"Ho, but it was just this once! Hmm-mmm-mmm, it was a one-time deal! I didn't think I would love it, but that's quite enough uhh…" Izumi's a cappella singing abruptly cut off as the glass doors of the Phoenix swung open, admitting the noonday sun. She tossed the blue bar towel in her hand into the sink behind the service bar, having finished wiping down the acacia countertop just moments before. "Oh! Hey, Mama!"
A beaming Hana Takahashi waved from the doorway, pulling her sunglasses from her face and pocketing them in her ever-present black leather jacket. "Morning, Izzi! Are they here yet?"
With a shake of her head, Izumi bent under the service bar counter, reaching for a bottle of craft beer from the cooler. She made a little pfft sound with her lips, trying in vain to blow the white lace bow she had sewn to the top of her sparkly red Santa hat out of her face before giving up and pushing it aside with her hand. "Nope! But Akane called from the airport about an hour and a half ago and said Ranko's plane had just landed, so they should be here any minute now. Unless they had a hard time getting a taxi, anyway." She handed the bottle over the counter to her mother, wiping the drops of condensation that had fallen from it onto her freshly-cleaned countertop with the sleeve of her brick red sweater.
"Where's everybody else?" Hana popped open her beer, taking a long draught of it.
Izumi tittered quietly at the question. "Mei called and said she was running late; apparently she didn't get much sleep last night."
Hana shook her head. "I swear, if that girl ever had to work for an actual boss, she'd be in real trouble. But speaking of bosses, what about Yui and Sakura?"
Izumi laughed again as she set about unpacking a fresh crate of liquor bottles onto the empty glass shelves behind the main bar. With the main bar's renovation having just been finished the day before, there was a great deal to do to prepare the newly-expanded night club for its grand reopening on New Year's Eve a week away. "According to Mei, they didn't get much sleep either. In fact, Mei said they were the reason she didn't."
Groaning, Hana let her head fall forward until her forehead rested in her palm. "Why do I ask?!"
"Glutton for punishment, I guess." Izumi giggled as she placed a bottle of vodka in its designated place. "Have you heard from Aya? Is she gonna make it tomorrow?"
With a grin and a nod, Hana reached down into the box on the counter, pulling out a full bottle of tequila and holding it out for her daughter. "Yeah! But…" Her voice trailed off as she heard a light tinkling sound and turned in the direction of the red velvet ribbon and the trio of tin jingle bells that dangled from the handle of the bar's front door. Her smile only grew as she saw who the door admitted. "There's my baby!" Hana spread her arms, taking a step closer to the door to offer Ranko a hug.
Ranko left her suitcase by the door and held up her newly-freed hand to wave her mother off. "Better keep your distance. Still fighting off the sniffles. But, hi, Mom! Hey, Iz!"
Akane slipped through the door behind her, all smiles in her green sweater and black jeans. She deposited the remainder of Ranko's baggage behind the hostess stand as well.
"Do you honestly think a couple sneezes are too much of a price to pay to hug you when I haven't seen you in a month?! Get your ass over here, little star!" Hana embraced the redhead tightly, slipping one of her wrists through the shoulder strap of her daughter's denim jumper to make sure the masked singer could not squirm away. "Gods, I've missed you, girl!"
The songstress melted in her mother's arms, drinking deep of the scent of her leather jacket. There was almost nothing in her life that she associated more strongly with the ideas of safety, family, and home. "I know. I've missed you too, Mom. Merry Christmas." She stifled a cough behind her paper mask, as Hana had forced much of the air out of her lungs. "Fortunately," Ranko continued after Hana finally released her, "I won't be going on any more tours for a while. Maybe a tour of the mall, since I haven't had much time to do any Christmas shopping for anybody beyond what I could pick up on the road."
"I took care of it, princess," Akane said with a proud smile, rubbing her lover's back ever so gently through her denim dress. "We have gifts from both of us for everyone in both families, and just you being here is more than enough for me. Besides…" She snickered, offering a little wink to her wife, "Christmas Eve is for lovers, and I haven't seen mine in weeks. You're not going anywhere tonight, princess!"
"Yes, ma'am!" Ranko all but shouted, punctuating the sentiment with a mock military salute. With her laughter still hanging in the air, her eyes began to pan the remodeled bar. "Holy crap. It barely looks like the same place in here!"
She was right.
