Rai walked down the school steps with Richie and Virgil. She saw Frieda and Daisy wave to her.
"I need to talk to you guys later about something. See you tonight," she said seriously before giving Richie a good by kiss and a hug and leaving with Daisy and Frieda.
"I think we're screwed," Richie said.
"If she asks then we just make an excuse like we always do, and if that doesn't work, we could try telling the truth and hope it works,"
"You're not even thinking seriously about this, are you?"
"Don't worry about it, Rich. It's probably not even that. So just take it easy till then,"
"fine,"
"Can we walk by my house first? I need to get more money and a couple of other things," Rai requested.
"Sure. If you have more money that means you can get more stuff," Daisy replied.
"Or better stuff. It doesn't matter to me as long as I'm home by eight tonight," Frieda replied.
"Oh, and I gotta pick up somthin but don't let the boys fin out what it is. It's a surprise,"
Daisy and Frieda exchanged knowing looks.
"It has nothin to do with me an Richie,"
They walked along in silence. When they reached Rai's house, they found a letter on the coffee table.
"She'll be with Johnathan tonight, so I got free reign," Rai said before heading up to her room.
"Come to think of it, when I was here a few weeks ago, her mother wasn't here then either,"
"Really?"
"Yeah. From what I know, her mother is either working or with her boyfriend most of the time,"
"And her father doesn't live with her. Her parents must be divorced or something then, right?"
"I guess, but Richie and Virgil say she doesn't like bringing up her past and her father especially,"
"Enough gloom. Let's think about the awesome outfits we're gonna buy,"
"I'm back. Let's git'r'done," Rai said as she came down the stairs.
"Alright," Daisy said as they made their way to the door. Rai let them out and then pulled out her keys to lock the door. Once it was locked, they proceeded to the mall.
"Hey, Rich, do you remember how to do this?"
"Yeah, you just solve like number eight but instead of dividing by three, you multiply by one third and reduce the fraction,"
"Thanks,"
"Isn't Rai usually with you two this time of day?" Mr. Hawkins asked the boys.
"She went shopping with Daisy and Frieda," Virgil replied.
"Who's Rai?" Trina asked as she entered the room.
"She's Richie's girlfriend and a friend of Virgil's," Mr. Hawkins replied to his girlfriend.
Richie turned red.
"Really?" Trina asked.
"Yeah, but it took them two months before they finally admitted they liked each other," Virgil teased.
"Shut up," Richie told him.
"Oh, she's the girl you guys were talking to the other day when I left in a hurry," Trina said, "She's cute. I'm happy for you Richie."
"Thanks," he replied, still slightly pink.
"Oh yeah, Pops, there's a party the same night as the try-outs for the talent show and I was wondering if I could go if we finished by then,"
"Who's throwing it?" Mr. Hawkins asked.
"Monty Wilkins," Virgil replied.
"Is it chaperoned?"
"Far as I know, told me his uncle would be there,"
"As long as you're home by eleven,"
"You rule, Pops," Virgil said as he got a soda from the fridge.
"The store I was telling you about is just past the cell phone kiosk," Daisy said to Rai, who was beginning to lose patience.
"There it is," She said as they stood outside the store in question.
Rai was in awe.
"Muddy River Girls Boutique," she read the name of the store. Then, something in the display caught her eye. In the window stood a mannequin wearing a Mississippi flag halter, faded low-rise jeans held up with a cowgirl-style belt with a big silver buckle, and maroon cowgirl boots. Daisy and Frieda exchanged a small high five and knowing looks.
"I'm getting that," Rai said to them as she rushed in and looked for every item she saw on the mannequin. The staff all gave Rai surprised looks. Daisy and Frieda followed Rai into the store and began looking on their own.
"Everyone's staring at Rai. You think she's noticed?" Frieda asked Daisy.
"I don't think so. I don't think she'd let it go,"
"Hey, Could one a you help me over here? I cain't reach that shelf," she asked them.
"Sure," Frieda said, being the taller of the two.
"You're a size six? You're so athletic I thought you'd be no bigger than a size four," Frieda said looking at the jeans she'd gotten for Rai.
"I got big hips an I done put on five pounds since I got here," Rai said as Freida handed her the jeans.
"You don't look like it," Daisy said.
"Thanks," Rai said, " I'm gonna go get the belt an then I'll be done here. After this, we need to go by Riff Masterzz."
"Sure," Daisy replied.
"Okay, so here's what I've got on our mystery trio," Richie said as he uploaded the data from Backpack to Virgil's computer.
Up popped a picture of a tall curvaceous redhead wearing tight black leather pants, black wedge-heeled boots, a tight red leather mini-jacket, a pink belly shirt, and over-sized black sunglasses.
