Ch 66
V 1.0
A/N 1: Yes, it has been way too long. If you want to hear about caused the delays, I'll go over it at the end of the chapter.
There is going to be someone singing in melismatic style (multiple drawn out musical notes on a single syllable) in this chapter. For those that don't understand what that means, the best example was when Whitney Houston sang 'I Will Always Love You," where there were three distinct notes on the word 'I' and at least five notes on the word 'you'.
Streets of Yokahama, Kanagawa Prefecture
Metro Tokyo, Japan
early March, Tuesday morning
The late model Lincoln Continental sedan they were riding in was sound-proofed; it was a feature that most occupants would not take notice of short of driving through West Oakland in California or Southside Chicago and wondering what the faint popping sounds were. Normally this was not an issue, but when the passengers were not speaking either it became obvious.
Keitaro was looking down at a MolMolTech tablet computer in his hands. His lack of experience with most current high-end electronics like touch-screen tablets made him an outlier in tech savvy Japan, but he knew enough to get by. That being said, he was not exactly current with most cultural trends, which explained why he was not that familiar with YouTube.
Sarah was sitting next to the street side door – her guardian had insisted on that for some reason – watching as Keitaro was slowly going through various videos on the tablet. At first it had been her infamous church singing video, both to see what had been recorded and what the comments were that had gotten her so upset, but then he started going through other videos.
"What the hell are you watching, Dork?" Sarah asked incredulously. She had been fiddling around with a flu mask and a red Sharpie marker until the squeaky-voiced singing drew her attention.
"Eh?" Keitaro looked up from the tablet. "Oh, this. It's a children's show, Liddo-Kun and Friends. I used to watch it a lot when I was young, but I haven't seen since then. I was surprised to see it online, I would think that you could only get it on videotape or DVD."
Sarah smirked slightly. "Get with the times, gramps. You can find most shows and movies online these days, usually it's in small chunks though. If a full show or movie is posted the companies involved usually put in a copyright complaint and the website will take it down."
"So why are they not doing that with all the small chunks, as you call them?" Keitaro was looking curious.
"Probably because it's too much trouble to keep chasing after every clip online, there're literally billions out there," Sarah replied. "Plus there are computer servers all over the world and the laws in those countries aren't the same or they don't care much. This way they get interest in their shows and hopefully people buy the videos from the companies that made them."
"Interesting." Keitaro looked down at the tablet again. Flicking his finger across the touch screen he went back to the home page before hitting the power button and turning the screen off. Handing the tablet back to Sarah she tucked it into the satchel she had slung over her shoulder and across her chest under her Sith cloak. "We're getting close to the cathedral so I need to tell you what occurring there."
"That doesn't sound good," groused Sarah, focusing her attention on her guardian.
"Apparently this thing has gotten much bigger than anyone would expect." Keitaro explained. "As of a few minutes ago that video has gotten 400,000 views and 900 comments. It also has gotten attention on social media, which I don't know a lot about, all I know is that it's apparently gone 'viral' even though sickness is not involved." The blonde girl snorted at the words. "The point being, there is media attention focused on the church right now."
"There are reporters at the church?" Sarah asked in disbelief.
"Well… kind of," replied Keitaro. "Sister Agnes was the one that called me when we were all in the kitchen this morning, and she told me that there are about ten people in front of the church right now. Two look to be reporters and a few more appear to be young female fans of your singing."
"Fucking wonderful. Fangirls," growled Sarah. As amusing as it was to flirt with the empty-headed idiots at school, it got kind of old to have them turn stalker on her. It even got to the point where Nyamo had to stand in front of her in the gym locker room when she was changing clothes; not because they were trying to take pictures like that asshole Aida, but because the fangirls would be staring at her and drooling.
"Language, Sarah-kun." The blonde shot a look at her guardian but otherwise stayed silent. Keitaro paused for a long moment before speaking again, visibly reluctant. "There are also some men there of a… certain… type."
"Certain type? What the hell does that mean?" asked Sarah, puzzled at the word choice.
"They appear to be talent scouts." Seeing her eyebrows go up in surprise, Keitaro continued. "There are talent agencies that find young people and recruit them to be models and idol singers. They get a percentage of earnings when the talent they find are hired by music and modeling agencies. The legitimate agencies have a reputation for being ruthless when signing people to contracts, leaving relatively little money for the talent and controlling their lives to an excessive degree to 'safeguard their investment'. The borderline agencies chew up their talent like bubblegum and then dismiss them with little money or benefit to show for it. The most infamous groups, which these scouts seem to belong to…" Keitaro stopped speaking, visibly reluctant again.
"Would probably fit in in Roanapur," Sarah finished grimly. "These fuckers yakuza?"
"Sarah-kun…" Keitaro did not finish his reprimand before sighing. "Some of them have criminal affiliations, yes. They are involved in prostitution and pornography, which the people they recruit are forced into."
"People?" Sarah raised an eyebrow. "Both girls and guys?"
"Criminals tend to be remarkably egalitarian," Keitaro replied. "If it makes money and they can get away with it, they'll do almost anything. Including forcing young men into prostitution with both male and female clients. Although I think mostly they use them for gay porn…" he speculated.
"TMI, TMI!" Sarah waved her hands in front of her frantically before taking a deep breath. "OK, these yahoos are at the church, is it going to be a problem?"
"Potentially. Right now they are on the sidewalk since the cathedral is not open to the public unless there is a scheduled service, which there isn't today. The church choir does hold its practices at this time, and that is where we're going to meet Sister Agnes and this," Keitaro's lips quirked for a moment, "'ChurchCatLady.'"
"Yeah, that's this chick's name, isn't it?" Sarah asked thoughtfully. "You know more about this lady, like her real name?" 'ChurchCatLady' was the internet handle used by the person who posted the video and obviously not her true name.
"Just that she is a person who works at the cathedral offices who also is a singer in the choir. Sister Agnes called to say that she was there this morning and that she would introduce us. We can talk to her about the video then. But first we have to get past the people on the sidewalk," Keitaro finished saying.
"I'm guessing you have a plan?" Sarah gave a half smile.
"Yes I do. I even have a backup plan, and a backup for even that." Keitaro returned the smile for a moment. "Do you have the mask I gave you?"
"Yep." Sarah produced the white surgical mask that Japanese people would wear in public to prevent spreading sickness that she had been doodling on and raised it into view. "What do you think?"
Keitaro's eyes flicked from the mask to the smirk on the blonde girl's face a couple times before sighing. "Seriously?"
"Very seriously. I read a story about the kuchisake-onna recently," Sarah stated proudly. The 'slit-mouth woman' was a Japanese urban legend where the vengeful ghost of a beautiful woman would ask passers-by if she was pretty before pulling down a surgical mask covering her face to reveal that her mouth had been cut open from ear to ear. No matter the person's answer, the ghost would try to kill them afterwards. Sarah's mask and the smile drawn on it were apparently inspired by that legend.
"Fine." Keitaro shook his head in dismay; he had taken only two masks from the medical supply kit at the Hinata-sou so he could not make Sarah wear another one. "This might even help."
"OK then, so what's the big plan?" Sarah listened as Keitaro explained his idea, the smile on her face gradually growing as she listened.
Outside Sacred Heart Cathedral
Yamate-cho, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture
Metro Tokyo, Japan
early March, Tuesday morning
Junichi Satomoto was more than a little annoyed to be where he was right now. Instead of the freelance writer being in his heated flat working on his next article (or asleep in his futon, realistically) he was standing around on a sidewalk with his hands in his coat pockets and a lit cigarette dangling from his mouth to ward off the cold, all for a girl that probably wouldn't show up.
