The dull fluorescent glow of Kaoru's computer monitor strained his eyes in the dark room. He wasn't supposed to be up this late. It was bad for his eyes. Could've been bad for his complexion too, and that'd have been utterly tragic. Whatever would his legions of darling fans think?
Probably not much, if all went according to plan. Because if it did, the tabloids were going to be focused on something far more scandalous than his less than exquisite face. Not that it was ever anything less to begin with, but oh well.
One email, two email, three email, four. Kaoru's fingers were like lightning as he typed out exactly what that weird, lanky guy with the teeth told him, attaching photos and audio files all along the way.
...Come to think of it, where had that mustachioed weirdo obtained this information in the first place? As much as Kaoru prided himself on staying connected, none of his connections had dug up anything like this. And there was a lot of digging done.
'"...All we ask is that you do as is required of you."
'We', huh? That might've explained it.
Either his excessively toothed benefactor had friends in high places, or he had friends in very, very low ones.
Not that it made much of a difference, as far as Kaoru was concerned. It didn't matter where the information had come from. It didn't matter that the whole task felt sleazier than he could've previously imagined.
If it got him closer to Rise, he'd do anything.
'Send message to (49) recipients?'
Click.
Yosuke swore the burns from the previous night hadn't fully healed. Either that or he had a fever. In both cases, sleeping hadn't come quite as easily to him as it had done to Teddie, who snored away contentedly in his makeshift bed fashioned inside Yosuke's closet.
Well, sleep or no sleep, it was morning anyway. Doubting that anything short of losing an arm entirely would get him a day off school, Yosuke ran a hand down his face and rolled lazily out of bed.
Woah, crap, he might've had a fever. That idol poster on his wall just would not stay clear and focused. Yosuke rubbed his eyes and tried switching between all six girls on the SGJ48 poster, hoping all their scantily-clad glory need not go to waste thanks to his shoddy eyesight.
"Don't worry Yosuke, I already checked…" Teddie mumbled from his bed as he peeked out of the sliding closet door, a line of drool hanging from his mouth. "...Yurie-chan is a B."
"How did you-? I'm not checking them out, dumbass, I can't see a damn thing." Yosuke snapped back as he took a seat at his desk and swung himself around, resting his elbows as he continued rubbing at his eyes. "If I've got soot behind my eyeballs or something, I'm gonna kill someone."
"If you can see them, that is!" Teddie added more cheerfully as he suddenly sprung from the closet fully-clothed and landed as gracefully as a ballerina. He plopped himself down at the small table in the centre of the room, swiping the pillow Yosuke sat on- the comfortable one- and setting about idly flicking through some of the magazines lying about, one of which was unopened from the day before. "It really is a shame about your eyes! There's an article about Rise-chan in here I think you'd love!"
Like a bolt of lightning, Yosuke skidded to a halt behind Teddie and swiped the magazine out of his hands, burying his face in the pages. "What the-? There's nothing about Rise in here!" He barked, not even caring to hide his disappointment.
Much to Teddie's joy, of course. He fell onto his back and laughed heartily at Yosuke's expression of chagrin. "Hah, got you! Honestly Yosuke, you're almost as bad as Stairry-kun! But hey, looks like your eyes aren't screwed up aft- ppftfbfft!" He ended in a muffled mouthful as the magazine met his face.
"Yeah, thanks Doc." Yosuke grumbled as he went to swipe up his phone. Like they were anything alike, he wasn't that bad. He'd never be tha- Oh shit, was that a text from Chie?!
The vibration that had caught Yosuke's ear, sadly, brought nothing but disappointment. It wasn't Chie, it was a notification from some stupid news app. Honestly, a guy said he was into idols once and suddenly he was bombarded with…
Hang on. That was a lot of notifications. From a lot of different publishers.
Weird. Instead of immediately dismissing all of them at once, Yosuke took the time to scroll through the almighty list of headlines and see what had apparently gotten all of Japan so riled up in one night.
"MASS SCANDAL! Idols from popular SGJ48 group EXPOSED! CLICK HERE TO READ!"
Gee, thanks for the specifics. Not clicking that crap.
"CHAOS! Takura Productions in Panic Mode as top idols involved in ongoing leaked scandal!"
...Oh shit. That was Rise's studio. Fearing the worst, Yosuke opened the link, his eyes darting madly as he went about absorbing the article at breakneck speeds. "Eh? What's up, Yosuke?" Teddie asked from behind him.
Shit. Shit. This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all.
Speed-dial working its magic, Yosuke had Rise's number on-screen without hesitation. It barely finished ringing the first time before it connected on the other end. "Rise! Rise, have you seen the news right now?! What the hell is going on?!"
"I DUNNO, BUT ABOUT SEVENTEEN PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO TELL ME ALL AT ONCE!" Rise shouted over every ringtone she had going off at one time. Whose bright idea was it to give her that many work phones in the first place?! And who the hell had the number to all of them all at the one time?! "The one I use for Inoue-san! Inoue-san!" Rise shouted to Astaire on the opposite seat of the limo.
Panic was rife in his eyes as he brought out phone after phone from Rise's handbag, all of which looked exactly alike and were buzzing angrily at him, causing an uproar that seemed to shake the whole car. "Where on earth are they all coming from?! There's no end to them!" He asked in exasperation as he juggled what felt like ten trillion phones in one hand.
Whatever attempt Rise was making to chat with Yosuke, it was beyond the scope of Astaire's hearing range. Either that or he was going deaf. Both were equally as likely. His patience just about run thin, he scooped up Rise's bag of phones and tossed the whole thing into his Bottomless Box, which he promptly slammed shut in the hopes it would give them some peace and quiet.
Oh, fan-bloody-tastic, now the box was vibrating instead. "I can't take much more of this, and it's barely morning as is…" Astaire said as he slumped in his seat, his voice rumbling as his box rumbled inside his coat.
