章 338: Reignition
Ranko sighed softly, relaxing into the hug. "Hey, Crash," she said with a soft smile, resting her cheek on the breast of his leather jacket.
"How's your mom," Crash asked, letting her go after a moment. Although it had yet to re-open after more than a week closed, the Phoenix was a bustle of activity. All seven Dapper Dragons were present, as were all of Ranko's sisters save Ayako, who was taking a shift at the hospital with her mother. Akane and Sakura were also in the back, though Ranko wasn't quite sure what they were up to.
Ranko smiled warmly. "She's doin' good. Really good. Another couple days, they're gonna let us bring her home."
She turned, waving down another dear friend as he walked past. "Ken! Get your scrawny little ass over here, you." She followed him until he set his soda down on a nearby table, and wrapped her arms tightly around him. "Good to see you, buddy! How you feeling?"
Ken hugged Ranko back, more gently than she squeezed him. "I'm doin'. Man, that stomach flu kicked my ass but good. I'm so sorry I made it hard for you guys out there, but Jake says Zoe did pretty good for ya, anyway!"
Ranko nodded. "Yeah, Zo was great, but they're no Ken Hirata! We missed you, man, on stage and off. For real, though, are you okay? You've been sick a lot lately, man."
The slender drummer shrugged as he tossed his hoodie over the back of a nearby chair. "Not everybody can laugh off a fuckin' heart attack like your mom, I guess. But, yeah, I'm gonna talk to my doctor next week and see if there's some vitamins or something I should be taking before we go on the next leg of the tour."
The redhead giggled. "That, or get you one of those spaceman suits. Somethin', dude. Zoe won't be randomly chillin' in Jakarta to bail us out if you go down on us again, bro."
"Wait, who's going down on us?!" Hitomi cackled, squeezing Ranko about the shoulders from behind. "And why wasn't I invited?"
Ranko's face caught fire as Hitomi hugged her. "Leave it to you to make shit weird, 'Tomi."
Hitomi released the singer from her grasp, grabbing the hem of her short pink vinyl skirt and offering a playful little curtsey with a giggle. "My work here is done." She glanced up at the bar, where Yui and Izumi were frantically mixing drinks despite the bar being devoid of customers. "What are those two up to?"
The bartenders' sister shrugged. "Practicing, maybe? Who knows?" Curiosity got the better of her, and she wandered toward the bar. "Whatcha doin', girls?"
Izumi turned, snapping her fingers and waving Ranko away with the back of her hand. "It's a secret. No Dragons allowed. Shoo."
"Well, damn, I know when I'm not wanted." Ranko blushed. "I'm just gonna go hang out with somebody else, then." She offered a playful little harumph and pushed through the saloon doors, hanging a right turn into Hana's office through the open door. There, she found Sakura and Akane sitting on the floor, surrounded by cardboard and styrofoam as the pair worked to assemble a new pneumatic office chair with a pale blue cloth seat.
"It looks really good in here," Ranko said, scanning the room with her eyes. A vertical metal rack now rested on the corner of Hana's desk, with five shelves for paperwork, and all of the papers that had been strewn throughout the office into it had been sorted into bills, inventory, and other categories with little tabs hanging off the edges of the paper trays. The desk had been cleaned, all the furniture dusted, and Hana's decrepit old office chair now protruded from the open dumpster in the back alley, to be replaced with the upgraded model Sakura and Akane were assembling.
The VHS tapes for the security system had been labeled, placed into sleeves and stacked neatly in a red cardboard craft box next to the monitor. The potted plant hanging from the ceiling in the corner above the couch, which had been dead for more than a year, had been replaced with a flowering lavender orchid. The choice of flower made the young singer blush with a bright smile. The couch was still battered with time, but the ratty leather was brighter for having been cleaned, and all of the crevices and spaces between the cushions had been vacuumed out. They'd even rented a carpet steamer and used it to discover entirely new designs in the area rug under Hana's desk that had previously been lost to time and ground-in dirt.
Akane smiled up at her partner, leaning back from her seat on the floor and reaching up for her hand. "We wanted everything to be perfect for her when she comes home."
