LONG WAY HOME CHAPTER 4- MALICIOUS METAL MIXUP
So needs a bit more Azusa, eh? I'll try my best with that then, but Yui is still technically the main character. But I do promise that Azusa gets a much more dominant role as the story goes on. Azusa does get a lot of dialogue in this chapter.
Random thought, I think that Gibson and Kyoto Animation are profiteering together. They know that people are going to want to buy Yui's guitar, a Gibson Les Paul Standard, because that's what otaku's do. However, those things are like 2,000 USD on average. Woe to the obsessive otaku who buys one of those then realizes that guitar playing is actually pretty damn hard. Then there's the fact that Rockband 3 comes with the same Fender Mustang that Azusa plays.
THE 'Z' IN TASTYCHAINSAWS IS INVISBLE AS WELL AS SILENT
"Row C, and the thirteenth floor, can you remember that, Yui?" Sawako asked as the four of them walked to the elevator that would take them to the ground floor of the parking garage they had parked in. The concert was only about a mile away, and this was the closet parking spot.
"Of course I can!" Yui proudly declared. "Wait, why do I have to remember it?"
"In case you get hopelessly lost or something." Sawako replied, and hit the button to open the elevator. "Tokyo is a big city, and sometimes you're a few crumbs short of a whole cookie. Anyways we need to discuss a meeting place if any of us get separated."
"Maybe Tokyo Tower or something? I don't think it's something we need to worry about too much." Azusa suggested.
"Kyoto!" Sawako coughed and quickly glanced at Yui. "Okay, then we'll meet up at Tokyo Tower if any of us get so hopelessly loss that we can't find our way back here."
"Okay!" The three high schoolers said in eerie unison. After a minute, they exited the elevator on the ground floor and found their way to the street. The sky overhead was a gloomy gray, with strong hints of rain. People were already carrying umbrellas.
"By sheer divine alignment, both our shows are in the same direction." Sawako said, and pulled two folded up pieces of paper out of her jean pockets. "I have both the addresses written and-"
She was cut off by a group of four girls colliding into her, effectively disarming her of the folded papers.
"Oh my bad!" A high school girl with wavy hair and glasses frantically said. Sawako could see the evil look in her eye, it had been done on purpose.
"It's cool..." Sawako lied and picked up the papers with the concert directions on them. The girls who collided into them walked off, while continuing their idle banter. Sawako sighed and handed Yui the corresponding address.
"Thank you, Sawa-chan!" Yui replied, studying the address written down. She immediately noticed a fallacy. "Sawa-chan, we have to go the other way."
Sawako looked at her own paper, "Right, I'm going the other way it looks like. Time for us to part ways it looks like."
"See you after the show!" Yui cried, waved, and walked the other way.
"Thank you for the ride!" Ui said as well, and followed her sister.
"Stay out of trouble!" Azusa worriedly added.
It was easy for them to find where they were going, the stream of people made it simple to find the correct path.
"You two have your tickets ready?" Azusa asked, and pulled her own out of her back pocket. Yui and Ui both flashed theirs.
"Got my wallet ready for souvenirs too." Yui said. She was practically skipping in excitement, she grabbed both her sister and Azusa and skipped with both of them in tow. They passed row after row parked cars and people tailgating for it. The smell of hotdogs was very prevalent in the air, like a thick meaty aroma. Yui, even after eating roughly half her body weight in candy on the car ride, felt her stomach rumble at the scent of the food. Azusa had no taste for hotdogs, and ultimately ignored it. As did Ui.
"This looks like the line for the ticket gate." Azusa said and pointed at the line of people down the block. The line consisted of thick groups of people chatting away about random nonsense. Most of them looked to be college kids, and foreigners.
"Is this right line?" Azusa asked Ui and Yui. They had followed the directions, and it was certainly a line for a concert. But a lot of the people's conversations seemed a bit...odd.
"...Dude that's nothing, I got three ribs broken at a Mastodon concert last spring!" Someone said to his buddy.
"I ate so many hotdogs last time, that I threw up blood!" Another said to a friend.
"Remember the time I grabbed the singer's man boob, and he punched me so hard that my nose broke!" A rowdy college student screamed to his line companions.
"Yui-senpai, I really don't think we're in the right line." Azusa said again. It was too late to turn back though. They were herded in with the rest of the crowd down the line amongst all the people.
"We followed the directions perfectly, Azu-nyan." Yui reminded her, "And this is a line for a con- Hey, Ui, what are those funny looking cigarettes people are smoking?"
"Onee-chan, let's play a word game or something while waiting...and ignore the funny looking cigarettes." Ui nervously said, and pulled Yui closer to her.
"Okay!" Yui happily replied. "Okay, let's play twenty questions."
"Okay. Person, place or thing?" Azusa asked.
"Thing."
"Is it red and orange?" The younger guitarist asked.
