Phoenix: Reignited Edition

"Mei, I need you to take a deep breath. Sit down?" Ranko pulled her legs up under the skirt of her borrowed yellow dress, sitting up on her bed and patting the edge of it in invitation.

Mei closed the door to the little apartment above the Phoenix behind her, darting the few steps to the edge of the bed and pouncing on it. She waved a glossy black card in the air. "Ranko! There was a guy and he was looking for you and he wants to see… He saw you and he wants to see you and he likes you and he… oh my gods!"

Groaning, Ranko lowered her forehead into her left hand. Her right still clutched her sore abdomen, bracing her ribs that still ached from her spar with Akane earlier that afternoon. "Mei, honey… You… you do know I don't like guys, right? Like, I have a girlfriend and everything."

At least I hope so, Ranko thought, biting her lip. If I didn't set her up for a beating bad enough that she leaves me over it. She has everything she needs to win, and hopefully Pop's rusty since he hasn't trained with me in a few months. It all comes down to whether or not she figures out what I was trying to show her. Fuck, I should have just told her. I'm an idiot. Thank the gods I'll never run a dojo, because I'm an absolute shit teacher, and I might have just gotten Akane's ass kicked because of it.

"It's not like that, blockhead!" Mei reached for a pillow to throw at her sister, but Ranko snatched it away before she could. "He's a scout, I think, or maybe an agent!"

Wincing from the effort to reach for the pillow, Ranko slumped back onto her side, curling her body up around the giant pink teddy bear that occupied the bed with her and hugging it against her torso. I feel like such an idiot cuddling this thing, but it's a lot more comfortable than the pillows. Squeezing it like this just makes it not hurt as much, that's all. Not like I like it or nothin'.

"An agent?! What, is the Public Security Intelligence Agency after me now?! What the heck did I do?!" Ranko swallowed hard. Is it because I faked my way into getting an identification card? Or is it… something else? I mean, I guess spies would probably love to figure out how a buff dude just transformed into a cute little redhead all of a sudden. Talk about a good disguise. But how would they even know who I am?

Mei rolled her eyes, grabbing Ranko's ankle hard with both hands and shaking her leg. "No, you idiot! A talent scout! Like, somebody who looks for singers and stuff!" She waved the black business card in Ranko's face again. "This guy, he was at the Christmas show. He said he video taped part of it, and he's watched it a couple of times now, and wanted to come back to see what you're like on a more… regular night, I guess, like when it wasn't as big of a production? I don't know!"

"Say what?!" Ranko sat up straighter on her bed, bracing her ribs with her hand again. Her enormous stuffed teddy bear fell to the floor, and she paid it no notice. "What did he want with me?!"

Ranko's sister bounced on the mattress excitedly, her pigtails flopping over her shoulders. "Ranko, they wanna see more of you, because they think they might wanna work with you! Like, this guy apparently has, like, his own agency!" She looked down at the shiny calling card in her hand. "Tashima Talent Agency. There's an address in Shibuya. I wonder if they, like, help people make their own songs and stuff!"

The songstress chuckled dismissively. "Fat chance of that! It's a nice thought, though." Maybe one day, she hoped silently. Man, wouldn't that throw Akane for a loop? Her taking over the dojo… and me… a pop star? Who'd ever have imagined it?

"Ranko, you didn't see this guy." Mei crawled up toward the headboard on the bed, flopping next to her sister and sitting up with her shoulders resting against the white coated metal. She wrapped her arms tight around Ranko's neck. "When I told him you weren't performing tonight, it was like somebody shot his dog. He was bummed. I think he really believes in you! And, I mean, he'd be crazy not to. I mean, I'm no big shot talent scout, but I know I do."

The younger girl blinked in surprise. "Yeah? And what makes you so sure this guy knows what he's doing?"

Mei nodded rapidly, her electric blue pigtails bobbing on her shoulders. "I mean, he runs a talent firm! Looks like kind of a big shot, too. Sharp dresser. He has to know what he's doing. If he thinks you've got a shot to make it big, you gotta believe, Ranko! You just gotta!"

"But, I'm…" Ranko looked down at her hands, leaning into her sister with her back against the cold aluminum of her headboard. "I'm not all that incredible. I'm not… what he thinks. I can't do this, Mei. I'm good enough to entertain a couple of drunks reading lyrics off a karaoke screen and shaking my butt a little bit. It's nowhere near the same thing."

Mei recoiled with an incredulous look on her face before wrapping her arms around Ranko at breast level and giving her a little shake. "Oh?! And I suppose we should tell that to all the people who waited in the snow for hours to buy tickets to see you sing? All the people who stood out there all night hoping someone would leave so they could get in? And then, nobody did?!"

"But, what if… I…" Ranko stammered, sighing after a moment and giving up on the sentiment when she realized it wasn't going anywhere.