At least it was quieter now. Quiet enough for Rise to actually get a word in to Yosuke. "No. No, I don't know what it's about, or who it's about. We're on our way to the studio now." She explained, curling one of her twintails around her finger. "...No, I don't think it's about me and Astaire-kun. Look, I'll ring you back when I know more, okay?"
Well, thank the Gods, that was a relief to hear. Rise and Astaire sighed in unison as the former clasped her phone down in her hand. The moment she did, Yukiko's number flashed up on the display on the front.
Both Rise and Astaire half-sighed and half-cried. This was going to be a long, long, long drive to work.
As the limo pulled into the Takura Productions gate- sporting a veritable throng of people running about in a panic inside- the choir of ringtones finally seemed to die down inside the Bottomless Box. "I hate these ruddy things." Astaire grumbled as he handed Rise back her bag.
"Me too." Rise agreed as she forcibly shut down everything with a signal that she could lay hands on. "I guess there's not much point in calling Inoue-san if we're already here. Still, I wonder what's got everyone so wound up?" Rise thought out loud as she put her hand to the car door and pushed.
A wave of persistently annoying ringtones assaulted her and Astaire both the moment the door opened even slightly. It wasn't just Rise who was being pestered about whatever was happening, it was everyone. Stage hands, IT directors, the costume staff, the makeup artists, even Coach-san could be seen running about with his phone to his ear, looking about ready to have four simultaneous heart attacks.
Rise and Astaire both slumped down with synchronised groans. "I wanna go home…" Rise complained.
"I almost wish Lordran would take me back. At least it was quiet…" Astaire complained just as fervently. Beatings and stabbings he could take, but this was the purest form of agony he could imagine.
Matters weren't helped at all as a familiar-yet-impossibly-panicked face rocketed up to meet Rise from within the cacophonous cloud of electronic noise. "Rise-chan! Thank God you're here, things are dire with a capital everything! You couldn't have come at a better time!" Inoue blurted out, looking as though he'd gone three rounds in a cage versus a freight train.
"Inoue-san, what the heck is going on?! Why's everyone acting so crazy?!" Rise shouted over the surrounding din.
"No time to explain! Look, I know you had plans for today, but that concert prep of yours is going to have to be put on hold for a while!" Inoue began as he ushered Rise off by her shoulders, ignoring her increasingly frequent questions because there simply wasn't time. "We need you, and I mean really need you over at Studio 6, pronto! Like, we need you there yesterday!"
Clearly, questions weren't going to yield answers in the midst of such a frenzy. Still, if she was needed over at Studio 6, perhaps someone there could explain why she was needed so badly in the first place. Seeing as getting blood from a stone would've been easier than getting a straight answer from Inoue, Rise nodded affirmatively to he and Astaire both, making a beeline for Studio 6 further into the lot.
The first difference between Studios 4 and 6, Astaire noted, was that it was a lot more compact. Rather than some wide-open performance area requiring an entire colosseum's worth of space, Studio 6 appeared to consist mainly of long, long hallways and a myriad array of rooms branching off on either side. Striding down the mercifully quiet red halls, each window Astaire peeked through was filled with masses upon masses of devices and electronics of every kind. He couldn't even hope to imagine what any of them were for, but it must've been something other than rehearsing a concert the whole day through.
"Auuuugh. Where the heck are we supposed to be going, Inoue-san…?" Rise moaned as she slinked down the hallway at Astaire's side. "It feels like we've been walking forever… Astaire-kun, can you carry me?"
It felt as though the request should've embarrassed him more, but when Astaire thought about it, he'd actually done his fair share of carrying Rise about by now, be it in his arms, on his back or on his shoulders. "Certainly." Astaire stopped to take a knee, shrugging his shoulders to direct his passenger. "It might be wiser to leave my hands free, I think, just in case anything untowards sho- AUGH!"
The door Astaire had knelt next to swiftly swung open and thrashed him in the face, bowling him over backwards and onto the floor. Before Rise could move to see if he was alright, a number of smaller, more distraught issues came barrelling out of said door.
Three girls, tall, medium and short respectively, had come charging out with tears streaming from their eyes in droves. "R-R-Rise-senpai!" The shortest girl bawled, wrapping her arms around Rise's midsection and hiccupping between sobs. "W-What're we going to do?!"
"T-Tachi-chan? Oh my gosh, is everything alright?" Rise asked concernedly as she brought one of her hands to the back of the smaller girl's head, petting her lightly.
"Does everything look alright to you?!" The tallest girl bit back, eyes puffy and face red, despite her best efforts to hide her tears. "We're part of the reason everyone's all up in arms right now! Can you even imagine how it feels?!"
"Sayaka-chan, please! It's not Rise-senpai's fault." The middle girl said gently, despite looking just as distraught as her two companions. Noticing the questioning look forming on Rise's face, she bowed her head as she sniffed intermittently. "W-We got caught. Someone put out pictures of us in public during downtime."
Rise tilted her head as she stroked Tachi-chan's own. "Is that all? Yoko-chan, that really doesn't sound too-"
"Out for drinks." Yoko continued.
Oh.
"With our boyfriends…" Tachi added.
Oh.
"Wearing the dresses we bought just for that occasion..." Sayaka finalised.
Oh, dear. "That… sounds a little worse." Rise gulped.
"It's more than a little worse! They've put our contracts on indefinite suspension! That's just one step away from being fired altogether!" Sayaka fumed as she punched the door, not stopping to wonder why it wasn't swinging all the way out. Whatever part of her was burning up with anger seemed to be running out of steam as she let out a sigh. "They're probably waiting for us to quit on our own so they don't have to fire us. What a load of crap." Sayaka stuffed her hands in her pockets as she began trudging off for the studio exit. "C'mon girls. Guess it's time to go figure something out."
Giving Rise a courtesy bow, Yoko quickly darted after her taller partner, leaving only the miniscule frame of Tachi behind, letting go of Rise's midsection and rubbing her eyes. "S-Sorry we let you down, Rise-senpai… See you later… or not…" She said, sounding defeated and down-beaten as she slowly pursued her older companions, her head hung low.