The large stage along the back wall on which she had rebuilt her life, as well as the small corner stage that preceded it, had been removed, replaced with more booth seating. All of the existing booth seating had been recovered in fresh red vinyl as well to ensure that the old tables matched the new. Fuck, I know it's gonna be better performing on the new stage, but it hurts not seeing it there anymore, she thought. It may not have been super glamorous compared to rocking the Budokan, but for me, it was home.
To her left, two of the old booths had been removed to create a doorway into the connecting space that had been built across the alley to the former discount store that was now Club Firebird at the Phoenix. It was closed with a set of frosted glass double doors. She rested her hand on the brass door handle, finding it locked. Well, that's weird, she mused before continuing her exploration deeper into the main bar room.
The VIP table - and the entire alcove that had once housed it - was gone. The wall separating the service bar from the darkened corner of the bar that had once served as its gaming area now extended the full length of the bar room, joining it with the front wall of the men's restroom on the other side. The new brick wall had a large open window in it with a stainless steel shelf to allow piping hot pizzas to be passed through it from the newly-expanded kitchen and its much larger brick pizza oven. Unlike the tiny oven Kaito had built in the back corner of the kitchen a few years prior that could manage but one pie, the new ceramic brick oven was sized to accommodate four large pizzas simultaneously in preparation for feeding much bigger crowds.
"Before you even ask…" Hana said, smirking as she followed Ranko toward the new kitchen passthrough.
Ranko giggled, waving her mother off. "I know, I know. The pizza oven is off-limits. Shame, though; that one's big enough that I could easily curl up in it and take a nap. And let me tell you, some of the shows this last week have been so cold, I might have actually thought about doing it! Fortunately, it's gonna be a toasty twenty-three degrees in the Tokyo Dome! 'Kane, did you get everybody their tickets for the show?"
"Yep!" Akane beamed, nodding affirmatively. "Except for Mama Shimizu. Like I said on the phone, she's seen the show, so she said she's gonna stay back to finish prep for Christmas dinner for everybody. That way, everything's ready to eat when we get home. Which means, we've got an extra ticket!"
"Actually,"Ranko and Hana both said at the same time, laughing together as they realized they were both saying the same thing. "Jinx! You go!" Ranko said, gesturing to her mother with the arm that wasn't pinned down by yet another arm-hug from her adoptive parent.
Hana nodded. "So, I was just telling Izzi when you got in: Aya's on her way up to Sendai. Your grandfather got the okay from his doctors, and he's coming for Christmas! He's gonna stay with me through the first of the year! And I thought…"
Ranko gasped excitedly "Grandpa Ito wants to come to the show?! Oh, HELL yes! But… shit! I already gave Mama Shimizu's ticket to Kumiko! What are we gonna d…" Her voice disappeared into an audible shiver as Akane pulled down the ivory turtleneck Ranko wore under her jumper and kissed her skin ever so gently.
"Don't worry about it, baby," Akane said softly, her mouth mere centimeters from her lover's ear. "He can have mine, and I'll just watch the show from backstage. That way, I don't have to wait one second to get my hands on you when this tour is over and you're finally all mine again."
It took Ranko several seconds to stop shuddering enough to answer, but when she did, her crimson cheeks bore a wide smile. "That's where you're wrong, Akane. I never was anything but." Not that I could fucking tell anybody, she added ruefully in her mind.
Akane giggled, shaking her head in amusement at her lover. "You know what I meant, silly girl. So, I'm thinking, dinner at home tonight? We'll order something; I don't want you cooking as soon as you get home. Doesn't need to be anything fancy; I just want a quiet night at home with my wife."
The redhead nodded, a look of relief in her eyes. "Sounds flippin' fantastic. Honestly, just being back in my own bed is gonna feel so good. This tour thing has been one hell of an experience, but man, it kicked my whole ass, and I'm so ready to just chill and be normal for a little bit."
"Can't say I blame you," Izumi added from behind the bar. "I'd go nuts being away from home and everybody for that long at a stretch. But, you did it, and nobody can take it away from you now. You showed the world who you are, baby sister!" She snickered, sipping at a plastic cup of soda. "And looked stunning doing it, if I do say so myself."
"Yeah, well, about that…" Ranko groaned, turning to face her middle sister. "The next time you send me out on an outdoor stage in December in a miniskirt, I am going to literally fucking murder you. Norio was practically microwaving my outfits between costume changes trying to keep me warm!"
Izumi laughed again, rolling her eyes in mock disgust. "Sheesh! Less than a year ago, you were complaining that I put you in a dress that caught fire. Now, you're bitching that you weren't warm enough?! I swear! Fuckin' divas! You can't please 'em!"