The blue-haired woman squeezed her companion again, careful to avoid her lower abdomen. "Look, little sister. I don't know how much more plainly I can say this. I believe in you. Mama and the other girls do, too. We have since day one."

Ranko scoffed, waving Mei off with the back of her hand. "You hadn't even heard me sing on day one, so that seems kind of irrelevant. Besides, you're just saying that 'cause I'm your sister. You're supposed to say that stuff, even when it ain't true."

"Who said believing in you had anything to do with singing, blockhead?" Mei craned her neck up a bit, straightening her back to kiss her little sister on the crown of her head through her flame-red hair. "We believe in you. Not your voice. Not your dancing. You. If you told Mama right now you wanted to be a veterinarian or a movie star, or stay at home and have twelve kids, or be elected prime minister, we'd say the same thing. Because whatever it is, you have what it takes."

Her hand reached for Ranko's, and she gave it a little squeeze of reassurance. "I'm gonna tell you something Ayako told me once, one night when I was the new girl here. I was going through detox, bad, and my ex-boyfriend was showing up at the bar a couple times a week trying to drag me back into that whole world with him. I thought I was gonna break, and take the whole family down with me. I told Aya and Mama both, they should turn their backs on me while they still could. That I wasn't even blood family, and I wasn't worth the trouble."

Ranko opened her mouth to speak. I can't let her say that kind of stuff about herself. Of course she's worthy of everything. It's just me that's not.

"I know what you're gonna say, Ranko," Mei said before the redhead could make a sound. "I am wanted, I have worth, and I have people that care about me. They said that to me, too, but it was something else Aya said that really stuck with me. She said, when you crawl out of hell and you decide to stand up and fight for who you are and what you want - when you decide the world's not going to beat you or deny you your dreams, and then go and prove yourself right - that makes you more than just a girl. That's when you find out you've got Phoenix blood in you. And that's the blood that bonds our family."

Mei patted the younger girl gently on the thigh. "Ranko, I've only known you for a couple months. In that time, I've seen you fight for your life and win - easily. I've seen you stand up to a bully you were terrified of in order to protect me. I've seen you put a bar - one you haven't been working at long enough to have the drink specials memorized - on your back and save it with your determination alone. And, while you haven't told us as much about your past as I wish you would - yet - I can only dread to imagine the depths of the pit you had to climb out of just to crawl through our door in the first place. Girl, if that ain't Phoenix blood, I don't know what is."

Mei reached up with her other hand, cupping her sister's cheek in it and gently turning her head with it until Ranko made eye contact with her rather than staring down at the blanket covering her legs.

"And a Phoenix can do anything. Anything at all. The rules that say that doesn't happen to people in real life? That crap don't apply to us. If you tell me right now that you want to be a singer, then I'm a hundred percent sure that you're going to do it. So, really think about it, and tell me. Is singing what you want to do with your life? Or are you just doing it to make ends meet and put butts in the seats while you figure out what you really want?"

Ranko shrugged, her eyes empty despite her mind going at warp speed trying to process Mei's words. "I don't know. It feels stupid. Like, I might as well say I wanna be an astronaut."

The elder girl giggled. "If you tell me you want to be an astronaut too, I'm putting down my last yen right now, tonight, and booking my first-row ticket for a concert on the fucking moon. Because if you decide you're doing something, only an idiot would bet against you. But, you're avoiding the question. Tell me something, Ran-chan: when you get on stage, what do you feel?"

Could this really be happening? Do I have even a snowball's chance in hell? Ranko looked back down at her hands. Don't dare to dream it, Ranko. Dreaming leads to hope.

"Nerves?" Mei prodded gently, filling the silence as best she could.

Hope leads to disappointment. It always does, Ranko's mind insisted. I already found a place where they were willing to take me in out of the cold. I got reconnected with Akane. That's gotta have used up all the luck a person gets in one lifetime. Mama's always talking about, I need to go to school, 'cause I need to get a career. I need a plan, not a dream. Dreams are for suckers.

"Excitement?" Mei asked.

"I can't be a singer, Mei." Ranko sighed, slumping her shoulders. "I can't. I'm nowhere near good enough. I've got way too much baggage."

"Answer the damn question, Ranko." Mei punched the mattress between her legs for emphasis. "When you get up on that stage and the crowd is chanting your name, what do you f-"

"Joy!" Ranko snapped back. She immediately seemed to recoil from her own statement, as if she were ashamed that the thought was her own. "Unspeakable, uncontainable, unfathomable joy. Okay? It fills me up so much I feel like I'm gonna crack down the middle. Is that what you wanted to hear?!"

Mei reached up, wrapping both her arms around her sister's neck and giving her a tight squeeze. She held Ranko's head against her shoulder for a long moment before Ranko returned her embrace, and she waited to speak until the pair had held each other in silence for more than half a minute.

