Well it's been a long time - and I thought it was even longer than the month or so it's been! - but I finally was able to put out the next Berry Beautiful chapter!
If anyone forgets what's going on, please feel free to read at least the last few chapters or so. Don't really have much to say, except on with the story!
Chapter 26“You’re never gonna let us live this down, are you Miya?” Chinami asked as the girls stretched before a mid-week rehearsal. There was tangible excitement in the air since today was the day Momoko was on her way to join them in Nagoya.
They actually were supposed to have left the city by now, but because of the cancelled concerts the previous weekend, they pushed back their schedule slightly and now had Friday and Saturday performances coming up that they were hurriedly preparing for. The excitement over the weekend, and even at the beginning of the week after the Monday morning announcement of Momoko’s miraculous reappearance, rather precluded chances of getting much rehearsing done on those days. Thus, here they were late on Thursday morning with a long day still ahead of them. Gladly it would at least be broken up around lunchtime once Momoko arrived.
“Let me think…” Miyabi replied in a thoughtful tone. “Nope,” she said, after having obviously not thought at all. She rose to her toes and stretched her hands high above your head.
“You know, you look really sexy stretched like that,” Saki said from a few steps away, pausing in her own warm-ups to tilt her head while appraising her.
Miyabi quickly dropped back down to her heels and crossed her arms as if hugging herself, blushing fiercely at the girl’s public comment. Whenever she got on her high horse too much since that morning, her girlfriend just as often had some tease or comment to bring her back down. Although, nothing had been quite as…
brazen!... as this. It even seemed to make Chinami blush.
The other girls had been quiet about their relationship since Momoko’s revelation, as if scared to bring up the topic again. Miyabi thought Chinami for one was actually scared of
her. She wasn’t sure what she thought about that. The only one who seemed as natural as ever was Maasa, who came to her every morning for news of what had happened with the two of them the previous night.
Disappointingly for Miyabi’s too-curious friend though, the past few days she had little to report. Miyabi had essentially put Saki into the doghouse for not believing her, and refused to even hug her. The only reason she let the girl still sleep in the same bed was because of how… pleasantly… she had
gone about not believing her. Still, Miyabi wondered how much of the girl’s teasings now had to do with that frustration, and wondered how long she’d keep it up. Maybe Momoko returning would be a good time to put it to rest. She didn’t want to give Saki reason to feel like looking elsewhere for comfort, after all. At that thought her jealousy flared up again and she began getting a little upset.
“Why thank you, Captain,” she said, being careful to use the girl’s title. “I’m glad I’m impressing
someone at least.” She gave Chinami a toothy grin, who ducked her eyes once again.
“Miya, are you torturing Chii-chan again?” Yurina asked, walking over in her flaming orange sweat suit. Miyabi could barely look at the girl for fear of being blinded by it. “Just give it a rest. Everybody admits you were right and believes you now, so do you really have to rub it in all the time?”
“Yeah!” Chinami contributed, giving her a pouting look. “Be nicer to us! Captain, make her be nice!”
Miyabi looked to her Captain, who was observing the exchange silently. No matter how she steeled herself up, whenever she looked into the girl’s expressive face she melted at its cuteness and sweetness. Maybe she really was pushing too far… She made a note to definitely make it up to Saki tonight.
“No need for that,” Miyabi responded with an apologetic lilt in her voice. “Ok, I’ll be nicer. But if you doubt me again I’ll turn you into a toad,” she said with a grin. Chinami’s eyes opened wide again, but Yurina seemed to relax and began laughing. “Yo Rii-chan!” Miyabi yelled over her shoulder, and the named girl stumbled in one of her stretches. “What do you think? Is that what she’d be?”
The shared joke between them all with this was that last night, the youngest Berry had been particularly whiny after one of their rehearsal sessions. They all were sore after practicing hard for the first time in virtually weeks, and the girl was pushing it to the point that even Saki was becoming frustrated with her. Miyabi meanwhile had been practicing her mystic art more and more since the confidence she gained after Momoko’s apparently successful resurrection, as well as since she did not spend as much of her free time with Saki. She was eager to try out one of the new spells she’d studied, but hadn’t had an opportunity where she was sure people wouldn’t get angry with her for it.
Risako’s childish alienation of the rest seemed just the fitting time. While Saki was trying unsuccessfully to soothe her with calm words, she mumbled the incantation under her breath and Risako suddenly became the animal whose spirit her own most resembled. She became a pure white mouse.