He had been called the night before by one of the editors of Tokyo Pop!, the teen magazine he occasionally sold articles to, and told to look into the most recent craze that had been sweeping social media in the past couple of days. Thankfully it wasn't some of the really stupid stuff he had previously been assigned to cover, like cat cafes (where there were real cats for the customers to cuddle with instead of cute girls in maid uniforms and cat ear headbands), anime cosplayers for whatever was popular at the moment, or the newest trend in vending machines like one that literally ground coffee beans, drip brewed it into a cup and served it to the customer, all while showing the process on a video screen. Okay, the last one wasn't too bad since he was now buying his coffee from those machines instead of Starbucks and saving a few yen doing so.
Instead there had been a video posted on YouTube that had some girl singing in a church; there were literally tens of thousands of similar videos online with karaoke and other types of singing. On the surface it was nothing special – the girl wasn't even facing the camera! - but after watching the video Junichi could see what had drawn everyone's attention. The voice of the girl singing was incredible; even with the poor quality of the mobile phone recording the sound of it had sent shivers up and down his spine. The problem was that nothing was known about the girl; her name, her face, her looks. The only thing that was known was that she had what looked to be natural blonde hair worn in a French braid.
Normally this was the kind of story that Junichi would take a pass on, but he could literally not afford to, not with as few gigs as he was getting these days. He was barely making enough money to get by and he counted himself lucky to do so. Quite a few of his compatriots in the business had to get non-writing part-time jobs to make ends meet, including Kitsune Konno, another writer that he had always wished to get closer to (at least physically). However the foxy girl had party tendencies that he could not afford, not when she could down the pitchers of beer faster than he could. The last he heard she was working in a tea shop even though she still kept her hand in the game, submitting articles to various magazines for publication.
Seeing that his cigarette had burned down almost to the filter, Junichi shook another out of the pack and lit it with the old one before snuffing and tossing it into a nearby trash can. Taking a couple of deep puffs he pushed his unkempt yellow dyed hair away from his eyes and rubbed the stubble on his face before he shoved his hands back into his tan raincoat pockets to keep them warm, glancing around at the other people near him.
Everyone there seemed to fit into an archetype; the 'tween-aged fan girls ditching school hoping to catch a glimpse of the mystery singer, a youngish guy with thick glasses that he knew was a writer for a blog on up-and-coming idol singers, an overweight guy with a couple of cameras slung around his neck that looked like he would normally be taking up-skirt pics on the subway and most concerning, a couple of men wearing flashy suits with slicked back hair standing around looking bored. Junichi was familiar with the type; anyone who spent time in the entertainment industry learned to recognize the bottom-feeder talent scouts, the ones that would take advantage of naïve young girls without hesitation and feed them into the maw of organized crime. The writer was glad that there were so many other people around right now, since it reduced the chances of the two men getting physical if the girl did show up.
Looking up at the cathedral Junichi flicked the ash from his cigarette before puffing on it again. To call the writer an agnostic was being generous; he paid lip service to the Shinto faith his parents had raised him in but that was about it. He really could not understand why most people would put so much faith on a higher power. He had not had a bad life growing up, not anywhere close, but he had seen too many people pray for something that never seemed to come, ranging from relief of life problems to somehow fighting the fear of what was beyond, and those people never seemed to get an answer to those prayers. In fact, most of the very religious people he knew of seemed to be in denial or too oblivious to reality. Junichi might have a few too many personality faults, but being hypocritical was not one of them.
Hearing the soft hum of a car approaching, Junichi turned to see a fancy looking American sedan pull up to the curb before coming to a halt and the engine switching off. Straightening up the writer flicked his cigarette into the gutter and pulled his compact digital camera from his coat pocket. It looked like his earlier thoughts had been wrong, something was about to happen after all.
It was not unusual for the driver to get out of the car and step to the passenger door next to the curb and opening it. What was unusual was who stepped out; a youngish looking man with dark hair in a very nice suit and knee-length dress coat wearing dark shades and a white surgical mask on his face alighted from the car and looked about. Junichi could feel a chill run down his spine and it was not because the man looked like a yakuza; it was as though the temperature had started dropping even though the sun was out and shining.
Upon the car door opening everyone on the sidewalk had surged forward but upon sight of the man in the suit everyone came to a screeching halt. The young fan girls doing so was not surprising but the two men in the flashy suits were; the younger man was looking intently at them, and Junichi could almost see the air freezing between them. It only took fifteen seconds, but the talent scouts suddenly remembered some forgotten appointment and walked away from the car and the church, somehow not doing it at a run.
The man in the suit looked around one more time before he reached into the still open car door and took someone's hand and gently pulled. Another figure slid out of the door and stood on the sidewalk, causing everyone to twitch, wanting to move forward but too intimidated to do so.
The new person was cloaked, literally. A black cloak was draped around them, a hood pulled low over their face to conceal it. The cloak was knee length but open in the front, showing a dark blue school uniform under it. Studying the person for a moment Junichi blinked; the uniform was a boy's gakuran, but the figure under the clothing was subtly but definitely female. A brown leather strap crossed the front of the girl's tunic under the cloak and the trousers were a matching dark blue before ending over black loafers. Carefully turning his digital camera toward them but keeping it at chest level so as to not be obvious, Junichi discretely took a couple of quick photos of the man and the girl, the shutter sound and automatic flash being previously turned off.
Seeing the guardian look around again (and there was no way the man in the suit was not a bodyguard) the pair started to walk forward the cathedral steps, the murmuring crowd on the sidewalk parting before them. The girl in the cloak had threaded her arm though her escort's arm, which was a good thing considering what happened next.
The couple had crossed the sidewalk and were about to start climbing the steps to the front of the cathedral when the overweight guy surged forward through the crowd, moving much faster than anyone his size would have a right to. Thrusting a camera right at the hooded figure's face, a brilliant flash went off and three things happened in quick succession.
…The hooded girl flinched backward and stumbled, a gritted but muffled 'Fuck!' snarled in English…
…The guardian's free hand shot out and seized the overweight guy's wrist right behind the camera even as his occupied arm held the staggering girl upright and not letting her fall to the ground…
…An audible crack was heard, even before the camera fell from the limp hand and crashed to the sidewalk, the lens and plastic housing shattering as it hit the concrete.
Everyone froze, both figuratively and literally. Junichi heard what he could have sworn was a loud metallic moan, one that almost made his teeth rattle. But that was nothing compared to the freezing cold sensation that rushed through him; it was as though someone had dumped a tub of ice water over his head, and his body was shivering accordingly.
The tableau broke when someone finally spoke. It was a voice that sounded like it belonged in the pits of Hell; soft but with a rough edge to it. It was a voice that demanded attention. A voice that was as terrifying as someone whispering 'boo' in your ear when you thought you were all alone in a darkened room.
"That was very rude." The guardian was facing the overweight guy, and even though most of his face was covered by the surgical mask and the dark shades, the intensity of the man's stare would have caused steel plate to buckle. The subject of his gaze was ashen-face with his knees trembling, a darker patch appearing on the front of his pants and a puddle forming around his feet. The man in the suit turned his head slightly so that he could look at his charge out of the corner of his eye. "Gaki, are you okay?"
"Fuck no." The cloaked girl replied in English. She was swaying on her feet but otherwise standing on her own even though her hand stayed on his arm. "I have a giant black spot floating in my vision from that fucking flash. Can't see for shit."
"Language, gaki." The humor implicit in his comment disappeared as the man's turned away from where he was glancing at the girl before concentrating on the overweight guy again, who was now whimpering with pain visible on his face. The guardian's grip tightened slightly on the other man's wrist, drawing an audible moan.
"I think you should leave. Now." The guardian's politely worded statement was a command, and everyone within earshot knew it. The overweight guy nodded frantically, and when the guardian let go of his hand he took off running… as fast as someone who weighed 120 kilos could run in any case, clutching one arm to his chest.
The guardian looked around, and while the other people around them were a respectful distance away from them, their curiosity was apparent as well. He glanced back over at his charge and spoke to her again. "Can you see well enough to go up some steps?"
