Chapter 3

Division

Only could Iori imagine how she looked at this moment. Deprivation of sleep and weary muscles undoubtedly took it's tool on her complexion. However, one of the most important aspects of traveling was to adjust her own biological clock with the locale. By the sight outside the airplane window, it was late afternoon. As long as she can keep at it until sundown, she'll wake up bright and early in the morning and be perfectly in-sync with Las Vegas. The others will be up all night and feel terrible tomorrow.

But for now it was going to be a trying few hours.

The entire flight was abuzz with the touchdown in Las Vegas airport. Outside was a warm afternoon sun, so they wouldn't experience the lights of the casinos for another couple of hours. Iori imagined how spectacular it could have been to land with all the neon and bright lights to accompany their landing. Well, that would have to be saved for a later time.

Nothing particularly noteworthy occurred with their landing, other then Azusa being extremely thankful of standing on solid ground once again. The quartet shuffled their way to baggage claim. Being somewhat more cynical than normal, Iori halfway expected some of their things to be missing, but everything eventually turned up. It was of no surprise that it was she who packed the most luggage, but in no way was it unreasonable. If this were a couple years ago, however, she'd need an entire entourage just to carry her stuff. At least she's maturing as she grows older.

This trip was to last five days. Currently it was Tuesday, with the Live on Friday, and they would leave on Sunday. There was a lot of time before the event, but they would surely have a jam-packed schedule. Saturday would be their main day to enjoy the experience of Las Vegas, and until then it was all work.

Or at least, that's how it was all planned.

On their way out of the terminal, there was a man holding the a sign "Ryuuguu Komachi," written in Kanji.

"Oh ho," Iori gleamed, "Takagi spent some money and got us a chauffeur."

"Cool!" voiced Ami.

"Actually," Ritsuko interrupted, "he's an interpreter."

The brightness dimmed in her face.

"He'll be with us the entire trip."

"Konnichiwa," the man over-zealously pronounced.

Perhaps only older then Azusa (who turned 21 not more then a few months ago) by a couple years, was a young man of clear Asian decent. However, his facial characteristics and darker skin placed him as Korean. Buzzed extremely short, his scalp was visible through his black hair. He was of medium build and maybe only 2 or 3 cm shorter then Azusa. Clearly he was a university student, as he was wearing a UNLV sweater over a pair of denim jeans. If he was a professional interpreter, he clearly didn't have a very high rate. It made the young girl wonder just how exactly Takagi found this guy.

"Hello, welcome to America. My name is Richie Young, and I'll be your guide for until Friday."

At least his Japanese was passable, but Iori still had to wonder why this man was here. As he spoke, it was clear that his eyes kept focusing on Azusa and Ritsuko, the two oldest members of the group. The young idol looked between the others in Ryuuguu Komachi, and nobody yet seemed to pick up on this. Azusa stood by quietly and smiled, while Ami didn't really pay much attention to the man and instead was looking everywhere trying to find the casinos they saw on the way in. Ritsuko went forward as if everything was still business.

"Thank you," she bowed, "I'm Akizuki Ritsuko, Producer of the idol group Ryuuguu Komachi." Motioning to each as she made the introductions, "These are Futami Ami, Miura Azusa, and Minase Iori. We are in your care."

"We are in your care," two of the girls said, with only Azusa bowing. Iori said nothing but bowed, electing to keep her silence and observe his actions.

"Well, lets get going and take a look at Las Vegas." Richie led the girls outside the terminal, but as Azusa passed he placed his hand on her shoulder and helped moving her forward. "We're looking at great weather for the coming week, so it should be great for the show." Ritsuko saw what he was doing and immediately cut between him and her idol. Acting as if nothing happened, Richie signals of a taxicab. "So, which hotel are you guys staying in?"

While Ritsuko was busy speaking with their guide, the idols had an impromptu meeting at the back of the cab.

"Did you see that!" Iori roared in a hushed tone.

Ami perhaps thought it was more funny than anything else, "Onii-chan is echi."

Azusa tried to smile, but it was obviously forced, "Now now, we're in a different country now and there's a different culture."

"You don't have to take that!" Iori continued to rage. "If he tries anything like that again, we should just have him fired!"

"Now now," Azusa began with handing her luggage to the cab driver, who had since exited his vehicle and opened the trunk, "We can't do anything if he isn't here. We need someone to translate for us or we'd only get lost."

Iori thought, Speak for yourself.

"And he won't be with us all the time, so we'll just have to deal with it."

That perhaps wasn't the best attitude to take considering the situation, but Iori decided to let it be. After all, of all the people who hated to be inappropriately touched, Azusa must have been the one most offended. But she was in a foreign country and about to preform in a very important Live. It was no longer a matter of "Business as usual," it was up to all of them to give it 100%. If they had to suffer a bit of discomfort and humiliation, then that's the way it had to be. Though it didn't mean that any of them had to like it.

