Chapter 03: Party Hard
"
0 weeks, 0 days, 21 hours, 17 minutes, 34 seconds...
"
With great force, the man landed hard into the thickly-cushioned wall on the south side of the gym, quickly falling into a haphazard heap on the matted floor. He laid there for several seconds, then slowly forced his head up.
Makoto stood there, hands up in a guarded position, wearing a stark white gi with a black belt around the waist.
"Come on!" Makoto said energetically. "Up!"
"Ugh..." the man slumped back down to the ground. "I think I'm tapping out."
Makoto immediately slacked back into a straight standing position. "Oh, come on!" she whined. "We just started! You'll never get any better if you tap out after taking a couple licks!"
"I'm thinking...getting better might not be so high on my priority list," the man muttered. Makoto could only put her hands on her hips in resigned frustration.
A second man came up behind Makoto, holding a clipboard. "God, Mako!" He shook his head, stopping next to her. "Just because everyone has to sign waivers before they fight in here doesn't mean that you're allowed to kill them!"
"I'm not gonna kill anyone!" Makoto turned to face the dojo proprietor. "If people just used the proper techniques, there'd be no problem!"
"Well, they're not, so could you please...maybe...go easy on them?" he insisted. "The last thing I need is to become known as the...the dojo where amateurs go to get their ribs broken."
"I am going easy on them," Makoto said. "Okay, I'm...I'm sorry Mister Mori, it's just...I'm really liking this whole Wing Chun thing."
"You know, you're lucky," Mori chided. "Male enrollment around her has dwindled to a trickle thanks to you. Shock and awe, men just aren't interested in getting the crap kicked out of them by a girl."
"Yeah, well...maybe if they did things right," Makoto said, turning to watch her adversary limp towards the locker room door to his left. "Just rub some dirt on it, buddy!"
"Good thing for you that female enrollment is through the roof," Mori added. "Apparently, you're something of a draw. Not for that, I'd have to kick you out."
"Uh, no, you'd...try to kick me out," Makoto replied haughtily.
"Oh, you got a mouth on you too." Mori shook his head. "Either way...nice work with those blocks. Textbook. Exactly what you want to do."
"Thanks."
The main doors across the room swung open, drawing Mori's attention away.
"Ah. Speak of the devil." He pointed his clipboard over towards the door, getting Makoto to look over as well. "The only two male enrollments I've had in a month."
Makoto slowly turned around, jaw going slack as the two came into her view.
Such a sight in Japan was so rare, it was almost thought to not exist at all. They may as well have been unicorns. And yet, the two men dispelled any doubt of their un-natural gifts when they needed to bend down just to make it through the threshold of the doorway. By the Gods, they were massive. Towering behemoths of men, tall simply not enough of a word to describe them.
"Yeah. Big boys, huh?" Mori said, looking over as the two. "Two and a fifth meters each! Three bills. Don't know what they've been putting in their juice boxes, but I could use some of it."
Makoto just watched in a daze as the two giant men quickly shed their clothes, revealing that they were wearing a gi underneath. A bit unusual, but hardly the most unusual thing about them.
"They wanna be...movie stars, y'know?' Mori continued. "And I'd bet this whole damn building they make it. They're just here for a couple months to stay sharp, need some place to train before they make it big and can afford installing a dojo in their own house." He gave a little smile as the two made their way over to one of the blue mats on the west side. "Until they do...hopefully they'll be a nice little draw."
The two wasted no time or energy in any sort of preamble, seemingly quite satisfied to get right to business. They took their positions opposite each other in the little arena, bowed to each other, and then began an obviously well-practiced fight routine.
"Twins," Mori added. "I guess it's kinda obvious, but..." he turned to look at Makoto, only to find her completely uninterested in anything he had to say. She stared, wide-eyed at the two giants battling across the room, mouth slack. He waved his hand around in front of her eyes a few times, getting no response. "...uh...alright, sure, you...bye."
They moved with the grace of a ballet dancer, somehow overcoming their massive frames and bulk to nevertheless swiftly move about. It was as if they really were aliens. It seemed impossible that people so large would be so comfortable in those large bodies, but they moved just like a normal-sized human would.
Makoto slowly lowered herself to the ground, seating herself down with her legs crossed in front of her, not taking her eyes off the scene for a second. One of the brothers swung in with his right fist, the other deftly blocking it with his left forearm. It was definitely a fight between two people who knew each other very well.
Makoto just kept her eyes trained on the scene, captivated.
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0 weeks, 1 day, 7 hours, 3 minutes, 23 seconds...
"
Ami grimaced, shuffling the thin blanket around on top of her before kicking it off entirely, onto the other side of the bed. She laid there for a few seconds, then grabbed the sheet back and draped it back over her body, letting her lower legs and feet stick out at the bottom.
She flipped her body over onto her left side, tangling herself up in the sheets. No, that wasn't good either. She glanced up at her bedside clock, noting with annoyance that it was now past one thirty in the morning.
