In Mekone…
On the afternoon of his next show, as Uta made the preparations to set up his concert, his assistant Jiro approached him. "Sir! You have visitors!"
Uta put his guitar down. "Is it Vortessia again? Tell her I don't have the stuff she wants right now! I'm working on it!"
Jiro shook his head. "It's not her! It's a group calling themselves the Raiders! They want to perform at your show tonight!"
Uta's ears perked up. "Actually? Alright, bring them in!"
Jiro hurried off to the front of the stage, and once he came backstage there were seven people dressed in leather outfits, six of them female and with glowing skin. Uta immediately recognized the one in the middle. "Saori! You've come to dance for me?"
She nodded enthusiastically. "Yep! I wanna be a music star too!"
Uta took notice of the girls behind her, thinking to himself. "She's brought more of her kind? I can't tell if this is some operation, or if they're just a traveling band. And what's with that human they've got there?
Is that Dachii Jones?"
He noticed Dachii, whose hair covered his eyes. "Huh. Something's off here."
Saori gave him a hopeful look. "Can we dance? Can we? Can we?"
Uta thought for a moment.
"Would they risk it?" he thought. "Nah, I doubt. With a little girl among them, there's no way they came here to stop me. As for Dachii, did he come here to visit?"
He shrugged off the feeling. "Ah, whatever. Let's see what you all got!"
Dachii stepped forward after Hikari nudged him. "I present to you…our dancers…"
He played a rock and roll tune on his guitar, and Saori, Akari, and Aoki lined up, moving their bodies in rhythm. "1…2…3…let's go!"
They moved their bodies in a line, stepping side to side as they swayed and dropped to the ground. Uta watched as they moved in sync, doing a mix between a tango and a modern-style dance. At the end of their routine, Akari and Aoki both tossed Saori into the air, who did a twirl before landing perfectly on one foot.
"Bravo!" Uta clapped. "Bravo!"
"Does this mean we're in?" Akari asked.
Uta circled them. "You three can dance, and he can play the guitar pretty well."
He turned toward Noriko, Reika, and Hikari. "What can you all do?"
Hikari raised her hand. "I can sing!"
"Ahh?" Uta inquired. "Let me hear you sing something for me, love!"
She cleared her throat.
"♪ I know, you trust me, yeah, I know you love me, yeah, I know, you want me, yeah, I know you need me! ♪"
She continued.
"♪ I know, I don't know, my mind's been racing so fast it might blow! I think my life is just like a show, woah, I've done so much stuff you don't know, woah! ♪"
She gave a graceful bow, and Uta clapped. "Encore! Encore!"
"Oh!" she gasped. "You want me to sing another?"
"But of course!" he stated. "But first, as for you two, what roles do you both play?"
Reika shrugged. "I just handle the effects. Makes stuff look cool."
"An important role indeed," Uta acknowledged. "Care to show me—?"
Without even waiting for him to grab a machine, she snapped her fingers, and Dachii, Akari, Aoki, and Saori all shifted positions, tumbling to the ground. Uta briefly gasped. "What was that?"
"A magic trick," she winked.
Noriko whispered something in her ear, and Reika quickly coughed. "It's nothing fancy! Just tricks of the eye, not ACTUAL magic! Haha!"
He stared at her for a second, face unreadable, before smiling. "Neat trick! What about you, love? Any special talent?"
Noriko immediately started shaking. "I…I do the drums!"
Uta eyed her, curious, before pulling out a drum set and handing her some drumsticks. "Have a go at it, then! Don't be shy!"
"Right now…?" she stammered.
"Mhm! Impress me!"
She gulped before taking the drumsticks. After lots of hesitation, she beat the drums as quickly as she could before dropping the sticks on accident.
"Gah! Sorry!"
He picked them up and handed them to her. "No worries! As awkward as you are, you're not a bad drummer!"
"…Thanks?"
Saori skipped over to him. "Well, Mister? Are you impressed?"
Uta put his hands behind his back. "You've got a solid crew, I'll give you that! But!"
He raised a finger. "True talent shines in the spotlight! Think you guys can handle thousands of fans watching you?"
Aoki shuddered. "Thousands?"
"Hundreds of thousands, to be exact. Maybe a million," Uta clarified. "Mekone is one of the bigger cities, I'm sure you guys could tell on your way here."
"Yeah," Akari agreed. "We got lost 3 times."
She gently elbowed Dachii. "Because THIS one didn't want to give proper directions."
"I said follow the road…" Dachii pointed out.
