33 / Idols, Zombies, and the Past
Reiko Amabuki tried her absolute best to not stare at Takeo Go for too long; he's built like a brick wall. He's too muscular, too tall. He doesn't seem real. He's struggling with his seat, and despite the young waitress offering to bring the older man a bigger chair, and Takeo, after a while, reluctantly agrees. And while the new chair is better than the last, the poor man still has to make himself small just to be comfortable. Poor fellow.
It's at this time that Aoi Mizuno appears. She seems real; shoulder length hair tied into a ponytail, wearing a casual shirt and jeans, eyes a bit stern. Reiko sees the resemblance almost immediately. It's impressive how much alike Three and the doctor look.
The doctor nods Reiko's way, frowning slightly as she notices the struggling Takeo, muttering something to him about how that "is not good for his posture" and Takeo assuring her that it's fine, he's fine. She sighs and takes her seat besides Reiko, nodding.
Okoba appears five minutes later, like Aoi, staring at Takeo a bit before shaking his head and walking towards the group. At the same time, the young waitress appears again, holding in her hands four cups and a coffee pot, placing it quickly on the table and asking if they need anything else. The adults shake their heads, she bows, nods at the approaching Okoba and leaves quickly to attend another table.
The reporter passes a folder towards Reiko, who raises an eyebrow but takes it nonetheless. She opens it and soon, begins to read the few papers inside. She's quick. Closing the folder with a bit of force, papers unable to escape her wrath.
She shakes her head.
"...so?" Okoba begins but Reiko just brushes him off, grabs a cup and pours hot coffee into it, before taking a long sip. Aoi tries not to gasp and Takeo gulps but Reiko doesn't care, she's dealt with worse, a bit of hot coffee will bother her but not for long. Not like this.
The younger woman slams the table with the cup. It's half full. Her eyes are glaring, from the pain or the disbelief, no one is sure.
"...how you find this shit out?" Reiko says. The coffee wasn't too hot, thankfully. Still, off to the side, Aoi quickly orders a glass of iced water.
Okoba shrugs, as the waitress brings a glass of water, that Reiko, thankfully, drinks all up.
"Four," he begins, opening the folder and showing a picture of Four, pointing at it. "Four looked too much like a famous idol...Junko Konno." He showed another picture, same girl, different clothes, different era. "Her resemblance kinda tipped me off...and then, it was Three and Six...and the rest, well…" He shrugged again.
Reiko let out a loud sigh. "Fuck…"
"I know it's a little...hard to believe," Aoi begins but Reiko shakes her head.
"Heh...it is…" Reiko suddenly smiles. "Guess that explains how that Two girl did it, then…"
"Umm...excuse me?" That's Takeo. He's finally found a position he's comfortable with in his chair. He's already filling the other three cups with the coffee pot, staring at the smiling Reiko.
"You mentioned there was a bike that...was found, burnt, on the foot of Mt. Kagamiya, right?" the woman asks Okoba.
He nods. "Ah, yes…"
"That's mine. Two took it to prove a point...and then, well, she repeated her little stunt...and off she went, bike and all."
"Oh...my god," Takeo whispered, unable to believe what he just heard.
Aoi nodded, a little shaken. "I'm guessing she…"
"...she made it back, skin still very much intact...not bruised at all…" Reiko shook her head, her smile gone. "I'm still not sure how she did it...Saki went straight down the first time...and now...and now this...it's…" Reiko sighed. "What the hell is going on?"
Yugiri is a little amused at the glare in Sakura's face; it's kind of cute. Sakura looks so fierce, so different. It's comical how unfitting that glare looks on her pretty face.
Besides her, Saki and Ai are smirking, and Junko's shyly trying not to laugh, while Lily's grinning next to her. Tae is just swaying from left to right in her seat, ignorant of the world around her. Renoir sits next to her, staring curiously at the older woman's strange ritual, confused. Genji sits next to him, a defeated frown on his face. Kotaro, too, seems without much energy, giving the girls a rundown of the agenda for the coming days. Sakura is still glaring, causing Yugiri to smile softly as she remembered the reason for Sakura's adorable anger towards their manager and her brother.
An hour previous, as soon as her brother had arrived, she had taken his arm and dragged him straight into Kotaro's office, closing the door behind them. Before their manager could explode on the siblings, Genji especially, for barging into his office, Sakura firmly told him to shut up before she proceeded to berate them both for their actions a day prior.
The other girls, plus Renoir, had listened from the other side of the door as Sakura literally told them that they were acting like children, getting especially cross with her younger brother for egging Kotaro on, and being firm with Kotaro for being a jerk towards her brother for no reason at all.
It had been a rather amusing picture, imagining a zombie scolding a pair of grown men for being so childish.
At least, her scolding had kept things under control, somewhat.
Yugiri figured Genji and Kotaro would start their little war again once Sakura cooled off; the courtesan knew Sakura wouldn't stay angry for long.
"...next week, we'll be having a mini concert in the old convention center once more…" Yugiri turned her gaze away from Sakura to see Kotaro writing something on the blackboard. He wrote a date and a time, patting the words with the little chalk once he was done. "After that...I have decided to give you girls a month off…"
Ai blinked. "Umm...why?"
"Mostly because I'm still negotiating a few deals with other local businesses in the prefecture," he explained. "We can't count on just our merchandise to make a few yen, after all...besides it's good exposure."