Ranko leaned down to kiss her bride, inadvertently ticking Akane's shoulders with her loose wavy hair as she did. "It will be. It still feels surreal that she's coming home at all, after everything."
"I told you she would. That woman is… what is it you used to say? Cotton wrapped around concrete?" Akane grinned. "She's gonna outlive all of us."
The redhead laughed, smiling brightly. "I love you, silly girl." She turned her head to the room's other occupant. "Sakura, I can't thank you enough for all of this, and for… ya know, coming back to us. I was scared to death about Yui with all of this, and since you've been back, it's like she's a whole new person - actually, even better. She's the person she used to be. She needs you."
Sakura grinned, laughing over the quiet whir of the electric screwdriver in her hand as it attached the left armrest to the chair she was assembling. "Yeah, well, what can I say? I'm pretty fuckin' amazing." She set the screwdriver down, its work completed for the moment. "In all seriousness, Ran-chan, I never should have left without her."
"Yeah, well…" Ranko smirked, purring quietly as Akane rubbed her bare calf casually from her seat on the floor. "According to basically every anime, there's prophecies about the seventh sister having to like, become a magical girl and fight demons and shit, and our family already has six, so… watch out, is all I'm sayin'."
Sakura cocked the screwdriver drill upward in her hand, wrapping both of her hands around its trigger as if it were a pistol and she were one of the girls on the covers of the popular police serials of the day. "I think I'll take my chances." She laughed loudly as she gathered various bits of packing material and stuffed them back into the large cardboard box the chair had come in.
Ranko giggled, leaning her leg a little more into Akane's gentle affection. "Well, I'll call Kumiko and tell her to start practicing drawing you in a sailor fuku for your new manga, just in case."
"Sounds like a plan," Yui's girlfriend said with a bright laugh of her own as she jammed another long rail of styrofoam down into the box with a loud crack.
"Hey, Ran-chan? We're ready for you, hon."
Ranko looked back to the open doorway at the sound of Yui's voice. "Ready for what?"
Yui grinned excitedly, leaning on the doorway in a black cotton turtleneck and a pair of slim-fitting white jeans. "You'll see. Akane, you comin'?"
"You bet!" Ranko's wife popped up off the floor, squeezing Ranko around the arm with a little squeal of excitement.
Ranko blinked. "Wait… you're in on this… whatever this is?!"
"Since before Hawai'i, babe," Akane said with a smirk, reaching up and poking Ranko's nose with her finger.
The redhead gasped. "Why, you little shit… I'm gonna g…" Her voice was muffled by Akane's lips touching hers, and whatever else she planned to say devolved into a quiet whine as Akane kissed her.
"Shhhh," Akane said, blushing coyly as her hands slid down Ranko's forearm to take her hand. "Come on, you." She pulled Ranko by the hand out of the office and through the blue saloon door. As they reached the bar counter, Ranko's eyes widened in surprise. Lined up across the two bar counters was an array of cocktails that looked unfamiliar to Ranko's eyes, with at least three servings of each distinct libation prepared. There were orange ones, green ones, shots, martini glasses, a viscous drink in a metal cauldron, and one in a glass wrapped in a spiked leather bracelet, among many others.
"What in the actual hell?" Ranko looked over the array of drinks. "What the heck are you up to, Yui?!"
Akane pulled her by the hand to the customer side of the bar, where her six bandmates were all perched on stools. Not waiting for Ranko to get the hint, she rested her hands on Ranko's hips, mindful to pin her denim skirt around her thighs with her hands as she lifted the smaller girl in her arms and deposited her on the stool closest to the service bar.
Ranko giggled as she was lifted. "Hey!" But, her eyes turned to the array of drinks on the counter, trying to suss out what Yui was planning as Akane slipped back behind the bar to join her.
"Okay," Yui said with a grin, gesturing with open arms to the array of beverages. "So, Akane had this great idea while you guys were away, about doing themed drinks based on some of your more popular songs. We've been working on concepts for a while now, and we've come up with seven that we think are ready for prime time. And well, there's seven of you, so we thought it would be a good idea to have you try them all, and have everybody pick a favorite. And then when we get the new menus printed, next to each drink it'll say, like, this one is Crash's favorite, this one is Jake's, stuff like that. Don't drink the whole thing - if all of you have seven drinks each, we're gonna have to cart you out of here." She rolled her eyes at her youngest sister. "Some of us, maybe after one or two."
