Chapter 6:

Operation: Saiko's Guitar

Night fell at the grassy field where Senbo performed his music for Aibo earlier, with the acoustic guitar that the wannabe musician now considered crap. With his girlfriend's help, he would get to play a much better guitar—Saiko's guitar. It was dark, and there were no witnesses, so they could discuss their plan in peace. They were sitting on a picnic table, which was illuminated by a lantern.

Carefully, Aibo rolled out her blueprints she briefly showed her boyfriend earlier on the large table. The last time she showed him her blueprints, he could tell how detailed they were. But now that the two were sitting down and putting their heads together, he could really see how much thought she put into this. The blueprints had a clear list of objectives and details, which were well-organized and numbered to boot, and plenty of visual aids—the guitar, naturally, being the biggest drawing with the most detail. Other drawings included both parties' houses, Senbo drawn with amazing detail while being applauded by the audience he would be having, Saiko being labelled as "the enemy", some liquid being occupied by a stick hand—and silly things like a billboard that said "Come see Saiko's concert. Time: Never".

Without wanting to waste any more time, discussion of their battle plan was had.

"Alright," began Aibo, "these are the facts as I understand them; our goal is to drive Saiko out of the house so you can sneak in and play her guitar while she's gone. We know that as long as her front door is open, her security system remains unarmed, and once the door closes, the system will reset. So, we have to make sure she leaves her door open when we lure her out."

"I don't think Saiko is the type of person to leave her front door open when she goes out," interjected Senbo doubtfully.

"Maybe not," continued Aibo, "but you'd be surprised how easy it is to forget things like that if you're in a rush to save your closest friend's life. Much less, someone you're extremely protective of."

Although the bespectacled girl hadn't said her name yet, it was obvious that she was talking about Tari, directing Senbo's attention to the drawing of her face on the blueprints. Indeed, Saiko's protectiveness of her was public knowledge, which is how both kids knew about this fact. They remembered those thoughtful tweets Saiko posted that time Tari's apartment was on fire. The tweets said things like "Look at the damage the fire did to my friend's home", "Send thoughts and prayers to Tari", and "I will find you, Evelyn".

"How do you know for sure she'll leave the door open when she takes the bait?" the wannabe musician asked.

"Trust me, I know," reassured Aibo as she continued. "Now, to begin with, we need to make the danger of losing Tari look legit. But we can't actually put her life in danger. Monitor dude won't like that, and challenging him on that is the last thing you want to do."

At that moment, the wannabe musician noticed a very familiar perturbed face on the blueprints and cringed at it, knowing exactly who it belonged to.

"You also can't tell Saiko or her band upfront that Tari is in danger," continued Aibo, "because they won't believe you. It has to be Tari's cries for help—through recordings of her voice over the phone. And I'm pretty sure Saiko has caller ID, so it has to be Tari's phone."

"How hard can it be to trick her into pretending to be sinking in quicksand for us?" said Senbo confidently. "I mean, she has proven time and again that her kindness makes her easy to manipulate."

"The fact that there's a quicksand pit in Saiko's general area works to our advantage," concurred Aibo. "It's not too far from where she lives, but not too close either."

"Wait, wouldn't Tari get suspicious if we use her phone to call Saiko?" asked Senbo.

"No, she won't," replied Aibo, "because she'll be taking a little nap, and her involvement in this will all be a dream."

The wannabe musician understood what his lady was talking about as soon as she pointed to yet another drawing on the blueprints. It looked like a bottle with a label that read "zzz" on it. It was pretty clear what this was, and that this was what they needed to render the gamer girl unconscious to keep her from interfering.

"Oh yeah, that's right," said Senbo.

"Once Saiko's gone with the door open," continued Aibo, "you will be free to play her guitar to your heart's content until she returns. While you're enjoying it, I'll be at the quicksand pit with a fake Meta Runner arm I bought for the occasion."

"There's a store that sells fake Meta Runner arms?" asked Senbo.

"Sure, why not?" replied Aibo as she continued. "When the time comes, I will throw the arm into the quicksand, making sure to aim it at just the right angle to make it look like Saiko's too late to save Tari. While she's grieving for her lost friend, I will keep a close eye on Saiko while you play her guitar, and if it looks like she plans to return home, I will contact you and tell you to get out of there before she gets back, giving you plenty of time to escape. Be sure to leave your phone on at all times, and be sure to leave your guitar where you left it, and leave the door open. That way, it'll be like you were never there."

"I can only imagine how traumatized Saiko would be thinking she failed to save the life of someone she cared very deeply for," interjected Senbo sadistically, "and she deserves that trauma for denying me my dream. She'll probably cry like the bitch she is—which will give me all the more time to play with her guitar!"

Aibo nodded her head in agreement, the smug grin on her face showing some sadism of her own.

"So, to recap," she said, "we get Tari to pretend she's in peril, record her voice, then knock her out. Then we play those recordings for Saiko when we call her with Tari's phone. Saiko will come to her rescue, giving you time with her guitar, and you get out of her house before she comes back."

How long did it take you to read the entire plan? For Senbo, no time at all. He was hanging onto every word, and following along with every minute detail. It was clear that Aibo didn't just come to him with a plan; she thought of everything. Neither of them was sure how a single thing could go wrong.

