Chapter 4: Essai
[-x-x-x-]
"We're home!" Kotori pushed the door to her house open. She just came back from groceries alongside Maki.
It was 19:00 and their parents were preparing diner when they realized that they were running out of sugar and salt. The two girls volunteered to go buy it.
Their Mama was working as a doctor and their Mommy was the Principal of Otonokizaka.
"Welcome home!" Mrs. Nishikino greeted back.
They finished cooking and the two daughters went into their rooms. Mrs. Nishikino and Mrs. Minami took care of the dishes.
Once Maki fell on her bed, she heard knock on the door.
"Maki-chan… May I come in?"
"Yes… Go ahead, Kotori-nee…"
With that, the door opened. The ash-haired girl was wearing a yellow pajama. She sat nex to her little sister on the bed.
"So, how is it going?" Kotori started.
"What?"
"I mean the match… You are one of our representatives…"
Seriously, Maki wanted to forget about it. She hid her face behind her pillow. "Why am I so idiot?"
[-x-x-x-]
The day of the match finally arrived. A crowd of young girls were gathering at the shrine. Most of them came to see the A-RISE in action.
A-RISE was composed of 3 members: The leader Tsubasa. She was talented in keeping rhythm and was un-abatable in quick inspiration. Erena was more of the aggressive unit. Her rimes are very direct and she tends to make quick decisions. As for Anju, she is an all-mighty and her greatest talent is to make their opponent loose focus.
The µ's were late. 5 have passed since the match should have started. Eli, Nico and Nozomi were already there, but the participants were still missing.
"They're late…" Tsubasa commented.
"Hehe… Maybe they flinched…" Erena added.
"Let's give them 5 more minutes~" Anju concluded.
3 minutes passed and they could finally hear someone running the long stairs. Everyone except the A-RISE and Nozomi watched as Honoka, Rin and Maki ran with full power.
They arrived at the top of the shrine. They decided to go sit at the shadow first. It was still summer, so the temperature was extreme at these hours.
"Sorry for being late… We forgot the time…" The bread-lover explained. Maki looked away, trying to hide her blush.
"It's okay!" Anju smiled.
"Enough wasting time! Let us start the match!" The leader of A-RISE turned into a more serious tone.
The three representatives of µ's stood up and face their today's opponent. Honoka took one step forward just as Tsubasa and the two saluted each other.
"Let's make it fair and square!"
"Count on us!"
[-x-x-x-]
"Let the match begin!" the judge gave the signal.
They were at the shadow of a building. They got the permission from the templar to use this place just for the day. More people gathered at 10 meters away from the 6 duelists. The organizers made limit bar to avoid the spectators from going into the ring.
"Wait..." Maki stated. "Why are there so many people?"
"…because it's an official match!" Rin explained. "Plus the fact that A-RISE is popular. That team is not the kind of team that would challenge anyone. They only challenge the best that is very rare. That is why there are so many people gathered here.
The red-head felt like her legs were about to give up on her. She never imagined it to be this much deal. She jumped as she felt a hand grabbing hers.
"It's OK, Maki-chan…" Honoka said in a soft voice. "…Umi is there to support you."
Maki turned to the crowd and she saw the blue-haired girl among them. Umi was wearing a T-shirt with a 'Fight, Maki-chan' written on it. The bluenette looked like she wanted to dig a hole and burry herself in.
"So she put the T-shirt in!" Honoka smiled.
"Hein?" the red-head questioned.
"I asked Kotori-chan to make it for her… But I never imagined that Umi-chan would wear that…" The ginger laughed.
Maki rolled her eyes.
"So, head or tails?" the judge asked.
"Tails!" Tsubasa replied. The responsible flipped the coin and the 'tail' face appeared.
"A-RISE goes first!"
Anju took a deep breath. "Let us start the battle won't you…"
[Time skip]
"I can't believe it!" Honoka slammed the table in front of them. "Can you guys believe it?"
"Well… That was only to be expected." Nico replied, with her arm crossed. She was sitting on a chair at the other side of the room.
The 9 members of the Rap club were actually at the clubroom. It was Sunday afternoon and they are back from the duel. The result sent them in such panic.
"That really surprised Rin nya…" The orange-haired girl commented. "I thought that we would lose…"
"…but to everyone's surprise, at the end, it was Maki-chan that saved our day." The ginger continued Rin's sentence. "So, you had such great hidden talent. That's awesome, Maki-chan!"
"…it's not really…" The red-head played with her haired and rolled her eyes.
"But it really surprised me." Umi commented too. "When A-RISE started clashing and Rin countered, it was only normal to have a draw."
"Thehe…" The cat-girl just rubbed the back of her head. "That Anju sure was tough. She is really great at confusing her opponents. Rin thought she would loose."