"Yes."
Azusa sighed, "Is it Gitah?"
"How did you know!" Yui gasped.
"Just a hunch." Azusa shrugged.
"The line's moving up." Ui informed them. Indeed it was, the crowd of people was slowly inching forward.
"Azu-nyan, I have riddle for you!" Yui said as they stepped up.
"Okay, riddle away." Azusa replied.
"What's made out of six people, sounds like Cookie Monster gargling battery acid, and makes helicopter noises?" Yui riddled her.
"Onee-chan, is this even a real thing?" Ui asked, giving her sister a bit of a scolding look.
"It is so, Ui!" Yui defensively yelped.
"Let me think..." Azusa muttered and stroked her chin, "Is it the band Whitechapel?"
Yui spat out her metaphorical drink, and stared at Azusa wide-eyed, "How...how did you get that right?"
Azusa shrugged, "People on 2chan were talking about them the other day. Just a random guess, really."
Yui spat out her metaphorical drink again, "You go on 2chan?"
"Just for threads about cats! Not for the gratuitous amounts of porn! Definitely...not...the porn..." Azusa said and waved her arms in defense. "Hey look, we're at the end of the line!"
They were at the spot where a woman in her twenties, with lots of interesting tattoos, was taking tickets and letting people through. She saw the three girls and nodded, "Good to see some younger people showing up. So far it's been pretty much all foreigners and college kids."
"Really? I don't know as much about demographics as I thought I did." Azusa replied and handed their three tickets to her. The woman took them and stuck them away without looking at them or anything.
"Yeah, enjoy the show, kids!" She said and let them through.
"Um, where were our seats again?" Ui stopped them, and asked the ticket woman.
"Hey, just stand wherever, I really don't care. Courtesy from me!" The woman told them with a sly grin on her face. "Chances are that everyone will be moving around a bunch with the mosh pits and crowd surfing. So just try not to push any one too hard on your journey to the front."
"O-okay!" Ui said, and was swept along with crowd along with her two companions.
"This isn't anything like Summerfest." Azusa remarked as they followed the rest of the crowd.
"Yeah..." Yui agreed, "It's like everyone is a lot more chill."
"Chill?" Azusa repeated with a cocked eyebrow.
"Yeah, I heard someone in line say that." Yui explained, "He said it like this..." Yui stopped, raised one eyebrow, got into her best cool pose, and smiled only using the corner of her mouth. "Chill."
MEANWHILE...
"Oh, fuck me..." The ticket taker muttered when she looked at the tickets the three girls had handed her. They were for the Aya Hirano concert about a mile away from there. Instead these three girls were going to see an American death metal group that was touring there.
"Oops..."
MEANWHILE ELSEWHERE...
Sawako grimaced as the J-pop artist took the stage. She looked out of place there with her Megadeth t-shirt and faded black jeans. All around her were screaming teenage girls jumping around with glowsticks and other assorted nonsense. How the FUCK did I end up here! Music like this can't get you wet! This is like a desert of pop!
"This sucks..." Sawako muttered, and looked for an escape. The place seemed pretty boxed in.
"Is that...a Megadeth t-shirt?" The girl standing next to her asked. Sawako turned to see a teenage girl with long wavy, pink hair that was obviously dyed. It had been the girl who she had bumped into outside.
"Yeah, what about it?" Sawako nearly growled, ready to unleash all her frustration on this poor girl.
"Now I feel bad for running into you outside, I didn't see it back then." The teenager replied, "Fuck, I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were one of my own."
"One of your own?"
The girl unbuttoned her jacket to reveal a concealed Iron Maiden shirt. "You were going to that other show weren't you?"
Sawako nodded, "Yeah, but I ran into you and got mixed up. Thanks a lot."
"Shit, my bad." The girl with the Iron Maiden shirt sighed, "I was trying to lose the crowd of faggots that dragged me here by running into your group. Wanna ditch this place and see if we can hit up that other show?"
The older woman smiled, "Alright, Maiden, let's do this."
"Alright, Deth."
METALIC MAYHEM
"WAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The singer for this band screamed, pushing his vocal chords to the limit, finishing the song. Yui, Ui, and Azusa stood in stunned silence as everyone around them violently headbanged and moshed in violent circles.
"Onee-chan, where are we!" Ui shouted above the noise.
"I don't know Ui!" Yui screamed back, "The Ninth Layer of Hell, I think! What do you think Azu-nyan!"
"Don't ask me!" Azusa answered. Just as the singer started singing about using taxidermy to make love to his woman forever after her death. The crowd got even wilder as the guitarist tore away with a solo. This somehow ended up with Ui being the subject of crowd surfing.
"They're carrying Ui back their lair!" Yui screamed, and reached out for her sister.