"There's dozens of roads," Akari replied.
"The road that leads here…" he claimed.
Akari slapped her forehead. "Ridiculous."
Aoki still stood there, her mind racing. "Hundreds of thousands…?"
Uta laughed. "You guys are funny! How about I take you to meet my crew? Come on!"
He led them into a control room where Jiro and two other men and a woman were working. "Hey, guys! We've got some new additions to the show!"
"New adds?" the woman remarked. "I thought this was a solo act?"
"Yeah, you're right," Uta agreed. "But you can't waste talent! You know this better than I do, Shoko!"
Shoko turned red. "Of course."
Uta extended his hand out. "Raiders, this is Shoko, Jiro, Kanji, and Tetsu. Tetsu serves as my DJ, while the rest basically run the control panels and handle all the boring engineer stuff."
"It's not boring," Kanji protested. "These things matter a lot!"
Uta turned toward the Raiders. "How about you guys introduce yourself, Saori?"
Saori pointed to Akari, Hikari, and Aoki one by one. "This is Elena, Claire, and Aria! And over there are Rachel and Nora!"
She pointed to Reika and Noriko respectively. Uta turned toward Dachii. "How about you, pal?"
"Dachii," he answered, flatly.
His group immediately stared at him, but Dachii remained silent. Jiro had a puzzled look on his face. "Dachii? That's an odd name. I've never heard of that before! Where does it come from?"
"My mom," Dachii replied.
"Awesome!" Uta stated. "Now that we all know each other, let's take you to the stage! Follow me, Raiders!"
He exited the control room, and Shoko sighed. "Good luck, you guys. Uta can be a bit…overenthusiastic."
"We'll keep that in mind," Akari said.
As they walked through the halls, Aoki and Akari immediately rounded on Dachii.
"Dachii! The hell was that?" Aoki demanded.
"Yeah, giving our ENEMY your real name?" Akari added. "If that isn't a red flag, I don't know what is!"
"Oh," Dachii apologized. "Didn't know we were using aliases."
Aoki slapped her forehead. "Great. This is just perfect. Now he's probably leading us into a trap."
Hikari put her hands on Dachii's shoulders. "I'm sure he already recognizes Dachii. After all, if he's tied to the Order, why wouldn't they know how their primary target looks? And it would be more suspicious to lie to him if he already knows your identity! Isn't that your reason, Dachii?"
"Well," he admitted. "No."
"You're not helping here," she whispered.
At the end of the hall was Uta, preparing to head to the back of the stage. "There you guys are! Slow walkers, aren't we?"
"Duh," Aoki apologized. "Wearing human heels really makes my feet burn."
"What was that?"
"She meant that she's not used to wearing these types of clothes!" Hikari interrupted. "She's not a leather and heels type of girl!"
"I can tell," Uta recognized. "She's got the ferociousness of a tiger in those eyes, I can see it."
Uta pulled back the stage curtains, revealing the massive venue and all the seats. "Gonna be loaded tonight! I hope you guys can handle the music!"
Saori jumped up and down. "We can! We can!"
He gave her a high five. "That's the spirit! You guys got a song ready and all?"
She nodded.
"Perfect! I'll set up the stage. The show starts in a few hours."
Hours later…
Marachii and Luca walked into the venue, accompanied by Toru. After pushing their way through the crowd, they noticed Mihina, Haruta, Zentaruo, and Chiho all sitting down.
"Marachii!" Mihina greeted. "Here, come sit down!"
She patted the seat next to her. "Where's your brother?"
"You'll see him soon," Marachii teased.
"Hmm?"
Zentaruo gestured to Toru and Luca. "Look, the glowing men!"
Toru gave him a sharp glare. "Excuse me. Hasn't anyone told you it is rude to stare?"
"I see you brought your…handler," Mihina scoffed. "Couldn't you have left him at the door?"
"Believe me, I tried," Marachii sighed. "It didn't work."
"Of course it didn't," Toru spat. "Now we will sit here as a group, and analyze every bit of this show."
Haruta and Mihina rolled their eyes.
The DJ played some music as the lights dimmed. "I know you've been waiting, people! Wait no more! Introducing: Uta Otokura!"
Uta walked out from behind the stage, walking down the runway. "Hello, people!"
Everyone cheered and clapped, including Marachii's friends. Toru simply scoffed. "A bit too flashy, isn't he?"
Mihina and Haruta shot him a dirty look before they resumed clapping.
Uta basked in the applause before putting his mic close to his face. "Great to be back! But this time, I'm no longer a solo act!"