"…but thanks to your quick counter, you managed to catch points with her." Honoka smiled while grabbing the little girl's hand.
"But it was still a draw!" Nico stood from her chair and walked closer to the group, a serious look on her eyes. "Rin, you could have done better."
"Ma, ma… calm down, Nico-chan…" Honoka tried to calm her sister down to avoid another 'eruption'. "The most important thing is that our club won't be disbanded."
The raven-haired girl darted a deadly look at her younger. "The heck…? Do I have to remind me that you're at fault? We ended up draw because you lost against Tsubasa. Fortunately, Maki-chan was skilled enough to save your ass by defeating Erena."
What Nico said was right. The first round was between Anju and Rin. Since the UTX student was way more experienced, she easily played with rimes and used all her charms to confuse the cat-girl. Fortunately for them, Rin was gifted by the best talent to resist against such spell: her ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). She managed to avoid getting critical damage by pacing out for 120 seconds and quickly recovered when Anju ended her last rime.
Rin decided to counter right away with all her skills and might. Of course, she was still novice. She won the national tournament by luck only… but she managed to counter good enough to earn an ovation from the crew. They ended up 7 points to 7, a draw.
The second round had Honoka challenging Tsubasa. The leader of A-RISE didn't hold back even against an amateur that Honoka was. The ginger first played with her own words and rimes. She alternated between foods and other pastimes. Seriously, the public made some 'what the heck' face until her turn was over.
"That girl seriously isn't serious…" Even the judge sighed. Of course, Tsubasa won with 8 points to 4.
Their last hopes were the third round. They had to at least get a draw against A-RISE if they don't want the club to be disbanded. The weight of everyone's hope was on Maki's shoulders. She had to face Erena, the one and only Toudou Erena. "It's not my lucky day." Was all her complains.
Erena started with her usual blunt approach before switching between aggressive and passive tone. The crew gulped to that prodigy's talent. Words came from her mouth in an angelic way. Maki was almost out of breath just standing there.
And of course, the Dark-red-haired girl's turn ended and it was now the tomato queen's turn to 'try'. She took a deep breath and tried to calm down before starting. Rimes alternated between passions, leisure, things to study and spiritual stuffs. She was a music prodigy after all. Writing lyrics and composing music was nothing to her, so was thinking of such easy as building rimes up and giving them some soul.
At the end of the round, the score was: 9 to 5 with Maki winning. That was enough for them to end the match as a draw.
"That's right!" Honoka cheered as she was reminded of the earlier events. "Thank you, Maki-chan!"
The red-head just played with her hair.
[-x-x-x-]
"Nico-Onee-chan!" Honoka ran the stairs downstairs. She was only wearing a dull yellow T-shirt and a short short.
Nico was calmly cooking diner at the kitchen until the door was slammed open as her sister got in and made some puppy eyes in front of her.
"Onee-chan… What should I wear for Saturday?"
"First of, you have to stop slamming doors." The raven-haired girl sighted. "Seriously, I feel sorry for these poor door."
"You really think so?"
"Yes."
Honoka snapped the discussion away and finally processed into introducing the real matter. "Please help me, o queen of lesbians!"
"What the…?" Nico gave her sister a karate chop on the head. "Stop yelling that this loud. Are you this dumb? You dumbass!"
Honoka rubbed her head and lifted her head so her eyes were directly glaring at her sister's crimson orbs. "But Onee-chan… I didn't say anything wrong. You are gay for Eli-chan, right? SO please help m-"
The ginger was silenced by Nico's hand placed on her moth. The younger girl muffed, trying to get away but in vain. A dark aura formed around the raven-haired girl. "How many time do I have to tell you to shut you mouth?"
As Nico was trying to correct her sister, the two didn't realize that two other figures were on the room too.
"So, Nico-chan is into these kinds of thing too…" The brown-haired woman commented in a joking manner.
"That's our daughter!" The crimson-eyes woman gave a thumbs-up. "Way to do. Go for it, my daughter!"
"Mama… Mom…" Nico made some 'crap' faces before looking down as a dark aura formed around her. "Ho-no-ka…"
The ginger understood the approaching menace and quickly ran upstairs and directly into her room before locking it. Seconds later, a huge bam fell on the poor door.
"Honoka! Open that door and face reality!" Nico yelled.
"Nooooo…" The ginger screamed.
"Cut it off, you two! You're disturbing the neighbors." Mrs Kousaka commented as she grabbed Nico by the collar. Mrs Yazawa took the opportunity to pick her keys and unlocked the younger sister's room.
"Come on! Let's talk it off." The kind woman proposed. Honoka smiled. Nico rolled her eyes. The four then went to the living room.