"I mean," Saki began, sounding bored. "Why do we need more sponsors anyway? Wouldn't that just attract unwanted attention in the long run?"
Kotaro seemed to think about it. "That's why I'm only dealing with local businesses. Although...the owner of Drive-In Tori suggested an agency from Tokyo that specializes in advertising...but there's a long line for that one." Kotaro shrugged. "They want to expand a bit of their market outside of Tokyo, you see…but it's not a done deal yet! They're rather busy advertising some idol from Edogawa...it's her last show or something, wasn't listening. So, it will be a while, even if they consider sponsoring us."
Genji made an effort to not scoff at that last part.
"What's the name of the agency, anyway?" Lily asked.
Kotaro shrugged again. "I dunno."
Everyone just stared at him, even Sakura's glare softened as the words left their manager's mouth.
"...you're kidding…" Renoir said, breaking the silence only for Kotaro to shake his head.
"Nope."
"What a good businessman you are," Genji said sarcastically, not really caring for the glare Sakura sent his way.
"Genji…"
"What?"
"Anyway!" Kotaro went on, frowning at Genji before he slammed the board behind him, suddenly inspired. "Name or not, it doesn't really matter! We are busy now! So...practice! Now! Go, go, go!" And with that, Kotaro left the room.
"What the hell is going on?"
Aoi shrugged, eyes firm. "At this point, who the hell knows," she said, head shaking. "The only ones that could provide a proper answer are those girls…"
"They won't admit to anything," Takeo said, a large hand massaging the side of his rather small head, where Two had kicked him. "If we confront them, they'll probably deny it...or worse…"
Reiko stared at him a bit before chuckling. "I'm guessing Two hit you hard, huh?"
Takeo nodded, suddenly smiling. "Yes...your...uh, friend, has a mean kick."
"Hah! I bet…"
Aoi frowns. "Do you think your...friend might get violent if we approach them?"
Reiko thinks about it and then shakes her head. "Not unless you had an iron tire on your hands or looked like a thug, uh," she turned to Takeo who was smiling sheepishly at her last remark, "no offense."
"It's fine," he told her.
Okoba nodded at the doctor. "I was thinking the same thing...about...the uh, violence. You three know those girls better...still, I don't think they'll take it well if we, well, if you, show up, demanding answers."
Aoi nodded. "Yes. That would be stupid. I know Ai...she...she's probably going to deny everything."
"Lily was an actress…" Takeo sighs. "She...will deny it, too…"
"They'll probably try to leave the moment they notice us," Reiko said. "Saki's not a lousy liar...but if she's got nothing, she's pretty good at making an escape...mind you, so do I...but...well...that's the last thing we all want…"
"Well...the girls are set to perform in a small convention center next week…" Okoba said, as he took out his phone and began searching for Franchouchou's ugly looking website, taking note of the updates in the main page. "After that, they are taking a month long hiatus...mostly to prepare for the upcoming concerts coming later in the year."
"Anything else?" Aoi asks but she's disappointed when Okoba shakes his head.
"Nope. Nothing yet."
The others are silent for a while before Aoi lets out a loud sigh. "We have a week...if we all agree…we can confront them after that last concert before their little hiatus...we probably won't have a chance to talk to them otherwise if what the news on the website say it's true…"
"But…" Okoba began, unsure. "How are you going to do it? They'll deny it the moment they see you again…"
"I...might have a plan...but it's a long shot…" Aoi said at last. "It's worth a shot...and it's the only way I could catch Ai unawares when she...when she was alive…" Everyone is silent once more and eventually, Okoba just asks for the check. They had a long week ahead.
"I don't believe this…"
"Whoa...so that's why she looked so familiar…"
"And lovely, too," Oki finished, grinning at the poster that showcased the local idols, Franchouchou, and there, smiling brightly, was the beautiful Number One.
Glasses let out a loud groan. "This...this is just great…"
"I know," Oki says.
"I wasn't talking about her, damn it! Oki...your old man is starting to get angsty, you don't have time to flirt with a poster."
Oki shrugged. "He'll get over it."
"And then what? If he finds out aboutー"
Oki cut him off. "He won't. Yojimbo's got our back. The old man doesn't need to know anything."
"But he will find out, eventually," the redhead pointed out, as they began to walk away from the poster towards nowhere. "We still don't know if Dorami is still around and we can't just ask Misa for an interview...have you seen that girl's whip? One of her girls even has a chainsaw! Seriously…"
Oki smiled. "Why so worried? Korosuke isn't our concern."
"But they will be...if Yojimbo keeps up the good work," Glasses pointed out.
"Maybe...but until that happens, why should we worry?"
"I swear...Oki…"
"Just call Yojimbo...tell them we need a little hand setting something up...we'll meet them there, money ready. They know the drill." Glasses sighed but was already taking out his phone and dialing. The redhead got closer to Oki, and whispered,
"You think your dad's getting suspicious...about Yojimbo and us not finding Dorami…?" Oki smiled.
"Even if he is, he's all the way in Okinawa...can't do much from there." The redhead just shrugged, unsure but Oki just shook his head.
Oki wasn't worried. His old man always complained about one thing or another. He had made it big in his business back on the island and he was still chasing grudges from decades past. Oki had been tangled in this little revenge because his old man didn't want to let go. At least, the old man left him alone to handle the Oki as he saw fit, so there was that.
For now, Dorami would have to wait.
Franchouchou had a small concert in a few days, and Oki couldn't wait.