"
Rei stared up at her ceiling unblinkingly, counting the ridges in the wood. Her fingers gripped the edge of her blankets tightly, knuckles white. She tried to relax her mind, but every time she tried her train of thought just kept on going.
So much for all those years of meditation training. She shut her eyes, puffing a sigh from her nostrils, trying to think of nothing but the dull black of the insides of her eyelids.
"
Makoto tossed herself over onto her stomach, laying there for a second amid a messy tangle of sheets, head turned to the right. Grunting, she rolled back over onto her back, kicking her blanket off the bed entirely as she did so.
She wormed herself downwards on her bed, feet nearly hanging off the edge as she got her head off of her pillow, trying to lay flat on her back. When this failed to bring any comfort, she groaned and rolled onto her side.
"
Minako laid limp in a sea of cotton blanketries, a blissful smile on her face, eyes shut and brain cycling through REM patterns.
"
Usagi wrapped her arms tightly around her spare pillow, lightly snoring, body sunk several centimeters into her soft mattress.
"
0 weeks, 6 days, 15 hours, 37 minutes, 53 seconds...
"
"I have some very good news, Ami."
Ami lifted the coffee cup up to her lips, taking a quick sip of the steaming hot beverage before turning her attention back to the large math book on the table in front of her. Her eyes flashed over to her right, up to where Minako was. "Okay?" She gave a small smile.
Minako leaned in towards Ami. "Well...I've put a lot of thought into it lately, Ami." Minako gave a small nod. "I've been thinking about it. And...I've decided to...lift the ban on my house." She smiled warmly. "You know, after really, really thinking about it, it occurred to me that...with all we've been through...everything we've done together, it's kind of...silly to have something as petty as a house ban."
"Thank you very much, Minako," Ami said earnestly, giving a small nod of her own. "I appreciate it." She returned her focus back to her book of equations.
Minako stared at her for several seconds, still smiling, but the pleasant expression quickly melting into an icy glare as Ami could offer up nothing else.
"So," Minako said, forcing the smile back up on her face. "In light of what I just said, do you have anything you'd...like to say to me?"
Ami looked back up at her. "I already said thank you, I think that...basically covers it."
"Oh, come on!" Minako whined, shoulders dropping as she frowned. "Ami, it's been nearly a week, you can't possibly still be irrational enough to—"
"Mina, it's not my ban!" Ami insisted. "For the last time, I can't even lift the ban, so please just stop pressing me on it!"
"Oh, stop with the bullshit!" Minako sneered, leaning back against the beanbag chair behind her. "You know damn well that you could get the ban lifted if you talked to your mom!" She shook her head. "All the stuff we've been through, and you're seriously gonna let a little something like this drive us apart—"
"No!" Ami interrupted. "We are still friends, Mina! Very close friends! I assure you, nothing can change that, I'm not even angry about what you did, we're totally fine!"
"Allegedly did," Minako corrected. "And if we're totally fine, then why am I banned from your apartment?" She sat back up, glaring at Ami.
"That has nothing to do with our friendship! You were banned because you were unable to maintain a minimum acceptable level of proper conduct when you were inside my apartment!" Ami said.
Minako rolled her eyes. "Oh, well heil Hitler, bitch!" She put her right hand's index finger up on her upper lip to roughly simulate a small mustache, putting her left hand up in the air in mock salute.
"Okay," Ami said exasperatedly, holding her palm out towards Minako. "Stop. Just please accept the way things are and—"
"If this conversation subject doesn't change in the next sixty seconds, I will kill you both," Rei menaced, on the verge of cracking her coffee mug in her iron-fisted grip.
Ami turned back to Minako, grimacing. "Mina, please. The ban really means nothing, I mean it! It's really just...a way to placate my mother, nothing more, it doesn't affect us at all! You've been over there maybe...ten times in your life, if that, so what does it matter? Besides..." she leaned in slightly towards Minako, "as we both know, Mina...nothing good happens when the two of us are alone in my apartment. Right?"
Minako returned her glare for a second, then slumped back against the beanbag behind her, still frowning. "Okay," she finally relented, giving a languid nod. "Yeah, I...guess you're right." She shrugged. "Fine."
"So you're done talking about it?" Ami asked, raising her eyebrows at Minako. "You promise?"
Minako lazily extended her right hand out towards Ami. "Cross my heart and hope to die," she said, Ami taking the hand and shaking it. "I'll let you off the hook on this one."
"Oh thank God," Makoto moaned. "Finally, it's over!" She thrust her hands up in the air.
"For now," Rei said dubiously, taking a drag from her own cup of coffee. "So...anyway, on a somewhat similar topic...status update?" She looked over at Makoto. "Hm?"
"What's that?" Makoto looked over at her friend.
"You still with us?" Rei raised her eyebrow suggestively.
"Oh, yes," Makoto said, raising her own cup of coffee up in front of her. "Still master of my domain. You?"
Rei raised her cup back at Makoto. "Lady of the manor," she replied. "Usagi?"
Usagi gave a wry smile before lifting her cup up into the air. "Queen of the castle."
With that, Usagi, Rei, Makoto and Minako all turned to look at Ami, who had re-dedicated her focus to the textbook.