"Onee-chan, don't smoke the funny looking cigarettes!" Were Ui's last words as the crowd absorbed her. Yui could see Ui's hand reaching out from the crowd, she tried to grab it, but it was too late.
Yui gripped Azusa's wrist and held it tight, "Azu-nyan, don't let go. I'm not losing you too!"
"Yui-senpai, I think a death wall is forming around us!" Azusa said in a worried tone. The band began their next song, all of a sudden Yui and Azusa were standing alone with the crowd surrounding them. A circle, around 10 meters in diameter, of clear space formed, and they were in the middle of it.
"Lord below! Your abysmal horrors I call forth!" The singer screaming in an extremely deep voice.
"What's a death wa-" Yui tried to ask just before the crowd charged straight into where they were standing. When they backed up to commence the slamming again, Yui and Azusa were no longer standing there.
"She just took on a death wall head on, what a trooper!" Some guy cheered to his friend and pointed at Yui, who was stumbling around trying to come to her senses. After having several dozen people charge her from all directions, she was a little disoriented.
"Where's her friend that was there too?" Another one asked. Azusa had been pulled to the other side of the floor, and was now being thrown about, above the crowd with some other people as well. For a brief moment she was thrown onto the stage with some other people as well. She got a brief look at the band, before being thrown back into the sea of rowdy people.
Yui wasn't fairing as well. She was strained from the multiple mosh-pits she had been sucked into, and also contact high from all the pot smoke. Yui knew she was out of it when she thought she saw Sawako headbanging like crazy with some other girl.
AFTERMATH
"Sawako-san!" Ui cried when she saw her chaperone, "Have you seen Onee-chan?"
"I haven't." Sawako grimly replied. They were standing in the parking lot outside of the building, there were multiple kiosks for programs and food standing about.
ALONE TOGETHER
"Yui-senpai, there you are!" Azusa sighed in relief when she saw Yui inch her way out of the crowd. It was raining lightly, and Azusa had been worried deeply. She hadn't been able to find anyone else after the hell that was the concert. Now here was Yui wearing the hoodie for the band they had just been forced to sit through, The Black Dahlia Murder, it had their name in purple letter in English, with a very bloody werewolf graphic on it, she was also holding an armful of hotdogs. Her eyes had a glazed look to them.
"Heyuh, Azu-nyan. Wanna try these hotdogs?" Yui asked, then giggled a bit. "These are like...the hotdogs of the world. Like, seriously dude, you have to try these. I mean you're thinking that you know what I mean when I say they're good. But you really don't Nakano...you really don't."
"Yui-senpai, are you okay?" Azusa asked. Instead of replying, Yui shoved one of the hotdogs in Azusa's mouth. It turned out that Yui had been correct, those were the hotdogs of the world.
"Interesting band, Nakano, interesting band." Yui muttered, in a voice akin to the one that she possessed when her voice had been thrown.
"Nakano?" Azusa said, after finishing her hotdog, with a confused look, "Yui-senpai, I'm worried about you. Let's find Sawako-sensei and go home. This day has made me tired."
"Tired? How could you be tired Nakano?" Yui asked in that strange voice, "That show was alive, Nakano, it was alive. The union of the crowd was inspiring. The pits and walls were crazy, but no one was getting seriously harmed. Didn't you feel the energy when they picked you and threw you around for several minutes, and when you were up there with the bad? The tremolo picking, the blast-beats, the obvious Slayer influences, it truly was an amazing experience. I am deeply moved Nakano."
Azusa squinted her eyes and stared Yui down hard. She snapped her fingers in Yui's face, but there was no reaction from her slightly bloodshot eyes. An idea sprouted in her head, she took out her cellphone and found her pictures. She found the picture she was looking for and practically shoved it into Yui's face.
"Nakano, what's this?" Yui asked, it was a picture of Ton-chan who wore her normal turtle grin. She was about to say something else, but her gaze was matched with Ton-chan's picture. The blank face of Yui distorted a bit.
"It's Ton-chan, Yui-senpai, and she's very disappointed in you." Azusa told her with a stern look on her face.
"Ton...chan?" Yui said again in her normal voice. Her face blanked out again, and there was an extremely vacant look in her eyes. Azusa was worried for a moment that this concert had genuinely broken Yui's brain; the last thing it needed was more damage inflicted. That was a subject that commonly appeared in Azusa's mind. Yui wasn't what you'd call normal, and Azusa often wondered what was really different about her. It could have been that she was just imaginative, but sometimes Azusa wondered if maybe Yui wasn't hugged enough as a child or something. It didn't matter right then and there though, they had other matters to attend to.
"Alright, Yui-senpai, we need to find Sawako-sensei and your sister." Azusa declared, and looked around for them among the crowd. Yui was still just standing there, "Yui-senpai, are you okay, you're acting really weird."
