*cackle* This next set of chapters might get confusing a bit, but it'll all make sense in the end.
And orangesocks, you were closer than you think the first time ^^ No fluff (I was angry at me too) but there's a cute little scene at the end. I wouldn't have written it if it weren't for the fact that 'god, Eri and Junjun need a moment. I don't know why, but they're going to need one.'
And... by the way.
Because I can.Chapter 5 :: Game TimeRooting around in Sayumi’s kitchen was not Reina’s idea of a good time, but Miki insisted she make something for everyone. It was around lunchtime, and the elder of the duo had been talking to Koharu for a good few hours now.
By that time, Reina had gotten three calls from Takahashi, one telling her to stay with Koharu no matter what, the second checking up on her and Koharu (despite the fact that Miki was there and they were perfectly fine), and the final asking where the hell they were and why the hell weren’t they back at the studio.
Whatever.
Reina also had a problem with Sayumi’s kitchen. There was very little in it in the sense of what Reina could use to cook with.
She had finally settled on just making sandwiches and lecturing Sayumi on the importance of supplying her damn kitchen later.
If Sayumi wasn’t responsible for whatever was going on.
She doubted it, highly. It didn’t seem like something Sayumi would do, even if provoked to do it. She didn’t see Sayumi killing Hitomi, almost mauling Miki’s boyfriend, and stuffing Koharu in a closet. They weren’t very Sayumi-like tendencies.
Then again, this whole day had started off very not-Sayumi-like for both of them.
Reina was worried for her friend, of course. She didn’t know what to make of their phone conversation earlier, and she wasn’t entirely sure she meant it when she said those words before hanging up.
Love was a fickle thing anyways. She didn’t need Yuko hovering over her to tell her that.
Maybe she should have called up Mari. Mari would have known what to do.
If Hitomi wasn’t so ‘dead’ right now, maybe she would have asked her former leader.
Why did she assume that? Hitomi’s death… they didn’t even know yet, and it was already assumed!
“Hey, Tanaka!”
Miki’s voice snapped her back to reality, and she hurriedly brought out sandwiches. The two were sitting on the couch, Miki trying to get Koharu out of her curled up position, but failing miserably.
“It’s about time…” Miki said, as Reina set the sandwiches down on the table in front of them, and sat on the floor, completing the strange triangle thing. She examined Koharu a moment. Koharu was staring at her, of course, in a creepy way, more creepy than the ‘I want you to buy my singles buy my singles now’ look that she got when posing for the camera. It seemed more panicked, quite a bit on the frightened side.
“Koha, how about a sandwich?” Miki tried, in a slightly motherly voice. Koharu didn’t say anything, just kept her stare on Reina.
“Miki, maybe we should leave her alone for a moment… she’ll speak when she wants to,” Reina said softly, reaching over and putting a hand on Koharu’s knee, “Isn’t that right? You’ll be fine with us.”
She smiled warmly, much more motherly than Miki could ever pull off. Grunting, the elder took a sandwich and started munching on it, eyes on Koharu.
“Ya know… you’d think this one’d say a lot. She’s pretty talkative…”
“… She was locked in a closet Mikitty… maybe she just doesn’t wanna talk about it…”
“Saki said she was next…”
Koharu’s blunt statement caused the girls to stop in their conversation and stare.
“Come again?” Reina asked.
“… Saki… she said ‘she’s next.’”
“Who?”
“… I… I don’t know… she was looking at a picture of you and Sayumi…”
Miki raised her brow.
“Well… we’ll just have to find Sayumi the-wait…”
The realization washed over the both of them, and they stared at Koharu again.
“SAKI!?”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Letting out a small snort, Risa walked through the convenience store, attempting to find snacks. Why was it that she was playing errand girl? Ever since Ai became subleader, there was always a sense of rejection from the woman. It was woman now, wasn’t it? Who would have thought it would have been Ai?
