Shooting Stars
Chapter Eight: A Little Rebellion
Author's notes: Gah… I'm so sorry! I swear, I feel about as guilty as anyone could possibly feel about this story lagging… it's back on track now. First there was the job hunt. Then there was the computer virus. Then I got volume six of the manga and had to change a few plans… and decided I hated Eiri, and had a really hard time writing around that. Not to mention the Fruits Basket RPG that ate my life…
But... here's chapter eight at long last! And I make up for all the upcoming angst by being wildly funny. Noriko... should never, ever give the "birds and the bees" talk to anyone, ever. Dear God.
Disclaimer: If I owned Gravitation, I've decided I would probably strangle Eiri for wrecking Tohma's life.
One of the most turbulent and precarious times in the existence of Nittle Grasper started with something that seemed, on the surface, to be perfectly innocent. So innocent, in fact, I should probably have suspected a ploy (it wasn't up to Ryuichi-san to catch these things, after all). "I'm bored," Noriko-san had said on our first day off that summer as we were all lounging around her apartment. "Would you like to go to Ueno Park?"
She had smiled so sweetly and been so bursting with a desire to go somewhere normal, just the three of us, even if we had to bundle on the sunglasses and floppy hats, that of course we couldn't say no. And after all, what could possibly go wrong as long as we kept a low profile?
Yes, in retrospect, I really should have known the two of them better by then.
It was a bright and sunny day, so hot that the sunglasses and hats actually came in handy. At first, it really was just an ordinary outing. We hadn't told K-san (this being Noriko-san's suggestion as well) so that he wouldn't tail us with a gun, looking a trifle obvious. We found a spot under a tree by the lake, Ryuichi-san begged until I bought everyone ice cream, and we settled back to relax on the soft grass, watching the little rowboats on the lake. These were mostly manned by teenage boys and tended to have no more than one passenger—clearly the high school crowd saw the beautiful weather as an opportunity for dates. They were carefree and loud, calling between boats, some of them holding races. Watching them was relaxing, especially when I was not being called upon to exert myself. Despite everything, music was as physically exhausting as anything I had ever done.
"It's been a while since we had a chance to do this," Noriko-san mused. She had lain down with her head in my lap when she had finished her ice cream, and looked as relaxed as a drowsy kitten. "I just want to bask in the sunshine, you know?"
"If we get a few days off next month, we should ask K-san if we can go somewhere with a beach that's far enough away from Japan that you can lay in the sun all day without worrying about being recognized," I mused. "A real vacation would be more than welcome."
"I don't care where, as long as all three of us can go," Ryuichi-san stated.
"What do you want to do for the rest of the day?" Noriko-san asked lazily.
"We could go to the zoo!" Ryuichi-san said immediately. "Or maybe we should get one of those boats, or... what is that?" He looked searchingly down the shore. "Let's go see!" he said, bouncing to his feet. "That looks like fun!"
We trailed after him. After a few moments, we could make out the source of the commotion. There was something like an open air stage set up, and currently children of all ages were clustered around. It seemed like the setup for some freelance musical festival, but no real performers were present. There were a few junior high girls on stage, posturing and giving a sketchy performance. "They're pretty awful," I said with a wince. It was one of our songs, and they were butchering it. Even at half-speed, the piano player's hands were not keeping up.
"You're just spoiled, Tohma-kun," Noriko-san said with a laugh. We listened for a few moments. "Well, all right, maybe not. They are pretty awful."
"What do you think, Ryuichi-san?" He didn't answer me, which I thought was unusual, since usually it took a cosmic force to keep him quiet. I looked over to where he had been standing. "Ryuichi-san?"
"Where did he go?" Noriko-san asked. "I thought he was just there."
Keeping track of Ryuichi-san was usually K-san's job, but as we had not asked him along, this was certainly our problem. Actually, this problem was quite serious, as no one knew exactly what kind of chaos Ryuichi-san would perpetuate when left to his own devices, particularly in a crowd... particularly when the crowd consisted of girls, for the greater part, and most of them were in the junior high to high school category, which meant they were also highly excitable.
"I don't know," I said, feeling a little panicked. "I think we should find him before he... well, I don't know before what, exactly, but I'm sure he'll think of something." I felt the beginnings of a headache. "K-san might just shoot us if they tear him to pieces... and they will if they figure out who he is."
There was suddenly a series of high pitched squeals from the stage, followed by Ryuichi-san's unmistakable voice shouting, "Hi na no da! Is everybody shiny today? You don't mind if I borrow this, do you?" My heart sinking, I looked up top the stage, and sure enough, there he was. He had taken the microphone from a dazed looking girl and looked terribly pleased with himself.
