It had taken planning... and patience... both traits that Nakita possessed
in spades... but finally the little gig he had put together with the
connivance of his younger brothers was ready to rock... keeping secret both
the planning and his development of Hime's voice had... not been fun... and
making the introduction LOOK impromptu... but his plans had fallen
together... Nakita and Hime were seated at a table in Cyberia... with the
maiden... unaware... of what Nakita had planned bar getting hilariously
shitfaced...
On time according to plan...
"Bottle of vodka?"
"Oh, sure, please." a pause "You have something special planned, Nakita? Something hat involves getting me drunk, maybe?"
Nakita grinned. "You, me and at least two other people joining in..."
Hime's eyes widened, which was uncommon enough. Trying to keep her composure, she just nodded, her mind now full of expectation. Nakita got up to get two bottles of vodka... swinging back by the table, he gave Hime one bottle and said he had to take a leak...
Nakita had had heaps of practice bottling up nervousness... now... his stomach was bouncing off his insides... executing Operation Urinate did help calm him down... but... well... showtime...
Cyberia's rarely used stage got cleared off... provoking comment among the patrons... Hime was now getting a clue as for what he had planned. And she liked it!
Nakita returned from the toilet to the stage... mike in one hand... unopened vodka bottle in the other... he opened and sculled the bottle... eleven hundred and twenty five millilitres of vodka coursed down his gullet... the booze didn't stagger him...
Throwing the vodka bottle to his left hand side, he turned to face the crowd and spoke, via the mike: "I'd like to dedicate this little gig to a certain special woman that I am privileged to know..."
That part didn't cause any major sniggers.
"...and that brave vodka bottle that just laid down its life so this gig could happen."
That caused a few giggles, which were almost immediately drowned out by music with a dancy beat...
Hime shifted to a place from which she could see the gig better. Smiling broadly, she waited for Nakita's certain to come voice show.
As Nakita led off with "Come follow me"...
... his younger brothers bodydumped in, perfectly synchronized, doing opposite shoulder rolls to roll up to their full and considerable heights...
While a couple of bars of the music played, the twins reoriented themselves and Nakita... changed gears... so to speak...
Hime had just recovered in time to hear her own voice sing.
"I got all systems go
Nothing standing in my way
I should be far down the road but I'm not."
"Something's holding me back
Like a world war attack
And I got you by my side but you're not."
One single thought crossed the maiden's mind. /How can he do that?.../ The bodydump hadn't shocked her as much as it had affected the other people, but hearing herself sing, and well, was quite surprising.
"Do you remember when
We thought it was the wind
A shooting star around the sky."
"Do you remember when
You were from heaven sent.
I thought the wind could make me fly."
Hime was shocked further when the twins cut loose... in harmony...
"A-a-angels crying
When you're far away from me
Always trying
I will make you see"
For someone who knew the natural, thundering voice of the Iwakura brothers, hearing them sing was like watching the sky turn green. Playfully, Hime chastised herself for not remembering they are always full of surprises.
While his brothers sang, Nakita had reset his voice back to normal...
Twins: "A-a-angels crying"
Nakita: (normal baritone): "When angels cry"
Twins: "When you're far away from me
No denying"
Nakita: (normal baritone): "There's no denying"
Twins: "We were meant to be."
While the music played on, Nakita set his voice back to Hime's and got ready to rock and roll again.
"I tumbled from the sky
Where I was soaring so high
I never thought that I could fall back down to the ground."
"Somewhere along that ride
I found that we could stop the tide
It's time for me to buy another round."
"Do you remember when
We thought it was the wind
A shooting star around the sky."
"Do you remember when
You were from heaven sent.
I thought the wind could make me fly."
The twins cut in as Nakita reset his voice...
"A-a-angels crying
When you're far away from me
Always trying
I will make you see"
The twins kept going as Nakita set his voice back again...
"Angels are cryin'
Angels are cryin'
Angels are cryin'..."
Nakita: "I got all systems go
Nothing's standing in my way
I should be far down the road but I'm not"
"Something's holding me back
Like a world war attack
And I got you by my side but you're not."
The music started winding up to a coda, so here it went...
Nakita ran forward toward the front of the stage... and jumped... Executing a double forward flip and 540 degree torso twist, he landed directly behind Hime, who had no idea as for what to say or do. She looked back, surprised, her eyes meeting Nakita with an inquiring look.
Nakita had no bottle of plonk to help him now... so he swallowed his embarrassment and plowed on at flank speed... grasping Hime's chin in his hand and turning the maiden and her chair to face him... sapphire eyes with the intensity of lasers bored into Hime's own....
For all she cared, the twins and, for that matter, everyone else present barring Nakita, could have taken running jumps at themselves...
