Once again, Kobayashi awoke to hear that distinctive disco bass thumping through her bedroom walls. This time, Tohru and Kanna were grooving to "Music Man" by Revanche. She attempted to yell something at the two about their incessant boogie obsession, but she was so tired that she just blurted out a bunch of incomprehensible sounds that barely resembled words.
"What was that, Miss Kobayashi?" said Tohru.
Kobayashi attempted to yell at Tohru again, but again, failed to produce anything comprehensible other than the words "disco music".
"Miss Kobayashi, are you having a stroke or something?"
Finally, Kobayashi managed to string together two words that just barely qualified as a sentence: "NO! TIRED!"
"You're tired? Well I've prepared a special tea that'll wake you up!"
Kobayashi crashed in one of the chairs at the table and managed to eat breakfast without making a huge mess.
Unfortunately for Kobayashi, not even Tohru's special tea could get the cobwebs out of her head, so on her way to work, she bought a few cans of Monster. Even one can could only do so much, however, and Takiya took notice of her tiredness:
"Kobayashi, are you OK? You look very haggard."
"Ugh, I've had it! I can't take this disco stuff anymore! I come home every day and it's always 'disco this' and 'disco that'! How can one person be so obsessed with that damn music?"
Yamashita took notice of Kobayashi, too:
"If you're that tired, then why don't you go home and rest? We've got enough people to cover you. Besides, I can see you've got more than a few errors in your code."
"I'll be OK. I just need another caffeine injection." Kobayashi cracked open another can of Monster.
"OK, but don't overdo it."
Kobayashi nodded, and then turned to Takiya:
"Hey Takiya, mind if I come over to your place briefly? I need some advice from Fafnir."
Takiya nodded. "OK. I'm expecting a guy to come over and work on the air conditioning though, so don't stay too long, OK?"
"Right."
After work, Kobayashi visited Takiya's place, calling Tohru on her way to let her know that she'd be a little late. By now, the Monsters that she'd drank had well and truly kicked in, although she could feel a slight flutter in her heart, so she decided to kick the caffeine for the rest of the night. Almost immediately, she went to see Fafnir:
"Hey Fafnir."
"Hello, Kobayashi. What brings you here today?"
"I'm gonna be honest: I've had it up to here with Tohru and her non-stop obsession with disco music. Every time I go back home, she's playing that music 24/7, and I'm sick of it. I came home from the club very tired last night, and I was wondering if you had any advice on how I can get her to stop."
"I understand your pain. Fortunately for you, I found a foolproof solution to convince Takiya to stop trying to get me to like disco music, and I believe that this may be useful to you, too."
Kobayashi raised her eyebrows. "Oh?"
"Are you familiar with 'Disco Demolition Night'?"
Kobayashi shook her head. "Can't say I am. What's that all about?"
"On July 12, 1979, the Chicago White Sox were having a double-header against the Detroit Tigers. To drum up attendance, Mike Veeck – son of White Sox owner Bill Veeck – teamed up with local DJ Steve Dahl to bring about a special promotion: fans could gain admittance to the game for only 98 cents if they brought in an unwanted disco record. Seating capacity for Comiskey Park was 40,000 people, but this promotion drew a crowd of at least 50,000 people, including some who hadn't even paid for tickets. The records were put into a big box and…perhaps I can show you better than I could ever tell you."
Fafnir opened up YouTube and brought up a clip from Disco Demolition Night. In this clip, Steve Dahl was leading the fans in a repeated chant of "Disco sucks!", and various fans had hung up banners saying "DISCO SUCKS" and related phrases. Then, when the time was right, the records in the box got blown up. What happened afterwards was a scene of mass bedlam. In the past, while Kobayashi would've balked at the thought of destroying physical albums even by artists she didn't like, she had grown so fed up with Tohru and her obsession with disco music that all she could think of was blowing up every disco album and disco single in the world. Her response to Fafnir came thusly:
"This is perfect." Kobayashi formed an evil smile on her face.
"I should also add that due to the extensive damage to the field caused by the ensuing riots, the White Sox were forced to forfeit the second game of the double-header."
Finally, Kobayashi made it back to her place. Not only were Tohru and Kanna still dancing their asses off, but Tohru had invited Lucoa as well, and all of them were dressed in their disco attire. Currently, their song selection was "Chattanooga Choo Choo", as covered by Tuxedo Junction.
"Hey, Miss Kobayashi!" Tohru waved at Kobayashi. "We were starting to get worried about you!"
"Yeah, you wanna dance with us?" asked Lucoa.
"Come dance with us, Miss Kobayashi!" said Kanna.
Kobayashi faked a smile. "I'll be there in a sec! Right now, I wanna show you all this cool disco video I found!"
Tohru put her fists up to her chin. "Ooh! I wanna see this!"
"Me too!" said Lucoa and Kanna.