"I'm pretty sure most of them have guessed who he is," Noriko-san muttered. She looked every bit as horrified as I felt.
Just as I was wondering the best way to evacuate Ryuichi-san off of the stage, there was a tug on my sleeve. "Tohma-oniisan! I thought it was you under the hat!" My eyes were probably a little wild when I looked down to behold Suguru-kun, one of my cousins, dressed in the uniform of the same private primary school I had attended, grinning up at me. He was surrounded by other children with awed, adoring looks in their eyes.
Of course, since his voice was high pitched, it carried. Between Sakuma Ryuichi standing on stage and "Tohma-oniisan" standing in the crowd...
There was absolute, charmed silence as everyone turned to look at the two of us. I felt a little like a caged animal in the zoo. Ryuichi-san was smiling up on stage, blissfully unaware of the fact that he had very likely signed and sealed our death sentence. "Tohma! Noriko-chan! Come play!"
Noriko-san was wide-eyed, but she took my hand and pulled me towards the stage. When I struggled, she turned to look at me. "We're not getting out of here either way," she whispered. "We might as well play something..."
Dazed, I let her pull me up onstage. It occurred to me that this was the oddest performance I would probably ever give. Suguru-kun was right up against the stage, his eyes shining. He was the first to lift his hands and start clapping. Then more and more people joined him, clapping and cheering as we stood there on the stage, still frozen. The girl behind the keyboard stepped away, looking like she was just on the verge of fainting. I didn't blame her; this was completely surreal. There was only the one keyboard, but Noriko-san went around to the left side. "You take the melody," she said softly.
I stretched my fingers and began to play.
"Seguchi, I think I might throttle you. Or maybe I can find some sharks and feed you to them instead. Can we get sharks?"
"Of course, sir."
I kept my head down while K-san so easily sold my life to the director of Shinjin. Not that I blamed him, precisely. I rubbed at my shoulder a little. It had probably been dislocated at about the same time I had lost my jacket... which had been sometime before someone had ripped my shirt. K-san hadn't even let us change when he had extricated us from the middle of it in a helicopter (which I was still trying to puzzle out) and brought us here, and being half-clothed was not helping my self-confidence at all.
"It's already all over the media. What possessed you? Aren't you supposed to be the intelligent one, Seguchi?" I winced. "Sakuma I could understand getting us into this mess. But you?"
"That was some mob," Ryuichi-san commented from the corner. "Kumagoro thinks they were going to roast us and eat us alive next."
"If you were roasted, you wouldn't be... never mind," I said. Ryuichi-san seemed not at all distressed by this situation if he could still play with his bunny.
"This isn't funny," the director snapped. "Where is Sakakura? Why isn't she here?"
"Because we haven't found-"
"She isn't feeling well," K-san interrupted Ryuichi-san's voice smoothly. "She probably overheated due to the press of people, so she lost consciousness. I will make your displeasure known to her."
"But she isn't-"
"Ryuichi, you should be quiet now," K-san interrupted again. "And we should probably get those scratches on your back looked at... Sir, if you'll excuse us, I really think it is best if I take them now. I can promise this won't happen ever again." With that, he bustled me out of the office after throwing Ryuichi across his shoulder and giving him no chance to argue.
A few steps down the hall I found my voice. "Why did you lie to him?"
"Simple. No one has the privilege to kill my artists except me," he said lightly.
"But we lost Noriko-chan!" Ryuichi-san wailed.
"Yes, well, that can be our little secret," K-san said cheerfully. "I have some... friends... looking for her. She'll turn up."
I decided not to ask about K-san's possible ties to the mob. "You don't seem angry."
"I'm not," he replied with a laugh. "If you can do something insane like this on your day off, it means you're still motivated."
I shook my head. The man was clearly sick and deranged.
I had been sleeping fitfully lately, so I was actually awake when there was a knock on my door at barely four in the morning. When I looked out through the peephole, I actually blinked a few times in confusion before opening the door. The four men in identical dark suits and sunglasses (at night in a darkened building, no less) did not look amused. Noriko-san did, but then, that was practically a constant. "Good morning, Tohma-kun," she chirped.
"She refused to come anywhere but here, sir," one of the men spoke up. His Japanese came out with a heavy American accent. "As we were told not to... coerce her... we thought it would be best."
I shook my head, completely at a loss. "I suppose you should come in," I said at last.
"We'll decline, but we'll leave her in your hands. Please make sure she doesn't go anywhere until Claude can see her in the morning."
Noriko-san giggled. "He has odd friends, doesn't he?"
I sighed. "Thank you, I'll take care of it." I pulled her into the apartment and shut the door.
She seemed nonplussed as she gently shook off my hand and immediately headed for the kitchen. "Do you have anything quick to eat? I'm starving."
