[fore-note, just for future reference, i always shorten kesshu to kess, but only as a nickname, Kesshu Kawaki(kanji for reference: 渇き 血臭 ) for long but for short けす(kesu) but す(su) doesn’t emphasise on the ‘u’ bit so if this were in japanese, Tatsu would refer to kesshu as kess-kun as kesshu is younger than tatsu so i believe it would be the appropriate honorfic, but since i’m a english language writer, i thought it would be better to follow english-speaking conventions when referring to someone, but unfortunately my japanese knowledge is quite limited so i can’t translate my whole book into japanese, though, im happy to allow anyone to translate, as the source code is on github! But the kanji for Dr Hamana would be Kanji for name: Ayana Hamana: 破魔菜(kanji) あやな(hirigana, but still a name). I wanted to give her a normal, maybe a sweet-looking name for a stark contrast.
Reini went to school the next day again, as usual, she had art, maths and geography that day, and she was assigned her first piece of homework, it wasn’t too much for her, so she finished the school day and went back home instead, Reini was writing in her notebook when she heard a knock and a doorbell ring, she went to answer it. She opened the door to see a man dressed in a slight hint of flamboyancy. His outfit, though well-dressed, had a flamboyant flair. She opened the door to get a full look at him.
“Honey, is this the Otokabe residence?” He asked.
His voice was also slightly flamboyant. It had a masculine tone with a feminine sass. Who was this?
“Yes, but who are you?” she asked, slightly meekly.
He gasped, expressively, but with a hint of sarcasm.
“You did not just ask who I am, but be for real, girl. I’m a fashion designer, and I make haute couture and help out with wardrobe choices. They call me Dazzle!”
Oh, it was that Dazzle. He designed dresses for celebrities and dressed them too. She knew she had seen him somewhere. How absent-minded of her. He must be the dress designer who was supposed to come over today.
“My partner is in the van. We have so many things we need to do, we need to set up, and there is so much heavy lifting. Tatsu is inside, isn’t he? Oh, and what about Mirai?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’ll go get them,” Reini replied.
She closed the door, heading to the living room, where Tatsu was seated.
“A man named Dazzle is here,” she bluntly said.
“Let him in, he’s the dress designer.”
“Oh, okay, I’ll let him in.”
Another man was at the door with Dazzle. He was carrying a lot of boxes and looked toned, but he was the opposite of Dazzle. He wore socks, sandals, a T-shirt with lots of paint, and a cracking design. He also wore beige cargo shorts and a baseball cap. He was a lot more scruffy than Dazzle.
“Sup, I’m Dazzle’s partner, you can call me Shade,” he said.
They set up in the living room, which was spacious enough. There was a white sheet set up with some lights and a rack with some dresses and suits on it.
“I’m Reini, the new member of H2L. You might have heard about me from Tatsu,” Reini said.
She sat down on the sofa, looking at Dazzle.
“Based on your measurements and preferences, which Mirai sent over, I have designed and picked out several co-ords for you. You can tell me what you think; feel free to change into this one.”
She went to change into the first co-ord, then came back into the living room.
“What do you think, Shade?” Dazzle asked.
He didn’t know better. It did look nice, but he could see Dazzle was a little perplexed by it.
“It looks…nice.”
“I’m a little doubtful.”
“It still looks nice,” he said, a little perplexed.
“No, the shape is so wrong. Is it tight anywhere? I’m so sorry, try this petticoat.”
She had gone again to change the petticoat, but there wasn’t much improvement. Dazzle was still unsure about it, but Shade, however, knew absolutely nothing. Shade wasn’t as good with fashion as Dazzle was; he just saw his partner as a fancy fashion designer or something. Dazzle then held up a few colour cards.
“I’m also not sure what colour would be better?” Dazzle said.
“Blue?” Shade replied in a slightly confused tone.
“Which blue, there are so many shades of blue, navy, cerulean, aquamarine, baby blue, royal blue, cyan, they’re all different!” Dazzle exclaimed
“Well, that’s a lighter blue, and that's a darker blue.”
“They have names! Why do I bother to bring you with me sometimes?”
“Oh, you know why.” Shade remarked.
Shade tapped his index on a very busy Dazzle’s nose. If anyone else had tapped his nose, he would have been infuriated, but he embraced it, he gave a little giggle as he was looking at his colour cards.