"If I hang onto your arm while I do it, yeah." The cloaked girl replied in Japanese now.
"Let's go then." Walking slowly, the pair made their way up the short flight of stairs toward the front of the cathedral, the girl sliding her feet onto each step before climbing up. It took about thirty seconds to climb the stairs before they were in front of the double doors. The guardian raised his hand and knocked, or more realistically pounded on the wooden door with his fist, the sound booming even as far as the sidewalk. After a few moments one of the doors opened enough for the pair to pass through before closing again.
Back on the sidewalk there was a collective moan of disappointment from the fangirls at being denied their prize. As the young girls bunched together to argue whether it was worth standing around in the cold to try and get a glimpse of the mystery girl again, one of the other bystanders was struck by a thought.
Walking over to where the broken camera was lying on the sidewalk, Junichi bent down and picked it up, turning it around in his hands. Locating the proper opening, he popped open the external memory card slot and pulled out the SD chip. Tossing the broken camera into the nearby trash can, Junichi took his own digital camera and removed the memory card, swapping it with the one from the broken device.
"You think he actually got something?" Junichi looked up to see the blog writer standing beside him and looking down at his camera.
"Only one way to find out." After a few moments of thought, he finally remembered the other guy's name; Sano Somethingorother. He had seen the guy at various idol events, and he was not quite as creepy as most of the older men who had an interest in pretty younger girls who made a living at it, not that it meant much.
"Okay…" Junichi brought up the folders of pictures on the view screen of his camera. Clicking on a random picture among the dozens of files was a mistake; the picture that came up was an up-skirt picture focusing on what looked to be white Hello Kitty panties. Clicking through various other files resulted in more pictures of similar subjects ranging from thong and bikini panties with the odd boob and butt shot thrown in.
"For the love of the gods," Sano spoke up after Junichi had brought up a picture of literal granny panties en situ that made both men throw up a little in their mouths. "Just sort the files by date/time order, the last picture taken will be first in line." Flushing slightly, the writer did as he suggested. Clicking on the file, they looked closely at the screen only to flinch back, although not for the same reason as the previous pictures.
That asshole overweight photographer had almost literally jammed the camera into the mystery girl's face before taking the picture; as a result it was an extreme close up. The picture was such that there was no way they could tell what the girl looked like, as all that could be seen were wide blue eyes, some strands of blonde hair, and a white surgical mask like her guardian had been wearing. But as they said, the devil was in the details.
The girl had not expected to have a picture taken, that was obvious. And flash photography was normally not taken at a range of 10 centimeters from the subject's face. Which explained why the blue eyes had dilated red pupils as a result of the flash reflecting off her retinas in the centers of her irises, looking like something out of a horror movie. But that was literally the cherry on the cake, as the girl's white surgical mask had a wide smile drawn on it with red ink, made to look as though she had a grinning mouth full of jagged bloody red teeth stretching from ear to ear.
"Okay, that's not publishable," Junichi muttered. Copying the picture to internal memory, he ejected the purloined SD card from the digital camera and after tucking the device away pulled out his butane lighter. Holding the chip carefully with his fingertips, he ran the flame over it, turning it into an unreadable melted mess before tossing it into the trash can.
"So what now?" Sano's question made him look up from the cigarette he was lighting. Puffing on the smoke the other man though for a moment before replying.
"Continue on the story, I guess," Junichi replied. "I have a couple more clues about this girl now than I did this morning. I'm more than a little curious now beside the assignment."
"Clues? Like what?" Sano was visibly interested.
"This girl has natural blonde hair and blue eyes. She speaks English like an American and fluent Japanese. She has a connection to the Catholic Church. And she has a yakuza-type guard," Junichi finished saying.
"You really think he's yakuza?" Sano's eyes had gotten wider behind the thick glasses.
"Not really, but he scared off those two talent scouts, and they almost certainly had criminal connections." Sano nodded in agreement.. "Like I said, now I'm curious," stated Junichi.
"Mind some help with your story?" The writer looked surprised at the question.
"Why are you so into this?" If the other man was just another otaku fan of idol girls he did not want to have anything to do with him. Junichi was as much a fan of pretty girls as any man, but he preferred them of legal age at least, and certainly more physically developed.
"You did hear the girl sing, right?" The blogger raised an eyebrow. "Plus we're at the church where the singing was recorded, so what are the chances it could happen again?"
"True," Junichi allowed. "But how are we going to hear it? The church is closed to the public right now."
"You don't have to be close to hear." Smiling slightly, Sano drew a digital audio recorder from a bag he had slung across his shoulder. Plugging a microphone into the device, the man then attached what Junichi recognized as a parabolic pick-up to the mike. Pushing a button on the device, Sano pointed the mike at a tree across the street and birdsong could be heard through an external speaker on the recorder.
"Is that legal?" Junichi did not want to have anything to do with this if it was not, especially after what had happened to the overweight pervert that had taken that photo.
"As long as we are in a public place, and the sound could be overheard without trespassing or placing instruments in a place where people expect privacy, it's legal enough." Seeing the doubt on the other man's face Sano continued. "Sounds and noise coming through an open window are not expected to be private." He pointed the parabolic mike at an open stained glass window on the side of the church and all that could be heard was faint murmurs. "What I'm interested in is the singing, not anything else."
"Okay then." Seeing that his cigarette had almost gone out, Junichi pulled out a new one and lit it. "We'll see what happens."
"Hear, actually." Sano grinned, and Junichi scoffed at his words, puffing away as the two men waited.
Sarah was rubbing her eyes for a few moments once they were inside the church doors after she had pushed back the hood of her cloak and removed her surgical mask. The rubbing really was not doing her much good to clear up her vision besides causing weird geometric shapes to form behind eyelids, but anything to let her see again.
"Good morning, Sarah-san. It's good to see you again." A familiar voice spoke, and it only took a few moments for the blonde girl to recognize it.
"Good morning Sister Agnes. I wish I could say the same, but I am still seeing spots before my eyes." Sarah lowered her hands from her face, and after blinking furiously for a few seconds was able to make out the people around her. Keitaro was standing off to her side, some guy wearing a black business suit and shirt with a priest's collar was on the opposite side, and the elderly nun was standing before her.
"Yes, Keitaro-san told me what happened. A very unpleasant individual, I'm afraid," Sister Agnes remarked.
"Not as unpleasant as what I think happened after. I heard a cracking sound before the idiot dropped his camera. That sound what I think it was, Do- Keitaro-san?" Sarah caught herself from using her casual form of address to her guardian, as she was sure the nun would not approve.
"Probably. He was certainly in a hurry to leave." Sarah glanced over at Keitaro, who had put on his regular glasses after pulling off his own surgical mask and dark shades.
"Cracking sound?" The younger girl's vision had now recovered to the point where she could see the curiosity on the nun's face.
"Keitaro-san grabbed the guy's hand when he shoved that camera at my face. I'm pretty sure his grip was a lot stronger than that guy would expect." Given that Sarah had seen her sensei crack walnuts by clenching them with one hand, it was a fairly safe statement.
"I'm sorry to hear that." Funny, Sister Agnes did not look too sad when she said that however. "Sarah-san, Keitaro-san this is Father Wesley Wyndham-Pryce from England, he is one of the associate pastors assigned to this cathedral." She gestured to the sandy haired European priest standing next to her who had a frown on his face. Whether it was directed at her or at Keitaro she was not sure, but Sarah was already starting to not like the guy on general principle.
"Good morning, Father." Sarah gave a medium bow, who returned it with a rather stiff head bow with the frown still on his face. Keitaro had given a slight bow toward the cleric, who had seemed not to have seen it. Yep now it was official; the guy was an asshole.
"May I ask why you are dressed like that, Sarah-san?" The nun's question caused the blonde girl to pause for a moment before replying.