It was in Risa’s personal opinion that Makoto would have made a better one. Maybe. Okay, no, she wanted Hitomi back and that was final.
But she never got her way. She was always the one in the back, the one no one cared about…
“Ah, sumimasen,” she said politely to the man behind the register, “Is there a chance that you have strawberry pocky?”
She had been looking for it for the past five minutes. She already had some chocolate pocky for herself, some strange American cracker thing for Ai, and some bubbly stuff. However, it was specifically requested that strawberry pocky be bought as well. Maybe they had found Sayumi.
This is why she needed more friends.
“I’m sorry, no… we’re all out.”
How could one be all out of strawberry pocky? Making a noise, she picked a few more pocky boxes out, before setting them down on the counter.
“Looks like someone’s got a big party going on…”
“Hmm?”
Risa looked down. It did look like a lot.
“Nah… just a meeting…”
Or something. The man smiled, ringing up the items as quickly as he could. Risa was already in her pockets for money.
“I was beginning to wonder what was going on… Matsuura-san was in here earlier. She was in quite a rush.”
Risa blinked, but kept the smile on her face. What about Matsuura-san? She didn’t usually have anything to do with a Morning Musume member.
“She was asking for your subleader, and when I asked if she was wondering about Takahashi-san, she said ‘no, I want to speak with Niigaki.’ Quite strange really. Why she would ask me if you had come in or not is beyond me…”
Quite strange indeed. Quirking a brow, Risa stared at him for a moment, while trying to find an answer.
“Huh… I have no idea what she’s talking about…”
The man shrugged.
“She wasn’t too specific either. I wouldn’t worry about it.”
Smiling, Risa mimicked the man’s shrug.
“If you say so. Maybe she was just stressed.”
“Ah, Fujimoto-san’s strange scandal… right.”
Risa refrained from rolling her eyes. FRIDAY was stupid, and not worth her time. Ever.
While she was thinking, and the man was ringing up her order, trying to get small talk out of her again, a loud noise rang throughout the store, and outside onto the street. Quite shortly after, impact and sharp pain caused Risa to fall forward, onto the counter in front of her.
“No… you won’t be the subleader… Pigtails.”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
“Why would they wanna kidnap us? I mean, we’ve gotta be two of the most… obscure members of Morning Musume right now… Junjun, don’t touch that…”
They were in Eri’s kitchen, the taller of the two getting rather hungry and wanting something good to eat… and she specifically remembered Eri had promised her something along the lines of rice balls at one point.
Suddenly, onigiri sounded good.
So that was what Eri was trying to prepare, with Junjun in the kitchen.
“Seriously. It’s Turtle Girl and Chinese Panda number… one. You’re older, you’ll be number one.”
Junjun gave Eri a peculiar look, but shrugged, and went right back to examining the bruise on Eri’s cheek.
“I told you not to touch that!”
Eri started smacking at Junjun, and Junjun retaliated by trying to smack back. They ended up swatting hands and air for a good few moments before Eri snorted and resumed cooking.
“Grumpy! Worse than Grumpy Frenchmen!”
How amazingly redundant of Junjun. There wasn’t much Eri could do about it though, so she watched the girl pout and glare, before she went right back to cooking.
Then Junjun was at it again. What was with the poking and the bruises? Those hurt!
“JUNJUN!”
Instead of recoiling her hand like she had done before, Junjun kept up, this time getting a little more motherly and actually examining the bruise.
“Jun.Jun,” Eri pronounced, slowly, “Let. Me. Cook. Your. Stu. Pid. Rice. Balls. In. Peace.”
“No. Grumpy, hurt. You need nap.”
And before Eri could say anything else, she was shoved out of her own kitchen.
“Now go!”
“What? No, I’m making rice balls for you!”
“GO!”
Junjun pointed this time, to where Eri’s room was.
“NOW! Onigiri I bring. You sleep. I know cook how. No worry burn house down.”
“But…”
“GO!”