Shinji grinned. "That is such a fucking cool idea, you guys! I love this concept so much." He reached out for what appeared to be a frothy beer in a frosted pilsner glass, not waiting for further instructions. "Not sure what song you guys are planning on theming a glass of beer after. Hole in the Wall, mayb…" His voice trailed off as the glass reached his lips. "What in the hell?" He looked at the glass incredulously as if it were made of magic.
Yui giggled. "The Regular Girl. It tells you it's a boring old beer, nothing to be excited about, and then you taste it and realize…" Her eyes fell on Ranko with a soft smile. "... it was a lot more special than it gave itself credit for."
Ranko blushed shyly at her sister's words.
"It's made with apple brandy, simple syrup, lemon juice and a few other things. It's basically like drinking an apple pie," Yui explained, handing Hitomi and Crash the other two servings of the cocktail she described.
"Oh my gods," Hitomi moaned, a mustache of Irish cream foam still lingering over her upper lip. "That's my favorite. No question."
Emi nudged her gently with her elbow. "You haven't even tried the other six yet, blockhead. C'mon, lemme try."
Hitomi pulled the glass away from her girlfriend defensively with both of her hands, hugging it to herself. "Go away! Get your own!"
Yui laughed at her reaction as Shinji and Crash's glasses were passed around to the remaining Dapper Dragons. "Well, that's one endorsement, at least. We'll ask you all to pick your faves after you've tried them all; just, we want each of you to pick a different one so each one has a Dragon to pair it up to. So, if two of you like the same one, you'll have to fight for it, I guess."
Jacob pointed to the metal cauldron sitting in front of his seat. "Okay, I gotta know what that is. It looks like some sort of slime or something. Crazy cool." He started to reach for the cocktail, but Yui held up her hand. "One second." She reached over the cauldron, dumping a spoonful of colored candies into the liquid and giving it a quick stir. Within seconds, the drink began to roil and bubble slightly, making a soft fizzing sound as the cherries and chunks of pineapple floating in it were batted around in the container by the rising bubbles.
"Who-hoh," Jacob said as he pulled the cauldron toward himself.
"I give you the Voodoo Brew," Yui said as she added the spoonfuls of pop rock candies to the other two cauldrons and distributed them to Ranko on one end of the bar and Ken on the other.
"Midori, vodka, and some sour mix, with a bunch of fruit and our pop rocks."
"Witchcra-a-a-aft," Emi sang quietly as she watched Ken taste the drink.
"You got it," Yui said, giggling as Ken's eyes watered with a mouthful of the drink.
Ken sputtered slightly. "Wow, that's sour as fuck. It's really good, but… yowch."
Yui chuckled. "Emi, give it a try?" She watched as Emi dunked a straw into the cauldron, her own cheeks all but inverting as she emptied the straw onto her tongue.
"Holy crap, Yui… that's… I don't think my lips are ever gonna unpucker."
Emi blushed as Hitomi wrapped her hand around her cheek, turning her head toward herself and kissing her. "I, for one, happen to like it when your lips are puckered, Ems."
Yui laughed. "Okay, everybody's tried it - now, give them a good stir, and try it again."
Crash, Emi and Ranko whisked the drinks briskly in their cauldrons with clean straws, and Ranko dropped another strawful on her tongue. "Holy crap! It's sweet now?!"
"As a love potion should be, babe," Akane said with a grin. "It starts off hard to drink, and the more of it you drink, the sweeter it gets. It's the pop rocks melting in the drink that does it."
Ken moaned in his enjoyment, grasping for the cauldron in Emi's hand as he discarded his tasting straw on the bar top. "Give me that back."
Emi laughed, looking the drink over in her hand. "I don't know. I kinda like it!"
The drummer leaned in closer, trying his best to look dangerous. It did not work at all, as the boy was nearly half a meter shorter than the tall blonde. "I. Said. Give!" He laughed at his own mock aggression.
"Tell you what," Yui said. "After everyone's chosen a favorite, if you're not all three sheets to the wind, I'll make you each your own of whatever one you picked. Deal?"