"If you're talking about the gakuran uniform, I found that it's more comfortable and warm than the girl's fuku uniform in winter conditions." Sarah stated. "I checked the school rules and so long as I wore an approved school uniform I was allowed to wear either. Keitaro-san gave me written permission to take to school and everything's worked out OK."
"And the cape?" Sister Agnes asked.
Here Sarah smiled. "The cape I got as a joke at first. I was warned about the Dark Side in my training and since I wear a dark gi and hakama when I practice, I thought it fit. I can also use it in cold weather, and it helped to cover me up right now when I walked through that crowd outside."
"Dark Side? Training?" The priest finally spoke, the frown on his face deepening.
"Yeah, Keitaro-san is training me in Urashima-ryu, his family's martial arts style." Although she was not specifically prohibited from doing so, Sarah did not mention that she was getting chi training from her guardian, because usually one of two things would probably happen; they would ask her to demonstrate, which was not a good idea at her level of training, or they would just flat out not believe her. As it was, Nyamo was the only other person besides the Urashima and Seta that knew about it, and for right now she was alright with that. "And the Dark Side? Haven't you guys seen the Star War movies?" Both the priest and the nun shook their heads. "Surely you guys don't just pray all the time?"
"We don't, as you say, pray all the time, but we normally don't watch popular entertainment like TV or movies either." Sister Agnes replied. "Most of our non-religious entertainment is reading or listening to music." The nun gestured toward the doors behind her. "Or singing, as it were. If you will follow me, I will take you to the choir, Chouko-san is practicing there." Sister Agnes gestured toward the nave of the church and walked through the doors with Sarah and Keitaro following behind her and the priest silently bringing up the rear.
Walking down the main aisle of the church toward the altar, they could see a small group of people standing and sitting around a section of raised seating off to the side that was surrounded by railing. There were three or four women ranging in age from their thirties to their fifties sitting in the enclosed section looking through papers they were holding in their hands, while there was one younger woman standing and facing a dark complexioned man who was wearing a priest's suit. Off to the side there was a third man sitting in one of the pews, watching the choir members but otherwise not doing anything else.
As the group got to the midway point of the aisle the girl facing the priest started singing and for once Sarah was the one to come to a halt. The lyrics were in Latin, but given that there were quite a few root words from the classical language in both English and Spanish, which as a Cali girl she was familiar with, she could understand some of it.
Listening to the girl singing, Sarah was beginning to understand what people were saying when they talked about her own singing. The blonde could feel shivers running down her spine, but not to the same extent as when she would hear her mother Cynthia sing in church or that night in the back yard after her grandfather had passed away.
Sister Agnes had noticed that they were no longer following her and had returned to their side as they stood in the aisle listening. After a few moments Sarah finally spoke up. "What is this song, it sounds familiar but it's not, the words sound different?" she asked quietly.
"It's a different version of the song Ave Maria." Sister Agnes replied softly. "The same melody is used but the words have been changed. In this form it's called Ave Redemptor." After a few moments the nun began to translate the Latin words as the girl ahead of them repeated singing the opening stanza. "Hail the Redeemer Lord Jesus, by whose work Death is defeated, for salvation has now overflowed upon all of the world." Sarah nodded but otherwise stayed silent until the girl finished singing, then continued walking, the group following.
Coming to a halt a couple of steps away from the young singer Sarah waited until Sister Agnes stepped up beside her and started speaking to the priest before her. "Good morning Father Pablo, can we have a moment?"
"Of course." The priest turned to look from the nun to the blonde girl beside her with a smile on his face. "Good morning, how can I help you, Miss?"
"Father Pablo, this is Sarah McDougal, you did not get the chance to formally meet the last time she was here." Sister Agnes' understatement was almost mindboggling. "Sarah-san, this is Father Pablo de la Cruz, he is another of the priests assigned to the cathedral, the assistant pastor in fact."
Sarah turned so she was facing the priest squarely and gave a medium bow before speaking. "Buenos dias, Padre Pablo. It is good to meet you."
"You speak Spanish?" The smile on the priest's face had gotten wider.
"Poquito." Sarah shrugged. "I grew up in California and went to a church with mostly Mexican parishioners and listened to Mass in Spanish, so I know enough to get by. A lot of kids at school were Hispanic too, so I learned a lot by listening to them talk." Granted most of the time it was so she could hear if they were ragging on her, but more time than not it was them making fun of her looks. The nickname they had given her was La Guera– Blondie, pronounced we-dah – which was not too bad. The more insulting names had a fist introduced into the speaker's face, which did not make the school administrators or her uncle happy. "I figured with your name you were Hispanic."
"I'm from the Philippines, but Spanish is one of our main languages there besides English and Tagalog." The priest spoke Japanese with a faint accent. "Why did you go to Spanish Mass, if you don't mind my asking? Did you not have another church to go to?"
"My family didn't have much of a choice, the pastor of the church that we lived closest to didn't approve of us much. Something about my mom 'living in sin' and 'refusing to repent'." Seeing the smile fade from the priest's face Sarah kept speaking. "Mom wasn't sorry about having me and wasn't about to beg forgiveness for it, so we didn't have much to do with him. When it was a religious holiday that we would go to Mass for like Easter or Christmas, we would go to a Spanish church on the other side of the lake. Padre Ricardo and his parish welcomed us with open arms." Almost literally, once they realized how well Cynthia could sing. They would nearly drag her to the pulpit to have her sing religious hymns, and after a while her mother had learned Spanish religious songs as a way to thank them for letting their family attend their services.
"I'm sorry to hear that happened, it should not have." Everyone turned at the sound of the voice behind them to see the man that had been sitting in the pews had stood up and walked up behind them. "That was very un-Christian of that pastor to do."
"Yeah, he always struck me to be one of those fire-and-brimstone preachers you see in the movies than one of the more forgiving types." Sarah blinked at the sight of the grey haired man; he was also wearing a priest's outfit, but he had a purple sash wrapped around his waist that then hung toward the floor. He was the first Catholic priest she had seen in this country that was Japanese rather than a foreign national; she also noticed that every religious person in sight, including the singers, almost came to attention when he approached.
"Sarah-san, this is His Excellency The Most Reverend Peter Ikeda, the Bishop and Prelate of Yokahama Diocese." Sister Agnes made the introduction. "Your Excellency, this is Sarah McDougal and her guardian Keitaro Urashima."
"We've met before, just not formally." Keitaro said and smiled. He gave a medium bow toward the cleric, with Sarah following suit a moment later. Once the pair straightened up the blonde girl stayed silent even as she gazed at the bishop; she was still trying to wrap her mind around his title and failing miserably. The mental gymnastics most have been visible on her face as the cleric continued speaking.
"Sarah-san, I am happy to finally meet you face-to-face, I didn't get the opportunity last time you were here." Confusion appeared on her face now. "I was privileged to hear you sing," the bishop explained.
"Ah." Sarah shifted slightly on her feet. "I'm glad to hear that…um, Bishop Peter?"
The bishop's lips twitched into a small smile even as the other clerics winced. The English priest went into a deeper scowl while the Filipino priest looked somewhat amused. Sister Agnes looked resigned while giving her a look that silently proclaimed she had screwed up somehow. Meanwhile the lay people around them were trying not to cringe at the American girl's verbal faux pas.
Keitaro spoke up. "Sarah-kun, the correct form of direct address for a Catholic bishop is 'Your Excellency'." Her guardian did not look upset per se, but he did not look too happy either.
"Sorry, Your Excellency. My mistake." Sarah gave a quick bow of apology toward the bishop, who waved it off.
"It's not a problem, Sarah-san. Most people aren't familiar with the formal forms of address we use." The bishop paused for a moment. "I was given to understand you are part of the Church?"
"Technically, I guess," Sarah replied. "I was baptized into the Church, but like I said my family only went to church on the major religious holidays." Because of the pastor of their parish. She had never directly interacted with the old priest, but she had seen him around town every once in a while and the judgmental looks he would give to her mom – and her - definitely put him on her shit list.
