The trio of white spotlights stayed on for a few seconds before the canister lights reilluminated the stage. They were the cue for Hitomi and Emi to let Ranko go, stepping back to their positions a third of the length of the stage from Ranko at her right and left respectively.
"Crazy, right?!" Ranko laughed as she walked forward on the stage, making eye contact with as many Firebirds as she could in the darkened baseball stadium. The crowd still cheered for the second consecutive song from the Dapper Dragons as-yet-unreleased third studio album, Behind Bars.
"Everybody clear?" Masaki checked over his control board, mentally rehearsing the pyrotechnic sequences for the following two songs in the setlist. They included one of Ranko's greatest hits, and the back-to-back songs involved the most challenging sequences he had scripted.
"I'm good on the left,"came the reply from Kazuki Asai in his headset. The Dapper Dragons' former keyboardist turned roadie peeked out from behind the black curtain and grinned at the posing girls on the stage from his position backstage. You get it, girl, he thought, beaming with pride at the young woman he'd once almost killed with a handful of prescription painkillers.
"It's still nuts to me. I've done thirty-three shows on the Wildfire Tour so far,and after this one, there's only two more left, back home in Japan." She wiggled two fingers in front of her face as she spoke. "But, sometimes, it still doesn't even register to me that I'm doing this at all. It wasn't that long ago that I was homeless, crashing in a train station and living out of vending machines. When - forget legions of Firebirds in dozens of countries - I didn't have a family, or even any friends. Sometimes, I wish I could go back in time, sit on that bamboo bench I used to sleep on, and show myself a snapshot of moments like this. I wish I could tell that terrified, lonely seventeen-year-old girl that better days were coming." As she spoke, the canister lights blinked out, and only a single spotlight illuminated the ruminating redhead at center stage.
"Right bank, ready!" Norio clapped his hands as he retook his safe position under the hollow stage floor. "Give 'em hell, Masa!"
The young songstress chuckled to herself. "I'm not sure she would have believed me."
Looking down at her hands, Ranko idly fidgeted with her wedding band as it sparkled in the spotlight. A wistful smile crept across her cherry-red painted lips. "But, that's the thing about being at rock bottom - there's nowhere to go from there but up. And so, when I didn't think there was any hope left for me, I met some people who picked me up, brushed me off, and made me believe. Who taught me the most important thing I've ever learned. I wrote this next song for them."
"Control ready,"Masa called back from the seat at the control board to Ariel's right. "We're good when you are, girl! Light 'em up!"
Ranko nodded, both in acknowledgement of her team's preparedness, and in resolve as she prepared for one of the most emotional moments of the show. "So, come back to the beginning with me, will ya, Seoul?"
Behind her, the top border of the video board's black background was pierced with a single white feather. It fluttered down toward the stage, glowing with orange embers as it caught fire. By the time it reached the bottom of the screen, barely any of its fluffy tendrils were visible that had not been blackened, shriveled and charred.
As silently as they could, Zoe rose from the stool behind the bass drum painted with the logo of the band they'd been drafted into a few months prior. Standing between the two tom-toms, the drummer readied their glowing pink plastic drumsticks. After all, when Ranko Tendo sang this song on tour, almost no one in the building remained seated.
With no music to prepare the crowd for its coming, Ranko uttered a single word in a hauntingly soft singing voice.
"A-a-lone…"
The quiet fragility of the lead vocalist's tremulous vibrato was entirely incongruous with the man-made earthquake that rumbled through Jamsil Baseball Stadium in response to it. Because there was not yet backing music, Ranko was able to wait until the cheers died down before she continued the song's a cappella introduction.
"... with no place left that you call home. Nobody waiting by the phone. No one to care… that you're not there. No one to defend you."
A single chord from Crash's guitar punctuated her last word, but the rest of the band waited to join in to the performance of Ranko and the Dapper Dragons' first-ever original song.
"Somehow," Ranko sang, folding her hands and clutching them to her chest, seeming to shrink in stature on stage. "... the shadow always tracks you down, 'til you've got one knee on the ground, and the next mistake is all it'll take for it to end you."