"Holy cow… They were some of the studio's biggest stars, too…" Rise murmured. Any wonder everyone was in such a tizzy, some of the studio's headliners had just got given the boot. "Who could have done such a thing?"
"It's- oof… -nod my blace to zay." Astaire said as he tried to retrieve his nose from the back of his skull. After some adjustment he shook his head and was none the worse for wear, save for the massive bruise in the middle of his face. "...But gracious, all this just from a set of pictures? This work of yours is madness."
"Yeah… it doesn't take much to make you lose your fans in the idol game, unfortunately." Rise lamented. "Honestly, after those pictures of us out with Naoto-kun and Kanji-kun the other day, I'm surprised I'm not walking out with everyone else…"
Wait, what?! "Pictures?! What pictures?!" If events a week prior had taught Astaire anything, it was that pictures as related to Rise weren't anything to joke about.
Rise opened her mouth to ask how he hadn't known but, again, the guy didn't exactly have a phone to check. "Yeah, someone snapped a few of us when we were out shopping together. Hmm…" Rise teased her chin with her fingers in thought. "I… I guess if Inoue-san didn't say anything about it, there's no harm done, right? Maybe everyone really believes that you're just my bodyguard after all!"
Letting out a breath he hadn't consciously held, Astaire nodded in agreement. "Gods, I can only hope so. If we'd caused something like this to happen over your work instead of theirs…" He trailed off. In lieu of finishing, he shook his head dismissively. "No, you're probably correct. For now, we should keep looking for whatever it was Mr. Inoue required of you."
"Yeah, if we can ever find out what it was! Jeez, I hope it wasn't anything urgent. Rise huffed as she continued on her way back down the corridor, with Astaire quickly taking up stride beside her.
...This public lark was dangerous. If all it took was a few photographs and bad enough timing to ruin someone's work… Gods, it was a sobering thought, to put it lightly. One which mad Astaire feel sick the longer he lingered on it.
He needed to be more careful. If anything was going to end Rise's career, it certainly wasn't going to be him, not on his watch.
If there was a single stone they'd left unturned or a speck of dust they hadn't looked under, Rise would be damned if she knew where it was. Apparently everyone had gone outside to run about aimlessly, because there was absolutely nobody else around. The whole situation was absolutely ridiculous. "See anyone yet?" Rise asked as she lay her head into Astaire's back, her arms long having stiffened around his upper torso as he carried her.
"Sadly not." Astaire replied for the fifth time that minute.
Rise peeked over his shoulder at the endless labyrinth of corridors before them. "This is starting to weird me out a little. It's like everyone's gone home already." Looking into the windows of the doors they passed revealed equally empty rooms on either side of them. "Makes me wonder what Inoue-san wanted us over here for in the first place…"
"I'm sure he had his reasons. He seemed altogether too panicked to-"
"Wait, shoosh!" Rise said as she clasped a hand over Astaire's mouth. "You hear that?"
Whatever that was. It almost sounded like music. Almost. It also sounded like a hacksaw making passionate, violent love to a launchpad. With lyrics. Which meant there could've been only one culprit. "Ms. Mashita?"
Damn it, of all the people it had to be! Then again, after wandering aimlessly for so long, Rise was ready to accept any form of company, regardless of how into-or-possibly-not-into her bodyguard was towards them. "What are you waiting for?! Chase her down already!"
Off like a shot, Astaire quickly darted down yet more corridors in pursuit of the erratic-sounding music, Rise clinging onto him for dear life as she flapped behind him like a cape. Closer and closer it got, until finally the volume began to ramp up and Kanami's voice became clearer to hear. "...Shunned by rays of Amon Ra, darkness exposes every soul's flaw! I forever remain raw, unpolished, drunk off knowledge of knowing I'm dumb…"
With lyrics like that, it had to be something of Kanami's. With one more corner to go, Rise poked her head out over Astaire's shoulder to get a first-person view. "Hey, Kanami-chan! Where the heck is everybody hidi-"
What the absolute hell.
"Oh! There you are, Rise-senpai! I've been looking all over for you!" Kanami chirped as she plucked her earbuds out, spinning around on a heel as Rise found herself drooping off of Astaire's back.
Hooooo this was bad.
Kanami was in full idol mode. Make-up applied, looking bright-faced and energetic. Her hair had been morphed from her usual mess of pigtails into an intricately-styled mass of curls centered around the back of her head. Far from her usual hoodie-bound persona, she looked positively radiant. Even moreso than she was normally.
That wasn't the biggest issue.
That would've been the swimsuit she was wearing.
Rise used the term 'wearing' liberally because she was three threads away from wearing nothing at all. And it looked perfect on her, too! Crap, crap, crap! It was as though every feature she had which made Rise feel the slightest bit inferior was not only on display, but amplified tenfold. The unbelievable shape of her legs, thighs and hips. Her trim midriff. The only reason her mass amount of cleavage wasn't any more egregious was because her fricking wireless speaker was sandwiched between her boobs. Which was, like, three TRILLION times worse.
Rise's jaw hung open. She couldn't think of what to say. The only thing that could've made matters worse would've been a massive sign pasted onto her forehead that read "SEX APPEAL" in bold letters. Her eyes glanced up at Astaire, whose own eyes appeared to be bulging out of his forehead.
Oh no. Oh, no no no no. This could not be happening. He could not be ogling her, especially not right in front of her. Then again, she was doing just as much ogling herself, albeit mainly out of shock and fear of exactly this happening.
As though ignorant of her flagrant femininity on display, Kanami tilted her head to the side. "Something wrong, you two?"
"Yo-You're…!" Rise stammered.
"Y-Your…!" Astaire stammered likewise.
"You're practically naked!"
"Your hair!"
...Huh?
Rise and Kanami both blinked in confusion as their heads turned slowly to meet Astaire's. "W-What did you just say?"