"Well?" Rei asked. "Ami? You're still in?"
Ami looked up, eyes flashing annoyance. "Yes, I'm still in!" She immediately returned her focus to her book. "Of course I'm...still in, and I'd prefer no more reminders that this is even happening, thank you."
"Hey, if you don't wanna be a part of it, just drop a five-spot on the desk on your way out." Makoto pointed over at the desk by Rei's bedroom door.
"If I do have to...drop out...and I assure you, I'm not going to...you will know," Ami said confidently. "I would just prefer to not be reminded that I'm actually...doing this."
"Whatever," Rei grunted, shooting Usagi a side-eye for a couple silent moments. "Well, props to everyone...tonight makes a week."
"Been much, much longer than a week for me," Ami said quietly, turning a page in her textbook.
"Okay, you're the prettiest!" Makoto hissed. "Gosh, Ami."
Fortunately for Ami, nobody noticed that her knuckles had gone white, so tight was her grip on her book.
"
1 week, 1 day, 2 hours, 31 minutes, 12 seconds...
"
"So we, human beings, are the children of these Kamisama," Rei said slowly, both her and her new student sitting in front of the roaring sacred fire in the middle of the large, mostly bare room. "And the idea is, when we step off this mortal coil...we go back to them."
"I gotta say, thank you so much for starting from the beginning for me," Nobu said gratefully, giving a small smile. "It must be so very much...babytown frolics for you, must be painful to have to explain all of this."
"Oh, no, no! Not at all," Rei said comfortingly, giving him a warm smile. "Happy to do it."
"This fire is...it's soothing," Nobu continued. "Like, obviously...it's fire, so it's a very dangerous and lethal thing, but I just don't feel in danger when I'm next to it. I feel...relaxed."
"Yeah, that's...that's the idea," Rei explained. "It's not just a normal fire."
"It's also making me feel warm, uh...do you mind?" He pointed down at his torso, indicating his thin blue t-shirt.
"Oh, uh...yeah, go ahead," Rei said uneasily, grimacing slightly as Nobu quickly made to pull his shirt up over his head. She looked into the fire for a moment, giving a low whistle and exasperated sigh.
"R-right...now...where were we?" Rei asked as the garment was flung into the corner of the room.
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1 week, 1 day, 18 hours, 7 minutes, 44 seconds...
"
One of the two identical brothers flew through the air, leg out, lancing it right at his counterpart. The other neatly sidestepped it. Somewhere in Makoto's scrambled brain, she could think about what she had just witnessed rationally. A roundhouse kick. Sloppy, telegraphed, not at all an effective move in a fight against someone with decent experience. Only with the complete element of surprise would such an attack have any chance of success.
But it played nicely in the movies. Movie audiences loved a good roundhouse kick. Some action movie stars built their entire career off of the ridiculous move, and they would always win the crowd over. Not a smart move physically, but a very smart one fiscally.
Makoto was aware of these things, but right now was only able to process the sight in front of her on a superficial level. Two giant men, moving like gravity was significantly diluted in their little zone, engaging in a combat that looked so crisp and professional it could only come from over a decade of practice. That's what Makoto was digesting. And the sight was putting stars in her eyes and was practically making her mouth water.
"Hey, Mako!"
Makoto's neck did not turn so much as a fraction of a degree. She just barely made out the hail, and chose to ignore it.
"Mako?"
It was the dojo owner. She continued to keep her eyes on the brothers.
"Hey, we've got some people over here who are interested in...seeing your moves, so any chance you could take a few minutes and—"
"Go away," Makoto replied, voice flat and without emotion.
"Er...just...just a minute or two, really, it would be a big—"
"Go away," Makoto repeated, unwilling to invest her cranial resources into coming up with a better reply.
The voice stopped pestering her.
"
1 week, 2 days, 16 hours, 3 minutes, 9 seconds...
"
"The thing to realize is that...that, uh...some of these problems can take hours to solve," Ami said quietly, leaning over the table in the library, eyes on the large textbook in front of her, trying to keep her breathing under control.
"Even for someone like you?"
Ami winced. Even his voice had a way with her.
"Yeah," she whispered, tapping her fingers against the desk loudly.
Seconds ticked by, Ami battling tidal waves of emotions and feelings warring within her, trying desperately to focus all of her senses into integrals, but finding herself just barely able to hold onto the basic teachings of the subject.
"You okay?" Isao leaned down towards her.
"Y-yeah," Ami muttered, giving her head a little shake. "A-anyway, it can seem like a bit of an...inexact science sometimes, because there are...multiple methods of integration, and some work best in certain circumstances, so you just need to understand all of them. We've already gone over...u-substitution, a-and...partial fractions, now. So that's a good start."
"You're a lifesaver, you know?" Isao said, smiling down at her. Ami chanced a look up at him, immediately both relishing and regretting it at the same time. She could get lost in those eyes of his. "All this help you've been giving me over the last week, it's...it means a lot to me."
Ami looked back down at the table. "Yeah," she squeaked.
