Date 4: ToumaxHibiki
"Hmph."
"Grr..."
Touma didn't know why this date had suddenly become so awkward - especially considering it'd started about two minutes ago - but he definitely wasn't about to be the one to lose face. Scowling, he made a scoffing noise and glared pointedly at the girl beside him.
Hibiki responded with her own full-force glare that nearly made Touma trip over his own feet. Granted, she was a girl who dealt with animals all the time. She'd have to be able to hold her own against the dangerous ones.
Tch. Whatever.
"So?" Hibiki said impatiently.
"What?" he retorted with the same amount of annoyance.
Hibiki was looking at him with obviously distrustful eyes, although as to why she would be suspicious of him he couldn't imagine. "Where're you taking me?" she demanded.
"Don't say it like that," Touma responded. "That makes it sound like I'm kidnapping you. This is a date."
"A date."
"Yes. You've been on dates before."
"No, I haven't. And I'm gettin' the feeling you haven't either."
Touma frowned. "You know I went on one with Haruka a couple days ago."
"I hope she dumped you painfully."
"Look, what's with the hostility?" he snapped. "I'm not trying to be a jerk to you so you don't have to use me as your punching bag."
"You're part of Jupiter!" Hibiki replied immediately. "961 Pro! As if I wouldn't be on my guard around the likes of you."
Just what the hell's that supposed to mean? Touma thought, grumbling to himself. Sure, he knew 765 idols were naturally suspicious of their rival company, but to be outright mean was a different story. He pondered over this as he and his "date" wandered aimlessly through the streets, Hibiki having fallen silent as well.
"Come to think of it, you were part of the Project Fairy unit, weren't you?" Touma realized. When Hibiki winced, he smirked triumphantly. "You were once a 961 idol yourself. Why the sudden change of heart? Sticking with the old man could have made you ten times more popular than you are right now with the 765 scum-."
"Don't talk about'em like that!" Hibiki spat. "What do you know about 765 Pro, anyway? All you do is hide behind your president and say ignorant things that make you sound like an idiot."
Oh. Well then. Touma blinked, surprised by her sudden outburst. Never before had he heard so many insults directed at him in one sentence. But what he'd said had been true, hadn't it? Project Fairy had been ridiculously popular throughout Japan, almost as much as Project Jupiter was now, but once Miki, Takane, and Hibiki had transferred over to 765 Pro their status had pretty much been reduced to nothing.
Still, he figured he ought not to say his thoughts out loud lest the two get into an argument. A public one. One that would no doubt have a negative impact on his reputation.
"Seriously, though, why'd you leave?" at least that question was harmless, right? "Project Fairy was amazing. You guys were far from finished - you would have only kept on getting stronger had you continued."
Hibiki was quiet for a few moments, head nodding from side to side as she contemplated his question. From the look on her face, the bout of anger had already passed, and she was once again calm and clear-headed. "Mm... I guess in the end it's 'cause Kuroi's a jerk. That's about it."
That was all there was to it? Like hell.
"No one leaves just because their boss is a little uptight," Touma said. "Especially if they were in a situation like yours."
"And you know how much of my situation?" She was getting defensive again.
Touma sighed. "Look, the old man's annoying to us, too. Unbelievably so. That doesn't mean we're going to just give up our positions as the most popular idols in Japan and become nobodies again."
"I can get that," Hibiki acknowledged. "But you guys haven't lost yet."
"And Project Fairy did?" Touma certainly never heard about it. Every announcement ever made about Project Fairy was about how amazing they were, and how they'd won this idol competition and that idol competition. No news of them losing one had ever been released, at least not to his knowledge.
Hibiki shrugged and swayed her head again. "Not technically, I guess." And then she was quiet again.
Touma waited for further clarification, and when he received none prompted, "So?"
"Why do you want to know, anyway?"
"Project Fairy is the predecessor of Jupiter," he pointed out, looking away as he said so. "You're technically my senior... I guess. So as your junior it's natural to want to know about this kind of stuff, isn't it?"