To answer, Astaire strode forward, his eyes aglow as he swept around to Kanami's back, his eyes still bulging as he examined every angle of Kanami's forest of curls. "Gods above, I didn't even recognise you! How on earth is your hair staying like that?! Is this some kind of human magic I'm not aware of?" He asked in a tizzy, prodding at Kanami's curls every so often.
Well, uh… that wasn't the sort of reaction Rise had been expecting. It wasn't the one Kanami had been expecting either, apparently, given she kept trying to turn around and face Astaire head-on in a confused daze and he kept circling around to examine her hair in lockstep.
But still, it was a little odd. Not that Astaire came off as any kind of outright pervert, but… really? Not even a flinch at Kanami's attire? What kind of red-blooded guy didn't get worked up at cute girls in swimsuits? It sold enough calendars every year that it had to be a common enough reaction. So what was the deal?
Actually, forget that. She needed to address the curly-haired elephant in the room. "Kanami-chan… why are you wandering around the studio in a swimsuit?"
"Oh, that's right!" Kanami stopped her spinning and lightly tapped herself on the head as she remembered what she'd been doing beforehand. "So you know how everyone's all freaking out because Tachi-chan and Sayaka-chan and-"
"Yeah, yeah, we met them on the way down here, what about it?" Rise urged her on.
"Well…" Kanami lifted a finger to her chin and smiled mischievously. "...the whole reason everybody's freaking out was because they kinda had a photoshoot to do today. But the magazine published would probably go super crazy if their front cover had a bunch of disgraced idols on the front! They just had to change it at the last second!"
...Oh. "So you're replacing them? All on your own?"
Kanami giggled, glanced back at Astaire, then looked back to Rise with her eyebrows waggling. "Heehee, not exactly! That's why I said I was looking for you, Senpai~!"
Where once there hadn't been a single soul throughout the entire studio, the set for Kanami and Rise's photoshoot was littered with noise and people from the moment they walked in, right up until Astaire found himself stoically waiting outside Rise's dressing area.
Gods, they were busy. Moving cameras to and fro, setting up massive devices that spat light onto the bright green backdrop. It didn't help that Kanami was flitting about and pestering whoever she could stop for even a second, giggling all the while at the reactions of the male technicians she forced her presence upon.
Why they were reacting the way they were- stammering and spluttering all at once- Astaire hadn't a clue. Kanami's hair was intriguing but it wasn't that unbelievable, for Gwyn's sake. Evidently the minds of other men in this world were-
"Jeez, you can tell this swimsuit wasn't meant for me, it's not even close to being my colour!" Rise complained as she cracked open the door to the dressing room.
Wait, swimsuit? As in, that thing Kanami had on?
Oh, Gods.
"Oh, whatever. Ta-dah!" Rise swung the door open, struck a pose and shot Astaire a wink, brandishing the two-piece swimsuit and its blue-and-white floral pattern like a deadly weapon. "How do I look?"
"Good, I'm sure." Astaire's tinny voice said from under his helmet.
...Wait, helmet?
Back as straight as a ruler, his arms crossed and, indeed, an iron helmet placed backwards on his head, Astaire nodded his eye-holeless head in approval.
"Wuh-? Why are you wearing that? And why are you wearing it backwards? You can't tell me what I look like if you can't see me!" Rise pouted, hands on her hips. She didn't come out with a bang and a pose to have him not watch her do it. Feeling especially indignant, Rise walked up to Astaire and reached for the helmet. "Come on, quit screwing around!"
Despite his best protests, pop. Off went the helmet.
Only there was another helmet underneath.
"You're kidding me." Rise said blankly, discarding the first helmet and snatching the next one just as quickly. Revealing another one underneath. "What the-" Clang. "-heck-" Clang. "-is your-" Clang. "-problem?!" Rise finished with a final clang, amassing a small mountain of metal helmets behind her. "So you can look at Kanami-chan in a swimsuit, but not me?! What's up with that?!"
"It's… it's more complicated than that, I assure you." Astaire insisted from under the Catarina Helmet on his shoulders, sounding too stiff and his words too hasty for him to have been anything but glowing red underneath.
Whatever parts of him were bristling at the whole situation, they bristled tenfold as they felt both of Rise's hands gently rest on his chest. "C'mon… I want you to see me." She said quietly.
Slowly but surely, Astaire lifted the hefty pile of metal away from his eyes, looking down to meet Rise's soft, gentle smile. "Hey, there you are. You ready to tell me how I look now?"
There were a thousand words he could've used to tell her how she looked. It was just that none of them would've been at all appropriate for a knight to even think, much less say. There were too many places to look. To many subtle details to absorb. Too much of her on display for his response to have been anything beyond stunned, red-faced silence.
So the one guy who seemed immune to Kanami's charms wasn't immune to hers, Rise concluded. Not that she was complaining. Not by a long shot. "Heehee. Alright, I think that's a good enough answer." She giggled as she backed off. "How about we get this show on the road, then?"
Feeling particularly proud of herself, Rise happily skipped off to meet Kanami in front of the cameras, leaving a beet-red, barely functioning Astaire to clumsily teeter after her.
This was Hell. Actually Hell.
"Alright, big smiles! You've got a hell of an act to follow, even for you girls! I want the both of you to give this thing two hundred and ten percent, and not a single digit less!" The photographer shouted out between snaps and flashes of light. "Closer together, closer together, it's a magazine cover, not a billboard!"
She'd been impossible to answer when she was simply looking up at him, never mind posing for anything. As Rise and Kanami contorted and bent themselves into any number of provocative, alluring shapes, Astaire found a game of tug of war taking place in his head. A game played between his sense of duty and the sheer discomfort he felt from watching.
His uneasy fidgeting and flustered looks were lost on neither girl. Especially not Kanami, who quickly leaned in towards Rise's ear between shots. "Whoever makes him lose his cool first wins." She whispered cheekily.