After the initial shock of the girl’s even higher-pitched than normal squeaks of protest and complaint and some wide-eyed looks to Miyabi, she’d assured the rest of the girls it wouldn’t last more than a few seconds, and sure enough almost right then the youngest of them was once again sitting in their midst, if with her own wide-eyed expression of horror on her face, and they started laughing. Yurina and Maasa had even patted Miyabi’s shoulder at her effort toward taming the girl, who strangely didn’t whine again the rest of the night. In fact, she avoided Miyabi completely, something she didn’t mind in the slightest. Their other recent encounters had not been the most pleasant.
“I…” Risako began back in the present. “I need to use the washroom.” And she hurried out into the hall.
“I’m starting to get a little worried, Miya,” Yurina said. “Rii-chan has undoubtedly been more pleasant to be around since your little trick last night, but I wonder if the whole experience hasn’t scarred her somehow.”
Saki walked up to Miyabi, who decided not to object to Yurina’s description of her “trick”, and looking after where Risako had run off said softly, “You should talk to her, Miya. I don’t know if there’s much any of us can do. I think…” She hesitated as if a little reluctant to go on. “I think it’s only you that’s affecting her now.”
As Miyabi looked down into her girlfriend’s earnest and resolved face, she breathed in deeply as if to sigh, but didn’t. “All right…” she said, grumbling slightly. “I’ll go talk to her…” And with that, she headed toward the door herself.
“Natsuyaki-san,” Ms. Kobayashi, their current drill instructor, called as she was nearly through the door. “If you go somewhere, please don’t take too long. We’re starting rehearsal in three minutes sharp. Also, if you see Sugaya-san, please tell her to return as well.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Miyabi said quickly with a nod and smile over to her friends, and ducked swiftly out into the hall.
It didn’t take her too long to find Risako, who was leaning over for a drink at a fountain. Huh. It looked like she really
had gone to the washroom. When Miyabi tapped her shoulder though, the younger girl jumped as if somebody had grabbed her and tried to kidnap her.
“Oh…” she said weakly. “Miya…”
“Hi Rii-chan,” Miyabi said, and her eyes began floating around randomly at the awkwardness as well.
“I’d better get back to rehearsal,” Risako said, and keeping her head low, moved as if to head in that direction.
“Wait,” Miyabi said in a louder voice, and this time she did grab the girl’s sleeve. Risako froze at her touch, but didn’t look back at her. “I wanted to, er, talk to you…” she said.
“Are you sure this can’t wait?” Risako said without turning around. “Kobayashi-sensei will be hard on us if we’re late.”
“No,” Miyabi said, becoming more confident in herself. “I need to… I
want to talk to you now.”
She didn’t hear anything, but could sense that Risako sighed silently at her request, and turned to look soberly into her face. “What is it, Miya?” she asked in a much too quiet voice.
Miyabi swallowed dryly. “I… I’m sorry about last night…” she said. “I shouldn’t have done that. I was too overcome by childishness and my desire to experiment.”
“You’re right,” Risako responded, her voice still quiet. “You shouldn’t have done that. Do you have any idea how that felt?” The girl now was looking earnestly into Miyabi’s eyes, and her own were even becoming moist. For some reason, it tore at Miyabi’s heart.
“I felt like I was so small… and helpless. Everything around me seemed gigantic and dangerous. I think I was more terrified than I’ve ever been.” Miyabi stared at the girl, unable to move herself. What that true? Had she really put her through that? After thinking about it for barely a moment and realizing how much sense it made, she put up a wall in her head so she wouldn’t think about it any more.
“How could you have done that to me…?” Risako asked, her voice now barely above a whisper, and tears now visibly forming in her eyes.
Miyabi opened her mouth, but couldn’t respond. It suddenly felt as dry as the desert. “I…” she finally became able to utter. “I don’t know…”
Risako nodded very slowly and slightly, and swallowed herself as if drowning away the tears. “When you can tell me that,” she said in a partially broken voice. “Then we can talk.” And she walked away back toward their rehearsal.