A small flicker of orange began to display along the bottom edge of the video screen behind the performers, as if there were a flame starting just off-screen. Occasionally, a small wisp of fire entered the frame. The canister lights flickered a dim orange as well, operating at less than ten percent of their maximum output. As Ranko began the next line of the song, her voice was joined both by Crash's cherry red electric guitar and Jacob's Yamaha synthesizer playing in the voice of an electric piano.
"It tries. It breaks your heart and tells you lies," Ranko sang softly, wiping her eyes. She wasn't crying - at least, not yet - but the gesture was a part of the choreography. "Wrings angry tears out of your eyes, until the pain drives you half-insane, and terror blinds you."
Shinji's bass guitar joined the melody, and the line of flame on the video board grew until it was clearly visible along the bottom edge of the screen. The power of the canister lights increased to around fifty percent of their maximum output as well, bathing the stage in an orange glow.
"But then… something stirs in you again," Ranko insisted, lifting her eyes to the crowd with a resolved steel in them. "And a quiet voice… offers you the choice to leave it all behind you."
Zoe furiously swung their neon pink drumsticks, sending an energetic roll through the tom-toms. As all four instruments were played together for the first time in the performance, the orange lighting on the stage was turned to full power. The flickering line of flame on the bottom of the video board grew on the black background. At the center of the front edge of the stage, one of the flame emitters ignited, spewing a sustained orange flame no more than a quarter-meter high.
Ranko's voice took on additional strength and determination as she planted her feet in her blood-red leather pantsuit.She clenched her fists at her hips as she all but shouted into her headset microphone. "Dust off your hands! Take a breath! Take a stand… and admit that you might have been wrong!"
The two flamethrowers closest to the center on the front edge of the stage lit up. Like the center emitter, they burned with a constant orange flame rising a quarter-meter from the stage floor. Ranko turned her back to the crowd, walking heel-over-toe back toward the band.
"Your heart still remembers…" Ranko sang as the next pair of emitters ignited at the front of the stage, the wall of flame expanding from the center.
"... the smoldering embers…" the songstress continued as the next pair of emitters lit, bringing the total to seven. She whirled on her heel to face the crowd, standing between Crash and Shinji as her backup singers joined her at center stage. From backstage, Utaru and Sanyo jogged up between the drums and the keyboard, taking flanking positions to Hitomi's right and Emi's left.
"The fire was in you ALL ALONG!" Every few beats, another pair of emitters lit, such that by the time the line was finished, all nine jets of flame simmered orange at the edge of the stage.
Ranko threw her right fist in the air, and all nine columns of flame belched to a full two meters in height. On the video screen behind her, the rolling orange flame congealed into four burning letters in reddish-orange, spelling out the English title of Ranko's first-ever hit.
"RISE! like a dragon, and RISE! from the agony!" The song's title flickered in conflagration on the screen behind the performers each time it was sung, and another blast of flame spewed forth from all nine jets at the front edge of the stage. The stadium shook each time the word was shouted by all nine performers on stage, and more than two-thirds of the crowd.
"RISE! And rekindle the fla-a-ame! When LIFE! turns to ashes, you GO! get the matches, and SEAR! away all of the sha-a-a-ame!"
Ranko sang as loudly as she could. Even with the crowd noise muted as much as it could be in her headset mix, she could barely hear the metronome clicking in her ears - or for that matter, her own thoughts - over the twenty thousand Firebirds echoing her words back to her on that cold December night.
Eight of the band's nine performers let their microphones fall silent, leaving but one to sing. In an almost demonic rumble in the first octave, bassist Shinji Yokota issued a one-word command: "BURN!"
"Like a demon!" Emi and Hitomi sang as Ranko gestured to herself with both of her thumbs. "... And…"
"EARN!" Shinji all but belched in his thundering deep bass voice.
