Standard Disclaimer Procedure
I, Vincent Voltaire, do not own the rights to DDR or their characters. Konami owns them. I am just a fan fiction writer, so don't sue. Also, I have Emi, Rage, and Akira show up today, with references to Alice, Spike and Yuni.
Plus I think this may have been one of my weaker moments in writing, so please don't flame me if it's bad.
Chapter 2 – Encountering the Oni
I looked at the note that came before us. I had to admit, it was done with a lot of care, yet it was done with really poor English. I studied English in high school, and I knew that grammatically speaking, "Revolution the Oni" does not make sense. Yuriko agreed with me. "Emily, are you sure that you did not place this here?"
"I am totally sure of this. Why would I give myself a note in all my costumes? Besides, I just made this about a week ago."
A concerned crowd began to gather on the front of my store. I came out to see about twenty different people all wondering what happened. "Emily, did you get robbed?" Someone said. "Look at all the mess."
I addressed to everyone the news. "There is nothing wrong. I just got locked out of my shop and in anger, smashed the glass."
"Oh." Then everyone left, except for one girl who had a beanie on her head. She had on her a light blue vest, which covered a striped red sweatshirt, and a pair of blue pants which matched her yellow shoes. "Toshiba!" Yuriko said. I assumed that this was her daughter.
"Hi, mom. What happened here?"
"A lot of things." I said to her. Of course she looked at me funny, considering that I was still wearing the devil costume. "Ah… There's a monster!"
"No." Yuriko said. "It's my friend, Emily, dressed up… as a devil."
"Oh."
"So this is your daughter?" I told Yuriko.
"Yea. This is Toshiba."
"But everyone just calls me Emi." Toshiba said. "Only my parents call me by my first name." She looked back at Yuriko. "Mom, I didn't know you knew Emily."
"I did, but that was a long time ago. It was during the time I was working at the laboratory making the Konsento Robots. You were still a kid back then, so you didn't know much about it."
"Oh." She looked back at me. "Is this place still open, Emily?"
"Yeah, but we still have to fix the glass. Everyone is shopping for the tournament isn't it?"
"Yes, of course."
"I keep forgetting about this tournament." Yuriko said. "Can you tell me?"
"Ok mom, but this is the last time."
And so Toshiba, who from now on shall be referred to as just simply Emi, explained the entire competition. All across the world, dancers from nations big and small are competition for an event that happens once every 3 years. Sponsored by the Becamite corporation, (Pronounced Be-ka-mi-te) it is a virtual worldwide dance battle where the purpose is simple: dance better than your opponent, and defeat him in whatever fashion possible. This is not an easy challenge, for everyone who competes has to know virtually every form of music and sub music possible that anyone could dance to. The competitors who partake in this competition are either skilled or insane because sometimes the challenges are tough since not everyone is skilled in everything and sometimes, you are just not good to begin with. Only the good ones make it to the world finals, which this year is placed in New York City.
In the last tournament, a troop lead by Asian dancer Alice Ip defeated everyone in Tokyo and won the championship. She won the competition through an impressive performance in Aurora's "Ordinary World" remix against British dancer Scott G. Parke, also known as Spike, and his performance with Prodigy's "Breathe". The decision was considered to be the most controversial, cause rumors were arriving that the contest was rigged to Alice's favor. Since then, Alice and Co. has ascended to the rank of superstars in Asia, Spike returned to England wounded, but still alive, and the decision still stands.
Emi was more determined to win this year. Last year, she never made it passed the regional finals in Japan, because the judges gave her a low score for repetition of moves and the fact that she slipped on the floor, causing her to break her foot.
"And so that is what happened, mom. You already forgot how I broke my foot?"
"No, I didn't. Well, maybe."
While all this was going on, I went to the back room and changed out of my costume, putting back on the red t-shirt with the flare pants. I opened the cash register and declared opened for business.
Yuriko and Emi went back into the electronic shop, but not before saying goodbye to me. I waved goodbye as well.
I still wondered if they really did have a secret arcade inside.
This is usually how a typical day in the store works. I come to open the shop at around 8:00. From here I get the daily grind on what shipments come and so forth. I officially open the shop at around 10:00. Activity is very dead around this time, since either the people are in school or everyone is sleeping. Things start to heat up at around 12:00, as everyone comes here to shop. I never seem to have a lunch break, since I am the only one around that works here until mid day. (15:30 or 3:30, depending on your region) That is when the real activity begins.