The crowd gasped as he motioned to the stage. "I present to you…The Raiders!"
Everyone watched as the group emerged from behind the stage, with Dachii standing in front. Mihina shot up out of her seat. "What the hell?"
Marachii laughed under his breath. "I told you."
"Marachii, what the hell is this? Why is he dressed like that?" she asked.
"Those glowing girls," Zentaruo realized. "They're up there too!"
"Are they a band?" Haruta wondered. "I've never known Dachii to be into music."
"He isn't!" Mihina exclaimed. "At least not playing it! Come on, we've gotta get closer!"
She got out of her seat, heading for the runway. Haruta, Zentaruo, and Chiho did the same. Marachii followed them, leaving Luca and Toru behind.
"Do we go after them?" Luca suggested.
"No," Toru declined. "Let the fools gawk and gasp. We're here to make sure everything goes smoothly. That's it."
One by one, the group walked down the runway, standing behind Uta. "Here they are! They've got a special song and dance they're here to perform for you! It's called Hold My Hand!"
The crowd cheered as the group settled in, drums and equipment being brought onto the stage. Uta handed Saori the microphone. "Thanks! My friend Claire is going to sing this one! Everyone, please support her!"
They clapped as Hikari took the mic. Dachii, Reika, Noriko, and the dancers got into their positions as Uta watched.
"Okay," Hikari thought. "I can do this."
The music began playing and Noriko and Dachii played their instruments while Hikari began to sing.
"♪ Hold my hand, if you can, I hope you can understand, I like money sitting in my pants, I like when you do your dance, ♪"
From the crowd, Mihina's mouth was basically wide open. "Marachii, you didn't tell me she could sing!"
She shook him.
"You didn't ask!" he pointed out.
"♪ I like my toes in the sand, when I talk I use my hands, I don't have any friends, but you're my only fan, and I won't stop until you're holding on my hand! ♪"
As she continued singing, the girls danced behind her, moving in sync as they shimmied and twirled.
"♪ I like the way I'm feeling, yeah, I don't think I have a ceiling, yeah, if you don't care about my feelings, yeah, I think I'll turn into a villain, yeah, ♪"
"♪ Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, you know I'm going to steal the show, these women tryna steal my flow, so I gotta let 'em know! ♪"
By now the entire crowd was up on their feet.
"♪ Hold my hand, if you can, I hope you can understand, I like money sitting in my pants, I like when you do your dance, I like my toes in the sand, when I talk I use my hands, I don't have any friends, but you're my only fan, and I won't stop until you're holding on my hand! ♪"
The girls finished by twirling around each other and hitting a backflip as fire shot out of the flamethrowers. As they flipped, Reika snapped her fingers, causing them to swap places with each other.
The crowd gave them a round of applause.
"Give them a hand, everyone!" Uta declared. "Give it up for the Raiders!"
Mihina remained speechless. "Wow…just…wow…"
Next to her, Marachii clapped as loud as he could. "Nice! Just like we practiced!"
As the applause subsided, a fancy-dressed man emerged from the crowd, clearing his throat. "Excuse me, may I have a word?"
Uta paused. "Of course! May I ask whom I have the pleasure of speaking with?"
The crowd appeared to recognize the man, allowing him to pass. Dachii and Marachii seemed to notice too, briefly surprised.
"My name is Mr. Leo Blake. If you haven't heard, I am the running President of Estrium at the moment."
"President?" Uta repeated.
The man stepped onto the stage. "I'm holding a gala in 24 hours' time. I would be delighted if you and your new group could attend."
The crowd all murmured and gasped.
"Really? May I ask who will be at this gala?" Uta inquired.
"Everyone," the president laughed. "Everyone."
"I see."
After considering for a moment, Uta straightened up. "Then consider us there!"
Meanwhile…
Okuda scanned the streets of Silver Oak, looking for Dachii. "Damn, where could he be?"
After traversing for a while, he came across a gated property, but strangely there was only land inside the gate, and an imprint in the ground that resembled a house. A boy was standing by it, seemingly investigating.
"Hey, this is Dachii's old house!"
Okuda immediately ran up to the boy, who had glowing skin. "Hey, you! What happened to this place?"
The boy looked up. "No clue. I saw a house and a woman disappear out of nowhere! You should probably leave, kid! This place is hectic!"
"Hectic? Hectic how?"
But before the boy could answer that question, they both saw a sight that made their skin crawl.
In the center where the house used to be, there was a shadowy black crown.
—-