"Then, Ranko Tendo of the Phoenix Clan…" Mei pulled back to look deep into her sister's blue eyes, an adamant resolve in her own. "You are already a singer. And all we have to do now is introduce you to the world." She reached down to the bed at her side, picking up the glossy black business card and waving it in her sister's face. "And if this Takao Tashima guy is your ticket to that happening, then we're going to make damn sure he sees you for the pop idol you are."

Ranko scooted down on her bed, exhaling deeply as she stared at the ceiling and tried to somehow take in what was being said. Not sure how I feel about being an idol. That's like, harajuku outfits and petticoats and songs about candy and boys, and… I don't know if that could ever be me. But… singing for a living? Not having to worry about what happens if I'm behind in school? Making enough money where I can take care of Akane, and pay this family back for everything they've done for me? She swallowed hard. A career I can do with the Cat's Tongue, and something where being stuck as a girl is an advantage, and not something that might hold me back? Can't say that would suck.

"Let's say, hypothetically, I decided to give it a go." Ranko rolled over onto her side, resting her elbow on the bed and using her hand to prop up her head. She emitted a little yelp as she moved, the stretching of her abdomen reminding her of the soreness in her ribs. "What would we do?"

Beaming, Mei reached down and poked her sister's nose. "We pick a date, we call the guy, and we put on one hell of a show. We send Izzi to the mall with a mission." She tittered loudly. "I'm sure she'll be devastated at the prospect of dolling you up again."

Ignoring the defeated eye roll from her younger sister, Mei continued. "We rehearse. We prepare." Her hand moved to Ranko's shoulder, giving it a tight squeeze of reassurance as she looked down into her sister's eyes. "And we don't take no for an answer. You got me?"

"Mei, I…" Ranko sighed, closing her eyes. "What if he does say no? What if I let you all down? What happens when you realize I'm just a regular person, and I screw up, and I'm not automatically the best at everything all the time just because I'm your sister?" She hugged her pillow tight, burying her face in it and not caring that it muffled her voice. "What happens to all that faith and confidence you all have in me when I go down in flames?"

Mei chuckled. "That's the best part." She waited for Ranko to open her eyes, grinning down at her sister's skeptical face. "That's when the Phoenix blood kicks in, because when a Phoenix goes down in flames…" She made a pair of quotation marks in the air with her curled fingers as she repeated Ranko's phrase. "... that's when you know she's just getting started, and something totally amazing is about to happen. I can't wait to see it!"

My gods. This is… are we really going to do this? I'm gonna get to… Ranko sighed, biting her lip. Don't get your hopes up. Don't get your hopes up. It's just a dream. Dreams are for suckers. That's what Pop always said. But… me and Akane being a thing was a dream, and that one came true. Getting to stand up to Mikado and having him not haunt me every day was a dream and that came true, too. She smiled up at Mei, and it was as sincere and loving a smile as she knew how to make. Having a family that loved me was a dream, and that came truer than I could have imagined was possible.

"Let's do it!" Ranko squealed with excitement, kicking her legs on the bed and making little angels with her arms and legs in the wrinkles of the bedclothes.

With a nod of her head and an ear-to-ear grin from her elder sister, the plan was set in motion. "You got it, kiddo. We're gonna make this happen. Takao Tashima's not gonna know what hit him!" She gave a little squeak of excitement. "I need to get back downstairs and help Yui and Iz. But, my gods, Ranko, I'm so happy for you!"

As Mei stepped out of the room and closed the door, Ranko rolled over onto her stomach on the bed. It felt like a wrecking ball crashing into her chest to bear her weight on her ribs. She didn't care. She could barely sit still.

I can't wait to tell Akane! She kicked her legs left and right in the air behind her, squirming with anxious energy. I wish I could call her right now! I wonder what she's…

Ranko swallowed hard, and her body froze.

My gods, I got so preoccupied with being Little Miss Rock Star, I forgot what I asked Akane to do for a minute. I'm over here getting sized for my tiara, and my girlfriend might be getting her ass kicked right now because I sent her into a fight I'm not sure she can win.

If she'd had a phone in her room, she'd have reached for it, consequences be damned, just to know Akane was alright. I can't call her. She might not have even done it yet. She might still be working up to it. Gotta give her space. Gotta have faith in her.

She rolled back onto her back, staring up at the ceiling. She's fought hundreds of guys, Ranko reassured herself. She held her own against me before the Cat's Tongue, and Xian Pu, and guys like Kuno, too. She practices every day. She figured out the…

Ranko sat up, rubbing the silver dragon coiled around her wrist. She found herself doing it often of late when she needed reassurance, as if it were some magic lamp containing a genie that handed out courage to girls who needed it.

"Akane," she said quietly, willing the girl she loved to hear her whisper from eighteen kilometers away. "I hope this Phoenix blood thing runs in all of us Tendos."