A chorus of whoops of assent rose from the Dapper Dragons as Yui reached for another glass, this one a tall Collins glass rimmed in black salt. She reached into a tray under the counter, pulling out a metal skewer with two large white marshmallows pushed to the far end, just under a skull-shaped knob molded into the steel. She dripped some thick red syrup into the glass and gave it a very gentle stir with the marshmallow skewer, causing the orange liquid to take on a misty reddish tint wherever the wisps of thicker syrup were not fully incorporated. Yui then poured a quarter-full shot glass of clear liquid over the top of the drink, quickly waving a lighter over it. The alcohol she'd floated at the top of the drink caught fire in a bright blue, much as the familiar Dragonfire did, but the fire then lit the marshmallows and they began to burn orange.
"Behold," Yui said with a grin as she put a drink in front of Ken. "The Hellfire." She smirked at Ranko. "It comes highly recommended by demons who may, or may not, reside in one's radio. It's a play off the original Dragonfire, with the pineapple and jalapeño and stuff, but it packs a hell of a lot more punch. You'll see."
Ranko lifted the glass, holding it up and watching the grenadine swirl through it as its contents burned. "That just looks so fucking cool." She blew out the fire, raising the glass to her lips, and her cheeks went bright red.
"Oh, you thought I meant it was more alcoholic?" Yui giggled as Ken, Ranko and Hitomi all coughed. "Nope! That's the tabasco in it. It's spicy as… well, hellfire."
"Clearly, it's not for regular mortals," Shinji said. "So, gimme." He reached across Hitomi's body and took the drink from Emi, casually taking a large gulp of the cocktail. His eyes bulged, and he slapped the counter several times with his open palm as he willed himself to swallow the liquid burning his tongue.
Ranko giggled at her bassist's suffering born of his machismo. "How you doing over there, Shin? Good stuff?"
Shinji was still coughing and unable to respond, but Hitomi nodded. "It's really good, it's just, you don't expect that much heat off a drink, so it sneaks up on you." She blushed. "Wait - do we have a drink for Sneak?"
"Not yet," Yui said as Jacob took Crash's glass from him. "Working on it."
"Hmm," Jacob said, lifting the drink to his nose and smelling it to get a sense of its spice level. As his bandmates watched in awe and horror, he lifted the glass to his lips, downing its entire contents at once. He emitted a refreshed ahhhh sound as he set the empty glass in front of Yui, standing on the footrests of his stool and looking left and right at his friends. "You're all a bunch'a pussies."
Ranko gasped. "What. The. Fuck. Just… how?!"
Jake flashed the band's lead vocalist a smirk. "Riding kangaroos makes you strong, I guess."
"Oh, fuck all the way off, Trimble," Ranko mumbled as the band laughed at her. "Am I ever gonna live that down?!"
"Not if I live to be a thousand," Jacob said with a merry guffaw. "Neither is your band husband," he said, nudging Crash's shoulder with his fist. "And you shouldn't expect Zo to let you off easy when they get here next week, either."
Ranko said nothing, burying her burning face in her hands and praying Akane wasn't upset by the insinuation.
"Ready for the next one," Yui asked with a grin. "Maybe something to tame the spice down a little?"
"Yes, please," Emi pleaded, and her eyes widened as Yui pushed a martini glass in front of her. The drink within was a light pink, with striations of reddish syrup batted about by bubbles of carbonation rising lazily to its surface around a ball of light pink ice cream that seemed to sparkle as Emi beheld it. A single maraschino cherry rested atop the ice cream, pressed partway into a divot in the ball to help it hold its place. The whole glass was rimmed in sparkly glitter.
"The Hypnoteaser," Yui said with a grin. "Cherry ice cream in a pink champagne float."
Ranko, whose cheeks had not yet returned to their normal shade, felt them warming again. "Turn Me Off/Turn Me On? And that's why it kinda looks like a…"
"Mm-hmmm," Yui said with a mischievous smirk. "Enjoy, little sister." She handed another of the cocktails to the redhead on her far right.