[-x-x-x-]
"So… What was that thing you needed help with?" Nico asked while clenching a fist under the table.
"The truth is that I invited Rin-chan on a date." Honoka replied. The three other occupant of the room turned to her in horror.
"Honoka-chan… so… bold…" Mrs Yazawa made a dramatically comedic pose.
"Way to go… my daughter!" It was now Mrs Kousaka's turn to give a thumbs-up.
It took more time for Nico to recover as she stood there movement-less and mouth agape. She snapped out of confusion after 90 seconds (please don't ask me where I got these entire seconds thing. It just came into my mind out of nowhere).
"Wait up!" The raven-haired girl slammed the table. "Don't you think you skipped a step?"
"Be quiet!" The teal-eyed woman picked Nico by the collar and brought her back into her seat. "Come on, Honoka. Explain yourself."
The ginger took a deep breath. "The truth is that I want to celebrate our victory, and what a better idea than a date. But I'm out of idea since I never went on a date with anyone."
"Anyone?" Nico glared at her sister.
"Okay, okay. I already went on a date with Umi-chan last year, but it ended up really awkward. That's why I'm asking the expert's opinion."
"Expert? You must be kidding." The raven-haired girl rolled her eyes.
"Am I wrong? But I would have sworn there are some rumors about you and Nozomi-chan being lovers back on your first and second year of high school."
Nico face-palmed. "Who told you that?" She grabbed Honoka's shoulders and gave her a death glare.
"As I said, it's a rumor, so the entire school's talking about it whenever it's true or false. But I believe that it's true." Honoka replied innocently.
"It's not!" The raven-haired girl denied with all her might.
"I think that it's right too." Mrs Yazawa commented. "Nozomi you said? If I remember well, she came to visit us a lot last year… and she still visit the shop once in a while."
"How about being honest with us, Nico-chan?" Mrs Kousaka gave her daughter and accusing look.
Nico made more 'crap' expression with her face. She sighed in defeat after seeing that her 3 most important people are leaguing against her.
"Fine!" she admitted defeat. "We used to go out until last year, but decided to break out. Content?"
"But why did you break out? You made a so great couple?" Honoka questioned.
"Well… as you might have seen, we quarrel a lot and I was sick of that. She too thought that we weren't destinatée to each other and some 'alchemy' things that I still can't get what she meant." Nico let go of another sigh. "Overall, she wanted someone as pervert, passionate and well-endowed as her."
"In other words: Hanayo." Honoka ended her sister's sentence.
"Bingo!"
"I see…" The two elder women smiled. "So, how about that Eli? How is she? Tell us everything about her."
"Mama! Mom!" Nico almost cried from embarrassment.
"Come on, Onee-chan! Tell us everything about Eli-chan. Tell us what you love so much about her." Honoka added her salt onto the preparation of boiled red-faced Nico.
"Honoka… even you…?" Nico cried like a baby as the three others laughed at how childish she could be.
Mrs Kousaka took a tissue and wiped her daughter's tears away. "Be sure to bring her home someday. I would really like to have a conversation with the person that caught our Nico's heart." She added a smile.
Nico felt comforted and smiled at her favorite scenery: her 3 most important people gathered around their living room table in the evening while talking about nothing and everything.
"All right! I will tell her to pass by someday."
"That's great!"
The 4 of them continued their diner and talked about work and school. They finished after half an hour and washed the dishes before going to bed. The two women went straight into their room while Honoka went to her sister's room first.
"I hope this information may help you out." Nico gave a list on a paper to her younger sister.
"Thank you, Onee-chan! It will!" Honoka walked out to her room and took a pillow. She then walked the hallway toward the door near the stair and stopped in front of it.
It was already 21:30 and most people were asleep, 'so was Nico' as the girl thought. She then knocked the door.
"Honoka-chan…?" A voice resonated from the other side of the door. The ginger decided to peek inside the room.
There was a huge bed at the center, some sleeves here and there, a desk and a big armory. Two women were on the bed. Mrs Kousaka was already fast asleep, but Mrs Yazawa was still awake.
"Can I sleep here tonight?" Honoka shyly asked.
The raven-haired woman smiled. "Of course!" She moved to the side and patted on the spot between her wife and her.
Honoka smiled and rushed to the offering spot. She jumped direct on the soft bed and gave her Mama a kiss before going to sleep.
Two minutes later, a small head peeked from the door. Mrs Yazawa realized it at the instant and smiled. "Nico, do you want to sleep together too? There is still a place for you."
The raven-haired girl didn't say a word. She just walked in and took place between Honoka and Mrs Yazawa. "Good night, Mama!"
"Good night, my daughters!" The raven-haired woman gave Nico a kiss on the left cheek and another one on Honoka's forehead. With that, the 4 of them fell asleep.