I followed her. "Do you want to explain exactly why K-san's 'friends' brought you to my door... at this time of night?"
She turned from the refrigerator with an apple already in her hand. "You need to go grocery shopping," she told me. I kept looking at her with an expression that I was sure was becoming impatient. "I don't suppose you'll accept hunger as a legitimate excuse?" I kept staring at her. "Right, I guess not. It's pretty simple, really."
"Enlighten me," I said dryly.
"We were playing, the crowd got too big for the clearing, then there was a riot. I assume you remember the part where you disappeared under a pack of rabid fangirls."
"I'm pretty sure I recall that, yes." I gave up and started making coffee. Clearly I was up for the day.
"No need to be snippy. With you two out of the game, I had to run or be devoured. Just as I was sure I would be ripped to shreds too, I was being pulled onto the back of a motorcycle and driven out of there."
"I didn't know there were motorcycle paths there."
She waved her hand dismissively and bit into the apple. "Details," she said. "Do you want to hear this story or not?"
I sighed and tried to keep my sarcasm at bay. This early, it wasn't working. "I'm fascinated, really."
She only laughed. "That's most of it, actually. Once the last fanboy clinging to my leg disappeared down the road, the driver asked me who I had pissed off quite that badly."
My eyebrows rose. "He didn't know who you were?"
"Not a clue." She laughed again. "I never knew that could be so refreshing."
I shook my head. "So, this random stranger snatched you out of the fans' clutches-"
"And saved my life," she interrupted.
"-And did... what, exactly?" I pressed on.
"Took me out to dinner," she said promptly. "And other things."
"Other... things," I said slowly.
Her smile grew wider, only to be broken up by a yawn. "And now I'm tired. Incredibly hungry, but more tired."
I tried to push away the images of K-san's mafia friends pulling Noriko-san out of some motorcyclist's bed. "You're mad," I finally told her weakly. "Just... go to sleep and stop giving me a headache."
She giggled, kissed me lightly on the lips and snatched away the cup of coffee I had just made myself. "We all need to live a little," she said, perfectly carefree. She yawned again. "Besides, you weren't sleeping."
"Lucky for you I was worried," I snapped, but with no real heat. "They're going to feed me to sharks, and it's all your fault. And give me back my coffee." I made a grab for it, but she evaded.
"No coffee. Tohma-kun, you should really sleep more. The fact that you have the energy to be cute this early worries me a little." She poured my coffee down the sink, then walked out of the kitchen, still smiling like the proverbial cat who ate the canary.
Everything seemed to be back to normal for the next few months. Occasionally, I'd ask Noriko-san how she was doing. She'd always laugh, and occasionally toss in an offhanded comment about Tetsuya, which turned out to be the name of her mysterious rescuer. He remained a mystery; somehow, none of us ever got to meet him, and I had a notion K-san wasn't aware of his existence at all. However, though Noriko-san was clearly still seeing him, it didn't seem to affect her work much. About the only noticeable difference was that she no longer showed up at random intervals to spend the night at my house. I tried not to think about that too hard.
Otherwise, things were back to normal. Record sales were soaring. We were preparing to do a video shoot in Okinawa just on the verge of fall. I hadn't seen Eiri-kun in months, but he never left my mind. Ryuichi-san continued to smile cheerfully and write depressing lyrics. Noriko-san continued to be the glue that held us all together, somehow.
And then she vanished.
For a week, there was no word from her. I stopped playing. Ryuichi-san stopped writing. We canceled a concert, claiming she was too ill to perform. Ryuichi-san refused to leave my house, because he was sure I would be the first one she would call. Neither of us slept or ate much. Sometimes, he forgot to smile. K-san polished his variety of guns and said very little when the two of us showed up to sit and stare blankly at the walls of the office.
Neither of us felt much like making music.
On the seventh day of her disappearance, a rainy Tuesday and the day of the canceled concert, we trudged into the office unwillingly after K-san sent a limousine to pick us up. When we got to the fifteenth floor office, there he was, grimly polishing a rifle. Business as usual.
"Sit," he told us shortly, gesturing to a couch. When we did, he looked at us for a long time before speaking. "So," he finally said. "We can't keep going like this."
Ryuichi-san was already tearing up. He did that with increasing frequency lately. He grabbed onto my arm like a lifeline and practically crawled into my lap; I let him. "Noriko-chan needs to come ba-aaaaaaaaaaaack!" he wailed.
I looked hopelessly at K-san. "What are we supposed to do? You found her last time."
"She's not in Japan this time," K-san replied calmly. "I'm working on it. As for you, what you are supposed to do is work."