At around that time, everyone shows up to buy. At this time, I have three assistants to help. There's Remi, who is kind of a cutesy flower child. Inoue, who is a quiet girl that tends to hang around in the back, and Suzue, who I believe is trying to get a singing career. They show up at different times to work and sometimes give me suggestions, including Remi, who constantly begs me to make a fairy costume that's more extravagant that Kaeru-Zukin.
The activity climbs up to around 22:00. (10:00) which either the place closes, or if it's the weekend, it continues to pick up. Of course at around this time, this virtually becomes a night club hands down. When designing the store, I made the option to place a disco ball, strobe lights, and things that you would most find in a nightclub. Because of this, the place usually stays open till two or three because everyone wants to party.
Today seemed to be a slow day. No one was coming except for the repair man to fix my glass window. I figured that because of the competition, it would be a busy day. I ended up with a weird bunch of people that came in.
First there was this guy dressed in a tux storming in wondering where someone was. "Hi, have you seen a girl that has a pigtail on each side and is in a school uniform that walked in here today?"
I told him no.
"Damn. Where is she?"
I didn't bother with him.
Then there was this guy who came up to me. He had spiky hair, and a red vest that matched his army pants. "Hey, did someone in blue with a beanie on her head come around here?"
I told him that she was across the street.
"Thanks." he said and he left. "By the way, she told me she would meet me here."
"Who did?"
"Emi. She told me you knew her."
"She never told me about this."
He sighed. "Is she trying to confuse me again? Arrg!" He punched one of the unbroken glass panels. It didn't smash though. That was good, because I don't need to pay for two accidents.
By that time, the glass repairman came over and fixed the door.
The weird thing came at around midday. As I noticed some people come in, I saw this mysterious girl that had one of the most ridiculous costumes in existence. To her, candy cane red was the color here. Her red ears were very floppy, and her entire clothing had a very festive flare. The top part was covered with a red shirt with ruffles in the end of her arms and at the bottom of her dress. The feet were covered with rosy slippers and long white socks. To finish it off, it had a crown on top of her head.
The strange thing is that I created that same costume. Going into the back room, I found the costume, which I called Princess-Zukin. I made this costume in winter last year, but never got the chance to wear it because it became warm by the time I finished it.
When I came back inside, she confronted me in a very sweet voice. "Hello, Emily." I stood confused. There was no way that I would have the costume in my hand and at the same time see this person wearing it, unless she copied my design, but that was impossible since, except for today, I have never showed anyone my private collection, let alone the Princess model. "Who are you and how did you get that costume?"
"I'm the princess of dreams, Emily. You seem so tired and unhappy. Why don't you take the day off?"
I kept on my guard. "I can't. Somehow you have gotten the costume design. You must have gone into my store and took pictures of it to make sure that you copied it. Why?"
"Emily, Emily, Emily. Why must you question everything? Do not worry about petty things though. Soon Revolution the Oni will come and all the people will live in peace."
Revolution the Oni! She knew something about that note. "Did you place that note in the angel costume?"
She laughed. "I didn't, but the Oni Revolution did."
"What is the Oni Revolution?"
"It is our salvation. Think of it as eternal peace in the world. People will not have to live in fear of death. I can guide you. I, the princess of dreams, can make you be free. Without pain or suffering, the world would be in paradise."
What was this person saying? First, she talks about "the Oni revolution" as some sort of religious cult, and then she begins to talk about leading me there. Still I needed to know more. "Ok I want to know who you are really."
"Well, I'm you."
I didn't believe her. How could I be talking to myself? Was I going insane? There were a lot of questions coming from that. "How could you be here and at the same time I'm talking to you?"
She never answered. Instead she ran toward the door and disappeared.
At this point, I figured that the note was really bothering me. So I needed a break and went to the back room. I saw the same girl again with the princess costume. "I like you, yet you are running away from who you really are and what you created."
"What do you mean?"
"The Konsento bots were never created for fun. They were created for the paradise that we are to experience."
"But that's impossible."
"Is it? Come with me and I will tell you everything. Let the princess of dreams free you from this sorrow."
"Explain what you are going to do with me."
"What else? Tell you everything."
I didn't know what to say. I figured that if I went along with her, she would leave me. As she took my hand, I felt a weird feeling inside of me, a kind of euphoric sensation inside. It felt liberating, and I couldn't even feel my feet. The next minute, I was flying. Hanging along with this "princess," I realized that we were flying over the city. "Wow, so this is what you were talking about, princess."