Miyabi barely heard Kobayashi-sensei’s shout of
“Natsuyaki-saaaan!” a minute later, but it did prompt her to return to rehearsal, where she was quiet for the entire hour. She was completely subdued during that time though, and couldn’t bear to look at Risako. She did notice however the other girls giving the two of them glances from time to time as if wondering what had happened, though of course unable to ask that while in their drill. At the same time she avoided Risako, she also did her best to avoid Saki’s eyes, which she imagined to be sternly judging.
When rehearsal was over and they finally had the chance to talk again, it was cut short by an announcement that Momoko had arrived. Apparently this made the rest of the girls forget everything else, and excitement bubbled in them as they raced down the hall to find her. Miyabi brought up the tail end of the gabbing group of girls as they traversed the halls, but to her surprise she noticed Saki hang back to join her.
“Are you all right?” her girlfriend asked, and she took Miyabi’s hand, squeezing it softly. “You’ve been distant ever since you went after Risako-chan.”
“Yeah,” Miyabi said flatly, and right away she knew that would not have convinced anybody. “We just…” she continued, becoming self-conscious. “She’s mad at me.”
Saki just nodded, and for some reason that sparked fury in Miyabi, who released her hand as if it caught fire. “Are you going to be on
her side?!” she demanded, losing her composure. “Can’t I count on
anyone anymore?”
Saki blinked at her. “What are you talking about, Miya? You know I’ll always support you. But…”
“But you’re on her side,” Miyabi retorted. “Fine. I can deal with it myself.” And she quickened her pace, stalking off ahead of the other girl.
What
right did the girl have to treat her like that? Hadn’t she done great things lately? She satisfied Risako’s desire for her first kiss –
that was obviously a mistake on
many levels, looking back on it now. She poured out her heart and gave herself to Saki. What more could she do? For Heaven’s sake, she brought Momoko back from the
dead!
Just as she thought that, she entered the small cafeteria at the back of the concert hall, and found the four girls who had been ahead of her gathered around another, shorter one. She came to a sudden stop, and as she looked on, the smiling object of everyone’s attention turned her own attention toward Miyabi.
She knew what she’d done, and she knew this encounter would happen since they and all their staff were excited at the girl’s return, but looking at Momoko in her dark seifuku, she felt she needed to pinch herself to wake up from the dream.
For some reason she thought the girl’s smile vanished when she looked at Miyabi, but it might have been a trick of her mind, because the next thing she knew it was back, and the girl shouted out in her direction, “Captain! I’m sorry to have worried you so much!” She ran up past Miyabi, who turned slowly as she realized Saki had entered the room not far behind her, and hugged her girlfriend as if they’d not seen each other in ages. She hugged
her girlfriend!
Saki returned it, a happy smile coming to her face as well. “Momo! We thought you were gone. We…” She looked over the girl’s shoulder at Miyabi. “So you’re all right?”
“Yep!” the girl chirped. “I’m just pichi pichi!”
The other girls, seeing the movement of their current focus, came over and joined the rest. Miyabi noticed though that Risako stayed as far away as she could from her and still be part of the group.
“So what happened?” Chinami asked excitedly. “How did you survive the wreck?” A few of the girls, including her, gave Miyabi quick glances at her question.
“It was very strange,” Momoko said, and she raised a finger to her chin as if thinking in a dainty way. “I remember a jolt as the car I was in suddenly changed direction, and then a lot of people screaming… but then the next thing I knew I woke up and I was alone. I was a bit scared, but after wandering a block or two away from the wreckage I managed to find somebody who helped me get to a hospital. It was definitely something I don’t wish to do again…”
“Are you…” Yurina began, giving another sideways look to Miyabi. “Are you sure you don’t remember anything more? Like anything that happened between when the train crashed and you woke up? It must have been a long time!”
“According to the doctors at the hospital, it was about a day and a half,” she said. “They were amazed I was conscious, much less in the perfect shape I was in. I keep telling you all to work out! Aside from giving you a perfect body such as mine, it might save your life some day!” She grinned as she said that, and a couple of the girls laughed, if a trifle nervously.
However, when she spoke about the timeframe and what the doctors said, she gave Miyabi a level gaze, and Miyabi could tell by her eyes that there was something she wasn’t telling them. “Momo—“ she began, but the girl ignored her and turned to Saki, piping up again.
“C’mon Captain! I have a lot of catching up to do if I’m going to be ready for the concert tomorrow! The doctors said I’m in pristine shape of course, but I won’t
really know until I start performing again. Let’s go!” Then, grabbing Saki’s arm, she dragged the girl out into the hall, with the others hurrying to follow.
