Chapter Seventeen: Kaleidoscope
Note: 119 is the actual Japanese equivalent of 911, not a typing error. And the woman who helps Natsumi out is a reference to both Naoko Takeuchi and Megumi Hayashibara. Naoko lives in Azabu Juuban, Megumi is a nurse. It'll make sense, trust me.
"I'm sorry, I'm going to be really busy today," Natsumi said into her phone as she stood on the subway, impatiently waiting for her station to come up. "Minerva said my song should be ready today."
"Oh, you're going to record?" Sakura asked on the other end as she fiddled with the wrapper of a cookie.
"I'm going to start that process. Who knows how long it'll take, though. Minerva says my voice needs work."
"Minerva doesn't have a nice bone in her body," Sakura pointed out.
"Perhaps." Sakura could hear the chime on Natsumi's train ding, signaling the arrival of a station. "I have to go, this is my station."
"Okay. I'll talk to you later," Sakura said. "Good luck with your song!"
"Thanks! Bye!" Natsumi hung up her phone and threw it into her new purse, the one she got from Shibuya 109. She remembered where she bought the purse with a smile as she daintily stepped off the train and started towards Minerva's. Her break was turning out to be the exact opposite—instead of an ability to sleep in late, spend the day having fun, and stay up late, she was waking up early, spending most of her day at Minerva's doing modeling things, and going to bed early because she would be exhausted. She, however, mostly liked the experience. There were other models around that she was making friends with, including Mitsuko, she loved dressing up and getting made up, and Minerva was warming up to her.
"Good morning, Natsumi," said Yurina, the girl who worked at the reception desk, as Natsumi entered and scribbled her name down on the sign-in sheet.
"Morning, Yurina," Natsumi responded.
"Minerva wants to see you in her office," Yurina reported, pointing towards Minerva's office. Natsumi smiled, nodded, and walked towards Minerva's office, nervous but happy about what could be waiting there.
When she stepped inside, she was handed a piece of paper entitled "Moonlight Densetsu".
"This will be your debut single, Natsumi," Minerva reported with a big smile. "Today, we're going to practice singing it. Practice makes perfect, after all. First, you can listen to the track itself. I've provided vocals, too, so you can hear how the song is supposed to sound." Minerva slid a CD player with headphones over the surface of her desk, prompting Natsumi to put the headphones on and push the play button. She grabbed her lyric sheet and read along as Minerva sang the song, noting that Minerva had a pretty good voice.
"That sounds pretty cool," Natsumi remarked once the song was over.
"Wonderful. Are you ready to sing it yourself yet?" Minerva asked.
"I'm a bit nervous," Natsumi admitted.
"Oh, don't be! Your first recording won't be used as the final recording, I can assure you that," Minerva replied, smiling sweetly. "Come on, let's go to the studio now." The studio, as it was, was through one of the other doors at the back of the agency. It consisted of little more than a mixing room with a computer and a mixing board attached to the recording area itself. Also, it was dark inside, which made Natsumi tense up.
"It's small," Natsumi reported nervously.
"It doesn't need to be big," Minerva replied. "Now, I'll listen in and give you comments as you record to help your progression as a singer. Okay?" She opened the door to the recording area, which was, of course, soundproofed. There was a stand for the lyrics sheet, a microphone suspended from the ceiling, and a pair of large black headphones sitting on the stand. Natsumi walked over to the microphone and gingerly placed her lyrics on the stand. Minerva had her go through a series of vocal-strengthening warm-up exercises that sounded odd but got the job done, as Natsumi's voice rang out clear as a bell in the recording. Minerva had Natsumi sing through the entire song a few times before sending her home for the day, exhausted.
"How are things?" Mitsuko asked, coming into the mixing room after Natsumi was sent homeward to find Minerva holding a sort of red, pulsating orb in her left hand. "Oh, you got quite a lot today," Mitsuko observed. "How strong do you think you are now?"
"I'm getting much closer," Minerva replied, her lips curling into a twisted smile. Mitsuko watched in awe as Minerva breathed in deeply before shoving the red orb into her ample chest. It shone for a moment and disappeared. "Oh, I feel so much better. Mitsuko, do you happen to have any available?"
"I think." Mitsuko inhaled and closed her eyes, concentrating deeply and crossing her hands over her chest. When she exhaled, she brought her hands away from her chest and revealed another pulsating red orb. This one was slightly smaller than the one Minerva previously had, though, which infuriated her.