"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies," complimented Senbo. "I only wish I had thought of it."

"Well, that's why you have me," said Aibo slyly. "And if you ever feel the need to play her guitar again, I would be more than happy to formulate another plan with you."

Senbo blushed at the sound of this. He was very grateful for Aibo helping him get the guitar he felt he deserved, even—no, especially if it meant hurting Saiko emotionally.

"Welp," finished Aibo, "I think we've got our bases covered."

"Saiko's guitar, here I come!" said Senbo excitedly. "We'd better get to bed. It's getting late."

The wannabe musician got out of his seat with the intent of walking his lady home, but judging from the seductive look on her face, she seemed to have other plans as she got up to stop him from getting too far. Senbo liked where this was going.

"Wanna make out with me before we do?" she asked.

Senbo leaped into his girlfriend's arms instead of answering, and they began to passionately kiss each other. They made out for what felt like hours while getting lost in each other's eyes. And yes, tongues were mandatory.

The couple had a special day ahead of them. A day of stealth, hard work, music, and causing someone who wronged them emotional pain and agony. And what better way to prepare for that than to make out? At the rate they were going, they would end up doing more than mere making out. Simply put, battle plans do wonders for teenage hormones.

By the next morning, Tari's injuries were all healed and the hospital let her go. As she was relaxing on her bed in her apartment at Game Go, the first thing she did was text all of her friends to give them the latest update on her condition. Already, she got all kinds of responses. Belle was happy her rival was okay, mostly so she could beat her in another game. Rob said something about corn. Bob just texted "k". Melony hasn't responded at all, most likely because she was too busy sleeping. The rest of her friends—Luigi, SMG4, Saiko and her band, Axol, and so forth—replied with nothing but encouragement and support, which she appreciated very much.

"Thanks, guys," she quietly said as she read the thoughtful messages.

The gamer girl was glad to be home after all that time in the hospital. Maybe she would do more charity work sometime soon. Maybe she would buy another video game—her apartment was above a freaking video game store, after all. Or maybe she would play the games she already owned. But right now, she just wanted to relax. While she always put others first, she felt like she hadn't had any time to herself between helping baby animals and being protected by Saiko.

Unfortunately, her relaxation was cut short when she heard very loud coughing. Feminine coughing that was coming from the other room, and it didn't sound pretty. What's worse, the coughing was accompanied by even louder sobbing of what appeared to be her significant other or family member. This was Tari, so there was no way she could stand hearing those poor souls suffer. She figured her relaxation time would have to wait as she got out of her bed and headed to the other room where the coughing and sobbing was coming from.

The door to the other room was open a crack, allowing Tari to enter without the need of a key. To her, this was both good and bad. Good because that made it easier for her to see what the problem was, but bad because she had to witness the horrible sight of a bedridden, pale-skinned girl, and her crying male companion sitting in a nearby chair—who appeared to be some kind of movie director, with his beret, sunglasses, and fancy suit. He looked a little…young to be a director, Tari thought, but she had seen stranger things in her life, so she didn't question whether he was old enough to direct anything. She was more concerned for his friend's condition.

"What's wrong?" asked Tari sympathetically.

This sentiment seemed to grab the young director's attention, but he was still crying his heart out.

"Oh, it's terrible!" he said in-between sobs. "My sister is very, very sick! She has a terrible disease! Everything in her body hurts!"

"How long will she have to recover?" asked Tari.

"Not in time for me to finish my movie, that's for sure," replied the young director in-between sobs, "she was my leading lady, and I still need her voice for my animated short film. I'll never find a replacement before tomorrow! I…I just want to entertain people. Make something of my life. Is that too much to ask?"

As the poor director continued to cry and his sister continued to cough, Tari was on the verge of tears herself—which, given her gentle personality, wasn't surprising. Still, she couldn't stand to see this any longer. Pulling herself together and briefly thinking this over, she walked up to the crying director and put her hand—her human hand, for gentility's sake—on his shoulder to comfort him. She wanted to tell him something.

"What about me?" she asked.

The director looked up at Tari as if she were a beacon of light, and his passionate cries were now lessened to sniffles.

"Wh…what do you mean?" he asked.

"What if I were your replacement?" asked Tari. "I can help you get your movie finished by the deadline."

Suddenly, the director's eyes lit up in shock and amazement at the gamer girl's offer.

"You would do that for poor old me?" he asked.

She simply nodded her head with a smile.

"I…I don't know what to say," the director said in surprise.

"You don't have to say anything," said Tari gently. "Come on, I'll take you to my apartment, and we can get started."

With her hand still on his shoulder, the gamer girl led the young director out of the room to her apartment, leaving his sick sister still coughing up a storm.

…but then, all of a sudden, she stopped coughing, and a smug grin appeared on her face. Then she reached to her left to grab a pair of glasses. After putting them on, she grabbed a hair tie that was also on the table, and put it on her hair to form a ponytail. Finally, she grabbed a rag on the opposite table to wipe her face with, revealing clearer skin.

It was Aibo in disguise.

"This is too easy," she said slyly.