However, Miyabi stayed behind, just staring after the rest of her jubilant Berryz comrades. What just happened there? She looked down at herself. She wasn’t
that unattractive in her baggy workout clothes, was she?
“Natsuyaki-san?” she heard a voice from behind her say. She didn’t turn around, but the voice continued, “Aren’t you happy to see Tsugunaga-san? We’re all lucky to have her back, you know!”
Miyabi finally turned to face Asako, the intern who primarily managed her. The Keio college student was beaming at her, although when she got a look at Miyabi’s face, the smile faded a little. “Is something wrong?”
Miyabi stared back, and after a moment shook her head. “No…” she responded. “Nothing’s wrong.” Risako hated her. “I’m just speechless because I’m so happy for everyone.” She’d literally risked her life to save Momoko, and the girl barely seemed to recognize her existence. “It’s so wonderful to have Momo-chan back so we can have our full Berryz team again.” And now, she’d yelled at Saki, who was quickly claimed by the newly-returned Momoko, a girl who by her own admission was in love with her. “What could be wrong?”
…
After their afternoon rehearsals, when barely anyone
still talked to Miyabi, she was changing into her street clothes when Momoko came up to her and considered her silently. Miyabi registered her presence, but didn’t say anything as she deliberately buttoned her skirt.
“Since you’re standing there, are you going to say something or do you just enjoy watching me change?” she asked in a voice that was much bitterer than she intended it to be.
“Why Miya,” the girl said. “Aren’t you happy to see me? I did just apparently come back from the dead after all. My other friends think it’s a cause for celebration! Don’t you?”
“Yeah,” Miyabi said. “I heard about that. Congratulations on being alive. It’s truly amazing.”
“I heard from a little birdie…” Momoko said, looking up as if she was listening to that little birdie right now. “That you think you… resurrected me or something?” She paused a moment as if expecting a response from Miyabi, but she kept silent. “That’s quite a claim,” she continued when she realized nothing was forthcoming. “And if it’s true, it seems that I owe you my life.”
Miyabi shrugged. “You’ve apparently got no reason to believe it’s true, so why bother?”
“Well…” Momoko began. “Captain doesn’t usually lie.”
Miyabi looked up to stare at her. “She’s the one who told you?” Momoko nodded, but Miyabi just shook her head and shrugged again. What did that really matter?
“I told you all that the last thing I remember was the train derailing…” the girl said, and she sat down on the bench next to her. Strangely though, it didn’t seem to make Miyabi uncomfortable. Considering her current standing with everyone, she wondered how she even stood talking to them. “So that doesn’t mean I forgot anything that happened before it. I know what’s going on between you and Captain. Or, at least I thought I did. Since I’ve been here though I don’t think you’ve even said two words to each other.”
Miyabi looked down at her toes. “It’s… complicated,” she said. “I think your, shall we say,
resurfacing, might have made things worse.”
“They believe you, don’t they?” Momoko asked. Miyabi looked up at her questioningly. “That you brought me back to life.”
After looking into the girl’s inscrutable eyes for a second, Miyabi returned her own to her toes. “Some of them do. Others refuse to believe I can do these things even though they’ve had plenty of evidence of it.”
Momoko tittered in response. “Oh yes, that’s right. You turned Rii-chan into a mouse. I’m sure she
loved that.” Miyabi felt like she could bore holes in her toes with her glare. “I also heard what you think that spell does. What do you think?” she asked, and drew Miyabi’s stern gaze again. The girl had her arms spread as if she was presenting herself. “A hamster? I might have said mouse, but Rii-chan seems to have already taken it…”
Despite herself, Miyabi broke a smile and even coughed a short laugh. “Who knows,” she said. “You’re welcome to try it out sometime though.”
“Oh that’s quite all right,” Momoko said with a grin. “I think I’ll pass on that for now.” She then got up and then acted as if to leave. Strangely, Miyabi felt like she didn’t want the girl to go. “Remember,” she said. “Come to me if you need anything. It seems I have even more reason to support you now.” Miyabi nodded dully, and the girl walked away.
Miyabi watched herself wiggle her toes for a few minutes more before pulling on her shoes, getting up and hoisting her bag to her shoulders to head back to the hotel. It was quiet since apparently the other Berryz had preceded her out, and Asako cheerily bowed her into her own cab. As she rode through the Nagoya dusk and viewed the fluorescent lights of the city, she thought about the events of the past week.