"Nittle Grasper is Noriko-san, Ryuichi-san, and I," I said, stroking Ryuichi-san's hair and hoping he'd calm down. "If it isn't the three of us, then it isn't at all."
"So you refuse to play if she isn't found?"
"I refuse to touch a piano if she isn't found," I said, trying to keep myself cool and collected despite the puddle of sniveling Ryuichi in my lap. "I hope for all of our sakes she is."
K-san's eyes narrowed. "I don't like you throwing a temper tantrum. I never pegged you for a prima don-"
The door swung open, and he stopped. I stared. Even Ryuichi-san stopped crying.
A grinning Noriko-san, tanned very dark, her hair black of all colors, and wearing a tiny dress printed with bright flowers waltzed in. She looked like she had just walked off of a tropical beach. "Good morning!" she said in heavily accented English. "Why the miserable faces?"
Ryuichi-san launched himself at her from my lap, wrapping his arms around her and howling her name in some bizarre mix of joy and tragedy. It was a good thing he did, because K-san was already pointing the rifle at her with a gleam in his eyes that said he would probably use it. "Where were you?" he said in a low, dangerous voice.
"The Bahamas, I think?" she said, in a voice that was not the least intimidated. "I'm not so sure, actually. I tried to call, but my cell phone wouldn't pick up down there, and there seemed to be a mass conspiracy against me finding a phone card. And then, I was a little busy, so I hoped Tohma-kun would hold down the fort while I was gone." She shot me an amused look. "Clearly, my expectations were too high. Were you crying?"
"Ryuichi-san was crying," I snarled. "I was being used as a sponge."
"Busy doing what?" K-san asked, putting down the rifle after it became clear he couldn't aim around Ryuichi; clearly he didn't want to kill Shinjin's secret weapon.
Noriko-san seemed very aware of this, as she wrapped her arms around Ryuichi-san in turn. "Busy getting married," she proclaimed calmly, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
I choked on whatever I had been about to day and launched into a coughing fit. She only seemed amused.
"We discussed this," K-san said, lifting the rifle again and taking aim. "Ryuichi, if you would be so kind as to move."
"Don't move, Ryu-chan," Noriko-san said calmly. "K-kun, I really couldn't help it, you know. If I have a baby in seven months and I'm not married, it will be even worse. I think I've done us all a favor."
"...Baby?" I choked out in a voice that was little more than a croaking whisper. "How...?"
"Well, yes, Tohma-kun," She said, as if lecturing a small and dull-witted child, ignoring the gun pointed at her head. "If your parents neglected this part of your education and you never read those doujinshi I brought you, I suppose I should enlighten you, for Mika-san's sake. When a man and a woman love each other—or when a man saves a woman's life and gets her good and drunk, as the case may be—they-"
I cut her off, waving my arms desperately. "I know this one, really!"
K-san kept pointing the rifle at her. "Sakakura, I think I would shoot you, if I hadn't just been informed that the band refuses to function without you." I winced at his use of her family name; he never did that except when he was angry enough to actually carry out on his threats.
"Ukai," she said, dragging Ryuichi-san with her to drop onto the couch next to me. "Not Sakakura, Ukai. I need to sit down. They weren't joking when they said this pregnancy thing makes you tired, and I just got off a plane, to boot."
Ryuichi-san looked up at her with tear-filled eyes long enough to ask, "You're not leaving anymore?"
She laughed and kissed his nose. "Not a chance I would leave you two when you fall apart like this without me."
"But your name doesn't start with an 'S' anymore," Ryuichi-san whined. "Sakakura, Sakuma and Seguchi!"
"Kumagoro's name doesn't start with an 'S', and he's one of us," she said very seriously, picking up the squashed bunny from where he had been smashed between her body and Ryuichi-san's.
"True..." Ryuichi-san said slowly. "But... your hair is black," he wailed, thinking of a new argument. "You don't even look like our Nori-chan anymore!"
"Well, there's always the fear of being recognized... or hunted by the American mob, as the case may be," Noriko-san said, acknowledging K-san with a wink. "Tetsuya suggested I make myself as inconspicuous as possible. Hard, with how stunning I look in a bikini, but the violet hair had to go."
There was a moment of silence, then K-san pointed his rifle at the ceiling and shot. I winced. "Noriko," he said, his voice still dangerous.
"Yes?" she grinned, switching back to her terrible English. "What is it, Mr. K?"
He locked gazes with her for a moment, then swore and threw the rifle on the floor. "Go get your fucking hair fixed. You look too damn normal, and you're on stage in five hours."
With a shrill laugh, Noriko-san dislodged Ryuichi-san back onto my lap and ran over to kiss K-san noisily on the mouth, then headed for the door before he could say anything.
As usual, Sakakura... now Ukai Noriko... had had the last word.
