Chapter 3:

Emergency Meeting

One week later, Saiko called her band and told them to get over to her place as soon as possible. On top of usual rehearsals for upcoming gigs, she mentioned something about an emergency meeting. Naturally, they were worried about the way she phrased that. What emergency? Was she injured? Was she in legal trouble for hurting someone innocent? Was SMG4 starting another arc? Whatever the case may be, Meggy, Shroomy, and Whimpu hurried to Saiko's house, hoping she was okay.

Thankfully, she was, at least physically. Turns out, the emergency meeting involved that boy and his girlfriend who really wanted her guitar. As the whole band was sitting down at the dining room table, Saiko had already given her friends the nitty-gritty on their attempt to borrow it from her, and how she wouldn't submit. However, since that encounter, Senbo had made several other attempts to get his hands on her guitar. Attempts that made her feel very insecure and unsafe—and in her own home. She hated feeling like that because, to her, it was a sign of weakness. But in the end, she needed to warn her band—her friends—of the desperate lurker that was Senbo.

"What?!" asked Meggy in shock. "Someone's after your guitar?!"

"That's right," confirmed Saiko, "and the worst part is that he didn't stop there! He tried every dirty trick in the book just to get his hands on my guitar. He used bribery…"

Senbo was waving a $1 bill in front of an unamused Saiko's face while they were both outside the latter's house.

"…disguise…"

Outside Saiko's house, Senbo was putting on his costume. He figured if he looked like one of her friends, she would give it to him thinking it's someone she cared about. After some finishing touches, he was now disguised as…

Meggy in her Inkling form.

Eagerly, the disguised boy ran up to the anime girl's abode, and she answered the door. Everything seemed to go smoothly …but Saiko could instantly see through his disguise. She knew about Meggy's transformation from an Inkling to a human. It happened so long ago, too, so she had no idea what time period this jackass was stuck in. This was something she couldn't help but ponder as she was physically throwing Senbo out of the house.

"…emotional manipulation…"

Senbo came to Saiko's house with more raggedy clothes and a huge blanket. After ringing the doorbell yet again, he quickly laid onto the blanket before she could open the door. As soon as she did, she saw what looked like a very sick Senbo coughing up a storm.

"I-I'm sick," coughed Senbo. "Please…play me your wonderful music. It will help me live."

"No," said Saiko coldly as she slammed the door.

"…and generally not leaving me the hell alone."

"I'm still learning police work," deduced Meggy somewhat sarcastically, "but I'm pretty sure what he's doing is illegal."

"I can't believe I'm saying this," said Saiko despondently, "but I don't feel safe in my own home anymore. It's bad enough Mario was able to break in here just to mess with me, but no matter how many times I tell Senbo no, that just makes him want my guitar more, and he won't give up."

"I'm not used to seeing my queen so paranoid," said a concerned Whimpu. "You usually get more pissed off."

"This may be Saiko we're talking about," reminded Meggy matter-of-factly, "but anybody would feel paranoid when they're being harassed over something that's rightfully theirs to begin with."

"Well, golly gee, Saiko," said Shroomy sympathetically, "I'm sorry you're going through that."

"Don't be," said Saiko, "because I looked into it, and I found a nice-looking home security system."

With that, Saiko got out her phone and showed her band an advertisement for the security system she was talking about. From the get-go, they could tell why Saiko would want it so much. Most notably, the system activated guns and lasers on anyone who tried to break in, leaving potential intruders as lifeless skeletons. It was being promoted by the Teletubbies, who were known for their psychotic tendencies in the SMG4 universe.

The band thought this was pretty extreme, but they also figured someone like Saiko would enjoy that feature so much. Plus, since Senbo has proven that he wouldn't give up trying to take her guitar, maybe it wasn't so extreme after all. And with the young musician's past experience with building machinery, they were sure she would get the security system up-and-running in no time.

"Yeah," said Meggy as she read this part, "that seems about right for you."

Unfortunately, such a feature wasn't cheap, as the band discovered that the price for the system was $400.

"But look how expensive it is," said Whimpu in his usual nervous way.

"I know," said Saiko, "and I spent most of my money on the equipment that we use, as well as a little something I use for target practice."

The anime girl directed her band's attention to the wall on her living room, which contained a giant dartboard modeled after none other than Francis. As you would expect, the darts that were already on the board indicated that Saiko went to town on it. Given how much his actions have hurt her and those closest to her, it's not hard to see why.

