The Phoenix Saga

The October air around Akane shook with a sudden, loud crack of thunder. Her eyes lifted from the sidewalk, and she stiffened with a startled gasp. Holy shit! She quickened her pace on the slippery concrete as a bolt of lightning branched its way across the darkened sky. I gotta get the hell out of this mess. 

Jogging as best she could in her damp red jumper dress, her heavy backpack full of organic chemistry books held over her head in a vain attempt to keep her black hair dry, Akane finished crossing the Minato University quad. Huddling in the entryway of the arts building to get out of the torrential rain, she dropped her drenched teal backpack on a relatively dry patch of concrete and wrapped her arms tightly around her shivering torso. It's still damn near a kilometer to the train station from here. Maybe I'd better just chill here for a bit and wait it out. She looked down at her digital watch without uncrossing her arms. Ranko will be starting dinner soon. I'd better call her and let her know I'm going to be late.

Akane craned her neck, but found no payphone outside the gray brick building, so she shouldered her sopping wet backpack and slipped through the glass door into the lobby of the arts department. To her right, a quartet of girls giggled about something or another; Akane paid them little mind. Another hard shudder crept down her spine as she passed under an air conditioning vent. It felt like someone had dropped ice cubes down the back of her dress. 

She wandered down a long, empty hallway lined with white pine doors leading into smaller classrooms, most seating no more than twenty or thirty students. I really should be more familiar with this building, Akane thought with a pang of guilt. Ranko spends most of her time on campus in here, and I've never even so much as walked her to class. Her shoulders slumped, and while she hated the emotion that had caused it, it was a welcome relief from the muscle tension brought on by the spine-deep chill she felt. She glanced back at the tittering girls in the lobby. I don't even know if she's made friends with any of these people. Gods know she won't tell me anything, but any one of them could know what's wrong with her.

The drenched girl ducked into a shallow alcove off the corridor, but found nothing but an assortment of ill-stocked vending machines. No phones. Damn. She kept walking, glancing down every side corridor she passed. Maybe I should just call Hana, Akane thought, hanging a left at the end of the hallway to follow the sound of conversation echoing down the narrow passageway. If anybody could get it out of her, I bet her mom could. She chuckled darkly, adjusting the weight of her backpack on her shoulders as she walked. With a fucking crowbar, if necessary. At this point, I'm not picky. I just want to help her. She's scaring the shit out of me.

Akane sighed with relief as the hallway opened into a small lounge area featuring a carpeted nook with few couches and plush chairs. Two of the purple chairs had been turned to face each other, and a young man with long black hair was seated in one playing an acoustic guitar for the bored-looking blonde in the other. Akane thought she recognized her from Ranko's cheerleading squad, but couldn't recall her name. On the far couch, three girls - freshmen all, Akane assumed based on how young they looked - huddled around the glossy magazine in the hands of the girl in the middle. They seemed quite intrigued by whatever the music industry gossip rag had to say, but Akane was far more interested in the payphone on a floating shelf mounted to the wall a few meters behind the sofa. 

Hurrying around the furniture, Akane swung her bag around on her shoulder, unzipping the front pocket and digging for a coin. She found one after a few moments of fumbling past pencils, the odd hair clip, and a collection of crumbled old receipts for long-forgotten sandwiches and energy drinks. Sighing with relief, she snatched up the blue plastic receiver and slipped the bronze ten-yen coin into the slot. She had to reset the receiver twice and redial the rotary phone, as her hands were shaking too much from the cold to select the correct numbers in sequence. Akane let her soaked backpack slide down her left arm and fall to the floor as the phone began to ring. 

The jaunty melody from the guitar skipped a beat as a loud peal of thunder split the air, shaking the glass door leading out the back of the building in its frame. For a split second, the lights in the lounge flickered, but the power fortunately did not fully go out.

The sodden girl leaned against the wall, tapping her foot urgently as the phone rang in her ear, almost drowning out the continued rumble of the thunder outside. C'mon, Ranko, hurry up and pick up, she thought. It's fucking freezing in here. The phone rang twice, thrice, four times, and Akane perked up when she heard the click of a connection. "Hey, Ranko, I'm…"

"You've reached the Tendo residence. We're sorry, but we can't make it to the phone right now! Please leave us your name and phone number, and we promise, we'll call you back as soon as we can! Have a great day," her own recorded voice said, speaking over her. 

Where the hell are you, Ranko?! What are you doing now? What the hell are you hiding from me? Akane's eyes were wide with concern, but she tried to swallow it back and not let her worry come through in her voice as the answering machine's merry beep prompted her to speak.

"Hey, baby? You there? Ranko?" Akane waited in silence for several seconds, hoping Ranko would hear her voice coming through the speaker on the kitchen wall and pick up the receiver, but she received no reply. "Okay, well… I guess you're out. So, I'm stuck on campus; the weather's really bad. Don't worry about holding dinner for me, okay? I love you, and I'll see you as soon as I can. Worst case, I'll catch up with you at work."

She pulled the phone away from her ear. It was almost back in the cradle before she decided she had more to say and lifted it back to her mouth. "Listen, I really hope we can talk soon. I'm worried about you. I just…" 

A second mechanical beep indicated that the maximum length of a message had been reached. With a heavy sigh, Akane returned the receiver to its cradle and pulled her backpack back up onto her shoulder from the floor. Maybe I can grab one of these chairs and wait out the storm, Akane thought with a disgusted grumble, starting to circumnavigate the navy blue couch closest to the phone.

