Two days later, it's Sunday, and Makoto still hasn't been home. He's sent Kokomi 3 million messages though, and she's turned off her phone in annoyance.
"Nomi?" She knocks on my bedroom door. I groan loudly in response, my body's protest at the prospect of having to remove myself from my warm bed. "Do you still want to find that man and give him a job opportunity? We can go meet with my friends right now."
My eyes shoot open and I practically jump out of bed, legs getting caught in my sheets in the process. I untangle myself as quickly as possible, calling out a "I'll be right out!" before rushing to change into day-clothes.
Thirty minutes later, I find myself entering a BBQ place.
"Chisato-san!" My sister calls.
"Oh! Teruhashi-san!" A girl's voice replies.
"When's your next break? I'd like to speak with you," Kokomi asks. The girl hums in thought before replying.
"In about ten minutes? The break is only for five minutes, but—"
"No problem, Chisato!" A man's voice, I assume the manager, interrupts. "If an angel wishes to speak with you, you may take all the time you need. Go ahead and sit down."
"But, my wage depends on how long I work—"
"Caring for customers is working, and this is a VIP customer! She deserves the best service. Good for you, Chisato, for working even through your break! I'll give you a bonus this week." The manager shares a winning smile to my sister, who returns a polite smile.
Chisato almost literally bursts from happiness.
"So, Chisato-san. I'm actually here to ask you a fav—"
"Anything, yes." Came the immediate reply.
"Eh? So fast?"
"You got me a bonus. I wouldn't turn you down."
"Oh, thank you. Well, there's a man without a job, and we want to help him out a bit. Could you recommend him to one of your part time jobs?"
"Sure! What does he want to do? I have contacts in construction, tutoring, 5 different ramen shops, 4 different family restaurants, and 2 BBQ places...this one included. I have shifts at some corner stores, and I work the night shift at the cemetery. Those are the only jobs that I could think to get him in on minimal requirements, though. If he doesn't have a criminal record, I could tell him about—"
"Right, well," Kokomi politely interrupts. "Why don't you tell him directly? I've asked Mikoto-san to meet me here so that we can find the man in need."
"Huh? Mikoto-san?" Mera asked. "She's already here. A few booths down, actually."
My sister claps her hands together. "Perfect! Let's go to her, then. C'mon, Nomi."
We climb out of the booth and begin walking.
"By the way, Teruhashi-san, I've been meaning to ask you...is this your sibling?"
My heart jolts, not expecting a sudden recognition. Is it because I'm standing next to Kokomi? But standing next to my siblings usually ensures that I won't be seen. I pretend to yawn in order to hide the fact that I'm avoiding looking at her face.
"Yes, she's my little sister, Nomi." My sister replies, just as we arrive at the new booth.
"Ooo, your li'l sis? Well, hey-ya, Nomi." A new voice says, bouncy and playful. We stop walking and I shuffle my feet. The amount of people that know my name now makes me...uncomfortable. "I'm Aiura Mikoto, but just call me Big Sister!"
"Huh?" Surprised, I look up. The girl has tanned skin, probably fake, and bleached hair. And a lot of bracelets. A warning tingle of a headache begins to pulse and I heed its threat, pulling my attention away from wandering to her face. Instead, I glance vaguely, quickly, over the general images of the other people sitting at the booth.
There's the Kaido person, and Nendo. There's a girl with short brown hair with a pink headband, and there are also two male students with purple hair. One has his hair spiked with a large white hairband while the other has his flattened in a true normal-like fashion.
And then there's also Saiki. He's just sitting there, like there's nothing interesting about this situation at all. Which, I guess it wouldn't be for him, but geez, he's a psychic, not a robot.
Mikoto laughs. She has a really loud laugh. "I kid, I kid! Don't call me your big sis. Hope you don't mind, Kokomi-chan," she turns to my sister, "but everyone tagged along for some BBQ! We managed to ditch Sir Talk-A-Lot, though."
"...Sir Talk-A-Lot?" Kokomi asks.
"Akechi Touma," The girl with the pink headband supplies. Her voice displays moderate disgust for the name. "The weird guy who talks way too much."
I can hear my sister make her perfect smile. "Oh! I remember him. He always has such interesting ideas to share during classes!"
The spiky purple-haired guy with the headband tsks. "I'd never remember the name of some random guy," he sniffs. "But I can name every girl in our school! And the girls from the downtown high school."
He seems oddly proud of that fact.