Rise looked at her with shocked surprise. "Focus, Rise-chan, we're still working here!" The photographer called out before she caught herself on.
Whatever silly little game she was proposing, she was on. Whatever she thought she had to gain from it, she was dead wrong.
From there, Astaire's mental state only deteriorated quicker. Everything she did seemed more provocative the longer he attempted to keep an eye on her. She twisted and turned, bent and bowed, every maneuver more alluring than the last.
This was bad. This was awakening something inside him that he'd rather have kept locked away deep in the pits of his soul. He couldn't put a word to it, if only because his heart was trying to smash his windpipe into an unrecognisable pulp.
"Beautiful, beautiful, the both of you! Now give us something that'll really rev their engines! Try blowing a kiss at the camera, would you?" The photographer enthused.
It seemed to Rise like she was winning this little contest of hers and Kanami's. She seemed to realise as much as well, as her eyebrow twitching seemed to suggest. But Rise wasn't done yet. This would sink it.
Forget blowing a kiss to the camera. Rise bent over, locked eyes with Astaire and planted her lips on her fingers. As she lowered them, she breathily whispered under her breath. "Astaire-kun~"
GODS NO. TO HELL WITH THIS. KNIGHT ASTAIRE OUT.
Following a brief second where he looked like he'd been hit by ten thousand simultaneous bolts of lightning, every nerve in Astaire's body screamed at him that enough was enough. He bolted for the door and threw himself outside, thrashing it shut behind him.
Rise was stunned. Holy crap, she didn't think it'd be that bad. That was a whole other level of embarrassed right there. "Looks like you won, Rise-senpai!" Kanami chirped beside her, suddenly much less troubled looking. "I knew you had it in you to quake his heart a little!"
A little? She called that a little? It had been a violent enough reaction that Rise wanted to take off after him. If only there wasn't a wall of photography equipment and one extremely passionate photographer stopping her.
...This shoot couldn't go on for too much longer. She'd just have to hunt him down afterwards.
These 'photoshoot' things were BLOODY AWFUL. There would sooner come a day when Astaire would try singing into the effective end of a crossbow than put himself through that again.
Gods, he felt as though a thousand showers would never make him clean. That he'd looked at Rise in any such way sickened him to his very core. Outside the set, he tapped his forehead off the wall and tried to calm himself down. Deep breaths. Deep breaths.
"Ah, Astaire-kun. How nice to see you again."
By the Gods, curse this sodding day and every other day like it.
Calm was but a fanciful dream as Astaire's temper immediately got set to boil. "Airashi." He said through clenched teeth. "I'd far better appreciate it if you wouldn't-"
"I forgive you for the other day, by the way! It really was rather mean of me, I hope I didn't take it too far." Kaoru interrupted, tapping the back of his hand where Astaire had cut. It had healed over perfectly, and he was back to his immaculately-styled, softly smiling demeanor.
Gods, what an utter cur. "Never worry yourself. I'd already forgotten about it." Astaire said, quite literally lying through his teeth. Little chestnut-looking tosspot, hurry up and go bother someone else.
"I assume you've heard about the girls this morning if you're here during what would've been their photoshoot, hm?" Kaoru shook his head and shrugged, tutting to himself. "What a crying shame. I was so looking forward to collaborating with them later this year. Now my schedule is all out of sorts!" He laughed wryly.
Astaire's frustration was put on hold as something stood out in his mind.
Airashi was supposed to be working with the girls who had been ousted earlier on.
Rise and Kanami were filling in for said girls on short notice.
"But I suppose I should consider myself lucky." Kaoru peered in the window of the door Astaire had flown out of, watching as Rise and Kanami continued their posing and posturing. "At least I'll have Rise-chan and Kanami-chan to help sort things out with me." He said before he licked his lips lavisciously.
That was it. Sod trying to be civil.
"Get away from that window." Astaire said slowly as he rose to his full height.
Kaoru averted his gaze, if only to sneer at Astaire's glare. "Why? Do tell."
"It's my job to protect Ms. Kujikawa from danger, no matter where it might come from." He took a stride forward, squaring up to Kaoru as he looked down his nose at him. "That includes you."
He did leave the window, but it was only for Kaoru to teeter back and laugh in his face. "Hah! Is that so?" With a blink, his eyes sharpened and his face fell grave. "Trust me, I'd need to be doing on hell of a job to be much more dangerous than you. Then again…" He turned and shrugged his shoulders, hiding his hands from view. Why he did so became evident when he whipped back around and suddenly had a rapier pointed at Astaire's throat. "...if it's dangerous men Rise-chan likes, I'll give it a damn good try."
Repulsive threats aside, Astaire's focus immediately shifted to the rapier. It wasn't one of his pathetic training ones. It was far more ornate, with a sharp, blackened blade. What's more, the large box he'd been keeping his previous set in was completely absent. He hadn't brought it with him, and it hadn't been there beforehand. It was almost as though he'd pulled the sword from nowhere.
Irrelevant. He'd drawn it on him and it was sharp. That was all Astaire needed to know.
A quick flash of silver parted the air and clashed against Kaoru's sword, lashing it to the side as Astaire put some distance between them, holding Ricard's Rapier at the ready. He could change his sword all he liked, it wouldn't help. He couldn't keep up with him a few days ago, he wouldn't keep up with him now.
With clashing flashes of black and silver, their swords met and filled the corridor with sound and fury.
He was using his right hand again. He was going to try the same stupid trick on him two fights in a row. The thought alone infuriated Astaire, channeling down into the grip of his sword as he swatted away Kaoru's advances. Such an insult to his memory deserved some kind of punishment.
Kaoru tried and failed to poke a hole in his defence, but it was as ironclad as it had been before. Even when he mounted his offence, forcing Astaire to backstep rapidly down the corridor while maintaining his stance, he never skipped a beat. Then he felt something graze the side of his head. Not steel, but air. He'd flicked away one of his attacks, launched his own, and flicked away his next one in the space of half a second flat.