Suddenly, that look of vacancy disappeared and her eyes were normal again. "Azu-nyan, look! They have body spray over there for sale, and it has pictures of cats on it. So cute!"
"Glad to have you back, Yui-senpai." Azusa muttered under her breath. Yui grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her over to the kiosk that was selling body spray, with cat logos on it.
"What does Sparkle Fun smell like?" Azusa asked after looking at one of the scents they had available.
"For only 3,000 yen I can find out!" Yui happily said, and made a purchase before Azusa could react.
"You just spent all that money on...Body spray!" Azusa screamed at her senior guitarist. Her frustration was rising quickly, and uncontrollably. This whole day had been what Azusa declared as a, "Horrible fucking waste of time, money, and overall disappointment". The car ride had sucked, they ended up at the wrong show, and at that show she had been thrown around like a ragdoll for nearly an hour; now Yui was starting to make Azusa lose the last of her sanity. Spending a 10th of her money on something so trivial was only making it worse.
Yui smiled and sprayed a cloud of it at Azusa's chest, effectively replacing the smell of sweat, hotdogs, and pot with the smell of Sparkle Fun. She gave Azusa a focused look, then spoke, "Yeah, definitely smells like Sparkle Fun."
Azusa pulled at her twin tails and held back a growl of frustration, "Let's...just...go...home..." She said through gritted teeth.
"Is something wrong, Azu-nyan?" Yui asked, not really paying attention. She pulled out the folded piece of paper from her pocket that had the directions back to their parking spot.
"Nothing worth mention, Yui-senpai, nothing worth mentioning." Azusa grumbled, "You still have the directions right?"
Yui nodded. She studied the directions for a minute, "Okay, we came into the venue from over there..." She pointed over the building where they had gotten in line, "No we're on the other side, so that means we have to go that way!" Yui pointed down the street to a much more busy road.
Azusa silently followed her down to the busier street. Cars, taxis, and buses were all zooming by. The traffic hadn't had been there when they had arrived, and it was also getting dark. The road was nearly unrecognizable now.
"I think we cross there..." Yui said, and pointed down to an intersection a few blocks away. Its traffic lights shined brightly against the darkening city.
"I don't remember walking that far down the street." Azusa remarked, "In fact I remember us just crossing it, not walking down it at all."
"But we walked down a one way street." Yui reminded her, "Which means we have to go down the street next to it to get back to the parking garage."
"That makes sense...I think." Azusa shrugged, and continued to follow Yui. The concert had worn her out, body and spirit. All she wanted was for the day to be over and her to just curl up in her bed back home. Or maybe stay at a hotel if Sawako saw fit, which was fine by the young guitarist. Speaking of which...
"If we ended up seeing The Black Dahlia Murder like Sawako-san had wanted to... Does that mean she ended up that Aya Hirano concert?" Azusa asked her senpai.
Yui thought about it for a moment, "If she did, then she's lucky."
SPEAKING OF WHICH...
"Where are they?" Sawako asked rhetorically, while leaning against her red van. Ui stood next to her, visibly worried about her sister, but not so much Azusa. Azusa was a smart, capable, and responsible girl. But Yui on the other hand, well even Ui had to admit that her Onee-chan was a few crumbs short of a full cookie sometimes. That was why Ui was worried about her, she loved her sister and the city was dangerous place.
"I saw a lot of hotdog concessions, maybe Yui got held up with those?" Ui suggested, which was half true.
Sawako shrugged, her eyes had a blood shot, almost sinister look that nearly frightened Ui. The contact high she had gotten, along with nearly everyone else from the outrageous amounts of dope smoked, and the fact that she was was perpetually squinting since she had lost her glasses in the show, mixed with her tussled hair, gave her the look of a punk-rock artist. This unnerved Ui very much.
"I'm going to call them..." Sawako stated, and took her cell phone from her pocket.
HOWEVER...
Yui leaned against the edge of the wooden bridge they were on, and studied the directions carefully. Azusa peered over the side and into the dark water beneath, wonder just how they had ended up in the suburbs so quickly.
"I think I took a wrong turn...several times." Yui grimaced, "Hey, I know, I'll call Sawa-chan and have her rescue us!"
"Good thinking." Azusa found herself complimenting.
Yui turned around and leaned over the side of the bridge while dialing Sawako's number. Just as she was dialing, her cellphone vibrated from Sawako trying to call her at the same time. Yui shuttered in surprise from the sudden burst of vibration...and watched her cell phone jump out of her hands and fall into the black water below.
"Phone-chan!" Yui called out in mourning, and reached meekly towards the water below. Azusa didn't know whether to scold her for losing her phone, or question her for naming her phone...as well as every other object she came into contact with. The most interesting being "Electric Toothbrush-chan".
"Azu-nyan, do you have Phone-chan #2 with you!" Yui turned and desperately asked her.
"You mean my cell phone? No I didn't bring it today." Azusa grimly replied.