"Is it really?" I looked at her again, and this time, it wasn't the princess, it was someone with the Devil-Zukin costume. "I don't think you will ever be worthy to stop the revolution. Hahahahaha!" In shock, she let go of my hand, and I began to fall toward the ground.
I woke up standing in the counter. I figured that it was all a dream, and I dismissed it as that, yet it seemed so real to me.
That night, a thunderstorm moved in to the city. I kind of like rainy days. They make me seem at ease with the world. Yuriko came in after she closed the electronic store. "Emily, did you ever figure out what that note meant?"
"To be honest, no. But a lot of weird things have been happening just today. First I see this spiky haired guy who was looking for Emi. Second, I see this man in a tuxedo looking for a school girl, and finally I get this dream with someone wearing one of my costumes."
"Well, I can answer two of your questions: the spiky haired guy's name is Reiji Itoh. Everyone calls him Rage because of his tendency to get into one.
"I've noticed."
"The guy in the tuxedo is named Akira; she's the bodyguard of Yuni Berth."
"Yuni Berth? The daughter of director Takuma Berth?"
"Yes. The same one who made that weirdly performed, yet well done live action version of some anime that I can't remember at the top of my head, but that is beside the point. About the dream, which costume was it?"
"It was the Princess-Zukin model." I showed her the costume.
"Cool, why didn't you wear it?"
"It was warm by the time I finished it." She gave it back to me. "It was cool to actually make it, but right now, I just wish that someone knew about Revolution the Oni."
As clichéd as this sounds, someone walked in. It was the man in the tuxedo. "Hi, are either of you two Yuriko Emi or Emily Zukin?"
We both nodded.
"Did you receive a note about 'Revoultion the Oni?'"
I nodded.
"Finally, I found you two. There is something that I need to talk to you about. It involves both of you."
"What is it specifically?" Yuriko said
"It is about the Konsento Robots, and it may very well involve the rest of the world."
I stood in complete awe. Anything that can explain the situation with the Oni is better than standing in limbo.
There is more, but for now the hint from the princess is all you are going to get. Next chapter will include what exactly the idea of "the oni revolution" is and maybe I can get Alice to show up. Got nothing else to say.
I, Vincent Voltaire, do not own the rights to DDR or their characters. Konami owns them. I am just a fan fiction writer, so don't sue. Also, I have Emi, Rage, and Akira show up today, with references to Alice, Spike and Yuni.
Plus I think this may have been one of my weaker moments in writing, so please don't flame me if it's bad.
Chapter 2 – Encountering the Oni
I looked at the note that came before us. I had to admit, it was done with a lot of care, yet it was done with really poor English. I studied English in high school, and I knew that grammatically speaking, "Revolution the Oni" does not make sense. Yuriko agreed with me. "Emily, are you sure that you did not place this here?"
"I am totally sure of this. Why would I give myself a note in all my costumes? Besides, I just made this about a week ago."
A concerned crowd began to gather on the front of my store. I came out to see about twenty different people all wondering what happened. "Emily, did you get robbed?" Someone said. "Look at all the mess."
I addressed to everyone the news. "There is nothing wrong. I just got locked out of my shop and in anger, smashed the glass."
"Oh." Then everyone left, except for one girl who had a beanie on her head. She had on her a light blue vest, which covered a striped red sweatshirt, and a pair of blue pants which matched her yellow shoes. "Toshiba!" Yuriko said. I assumed that this was her daughter.
"Hi, mom. What happened here?"
"A lot of things." I said to her. Of course she looked at me funny, considering that I was still wearing the devil costume. "Ah… There's a monster!"
"No." Yuriko said. "It's my friend, Emily, dressed up… as a devil."
"Oh."
"So this is your daughter?" I told Yuriko.
"Yea. This is Toshiba."
"But everyone just calls me Emi." Toshiba said. "Only my parents call me by my first name." She looked back at Yuriko. "Mom, I didn't know you knew Emily."
"I did, but that was a long time ago. It was during the time I was working at the laboratory making the Konsento Robots. You were still a kid back then, so you didn't know much about it."
"Oh." She looked back at me. "Is this place still open, Emily?"
"Yeah, but we still have to fix the glass. Everyone is shopping for the tournament isn't it?"
"Yes, of course."
"I keep forgetting about this tournament." Yuriko said. "Can you tell me?"
"Ok mom, but this is the last time."
