulcet tune of her voice, I had forgotten the intangible trance it could put you in. Like a charmer to a snake, once heard, Aika's voice hypnotized the crowd in her lulling stupor. Even with the deep trill of bass and screeching treble, Aika's voice remained but a reverie daydream amidst the neon chaos.
"Chattin' bringer be my name. Pretend to fall asleep, I'm not insane. Call me up like every night. Foolin' me thrice, I'm out of sight."
As she sang on and on, I could only but wonder how she managed to pull off such a feat. Sure, she was acquaintances with Rae and a popstar herself.
"You're not my Bela, Bela, Bela, you're not my–Bela, Bela… Mour."
My mind was completely stumped as to how she looked like the neon goddess she was. As if someone had broken glow sticks all over her clothes, she was lit abloom by many purple and many oranges, leaving little to no room for the natural black of her clothes.
She moved as if she was a serpent dancing to her own tune, waving down and touching the ground like an ill forsaken Psyche.
"Time don't tick like you know. Feelin' fine, don't kiss me when we're not alone." Aika's voice slipped through my ears.
She was a lure within herself, a sporadic person with a voice of silken silver. In this lighting of dark purples and vehement reds… I saw this girl not as the master procrastinator, but as the popstar who lived by the sound of her own beat.
In the midst of the crazed, colossal Kyūden, Aika's foggy gaze found me, letting out a smile that gleamed brighter than any glow stick could ever burn. My eyes lit up in retaliation.
The neon goddess below was the most quintessential of all popstars, one who always found the music wherever it slumbered.
"You're not my Bela, Bela, Bela, you're not my–Bela, Bela, Bela, Bela… Mour."
From there on, Aika finished her song and sang some of her favorites, dancing amidst the neon and causing a crowd to rumble with screams. It was all so chaotic. But in this wildness was a beauty like none other.
Kyūden Hill
Snap. Munch. Munch. On hundreds upon hundreds of green blades we sat, snapping chocolates while we listened to cicadas chirrup a song of their own. My back lay rugged against the bark of a tree while Aika sat criss-crossed in the shadow of the leaves. The crisp cracks and rumpling wrappers sounded ever so louder out here. Though the mall was but a few yards away, I was certain no one would bother us here under the tree.
"Ya know," Aika started to speak with a tone ruffled with chocolates. She tore into another KitKat, not even bothering to snap it as she munched and crunched on its soft wafers.
"These don't taste as good as I thought they would." Aika told me while pointing at her chocolate.
I wouldn't think so.
My eyes went from the beige-haired girl down to the two bags that laid by her side.
"It's a shame we couldn't see Rae play too." She added.
It was a shame. I wanted to see the queen of music herself, but I was more than happy to hear the dulcet roar of a lioness instead.
"What happened?" I asked the beige-haired girl with a tilt of my head.
Snap. Munch. Munch.
"She got a stomach ache this morning, but everyone was already gathering for the show. I said I would do it, so… they painted my face, splashed my clothes with neon, and dunked my hair in it too." Aika stated. I couldn't believe she would do such a thing. It seemed all so… so sudden.
If I was asked to do something like that, I would probably break out into a sweaty mess while wildly dejecting the idea. But Aika, in all her craziness, ran on stage with a face full of glowing paint; some of which she still had on.
I could see the hyena mask of the neon goddess ever so slightly, inclining me to ask, "You still have the paint on?"
I thought they would've washed it off her face for her, yet here still laid the remnants of the hyena's maw.
Snap. Munch. Munch. Aika turned to me with a wide, almost toothy grin.
"Yup! Tonight, I'm gonna scare my boyfriend with it! He's gonna be scared out of his brains..! If he comes over like he said. Sometimes he's a little flakey, but I still love 'em!" Aika told me with such enthusiasm, it almost sounded like it was too much.
Snap. Munch. Munch. My brows lowered and the fishy looks of my eyes started to return as I remembered something.
"So…" I started. "When are we going to start writing that duet?"
Aika's pearly whites couldn't seem bigger.
"Didn't you hear it?" She asked. It took a moment… well, a few moments, but I soon realized what the beige-haired girl was saying.
Astoundment. Astoundment brimmed from my widening eyes and gaping mouth.
No. She wouldn't! She couldn't!
Chocolate fell from between my fingers as Aika's brilliance only grew tenfold. This… this girl was on another level, an epitome of virtuosity.
She improvised a whole song onstage!?
Snap. Munch. Munch.
"Now you gotta finish what I started, 'kay-kay?"
(Thank you for reading the demo of Akai Ito. If you'd like to get the full version of the book, it's out on Amazon!)