"Yeah, yeah," Ranko replied in a droll, languid tone. "So…" She gestured to the locked door separating the bar room proper from the new expansion. "... you girls got Santa locked up in there, or do I get to see?!" She failed to notice Akane's subtle wince over her shoulder.
With a nod and a flourish, Hana reached into the pocket of her leather jacket and produced a key ring, jangling it in the air for emphasis. "Coming, coming," she said with a laugh, turning the deadbolt with a heavy clack. "After you, Mrs. Tendo."
'Bout time somebody called me missus again, Ranko mused as she stepped through the door. Her eyes widened at the sight. The right side of the wide passageway was lined with racks of shirts, CDs and other merchandise, promoting both the Dapper Dragons and the bar itself. It looked not dissimilar from the merch stands at any one of her concert venues. A large, hand-painted sign on the back wall read please pay at the bar in both Japanese and English.
That, however, was not what had caused the singer's jaw to fall slack.
The left side of the corridor was crammed with glass cases, each filled with various and sundry memorabilia related to Ranko's life and career. There were framed photos of performances and candid family moments alike, though Akane was notably absent from most of them. Other items, ranging from ticket stubs and cassette tapes to the failed first prototype of her flaming glass slippers, were distributed throughout.
Two full-height glass cases bookended the display, each containing a mannequin dressed in Ranko's clothing. The one on the left featured the silvery fireproof attire in which she had performed Once Upon a Rhyme on the live telecast of the Japan Record Awards almost a year to the day prior. The other displayed the black leather jacket she had worn on stage at Tokyo Disneyland, complete with her name spelled out in silver sequins on its back. It was paired with a red Phoenix staff tee shirt and a pair of black jeans. One of the centermost display cabinets gave pride of place to three of Ranko's four orange Japan Record Award plaques. The fourth, the only one awarded to her personally rather than the band as a whole, was still mounted to the wall in the living room of her cramped apartment a few blocks away.
"What… in the actual fuck… is…"
A gentle touch on her shoulder from Akane reminded Ranko that the room's architect could hear her, and had built the shrine - Ranko could think of no other word for it - out of love.
Hana sighed heavily. "You don't like it, do you?"
Ranko shrugged, turning to face her mother. Her eyes were clouded with guilt and worry. The last thing she wanted to seem, especially in the eyes of her adoptive mother, was ungrateful. "No, Mom, it's not that. It's…"
The Phoenix matriarch nodded sagely. "No, it's okay. I get it. Despite what Mei says when she's teasing you, you've never been big into all the me first stuff. So I can imagine, to you, it feels way over the top."
Ranko sighed heavily in relief. Thank the gods, she gets it. "Yeah. Exactly! It's not that I don't love that you wanted to do it. Like, you have no idea how good it feels to know you were proud enough of me to even want to do something like this. Seriously. It means the world to me, Mom. It's just…"
She gestured to one of the glass cases with her thumb. "When I left home a few weeks ago, that outfit was crumpled up on the floor because I didn't have time to do laundry before I had to get on the plane. And now, it's on display under spotlights and glass. It just feels so… well, not very regular girl. And it's just… a lot."
"I know," Hana said softly. "And honestly, the fact that you could come home from a sold out world tour and still feel overwhelmed by a few pictures tells me, and anyone else, everything they'd need to know about you. But baby… as much as I do love you, and as much as I am so, so very proud of you - as much as your accomplishments merit this and so much more - it's not just about you. It's about everybody who walks in here. It's for them."
Hana gestured to the merchandise on the opposite wall. On one side of the rack, a black tee shirt was screen-printed with the trapezoidal Phoenix logo wreathed in orange flame. Right next to it, a teal tank top read not yours, don't touch in white script.
"Your career and this place are synonymous with each other. You've made it that way with your performances, your lyrics, your album covers, all of it. This place is you, as much as it is all of your sisters and me. I wouldn't have it any other way. But it means the people who come here, a lot of them, don't come here for the Phoenix. They come for you, little star. And, to expand this place on the back of all your work and all your struggle, and not acknowledge that, just felt… wrong. Wrong to me, and, I worried, wrong to people coming in here looking for it. It would be like going to Disneyland and finding no Mickey Mouse. People would just feel awkward and disappointed. You're the star, Ranko. Like it or not."