To Astaire, it had been a warning. Continue fighting like that and I'll riddle you before you even realise it.
To Kaoru, it was confirmation that he was winning. That he was getting confident enough to make threats at all.
Time to change that.
All at once Kaoru's form shifted. His hand was quicker, his steps lighter and more deft. He struck at Astaire with twice the frequency he had before, from twice as many angles and with twice as much ferocity. His eyes gleamed with sadistic glee as he began forcing Astaire back even more quickly than he had done before.
Gods above, he had actually gotten better. Much better. "You've been practicing, have you?!" Astaire said as he riposted and sent Kaoru onto his heels. He could keep up with Ricard's Rapier, but only just. But it was closer to being equal with him than he liked.
Kaoru whipped around and sliced horizontally, allowing Astaire the briefest of moments to backstep to safety. "I'm always practicing. Idols are hard workers, you know!" He grunted as he threw his whole body into a lunge. Dodged again. But it was close enough to register as a hole in Astaire's defence. That was all he needed. "You could stand to learn a thing or two from such a hard work ethic!"
Their swords locked as Astaire squared up and closed in on Kaoru's face, so closely that their foreheads almost touched. "I've fought harder and for longer than you could ever imagine. What could some uppity little pervert like you teach me?" Astaire scoffed as he forced Kaoru to stumble back.
"Oh, I don't know." Kaoru said calmly mid-stumble. "Something like this, perhaps."
Astaire blocked the strike he threw as he turned around and- "Argh!" -felt the pain rush to his leg instead of his torso. But how? Not only had he attacked from on high, but he'd blocked it. Pain was a doubly-assured impossibility.
All became clear as Astaire's line of sight lowered. Stabbed into his thigh, reddening his trouser leg as blood seeped from the wound, was a second black rapier in Kaoru's other hand.
"Where the hell did you pull that from?!" Astaire asked in surprise. In lieu of a response, Kaoru drew his blade from his leg and launched a jab, which he sidestepped with nary an inch to spare.
Astaire knew he wasn't crazy. No box, no harlots carrying them, nowhere to hide them and nowhere he could've picked them up from on the way. So how? How had he drawn them?
"The same place you've been drawing your weapons from, I presume." Kaoru sneered as he stepped forward, both rapiers blurring around him as he swiped and sliced. Good Gods above, he was fast. "Don't you know a magician never reveals his secrets?!"
This was overwhelming. This was impossible. There was so much wrong with this fight that it was criminal. Astaire couldn't have been waning. He couldn't have pulled that sword from nowhere. He couldn't be beating him.
And yet he was, he did, and he could.
"That shirt of yours looks a little plain, don't you think?" Kaoru said with a grin as Astaire tried and failed to fend off everything he was throwing at him. For once he'd left his coat unbuttoned, giving way to one of the plain black dress shirts he'd obtained in Okina. "Let me just touch that up for you."
It happened so quickly that Astaire barely registered it. One sword flicked away his own, and another flourished towards his chest. Three slices delivered in the blink of an eye. The suspicious lack of three fresh lines of pain on his torso coaxed Astaire's gaze from Kaoru proper.
The cuts were flawlessly clean. But more importantly, they'd been left in the shape of a 'K". "There. Now doesn't that look better?" Kaoru scoffed as he dramatically whipped a strand of hair to the side.
Astaire's knuckles went white at his side. "Ms. Kujikawa bought me this shirt." He growled.
"Did she? Goodness, I hope she kept the receipt." Kaoru smiled snidely, soaking up Astaire's anger like a sponge. "I hope you kept the one for that coat as w-"
As Kaoru lunged with both rapiers focused on one point, primed for Astaire's chest, he felt his aim be violently diverted. The sound of metal sliding across metal filled his ears as both swords were caught in the wide, curved handguard of a small dagger. If he'd appeared to have pulled his weapons from nowhere, Astaire was twice as guilty. Kaoru hadn't seen a thing.
"I like to try and fight fairly, when I can." Astaire said, glaring through both rapiers held aloft by his Parrying Dagger. "I try to match weapons with whoever I duel. That way it seems like a true test of skill. The only exception…" With a flick of his wrist and a quick wave of his arm, Kaoru's rapiers were dashed off to his side. "...is when the other party does something to incite my ire."
He was completely open. Although every bone in Kaoru's body screamed at him to strike back, to raise his swords aloft and cut him to ribbons, both of them simply refused to move. It was like he'd been paralysed, if only for a moment.
"I'll be taking that, thank you." Astaire said as he slipped Kaoru's fingers out from his left rapier and replaced them with his own in one motion. Then he reeled back, raised a leg and threw all of his weight into one kick, which impacted Kaoru's stomach and sent him clean onto his back.
At last, a chance to breathe! And an offhand weapon to boot! Where exactly he'd gotten it, Astaire hadn't a clue, but he gripped it tightly all the same, raising it to ready his counterattack and...
Wait, hold on a minute.
That didn't feel like Kaoru's soul.
Adjusting his fingers around the grip of the sword, there was no doubt. The feeling present in Kaoru's training sword the other day had barely registered. Where Yosuke's had felt like holding a living tornado in his fingers, Kaoru's had felt like squeezing a clump of moss in his palm. Tangible, usable, but not very impressive.
But this didn't feel like Kaoru's soul.
It was stronger by a mile. But it lacked restraint. It felt rabid and untamed, like a mighty dog trained to rip out another's throat. It almost felt like the sword wanted to jump out of his hand and skewer him on its own. Something was terribly wrong with the soul inhabiting the rapier. Something which, in Astaire's hands, felt worryingly dark.
"Give me that!" Kaoru fumed as he ripped the sword from Astaire's hand. It seemed that kicking him had been like kicking a hive full of bees, because he looked absolutely furious. "How dare you space out in front of me! And after stealing my weapon too!" He screamed, echoing down the halls. "Just you wait. I'm going to cut you into tiny pieces, you ignorant bastard."