"Hey, tell you what..." he leaned in close to her ear. "As a thank you...how about you come by my place tomorrow after eight? I'm hosting a...party, kind of a big deal."
Ami froze, eyes going completely unfocused, pupils dilating.
"It's not just...any party, not just anyone can go. I don't mean to sound like an asshole, y'know, but...I got a pretty sweet place, and my dad's out of town...so the parties are pretty sweet. Throw them a few times a year, special invitation only. You gotta get permission to show up from either me or...well, I guess you'd call them my entourage." He chuckled to himself. "Sorry, you know...dad's in show business." He shrugged. "It actually ends up being several dozen people, people from other towns come over. Definitely a place to be, if I do say so myself. How about it?"
Ami just sat there, blinking heavily, mouth open a centimeter or two.
"I got a big pool, house is three stories...show business has been good to us, y'know. I don't know if parties are your thing, but...you might like it."
"Yeah," Ami finally said, voice still strained.
"Alright then!" He stood up. "I actually gotta head to class, thanks a lot, Ami." He bent down and embraced her with his massive arms, drawing her into an awkward little hug. Ami's breath hitched and her heartrate nearly doubled, eyes going as wide as saucers as he pulled her into his chest. "You're really saving my behind here!"
With that, he set her back down and departed, leaving her there to try to piece her tattered thoughts back together and settle her racing heart. Ami closed her eyes, swallowed down hard, and let a deep, calming breath go.
"What a jerk!"
Ami looked up, finding one of her classmates sitting down in the seat that Isao had just vacated, frowning in the direction of his back. Hanako.
"Huh?" Ami mumbled out, eyes flickering back and forth between her casual friend and Isao.
"You know, you should report him for that!" Hanako hissed, leaning back in the chair as Isao went into the hallway across the room. "He's know you, what...a week? And he's giving you a full-body hug?" She shook her head, clicking her tongue disapprovingly. "Inappropriate. In. A. Propriate. Not okay. If I were you, I'd report him. You didn't ask for it, he didn't get permission for it. That's just a meathead thinking he can...take whatever he wants."
Ami looked back down at her textbook. Her eyes remained unfocused. She couldn't even make out the paragraphs. She squeezed her eyes shut hard for a moment, managing to re-calibrate her eyes. "Yeah," she squeaked out.
"Well, I'll tell you something. Just because your dad is a big shot, does not mean you can just behave like that and expect to get away with it!" Hanako reached down into her school bag and pulled out a book of her own. "And inviting you to a party? Please." She rolled her eyes. "Does he even know the first thing about you? As if you've be caught within ten miles of a...party like that."
"Yeah." Ami finally relented, closing the book, giving up on comprehending it rightr now.
"Nothing but...underage drinking, obnoxious bass beats, and other absurdities. It's like he doesn't even realize what kind of person you are!" She scoffed. "You're a saint, you know...saying yes to him like that. Don't wanna hurt his feelings, I get it...course, tomorrow night he'll be getting a surprise."
"Yeah," Ami said, voice cracking.
Hanako looked over at Ami, eyebrow raised. "Wait...you're not going to that party, right? Seriously, it's basically a frat party, trust me, I've heard. I mean, I understand you don't want to be rude to his face, but...that's no place for you."
"Yeah."
Hanako leaned in towards Ami, an accusing look on her face. "Ami? Are...are you..."
Ami quickly swept the large textbook under her right arm, taking her schoolbag on her left shoulder, then turned away from her friend and marched off, moving with a sense of urgency.
"
1 week, 3 days, 23 hours, 56 minutes, 18 seconds...
"
Dead silence. Quiet as a church mouse. Muted as a grave.
It wasn't often that a room with Usagi, Ami, Rei, Makoto, and Minako could be described with those phrases. Today was one of those rare days. Crowded around the table in Rei's bedroom, with all manner of academic paraphernalia scattered around them, not a one of them dared to make a peep. Only could the most perceptive of ears perhaps pick up on their breathing, and every now and then a page might get turned. Other than that, nothing.
At first, Usagi and Minako had attempted to treat this study session as any other, bringing up assorted topics and idly chatting, but had been met only with stone cold silence and a series of death glares that would have caused most dogs to wet themselves. Even Minako, usually oblivious to such things, found it to be a smart move to fall silent for the time being.
And so silent they had been, for some time now. To an outsider, they looked focused on studying. But in truth, they were anything but.
Suddenly, without warning, and with tremendous speed, Makoto picked up one of the science books from the table, lifted it up high over her head, and started repeatedly slamming it down onto the table in front of her, generating enough force to shake the entire surface and threaten to cause the legs to buckle. Everyone else jumped back in surprise as Makoto continued to beat savagely with the heavy book.
"What the hell?!" Rei snapped, falling back to the carpet and shuffling away to avoid getting in the attack zone.
Makoto was not satisfied until she had struck the table at least a dozen times. Somehow, it held against her beating, testament to the strength of it's construction. Makoto still held it up over her head threateningly, looking down at the table.
"M-Makoto?" Usagi mumbled, eyes wide with fear as Makoto offered no explanation.