"You haven't been working hard enough today!" Minerva roared, snatching up the orb and shoving it angrily into her chest. "Mitsuko! You disappoint me." Mitsuko hung her head in shame. "Leave." Minerva pointed to the door and Mitsuko quickly complied.
Natsumi felt somewhat dizzy when she walked into the subway station, so she stopped at one of the ubiquitous vending machines and purchased a can of Georgia coffee. She had trouble finding the coins to use in her purse, though, because her hands kept slipping. As she put the coins into the machine, her eyelids suddenly grew heavy and she let out a great yawn that fogged up the vending machine's glass screen. With difficulty, though, she did manage to pick the correct drink and soon took a large swig of the coffee within in the hopes that it would perk her up.
Why am I so tired? she asked herself as she stood at the platform, craning her neck to see if a train was coming in, as was everyone else standing nearby. When the train did arrive, she stumbled onto the first available car and slumped into one of the seats. A moment later, her eyes closed and she fell asleep. She was eventually awakened, though, by a sudden jostling on the train as it came to a stop in…
"Minami Senju?" she said in utter disbelief, as she should have disembarked the train back at Hiroo, which was quite far away from Minami Senju. Yawning, Natsumi exited the train and simply adjourned to the platform that would take her back to Hiroo. As she stood on the platform, incredibly far away from the familiarity of Juuban, she yawned again and made a flimsy promise to herself that she wouldn't doze off on the homeward bound train, a promise she quickly broke near Tsukiji but sustained once more when the train stopped in Hibiya because some jerk shook her awake in order to ask if she was Minako. This kept her awake, but groggy, until Hiroo, when she stumbled off the train and started to head home. While she was on the street, though, the feeling of dizziness swept her like a tsunami, making her feel physically unable to move forward any more. She let out a small noise of frustration before her eyes rolled back into her head and she started toppling. A woman walking nearby saw this happening and rushed to Natsumi's aid, catching her before she could fall.
"Are you all right, miss? Miss?" the woman asked, shaking Natsumi slightly, but she was out. "I better call the ambulance." She whipped out her tiny cell phone and hurriedly dialed 119, moving Natsumi over to the inner edge of the sidewalk so people could get around. When the woman finished the call, Natsumi came to, blinking repeatedly and trying to look around, but feeling unable to.
"Where am I?" she asked groggily.
"You're on Juuban Street," the woman answered, smiling and shaking a tendril of her hair from her face. "I called the ambulance. You were about to hit the ground, you know. Are you okay?"
"I'm not sure of that myself," Natsumi said truthfully. "Thank you for helping me. What's your name?"
"Naoko Hayashibara," the woman replied. "I'll stay with you until the ambulance comes."
"Thank you," Natsumi said weakly before letting out a small yelp and going under again.
Natsumi awoke this time in a white, sanitized hospital room, sitting in a white, sanitized hospital bed. She sat up, still feeling a bit tired, and looked around to see if anyone she knew was around. The door was slightly ajar, which allowed her to hear Minako in the hallway, frantically asking a nurse where Natsumi was.
"Mom!" Natsumi called out. "I'm in here!" Minako whirled around upon hearing the source of the noise and rushed into the room. When she saw that Natsumi was okay, she exhaled loudly and put her hand against her heart.
"Oh, Natsumi! Thank goodness you're okay!" Minako said. "The nurse told me you fainted on the street."
"I did?" Natsumi asked, unaware of what had happened to herself.
"You did," Minako responded, nodding.
"Is she awake?" Rei asked, poking her head into the room. She was chewing on a candy bar and had another one in her right hand.
"She is now," Minako told Rei.
"I brought you a snack, Natsumi," Rei said, waggling the candy bar that she wasn't eating.
"Cool, thanks," Natsumi said, gracefully accepting the candy bar and unwrapping it.
"So, what happened?" Rei asked. "I didn't hear the story."
Natsumi took a bite of the candy bar, noting how delicious it was, before telling the story of her day to Minako and Rei. As Natsumi retold the story, she was hit by a sudden wave of exhaustion that almost knocked her out again. Rei's eyes widened in shock when Natsumi felt suddenly exhausted, followed by a gasp because she sensed a terribly evil presence.
"What's wrong, Rei?" Minako asked nervously.
"I just felt something evil right then," Rei explained.
"What?" Minako asked, her voice rising to dangerous levels. "Where?" Rei shut her eyes and concentrated deeply on finding the evil presence before pointing to Natsumi's chest. "Rei, are you sure?"
"I'm absolutely sure," Rei said gravely.