"Like hell you are!" Came a feminine voice from behind Kaoru. He turned to meet it and was greeted by a slap on the face. "Leave!" And another."Him!" And another. "Alone!" And another one for good measure. "Put those stupid things down before you hurt somebody!"
"Rise-chan…" Kaoru mumbled (to a thankfully more modestly-dressed Rise) as he dropped his swords and began massaging the pain from his face. "You'll ruin my makeup." His voice rumbled. Clearly, his fury was only barely being contained. Astaire was ready to step forward and pull him away from Rise before he turned and pointed a finger at him. "This isn't over, Just Astaire."
Astaire and Rise's spines chilled in unison. "W-What did you just call me?" Astaire gawked, his jaw loose.
The palpable tension in the air was quickly blustered away as three tall, imposing silhouettes came rocketing down the hallway behind Rise, arms pumping as they entered full sprint. "I think you'll find this is over!" One voice bellowed.
"You!" The first voice latched on around Kaoru's neck.
"Little!" The second whipped around and snatched up his ankles, suspending him between himself and the first.
"RUNT!" All three voices bellowed as they swung and tossed Kaoru to the third voice, who caught him and hauled him over his shoulder.
Both Rise and Astaire stood in a state of momentary shell-shock. What in the seven hells had either of them just bore witness to?
The trio then stood and turned on their heels in complete synchronisation. "Ah, good morning, Rise-chan! Good morning, Rise-chan's bodyguard-friend!" They all began in complete sync as well.
Boisterous enthusiasm aside, the similarities between the three young men were easy to see. They were similarly built: broad and with toned muscle rippling out of their shirts. They were similarly heighted too. The boy on the left glanced up at Astaire. Up an inch was the middle boy, who looked him in the eye with a wide grin. Up an inch was the boy on the right, who overtook Astaire entirely and looked down with a similarly blinding smile as Kaoru struggled and kicked about over his shoulder.
It didn't escape Rise's notice that the taller they were, the lighter and longer their hair was. Peruvian brown, sandy brown and platinum blonde.
That said, one thing about all of them remained remarkably consistent. "WE'RE TERRIBLY SORRY FOR THE CONDUCT OF OUR KOUHAI TOWARDS YOU, RISE-CHAN'S-BODYGUARD-FRIEND-SAN!" All three boys shouted and bowed lowly in unison, knocking Kaoru off the taller fellow's shoulder and into a grumbling heap on the floor.
Feeling as though he'd been shocked by another ten shells on top of the first one, Astaire carefully held out his hands. "I-It's alright, re-"
"IT IS NOT ALRIGHT!" All three boys raised their heads and bellowed at once.
"O-Okay, I guess it's not alright." Astaire chirped as he shied away from the sheer energy all three fellows exuded. Seeing as talking to them was equivalent to throwing a ball at a wall and having it bounce back and smack him in the face, Astaire leaned in towards Rise's ear and asked, "Who the devil are they?"
Rise narrowed her eyes and stroked her chin as she skipped between the chiselled figures on their faces. Finally she snapped a finger. "Oh yeah, I remember you guys! You're the other three Musketeers!"
"WE ARE!" All three fellows shouted and raised their hands to the sky at once.
Giggling at their antics now that she remembered them again, Rise stepped forward. "Astaire-kun, this is Chiaki-kun, Taizou-kun and Yabe-kun." She said, going from tallest to shortest. "They're Kaoru's co-stars on-"
"His co-stars?" Chiaki's blonde locks quaked in shock, right before he and his comrades began belly-laughing heartily, rattling every window in every door down the hall. As Kaoru began dusting himself off after being tossed to the floor, Chiaki suddenly had him in a headlock from behind. "Bahaha! You must be joking! Him?!"
True enough, now that he stood up it was easy to see that Kaoru, by comparison, was the shortest and thinnest out of the four of them. "Ka-kun's a little shrimp compared to the three of us! He's a D'artagnan through and through!" Taizou said heartily as he gave Kaoru a noogie, thoroughly messing up his hair.
Seemingly having been humiliated enough for one day, Kaoru threw up his arms as he broke out of the headlock and quickly stormed off down the hall, his face a picture of godlike restraint. "That's also why he's kind of a little shit at times. Napoleon complex, we think." Yabe whispered to Astaire and Rise both.
"But hey! Runt or no runt, he's pretty good with a sword!" Chiaki boomed as he wrapped a thick arm around Astaire's neck and pulled him closer with a quiet 'oh dear.' "You must be pretty handy yourself if you managed to fend him off! I bet he's furious!" He added with another boisterous laugh which rang in Astaire's ear.
Sensing that peace and quiet were quickly becoming distant dreams, and wanting to investigate Kaoru's swords more closely, Astaire ducked out from under Chiaki's arm and backed off to where he couldn't snatch him off again. "I'm sure he is. Now, if you gents would excuse me I'd like to…" Astaire trailed off after squatting towards the floor.
Kaoru's swords had vanished. Judging from how he looked when stomping away, it hadn't looked like he'd taken them with him, either. As Astaire had told himself many times, he simply hadn't the space to hide them, so he would've noticed. So why hadn't he?
"Wait a minute. Aren't we forgetting something, brothers?" Yabe pointed out, prompting he and his two comrades to all clutch their chiseled chins in introspection, furrowing their brows in time.
At once, their eyes shot open and their jaws dropped. "CRAP, WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE ON SET! THAT'S WHY WE WENT LOOKING FOR KA-KUN IN THE FIRST PLACE! OH, WHAT FOOLS WE ARE!" They chorused.
"Wow, that one was actually kind of impressive." Rise remarked, eyebrows high. If she didn't know better she'd have thought they were hooked up to the same brain stem.
"Sorry, we've got a show to put on! TTFN!" Yabe said, shaking Astaire's hand vigorously as he made to sprint off.
"It was nice meeting you in person, Rise-chan's-bodyguard-friend-san!" Taizou said, shaking his hand twice as hard as he sprinted after Yabe.