"Is that so?" Hitomi flashed a devilish smirk up at Emi before leaning down to the bar surface, flicking her tongue over her girlfriend's stemmed glass without lifting it from the bar and scooping the cherry off the top of her ice cream with it. She flashed Emi a devious simper as she chewed the cherry, some of the glitter from the ice cream making her tongue sparkle as she licked her lips.
"Is there something in that ice cream," Shinji asked, poking at it with his spoon. "It tastes a little boozy."
Yui nodded. "We mix a little light rum, and a shitload of edible glitter, into the ice cream and then re-freeze it. If you let the ice cream melt, the whole thing becomes this sort of sparkly, bubbly slush, which we thought fit the sort of airhead Barbie vibe of the song."
Ranko, her cheeks still aflame at the words being used to describe the song - and herself as the one who wrote and performed it - set the drink down. "It's really good."
"You like it," Akane asked, reaching across the bar and stroking her wife's cheek with the backs of her fingers. "Is it your favorite? For, you know, reasons?"
"Akane…" Ranko hid her face shyly. "The boys are watchin'."
"There are worse things in the world than reminding them you're mine from time to time," Akane said with a smirk at Crash as Yui pushed forward another set of glasses. The highballs contained a deep brown liquid, so much so that it was nearly black, and the glasses were wrapped in leather straps with spikes protruding from them all around the cocktail.
"Here you go," Yui said with a winning smirk. "Watch Your Hands…"
Shinji pinched his glass carefully around the rim, lifting it to his mouth. "Awwww, yeah. This is what I'm talking about. Honey, bourbon? Yes, please." Emi reached for his glass, but he pulled it back from her, smacking the back of her hand gently. "Uh-uh. Not yours. Don't touch."
"You got it, Shin!" Yui laughed as the other two glasses made their way down the line of musicians along the bar.
Ranko looked at the glass as Crash slid it over to her. "How the hell are you supposed to drink it?"
Yui smiled. "Carefully. Or you can take the easy way and just take the spikes off the glass first. But where's the fun in that? Here, maybe this one's a little more your speed, sis." She picked up a sparkly glass shoe, not at all unlike the ones Ranko wore when performing Self-Rescuing Princess on the Wildfire Tour. It was full of a bright pink liquid, the top covered with a bit of white foam.
"The Glass Slipper," Yui said with a smile, gesturing forward with her hands in offering. "And before you ask, yes, we asked the same place that did your shoes for the show to make the glasses."
Akane smirked. "Ranko, remember in Phantom of the Opera, where the owners are drinking out of Carlotta's shoes to show deference because she's the prima donna? Well, here ya go, diva."
Ranko's face had not been its normal shade in nearly fifteen minutes. "Akaneeee! I don't really act like that… do I?" She shrank a bit on her stool, remembering what her new friend Yumeko had said after class about expecting her to be unapproachable due to her celebrity. Am I turning into one of those mean girls? Gods, I hope not…
Her wife laughed, offering Ranko a soft smile. "Of course not, princess." She walked around the bar, leaning down and whispering in Ranko's ear. "But this one is your favorite."
Ranko laughed. "Oh, it is, huh?"
Akane dragged her finger around the upper edge of the white lace choker around Ranko's neck. "Yes. It is."
"Vodka, orange juice, cherry juice, peach schnapps… this is a fun one," Yui said proudly.
"Is that chocolate in the foam," Emi asked, wiping some of it from the tip of her nose.
Yui nodded. "Chocolate liqueur and Irish cream, yeah."
Crash motioned to the bar counter, on which three rows of ten shot glasses still rested. Ten of them held a milky yellow liquid, ten a vibrant green, and the last ten a thick pink. Behind them were six tall goblets, maybe half full with a deep red beverage that looked like it might be red wine. "What's all that?"
Yui smiled proudly. "This one, I'm really stoked about." She picked up one of the yellow shot glasses. "This one is just a miniature Dragonfire, representing the Phoenix itself."
She reached under the counter, pulling out a small black vinyl record and spinning it on the tips of her fingers before setting it on the counter. She rested the Dragonfire shot on the record, off to one side rather than in the center.
"Then, we have the Aki's Apple, for Akane. It's a really simple one; Midori and apple liqueur, half and half." Yui held up one of the bright green shots for demonstration before adding it to the record as if it were a serving tray. Ranko blushed at the wordplay, grinning up at her wife.