And so Toshiba, who from now on shall be referred to as just simply Emi, explained the entire competition. All across the world, dancers from nations big and small are competition for an event that happens once every 3 years. Sponsored by the Becamite corporation, (Pronounced Be-ka-mi-te) it is a virtual worldwide dance battle where the purpose is simple: dance better than your opponent, and defeat him in whatever fashion possible. This is not an easy challenge, for everyone who competes has to know virtually every form of music and sub music possible that anyone could dance to. The competitors who partake in this competition are either skilled or insane because sometimes the challenges are tough since not everyone is skilled in everything and sometimes, you are just not good to begin with. Only the good ones make it to the world finals, which this year is placed in New York City.
In the last tournament, a troop lead by Asian dancer Alice Ip defeated everyone in Tokyo and won the championship. She won the competition through an impressive performance in Aurora's "Ordinary World" remix against British dancer Scott G. Parke, also known as Spike, and his performance with Prodigy's "Breathe". The decision was considered to be the most controversial, cause rumors were arriving that the contest was rigged to Alice's favor. Since then, Alice and Co. has ascended to the rank of superstars in Asia, Spike returned to England wounded, but still alive, and the decision still stands.
Emi was more determined to win this year. Last year, she never made it passed the regional finals in Japan, because the judges gave her a low score for repetition of moves and the fact that she slipped on the floor, causing her to break her foot.
"And so that is what happened, mom. You already forgot how I broke my foot?"
"No, I didn't. Well, maybe."
While all this was going on, I went to the back room and changed out of my costume, putting back on the red t-shirt with the flare pants. I opened the cash register and declared opened for business.
Yuriko and Emi went back into the electronic shop, but not before saying goodbye to me. I waved goodbye as well.
I still wondered if they really did have a secret arcade inside.
This is usually how a typical day in the store works. I come to open the shop at around 8:00. From here I get the daily grind on what shipments come and so forth. I officially open the shop at around 10:00. Activity is very dead around this time, since either the people are in school or everyone is sleeping. Things start to heat up at around 12:00, as everyone comes here to shop. I never seem to have a lunch break, since I am the only one around that works here until mid day. (15:30 or 3:30, depending on your region) That is when the real activity begins.
At around that time, everyone shows up to buy. At this time, I have three assistants to help. There's Remi, who is kind of a cutesy flower child. Inoue, who is a quiet girl that tends to hang around in the back, and Suzue, who I believe is trying to get a singing career. They show up at different times to work and sometimes give me suggestions, including Remi, who constantly begs me to make a fairy costume that's more extravagant that Kaeru-Zukin.
The activity climbs up to around 22:00. (10:00) which either the place closes, or if it's the weekend, it continues to pick up. Of course at around this time, this virtually becomes a night club hands down. When designing the store, I made the option to place a disco ball, strobe lights, and things that you would most find in a nightclub. Because of this, the place usually stays open till two or three because everyone wants to party.
Today seemed to be a slow day. No one was coming except for the repair man to fix my glass window. I figured that because of the competition, it would be a busy day. I ended up with a weird bunch of people that came in.
First there was this guy dressed in a tux storming in wondering where someone was. "Hi, have you seen a girl that has a pigtail on each side and is in a school uniform that walked in here today?"
I told him no.
"Damn. Where is she?"
I didn't bother with him.
Then there was this guy who came up to me. He had spiky hair, and a red vest that matched his army pants. "Hey, did someone in blue with a beanie on her head come around here?"
I told him that she was across the street.
"Thanks." he said and he left. "By the way, she told me she would meet me here."
"Who did?"
"Emi. She told me you knew her."
"She never told me about this."
He sighed. "Is she trying to confuse me again? Arrg!" He punched one of the unbroken glass panels. It didn't smash though. That was good, because I don't need to pay for two accidents.
By that time, the glass repairman came over and fixed the door.
The weird thing came at around midday. As I noticed some people come in, I saw this mysterious girl that had one of the most ridiculous costumes in existence. To her, candy cane red was the color here. Her red ears were very floppy, and her entire clothing had a very festive flare. The top part was covered with a red shirt with ruffles in the end of her arms and at the bottom of her dress. The feet were covered with rosy slippers and long white socks. To finish it off, it had a crown on top of her head.
The strange thing is that I created that same costume. Going into the back room, I found the costume, which I called Princess-Zukin. I made this costume in winter last year, but never got the chance to wear it because it became warm by the time I finished it.