“I think an RGB cyan would suit you, don’t you think, to help contrast when the stage is dark, the other girls have super bright colours, say, don't you think it would be a good fit for you?” Dazzle said to Reini.
“RGB cyan can be classified as Neon, don’t you think I might want something more muted when I’m not performing?”
Dazzle shuffled through his colour cards to find the perfect colour, some less bright topaz tones, it wasn’t too flashy, it would be great for events and as the other sort of tone to the RGB cyan, a Swiss blue tone seemed to be the great complimentary colour, along with the cyan along with the typical black and white colours of the uniforms, plus an individual colour that they had decided.
“Hey Shade, what do you think of this colour combo?” Dazzle asked his partner.
“It’s great. I know you always do well with colour combos, it looks like your client is phenomenal.” Shade replied.
“That means he loves it!” Dazzle exclaimed. “After years of being with him, I know him very well. If a person who doesn’t know their basic colour names thinks it's phenomenal, then that’s the perfect combo for you. Don’t you think the combo suits you?”
“Of course, Cyan is my colour,” Reini replied.
“Looks like you know your statement colour, we could go for a mint colour if you want pastel tones and a turquoise for darker tones, what do you think?”
“Sounds great, what did you have in mind for me, in terms of the uniform?”
“Like everyone else, a vest or blazer, we could have a puff short-sleeve button-up blouse with the vest and I have the option between a pleated skirt and dress trousers with a wide leg option or we could do shorts, of course, we could also get some socks and some fancy shoes too, and a tie, of course, we want to match your bandmates but have something customised to your size, of course, we’ll still make the other options if you wanna change at some days,” Dazzle explained.
“Of course, I was thinking of adding some alterations too.”
“Like what, I’m interested now.”
“Layered belts and stripy arm warmers, still figuring out the shoes.”
“I see, we’re going for a sort of alternative vibe, edgier perhaps?” Dazzle queried.
“Ah, gotcha then.”
Kesshu had come in to view how the designer was consulting with Reini; he was at the doorway, with a case of sodas for everyone. He took one out for himself and drank some soda as he saw Dazzle picking out colours and showing materials to Reini.
“What's up?” Kesshu asked.
“Heya, I’m discussing my outfit ideas. The problem is that I can’t decide what shoes I want,” Reini said.
Kesshu put the drink pack in the middle of the room and stopped at the doorway.
“Help yourselves, let me get something first, I know what to get,” Kesshu said.
Reini was wondering what he was doing, but she didn’t mind. She took a soda and chugged it down. She then looked at the options she had, it was great, but she needed to finish her ideas for Dazzle, as he was now her stylist; he was the band’s stylist for years, ever since they began years ago. His partner, Shade, helped him lift things. He looked pretty unassuming, but he managed the lighting and helped Dazzle with second thoughts. They were also partners in more ways than one, close partners who had more than just a business relationship; a caring relationship in which they loved each other. To the unassuming eye, they might not seem like that. Shade picked up a soda and looked through his laptop to record things down and check things from their shops, and he was checking through emails.
“So, to conclude, I see where you’re getting at, you want a more alternative look, don’t you?”
“I have accessories I can use.”
“They’d go well with the pleated bottoms set. These outfits are adjustable for most subcultures anyway, you know, the other girls had added their alt fashion flares to their uniforms. I integrated some leopard prints and hair accessories for Utako’s Gyaru look, and she also used some of her jewellery.”
Kesshu had come back with a box. It wasn’t that big, perhaps a shoebox. It was wiped of dust, and he placed it on the middle table. The lid had a big logo on top, and the box was made of brown cardboard. He lifted the lid to reveal Mary Jane shoes, leather ones, they had a grippy sole too, on one side of the box was someplace where it was made in what she knew was in England and a number of a year from more than three or so centuries ago, probably how long the company were making shoes for, but the shoes looked unworn, nobody had touched them yet. Kesshu must have been maintaining them extremely well because there are no cracks in the leather.
“Shoes? Those are made in England, and a lot of alternative people wear that brand.” Dazzle commented
“I think you might like these,” he said.
Reini took a shoe out and inspected it. They felt as good as new, and she tried to sit down and put one on; they fit perfectly. They were a little tight, but that meant they just needed to be broken in.