"More than one person has said that the Catholic Church is like the American Mafia; once you're in, it's forever." The bishop was smiling as he said this, softening the impact of the words. "You are always welcome to join us here for prayers and services, Sarah-san. Especially with your marvelous singing."
"Thank you, Your Excellency." Sarah have a minor bow, deliberately not committing herself to anything. Being the center of attention for such this large group of people was still uncomfortable, even if it was not as much as it usually was with strangers. She flicked her eyes toward Keitaro, who immediately picked up on the silent message in them.
"I'm sorry we interrupted your choir practice, but we came to speak with one of your singers." Keitaro's words caused Sister Agnes to step forward.
"Keitaro-san, Sarah-san, I would like to introduce you to Chouko Yamaguchi, one of the secretaries here at the cathedral." The nun motioned to the young woman she was standing next to. Dressed in a plain white long sleeved blouse and calf-length dark blue skirt, she looked to be wearing another form of a school uniform even though she was in her mid twenties and therefore not of that age. Her black hair was pulled back in a collar length pony tail with bangs swept to one side across her forehead; slightly shorter than Sarah, the girl looked to be a few kilos overweight with faint acne across her face under oversized red framed glasses. But what really drew attention was her eyes; instead of focusing on a person or an object they kept moving, apparently unable to stay fixed on anything for very long. "She is also the best singer we have in the choir here."
"You are too kind, Sister Agnes." Chouko's voice was husky, not a surprise given she had been singing in the alto range earlier. But she also spoke softly, just loud enough to be heard and understood.
"Chouko-san, Sarah-san and Keitaro-san would like to speak with you about a video." The girl nodded even though she visibly shrank slightly. "I will be with you if you like." The girl nodded again. The nun looked around at all the people gazing at them curiously. "Let's step off to the side here for some privacy." Leading the way Sister Agnes walked over to the other side of the nave to where the portrait of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus was located, Chouko, Sarah and Keitaro following.
Once they had come to a halt and were facing each other again, Sister Agnes nodded toward Keitaro, who took it as his cue to speak. "Chouko-san, I am given to understand that you post videos on YouTube under the name 'ChurchCatLady'. The younger woman nodded, her gaze avoiding his. "Usually these are about cats you come across on the street. You don't have a cat of your own?" he asked softly.
"No. My mother has respiratory problems, and cat hair makes it worse." Chouko's eyes still stayed averted even as she spoke. The older girl's actions were ringing a faint bell in the back of Sarah's head, but she did not know why at the moment.
"Then the other day you recorded Sarah-kun as she was singing here in the cathedral and posted it online." Chouko nodded but stayed silent again. "May I ask why you did so?"
"Because her singing was so pretty." Chouko's voice still stayed soft as she spoke. "It made me really happy to hear her sing, and I thought other people would be happy if they heard her sing too." The girl's eyes were fixed on the ground, and her posture and behavior was becoming more familiar to Sarah. "But then all the people started saying mean things about Sarah-san, and it made me feel really bad, I didn't want her to be made fun of like they do me."
Understanding dawned as Sarah realized what Chouko reminded her of. Looking over she caught Keitaro's gaze and tilted her head slightly. Recognizing what she was silently saying he nodded. "Sister Agnes, Chouko-san, please give Sarah-kun and I a moment." The two women nodded and Keitaro and Sarah stepped away, moving toward the altar and coming to a halt just short of it.
"Keitaro-san, you've noticed that Chouko-san acts kinda weird, right?" Her guardian nodded silently and Sarah continued speaking. "I think I figured out what's up with her. We had kids like her in school back in the States and the way she talks and acts is a lot like them. I think she's got Aspergers Syndrome." Seeing her guardian frown slightly in confusion she continued. "The whole deal is called autism and people with Aspergers are usually on the high functioning end of it. It's a developmental disorder, people who have it think and talk different even though they still have normal or better intelligence and memory. They usually have trouble interacting with other people socially, the only good part about it is that they tend to really good at certain things, like math or building stuff, or having a photographic memory, or…" Here Sarah tilted her head toward the young woman and elderly nun standing a short distance away, "music."
"And you are bringing this up for what reason?" There was no censure on Keitaro's face as he asked the question, just curiosity.
"Because cracking down on Chouko-san would be like kicking a puppy, she probably only cares about cats and singing," replied Sarah. "She's caught enough crap in school from bullies and idiots, she doesn't need any more of that."
"I wasn't going to be harsh with her if I could help it, you know that." Keitaro had detailed three plans on how to approach the person who posted the video of Sarah singing while they had still been in the car. Plan A was to start off politely, Plan B was to be firmer but still respectful, and Plan C would have been to be civil but only just so before bringing up talk of legal action. Plan D was unspoken but still an option… unleashing Kaolla Su and her MolMolTech onto any copy of the video recording online, which would probably would become very public and very messy.
"Yeah, but I figured you didn't know about her condition, and that affects how we deal with her." Sarah took a deep breath before releasing it. "Let me take the lead on this."
"You sure?" Keitaro raised an eyebrow as he spoke.
"I think I know how to talk to her. Or at least what to talk to her about," Sarah replied, trying to look more confident than she actually felt.
"Very well." The pair turned and walked back to the waiting women, only this time Keitaro was the one standing slightly behind Sarah when she started to speak.
"Chouko-san, you like singing, don't you? I can tell by the look on your face a few minutes ago." Sarah was standing just outside arm's reach in front of the other girl, but her gaze kept move so it was anywhere but focused on the American girl. That being said, the blonde could remember the look of joyfulness on her face as the older girl had being singing the religious hymn.
"Yes. It is one of the few things I am good at, along with cooking. I am too clumsy and slow to be around most people." Sadness appeared on the faces of Sister Agnes and Keitaro while Sarah tried to keep her face non-expressive as Chouko talked. "For a long time all I would do when I was not working here at the cathedral or at school was to take care of my mother, but then Sister Agnes heard me singing during a Mass and invited me to join the choir. I've been doing that for five years now."
"My mom was the one to teach me how to sing, mostly by me copying what she did." Sarah replied. "Sometimes she would sing around the house, but most of the time I heard her sing was in church. It's some of the best memories I still have of her."
"Memories? She isn't with you anymore?" Chouko's gaze flicked up to Sarah's face for a long moment before looking away.
"My mom passed away about three years ago. Ovarian cancer." Sarah answered shortly. "She had my adoptive father, Noriyasu Seta, take custody of me."
"I am sorry to have brought up bad memories." Chouko bowed in apology, but Sarah waved it off.
"No it's alright, I wouldn't have mentioned it if it was an issue." Sarah paused for a moment then continued talking. "There are a couple of things I wanted you to know though. The first is I have issues about singing in public because of some bad experiences I've had." Chouko cringed a little at the words. "The second is that you took that video and posted it online without my permission and a lot of the comments aren't polite." This time the older girl winced and shrunk down slightly.
"I don't blame you for the comments, I'm pretty sure you didn't see that coming." That was the literal truth; given that all of Chouko's other videos were cat based with a few comments from other cat fans, she probably didn't have that much experience with internet griefers and trolls. "But that is water under the bridge and all that. What I wanted to do now is ask you to help me resolve this issue. Can you do that for me, Chouko-san?"
"Of course, I will do what I can," the older girl immediately replied. Sister Agnes looked at Sarah with some wariness in her eyes but otherwise stayed silent. Keitaro stayed silent as well, an impassive look on his face.
"As much as I would like to pull the video offline, it really isn't possible. There's probably copies of it out there already, and if we pull the original video we lose all copyright protection to it." Here Sarah paused for a moment. Keitaro nodded slightly in approval and she continued. "What we can do is delete and lock out comments to the video and put a notice on the description that it can't be used for profit or posted on other sites without legal permission. We'll leave it on your account so you still get the hits and credit for it." There was something else Chouko would get out of it, but that could wait until later.
