After a moment, the canister lights pointed at the stage came back up to reveal Ranko at center stage, flanked by Hitomi and Emi. She'd removed the mirrored sunglasses, slipping them back into the interior pocket of her red leather jacket. Utaru had rushed backstage to change clothes again.
"You've been warned, Seoul! I'm a bad idea!" Ranko laughed into her headset over the roar of the crowd. "I keep trying to tell 'em! I mean, I tried it once. I tried being the sweet, docile girl, taking the back seat to a guy. How well do you guys think that worked out?"
"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" came a howl that shook the concrete foundation of Jamsil Baseball Stadium.
"Pretty much, yeah." Ranko chuckled. "There was this one guy, though… and man, I wanted so bad to love him, but he just… ugh!" Ranko crinkled her nose, sticking her tongue out in disgust.
As she spoke, the video screen behind her lit up anew. It showed a scene that looked like a teenage girl's bedroom. The red, white and blue school uniform Ranko had worn in the Sneak music video hung on a wire hanger jammed between two slats of the white-painted velour closet doors. A nondescript red pennant with a red-and-silver pom-pom jammed behind it was tacked to the wall over a white wicker vanity packed with cosmetics and hair accessories. The pastel pink-painted walls were plastered with dozens of photos, most of them featuring Ranko posing with either a member of her family or the band.
In the video, Emi and Hitomi were seated cross-legged on the queen-sized bed, which was covered with a black plush comforter printed with large pink orchids. Emi wore a sky blue denim flared miniskirt and a yellow camisole. Hitomi was in a red-and-black pleated skirt like something from a British school uniform. Over it, she wore a white button-up shirt with faint gray vertical pinstripes, made to look like a baseball jersey. Embroidered across its chest were three characters in red: the romaji letters Q and T, followed by the Greek letter pi. Between the girls was a large pile of Polaroid photographs. Ranko herself sat on the plush ivory carpet, wearing a pink babydoll tee shirt and pair of cut-off jean shorts that ended closer to her waist than her knees. Her hair was pulled back into a bouncy high ponytail with a large pink bow clipped into it. She, too, was sifting through a huge scattered pile of photographs.
On the stage, however, Ranko took a firm stance between Hitomi and Emi in her blood-red leather as the pair of guitars flanking her rocketed into an alternative rock song that was almost angry enough to be classified as punk. She waved to one point in the crowd in particular, as if there were someone whose attention she wanted. Turning her hand toward herself, she waved toward her face as if calling someone over to share a secret with them.
And then, what she had to say, she began to sing.
"Hey, jerk! I'm talking to you! I'm still getting over all the shit you put me through! And still, it's totally clear…"
Ranko Tendo's eyes surveyed the crowd of more than twenty thousand people that had paid money to listen to what she had to say. Who gave up their Monday night to pack a frigid outdoor stadium for no other purpose than to spend an evening with her, adulating her for achieving the dreams she once could not dare to dream.
"I am so much better off these days 'cause you're not here!"
Ranko spun on the stage, extending her arms wide as if frolicking in a field of flowers. The juxtaposition of the carefree innocence of the choreography, and the blood-red leather that creaked over her legs as she did it, was jarring.
"At last, I feel like I'm free! Dropped your dead weight from my neck and I can just be… me! Can't wait to see how far I can go, without your constant voice inside my head tellin' me no."
She tapped her temple twice with her finger as she referenced the constant voice of one Ranma Saotome. A soul - a life - that she had walked away from for good on her eighteenth birthday. Rather than treating her masculine self as a part of her past that she'd transitioned away from, she had long ago chosen to view it as an ending and a beginning - that a caterpillar named Ranma Saotome had spun a cocoon in a little shoebox of a studio apartment above a dive bar in the Minato district of Tokyo, and a butterfly had emerged from it with barely a thought spared for the life it had known before.
"You're done with holding me back! Wasted too much of my life on you; don't owe you jack! And that feels great! Hey, jerk! You're never gonna get the chance to watch me suffocate!"
On the video screen, Ranko held up a photo of a teenage boy. Giggling, Hitomi and Emi both shook their heads. Ranko reached down by her legs, picking up a pair of pinking shears and beginning to cut the photo in half with a zig-zag slash right between the young man's eyes.
"You're an asshole! You're a pervert! You're a heartless creep! Tell me what about all that I should have wanted to keep! You are violent, and angry, and you're always rude, and you wonder why I never even miss you, dude!"
Hitomi and Emi stutter stepped forward, jerkily dragging their forearms in front of their faces parallel to the stage. The song didn't have a tremendous amount of choreography planned for it; then again, the angry thrashing of Noboyuki Matsuyama's guitar was more suited for smashing furniture than dancing.
"Now I'm happy and I'm thriving; having so much fun! All I had to do was say that you and me are DONE! So, yeah! It's true! Hey, jerk! I'm finally getting over being jerked around by you!"
On the screen, Hitomi picked up a photo of another high schooler boy. Crinkling her nose, Emi reached over and grabbed a corner of it, and together, they tore the photo in twain, throwing the halves up like confetti.