“I wanted to give these to my little sister…” Kesshu said, “It was close to her birthday, she was turning fifteen, it was such a long time ago, she went missing during the war and nobody has seen her since, she would have been twenty-eight or nine by now, they won’t fit her anymore, I’m sure people in their late twenties have bigger feet than this.”
She tried the other shoe on, and it fit perfectly; again, it needed to be broken in. She took them off as she was done trying them on; she didn’t want to scuff the floor, despite them being new shoes that hadn’t been tried on the outside.
“Thanks a lot, what was her name anyway, your sister?”
“Chiko, we never had our parents growing up, my mother died and our dad was never in the picture, all he left us was this hereditary curse that we can't reverse, so our aunt and uncle from our father’s side decided to raise us but it was clear that they preferred their son, our cousin, so I’d work a lot to get my sister nice things.”
“You have all this money from being famous, do you have anything to spend it on?”
“Presents, Tatsu and Mirai are already well off, so they don’t need support, so I get them nice presents on their birthdays, sometimes I get some nice presents for Akahana, Haruno, Utako and Aoi, but their idol careers mean they don’t need support too.”
“So what do you do with it anyway?”
“I give it away to help other smaller artists like me. Tatsu gives away a lot of his money, too, but he keeps on getting a lot added to his net worth, and he pays his fair share of taxes, too, yet he still has a lot of money he can just give away.”
“At least Tatsu gives away his money, can’t say for other billionaires,” Reini said.
“Tatsu doesn’t like being too lavish, but he helps those in need a lot. I guess you got lucky then, he’s happy to fund anything you need.”
“I guess, but sometimes I feel bad about it. Other people need money. I’ve already leeched too much from you guys; these shoes must have been special to you. I’m sorry if I’m a burden or anything, you guys do too much for me.”
“Sometimes I feel like I don’t do enough for you…”
There were so many other things Kesshu wanted to do with Reini; she was not used to being treated properly, and she was thinking of herself as a burden. Having to go from having no one to rely on to having what was practically a family of people she could talk to, there were so many things that they needed to iron out with Reini. She would need to improve her confidence.
“Anyways, kid, I’m going to go back to working, I’m going to finish off a song I’m making, have fun picking out your outfit then.”
“Ok then.”
She had gone back to Dazzle and Shade to finalise her outfit choices, then she heard the doorbell ring again. She excused herself to answer the doorbell, but she had heard the impatient knock-spamming throughout the whole house and stomped to the door. She looked through the door window to see who it was; a woman with white hair tied up in a bun and a highly intricately embroidered floral in-season kimono was waiting outside impatiently with a little scowl on her face and an assistant with her, a much younger girl with her hair in a bob and a midi length black and white maid-like outfit that indicated some form of uniform on her. Reini opened the door.
“Otokabe res-”
“I know who lives here, errand girl.”
“I’m not an errand girl. Who are you anyway?”
“Hmph, what rock have you been living under?”
Reini had to stay polite; she seemed a little bitter and stuck up, but she probably wouldn’t have to deal with her for long.
“How did you know I was living under a rock?”
“Don’t disrespect your elders like that.”
“You weren’t just acting like that a minute ago?”
The woman changed her stance and looked down at the girl, then scoffed a little.
“I’m Sakiko Ginsaji. How do you not know of me? I can’t with the youth nowadays, stuck on their tablets and unaware of important people like me. Can I come in?”
“I like to spend all day practising piano and hitting the arcade playing rhythm games, but let me ask Mr. Otokabe, it’s his house after all,” Reini said.
“Fair enough, you'd better come back quickly, an important person like me doesn’t have all day.”
She went back into her living room. Tatsu was reading his newspapers on his light projector as usual, and Dazzle and Shade were starting to sew some things together and set up a wardrobe for Reini. She approached Tatsu as he was reading his newspaper to inform him of his new visitors.
“There’s a woman at the door, she says she’s important and her name is Sakiko Ginsaji or something, I dunno, she says she’s important.”
Tatsu was a little startled when he heard that name. Mirai slid open the door and looked at Reini with a little smirk.
“You won’t believe who she is, Reini. This is some tea,” Mirai whispered,
“Why do I care?”
“That’s his ex.”
“Oh, no way.”
“Yeah, they divorced a few years ago. It’s been a decade or so since they divorced.”
Dazzle had picked up on this, and he was intrigued, too; this was juicy, and he couldn’t help but ask about the gossip.