"Legal permission? I don't know anything about that," Chouko protested.
"Fortunately, I have people on my side who can deal with that." Sarah could see Keitaro's lips twitch slightly at that comment. "And I also have tech people to do this for you." A question now appeared in Keitaro's eyes, but Sarah shot a look back that said 'trust me' and he stayed quiet. "So do I have your permission to do what I just talked about, Chouko-san?" The older girl nodded. "In this case I need to hear you say that out loud that I have permission to change your video's comments and settings."
"Yes, you have my permission you change my video's comments and setting." Chouko repeated back to her.
Sarah then turned toward the nun. "Sister Agnes, does this sound fair and reasonable to you? I'm not going to do anything to hurt or embarrass Chouko-san."
The nun visibly thought about it for a moment before replying. "Yes, it sounds fair." Keitaro nodded slightly in approval again.
"Okay then." Pulling out her mobile phone, Sarah brought up the text message app and after hitting the voice-to-text button spoke aloud. "Su-chan this is Sarah-kun, I need your help with techie stuff, can you call me in the next few minutes?" the blonde hitting 'send' after checking that the message had transcribed properly. Leaving her phone out as she expected a quick reply, Sarah had just pulled her tablet out of her satchel when the phone rang; she immediately answered the call and put the phone to her ear. "Su-chan? Can you talk? Okay, I'm putting you on speaker."
"Heyas Sarah-chan! What can I do for you?!" The exuberant voice of the islander girl rang out from the phone's speaker.
"Su-chan, I talked to the girl who posted the video. She agreed to do what you and I talked about last night." The previous evening the pair had discussed what Sarah could legally do about the video, resulting in what she had just outlined. "Do you think you can walk us through it?"
"I can do better! You have my tablet?" Su asked. "Have her logon to the website and then stop, I will get my laptop and link up with it to do rest."
After Sarah turned on the MolMolTech tablet and had let Chouko-san log onto her YouTube account, the four stood and watched as settings changed and text appeared on the screen almost too fast to follow without any manipulation from the girl holding the device, faint clicking sounds coming from the speaker as Su typed.
While the changes went on someone spoke up, curiosity on his face. "Su-chan, this is Keitaro. What did your teacher have to say about you leaving in the middle of class?"
"Heyas Keitaros! Teachers no say anything, used to me doing that when I get new idea. They don't want me in classroom to start working on it there." Both Keitaro and Sarah winced at the thought of Su working on one of her brainstorms in a classroom while Sister Agnes and Chouko looked confused.
"Okie-dokie, changes made to video, it is set in separate channel with comments deleted and locked out." Su's voice came from the speaker about sixty seconds later. "Also have set comments on cat videos to Moderate and Profanity Filter is on. Put in standard legal copyright warning on your videos, also set separate email address for inquiries." The screen changed one more time, resulting in a page with the text 'Confirm Changes?' and a green button marked 'Save' and a red button marked 'Cancel.'"Ready to save changes, Sarah-chan?"
"One more thing, Su-chan. Can you link and monetize these videos?" asked Sarah.
"Sure." The 'Confirm Changes' page backed out, then another page of setting appeared, with various subject options available to be clicked. "What kind of ads you want?"
"Chouko-san, what kind of cooking are you good at?" Sarah asked the other girl, who looked surprised at the question.
"Making bento lunches. Making figurines out of food. I earn some extra money sometimes making lunches for others." Chouko replied.
"You hear that, Su-chan?" Typing sounds could be heard on the phone speaker again.
"Okay. Set 'bento lunches' and 'food art and figurines' as primary interests. And cats." Some more typing and the 'Confirm Changes' page appeared again. "All set, Sarah-chan! You want to do the honors?" The green button began to blink.
"I think someone else should do it." Sarah turned the tablet so it was facing Chouko, who was now blinking rapidly behind her oversized red glasses. "Go ahead, push the green button." The older girl hesitated and glanced over at Sister Agnes, who gave her an encouraging nod. The girl then reached out and with a shaking finger tapped the green button on the screen, and a new screen came up with the words 'Changes Saved.'
"Okay, everything done. Going to video page now." The view on the screen changed to the public page the video was on. The comments were missing and there was now a brief description in both English and Romanji text; mystery girl singing at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Yokahama. What was completely new was that there was a fifteen second video ad for cat toys that played before the video of Sarah singing started to play.
At that point the blonde hit the 'stop' button, resulting in disappointed looks on Sister Agnes' and Chouko's faces. "Everything looks good Su-chan. Thanks for your help. We owe you one," Sarah said at the phone speaker.
"Funny you say that, Sarah-chan, I already have idea what I ask for," came the response from the phone.
The girl was not filled with confidence at those words. "Yeah, like what?"
"I give you choice. You either spar with me," Sarah cringed at the thought; the blonde islander girl was much better at fighting than she was with moves like a mongoose, "or you sing for everyone at Hinata-sou." Here Sarah did wince.
"Let me think on it would you Su-chan?" the blonde asked plainitively.
"Sure Sarah-chan, but if you take too long I make you sing in sexy bunny girl or cat girl suit." Sarah grimaced at the thought. "And I invite Aki-san to watch."
"Okay, Okay! I'll tell you when you get home tonight." Sarah glanced over at Keitaro, who was trying very hard to suppress a smile. "We have to get going, we'll talk later. Bye, Su-chan."
"Bai bai, Sarah-chan!" With a click the call disconnected and Sarah put away her electronics only to look up when someone else spoke.
"Sarah-san, what is this 'monetization' you were speaking of?" There was a slight frown on Sister Agnes' face.
"You remember how there was an advertisement just before the video played?" The older woman nodded. "Well, advertisers pay to have their ads played before posted videos on that site, something like five yen per viewing. If enough people watch the video and the ad before it, the person who posted it will get a few bucks in revenue. With all the people watching the video, it can result in some pocket change for you." Sarah glanced over at Chouko, who had a slight frown on her face, visibly thinking. The blonde decided to cut the explanation off at that point; either Chouko would not get much money out of the ads or she would get a pleasant surprise somewhere down the line. "Anyways, that's it for the video. Is there anything else?
"You are going to sing? I thought you had problems singing in front of people." To everyone's surprise it was Chouko who asked the question.
"I have problems singing in front of lots of people or total strangers," explained Sarah. "The people Su-chan wants me to sing for are our roommates at the Hinata Dorm, where we live. I've done it before for them, I just don't do it often."
"Do you think you can sing for us again here?" Seeing the look that formed on Sarah's face, Chouko kept speaking. "You were very pretty singing the other day, and you already know most of the people here today."
The blonde gave an appraising look at the other girl as she thought about her request. She was pretty sure Chouko did not mean to word her previous statement about her singing the way that she did; she seemed to be rather sheltered and did not realize it could be construed as a come-on. Her justifications for asking her to sing again were fairly weak, but she did not want to refuse her after not giving her any trouble about the video. And as much as she did not want to admit it as she gazed at her, the hopeful Anime Eyes™ she was giving her behind her oversized red rimmed glasses were making it hard to say 'no'."
"Okay, but on one condition. Well, two really." Both Chouko and Sister Agnes looked surprised and pleased at her response, but still curious. "One, no more recordings." Both the nun and the older girl nodded agreement, Chouko at a much faster speed. "Two, you have to sing with me."
Chouko's eyes got even bigger. "I am not as good a singer as you are, Sarah-san!"
"You were pretty damn good a few minutes ago, Chouko-san." Sarah could see Sister Agnes frown slightly at her language, but otherwise did not say anything. "The only person I heard singing that sent shivers down my spine like that was my mom," Sarah stated.