"That's Sparks," Virgil said.
"She calls herself Sparx for a reason. Her power is to control light energy,"
"That's why she shoots fire and lightening,"
"Then we have miss kitty, NeKo," Richie said as he brought up the next picture.
In the picture was a petite lithe-bodied girl with long blond hair, blue eyes the size of saucers with pupils making up ninety percent of their size, a round cat-like face and pointed ears wearing a cat ear headband, a high-necked black sleeveless leotard with a heart cut in the chest and black stiletto boots that came up to her mid thigh.
"Her power seems to be enhanced senses, flexibility, and agility. Neko is Japanese for cat, but the suffix –ko also means girl," Richie stated, "I looked it up."
Virgil looked at him and Richie brought up the next picture. The picture was of a girl who was of average build who had shoulder-length brunette hair and wore a black headband, huge black triangle glasses*, a black v-neck leotard with the bottom cut into short-shorts, a yellow biker mini-jacket and white ankle boots.
"That's their leader," Virgil observed.
"Hypnosis. I don't really know what her power is, but I'm guessing it has something to do with mind control, telepathy-"
"Or hypnosis,"
"What she said about working for a private agency in Shibuya, Tokyo seems right. They've all been spotted at, around, or near Eien Industries," Richie said.
"But?"
"The owner of Eien, Shinnosuke Kurozawa, is rumored to be in the Yakuza, the Japanese mob,"
"So the 'private agency' they work for may be the mob?"
Richie nodded.
"It's really strange. When we asked what they were looking for, they said 'the future' and they work for a company whose name means 'infinity'. I don't know what Eien does, but I'm guessing it has something to do with the future, or time in general,"
"What are Japanese criminals doing here in Dakota?"
"I don't know either, but I wanna find out before it's too late,"
"we'll see if we can get any info during patrol tonight,"
Daisy and Frieda looked on in amazement at Rai.
"You play guitar?" Frieda asked, amazed.
The employee scoffed at them and said, "Are you blind? It only has four strings; guitars have six."
"I play bass. I got this one cuz it looks like an acoustic guitar so when I start playin people are surprised," Rai said, "I was havin it restrung. It's a BM2730 Martin BC-16GTE. It's got a Sitka spruce top with mahogany back and sides. It's a real beauty."
"I'll say," the employee replied, "since you already spent so much on getting this strung, I'll give you thirty percent off of any accessories. What kind of amp do you use?"
"Thanks. Cain't afford ta git my own, so I just use whatever's available whenever I play in public,"
"I can show you some amps and you can use your thirty percent on that,"
"I also got a coupon for fifty percent off any purchase a hundred bucks or more. I still git that extra thirty?"
"Yeah. As long as you got the money,"
"Great,"
He took them over to a display of amps.
"These are the used amps. This one was returned after three days because some kid got in trouble for using his mom's credit card. Used amps have twenty-five percent taken from their original price anyway. So fifteen hundred fifty minus thirty percent, minus fifty percent…damn that's a lot of money off…" he mumbled.
"What model is this?" Rai asked.
"PA2242 Trillium Signature Series 2x12 combo,"
"I like it. It's a nice accent to my Ganguro,"
"Ganguro?" Freida and Daisy asked together.
"my frien Heaven named my bass. She said it looked like a ganguro girl. They're really dark Japanese girls with blond hair,"
Their faces lit up when they understood the meaning.
"Heh, yeah, that is clever," Daisy said.
"Imma go pay an then we can leave, kay?"
"Yeah, we've got enough,"
"Hey, Pops, I gotta ask you something," Virgil said as he approached his father from the stairs.
"What is it?"
"You heard anything about Yakuza or three metahuman girls from Japan running around Dakota?"
"I heard that today you and Richie defeated a trio of metahuman girls," Mr. Hawkins replied, "Why do you want to know?"
"Richie found out that they work for some company in Japan that might or might not be run by a mobster,"
"I don't know what they'd be after. But I'm not a Japanese mobster, so I can't tell what one would think,"
"It's not like the Bang Babies. These aren't repeat offense gangbangers. These girls have costumes and hide their faces and fight like professionals. Even their aliases are smarter,"
"Well, I don't know what to tell you. Why don't you use patrol to clear your head like you always do?"
"Thanks, Pop, on my way now," Virgil said as he left to go on patrol.
*think Kamina's glasses from Gurren Lagann only black.
Another installment. I took down the other 14 because the life expired and I wanted to edit the author's note. I've decided to postpone the cohost contest and make it on whatever episode is after I get enough applicants. So...my vision is deteriorating so I wanted to write and post while I could. I am becoming obsessed with writing this. Anyway, see you next chapter!