“Girl, fill me in, what happened?” Dazzle asked
“Wait, I forgot to let her in. Hey, can I let your ex in?” Reini asked Tatsu.
“I spaced, I invited her over last minute for an emergency meeting, and I forgot about it today, let her in, she gets impatient, oh my gosh, let her in, we’re having an emergency meeting.”
“Ah, gotcha.”
Reini sprinted to the door, then opened it really quickly to allow Sakiko to come in.
“Finally, anyway, Tsuki, do you have my things with you?” Sakiko said.
“Yes, mistress.”
The maid had followed after her mistress, carrying about two suitcases of modest size. Reini was holding the door for them, showing some respect to the important woman. She then followed after them to head back to the living room., she looked at Tsuki, the maid, she had bangs that covered one eye and layered black hair, with short hair in the back and longer strands in the front with racoon stripes that were black and silver, she was also wearing something that looked like a french maid dress but it looked so fancy and more fashionable and had some gothic elements to it, maybe this woman gets expensive uniforms for her workers, there was also some sort of frilly headband with bows on each side. It was leaning more towards a co-ord rather than a uniform, but maybe her mistress was a very elaborate woman who wanted her staff to look elaborate, perhaps as a way to flaunt her wealth. Reini and the maid were standing outside the room, and Reini wanted to start up a conversation.
“Hey, Miss Maid, I’m Reini, it’s Tsuki, right? Have you ever thrown knives?” Reini asked jokingly.
“Throwing knives?” Tsuki pondered.
“Would you also happen to stop or manipulate time in some way?”
“Ha-ha very funny…I see what you did there, kid.” Tsuki replied, “I am but a simple maid, the servant of a noblewoman, but there’s more to me, perhaps.”
“It would be cool if you did, in some way.” Reini joked
“Haha, that would be burdensome. Anyways… What’s up?”
“Your boss is not nearby. What do you think of her?”
“She has a soft spot, believe it or not, she might be a little…she has a lot of pride and is like a hard shell on the outside. I've been working under her for a while, so don’t feel upset if she’s a bit closed off.”
“Ah, gotcha, what brings you guys here?”
“Finley had sent us when something had happened back here, and she decided to come back; we were preparing for a while; it was all so sudden, by the way,” Tsuki answered.
“What happened?”
“The last one had been found, you might or might not know what I’m talking about, I know that Mr Otokabe wouldn’t let a person reside here if they weren’t aware of what you mean.”
“I’m aware, well aware.”
“Besides, I haven’t seen you in the residence before. May I ask why you are here?” Tsuki asked.
“I live here,” Reini replied.
“I see, how long has it been since?”
“About less than a month or so.”
“I see, I see, and what do you do here?”
“Oh, yeah, I’m the new holder by the way!” Reini quipped, “Cool, isn’t it?”
“I knew I was just playing with you, kiddo.”
Reini tried to compose herself. She wanted to joke with Tsuki, but it looked like Tsuki got to it first. She headed for the kitchen for a snack. She went into the cupboards to look for what she wanted to eat, but she wasn’t sure what. Besides, how long was Tatsu going to be with that woman? She got ready to make herself a concoction of ice cream with several confections on top, she also turned the kitchen TV on while she prepared her equipment, she brought out scoops of cookie dough onto a bowl, added chocolate syrup, sprinkles, and then she put some waffle biscuits on it, she turned the TV to a show she’d been meaning to watch, it was sort of a guilty pleasure; a trashy soap opera with twists and turns every second, it was so trashy but it was fun to watch regardless.
She then checked social media on the smart TV. She saw a video titled ‘YOUNG GIRL FULL COMBOS + HIGHEST SCORE POSSIBLE HARDEST SONG IN GAME! INSANE!’ She could then see a familiar kind of game, the one where you played on the floor with your ffeet, the one she liked to play sometimes. She noticed a sort of crowd in the video; the video had some bystanders around. Two girls were playing the game, she could only see the behind of them, and the crowd was quiet, some even had gloves on, probably for other games. It was dimly lit, but they could see the gameplay on the screen. The camera seemed to be shaking a little, and the song had just been selected. More people gathered around as they recognised what song was playing, probably others after finishing sets from other games, too.