Back in his normal voice... Nakita finished the song...
"There's no denying...
We were meant to be..."
He discarded the mike and kissed Hime, freshly stunning all present. She was always the one to break the kisses since Nakita had a lot more wind than her. But since the previous gig probably knocked some out of him, she figured for the first time she'd force Nakita to break a kiss. Nakita grinned around the kiss as he drew on his freediving experience... a detailed analysis would show that he actually recycled his once-breathed exhalations to give himself more usable oxygen... but who cared about crap like that at a moment like this?
Certainly not the pair, or anyone present at Cyberia for that matter. All that mattered was the seemingly unending kiss, either if they were watching or participating.
Just to be different... Nakita threw in a forward flip while holding onto Hime... his brothers watched in stupefaction... she felt weak with the sudden move, her head tilting a bit. If her mouth were free she would have gasped loudly, but as it was she could only steal some air from Nakita... which didn't seem to affect him...
/If she wants me to top this for next year... it will have to end in tragedy... ... namely... I will have to abandon my physical body once more... ... and destroy my consciousness to ensure a return cannot occur.../
***
"Your peace can't be found, for you don't belong in this world."
"Then where do I belong?"
"Somewhere far away... in the new reality."
"Lain, that's less funny than you think..."
"I thought you weren't scared by anything..." she answered teasingly. Kojirou just frowned at that, which made Lain stop. "Still, that's what the fortune telling says."
"Fine, then that's what it says. But what does it mean?"
"You don't tell me all I should know, so I can't help."
"Trust me, there's a lot you're better off not knowing."
"No there isn't."
"That's very much like you."
***
He had never quite understood what Lain saw in fortune telling, but it did work, and... Kojirou had to admit it, it was fun. As long as he didn't take it too seriously, cause this would be denying what he prized most, which was his freedom.
"You still can't accept it, can you?"
"Who's there?" the kid looked around but the voice still seemed out of nowhere.
"You don't belong in this world. You belong with me."
"No... not you again..."
"And why not?" Yumi's ghostly, but definitely tempting form materialized before Kojirou, lighting up his empty, dark room. "I'm always by your side. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't stay away from you. It's only natural that I show up at times."
"Please, just leave. I don't want you here."
"You still don't understand, do you? We have no choice. I'll always be with you."
"Get away, Yumi. Don't make me lose my mind."
"I used to make you lose your mind and you liked it..."
"..."
"Is something wrong?"
"YOU are what's wrong! Get away from me, I said! What does it take for me to be free from you? I ran away once, why can't I run away again?"
"This time I'm stronger. I won't let you get away again."
***
Adam checked his watch. Eiri wouldn't be home for at least 6 hours minimum, but she usually stayed out with Kojirou for 2 hours or more after school ended. Confident, he decided to use her NAVI for his checking of her past.
He signed on to the Wired and scoured until he found the database that he was looking for, a large database of obituaries in the Tokyo area. After typing in the name 'Tsugoyaki,' he was surprised to see that there were two deaths instead of one on the date that Eiri gave for her father's death. Two weeks later, an article about the deaths was in a local psychology magazine... and they were much different then Eiri told him...
/Ryouji Tsugoyaki, a prominent psychologist in the area, shot his wife Marie-Lily, a nurse at the same hospital that her husband worked at, in their home, killing her in plain sight of their daughter, then took their daughter.../ Adam paused for a moment in his reading and scanned the obituary. /... slit her wrists and then committed suicide by shooting himself in the soft palate. Their daughter Eiriko, aged 14, managed to call paramedics before passing out from blood loss. Eiriko is now living with friends in the Beijing area, and is expected to return to Japan with them in the next few weeks... reports from the family seem to hint that Eiriko remembers nothing of the incident and has begun creating an alternate reality for herself. Police are investigating the cause of the incident, but have found no reason why Dr. Tsugoyaki killed his wife. Yi-Xue Hsu, a previous associate of Tsugoyaki's with whom Eiri is living, claims that her partner was acting oddly the week before the murder-suicide and that she believes that it was stress related. When asked whether she believed if Eiriko Tsugoyaki's reality creation was best for the girl, she stated that it would be 'more difficult and dangerous for Eiri to know the truth than to be content in her version of reality. Caomei [Hsu's daughter] and I will be encouraging her view.' For the time being, Hsu and a mix of her associates will be watching Eiriko. From the way that her case is progressing, however, Hsu says that she believes she will need other psychologists to aid the case.../
"I could have told you anything in there, but you never asked, Noah," said a voice behind him.
He turned around in horror as his true first name was uttered to see Yi- Xue, best known as Muqin to Eiri, standing in the doorway with her arms crossed. Her eyes were mad.