Yui sighed, and slumped down against the ground, looking particularly defeated.
"Yui-senpai, you're getting your new hoodie dirty." Azusa pointed out, thinking how it was strange that she would pick that of all things to point out.
"I don't care." Yui pouted, "Now they'll never find out, we're going to die here."
"We're not going to die." Azusa sighed, "Listen, let's just find out way to Tokyo Tower and meet up with them there."
"You're right." Yui said and stood up, "Do you know the way there?"
"N-no." Azusa admitted, "But we can ask for directions!"
"We're good with people, we can do this!" Yui cheerfully said, "Hold on though, this is Tokyo, what if people don't understand our accent?"
"What's wrong with our accent?" Azusa had to ask.
"People here speak in a Kansai dialect right?" Yui asked, "They might not understand us."
"Yui-senpai, I don't think that's right." Azusa sighed, "I'm sure they can understand us just fine, and I don't think people here speak with a Kansai dialect either."
"Listen to my Kansai dialect and tell me how it sounds," Yui said, she cleared her throat and began, "Thou noble warrior, my companion and I seek itinerary to the great Tower of Tokyo. Dost thou swordsman knoweth the way?"
"Kansai, Yui-senpai, not Kensai." Azusa shook her head in disbelief, "I can guarantee you that Bushido practices are the last thing we're going to find here."
"What makes you think that? We are in the capital after all." Yui pointed out.
"I've had at least three NEETs try and flirt with me on our way here, this place isn't exactly dripping with chivalry." Azusa answered, "Whatever, let's just go and find directions to Tokyo Tower. I want this day to be over."
"But remember, Azu-nyan, you have to be chill." Yui said again with her cool pose and face.
It didn't take long for them to find someone walking down that road, Yui flagged them over.
"Hey, what's up?" A young man greeted them, standard bow included.
"Hello sir, my friend and I were wondering-" Azusa began before Yui interrupted with a loud whisper that the man easily heard.
"Azu-nyan, you're not being chill." Yui whispered loudly from behind her. Azusa sighed loudly.
"Eh, sorry, we've had a long day." She told the man with a hint of embarrassment, "Anyways, we were wondering if we could get directions to Tokyo Tower?"
"Oh, yeah sure, just head back to that big road that leads here. Then you can take a bus straight there." He replied cheerfully.
"Thank you, thank you." Azusa said and bowed in quick succession, "Um, which line to we take?"
"Bus 45 will take you there. It's about an hour drive though from where we're at, maybe half that if traffic's good. It should be 5th stop if I remember. It'll be right there." He informed her, "Well, I gotta get home for dinner, hope you guys make it there okay."
"Thanks again." Azusa said and waved as he left. Her demeanor quickly faded to black, "An hour drive, it has to be nine o'clock already..."
As she finished her sentence, it began to rain even harder, no long just a light drizzle like it had been. Yui smiled and caught a drop on her tongue, "It's a good thing this hoodie is black, huh?"
Azusa, who was wearing a white shirt, was not looking forward to the wetness. They followed the mans directions to the busy street again, taking shelter in the rain where they could.
"There's the stop!" Yui said and pointed at a covered bus stop, it was unoccupied.
"That one is for buses 12, 34, and 35." Azusa pointed out, "Not the one we want."
"He said 35 though." Yui argued, "This is where we want to be."
"Are you sure?" An unsure Azusa asked.
"Definitely, let's sit down and enjoy not being in the rain." Yui said and pulled Azusa by the wrist to the stop. "Do you think Gitah is hungry right now?"
"Do I think... your guitar is hungry?" Azusa repeated, "You know what, fine, I'm sure. But I'm sure he ordered take-out since you're not there."
"I hope he didn't spend too much money." Yui sighed, "We're on a tight budget, and he likes to eat from nice places. But on the other hand, he might get sick from eating at a really cheap place. What about your guitar, Azu-nyan?"
"My guitar doesn't have as much personality as yours." Azusa replied, "She makes music, and that's about it."
"Sounds boring." Yui remarked, "Anyways, how about that concert? It wasn't Hirano-san, but it was fun right?"
"No." Azusa borderline growled.
"Why?"
"Getting thrown around by stoned college kids, and listening to death metal is not my idea of fun." Was her reply.
"I thought the music was kind of cool." Yui said under her breath, "The guitarist played some neat stuff, like that one song that went like jyan jyan jyan JYAN JYAN jyan jyan, jyan jyan, JYAN JYAN, jyan jyan. Then the singer was like blah blah blah RAWR, and then the drums were like bambambambambambam really fast. Then the guitar went druhun druhun DUN dun dun DUN, remember that?"
"No." Azusa admitted, "Metal is not a genre of music I think I'll ever enjoy. Too...aggressive."
Yui placed a finger on her chin, "I wonder what it would be like if we were metal..."