Finally, she casually tossed the book back down on the table, then went back to reading her own. "Horsefly," she grunted.
Slowly, the four other girls crowded back around the table, looking around for what was most certainly going to be a very much flattened fly corpse.
"I don't see it," Rei snapped.
"Well, I did!" Makoto retorted, scowling heavily.
"But I don't!" Rei hissed. "And you're going to find it, or I'm going to hold you responsible for damage to my table!"
"U-uh, I think the table is fine," Usagi said meekly, giving it a little shake with her hands.
"I—" Rei turned to accost Usagi with another trademark death glare and retort, but didn't quite get to the second part. She looked at her blonde friend for a few moments, eyes harsh, carefully examining her. Usagi timidly went back to her book.
"Usagi," Rei said, voice terse. "Anything you want to...tell us?"
"Uh..." Usagi furrowed her brought for a moment. "Well...oh, yeah, uh...I'm helping Mamo-chan re-decorate his apartment!" she said brightly. "Y'know, at first he was dragging his feet, couldn't get him to really involve himself int he process, but...I'm proud of him, he's starting to really...put himself into it. I'm proud of him. And of course, I'm spending...a lot of time over there lately, so I'm pretty excited about getting to fix things up a bit."
Rei just trained her eyes on Usagi, glaring right into her face, watching Usagi slowly shrink away from the menacing gaze.
"Alright," she finally muttered quietly. "Whatever."
A sudden light scritching sounded from the other side of the table. Ami had taken to trying to write out something on a sheet of paper. Emphasis on the words 'trying' and 'something' for her hand was shaking to the point of completely ruining her typically picture-perfect handwriting.
Minako glanced over at the attempt at kanji, scooching over to watch as Ami's pencil practically vibrated as she brought it along the surface.
"What language is that?" Minako asked. "You sure you should be trying to learn how to write a new language with the exams coming up?"
"I'm fine," Ami muttered, bringing her left hand up to try to grab the pencil more firmly, but found it did nothing to stop the shaking.
"Do you need more coffee?" Minako asked. "Or maybe much less coffee—"
"I'm FINE!" Ami snapped, the pencil snapping into five pieces in her hands, the wood finally giving under her futile attempts to steady herself.
Minako pursed her lips as Ami quickly swept the broken pencil pieces up, looking quite angry at the writing tool for succumbing to her pressure. "Right. So, tonight—"
"Have plans," Ami said through gritted teeth as she tossed the broken pencil pieces over her shoulder.
"Hey!" Rei leaned over the table towards Ami. "This is my room, you don't litter here!"
"If you have a problem with it, deal with it yourself," Ami said, scowling down at her math book.
"Yeah, I will, maybe I'll use your big mouth as a vacuum cleaner!" Rei said, standing up suddenly.
"What is wrong with you people?"
Rei looked down, gaze finding Usagi, still kneeling at the table. She was looking up at her, eyebrow raised in confusion, face reflecting a touch of fear.
Rei regarded herself with a quick glance, suddenly catching herself. She closed her eyes and took in the deepest, longest breath she could, then slowly let it out.
She forced a rather unpleasant smile to her face, then kneeled back down at the table. Gripping her robes tightly for a moment, she looked over to Ami. "I'm sorry, Ami. It's just a few...pieces of a broken pencil. Doesn't matter. Don't worry about it," she forced out, voice dripping with honey.
Not to be outdone, Ami clasped her hands together in her lap and inhaled her own large breath, finally getting her arms to stop shaking. She gave a strained smile of her own. "No...I'm the sorry one, Rei. Throwing trash around in your room. I should be...ashamed of myself. I'll go pick it up."
She turned around and crawled over to the remains of the pencil, quickly scooping the pieces up.
Makoto took this moment to settle herself as well, bowing her head and smacking her knuckles against her temple a couple times. "My apologies about the table, my good friend. I really did think I saw a horsefly." Her face was contorted into what looked like a cheap mask of her actual face.
"Well...I hate horseflies too, so...apology accepted," Rei said, turning to face Usagi with that tortured grin. "Nothing is wrong, Usagi." She put her hands out to her sides. "All is well."
Usagi continued to give Rei a puzzled look. "Right."
"
1 week, 4 days, 2 hours, 21 minutes, 56 seconds...
"
"You're so lucky you ended up with me and not any of my friends," Usagi said under her breath, leaning up close to Mamoru. The two lovers were seated on a park bench, about half a dozen blocks from Mamoru's apartment, just at the edge of the large field of grass and ponds. "Those girls are crazy, let me tell you."
Mamoru stroked the top of Usagi's head. "I sure feel lucky." The sun was just a few minutes away from setting, casting a final bright light over the proceedings beneath it before it disappeared for the evening.
"Yeah...some people just can't control themselves." Usagi sat back up, holding the folded-up magazine in front of her. "So anyway...I was thinking that this one would be great." She pointed her index finger at a dark red couch on the bottom left corner of one of the pages. It was L-shaped for positioning in a corner. "I was thinking that this would go great near the big window opposite the door."