Was she really just being childish? Momoko apparently didn’t hold anything against her, so why would anyone else? Aside from Risako of course, but she figured the girl would get over it. She hoped so. Saki especially wouldn’t be against her, no matter what the deal with Risako was. After all, the girl hadn’t fallen far short of declaring her undying love for her. The thought of that made Miyabi smile, and she played with her heart necklace as the lights continued flashing by.
Upon returning to the hotel, she found her way to the floor they shared. She heard lots of shouting and excited giggling coming from Maasa’s room, where she supposed they were having Momoko’s coming-back party, but since she didn’t quite feel ready for that she just slid the key card through the lock to her and Saki’s room and walked into it, dumping her bag next to her suitcase.
It wasn’t long though before she heard the door open, and she turned to see Saki slipping inside in a pair of comfortable-looking if tight shorts and a light white blouse.
“Hello,” she said. “I thought I heard someone outside the door, and knew it must have been you. It took you a while to get back here.”
Miyabi took in the girl, and thought once again how lucky she must be to have her as her own. Her face looked perfect, and the outfit even made her look angelic, with the tight shorts adding just a touch of sexiness.
“Yeah,” she responded. “I guess my cab driver was slow. I’m surprised you heard me over all the noise in that room.”
“Oh…” Saki said, and lowered her eyes in a slight blush, toeing the ground a little. “Actually, I was keeping an ear out for you so I’d know when you’re back. After this afternoon, I wanted to apolo—”
“There’s no need for that,” Miyabi said quickly, holding her hands tightly in front of herself to keep them in check for the moment. “I’m the one that should be sorry. Lately I haven’t been paying attention to people as well as I should be.”
“Oh…” Saki said, and looked down again as it seemed like an awkward silence began.
Miyabi couldn’t help herself any longer and closed the gap between them, taking the smaller and almost fragile-seeming girl in her arms. Obviously surprised at the gesture, Saki looked up into her face. “Thank you for standing by me,” Miyabi said, and with a slight hesitation leaned in and kissed her, wrapping her arms fully around the girl’s waist. She felt Saki’s arms wrap around her neck as their kiss deepened, and Miyabi mentally berated herself through the wonderful feeling she had right now at how stupid she’d been to deprive herself of it the last few days.
Eventually they parted, and with both breathing a bit heavily, Saki laid her head against Miyabi’s shoulder. “I wondered how I could fix what I’ve done wrong…” she said, plainly terrified of what she’d been torturing herself with lately. “But you would hardly talk to me, and…”
“Shhh…” Miyabi said reassuringly, stroking the girl’s bushy but smooth hair. “You haven’t done anything. I’ve been too selfish. I won’t make that mistake again though. You’ll see. I’ll set things right.”
She felt the girl nod against her. “I missed you…” she said simply, and without hesitation this time Miyabi pulled her up for another kiss.
A while later, Saki suggested with one of the most real smiles Miyabi had ever seen her with that they go to a party, and Miyabi happily accepted the offer. After knocking on the door, Maasa opened it up and brusquely pulled the two of them into her room, where the other girls were playing Jenga. Chinami was just removing a block when the stack fell and the other girls screamed and poked her teasingly.
“Hello!” Momoko said, rising to greet the newcomers. “You finally decided to join us, eh Miya? Perfect timing even! We were just talking about trying another game! What do you guys think?”
Miyabi smiled, finally feeling as if she was being accepted again. She and Saki had made up… quite completely… Momoko was being her usual peppy self, and even Risako was smiling and laughing over at them. She almost felt overwhelmed at the reversal of her fortune until she caught Momoko’s eye as the girl hugged Saki in greeting. Despite her outward appearance, when looking into her eyes Miyabi suddenly felt cold. She didn’t know why, but she suddenly got the feeling that the girl hated her.
Shaken as she was, she barely even offered a comment on what game they should play next, and her trepidation wasn’t even eased by the contentment that tried to fill her upon noticing that Saki was constantly clinging to her arm and apparently did not want to let go of her tonight. Every other time she caught Momoko’s eyes the rest of the evening, nothing seemed out of the ordinary once again. It seemed her mind was playing tricks on her again.
Topic: Berry Beautiful [Volume 2] (Read 113209 times)