"Hey, jerk! I honestly tried looking past all of the girls that you took for a ride." As Ranko sang the line, Hitomi and Emi both posed seductively, as if trying to audition for the affection of the unnamed jerk.
"Although I knew it was wrong, I bit my tongue and waited my turn while you strung 'em along. But now, I finally see..."
Ranko rolled her eyes at Hitomi, shaking her head and turning away from her. "The only girl you never even gave a chance was me! You loved putting me down, except when showing me off got you shit all over town!"
Her counterpart on the video screen scooped up another photo of a boy in a blue and white school uniform, pointing to it as she looked up at Hitomi and Emi on the bed. She made a disgusted face, sticking out her tongue and heaving forward as if she were trying to keep from vomiting.
"I'm glad… I got up and split! I guess I was just the last girl to get sick o' your shit! Tough luck! That's life!"
Ranko thrust her left arm forward, letting her hand dangle limply in front of her to show the crowd the backs of her fingers. She wiggled them, allowing the diamond solitaire that rested on the third one, nestled in a silver band etched with the first few notes of the chorus of the eighth song in the night's setlist, to sparkle in the canister lights mounted above the stage.
"Hey, jerk! You'd best get used to it - I'm somebody else's wife!"
The stage, including the video screen, fell dark in an instant. A loud clack played through the speakers, and a white strobe light flashed on, revealing Ranko and both of her backup dancers standing perfectly still. Ranko was posing sweetly, leaning to her left side with her fingers coyly touched to her chin. Hitomi took an almost ballet pose, with her left hand splayed high over her head and her ankles crossed. Emi was locked in the middle of blowing the crowd a kiss.
The strobe went out, and when it flickered back on a half-second later to another camera shutter sound sample, the girls were frozen in new positions. Ranko was standing with her legs apart wide, her arms raised skyward in victory. Hitomi was turned away from the crowd, but looking back over her shoulder tauntingly with her hand on her backside. Emi, meanwhile, had her hand level above her eyes as if trying to shield the sun from them so as not to interfere with her view of her girlfriend to her right on the stage.
The blindingly white light blinked out again. It came up one last time with another camera sound effect, this time revealing all three girls frozen still in a group hug.
The orange and yellow canister lights over the stage clicked back on, and the video screen lit up again, returning to the scene of Ranko, Emi and Hitomi in the bedroom sifting through piles of boys' photographs.
"Hey, jerk!" Ranko continued. "There's not much to say."
She shrugged her shoulders in an oh well sort of gesture, shaking her head. "I mean, hell, your father never liked me anyway!"
And I never liked him either, Ranma, Ranko thought, a pool of bile forming in the back of her mind at the memory of Genma Saotome. She waved her hand in the air as if brushing away a bothersome fly.
"I knew that we couldn't last. One of us was always gonna feel like the outcast. This thing was killing us both, so instead of shrinking in your shadow, I chose growth."
The redhead's hand drifted over the left sleeve of her jacket, feeling for the familiar band concealed under it - the silver dragon that was perpetually coiled around her arm. Yui's gift for her eighteenth birthday, remained, as always, the silent sentinel concealing the angry red ridge across Ranko's left wrist - the remnants of Ranma Saotome's mortal wound at the hands of a jealous Amazon boy.
"I'm proud of myself because the GIRL I AM is so much STRONGER than the GHOST I WAS!"
"What the hell?!" The young man in the black Ranko and the Dapper Dragons tee shirt rocketed out of the wheeled office chair behind his console, straining in the dark to see what was going on at ground level just in front of the stage. Flicking a series of knobs and switches, Ariel Wright ensured that his communications headset was set to broadcast only to the support team, and not to any of the stage performers. "Lance, you okay down there, buddy?"
"I made my choice! Might've damn near broke my spirit, but I found my voice! You had your turn! Hey, jerk! I am the star now, and all you can do is watch me BURN!"
The canister lights above the stage flickered red, orange and yellow as if the stage had just exploded. In the brighter light, an enormous bald man in all black could be seen dragging a chubby fan in his early thirties back over the metal barricade that had been erected around the stage on the baseball field.
"I'm good, Ariel," Lance said, chuckling into his headset as he finished depositing the portly provocateur on the appropriate side of the barricade. "Just some drunk asshat with a camera. Nothing I can't handle."
"You're an asshole! You're a pervert! You're a heartless creep! Tell me what about all that I should've wanted to keep!"
On the video screen, Ranko threw dozens of the shredded Polaroid photos piled around her into the air, letting them fall around her like confetti. Hitomi threw one at Emi like a shuriken.
"You are violent and angry and you're always rude, and you wonder why I never even miss you, dude!"
The redheaded songstress turned her back to the crowd, gesturing dismissively over her right shoulder with her hand. As she did, she glanced up at the screen, where she was currently slicing through another high school boy's face with the orange-handled pinking shears. Man, I sure hope none of those kids ever sees this, she thought with a smirk. Nabiki had spent an afternoon at her alma mater of Furinkan High, offering a thousand yen to any boy who would let her take a few candid photos of them. Whether any of them had been told what the pictures would be used for, Ranko did not know, and with what she understood of her elder sister's business ethics, she thought it better not to ask.