"Our third shot," Yui said, picking up one of the reddish pink shots, "is the Dapper Dragonfruit. Bet you guys can't guess who that one is all about. Dragonfruit syrup and rum. Sweet, and packs a pretty decent little punch."
She added the third shot glass to the record, the three glasses spaced evenly around its rim, before picking up one of the taller glasses. "This is a sangria cocktail with a little bit of light rum. It's fairly chill. We call it the Orchid Girl, because it's for you, Ran-chan." As she spoke, she garnished the glass with a large purplish flower that matched the ones in the new hanging planter in her mother's office. "It's yummy on its own…" She picked up another of the yellow shots, dumping it into the glass. A green and a red shot soon followed, and Yui stirred the now-full glass with a straw. "But if you add all of those elements to the drink representing Ranko, you get…"
Ranko blushed, smiling as she recognized the setup of her most decorated song. "You get happy ever after."
Yui nodded. "This," she said, holding one of the half-empty glasses of sangria cocktail in one hand and the record in the other, holding it like a miniature serving tray perched atop her outstretched fingertips. "... is the Once Upon a Flight. People can drink the different things individually, or mix them all together to get one ass-kickin' cocktail."
As she spoke, Akane set about building six more records with one each of the shots. Yui, meanwhile, added the remaining two sets of shot glasses to two more of the tall glasses, such that there were now three half-empty drinks and three with the shots mixed in.
Akane distributed a record to each member of the band, and Yui gave Orchid Girls to Crash, Hitomi and Shinji before handing fully-mixed cocktails to Ken, Emi and Jacob. "Here, try it mixed, and then you can try the individual components separately if you want," Yui said, beaming.
"Wow," Emi said as she tasted the mixed version of the drink. "There's so much going on in there, and somehow, it still works."
"Dude," Ken said, an empty shot glass clattering to the bar in front of him. "The apple one is the shit. For real."
"The reddish one is my favorite of the three," Ranko said before turning to her wife with a smirk. "No offense, Aki."
Akane gave Ranko a devious wink that made her partner swallow hard. "Oh, none taken, flower girl."
Yui clapped her hands as the drinks were passed and discussed. "So, what are we thinking? Favorites? I think we have to give the Hellfire to Jake, 'cause he's the only one who could even tolerate it."
Jacob nodded. "I liked that one and the Watch Your Hands best, so that works for me."
Ranko blushed, answering Yui even as she looked up at Akane. "The Glass Slipper," she said as Akane smiled, crinkling her nose cutely at her partner.
"Well, if Jake isn't gonna take Watch Your Hands, I will," Shinji offered. "I'm the main dark liquor drinker of us anyway, I think."
Yui smiled, purring quietly as Sakura emerged from the back room and wrapped her arms around her lover's waist.
"I'm so proud of you, Yui," Sakura whispered as the band continued negotiating for the various libations.
Hitomi took another sip from the pinkish martini glass in front of her, flicking her renewed glittery tongue at Emi playfully. "I want the Hypnoteaser."
"Can't imagine why, babe," Emi said with a blush and a giggle. "I guess that leaves me the Regular Girl, since I was down to those two."
Crash held up the tall goblet containing the combined contents of the Once Upon a Flight. "I gotta say, I really like this one. I think I might like the drinks better individually, but it's fantastic either way."
Yui turned to Ken. "That leaves the Voodoo Brew. Does that work for you, man?"
Ken nodded. "Actually, it does. The super sour at the beginning is a little rough, but I love the effect of how it gets sweeter and you can just wait a minute until the candy dissolves to drink it if the sour's too much."
Yui grinned excitedly, clapping her hands. "Then it sounds like Ranko's Rocktails are all set! Thanks, everybody!"
Emi beamed, tilting the Regular Girl in her hand in deference to the bartender. "You really knocked these out of the park, Yui. Great job, girl!"
Yui blushed. "It wouldn't have happened without Akane. She gets some credit, too!"
Ranko's wife blushed shyly. "Oh, please. All I did was butcher a few drinks badly enough for Yui to get ideas. She made them, ya know, good."