It was that hard song, that everyone in the community knew was super hard, she was curious so she clicked on it, the camera was a little shaky but she could see that game she had played with the girls a while ago; there was a big crowd around the girl and many phones held up to her; she could see faces she knew, Akahana, Utako, Haruno, Aoi…AND WAS THAT HER? She froze immediately because she hadn’t realised how big a crowd she had created; surely it was nothing big; why would they be interested in a girl playing a game?
She was slouching on the sofa until Sakiko sat next to her, probably wanting to watch TV.
“Sit up, that posture is bad for you,” Sakiko exclaimed with a commanding demeanour.
“Whatever…” Reini muttered.
“If you still want to be active at my age, then follow my advice.”
“Gosh, I’m sure I’ll still be playing rhythm games at the arcade at your age,” Reini replied.
“Rhythm games, is that all you talk about? At the door, you talked about that too, go find another hobby…maybe something that isn’t niche.”
“Did you know that’s one of the biggest game genres in arcades, especially in Japan, the country where we live?”
“Hmph, a child too caught up in their foolish interests. I stand by what I say. Go find a different hobby.”
“I mean, I draw and make music, and I can speak like two or three languages, I also like alternative fashion too, and I’m experimenting with programming, and I like to write for fun sometimes…”
“Figured…”
“What is that meant to mean?” Reini quipped back.
“Whatever, I’m jet lagged, you wouldn’t mind if I had the TV?” Sakiko asked.
“Sure, I’ll just go on my computer then…”
“Have fun, I guess.”
She got up from the sofa and headed to her room to play on her computer and to talk to her online friend. Logging in as ‘Reimani39’.
Reimani39: sup.
Flowerlover01: Hello!
Reimani39: I’m getting an outfit for my performance. The designers are nice to work with, but I also met someone else who clearly is a product of their circumstances.
Flowerlover01: Who? Is it easy to tell?
Reimani39: Don’t tell anyone, it was a very rich person.
Flowerlover01: lol rich people are a product of their upbringing.
Reimani39: Totally, this woman felt she was above everyone in a way.
Flowerlover01: Anyway, I thought I’d share my two cents. See ya.
Reimani39: Bye then.
She quit the chat app after talking to her online friend and decided to look on the video streaming website, just to entertain herself. Thinking about it, what if she did something productive during this time instead of being lazy? She decided to open up a DAW program and start developing something. She was thinking high bpm, energetic, slight hook, maybe some measure changes and bpm changes, why not? And she would add a key change somewhere, she also added some big chords in the mix somewhere, did she need to do something today? This new computer Kesshu got was so neat. She picked out the parts and assembled them herself. She did use her SSD, but only to make transfers to a newer drive. And she had so much RAM, Kesshu was insistent on it: he said producing requires a lot more RAM than people think it does.
She also had lots of storage to store all those projects and software she wanted, and games too. This was such a good pc setup, she felt like she was dreaming, sure it had been a few weeks since she got it, but it was still dream-like compared to her old setup. She was wondering when her next appointment would be with Vera. After the new member's debut on Friday, she would be going outside of Japan, but they would have video calls together.
She was too busy producing to stop mindlessly looking at her computer, so she turned her chair around and saw Kesshu looking at her computer screen.
“Sorry, you left the door open, making a song?” Kesshu said.
“Yes, I am, Dazzle and Shade left, didn't they?”
“Yeah, you’re happy with what you’re going to wear on stage, just making sure.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty happy with it,” Reini replied.
“Okay, do you think I could listen to what you’re making, if that’s okay?” Kesshu asked
“Sure, why not? I’m making it for fun,” Reini said.
“Okay, well, here goes.”
He put the headphones on and found something to sit down on; he felt a bit weak today, he preferred to find something to sit down on at the moment. He nodded his head as he listened to Reini’s work.
“Wow…” Kesshu muttuered.
“Excuse me, is that good or bad?” Reini asked.
It took a while for him to answer; he was revelling in the song, it sounded genuinely good, and it sounded like she truly had talent. The future of H2L was in good hands.
“Your music…” he said, “I did listen to your previous works like you said, but this might be your magnum opus.”
She felt a little excited; she felt she needed to iron out a few quirks, but it seemed he was truly enjoying it; he had been composing for a long time, and if he liked it, it was a good sign.
“For real?” Reini enquired.
“Yes, when are you going to finish this off?”