For some reason that statement did not make Chouko happy; she looked like she wanted to say something but was reluctant to do so. After a few moments thought and a glance at Sister Agnes, who gave her an encouraging nod, she finally spoke. "I am… not that good a singer… on my own," the older girl said hesitantly. "What I can do is imitate what other people can do, not do it on my own."
"Imitate? All singing is imitating, unless you come up with an entirely new melody and lyrics." Sarah was frowning slightly as she spoke, not understanding the problem.
After another glance at and nod from Sister Agnes, Chouko spoke again, only this time her voice was completely different… it was almost a dead ringer for the nun's voice, with only a slight difference in resonance. "I can imitate almost anyone's voice I hear." A pause for a few moments, then her voice changed to match Keitaro's, again with only a slight difference but with masculine intonations and pronouns. "All I have to do is listen to them for a few minutes and I can copy their voice."
Another pause and change and now Chouko was speaking in Sarah's soprano voice. "The more I listen to a voice speaking or singing, the closer I can get to imitating them. If I listen to a recording of a song several times and practice, I can get fairly close."
"Holy hell, that was trippy." Sarah was taken aback; it had been as though she had been listening to a recording of her own voice, complete with the slight differences that came from hearing the sounds come from another source. She noticed that Sister Agnes had frowned again, only much deeper and after a moment's though realized it was because of her language. She also noticed that Chouko had cringed slightly, as though she expected Sarah to have a bad reaction to hearing her imitate her voice. Thinking on it, the blonde realized that most people would not react well to hearing someone mimic them so closely.
Turning toward Sister Agnes, Sarah have a medium deep bow toward the nun. "Please forgive me for my language, Sister." The nun nodded in acknowledgment but otherwise stayed quiet. The blonde then turned toward the older girl. "And Chouko-san, don't worry about it. Unless you are doing to it to insult or make fun of me, you copying my voice doesn't bother me." A quick glance at Keitaro showed no sign of his being bothered by his voice being imitated either. "If you are imitating people you've heard when you are singing, who were you basing it on when you were singing a few minutes ago?"
"I can combine different people when I am actually singing. Most of the religious songs I do are based on recordings or performances I hear." Chouko hesitated for a moment. "Some of what I was doing was based on your own performance here the other day."
Sarah paused in thought; now that she thought about it there had been some elements in Chouko's earlier performance that was similar to the way she sang, but it had not been that obvious. "As long as you don't do a full-on copy of me singing, I don't care. Like I said you were doing a good job of singing a few minutes ago."
"Thank you, Sarah-san." Chouko bowed as she spoke.
"That being said, is there anything else we need to do, Keitaro-san?" Sarah turned to look at her guardian.
"We're done, but I think they still want to talk to you." Keitaro tilted his head toward the singers and clerics standing on the other side of the church, most of them looking back at them with intense curiosity.
"I suppose. Let's go back then." Sarah glanced over to see that Sister Agnes and Chouko were ready to leave and then walked back across the church next to her guardian toward the group, the two women following behind them.
"I trust everything worked out, Sarah-san?" The bishop was the first to speak.
"Yep, reset the video, got rid of the comments." Sarah glanced around at the people now looking at her, and while curiosity was still on their faces, the expression on the English priest's face was still not happy; she was starting to wonder what his problem was. "Now that everything is squared away, I'm going to pay Chouko-san back by doing her a favor; I'm going to sing with her." With those words everyone perked up. "I just ask that I not be recorded again." Like before everyone nodded in agreement.
"Are you going to sing the same song as last time?" Father Pablo asked curiously.
"Noooo, that would not be a good idea." Sarah shook her head. "That song means a lot to me and I might get overly emotional and pass out again." Her chi usage was on a need-to-know and these people did not need to know. "There's some songs I remember my mom practicing, I'm pretty sure those will work."
"Your mother practiced singing? Was she a professional singer?" Sister Agnes was the next to ask a question.
"Not really. The only time I know of that she accepted money for singing was when Padre Ricardo asked her to sing for a special Mass they were having when I was about ten years old, one where the service was in Latin instead of Spanish. I think they called it a… Trident service?" Sarah asked with a puzzled look on her face. "She had to practice for two weeks for that one."
"A Tridentine Mass." The bishop was the one to answer Sarah's question. "It's also known as a Solemn Mass. It was the original full ceremonial Mass with full vestments and incense that was done until the 1960s, when the Pope authorized that Mass be said in the language of the people attending it."
Sarah frowned. "So Mass was said in a language that most people didn't understand?"
"Most Catholics in that time understood Latin as used in the Mass, even if they could not use it themselves. The sermon was still in the common language though." The bishop looked at Sarah curiously. "Why did your mother not take you to Mass more often, if I may ask?
"Because she worked in a store where she almost always had to work on Sunday, especially in the summer when all the tourists came to Lake Tahoe." Sarah explained. "The days we went to Mass were the big holidays when the store would be closed. We also had to drive for an hour around the lake to get to that church. For that Latin Mass she had to take the day off from work, that's why she accepted the pay."
"I see." The bishop glanced around at all the clerics, some unspoken conversation going on between them. "Have you completed your sacraments?"
"Sacraments? What are those?" Sarah's question caused all the religious people to wince.
"They are rites observed by members of the Catholic Church that confirms our Lord's Grace upon us." The bishop replied. "In the Church's case they are baptism, confirmation, communion, reconciliation, marriage, holy orders, and anointing of the sick."
"Ah." Sarah looked slightly confused at all that. "In my case I guess it's just baptism, my mom couldn't get much beyond that done."
"Why?" Father Pablo looked shocked at her words.
"Because I was officially a member of the parish with the pastor that didn't like my mom. People couldn't jump from one parish to another to get these 'sacraments' done, you had to get permission from your home parish. In our case mom wasn't about to talk to that guy if she could help it. As it was Padre Ricardo caught static from the diocese about doing my grandfather's and mother's funerals." All the clerics now had thunderous looks on their faces by the time she finished speaking. "Padre Ricardo told that old pastor to go… mind his business by the end of it." Sarah was not say aloud what she was previously going to, especially in front of the bishop and Sister Agnes. "Which reminds me, I need to write him and tell him how everything's going, I think I can look up his mailing address online."
"I'm sure he will be happy to hear from you." The anger on Sister Agnes' face had faded somewhat. "So you are going to do religious songs in Latin now?"
"Yeah. My mom was singing those songs so much, trying to memorize the words and pronunciations, that I was singing along with her by the end of it." Sarah had a faint smile on her face at the memory of it. "I should still have most of it right."
"Then by all means, please go ahead Sarah-san." The bishop motioned toward the choir box, and was surprised to see Sarah shake her head.
"If you don't mind…" Sarah gestured toward the head of the aisle before the altar, and after a moment the bishop nodded in reply. At that point the blonde walked toward the altar, the older girl following behind her.
Once the pair was at the railing, Sarah turned to look at Chouko, who for some reason was looking apprehensive. "Don't worry, you don't have to do this."
"I want to." Determination was written across Chouko's face. "What song are you going to sing?"
"I don't know it by name, I didn't understand most of the words back then," Sarah replied. "I'm going to start, you jump in if you know it, okay?" The other girl nodded and the blonde turned to look back at the altar and the statue of Jesus behind it, trying to ignore the feeling of eyes focused on her from the group by the choir's box. Sarah stayed silent for a few moments bringing up the melody in her mind, then hummed it for a few moments before she began to sing.
Glória in excélsis Deo
et in terra pax homínibus bonae voluntátis.
Sarah was singing differently than she usually did, in a melismatic manner with several drawn out notes of melody in some of the single syllables of the lyrics. Even so it did not take long for Chouko to catch on and join her, her own voice barely a split second behind her.
Laudámus te, benedícimus te, adorámus te, glorificámus te,
Grátias ágimus tibi propter magnam glóriam tuam,
Dómine Deus, Rex cæléstis,
Deus Pater omnípotens.