"Ngya!" The sudden cry startled Touma, and he snapped his head to look over at Hibiki, who had struck a dramatic pose supposedly to represent her shock. "THE Amagase Touma just willingly called himself my junior! What has the world come to?"
"What's with that surprised tone?" he demanded, trying to ignore the heat that had risen to his face in embarrassment. "It's true, isn't it?"
"Nn, if you're gonna put it that way I feel like I have no choice but to answer," Hibiki laughed and rubbed the back of her head. "I guess if you can joke around like that you're not all bad."
"Who's the one joking around here?" Touma figured Hibiki was just the type who couldn't stay mad for very long.
"See, we left 'cause Kuroi was bein' mean to me," Hibiki explained, a lazy smile on her face as she spoke. "It was a one-on-one competition - nothing to do with Project Fairy - n' I lost against Haruka, way back in the early stages of 765 Pro."
Hibiki had lost to a rookie? Then again, that rookie was Haruka, and if Touma had learned anything from his date with her it was that she was definitely a talented idol.
His surprise must have shown, because the fanged girl laughed again, although this time it sounded forced, almost bitter.
"It was a complete disgrace to 961 Pro. 'least, that's what Kuroi told me. I had shamed him and the company, and he wouldn't tolerate failure. He had half a mind to just kick me out of Project Fairy right then and there. Some other stuff, too. Heh, I was crying by the end of it."
Touma said nothing as he listened. Of course, he, Hokuto, and Shouta had had their fair bit of getting chewed out by the old man, and it'd been annoying as hell considering they were for petty things like "you weren't as strong on that last note in the seventh song of your practice" or "your movements weren't together during the third song of the concert last week". But losing a competition when you were under the employment of that guy?
Touma could only imagine the things Kuroi had said to her.
"Haruka got so mad at him, it was crazy," Hibiki's tone became fond as she spoke about the ribbon-wearing girl. "She'd heard him yelling at me and later she went on this huge rant about how terrible it was and stuff. Can you believe it? She was angry that me, her rival, the one who kept on insulting her and her producer all the time up to the competition, had gotten yelled at. She won, she completely proved me wrong and left me in the dust, and she was still so sad for me."
Hibiki was smiling again, and it immediately became clear to Touma how much that moment after her loss had impacted her.
"She was crying for me," Hibiki said. "No one else in 961 Pro would have done that, not even Miki or Takane. But Haruka... she was the winner of the entire thing and she was crying for me. What the hell, right?"
She didn't wait for an answer.
"Didn't stop Kuroi from lecturing me again when we got back to the office. This time, Miki and Takane were around to hear it. I think he expected them to get mad at me for soiling the Project Fairy name, but instead they were pissed that he was so upset at me." Hibiki grinned. "We're pretty sadistic towards each other, but I don't think I could've asked for better teammates."
Touma wondered briefly if he would have done the same if Hokuto or Shouta were getting rebuked. The immediate answer to that was no. He wouldn't have stuck his neck out just because his teammate had screwed up. Project Fairy must have truly been close.
"And then as soon as Kuroi threatened them too, Miki just got up and left, and then Takane grabbed my hand and we followed. After that we never went back - we went to 765 Pro instead. And what do you know, they accepted us."
Hibiki let out a deep breath when she was finished, and then looked up at Touma. "The end. Any questions?"
"... I expect Haruka was happy when you all joined."
She laughed. "Overjoyed is a better word for it." And then Hibiki's expression suddenly became serious again, and she said, "That's why I'm not gonna accept it if you badmouth 765 Pro again, you got it? 'Specially Haruka. She said all you guys did was sing a few songs last time but if I hear you tried anything funny on her-."
"Wanna go for karaoke?"
"... What?"
Touma jabbed his thumb at the karaoke place they were conveniently passing by. "Singing's a good way to express your emotions, and you've definitely got a lot of them you still need to let out. What do you say?"
