Morning
Yuni and Malin awoke with a start when somebody banged on their door.
"Yuni! Yuni, help! You must come!"
"Kirill," Yuni stated, alarmed by the hysteria in the younger man's voice.
Malin looked to the clock as Yuni went to open the door. "But we just went to bed."
Outside Yuni found a trembling wreck. She quickly, carefully, pulled him inside. Malin came over to help.
"What is it?" Yuni demanded. In this state of mind Kirill could only understand simple words.
"There's a hole! A black hole. She's dying. She'll eat me."
"Calm down. Nobody will eat you."
Kirill clung to Yuni's small body like she was a last anchor to his life or sanity. Malin watched, prepared. She didn't think Kirill would ever try to harm Yuni, but it was hard to tell with his brute strength. Yuni was only a fragile child in Kirill's arms.
The little woman settled on the bed with the man on the floor, still holding onto her.
"Nobody will hurt you," Yuni assured.
"She's going to die."
"Who is going to die?"
"That girl. Her emotions are drowning. She's dying. A black hole."
Malin made a gesture but Yuni shook her head. Hitting Kirill unconscious was not an option.
"What happened?"
"Fear," Kirill tried to explain. "There was someone there. She was afraid. Then she panicked. She panicked."
Yuni patted his head and hushed. In the back of her head Malin thought of the wind playing with leaves. That was probably the intention too. Kirill relaxed, a little.
"I heard… voices."
Yuni looked up and caught Malin's eye shortly.
"Not clearly, but I heard them. Voices. M-memories. There was a little girl, and a back… two backs… C-c… chaos…"
Yuni hushed again. For a long moment it was all that was heard.
"Everything… died. There was… a black hole, reaching out. She was… trying… reaching… She… she was trying to… feel… feel… anything…"
The drummer continued to hush until Kirill fell asleep, still clutching to her like a child. Malin sat on the opposite bed, watching with a frown. Yuni matched the anxiety in her eyes.
"This has never happened before," Yuni whispered at last. "Are his powers growing?" She looked up into the purple orbs of her best friend. "Or is that girl such a broadcaster Kirill can't hide?"
"I can't tell, Yuni. This is almost as bad as the shape I found him in."
The model nodded. "That's exactly it. Back then, who knows how many crying hearts he was hearing? This is only one person."
"More still; Kirill has worked hard on his shields since, and he has grown stronger."
They looked at each other.
"What are we dealing with now?"
Fuwa Sho awoke to a normal day, he thought. Shoko-san dragged him out of bed, he munched down some breakfast and then headed to the shower. Today's schedule included two magazine interviews, four photo shots, whereof one for the cover of the new single with The dead Saints. Asami-san had managed to get a hold of Japan's top designer Polnoch Sana – leave it to her to manage something like that – who had had time, about thirty minutes, by lunch to come and take their measures.
"Oh, and they called me last night about the talk-show at TBM," Shoko-san informed as they made it to the car. "It's cancelled because of Matsunai Ruriko. She was supposed to appear tomorrow, but there was a miscommunication, and the staff gave her your time. We're going there the day after tomorrow instead."
"Okay. When is practice?"
"Immediately after the interviews and to noon when Polnoch-sensei is coming. She is extremely busy and only has her lunchtime over for us."
"I must ask Asami-san how she managed to persuade her to take the job."
Shoko-san just hummed.
Tsuruga Ren was always early out of bed. Washing the tiredness out of his face he dressed causally in pants and shirt. The first half of today he would spend in the south of town, the second on Dark Moon. Today, Katsuki would act for the last time.
Mogami-san had finished her scenes only days before, and next week everything would be done and the quiz- and talk shows would fight to death for the first interview with the main staff. Mogami-san would be included in that staff.
Skipping breakfast, though hearing the girl's scolding voice in the back of his head, he went to his car and to pick up Yashiro-san.
"Good morning Ren," the manager greeted as he fastened the seatbelt. "Did you get a hold of Kyoko-chan yesterday?"
The concern threatened to choke him. "No."
Yashiro-san frowned, worried, but not on the same level. "Kyoko-chan. I hope she is all right. It seems like everything is suddenly working against her."
Oh, the new rumours. Ren knew for a fact it was about another Kyouko. Mogami Kyoko wouldn't let a man touch her without protesting until all of Tokyo heard her. Thinking about it closer than that Ren had already experienced led to unwelcome thoughts. He had to concentrate on today's work.
Mogami Saena was up early, excited about the new job she had for today. After all, it wasn't every day she designed for Fuwa Sho. This would be the first time she met him since he was a boy. He probably didn't even remember her. Saena wondered if his face was as perfect in reality as in all the pictures. As a human face it was bound to have some sort of flaw, like faint freckles, scars or traces of pimples.
The other part of the job she had mixed feelings on. They were the Russian rock stars, The dead Saints. She knew little more than what was commonly known about them; the lead singer was the only male, the background singer was only a little girl but with a great voice, the keyboarder was blind. Of course there was Queen, the international supermodel and drummer of the band. The woman with the powerful blue eyes. Saena was over the top about the chance to design a set of cloths for them, at the same time she dreaded meeting them.
Finishing her breakfast made of porridge and green tea she walked to her studio where she had to pick up her drawings and head straight for an ad meeting.
On her desk lay a piece of black paper. Handwritten red letters were written on it, in Russian.
Я сделала своё дело
She had no idea what it said. But the red on black sent her thoughts to the Black Goddess.
Saena put the paper in her pocket.
The owners of Daruma-Ya awoke to the usual ringing from their alarm clocks. They dressed and went down to prepare breakfast. Okami knocked on Kyoko's door as she passed it.
"Raise and shine, Kyoko-chan."
She prepared the breakfast as her husband checked the light that had finally come back and then went to take in the newspaper. Nothing of this was out of the ordinary.
"Kyoko-chan, breakfast is ready," Okami called up the stairs. However, there was no sound of movement. Come to think of it, Kyoko-chan's room had been completely silent this morning. "Kyoko-chan?"
She went upstairs and knocked on Kyoko's door again. "Kyoko-chan? Are you there?"
No answer. Worried Okami opened the door and found the room empty.
"Did she leave early?"
This was strange. Kyoko-chan always told them if she was going to be away, mostly because she worked in the restaurant. The room was clean, but on the table was a piece of paper. It looked like a list. Okami bent over to read it.
*Moko-san
*Okami-san and boss
*Tsuruga-san
*President ?
*Yashiro-san
*Amamiya-san
*Bridge Rock X
*Director Ogata-san
*Momose-san
*Oohara-san
*Shiva-san
A list of people? Okami read it again. Moko-san was Kyoko-chan's best friend. They had met briefly on the Happy Grateful party. Okami-san and Boss was her and her husband. Tsuruga-san must be The Tsuruga Ren. President she didn't know, or why it had a question mark after it. Two names she didn't know, and then the only name that was probably for a group that was the only one on the list that had an X mark.
Just what had Kyoko-chan meant with this? The last star must mean that it was supposed to be longer.
Straightening her back Okami shrugged her shoulders. Kyoko-chan would probably come back later today, or call. She was scheduled to work tonight after all.
With that comforting thought she went down to have breakfast.