When I came back inside, she confronted me in a very sweet voice. "Hello, Emily." I stood confused. There was no way that I would have the costume in my hand and at the same time see this person wearing it, unless she copied my design, but that was impossible since, except for today, I have never showed anyone my private collection, let alone the Princess model. "Who are you and how did you get that costume?"
"I'm the princess of dreams, Emily. You seem so tired and unhappy. Why don't you take the day off?"
I kept on my guard. "I can't. Somehow you have gotten the costume design. You must have gone into my store and took pictures of it to make sure that you copied it. Why?"
"Emily, Emily, Emily. Why must you question everything? Do not worry about petty things though. Soon Revolution the Oni will come and all the people will live in peace."
Revolution the Oni! She knew something about that note. "Did you place that note in the angel costume?"
She laughed. "I didn't, but the Oni Revolution did."
"What is the Oni Revolution?"
"It is our salvation. Think of it as eternal peace in the world. People will not have to live in fear of death. I can guide you. I, the princess of dreams, can make you be free. Without pain or suffering, the world would be in paradise."
What was this person saying? First, she talks about "the Oni revolution" as some sort of religious cult, and then she begins to talk about leading me there. Still I needed to know more. "Ok I want to know who you are really."
"Well, I'm you."
I didn't believe her. How could I be talking to myself? Was I going insane? There were a lot of questions coming from that. "How could you be here and at the same time I'm talking to you?"
She never answered. Instead she ran toward the door and disappeared.
At this point, I figured that the note was really bothering me. So I needed a break and went to the back room. I saw the same girl again with the princess costume. "I like you, yet you are running away from who you really are and what you created."
"What do you mean?"
"The Konsento bots were never created for fun. They were created for the paradise that we are to experience."
"But that's impossible."
"Is it? Come with me and I will tell you everything. Let the princess of dreams free you from this sorrow."
"Explain what you are going to do with me."
"What else? Tell you everything."
I didn't know what to say. I figured that if I went along with her, she would leave me. As she took my hand, I felt a weird feeling inside of me, a kind of euphoric sensation inside. It felt liberating, and I couldn't even feel my feet. The next minute, I was flying. Hanging along with this "princess," I realized that we were flying over the city. "Wow, so this is what you were talking about, princess."
"Is it really?" I looked at her again, and this time, it wasn't the princess, it was someone with the Devil-Zukin costume. "I don't think you will ever be worthy to stop the revolution. Hahahahaha!" In shock, she let go of my hand, and I began to fall toward the ground.
I woke up standing in the counter. I figured that it was all a dream, and I dismissed it as that, yet it seemed so real to me.
That night, a thunderstorm moved in to the city. I kind of like rainy days. They make me seem at ease with the world. Yuriko came in after she closed the electronic store. "Emily, did you ever figure out what that note meant?"
"To be honest, no. But a lot of weird things have been happening just today. First I see this spiky haired guy who was looking for Emi. Second, I see this man in a tuxedo looking for a school girl, and finally I get this dream with someone wearing one of my costumes."
"Well, I can answer two of your questions: the spiky haired guy's name is Reiji Itoh. Everyone calls him Rage because of his tendency to get into one.
"I've noticed."
"The guy in the tuxedo is named Akira; she's the bodyguard of Yuni Berth."
"Yuni Berth? The daughter of director Takuma Berth?"
"Yes. The same one who made that weirdly performed, yet well done live action version of some anime that I can't remember at the top of my head, but that is beside the point. About the dream, which costume was it?"
"It was the Princess-Zukin model." I showed her the costume.
"Cool, why didn't you wear it?"
"It was warm by the time I finished it." She gave it back to me. "It was cool to actually make it, but right now, I just wish that someone knew about Revolution the Oni."
As clichéd as this sounds, someone walked in. It was the man in the tuxedo. "Hi, are either of you two Yuriko Emi or Emily Zukin?"
We both nodded.
"Did you receive a note about 'Revoultion the Oni?'"
I nodded.
"Finally, I found you two. There is something that I need to talk to you about. It involves both of you."
"What is it specifically?" Yuriko said
"It is about the Konsento Robots, and it may very well involve the rest of the world."
I stood in complete awe. Anything that can explain the situation with the Oni is better than standing in limbo.
There is more, but for now the hint from the princess is all you are going to get. Next chapter will include what exactly the idea of "the oni revolution" is and maybe I can get Alice to show up. Got nothing else to say.