"We're always around here somewhere, you should come and train with us some time!" Chiaki said, nearly ripping Astaire's arm entirely out of its socket before rocketing after his cohorts.
In the cloud of dust they kicked up behind them, only silence was left in their wake.
"...Are you the only 'idol' around here who isn't an absolute nutter?" Astaire asked Rise as they both watched the eccentric trio blaze a trail in the opposite direction.
"Oh for- What a waste of a good shirt! Like I didn't have enough reason to hate that little creep already." Rise fumed as she examined Astaire's shirt. She spun around in her chair and made for her dressing room's closet before flinging the doors open. "Jeez. I guess I'll get Kanji to take a look at it later. Looks like you're stuck like that for now." She said, slipping the tattered garment onto a hanger.
"It's quite alright." Astaire shrugged, his casualwear feeling incredibly unfamiliar to the touch. Not that he minded. A few shirts were a hell of a lot more comfortable than armour oft proved to be. "I can think of worse things to be-" His voice caught in his throat as he caught sight over Rise's shoulder of a myriad of swimsuits, all hung up according to colour. "-stuck in."
Rise didn't miss his pause- because who the hell would- and felt a mischievous smile curl her lips. "Hey, about earlier. Y'know, when you ran out like a headless chicken?" She could practically hear his entire body bristling behind her. By now it was a sound she was well familiar with. "Something wrong?"
"Not at all." Astaire replied too quickly.
Oh, buggering hell, he really needed to stop doing that.
Rise turned to face him, all sly smiles and half-closed eyes. She clasped her hands behind her back and sauntered over to him slowly. "Hmm? You sure? It looked like something really got to you back then." Then she leaned down to his face, so closely that Astaire almost crawled backwards off his chair entirely. "Was it Kanami-chan?"
"What? Why would it have been her?" Astaire's flustering immediately dried up, replaced with veritable confusion. "What was she doing?"
Now it was Rise's turn to be just as confused as he was. "What was she-? You were there, you dummy! How the heck can you not know what she was doing?!"
"Because I wasn't watching… her…" Astaire petered out just as he realised what he was saying. He then quickly wished that he could jump inside his bottomless box and be buried so deep into the earth that he'd never be found again.
Suddenly feeling a kinship with every red traffic light she'd ever seen, Rise spun on a heel to hide her furious blushing. "Oh. Right. Yeah, I guess that'd make it difficult, huh?" She said, secretly grinning from ear to ear.
"...Mind you, mouthing my name didn't help matters either." Astaire mumbled as he scratched the back of his head.
Rise snorted as she tried to stifle a laugh and failed. "Pffft! Sorry, that was my bad. I got a little too into the shoot, that's all." She giggled. Turning back to Astaire's cross-armed, troubled-looking expression, she leaned in again and tapped the bottom of his chin. "Hey, lighten up. I know I wouldn't mind seeing you in a swimsuit." She said with a teasing wink.
The longer they stayed on this subject, the more Astaire wanted to bolt out the door all over again. Face like a sweating tomato, he cleared his throat and tried to rectify the situation. "I-I-In any case! I don't suppose you've heard from Mr. Narukami about another venture into the TV, have you?"
Diversion successful! Rise's expression neutralised- save for the slightest hint of pink that hadn't yet faded- as she checked her phone. "Huh. He did send a message, but it's not about heading into the TV. Just about 'something' he's got planned for tomorrow. He wants us to meet him by the Samegawa river."
The Samegawa? Huh. It wasn't every day Senpai called them down to there instead of somewhere like Junes. What exactly was he planning?
Son of a bitch! He'd beaten him again! One sword or two, blunt or bladed, it hadn't made even one bit of difference! He'd still beaten him!
Kaoru kicked his dressing room door as hard as he could, nearly knocking it off its hinges as he stormed inside and sat down at his vanity, clutching his head as he rest his elbows and tried to resist the urge to break everything around him.
"Hmph. Perhaps this will teach you to not act like a child in the future." A droll voice said from behind.
How his big-toothed benefactor had got in, or when, or where he'd been beforehand, Kaoru didn't care. All that mattered was that he was there. He rose from his seat and swung a fist at the suited man. "You told me I'd be able to beat him!" He roared. "Once and for all, those were your exact words!"
The man leaned back, effortlessly avoiding Kaoru's swing. When he went to launch another one, he caught his fist mid-flight before slamming his forehead into Kaoru's, staggering him backwards. "Stupid boy! I did not tell you that you would best him right away, nor did I imply that it would be easy done!" He shouted, sounding both annoyed and indignant. "Whatever paltry power you possess now, you would inevitably be crushed before the deed was done."
Kaoru rubbed the sore spot on his head, wanting to take another go at the mustachioed prick, but somehow that didn't seem like a good idea. "Bullshit. You give me power and then tell me it's not enough?! Why the hell am I even talking to you I'd that's the case?!"
"One with the experience that boy possesses cannot be trounced in the space of a day, you vexatious cretin. Such things will inevitably take time." The man hissed.
"And what about Rise-chan, huh? Call me crazy but I don't think her slapping the shit out of me is any indication of us getting closer." Kaoru snapped back.
The suited man made an odd, exasperated noise, halfway between a sigh and a gurgle, as he massaged his sizable nose. "Time, you stupid boy, time! Patience is a vital virtue in the realms of subterfuge, and you would be wise to remember it thus!" He spat, his eyes almost popping from their sockets in frustration.
"How the hell am I supposed to remain patient when I can't even beat some lumbering shithead in a swordfight?!" Kaoru spat back,veins popping from his forehead.
The suited man paused, then smiled a wide, unsettling smile before a chuckle crept up his throat. "Well, should it not be obvious what you should do instead?"
Kaoru raised an eyebrow at his sudden shift in demeanor. "Huh? What're you talking about?"
He chuckled. "There are plenty of ways to beat humans down. Ways that needn't involve lifting a sword at all."