Mamoru blanched slightly. "Well...what's wrong with the sofa we already have?"
Usagi gave him a dry look. "Is that a serious question?"
Mamoru glanced back and forth nervously for a few seconds until Usagi chuckled.
"I'm kidding!" She flipped the page. "I'm not gonna make you buy a new sofa."
"Good," Mamoru said, leaning back and placing his arms along the top of the top of the bench. "I happen to like mine, thank you."
Usagi snorted. "I wouldn't go that far, but...anyway, let's talk coffee tables."
Mamoru's eyes were off the magazine for the moment, however, instead following the slow gate of a young woman walking in front of the couple. Momentarily forgetting his position, Mamoru let his gaze linger over the woman's exposed legs.
Usagi snapped him out of it with a light tap of her magazine on his forehead. "Eyes over here, Mamo-chan!"
Mamoru quickly turned back to her, blinking rapidly a couple times. "S-sorry...halter tops, haven't seen those in a...a-awhile."
"Yup," Usagi murmured. "That time of year. But you weren't looking at her top."
Mamoru gave a small smile. "Sorry. Okay, so, coffee table...I'd like something glass. Like, the surface of the table, if it was glass, I think that'd be nice."
Usagi quickly skimmed the catalog as Mamoru pulled out his vibrating phone.
"Yeah, I like glass too," Usagi commented.
"Oh boy," Mamoru said, pocketing his phone. "Party started."
"What's that?" Usagi asked, finding one of the coffee tables listed that boasted a pure glass surface.
"The party, y'know...the Masahiro party, down by 98th and Onyx," Mamoru explained. "Isao and his boys."
"Oh yeah, I heard about that," Usagi mused.
"Couple of my friends got invites, they just sent me a couple pictures, it's already...man, these people, they're nuts." Mamoru shook his head. "We should head back, getting dark." He got up, draping his right arm around Usagi's back, slowly leading her beyond the park border, strolling down the sidewalk. "It's like the...party of the year."
"You didn't get invited?" Usagi asked.
"I did," Mamoru said, grimacing. "Turned it down, it's...well, a certain kind of party."
"Awww," Usagi said, blushing. "You'd rather spend time with me than go to a party! That's so sweet!"
Mamoru gave a half-hearted nod. "Yeah...sure, let's...go with that." The two began the short trek back to his apartment. "And really, it's...one of those frat parties, really." He shrugged. "Not my scene. Just...if I may toot my own horn...no place for an intellectual."
"
Ami sat on the plush couch, eyes unfocused, body slack as she stared at the opposite wall. The deep bass beat from the massive subwoofers just outside was enough to nearly jitter her right out of her seat, each and every pulse of music felt through her entire body. She was only dimly aware of the actual sound the speakers generated, however, as her mind was very much elsewhere.
The initial stimulation of the party environment threatened to overwhelm her. This was not at all something she was used to. She had been to parties before, of course, but typically they were restrained affairs with a handful of people and some degree of organization. Though this party was only technically a few minutes old, several dozen had already showed and it was clear this would be little more than a haphazard frenzy of eating, drinking, dancing, and swimming, with whatever else came to one of the party-goers on a whim thrown in.
Ami had frantically searched for a room with a lower population density, having found the front entrance and main living room overly crowded and active, driving her senses into a mad frenzy. She had had quite enough of that over the past week, and this threatened to send her over the edge.
She had stumbled through a flood of bodies, sweat and alcohol already invading her nostrils violently. The heat of the sun still held it's sway over the temperature inspite of it's departure moments ago, meaning virtually everyone was wearing little. And as the cherry on top of the sundae, there wasn't a single male in attendance, that she had seen on her unsteady trek to this little side room, who wasn't absolutely delicious to view.
It was horrible. Her emotions and feelings were being tossed about like clothes in a washing machine, her senses were firing off like a christmas tree, and the loud music seemed to be trying to push her brain cells out of her ears.
This was not her. This was oil and water.
And you would have needed multiple tasers to drag her away from it all.
"Alright, you made it!"
Ami threw a quick glance to her right as someone entered the room. Isao approached her, arms out at his sides, a smile on his face. Ami quickly turned back to face the wall.
"Good to see you!" Isao greeted. "So, anyway, there's not a ton of organization or anything, you can come when you want and leave when you want...got all kinds of food, help yourself...you can swim, I know that's kind of your thing." He sat down next to her, crowding up right beside her.
Ami gave a tiny, inaudible little moan. "Yeah," she managed to choke out, hands gripping the edge of the couch tightly.
"Are uh...are you okay?" Isao asked. "I mean, the whole house is open of course, but there's not exactly much going on in here, action's outside."
"Yeah," Ami repeated, giving a tiny nod.
"Hey, Isao, what're you doing in here?"
Ami didn't bother looking up at the newcomer as he entered the room from her left, eyes trained on the wall, giving a thousand-yard stare that was supposed to come from an extended service in the military.
"Who's this? I don't think I've seen her before."
Ami took the quickest of glances over to her left, just enough to make out three people, before going back to the wall.