"I should hope so," Ariel said, snickering as his eyes returned to his equipment. "One on one, I like your odds against Godzilla."
"Now, I'm happy, and I'm thriving, having so much fun! All I had to do was say that you and me are done. So, yeah! It's true! Hey, jerk! I'm fin'lly gettin' over bein' jerked around by you!"
Ariel reached for his controls, and the video board and stage lights went dark again. With a push of a button, a bright white strobe flashed on the stage below him, revealing Ranko frozen mid-gasp as she watched Emi and Hitomi hold hands. The sound of a camera shutter echoed through the stadium.
The lighting and pyro technician poked at the button again, and the white strobes flickered on to show a "snapshot" of Ranko, Emi and Hitomi all frozen mid-dance, their hips swung wide to their right with both arms thrust skyward in revelry. A third flicker of the strobe revealed Ranko leaning forward, frozen holding an invisible camera pointed at Hitomi and Emi as the pair embraced and flashed peace signs with their fingers at the singer.
"I knew, right from the start, that it was gonna hurt like hell to cut you out of my heart," Ranko sang as the canister lights came back up. The key of Jacob's synthesizer changed, indicating the slightly sadder tone of the song's final verse. On the video screen behind the performers, the three girls began shredding photos with their fingers in rapid succession.
"I did what I had to do. Didn't like the girl I was when I was still with you!"
All three girls held their index fingers up in front of their faces as if they were going to wag them no. Instead, though, they held their hands still, rocking their bodies behind their stationary fingers instead. The guitar stylings of Crash Matsuyama trailed off for a moment, allowing Shinji's bass to carry the tune alone for a moment.
"But I put my brave face on, and it gets easier for me every day that you're gone."
Ranko took an almost fighting stance, stiffening her body with both of her arms extended outward to her hips, her elbows locked and her hands in fists. She wanted to appear unmovable and resolute as steel.
"I admit… that from time to time, I can still feel you banging on the back door of my mind." As Ranko sang, a series of heavy thumps roared from Zoe's bass drum, as if someone were desperate to be let in out of the rain. "And yeah, I guess that is why… I wrote this song - so, once and for all, I can say goodbye."
Ranko waved her hand across her face, palm out in a stop gesture. Hitomi and Emi joined her, both in the choreography and the words she sang. "The answer's no-oo!"
The lead vocalist of the Dapper Dragons turned her back to the crowd, flicking her left hand dismissively over her shoulder. "Hey, jerk! I've got what I want, and it's time for me to let! You! GO!"
As the redhead strode toward the back of the stage, Hitomi and Emi closed the gap between them, holding their right arms at full extension with their palms out. Their arms and legs did not move, but their shoulders rocked back and forth behind their hands with the beat. "You're an asshole! You're a pervert! You're a heartless creep!"
"Tell me what about all that I should've wanted to keep!" Ranko demanded as she whirled on the stage between Crash and Shinji, her red hair flying over her shoulder in the cool December breeze.
Emi tapped her right pinkie with her left index finger, as if counting starting from one. "You are violent…" She extended her left ring finger, touching it to indicate a second thing. "... and angry…" Her middle finger was tended next, and she laid her right hand over all three of the extended fingertips. "... and you're always rude."
Ranko shrugged her shoulders, shaking her head in mock disbelief. "And you wonder why I never even miss you, dude!"
The camera shutter sound blasted through the sound system in the cavernous baseball stadium again as the canister lights blinked out. A white strobe flashed again, this one a directed beam that only illuminated Hitomi on the right side of the stage. She was posed with her right hip thrust out to the side, framing her face with her hands and grinning widely. "Now, I'm happy," she sang alone.
The white light blinked out, and its twin on the right side of the stage lit Emi Kimoto, holding both of her hands in thumbs-up gestures. The click-whir of the camera sound sample played again. "... and I'm thriving!"
The middle of the three strobes flickered on with a third camera snap sound, revealing a beaming Ranko with both of her arms frozen above her head in jubilation. "... havin' so much fun!"
"All I had to do was say that you and me are done!"the three girls sang in unison. "So, yeah! It's true!"
Hitomi closed the gap of a few steps to Ranko's right, ducking under the vocalist's arm and crashing into her body with a tight hug. Emi approached from the right, throwing up two fingers in the shape of bunny ears behind Ranko's head.
"Hey, jerk! I'm NEVER going back to bein' jerked around by YOU!" Ranko bellowed as she leaned back into her friends' arms. All three women froze in place as the canister lights blinked out and one final camera shutter noise played through the speakers, the strobes flickering to show the three girls posing for one last photo together. Crash and Shinji both slammed on the strings of their instruments as hard as they could, and the music cut out.
On the video screen behind the trio, Ranko threw a huge armload of shredded photographs into the air in the mock bedroom. They fluttered toward the floor of the scene, and as the video display faded to black, three air cannons mounted to the trusses above the stage puffed out a flurry of black and white tissue paper confetti that rained down on the first twenty rows of the crowd.