"Well I think you two did great, babe," Ranko said with a silly laugh. "C'mere and give me a hug. This was a great surpr…"
Ranko dismounted the stool as she spoke, but as soon as her legs took on the responsibility of keeping her upright, they abdicated it, and the redhead spilled to the floor in a fit of giggles.
Crash laughed deeply, the rest of the band joining him as Akane helped her thoroughly buzzed wife to her feet. "Well, it looks like somebody's tail got rocked, alright!"
* * *
"Hey, everybody! WELCOME BACK TO THE PHOENIX!" Mei roared into her handheld microphone over the capacity-and-then-some crowd's cheers. "We're so sorry we've been away. As you may have heard, we've been dealing with some stuff, but we're back, baby! I'm back!"
The crowd whooped for the bubbly blue-haired bartender, and she beamed as she waved to the assemblage.
"Yui and Aya are back!" Mei motioned to the back bar, where the two eldest of her sisters both tossed bottles high in the air. The pair each spun on their heels until they ended up back to back, and each caught the bottle the other had thrown. It had taken a few months since Aya had returned to the bar, but their synchronization as partners behind the bar had returned to the peak level it had known just before Ayako got married, vacating a place at the bar for a certain wayward redhead.
"Seiichi and Akane are back!" Mei smiled up at her boyfriend as he waved to the crowd from behind the service bar. Akane did not respond to the mention of her own name, as she had a large pizza in each of her hands at the moment, shuttling the pies to table nine.
"Izzi's back!" The nearly four hundred people roared for Mei's sister, although they did not see her - she was currently in the back kitchen operating the pizza ovens while Mei fired up the crowd.
Sakura was working in the back office, still trying to make sense of the state Hana had left the bills and such in before her unforeseen furlough. She had asked not to be called out, as she thought the addition of a new member to staff while Hana was out would make it seem as if she intended to replace the irreplaceable.
"Mama's not back yet, but she will be next week, and we're going to throw her one hell of a welcome home party, right, guys?!" The roar was deafening in response. "Don't forget, everybody, we've got all new drinks on our m…"
"Mei, aren't you forgetting somebody?" The bubbly, disembodied voice poured through the speakers like melted butter, and the building shook as the house lights all cut out with a loud clack as if the breaker had been thrown. The volume of the audience's jubilation only increased at the sound of Shinji's devilish laughter following Ranko's call.
"Whoa-oh-oh, uh-oh! Watch out, watch out! Whoa-oh-oh, uh-oh! She's gonna make you shout!"
A bright giggle dripped from the twelve Electro-Voice speakers mounted to the Phoenix' ceiling. "Whaaaaaaat? You guys didn't miss me or anything, did ya?"
"Whoa-oh-oh, uh-oh! Beware the flow! Whoa-oh-oh, uh-oh! Turn off the ra-a-di-o!"
A loud bang came from the front of the room, and the startled crowd whirled to face it. Mei, once the majority of the audience had turned away from the stage, made her exit from it and scurried through the side door back into the kitchen.
The glass double doors at the front of the Phoenix burst open, and Ranko strode in as if she owned the place, heel over toe in her black pumps and her sparkling red dress. Hitomi and Emi flanked her in the same style dresses but in green and blue, respectively. Ranko's headset was carefully incorporated into her blown-out red hair, save the plastic boom microphone that hovered a centimeter from her glazed lips.
"You all can say that you were here the night the Phoenix rose! We're back to shake your body from your hair down to your toes!" As she sang the modified first verse of Demon in Your Radio, she slowly advanced toward the stage, touching as many of the hands that were extended to her as possible even as Hitomi and Emi ensured she was never held up too long.
"I know your mistress has been traveling a long, long, time, but I can't have you forgetting that your souls are mine!"
Ken, Jacob, Shinji and Crash emerged from the kitchen through the side door, taking their places at their instruments on stage. In the interests of the special, inverted entrance, Ranko was performing the first verse of the song over recorded music.
"I took New Zealand and America - Australia, too - but the Wildfire I spread started right here, with you!" Ranko vaulted up the three steps at the side of the stage, waving to the roaring crowd with both hands as she finished the one-off verse.
"Hope you've rested, 'cause the best is back to sling her groove. Break time's over, Firebirds, and now, it's time to MOVE!"
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