Tohru paused the music, and all three dragons eagerly plopped themselves on the couch, wondering what Kobayashi had in store for them. Kobayashi then turned on her PS5, opened up YouTube and put on that Disco Demolition Night clip that Fafnir had suggested. All three dragons watched in horror at the events that unfolded before them, while Kobayashi got a heated warning off her flat chest:
"YOU SEE THAT!? DO YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENED!? DO YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENED!? THOSE RECORDS WENT 'BOOM'! DO YOU WANT ME TO DESTROY YOUR MUSIC COLLECTIONS AS WELL!? I SWEAR TO GOD, I'LL DO IT! I HAVE HAD IT UP TO HERE WITH YOU THREE DANCING YOUR ASSES OFF ALL NIGHT AND DAY! I CAN'T GET A SECOND OF SLEEP BECAUSE I HAVE TO LISTEN TO THAT GODDAMN MUSIC PUMPING IN MY EARS! IF YOU WANNA DO NOTHING BUT DANCE FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIVES, THEN YOU CAN JUMP OFF A REALLY STEEP CLIFF FOR ALL I CARE!"
Thinking that Kobayashi genuinely hated disco music, Tohru, Kanna and Lucoa all broke down crying. Tohru in particular was badly shaken by Kobayashi's angry tirade:
"WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE SO MEAN!? I WAS ONLY TRYING TO HAVE FUN AND MAKE YOU HAPPY! I HATE YOU!"
Realizing just how badly she'd messed up, Kobayashi gasped and put her hand up to her mouth. In particular, she felt awful about making Kanna cry. All she'd intended to do was get them to stop or at least cut back on disco, but instead, she hurt the feelings of some of the people who meant the most to her. Knowing that she had to make things right, she tried to apologize:
"No no…i-it's not like that! I don't hate disco music at all! I'm sorry I yelled; I…I just…"
Feeling that words were failing her, Kobayashi gave Tohru a big hug. Much to her good fortune, not only did Tohru return it, but Kanna and Lucoa hugged her as well. Even though she still felt bad about yelling at her best friend, it at least gave Kobayashi a sense of relief knowing that the dragon maid cared enough about her apology to accept her hug. While it was never easy for her to hear anybody cry, she did get a sense of satisfaction from being able to comfort those who were most in need of it, and she hoped that Tohru would extend that comfort to her if she needed it as well. Eventually, Tohru, Kanna and Lucoa stopped crying, but Kobayashi kept up the hug. Besides, Tohru felt too good not to deserve a big hug. Once the three dragons had had their fill, they backed away, but Tohru kept her hands on Kobayashi and gazed into her eyes with a smile on her face. Tohru may have stopped crying, but Kobayashi still had a general sense of unease about her:
"Tohru…Kanna…Lucoa…I hope you three aren't still angry at me; I didn't mean to make you upset."
"It's all right, Miss Kobayashi; I'm not angry at you anymore!" said Tohru. "I was just afraid you were going to take my disco music away from me!"
"Miss Kobayashi, you're not going to stop me from listening to disco music…are you?" said Kanna.
Kobayashi smiled. "No, I'm not going to stop any of you from listening to disco music or going to clubs. I just got upset because I got tired of having to listen to it constantly."
"But isn't disco supposed to be fun, happy music?" said Lucoa.
"Don't get me wrong, Lucoa, I love disco music and going out to clubs, but…you see…human society has this thing called 'moderation'. In this case, it means we can't always goof off and have fun all the time; we have responsibilities to attend to. Tohru, as a maid, don't you do all the cooking and cleaning around here?"
Tohru nodded. "I do."
"Well, human maids can't simply goof around and dance to disco music all the time, and neither can dragon maids who resemble humans. I mean, look at this place; it's been a bit of a mess lately."
Tohru looked around at the apartment. Among other things, there was dirty laundry strewn about, the dishes were piling up in the sink, and the trash bin was getting full. Her look turned flat when she saw the mess that was going on.
"Oh." Tohru's smile returned. "Well, can I at least listen to disco music while I cook and clean?"
Kobayashi smiled. "Go ahead! Please, put some headphones or earbuds on while you do so; you don't want the police coming over because of noise complaints, do you?"
Tohru gave a thumbs up. "Will do!"
"Miss Kobayashi, can I still play disco music and dance with the other kids at school?" asked Kanna.
Kobayashi smiled. "You may, but remember, if the teacher says it's time to come in, it's time to come in, OK?"
Kanna nodded. "OK."
"Hey Kobayashi, I appreciate the lesson, but let's go back to the club already!" said Lucoa.
"Tell you what: I'll go back there tonight, but if I say I'm not interested, then please leave me be. You and Tohru can go there however much you want."
Tohru clasped her hands together. "Really!? YAY!" She threw her hands in the air.
Once again, after leaving Kanna with Sasakibe, Kobayashi was off to Mutsumi's with Tohru and Lucoa. By the time they got there, the DJ was spinning "I Love You" by Donna Summer, quite a fitting tune considering what Kobayashi had to say to Tohru:
"Tohru, I know you and I have our differences sometimes, but no matter what happens, no matter if you outlive me…you'll always be my best friend."
"Oh, Miss Kobayashi…you'll always be my best friend too!"
And so, Kobayashi and Tohru embraced each other as they continued to dance the night away, while Lucoa basked in the attention of the horny men who wanted to dance with her. Overall, despite what the newspeople were saying, despite what various politicians were scheming, everything was all right with the world.