There was pause between them, Yui just stared blankly passed Azusa, "Yui-senpai?"
"Huh, I was expecting it to switch to a scene of us being all metal or something. I guess not." Yui shrugged, "Maybe later?"
"Maybe in my dreams tonight." Azusa suggested, further breaking the 4th wall. The wall that mattered the least. "Oh, there's the bus."
"Oh, I had an idea!" Yui told her, as the bus was pulling up, "We should name our party!"
"Party?" Azusa said with cocked eyebrow.
"Yeah, we're like an adventuring party right now, adventuring through Tokyo." Yui replied, "We can be the AzuYui Project until we get more members. I'm the president, and also the wizard."
"Sure..."
The two of them payed their bus fare and boarded. The bus was rather empty, so they grabbed a seat towards the back. Yui sat at the window with her tote bag, and bags of souvenirs, on her lap. Azusa sat next to her, and braced herself for the long drive ahead, but at least Sawako would be there to meet them.
ABOUT 45 MINUTES LATER
"I specifically said to meet here, right?" Sawako asked, her and Ui were standing at Tokyo Tower in the rain, waiting for Yui and Azusa.
"Sawako-san, I'm scared for Azusa-chan and Onee-chan." Ui said in a trembling voice.
"Azusa seems like a smart girl, and a voice of reason." Sawako muttered under her breath, "However, this is a big city. I'd break it down to three options."
"What are those?" Ui asked.
"If you're an optimist, they're on their way right now. If you're a realist, they're at a police station, or horribly lost...or horribly lost in a police station." Sawako told her.
"What's the third option?"
"If you're a pessimist. They're either dead...or raped...or both...or being raped...or being killed...or being raped and killed at the same time...or being raped while dead."
"Sawako-san!" Ui screamed through the tears that were forming, "Don't talk like that!"
ALIVE WITH THEIR PANTS ON
"This isn't Tokyo Tower." Azusa said, after getting off after the 5th stop.
"I think we got on wrong bus." Yui observed, now they were in front of a cheap motel downtown. There were already six homeless people in her line of sight, "Alright, no problem. Let's just catch the next one."
"No!" Azusa shouted, causing a few pedestrian heads to turn, "You just lost the privilege of navigating and making decisions!"
"Aw, why?" Yui asked, not sounding hurt in anyway.
"What do you mean why!" Azusa nearly screamed at her, "You've gone the wrong way every single time! I'm impeaching you!"
"I don't believe I've ever been spoken to like that before. Does that mean I'm the rhythm guitarist now?" Yui pouted.
"Yes!" Azusa declared, "And as the new president of the AzuYui Project, I declare that we...we..." She collapsed on the bench at the bus stop.
"Azu-nyan?"
"I don't know, Yui-senpai, I just don't know." Azusa sighed, and buried her face in her palms, trying to hide the tears running down her face, "I don't know what to do now. I'm tired, I'm hungry, and I'm lost."
"How about we stay the night at the hotel right there?" Yui suggested, "It has a restaurant, and looks pretty cheap. We'll figure out what to do in the morning."
"It says it's a Love Hotel." Azusa said, after reading the sign, "Can we find a different place?"
"We love each other though, right?"
"No. But it says cheap room service on the sign." Azusa read.
"And free wireless internet!" Yui cheered.
"How would that help us?"
"It wouldn't!"
THE COLD
The place had been cheap, Azusa used her own money to rent a room, and buy some food. Just Yakisoba, nothing fancy. But it was definitely filling. They sat on the floor and ate in their wet clothes.
"Is it me, or is it really cold in here?" Azusa remarked. Yui nodded.
"It's because you're wearing wet clothes." Yui said, "They have a shower here, you should use it while your clothes dry."
"They'll still be damp in the morning." Azusa replied with a shake of her head, "I'm going to catch a cold for sure."
"I still have a dry shirt underneath my new hoodie, and my pants didn't get that wet." Yui told her, "In the morning I'll go check out the thrift store across the street for an outfit you can wear tomorrow."
"Thank, Yui-senpai." Azusa whispered. "However, I would have preferred if they gave us a room with two beds, instead of one."
"We can share." Yui said with a nod of her head, "It won't be any different from the car ride here, except we'll be sleeping."
"And we'll be naked since our clothes will be drying." Azusa reminded her, she blushed then sighed loudly, "It can't be helped. So let's lay down some rules."
"Okay, like what?"
"Do not hug me. Do not try to cuddle with me. Do not look at me and make a remark about me being cute." Azusa sternly said, with a frown on her face, "If you do any of these, I'm putting on my wet clothes and going to get another room. I don't care if this sounds mean or not, I'm not putting up with your antics tonight. Today has been way too much."
This time Yui did look a tad bit hurt, "Why do think I would do stuff like that?"