"Don't even think about selling that," insisted Meggy.

"Who says she has to?" said Shroomy. "We'll all pitch in and split the money for that security system!"

This shocked Saiko just a bit.

"You would do that?" she asked.

"Of course," replied Meggy. "You're our friend, and all four of us have $100 to spare."

"Yeah," added Shroomy, "and in time, who knows? Maybe we'll be booked so many gigs and do so well at them, we'll get those $400 back faster than you can say 'get off my lawn, you filthy hobo'."

"My mom is going to kill me when she finds out I took $100 out of her credit card," said Whimpu, again in his usual nervous way.

"Then you would have died for a noble cause," joked Saiko.

"Anything else?" asked Shroomy.

"Just one more thing," replied Saiko. "Here's a picture of what Senbo looks like."

The anime girl once again showed her phone to the rest of the band, which this time was displaying a picture of her very tormentor. From the looks of it, Saiko seemed to have captured a picture of Senbo in one of his many attempts on her guitar. Which attempt? It doesn't really matter.

"I managed to take a picture of him when he wasn't looking," explained Saiko. "I'm emailing copies of this picture to all your phones as we speak."

Right on cue, all three band members have received notifications on their phones that Saiko has indeed sent them the picture of Senbo.

"Pfft!" scoffed Meggy. "That's Senbo? He doesn't look so tough! He's no match for you!"

"I know," said Saiko, appreciating Meggy's compliments (both in the reassuring sense and to satisfy her vanity), "I'm worried about all of you. This punk has proven that he's not above manipulation to try and get what he wants. If you should ever come across him, he could try to manipulate you. Do NOT listen to a word he says. If it comes out of his mouth, then it's a lie."

"No one makes my queen feel unsafe in her own home," fumed Whimpu in a surprisingly angry moment for someone like him.

"You can count on us, Saiko," reassured Shroomy. "We won't believe anything from Suma…Semmy…Soria…Sus."

Saiko couldn't help but giggle at Shroomy's inability to say Senbo's name correctly. After all, he was harassing her, so it wasn't like he deserved proper name pronunciation. Meggy noticed this, and felt the urge to make her smile once more. Given what she was going through, it was a safe bet that she needed it.

"On a lighter subject," the former Inkling said, "Tari just posted her vacation photos at Sprawling Savannah."

Meggy got out her phone and showed Saiko—and, by extension, the rest of the band—Tari at the very African-looking savannah she was talking about. The gamer girl was posing a selfie with her Meta Runner arm, while her other arm (read: the one that is not made of metal) was gently holding a wide-eyed baby lion. In the background was a man dressed in hunting gear—obviously one of the poachers Tari was talking about earlier. He was on the ground and looked beaten with a dazed smile on his face. This was a cartoony supervillain defeat if there ever was one.

"She's also currently playing Battle Blaze for charity," added Meggy as she activated another app on her phone.

This app was showing a livestream of Tari at Silica City, kicking ass at the very shooter game Meggy mentioned on an arcade machine. She was applauded by all of the bystanders watching her play, and whenever she got a spare moment, she took the time to smile at them and wave in her usual shy manner.

Meggy's plan seemed to work, as this got a small smile from Saiko. It wasn't as passionate as Whimpu and Shroomy's "aww", but it was something. As grouchy as Saiko was, Meggy knew her long enough to know that she would be happy for her friends when they accomplish something or very good things happen to them.

"Gotta love that girl," complimented Saiko.

"Always putting others before herself," concurred Whimpu.

"Now that I'm in a good mood again," finished Saiko, "let's rehearse."

"What song are we playing for the wedding?" asked Whimpu.

"How about 'Never Gonna Give You Up'?" suggested Shroomy.

This created a huge groan of frustration from the other band members.

"Oh no, not again!" came a groan or two.

Unbeknownst to the band, the very enemy Saiko was warning them about was spying on them right now, watching them from one of the windows in her house. They didn't see him, but he saw them. Senbo now knew that the rest of the band knew about him, and though he couldn't hear what they were saying, he knew she was telling them not to trust him. The idea of manipulating the rest of the band into letting him have her guitar was thrown out the window, simply put.

The wannabe musician was getting angry just thinking about it. He still wanted to run that guitar through his fingers, and the chances of that happening were getting slimmer and slimmer. There was nothing he could do now but stomp his way home in defeat. Maybe he would come up with a plan to get Saiko's guitar, but he mostly wanted a pillow to punch in frustration first.