Hibiki certainly seemed thrown off by the suggestion, but she nodded nonetheless. "Alright then." She flashed another grin as she ran over to the building. "I'm definitely not gonna lose to a 961 idol! I've gotta keep up 765 Pro's winning streak!"
"You sure you can win?" Touma challenged, following her closely.
A confident smirk was the response he received. "No problemo!"
/~/~/
"I love you! I love you!
One of these days I'll get you!
Because I promised you I would."
How had it come to this? Another challenge where Touma was required to sing "765 Pro" songs and in return Hibiki would sing "961 Pro" songs. Seriously, he'd had enough humiliation going against Haruka... and here was an idol with more experience in front of him.
Regardless, Touma was a Jupiter member and Jupiter members never backed down from anything!
"Let's go! Well here I go!
No matter what day it is
If it's the two of us let's let our love begin."
Hibiki certainly seemed to know exactly what she was doing. It was different from Haruka - even though Haruka had been good it was clear she wasn't very familiar with Touma's songs. Here Hibiki was singing as though she'd already sung it before... wait. Now that he thought about it...
"Hibiki! You covered this song on the radio a few weeks ago! That's not fair!"
"Boy meets girl."
"Hibiki."
"Start my love."
"Hibiki, I'm talking to you."
"It's like a miracle~"
Oh, so now she was ignoring him. Great. Just perfect.
/~/~/
"I want to reach you! With my bare feet
Even though the slopes are continuing I don't want to give up."
Touma had already reached the chorus and Hibiki still wasn't laughing. Huh. Maybe he was actually doing well with this song.
"Let's count up the things we want to get
I want to be shining any time
With my shiny smile."
He glanced behind him. Hibiki was collapsed on the couch silently gasping for air as she laughed.
This was not nice. He was really trying, too.
/~/~/
"I swear, I wasn't laughing 'cause you were bad!" Hibiki insisted. "It was just funny listening to someone like you sing shiny smile."
"What do you mean 'someone like you'?"
"A big grumpy dude whose character song is super dark and confusing."
Touma snorted. "Do you judge everyone by their character songs?"
"And the words they say when they're not playing the role of idol," Hibiki replied. She stretched and let out a satisfied sound as they exited the building. "Ah~ that was great, though. Thanks for paying for me. I guess you're a little bit better than I thought you were."
"Well, thanks so much."
"And I suppose I can forgive you."
"For what?"
"For being a 961 Pro idol."
Touma rolled his eyes. "Way to sound hypocritical."
Hibiki grinned. "Well, yeah. But whichever company I'm in I always take my rivals seriously, so you should consider it a good thing regardless." And then she pointed, almost accusingly, at him. "Besides, aren't you the same?"
Frowning, he batted her hand away. "Same as what?"
"You take your rivalries just as seriously as I do! Just you're a bigger jerk about it." Hibiki shrugged. "But that's okay. You're alright in almost every other regard. I mean, you listened to me for real today, so how bad can you be?"
"So you're saying I'm not as big a jerk as I could've been?" said Touma.
"Something like that," Hibiki agreed. "Keep it up, Touma."
A wink. A fang-toothed smile.
"If you do I'll probably stop thinking of releasing Inumi on you. I might even reward you with a kiss."
/~/~/
It was only later that night, right as Touma was falling asleep, that he realized he forgot to ask for Hibiki's signature.
I just realized the romance label on this is a lie.
Well. I love Hibiki. And Touma is, to me, the most fun to write out of the Jupiter boys (well, or maybe Hokuto since all he does is flirt). Of course, I appreciate the suggestions for the date this time, but to be honest I thought the zoo was a little bit too expected. Although thinking back on it it might've been easier to write...
I'll be honest, I have never played Perfect Sun - just watched a few videos of it on YouTube - so the story Hibiki tells is probably a lot different than the canon one. But meh.
Next date: HokutoxChihaya