Ranko sighed heavily, resting her hand gently on the glass front of one of the cases. "It's… I mean, it's a lot that, but it's not all that. Just…" Ranko gestured to her sister, who watched from the hallway. "Where's the shrine to Izumi? Without her costumes, I am wearing the same shirt you met me in for every one of these pictures. Without Aya holding it down from the beginning with you, and Yui pouring her whole soul into this place for almost twenty years, it's nothing. Without you, Mom, it's still the Bottle and Brew, if it wasn't leveled for a freaking swimwear store by now, and none of us are even a family. Without Mei's…" She chuckled. "Well, okay, Mei's mostly just a pain in my butt, but you get the idea. Without…" She motioned back to Akane, but she could find no words. Without her, who knows if I would even be alive? If I even would want to be? But at least with Akane, I know why you didn't acknowledge her. Fucking Yokai.
"Where's their shrines?! They deserve them way more than me, Mom. Without them, there is no me. And that's the only way I ever want it to be."
Izumi smiled, finally stepping out from behind her mother. "C'mere, kiddo. I want to show you something." She took her sister's hand, pulling her back into the main bar area. She pointed down at the floor at a deep scratch in the hardwood flooring, just a few centimeters from the doorjamb leading into the connector tunnel. "You see that scratch? It just happened a few weeks ago, when Akane knocked the wall down with a hammer. Kaito put down a tarp, but one of the bricks hit it anyway. And this door?" Izumi closed the glass door carefully. "See how smooth it swings? My husband hung it four times before he got it just right, because he put his whole self into it for us. I see his love in every brick and board in this building."
Izumi led the nonplussed redhead to one of the booths, patting the reupholstered bench. "See this seat? I was sitting right here when I told Mama I was pregnant with Mioko. And, six months later, I gave birth to her on the floor in that kitchen over there. With my little sister's help, as I recall," she added, nudging Ranko gently on the forearm with her fist.
"And this one?" Izzi clapped her hand on the next booth over, the one closest to the front door. "This is where Ayako sat me and Hoshi the day I walked in with a toddler in my arms to apply for a job. She and Yui could tell we were hungry, and they fed us tater tots and chicken fingers until we could barely walk."
She pointed to the back wall of the bar. "And right back there… well, hell." Izumi grinned widely. "That's where I watched my baby sister sing for the first time, and where my whole family stood with her at her wedding."
Izumi reached down, taking Ranko's hand again. "Ran-chan, your fans don't know those stories. You'll tell some of them to your fans, and some not. But it doesn't matter that we don't call out all those little things for them. This whole place is a shrine to our family, and every little memory we have made in here along the way. And I think I speak for all of us when I say that's plenty enough for us. I don't feel slighted seeing all your crap under glass over there, because I was there when those memories were made. They're my memories, too. Whether your fans care about it or not, I do, and I know you do, and that's all I need. It's your name on the plaques and on the drum set, all that shit, but we were here, and we know we did it all together."
Ranko sighed. "Are you sure? Like… I know I'm… well, shit, I guess I can't deny it; I'm getting famous… but if you ask me, I still look up to all of you. I still want to be every one of you when I grow up." She made a pair of quotation marks in the air with her fingers. "And, so, it's weird to have people somehow putting me on a bigger pedestal than you girls."
"The reason they call famous people celebrities is that they're the people who tend to get celebrated. But they're far from the only ones who deserve it." Akane rubbed her wife's back supportively through her denim dress. "But if your sisters aren't upset - and I've been here, so I can confirm Yui and the other girls aren't either - you shouldn't be. We're all just so stinkin' proud of you, it's not funny. Besides, this place would be part of a shopping mall right now if it weren't for you stepping up." And everything you sacrificed to do it, she thought grimly.
"Ugh! Please don't say shopping mall. I swear, there's something in the water in Shibuya today! People are freakin' crazy out there!" Yui groaned as she entered the space behind Izumi, taking the three paper sacks in her hand onto a nearby shelf atop a stack of tee shirts printed with the Phoenix logo. Her motorcycle helmet soon joined them. "Bring it in here, kiddo."
The blonde had barely lifted her arms before Ranko darted into them, squeezing her sister tight around the midsection. "Hey, Yui! Merry Christmas!"
"You too! Welcome home!" Yui released her sister from her embrace, twirling her leather-gloved finger in the air as if to indicate the whole of their surroundings. "So, whaddya think of the joint?"
Ranko rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "I wasn't this intimidated playing a packed house in Jakarta. How in the hell are we gonna run all this, Yui? It's so much… more."