“I have been working on it for a week or two. I need to fix a few things, just doing some double checks on my mixing,” Reini explained.
“I see, well, do you think we could make a song together, not as H2L and the producer, more like you and I, it would help your DJ alias a lot, I believe, you up to it?”
“Oh my gosh, I feel honoured, sure, why not, though I’m sure your parts will be better.”
“You're kidding, you’d be the perfect complement, anyway, finish off that song and let me hear the final version, it’s brilliant already, but if you say it’s not finished, then I’ll listen to the artist.”
“I see, thanks.”
She had to make sure the mixing was good; she also remembered she had music lessons the next day. Maybe she could impress the music teacher with her composition, she was thinking gothic with hardcore, a subgenre within a subgenre. The organs were synthetic, but she looked for the best plugins and made the composition using her keyboard. She made the kicks by herself, by layering kicks and adding levels of distortion and pitch and tuning effects, making sure it sounded perfect. She also had some mixing effects and the perfect amount of surround panning in the mixing.
Kesshu was right; she had probably made her best song yet, and she couldn't wait to show the final version to Kesshu. She had sent it to his email, hoping he would listen. She was feeling excited until she saw Sakiko at the door, with a cold sort of look, and she looked quite unimpressed.
“Hm, looks like you make songs,” Sakiko commented coldly.
“Miss Ginsaji, I forgot to close my door, again,” Reini uttered.
“You think I could critique it? I know a thing or two about music.”
“You wanna listen to my music?” Reini asked.
“Yes, I would like to listen…to your music.”
She handed over the headphones to let her listen, and she played the song for Sakiko to listen to; her expression barely changed, but she remained somewhat… judgy. Reini was a little anxious about what she thought of it.
“It’s like the hardcore nonsense that my son-in-law makes,” she uttered quietly.
Reini felt slightly discouraged now. But this was an old lady, what taste did she have besides old music? But then again, she had to give her some grace; old people don’t like new things.
“Though it reminds me of my little Hina’s music, in the way it decides to be quite grand and extravagant,” she uttered again.
“What was that?” Reini asked.
“Did I say something?” Sakiko responded, “Hmph, thought not.”
“So what do you think?” Reini asked.
“It’s something, you should ask Tatsu to publish it, I'm sure he’ll pity you enough to let you have a solo career,” Sakiko said.
She turned and left the room. Reini was a little confused, but she was a rich old lady who had only felt luxury her whole life and had high expectations for everything. But the song was finished; however, should she show Tatsu the song? Maybe she could show Mirai first, or Tsuki even, but it would be weird to show someone’s maid a song you were working on.
Mirai first, Reini quickly loaded the song onto her phone and connected some headphones, she ran to Mirai’s room, excited to show her.
“Mirai, Mirai, are you there!” Reini cried out.
Mirai slid open the door to see an excited Reini with headphones in her hands, probably to show something.
“You want to show me something?” Mirai asked.
Reini nodded, then handed the headphones to her.
“I’ve lived with so many producers, I know what this means. Show me the beat.” Mirai said.
Mirai put the headphones in and started listening to the music; she seemed to be enjoying it heavily; her reactions were quite dramatic compared to sakiko’s. Maybe she liked it. Perhaps, who knows, until someone told her.
“Did you like it?”
“PLEASE MAKE AN EXTENDED I NEED MORE OF IT!” Mirai cried out.
“I see, you really mean it?”
“Yes, I do; what did you make this song for?”
“Eh, just as an outlet, thinking of licensing it for a game,” Reini said.
“We can get it licensed for a very big game, ask Tatsu!”
“Should I bother him?”
“Please do- I mean, he’ll understand,” Mirai said.
“Ah, okay then,” Reini replied.
Reini had the phone and the headphones; Mirai gave them back. Should she show Tatsu the song she finished in her producer session, she didn’t want to bother him much. She went to the kitchen to grab a snack, and soon she sat down, but Tatsu came nearby.
“You’re listening to something at the moment?” Tatsu asked.
“Huh?” Reini replied (as she had headphones in).
“I was asking if you were listening to music. I wonder what it is; we make such great audio equipment. I guess the audio doesn’t spill, so I guess I can’t listen to what you were making.”
“I see, it’s something I made.”