"This is Ami. She's helping me with calculus, so she's here on my invite," Isao answered. "So...play nice."
"Huh," a voice from her left said. "Like Mick Jagger holding a warm glass of milk."
"Hey, she's here, isn't she?" Isao countered. "Night is young, she'll come around."
"Doesn't look like she's having much fun." A red plastic cup was placed in her peripheral vision. "Want a drink?"
Without thinking, Ami took the cup and immediately placed it to her mouth, vaguely aware of Isao yelling 'no' just as the liquid within breached her lips.
Her taste buds protested violently and Ami quickly dropped the cup, spewing what had entered her mouth out in a fine mist in front of her, buckling over slightly and coughing.
"Oh, you...idiots!" Isao got up and quickly swept the three out of the room. "Get the hell out of here!"
Ami softly pounded her chest a couple times as the final remnants of the beer flew from her mouth, tongue complaining of the bitter aftertaste.
"I am...so sorry." Isao sat on her right side now, a concerned frown on his face. "Those guys...they're not so bright, they just...do things without thinking." He shook his head. "I'm really sorry, if you...I totally would understand if you...y'know...wanted to go."
"It's fine," Ami said meekly. "It's okay."
Isao patted her back. "I'm glad, really. God, I'll get into those idiots a little later, really."
"Hey, Isao!"
Ami looked up to see yet another person enter, holding a small bundle of white t-shirts in his arms.
"Who you got there?" he asked, gesturing his head over towards Ami.
"A friend from school," Isao answered, cuffing the back of her head gently. "Real nice girl, she's helping me with calculus."
"Oh, nice." He flung one of the garments at her, the shirt draping itself around Ami's head. "Hey, we're gonna have a wet t-shirt contest, want in?"
Isao gave a small chuckle, removing the shirt from atop Ami's head and holding it out in front of him. "I don't know if she's...that kind of girl."
"What's that?" Ami asked, staring up at the shirt, eyes slowly focusing in on the item of clothing.
Isao laughed. "O-oh, well...uh, it's basically, a bunch of girls put on white t-shirts, get sprayed with a hose, and...well, a bunch of guys pick the winner."
Ami stared at the shirt for a long moment, then swallowed down hard. "What's the...the judging criteria?"
Isao busted up with laughter, keeling over slightly. "Judging criteria, that's...that's actually a good question!" He shook his head. "Uh, y'know, that's kind of hard to say, it's...they just kind of take a look and decide what they like."
"Yeah, the idea is that the girls...aren't wearing anything underneath the t-shirt, y'know?" the other pointed out.
It was the stupidest thing she had ever heard of. There may have been no more banal or absurd thing in all of existence. This contest was surely where brain cells were sent to die.
Is what she would have thought had her brain been functioning even close to normally.
In a swift motion, she took the t-shirt from Isao's grip and walked over to the opposite wall. A single closet door was there, so she pulled it open, stepped inside the private, dark chamber, and shut the door behind her.
"
1 week, 4 days, 5 hours, 34 minutes, 7 seconds...
"
Ami stared at her computer screen, whole body shaking, jaw slack and pupils dilated.
It had been quite an evening for her. She still hadn't fully recovered, even after being home for a good twenty minutes. She might never recover, truthfully. It was both the most wonderful and most horrific experience of her life, that duality threatening to rip her into two pieces on the spot, even as she sat in the comfort of her room.
Something had possessed her to participate in what may have been the most ridiculous contest in the history of documented human existence. There hadn't even been a winner crowned, making even the usage of the term 'contest' dubious at best. At some point in the night, amidst all the sweat and bass, she had been goaded into doing some swimming to impress a crowd.
Other than that, everything was a blur, each event melting into the next one until her evening could be remembered as little more than a whirl, the only constants being what seemed to be a neverending supply of six-pack abs. Oh, those she remembered. They had etched themselves onto her eyeballs. And, above every other emotion she was going through, those memories affected her most of all.
She reached over with a shaking hand to the glass of water by her keyboard, picking it up, nearly spilling some of the cold liquid as she brought it to her lips and took a small sip. After setting it down, she desperately tried to get her mind back on track, placing her hands on the keyboard. She began typing up a report, hoping to bury herself in something besides memories of six-pack abs.
Her entire body felt hot. She had taken a cold shower on getting home, only to find the flush that invaded her entire body remained even after this treatment. Her heart was still beating faster than typical.
And her loins ached.
Oh, they ached.
Her eyes focused on her computer screen and she realized she had been writing gibberish. With a grunt of frustration, she quickly erased evidence of her caveman-like attempts at writing and gave her head a mighty shake, flecks of sweat going every which way. Suddenly, after a moment's thought, she threw herself out of the computer chair and went over by her bed, ripping open her school bag and yanking the books from it as she fell to her knees by it.
She cracked open her math book, quickly opening to a chapter near the beginning and attempting to read it. She stared in horror. It may as well have been an alien text! Though she could understand individual words, and maybe phrases, she found herself unable to tie these things together into a meaningful collection that actually taught something. Concepts that she had mastered months, if not years, ago! Not only could she not sift them from her brain, she could not even utilize her books as a reference.