"Oooh! Look! They've got pictures from the Dapper Dragons show!" The brunette sitting on the right side of the couch grabbed at the magazine, overruling the blue-haired girl in the middle's hesitation to flip to the next page without first catching up on all the salient details of the first album release from an American band called Stone Temple… something or another. Akane didn't really care about the band either, but she paused behind the couch, looking over the trio's shoulder at a spread of full-color photos. The captions indicated that they had been taken in Medan. 

Akane simpered wistfully at the sight of her beloved in living color, the skirt of her sailor fuku flaring around her hips as she danced. Judging by the sliver of the display screen behind the singer that was visible, which appeared to show the bleachers of a high school football stadium, Akane presumed that the photo was taken during a performance of B-O-U-N-C-E. Over Ranko's right shoulder, Hitomi was twisting in mid-air, parallel to the stage floor with Sanyo standing ready to catch her. 

She looks so happy there. Akane sighed. So why is she acting so sullen and guilty around me? She promised me that there wouldn't be any more secrets. What could she possibly hide from me that's worse than the things we've already gotten through together?

"Mmm… just look at that boy. Gods, the things I would do to him…" The orange-haired girl on the left side of the couch pawed at the magazine. Akane wordlessly followed her hand to a photo of Crash, in his black leather jacket and black jeans, his blond hair pulled up into a long, rakish spike with hair gel. He was leaning forward a bit over his cherry-red electric guitar, an intent focus on his face. "Hell… the things I'd let him do to me…"

The two other girls on the couch giggled at her comment, but the one on the right shook her head as she did so. "Naomi, I don't think you've got a chance with Crash, girl. Sorry to break your heart, but, ya gotta face facts."

You'd better not try, either, Akane thought with a wry smirk. Take it from a girl who's gotten more bruises from okonomiyaki spatulas than anyone has a right to: Ukyo is possessive as hell where boys are concerned. 

"And why not, Kyoko?! I mean, it's not like he's married or anything! He mentioned a girlfriend in the Wild Orchid album notes, but… if there ain't no ring, it ain't no thing." Naomi wagged her naked left hand insistently at her friend as if to illustrate her point. "Why wouldn't he want me?! I mean, I'm a musician too! Or, I will be, anyway, as soon as some idol group discovers me!"

The brunette, who Akane surmised was Kyoko, shook her head, a smirk of amused pity on her face. "Oh, Naomi, you're friggin' hopeless." 

Naomi growled, wagging a finger in Kyoko's face and paying no mind to the girl seated between them. "I'll show you! I'm gonna go down to that Tashima Talent Agency this weekend, and before you know it, it'll be my name in lights! You'll see!"

"Um, I don't know how to tell you this, but…" The girl in the middle shook her head as she turned to her left. "The Tashima Agency closed, like, a year ago. Lost all their clients after word got out that they were doing all sorts of creepy shit with the girls. You dodged a bullet there, girl."

Naomi rocked back on the couch. "Oh. Well, I'm still gonna make it big, and I'm still gonna end up with Mister Tall, Blond and Handsome. I don't know why you girls gotta crap on all my dreams!"

Kyoko reached out, tapping another photo in the magazine with her finger. "It's nothing personal; I just don't think you can hang with the competition." 

Akane followed her arm to the photo the girl indicated, featuring Crash and Ranko huddled together, looking deeply into each other's eyes. Judging by the stage blocking and the costumes, she knew it had to have been taken during the duet performance of Worthy of You. Ranko's face was the absolute picture of joy. It broke Akane's heart as she realized that it had been weeks since the last time she'd seen that kind of happiness in her wife's eyes.

"Honestly, Naomi, look at these two." Kyoko tapped another picture, this one of Ranko and Crash hugging backstage. Standing just behind them, an excited-looking couple Akane didn't recognize were locked in a kiss. "Do you not see the way she's looking at him? There is absolutely, positively no way those two aren't fucking."

Akane staggered back until her backpack clipped the payphone, knocking the receiver from its cradle with a loud clatter that drew the attention of the trio of girls. Is… could it… could she… She wouldn't! She wouldn't do that to me! Never!

The girl in the middle of the couch turned, blinking at Akane. "Uhhh, you okay?" 

The poleaxed woman could not even nod. Her mind was screaming far too loudly at her for external stimuli to even register. But, if she's not doing that… what else would cause her to be so secretive? And, on top of it, cause her to not want to be intimate with me anymore, all of a sudden?

"Hello-o-oh?" The girl waved her arm up and down as if to check if Akane was even conscious. 

She wouldn't do that to me. I'm sure of it. I'm just being stupid even considering it. She loves me. I love her. Besides, her and Crash have been flirty with each other for years; it's just the way their friendship is. I'm being ridiculous. Shut up, brain. Stop trying to fill in the gaps with bullshit. So lost was Akane in her own thoughts that she couldn't even focus her eyes, let alone acknowledge the girl still trying to get her attention.

Sighing, Kyoko tapped her companion on the shoulder. "Leave her alone, Takumi."

"Whatever, weirdo," Takumi said with a shrug and an eyeroll, turning back to her friends. "Anyway, I mean, I overheard Sora talking with Suzume the other day. He said when he interviewed her for his paper, she couldn't stop gushing about the guy she's with. He must've got some drinks in her; he said he was gonna try to get her good and liquored up at lunch so she'd loosen her tongue. For a celebrity, she's all secrets, and nobody lives like that unless they've got something juicy to hide."

Naomi looked up from the magazine, blinking at the loud bang of the glass door being thrown open. A peal of thunder shook the building. In the glow of the accompanying flash of lightning, Naomi could almost make out the silhouette of a girl in a red jumper dress running through the rain.