“Hm, Kess did say you produced music, which is quite useful. My daughter used to produce music, and I would take time out of my day to listen to it. She loved to compose classical music, and more orchestral pieces, but she also composed music for her band at the time.”
“Your daughter?” Reini asked.
“Yes, I had a daughter.”
“I know, Hina-tenshi from DIGITAL NO TENSHI (this is a placeholder name, beta readers, please help me come up with a better name), or as the information article says, is her legal name, Hinagiku Otokabe.”
“Yeah, that's it,” Tatsu replied.
“I guess she seemed like a nice person, articles about her online give off such a nice vibe about her, and it didn’t feel like it was for show; she used to own the magical keyboard, didn’t she?”
“Yes, she did. It used to be hers, mine, my father's, his father’s before, and so on.” Tatsu said.
“Mirai mentioned it once,” Reini said.
“It’s quite strange that it goes outside the family; it means something very wrong is going to happen,” Tatsu warned.
“Dang, now I feel quite bad,” Reini said.
“Eh, I’m sure my Hina would have been okay with you having it,” Tatsu reassured. “She would have loved to meet you.”
“My daughter, if i had to be honest, many were asking for her hand, but I said no, I wanted her to find someone she would be happy with, i knew she had dated Kess for a while; her mother wanted her to ally with another significant family but i told her that’s not how we handle thing with the Otokabes, but she understood quickly, the reason why she suggested such a thing was that she met me through a service for people with high affluence to get paired together and they matched me with her, she was looking for someone with equal social standing, and i just wanted to be with someone, i had failed in love many times in my youth.”
“Did she ever love you, at one point?” Reini asked.
“If I didn’t, we wouldn’t ever have Hina.” Tatsu replied, “I guess it was the emotional impact of the war, externally and internally, that drew us apart, and we decided to just be friends, respectfully, our assets had been equal in and out of the marriage so that wasn’t much of a problem for me, since the Otokabe residences and properties are in a family trust, this house and the shrine went to me, she was quite respectful about it, understanding how significant it was in my family.”
“I see, I guess she does have some qualities about her.”
“Did you expect her to really have none?” Tatsu said.
“First impression, she thought of me as nothing but an errand girl,” Reini said.
“Ha, typical, but please don’t take it personally.”
“Nah, it’s fine, I looked quite scruffy when she was at the door.
“Nah, you look fine.” Tatsu reassured.”It's normal to look a little scruffy sometimes, I mean, who doesn’t!” Tatsu exclaimed.
Reini chuckled a little, but he was right. No one is perfect at all times; you have to embrace your quirks sometimes, and that’s okay. But the thing within Reini was not some simple ‘quirk’; it was a nuisance, and made her lose control sometimes. The last time it resurfaced was when she was on her cycle almost a month ago; it should happen again.
She remembered a time when she didn’t know about her menstrual cycles, she had just escaped the lab, and it had been another moon; her cycle came again and the blood made her scared that she was dying, so she decided to look up answers at a local library computer; the search being no help as the results looked bad, she didn’t want to ask anyone about it, but she saw a section in the library about biology and a book title stuck out to her, ‘puberty in girls: your guide in growing up’.
If it wasn’t the p-word, she had heard of puberty, but it seemed scary amongst her, 4444 and 6174, simply establishing it as the forbidden word. You get taller and angrier and get something called hormones, which makes you angry; that’s all they knew, but it sounded terrifying to them.
She had picked up the book to read back then; that’s when she got to the section about bleeding, so it seemed you also bleed during puberty. Something quite peculiar. This book gave it a name.
Periods.
And they were normal.
Bleeding every month and feeling pain were normal.
But was blacking out and finding your surroundings a mess the norm?
And an insatiable desire for meat as well, sure, she knew these were cravings, but why meat of all things, it seemed so weird compared to other girls at this stage. It wasn’t like she could afford good-quality meat at all, so she ate whatever. But since moving to the house of a CEO for safeguarding, the high quality of food she has been offered to eat scares her in some way; strawberries that cost more than she ever saved at one point weren’t something she could fathom.
But she knows they shelter her pretty well and that she wouldn’t go back.
Nobody would willingly go back to that, even if you weren't sane.
She went into her room and opened a drawer; it seemed this one wasn’t cleared out, it had several printed composition sheets and some drawings here and there. She read the top corners for information.
Hinagiku Otokabe: a song about tomatoes.
She read the notes sprawled everywhere.