In a building panic, she quickly opened up her biology book. A frantic two minutes spent reading the same sentence over and over again confirmed her fears. She quickly browsed a chemistry book, desperately trying to find a foothold, but only tossed it only her bed in frustration after a moment.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she reached up and grabbed her hair, tugging it harshly. This had never, in her life, happened before.
She was...dumb.
This was hell.
She looked up, over at her computer, and forced herself to her feet. She could not abide by this. She could not take another minute of this. She would not allow this degrading madness to continue. She would not, and could not, stand to find the simplest of academic readings to fly over her head.
The bank was foreclosing. The electricity and water had been turned off.
It was time to pay the rent.
Lurching back towards her computer, painfully aware of the intense throbbing between her legs, Ami stopped along the way at her bookshelf. She grabbed one of the smaller ones, a poetry book on the top shelf, and opened the front cover. A small silver key fell into her hand. Armed with this, she quickly got back in front of the computer.
On the front of the computer desk, there was a small drawer with a silver keyhole in it. With shaking hands, she managed to jam the key in and twist it. Inside was a modestly-sized white tube, about the size of a healthy cucumber. She took it in her hands, shutting the drawer as she sat down.
She never dared keep the vibrator anywhere else, completely unwilling to face the line of conversation that she would be forced to have with anyone who ever found it. Oh, she could only imagine the neverending taunts from Minako if she knew that Ami possessed a...
...wait.
Her friends. The contest. The bet.
Ami roughly slammed the pleasure toy down on the desk by her mouse. No. She was stronger than that. She took in a deep breath, puffing it out emphatically, slowly removing her hand from the tool.
She winced a couple times, then nodded to herself. She would not give in. She couldn't. All she needed was a few hours to recover from that ridiculous party, and all would be well. Still shaking, she managed to partially clear her head. Yes. She was going to be fine.
She was about to turn and head off to bed, hoping to sleep her bizarre reaction off, when her computer gave off a soft beep. Quickly arming herself with the mouse, she clicked through her desktop to find the source.
She gasped. A half-dozen friend requests. Apparently, she had gotten the attention of some people at the party.
Every fiber of her being was yelling at her to ignore it, to go to bed, to deal with it in the morning. Nothing good could come of this.
But it would be...rude...right?
Obediently, she quickly accepted all six of her new friends with a series of clicks. Unfortunately, just as she was about to make this her last computer-related activity of the night, her eye just barely managed to catch something that drew her attention.
She focused in on it. It was a picture of her swimming in the Masahiro pool.
A few clicks later, she found it. One of her new friends had taken what must have been three hundred pictures of the party and posted them all online. Feeling about half-a-dozen conflicting emotions, she quickly scanned them. They seemed to document just about everything that had happened over the few hours that night.
Her body began shaking again.
It was enough when it was just her memories recalling what had happened. But now to have concrete, solid, indisputable, pictorial evidence?
Her eyeballs refused to peel themselves away from the computer screen. They simply would not let her turn around and go to bed. They were liking what they saw far too much, and did not particularly care of their pleasure came at the expense of the brain.
Her right hand found the handle of her vibrator again, pulling it over towards herself.
No.
Don't do it.
After everything you said to them?
They'll make fun of you for the next ten years.
Do you really want to face them tomorrow?
You're better than this.
As she stared at the collection of pictures before her, her vision started to swim.
The eventual death of the universe was being simulated inside her brain. The black holes had evaporated, and all matter had disentegrated. Photons, neutrinos, electrons, and positrons were flying about inside of there, hardly ever encountering each other, unable to fire off anything resembling rational thought.
Ami raised the vibrator up in her hand.
She was trapped inside an inescapable labyrinth.
And the only way out was to knock down the walls.
The tool buzzed to life violently in her hand, and she slowly inched it downward.
"
1 week, 4 days, 7 hours, 3 minutes, 41 seconds...
"
Rei's bloodshot eyes tried to bore a hole in the ceiling for a few moments, then she violently rolled over, doing a full three-sixty. She grunted in frustration, kicking her blanket away. Without thinking, she reached over and grabbed her bedside water glass, then poured it on her crotch. She gasped at the cool sensation this afforded her, even as her shorts and bedsheets were stained.
"
Makoto scowled, squeezing her spare bed pillow in her large hands tightly and wrenching it about. She set it down next to her and punched it a few times, driving it down into the mattress a bit, then rolled over on top of it. It took only a second for her to roll back off, then toss the poor pillow across the room, sending it crashing into the window blinds.
"
Ami was practically in a coma, so deep was her slumber. She was so exhausted, not a single muscle in her body so much as twitched. If you looked closely enough, you could just barely make out a faint, self-satisfied smile on her lips.
"
Usagi absentmindedly stroked the top of Luna's head with her finger, a reflexive action that she had done so much over the years she would do it even in the midst of her sleep. Giving a soft, satisfied moan, she gently tossed her head to the right.