Iori was the last to hand her bag to the driver, and then walked over to take her seat in the cab. However, there was a problem. The rear seat was clearly meant for only three, and the front passenger clearly was designated to the interpreter.

As a hand was placed on her back, her body shivered, "Go ahead and squeeze on in there."

"I-I-I'll follow you guys."

"Iori!" Ritsuko called out.

"It's too crowded in there," she called back. "It's okay, I'll meet you at the hotel."

Waving in a second cab, the young girl hastily dove into the back as it approached.

"Where are you headed?" this driver had a thick accent of an origin Iori couldn't pinpoint.

Actually, now that she thought about it, Iori didn't know at which hotel they were staying. But then again...

Speaking in English, "Follow that taxi."

"That cab? You sure?"

"Yes. They are my band members. We are all going to same hotel."

"Aye aye, you got it."

It's been a while since Iori had to speak any English, but she knew the language very well. Only was she slightly rusty. Those books she'd originally brought but elected not to read were supposed to help her get reacquainted with the language. But because of her producer's prodding, she read the travel guides that were all in Japanese. She just knew she was making some grammatical mistakes.

As the vehicle began to move through the crowded terminal drop-off, Iori's fatigue caught up with her and was quickly eating away at her consciousness. Her eyelids became heavy and her attention was waning. Somewhere between thinking she didn't need a translator, and wondering were she was going to eat for dinner, she dozed off.

"Hey, wake up! We're here!"

A hand was nudging her back and forth, but it instead felt more like a violent jerk. Being that her body was incredibly sluggish, it was of no surprise that she would mistake the two.

"Okay, um."

"That'll be $32.75"

"Um hm."

Iori reached for her bag which held her wallet, but found only Usa-chan. Eventually she remembered that she was in a cab in Las Vegas, and that all her belongings were in her luggage.

"Yes, my wallet's in my bag," and she motioned to the trunk.

"You didn't have any bags."

No bag? And then she completely woke up. That's right, I left my bag with all the other's luggage.

"I am sorry. One minute. They have my bag."

The driver nodded, clearly remembering that she said they were her band mates. Quietly he waited for the young girl to retrieve her belongings.

Stepping outside the cab, Iori was greeted by bright flashing lights and some classic rock music playing in the air. Car engines howled as their sound echoed in the hollowed out space. To her left was a wide driveway where cars loaded, unloaded, waited on valet, and simply passed through. To her right was the sidewalk and the casino entrance. Inside there was a large flow of people entering, carrying with them either drinks of their own bags for their stay. Rows and rows of slot machines were lined up to advertise the casino to the outside. The sounds and music they were playing was similar to the game Ami and herself were playing on the plane.

A rush of energy built within her, a kind of magic that she experienced only when traveling abroad and discovering new places. Helpless to act against it, a large bright smile overtook her face. All the weariness from before had now completely dissolved, replaced with an excitement that made her want to run around in circles.

Printed on the class doors was the word "Tropicana."

"So this is Las Vegas," she unknowingly spoke in Japanese.

"Little miss," the driver yelled from over his cab.

Iori turned back and saw him shrug his shoulders. He was waiting for his fare.

"Yes! Sorry!"

"First time in Vegas!"

Enthusiastically she nodded.

Right now the others must be going through the same kind of trance. After all, they've never even left Japan, let alone visit anywhere with even half this amount of energy. Surely they must have been completely dumbstruck.

The cab that was ahead of them, the one that Iori told her driver to follow, pulled away. In it's place was a family that the young girl had never seen before.

Whew, done with the intro chapters. It's been a (long) while since I posted anything on-line, and as I've been exploring the possibility of becoming a professional writer, it felt good to post something that had absolutely zero percent chance of being published. Normally I like to make my own stories with my own characters, but this idea popped into my head a few one day and grew wings. I've written a bit, but this is my first Fan Fic. However, with everything in which I immerse myself, I try to come to know the characters as if they were real people, so hopefully I've nailed their personalities as closely as they were intended. Anyway, that's enough of my personal gripes.

Iori's Las Vegas Fairytale is a kind of "Anime meets Real Word" -type of story. Normally a formula that you wouldn't expect to yield decent results (and let's face it, how much of anime could possible happen in real life?), but as this story picks up traction I hope to portray the following events with as much realism and human emotion as possible. So everything from here on will be real world locations and real world situations. And before anyone asks, yes, I LIVE in Las Vegas, so I know what happens here very well. Some of what will take place might have actually happened to me or someone I know, and the original characters will be based off people with whom I'm personally antiquated. I'll be changing names of course, but if something seems too far out of the ordinary, let me just say that sometimes life is stranger than fiction.

All that aside, I hope you enjoy my story.

~Kyle Castorena