"Uh-huh," Mikoto examines her nails. "Anyway, you said you needed to find someone?"
"Yes," my sister confirmed. "Could you?"
"Sure!" Mikoto laughs and pulls out a bedazzled crystal ball. "I'm super bored. Nothing like a fantastic display of my power to entertain myself!"
She taps against the glass, as if she were a child attempting to attract the attention of a fish in an aquarium.
"Uh, Kokomi?" I whisper. "What is she doing?"
"She's a fortune-teller, and she's never been wrong. It's a bit like she has superpowers," my sister murmurs back.
A wave of shock goes through me. Powers? This girl?
I can't stop myself—I look at her face.
Immediately, the pounding migraine strikes, and my stomach twists, but I feel like I've grown a sort of tiny tolerance. It's not as bad as it used to be.
"There were a couple people with death marks "Who would you rather" today." "Saiki is a psychic." "My soulmate's initials "date, Reita or Nendo?" start with K and S! It's Saiki!" "She's a little creepy, don't you "She's pretty, but "think?" "trying too hard."
I press against my eyes, hiding my clenched teeth. If I can just manage to take a few deep breaths…
At least the secrets this time were clearer, and less. This girl must not keep a lot to herself.
"I found him," Mikoto announced, slightly monotone, as if now that she's completed her task, she's back to boredom. "53rd west street avenue. Apartment complex EE, floor 5, room number 15. He's home right now, if you guys want to go see him."
"Awesome, I didn't even know you could do that." Said the normal-looking purple haired-guy. They all started slowly getting out of the booth, except for Nendo, who just sat there pretending to drum with the meat-roasting sticks.
"Ahah, well," Mikoto flips her bleached hair. "No one is as good as me when it comes to finding things."
"Apartment complex EE?" Kaido gasped.
We all paused in our movement. I can sense everyone is waiting for Kaido to explain, but all he does is start mumbling to himself. I'm not even looking at him, but the floor seems to begin to seep with a black aura that emanates from his endless murmurs. I think I almost hear something about the Dark Reunion again, and I frown in pity at his delusions.
I figured it out, this kid is just a chuunibyou.
"Kaido-kun," my sister eventually prods gently. "Is there something wrong with the apartment complex?"
"Huh? O-oh, um, no…" Amazing. Almost immediately, the creepy atmosphere changes to one with an embarrassingly bright shade of pink. No one moves for a moment, everyone more than willing to wallow in Kaido's flustering, but when my sister suddenly notices that Saiki has started walking ahead, she rushes after him, and the rest of us follow.
"OYYYY!" Nendo bangs on the apartment door 15. How did he get here before us? I wasn't even aware that he got out of the booth. "Randolf Upward!"
"It's Randy Upwald, idiot," Kaido corrects, though it would probably be a lot more assertive if he weren't desperately gasping for oxygen. We didn't even run that fast…
"He's not going to answer if you act like the police," the normal-looking glasses guy explains logically. He calmly pushes Nendo out of the way and seems to take a moment to compose himself.
Suddenly, he throws his hands into his pockets, juts out his jaw, and snarls, "Oi, you stupid coward, get your sorry behind over here and open this door before I open it for you." His glaring eyes practically pierce the door and he seems to adopt a strange accent. He begins to kick the door with his foot. "And I don' ex'ctly feel like kicking down no doors today, so don' make me do an'thing I don' wan'ta...if ya know what's good for ya."
The shadows that covered his face, causing him to look several levels beyond intimidating, remain for a few moments before receding, leaving his eyes blinking in confusion.
"That's odd," he admits, turning to face everyone. "Usually at this point you'd at least hear them scrambling to jump out the window…"
"K-Kuboyasu-san, if he doesn't open the door for a policeman, I think he'd open it even less for a yakuza…" Kaido almost whispers. He's like a meek rabbit.
"Oh, really?" Kuboyasu brings his hand up to his mouth in thought. "I would think, if you don't like one, you're allied with the other..."
"Maybe he's not home," the girl with the headband offers. "Mikoto-san, can you check if he's still home?"
The blond girl hums and slowly pulls out her crystal ball again. "Sure, Chiyo, I can check again, but...huh?"
Everyone crowds around her.
"What, what is it?" The girl-crazy guy asks impatiently.
"Oh, well, it looks like he's right behind the door. I got confused for a moment, because he looks like an old customer and I thought I was accidentally tracking the wrong person. But anyway!" She sings. "Saiki! Go open that door! But pull it out towards us, because otherwise Randy-san will get hurt!"