After a few moments of looking at each other in suprise, the rest of the onlookers gradually joined in with the singing even if in the regular syllabic manner; starting with Sister Agnes.
Dómine Fili unigénite, Jesu Christe,
Dómine Deus, Agnus Dei, Fílius Patris,
qui tollis peccáta mundi, miserére nobis;
qui tollis peccáta mundi, súscipe deprecatiónem nostram.
The bishop was the next to start singing, then Father Pablo, then the choir singers. By that point the only ones not singing was Keitaro, who did not know the song, and Father Wesley, who was simply standing there wide-eyed.
Qui sedes ad déxteram Patris, miserére nobis.
Quóniam tu solus Sanctus, tu solus Dóminus, tu solus Altíssimus,
Jesu Christe, cum Sancto Spíritu: in glória Dei Patris. Amen
Once silence fell on the church, Sarah glanced over her shoulder to see the entire audience staring at her, shock, happiness and admiration obvious. After a few moments Sarah looked at Chouko, who had a rapturous expression on her face.
When the blonde girl held up her raised index finger, Chouko understood that Sarah wanted to sing the next part alone and nodded her acknowledgement.
Turning back to the altar, Sarah focused her memory on one specific melody that her mother would sing when they attended Mass. Once the parishioners at the church were familiar with what Cynthia McDougal could do, rather than sing the response to the priest like they normally would they would all silently mouth the words so they could hear her sing it aloud.
Closing her eyes and thinking of her mother, Sarah sung anew.
Keitaro stayed silent as everyone else sang, using more than his hearing to listen to the music. He knew that Sarah was not using her chi in her singing today, but he could still feel that it was present. What was surprising was where it was coming from; the various people around him singing. In his training he had learned and seen that faith and belief could produce something very close to chi and ki, but this was the first time he could sense it come from non-martial arts or chi trained people.
Senior… ten piedad… de nosotros…
Feeling something close to a static electric shock run through his body, Keitaro's eyes widened as he heard the long drawn out words that his ward was singing. He was so surprised that he almost did not notice Father Pablo repeat the words aloud once Sarah paused.
Cristo… ten piedad… de nosotros…
With Sarah's second verse the clerics and the choir singers all repeated the verse in unison, their eyes fully widened as well as they sang.
Senior… ten piedad… de nosotros…
By the time Sarah finished the last melismatic notes, there were several people who were holding onto various pews and railings, visibly shaken. Keitaro started walking toward the front of the church; even if she was not using her own chi, his ward was tapping into something she had absolutely no training for.
Kyrie… eleison…
The electric shiver returned at hearing the unknown words sung by Sarah, much stronger than before
Kyrie… eleison…
The shiver was now joined by a physical vibration that Keitaro actually felt through his feet from the floor much like an earthquake.
KYRIE…
Keitaro moved…
Sarah was spaced out, remembering her mother singing these words in church. This melody was sung at the beginning of every Mass in Spanish. In the Tridentine Mass Padre Ricardo had used the Greek version for some reason, and Cynthia had replied in kind.
It was not until she had heard the Greek phrase in an American pop song that Sarah asked her mom what the words actually meant, and Cynthia explained it to her. Those phrases both translated to the same thing, Lord, have mercy on us, but hearing them in this form had a much greater effect.
As Sarah was in the middle of singing the verse for the third time a hand suddenly grasped her shoulder in a firm grip, awaking her from her trance. Looking over she could see Keitaro standing beside her, a grave look on his face. "Sarah, that's enough."
Glancing past her guardian, Sarah could see that Chouko was staring at her with her eyes wide open in astonishment. Past her were the clerics and the choir singers, most of them on their knees for some reason and the rest hanging onto whatever they could to stay standing. The bishop was on his feet, if just barely, and Father Pablo and Sister Agnes were on their knees, the former with his open hands in the air in a beseeching prayer position.
Looking back at her guardian Sarah had an expression of shock on her face. "What the hell did I do?"
Junichi was barely able to keep Sano on his feet, the other man staggering as though he was drunk. The pair had been listening to the singing they had been able to pick up through the open church window with the parabolic microphone as Sano listened on a set of headphones, the fangirls all crowded around them listening along with Junichi to the external speaker. But once the last melody had begun, it was as though they had been subjected to both a sustained static electric shock while feeling a mild earthquake at the same time.
When the melody was abruptly interrupted Sano had almost fallen to the ground while ripping his headphones off and the fangirls were stumbling around with one girl having slowly dropped down to her knees. Dragging Sano to a nearby bench, Junichi sat him down before looking around to see the fangirls helping the one that had almost collapsed.
Digging out his pack of smokes, Junichi was barely able to shake out a cigarette. Actually lighting it took half a minute, his hands were shaking so much. Once he had taken a couple of deep drags, the writer looked over at Sano's recorder and saw that it was still running; he had recorded everything.
Reaching over he tapped the stop button before taking another deep drag from his cancer stick, burning it past the midpoint. After a few moments he was able to mutter out loud, "What the hell was that?"
A/N 2: Like I said before, this chapter took way too long. There are several reasons for this: the city housing agency inspected my house again and I spent a lot of time getting ready for it (early readers may remember this happening six years ago), I've been doing more overtime than I would believe possible (averaging two to three hours OT a day for the last month, starting before daybreak) and being dead tired as a result and just how long this chapter turned out to be. I already chopped a couple of ideas out of this chapter and it still ran at about 13,000 words. But with all that being said, I'm kinda satisfied at how it turned out.
Kudos to Ted Hsu, chouritsushi, origamishshou, and Jack Inqu for defining the term Arashikage, Storm Shadow. Extra kudos (or internet brownies) to chouritsushi and origamishshou for getting the Orpheus and Izanami references correct. They both went into Hell (or the lands of the dead to be accurate) to bring back their dead spouses, and failed in the end. Oh and Ted, you've been reading my story for a long time now, why do you not have an account on FF Net? I would respond to your feedback via PM if you did.
This chapter's challenge is to identify who I based Junichi's physical appearance on. His character is not that similar to the original beside the chain smoking, but here is a hint: people who have written stories with this character have sworn that afterwards they have seen the guy in Real Life, in the flesh… which is more than a little freaky. This is a Good Guy… that you don't necessarily want to be close friends with.
For this month SAO plug, I highly recommend watching the Gleam Eyes fight on YouTube. It's one of the best and most suspenseful fights in the series, and the music is literally epic. What I find kinda funny is that Kirito was not the first one to charge in to protect the downed players (the monster was a floor boss that usually needed a full raid/48 players to fight) but that he went in after Asuna charged in screaming rather than see players that she was not even friendly with die because of their idiot commander's mistakes. That being said, the fight wound up with Kirito soloing the boss and being about who could kill their opponent faster than they absorb the damage they were taking. In this case Kirito won… by a sliver.
For those curious about the untranslated songs in this chapter, I'm sure you can find examples of them on YouTube. I wasn't able to find examples that matched Sarah's style of singing, but you will get the gist. Another reason is because I did not want to push religion onto readers beyond what is needed for the story.
One thing I wanted to mention about the American pop song Sarah thought about when she sang those Greek verses at the end, there really is an song titled Kyrie Eleision by the group Mr. Mister. Most people don't think the words are actually a religious verse, and instead mishear it as 'carry a laser', especially when one of the verses goes 'carry a laser down the road that I must travel, carry a laser through the darkness of the night.' :D
Winner of the Most Unusual Place Reading My Story is a little mucked up, due to it being almost three months since my last posting. So in this case I am giving it to Mexico, which has always had a high number of readers, and the Runner Up is Spain, since there is quite a bit of that language in this chapter.
As of 0000 PDT 30Oct17 this story has 421K Words, 892K Views, 1045 Reviews, 1483 Favorites and 1358 Story Alerts.
Thanks again to all my readers, and Happy Halloween! *throws out handfuls of mini-chocolates*