My sweet sister-in-law Chiko complained that most songs she heard were about love and not about tomatoes or something, so I made this song for her. I hope she can hear it one day.
A song about tomatoes seems quite neat, actually. She loved tomatoes too; she liked tomato ketchup, sauce, in salads, and throwing them at people. She looked through more of the compositions, and some seemed to be prototypes or silly compositions to express something. Maybe she could give these to Tatsu or Kesshu.
–
Hotaru Yonshi. 4444.
She never really had a proper name she wanted for herself. It wasn’t like she knew how to come up with one for herself. School was already quite interesting, but she wasn’t suspicious right now. She did see a girl who looked a lot like 0271, but she knew it wasn’t her; she seemed too happy with life, too healthy. She took out the club permission slips; it was normal to partake in after-school clubs. She had to look normal, so she had to pick a club, but she didn’t know what to pick, so she stared at the sheet.
What if she signed up for a club every day, so that she could have more time away from the lab? Only to observe what people are like inside the clubs. She could take the train home like most normal people do. It would be a good idea to propose that she could perhaps spy on some suspects as they take the train home. What a great idea.
She took a deep breath as she came up with the idea she proposed. She was scared, she wanted to talk about the spying on suspects on public transport.
She was allowed to go out of her room, a privilege, but only to a certain area of the lab; she needed to bring her club slip to the head scientist. Dr Ayana Hamana. And she needed to propose her idea to her as well. It was convenient that her office was in the areas she was allowed to walk.
She knocked on the door, then knocked on the door again. Hoping to be let in by her assistant. It wasn’t too long until she was let into the room.
“You requested a meeting with the doctor?” the assistant asked.
“I’d like to discuss things about my field assignment with her.”
“I see, the doctor will be with you in a second. Please be patient,” the assistant assured.
She waited for a few minutes until she heard confirmation that she was allowed to go in. She sat herself down and pushed the slip over to the doctor.
“Extracurriculars…” Dr Hamana muttered
“What about them?” 4444 replied.
“Why do you insist upon such frivolities?”
“I thought it would be a good way to gather information on the suspects, and to explore the school with fewer time restrictions.”
“It’s for the mission, of course, very well, you can join the chess club, cram club, and to keep up with your idol guise, music club.”
“Do you think I could have a club every day?”
“Who has a club every day?” The doctor said.
“My apologies, I wanted to look like a model student, I was just suggesting, maybe one sports club.”
“Is chess not a sport? Very well then, you can try out for a sports club, tell me which one you make it into.”
“I see, Ma’am, sorry if my suggestion got off wrong.”
“I know best, besides, it would conflict with your training, for your idol debut, you have to make sure you shine, according to the gift media label, Otokabe records is preparing a ‘surprise’ this friday on Ai Seiun’s talk show, about their Band H2L, now I’m not sure what this new surprise is but I need you shine brighter, and we had to move the date too to make sure you wouldn’t get overshadowed.”
She could lie about knowing what H2L was; she knew the surprise from talking to that Reini girl she bumped into at school the other day.
“What’s H2L?” 4444 asked.
Dr Hamana sighed because she realised her subject didn’t know about things outside.
“It’s a band, a girl group, I think an idol unit, but you’ll be a solo junior idol.” She explained.
“Oh, okay, so like they dance and sing and stuff.”
“Yes, for years, Gift has been trying to match their…what’s the word… hype, and I thought you’d be the perfect messenger for Gift because you are so durable and you’re the best creation this company has created.”
“They make music, can I listen? I know you only let us listen to an approved playlist, but if I’m supposed to be a counter to something, could I at least understand them?”
“Why should I let you listen to unapproved music?”
“Know your enemy or something, no wonder you send me out on missions and stuff, you’re sending me to that school to spy on people.” 4444 refuted.
“Very well, I shall enable access to a few songs, just as a reference point,” the doctor said.
“I’ll be on my way then, I’ll hand these slips into my school, and then I can be signed up for my clubs. Thanks for seeing me.”
She went back to her room to study and listen to the songs, they were quite cheery but also had some kind of deepness to it, it also sounded like it was composed quite complex, no wonder she heard mention of this band here and there in school, how was she even going to top up their music let alone that friday ‘surprise’.
She had to work hard; that’s what she had to do.
Be flawless.
Be their perfect creation.