The elder sister nodded. "Yeah, it's gonna be a thing, for sure. We're definitely gonna have to hire a little bit of help. Sake's working on it. Fortunately, it helps that pretty much everybody in the world I wanna hang out with works here already, 'cause I don't think I'm gonna see too much but the inside of this place for a couple'a months." She gestured with her thumb back at Izumi over her shoulder. "I keep telling this one Hoshi's old enough to wash dishes, but…"
"Look, sis." Izumi's nose wrinkled despite her amused smile. "He's not even in high school yet. Do you really want him spending his nights and weekends within earshot of Emi and Hitomi?!"
Yui cackled, and Ranko and Akane both joined her. "Eh, fuck it. Start 'em young, I say. Oh! Before I forget, Ranko, you got some mail a couple days ago. It's upstairs in Mei's office." The blonde shrugged as if she was completely bewildered by the words coming out of her own mouth. "My little sister, Little Miss New College Major Every Term herself, has a fucking office. It's so weird! I guess with the fan letters and everything, Nabiki set this place up as the mailing address for the band. Anyway, might wanna grab it. It looked kind of official."
"Oh, awesome," Ranko moaned. "Barely home five minutes, and already getting bills." She turned toward the stage at the back end of the cavernous new music venue, and the staircase behind it, but paused before taking more than two steps. "Um… this is gonna sound stupid, but I haven't been here to see it yet…"
Yui laughed. "Up the stairs, double back, second door on your right. Honestly, did you even look at the plans Kaito drew up?!"
"My eyes saw stage written on a box almost the size of the whole-ass bar, and kinda glassed over before I got to the rest," Ranko said with a snicker. "Sorry." She started to trudge toward the new stage platform, finding it easier to will her feet to move once Akane skipped ahead to join her and linked arms with her.
The pair climbed the stairs. Had they continued forward, they would have turned to the right to find the VIP balcony that had been constructed for Akane, but instead, they rounded the bannister and headed in the opposite direction of the stairs' ascent. The first door hung open, revealing a chaotic hodgepodge of boxes, dress forms and mounds of fabric in what was set to become Izumi's new costuming workshop. At the end of the hall, they found two doors. One led to Mei's office, and the other to the planned work area for Natsuko to print and mail the Ranko and the Dapper Dragons fan newsletter. The monthly publication boasted nearly seven thousand subscribers, and the job had long ago outgrown a six-top table in the main bar.
Ranko slipped into the small office, smiling as she took in the space. On her left, a poster tacked to the wall featured the cover art for Wild Orchid. On her right, a large whiteboard leaned against the wall next to an as-yet-empty bookcase, having not yet been properly hung. It had been divided into a grid using thin strips of black tape, and the seven days of the week were written over each column as well as the dates. December 31, a Thursday, was circled, and in the box underneath, GRAND OPENING! RANKO'S HOME! was written in Mei's handwriting with a red dry-erase marker.
The desk itself was a cheap metal piece, likely obtained from a secondhand store from the look of it. An unopened packet of disposable ballpoint pens and a stack of cyan sticky notes were among the only items on its worn, scratched-up surface, so it didn't take Ranko long at all to spy the ivory-colored envelope addressed to her by name.
"Who's it from, babe?" Akane stood on her tiptoes, craning to try and peek over Ranko's shoulder in the cramped space.
Ranko's voice raised a half-octave in curious surprise as she checked the return address. "Yokai."
"Greeeeat," Akane groaned without a hint of enthusiasm as Ranko tore the envelope open with her fingernails.
The young singer reached into the foil-lined envelope, pulling out a thick piece of cardstock embossed with large red poinsettia flowers. It was not folded. It read: Your presence is requested at the Yokai Records annual Christmas party, December 24th at 7:00 P.M. Formal attire is required. You may bring a guest if you wish. Dinner and cocktails will be provided. The street address of the Yokai office building in Shibuya followed.
"Yeah, like that's happening," Ranko muttered, tossing the card down onto the desktop. "Thinking I'm gonna get all gussied up tonight to go kiss Kondo's ass when I just got home? Honestly, are they freaking nuts?!" She rolled her eyes and started to exit the office.
Akane let her pass before picking up the invitation to read it over herself. "Um… princess?" Akane reached out, tapping her wife on the shoulder. There was a deep disgust in her voice.
"Not now," Ranko shot back with a devilish smirk as she started to turn. "We can't just fool around on Mei's de-" Her words ended in a grimace, sucking air in through her teeth as she read the small print Akane was pointing to at the bottom of the card.
Attendance is mandatory for all headliner talent.