"If you continue to integrate the truth with her reality, it will only lead to her destruction! Why are you doing this, Dr. Bradford?" she said.
He looked at her, confused. For the first time, he noticed her voice. "Why did you trick me into coming here..." he said, glaring. "Natsumi?"
On time according to plan...
"Bottle of vodka?"
"Oh, sure, please." a pause "You have something special planned, Nakita? Something hat involves getting me drunk, maybe?"
Nakita grinned. "You, me and at least two other people joining in..."
Hime's eyes widened, which was uncommon enough. Trying to keep her composure, she just nodded, her mind now full of expectation. Nakita got up to get two bottles of vodka... swinging back by the table, he gave Hime one bottle and said he had to take a leak...
Nakita had had heaps of practice bottling up nervousness... now... his stomach was bouncing off his insides... executing Operation Urinate did help calm him down... but... well... showtime...
Cyberia's rarely used stage got cleared off... provoking comment among the patrons... Hime was now getting a clue as for what he had planned. And she liked it!
Nakita returned from the toilet to the stage... mike in one hand... unopened vodka bottle in the other... he opened and sculled the bottle... eleven hundred and twenty five millilitres of vodka coursed down his gullet... the booze didn't stagger him...
Throwing the vodka bottle to his left hand side, he turned to face the crowd and spoke, via the mike: "I'd like to dedicate this little gig to a certain special woman that I am privileged to know..."
That part didn't cause any major sniggers.
"...and that brave vodka bottle that just laid down its life so this gig could happen."
That caused a few giggles, which were almost immediately drowned out by music with a dancy beat...
Hime shifted to a place from which she could see the gig better. Smiling broadly, she waited for Nakita's certain to come voice show.
As Nakita led off with "Come follow me"...
... his younger brothers bodydumped in, perfectly synchronized, doing opposite shoulder rolls to roll up to their full and considerable heights...
While a couple of bars of the music played, the twins reoriented themselves and Nakita... changed gears... so to speak...
Hime had just recovered in time to hear her own voice sing.
"I got all systems go
Nothing standing in my way
I should be far down the road but I'm not."
"Something's holding me back
Like a world war attack
And I got you by my side but you're not."
One single thought crossed the maiden's mind. /How can he do that?.../ The bodydump hadn't shocked her as much as it had affected the other people, but hearing herself sing, and well, was quite surprising.
"Do you remember when
We thought it was the wind
A shooting star around the sky."
"Do you remember when
You were from heaven sent.
I thought the wind could make me fly."
Hime was shocked further when the twins cut loose... in harmony...
"A-a-angels crying
When you're far away from me
Always trying
I will make you see"
For someone who knew the natural, thundering voice of the Iwakura brothers, hearing them sing was like watching the sky turn green. Playfully, Hime chastised herself for not remembering they are always full of surprises.
While his brothers sang, Nakita had reset his voice back to normal...
Twins: "A-a-angels crying"
Nakita: (normal baritone): "When angels cry"
Twins: "When you're far away from me
No denying"
Nakita: (normal baritone): "There's no denying"
Twins: "We were meant to be."
While the music played on, Nakita set his voice back to Hime's and got ready to rock and roll again.
"I tumbled from the sky
Where I was soaring so high
I never thought that I could fall back down to the ground."
"Somewhere along that ride
I found that we could stop the tide
It's time for me to buy another round."
"Do you remember when
We thought it was the wind
A shooting star around the sky."
"Do you remember when
You were from heaven sent.
I thought the wind could make me fly."
The twins cut in as Nakita reset his voice...
"A-a-angels crying
When you're far away from me
Always trying
I will make you see"
The twins kept going as Nakita set his voice back again...
"Angels are cryin'
Angels are cryin'
Angels are cryin'..."
Nakita: "I got all systems go
Nothing's standing in my way
I should be far down the road but I'm not"
"Something's holding me back
Like a world war attack
And I got you by my side but you're not."
The music started winding up to a coda, so here it went...
Nakita ran forward toward the front of the stage... and jumped... Executing a double forward flip and 540 degree torso twist, he landed directly behind Hime, who had no idea as for what to say or do. She looked back, surprised, her eyes meeting Nakita with an inquiring look.
Nakita had no bottle of plonk to help him now... so he swallowed his embarrassment and plowed on at flank speed... grasping Hime's chin in his hand and turning the maiden and her chair to face him... sapphire eyes with the intensity of lasers bored into Hime's own....
For all she cared, the twins and, for that matter, everyone else present barring Nakita, could have taken running jumps at themselves...
Back in his normal voice... Nakita finished the song...
"There's no denying...
We were meant to be..."