"Because you do all of those daily!" Azusa nearly screamed at her, "It's one thing if it's at school, at least I can shrug it off like nothing happened, maybe joke about it with Mugi-senpai. But not here. Now, I'm going to go take a shower and then go to bed. Keep to your half and I'll keep to mine."
Yui sat in sad silence as Azusa made her way to the washroom, "Azusa-san?"
Azusa stopped at that, Yui had never called that. She sighed and glanced behind her, "Yui-senpai?"
"Are you mad at me?" Yui asked, her carefree demeanor all but gone.
"I..." Azusa didn't know how to reply to that, "No I'm not mad at you, Yui-senpai. I'm just disappointed. When I joined the Light Music Club, you promised to take care of me. This isn't taking care of me."
Yui sat there in the dim light and listened to the sounds of water pouring inside and outside. The rain wasn't letting up. She cleaned up after their meal, and straightened up the rest of the room. A job that would have been reserved for Ui if she was there.
When Azusa exited the washroom, she was surprised to find Yui laying face down on the bed, with no blankets. A quick glance told Azusa that she was already asleep. She crept silently across the room, placed her folded wet towel on the back of a chair. It wasn't just the wet clothes, that room really was cold. With just two strides, she slipped across the room and nestled into the bed on the floor. The sheets were thick, and all of a sudden the room didn't see quite as cold. The horrors of that day were now giving away to sleep.
Before she could doze off, something in her brain flashed a warning. Yui was sleeping in wet clothes in a room where the air conditioning was set to 50 degrees Fahrenheit, with a fan blowing away. It would be a miracle if she didn't wake up with pneumonia. Azusa realized that she could only just hear Yui's teeth chattering over the storm outside.
"Yui-senpai!" Azusa gasped and crawled over to her, Yui was huddled into a ball and shivering.
"It's c-c-c-cold, Az-z-zu-nyan." Yui stuttered.
"Why?" Azusa asked rhetorically and helped Yui up, she started leading her to the bathroom to get her wet clothes off, "Why did you do this to yourself, you're going to get sick!"
"S-sorry." Yui replied, and shuttered at as Azusa helped her get out of her soaking wet clothes, "I felt really bad and just want to go to sleep. Sorry I'm not doing a good job taking care of you."
"Don't say that, Yui-senpai." Azusa whispered, and led to Yui back to where warm sheets were awaiting her. She was going to have few choice words for the receptionist of the place about the broken AC and fan that didn't turn off. Guilt was overwhelming her now, her words had made Yui somehow neglect her own health out of self pity. She laid Yui down where she had been laying before, Yui quickly made herself comfortable, and heaved a sigh of relief.
Yui gave Azusa a warm smile, and with bright eyes said, "I'm not doing a very good job at being a senpai am I? You're the one taking care of me."
"I know you're doing your best. A lot of stuff happened today, and none of it was your fault." Azusa said and laid down in the damp spot that Yui had been laying previously.
"Thanks, Azu-senpai." Yui whispered.
"Don't worry about it." Azusa said, and tried to get comfortable. She had underestimated just how soaked they had been. All the water from Yui's waterlogged clothes moistened that part of the bed pretty bad, along with leaving a lot of dirt and other debris that had clung to her clothes. She rolled over and faced Yui, who had her back to her, "Yui-senpai, can you move over a little bit?"
"Yeah." Yui sleepily said and scooted to the furthest reaches of the bed, so she was halfway on the cold hardwood floor.
Azusa moved closer to Yui, and could barely make her form out from the moonlight coming through the window. Despite all the days events, she was just laying their peacefully, almost smiling. Azusa felt better knowing that her harsh words earlier hadn't had left any noticeable impact.
"Yui-senpai?"
"Huh, what is it Azu-nyan?" Yui peered over behind her, and replied.
"You may have gotten us lost multiple times, made us take the wrong bus, and now I'm stuck here away from home while my parents are worrying about me in a freezing cold motel room..." Azusa said in an almost pleasant tone. Yui looked a little worried, she was afraid Azusa would scold her again, but that wasn't the case, "But for what it's worth. There's no one else I'd rather be stuck in this situation with, than you."
Yui rolled over so she was facing Azusa, "R-really?"
"Yeah." Azusa nodded, "Mio-senpai would probably have me still wandering the streets trying to find Sawako, I don't know about Mugi-senpai, and Ritsu-senpai would probably get me killed somehow..."
"Yeah," Yui chuckled, "That Ricchan would probably get you both horribly maimed and killed. But I'm glad you're the one I got stuck in this situation, everyone else would have probably hit me...multiple times..." She ended the sentence with a shaky laugh.
"Let's just try to get some sleep, okay?" Azusa said, Yui nodded and rolled back over. Even with the warm sheet, Azusa was still having trouble getting comfortable, something was missing, something that completed her. Another thought replaced that one.