I have to admit, I didn't sense anything wrong with her command at first. But when no one moved, I played it through again in my head, and I realized why it was so odd.
"Eh? Saiki?" Kokomi asks, delicate confusion lining her beautiful features. Mikoto seems to awkwardly freeze in her tracks and everyone turns to look at the scrawny pink-haired kid with glasses.
I know he's a psychic, and maybe this girl knows too, but reading minds isn't exactly super strength...this blond girl is an oddity.
"Have no fear, pal! I'll do it!" Nendo cuts in and yanks at the door handle. I didn't expect anything to actually happen, but suddenly the hinges were peeling away from the wall, the wood was making a terrible shredding sound, and everyone instinctively ducked.
When the dust clears, we can see a man sitting in his hallway, eyes wide with shock. "W-Who are you people?!" He cries.
Nendo throws the destroyed door aside and cracks his knuckles, eyes glinting. "We have a question for you."
"No!" Randy shouts, attempting to scramble away. "No! No! If you're here about my failure, go tell Mr. A that he doesn't have the authority to fire me! I'm the founder! The first investor!" Through his speech, he slowly gains confidence and begins to speak with conviction. "I still hold considerable shares in the association, and if Mr. A doesn't overlook my mistake, I'll have some serious words with the man."
Nendo stares at the man with the blankest expression...ever. There's even some drool dripping from his mouth. Oh! Oh geez. I quickly look away from his face, hiding my eyes, but strangely enough, the painful visions never come. Surprised, I risk a glance at his face again, muscles automatically tensing in preparation for the horrible pain...that never comes. Huh.
HUh?
"Who's Mr. A?" Chisato asks. Still distracted and caught off guard because of my lack of headache, I unthinkingly look over at the source of the question. I have to gasp from the feeling of a sledgehammer to my skull and a hollowness in my stomach as visions of her past secrets flit past my eyes. I almost miss Randy's next words from trying to refocus my brain.
"Wait, you guys aren't from the Anti-Idol Association?"
My headache fizzles.
"The Anti-what?" I can't help but blurt, with some unfortunate amusement bubbling the words. The man fixes me with an extremely patronizing look, and it irritates me that I have to look away before I can unnerve him with my unimpressed expression. Seriously, this power is just an endless obstacle.
"The Anti-Idol Association. Founded over a decade ago with the mission to create a more just society. People should not get special privileges just because their face is well-known! Being born with talent should not grant endless money later in life! A single celebrity should not get to have the hearts of hundreds of fans when they can only love one person back!
"No one should have that much power! So I, and a few of my coworkers, pooled our money and created the Association to beat the idols down! To grant fairness where there is not, to invoke justice in the hearts of man, and to...to…uh..."
Ah, it seems my sister has just entered his field of vision.
Randy's speech flutters away, and his cheeks burn a light pink.
"I'm terribly sorry," he whispers. "I will be a better person."
"So it seems that Makoto has been the victim of a terrible evil association."
Kokomi and I are home now, eating dinner and trying to make sense of the day's events. It had been...odd, to say the least.
Randy, after sighting my sister, immediately excused himself and made a few phone calls. We all left before he finished, but in the daily email report from the Kokomin President (National Level) stated that a man named Randy Upwald had just donated a new location for the Kokomins to use as their Tokyo base. Randy practically begged to be allowed to join the fan club, and was only allowed access due to his experience in running that Anti-Idol Association (AIA), which apparently has over 30,000 members.
He is going to work as a full-time Kokomin, now, as one of its most prominent managers.
Losing their main patron and president will probably make it extremely difficult for the AIA to keep running. So, in an oddly indirect yet direct way, my sister just took down an evil association simply by existing.
Good for her.
Kaido had been excited, no, ecstatic, about having interacted with a real-life villain association, and he fangirled for the next two hours about it, until everyone finally parted ways and he went home.
I'm honestly not sure what to think of the whole situation. Normally, I'd laugh. Or maybe just not care at all. I have to fight the urge to call Gina and tell her the whole story.
She's probably still mad at me.
Maybe I should call her, just to, I don't know, talk? Apologize? Though, if I'm honest, I'm not sure what I would apologize for.
...perhaps my harsh words?
Honestly, my life would have been better without this stupid power.
I go to bed, mentally exhausted, but right before I fall asleep, I remember the bedazzled crystal ball, and Kokomi's words.
"she has superpowers"
I dream of chocolate BBQ and a life without headaches.