He discarded the mike and kissed Hime, freshly stunning all present. She was always the one to break the kisses since Nakita had a lot more wind than her. But since the previous gig probably knocked some out of him, she figured for the first time she'd force Nakita to break a kiss. Nakita grinned around the kiss as he drew on his freediving experience... a detailed analysis would show that he actually recycled his once-breathed exhalations to give himself more usable oxygen... but who cared about crap like that at a moment like this?
Certainly not the pair, or anyone present at Cyberia for that matter. All that mattered was the seemingly unending kiss, either if they were watching or participating.
Just to be different... Nakita threw in a forward flip while holding onto Hime... his brothers watched in stupefaction... she felt weak with the sudden move, her head tilting a bit. If her mouth were free she would have gasped loudly, but as it was she could only steal some air from Nakita... which didn't seem to affect him...
/If she wants me to top this for next year... it will have to end in tragedy... ... namely... I will have to abandon my physical body once more... ... and destroy my consciousness to ensure a return cannot occur.../
***
"Your peace can't be found, for you don't belong in this world."
"Then where do I belong?"
"Somewhere far away... in the new reality."
"Lain, that's less funny than you think..."
"I thought you weren't scared by anything..." she answered teasingly. Kojirou just frowned at that, which made Lain stop. "Still, that's what the fortune telling says."
"Fine, then that's what it says. But what does it mean?"
"You don't tell me all I should know, so I can't help."
"Trust me, there's a lot you're better off not knowing."
"No there isn't."
"That's very much like you."
***
He had never quite understood what Lain saw in fortune telling, but it did work, and... Kojirou had to admit it, it was fun. As long as he didn't take it too seriously, cause this would be denying what he prized most, which was his freedom.
"You still can't accept it, can you?"
"Who's there?" the kid looked around but the voice still seemed out of nowhere.
"You don't belong in this world. You belong with me."
"No... not you again..."
"And why not?" Yumi's ghostly, but definitely tempting form materialized before Kojirou, lighting up his empty, dark room. "I'm always by your side. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't stay away from you. It's only natural that I show up at times."
"Please, just leave. I don't want you here."
"You still don't understand, do you? We have no choice. I'll always be with you."
"Get away, Yumi. Don't make me lose my mind."
"I used to make you lose your mind and you liked it..."
"..."
"Is something wrong?"
"YOU are what's wrong! Get away from me, I said! What does it take for me to be free from you? I ran away once, why can't I run away again?"
"This time I'm stronger. I won't let you get away again."
***
Adam checked his watch. Eiri wouldn't be home for at least 6 hours minimum, but she usually stayed out with Kojirou for 2 hours or more after school ended. Confident, he decided to use her NAVI for his checking of her past.
He signed on to the Wired and scoured until he found the database that he was looking for, a large database of obituaries in the Tokyo area. After typing in the name 'Tsugoyaki,' he was surprised to see that there were two deaths instead of one on the date that Eiri gave for her father's death. Two weeks later, an article about the deaths was in a local psychology magazine... and they were much different then Eiri told him...
/Ryouji Tsugoyaki, a prominent psychologist in the area, shot his wife Marie-Lily, a nurse at the same hospital that her husband worked at, in their home, killing her in plain sight of their daughter, then took their daughter.../ Adam paused for a moment in his reading and scanned the obituary. /... slit her wrists and then committed suicide by shooting himself in the soft palate. Their daughter Eiriko, aged 14, managed to call paramedics before passing out from blood loss. Eiriko is now living with friends in the Beijing area, and is expected to return to Japan with them in the next few weeks... reports from the family seem to hint that Eiriko remembers nothing of the incident and has begun creating an alternate reality for herself. Police are investigating the cause of the incident, but have found no reason why Dr. Tsugoyaki killed his wife. Yi-Xue Hsu, a previous associate of Tsugoyaki's with whom Eiri is living, claims that her partner was acting oddly the week before the murder-suicide and that she believes that it was stress related. When asked whether she believed if Eiriko Tsugoyaki's reality creation was best for the girl, she stated that it would be 'more difficult and dangerous for Eiri to know the truth than to be content in her version of reality. Caomei [Hsu's daughter] and I will be encouraging her view.' For the time being, Hsu and a mix of her associates will be watching Eiriko. From the way that her case is progressing, however, Hsu says that she believes she will need other psychologists to aid the case.../
"I could have told you anything in there, but you never asked, Noah," said a voice behind him.
He turned around in horror as his true first name was uttered to see Yi- Xue, best known as Muqin to Eiri, standing in the doorway with her arms crossed. Her eyes were mad.
"If you continue to integrate the truth with her reality, it will only lead to her destruction! Why are you doing this, Dr. Bradford?" she said.
He looked at her, confused. For the first time, he noticed her voice. "Why did you trick me into coming here..." he said, glaring. "Natsumi?"