"Yui-senpai, are you okay? You're barely on the bed anymore."
"I'm fine." Yui replied with forced cheerfulness, "Do you have enough space?"
Azusa didn't reply. Stupid Yui-senpai, why did you have to take my words so seriously!
The younger guitarist heaved a heavy sigh then stuck one arm under Yui and one above.
"Azu-nyan, what-" Yui tried to say as Azusa grabbed Yui and hefted her over her so they had switched places. Azusa didn't let go though, she turned her grip into a hug, and buried her face into Yui's neck and shoulder. Yui's body was still cold from earlier, and Azusa happily shared her own warmth. Her arms were wrapped around Yui in a tight embrace, making special care not to make contact with Yui's chest. She was successful for the most part too, for the most part.
Her arm forearm still grazed across that sensitive spot. If Yui even acknowledged Azusa's arm as being there, she did a good job hiding it. It was a strange feeling, Azusa thought, having her arm up against one of the most sacred places on a woman's body; Yui's nonetheless. A part of her body that some man would no doubt have fun with in later years. Yet Azusa couldn't imagine that, she couldn't imagine Yui in any sexual situation whatsoever. It didn't fit the guitarist at all -Azusa also couldn't help but wonder if Yui even knew what sex was- but at the same time Azusa knew that both Yui and her wouldn't be virgins forever. They would eventually both be married with kids someday. She had never given it much thought, but now Azusa knew that they weren't going to be kids for much longer. That thought almost saddened her; not all of her was ready to grow up and become an adult.
Yui just laid there, realizing just how cold she had been now that she had a warm body up against her. Her eyes were wide open as she tried to comprehend what had just happened. First she had been laying halfway on the floor, then Azusa had flipped her over so they had switched places. Now Azu-yan was...cuddling with her. This addled Yui's mind, considered how hostile Azu-yan had been to her earlier that night.
The sheer anger in Azusa's voice earlier had been an eye opener for Yui. Sure people had scolded her in her life plenty of time, that happened to everyone. But Yui prided herself in being able to shrug that kind of stuff off, yet still find the lesson in it, and eventually fix her mistake. However, this time it wasn't something she couldn't just smile and apologize for. A voice in her head, resembling Mio's voice, finally decided to speak up that day, Well Hirasawa Yui, you sure fucked up this time? Maybe even lost a friend, way to go. Way to go.
But now Azusa was embracing her, while naked; not that the latter really mattered in this given situation. Perhaps she felt bad about everything she had, and this was her way of saying sorry. No it wasn't that, Yui knew what it was.
That strange empty feeling that had plagued Azusa earlier was now gone. As Yui laced their fingers together, and lightly kissed the back of Azusa's hand, it became clear what was missing inside her.
That's what I was missing...And I have it now.
NO METAL BASED DREAM SEQUENCE
Bear with me, I have a lot to say here. Maybe this way you can get a glimpse of what was going in my head this chapter.
Well finally finished with this chapter, took awhile, but I finally sat down and finished it. I like to think that at over 7k works, that it was worth the wait for you all. It's also worth mentioning that I really worked hard this time, unlike the previous three chapters. I really went all out this time, and I think it shows. Not to mention the gracious amounts of fluff between Azusa and Yui. And like I said, a lot of the silliness ends here, sorry to those who may have really enjoyed it. But the fluff, romantic content, drama, and conflict all really take off here.
Speaking the romantic stuff. Yes I decided to go with a full blown AzuYui story here. I was debating it with myself for awhile, but I feel like it really helps the story overall. It adds a lot more flexibility to what I can do later on, and it gives more potential for drawing out more emotions from you, the reader. Keep in mind that I tread lightly on this sort of thing, and pace it realistically. This wont be like a Mitsu oneshot you'll find on this site.
The concert that they attended on mistake, it was a real show. If you go on youtube and search for "The Black Dahlia Murder live in Tokyo", you can find it instantly. The band posted that video on facebook, and that's when I saw it and decided that they would have a mix up and attend that show instead.
If you think about it, it's for the best that I did that show instead of the Aya Hirano one. They say, "write about what you know", and which do you think I could have done better? A show from an artist whose stuff I know only from anime songs, or a band whose live performances I've been subjected to frequently and also played in Japan recently? Do the math, you'll see why I did what I did. Watching me attempt to write about the other show would have been painful to say the least.
The only thing wrong with it is how I said the show took place in the 26th, but it actually was on the 24th. But that's not really anything worth mentioning. Coincidentally, those dates are the birthdays of my brother and ex-girl friend. I don't know why I mentioned that...
As far as length goes, I'm not expecting this surpass 10 chapters. I'm not completely sure of how some of the events will play out, but 10 is the number I'm sticking with now. One this is certainly certain though- For Yui and Azusa, it will be a Long Way Home.