"... what you're dreamin'!" Ranko's backup singers and friends continued. As the girls sang, the wall of flame on the video screen, which now covered the bottom half of the giant display, collapsed down into a ball of fire and crashed down into the bottom edge of the screen. Likewise, the fire emitters at the front edge of the stage lowered and cut off, as if the explosion had consumed all of their fuel. The fireball on the screen seemed to explode as it struck the bottom edge of the display. Out of the eruption, a giant bird of orange fire burst upward. It spread its wings to their full extension across the screen with a loud screeeeee sound effect.
"The Phoenix inside never dies!" Ranko sang as the blazing bird illuminated the stage from behind.
The burning phoenix on the screen swooped up to the top of the display, diving downward toward the bottom center. Ranko thrust her hand up, her fingers stretched upward, and the bird seemed to collapse into the point of the screen just behind her hand, as if she had recalled all of the fire it was made of back into her soul through her palm.
"You IGNITE…"
Ranko cocked her right arm at the elbow and punched upward, jumping off the stage floor and kicking her feet behind her backside. The entire background of the video screen exploded in reddish-orange flame, and a single, English word was spelled out in a huge font of charred brimstone at its center. All nine columns of flame along the edge of the stage returned to their maximum output, blasting meters-tall jets of orange hellfire into the twilight sky in time with thousands of voices.
"... and you RISE!"
Beaming, Ranko rushed to the front edge of the stage, moving along its front at almost a jog once the flames had gone out. The sadness and sorrow in her voice was gone. Even the melody of the instruments behind her was almost fifty percent faster than it had been in the first verse, indicative of the spirit returning to the singer. She waved as she strode the stage's edge, wanting to give as many people as possible the chance to make a connection with her.
"You might… have almost given up the fight. Forgotten how to be a-alright. But, hey, it's okay to not know your way when you first get going!"
Emi and Sanyo hopped up onto the metal catwalk at the rear left of the stage, and Emi began rocking her hips in time with the music. Behind them, a slender man clad in all black, his face obscured like a ninja's to hide him from the crowd, reached through the gap in Emi's open-back yellow shirt and fastened a steel cable to the safety harness she wore under it with a carabiner clip. A moment later, Sanyo felt a tug on the belt he wore as his own safety cable was connected.
"It's not fair that most of us don't start off there," Ranko asserted in song. "And the hardest part is guessing where to start, but never really knowing."
The redhead sank into Hitomi's arms, receiving a side hug on the right side of the stage. Utaru patrolled the edge of the stage, waving his arms skyward as if to whip the crowd into a frenzy - though they needed little help in that regard.
"The pain ends when you don't have to make amends. When chosen family, loyal friends, have all got your back, help you stay on track, 'cause they're all behind you."
"They're on," Kazuki said into his headset. "Take 'em up, Ariel." He lifted the stifling black cloth mask from his face for the moment as he ducked backstage.
"Heard, Kaz! Going in three… two…" Ariel reached over his control board, and the steel catwalk began to rise from the stage floor again, lifting Sanyo and Emi almost three meters into the December air.
"You have grown, but no one gets there on their own, and when you think that you're alone, it's the ones you love that are thinkin' of new ways to remind you!"
Ranko strode to center stage as Hitomi and Utaru rushed under the catwalk, with Hitomi standing just under her girlfriend's feet, and Utaru under Sanyo's. The four of them moved in perfect synchronization, despite the fairly simple choreography for the song. Ranko had considered using the dance mix of Rise that Jacob had prepared for her first cheerleading competition when planning the Wildfire Tour, but Crash had overruled her, saying it was better to give the crowd one of her most popular songs unaltered. Likewise, she'd only performed the more melancholy third verse she'd written after the events in Bangkok once, on stage in Hanoi. Too depressing for a party, she thought. And besides, things are getting better… at home, at least. Now, Yokai… that's another story.
The video screen behind the performers filled with a full wall of orange flame, and Ranko's voice took on an almost commanding tone as she grinned at Crash.
"You were lonely, and scared, and nowhere near prepared! There were lessons you needed to learn. But now it's your mission to start reignition…"
The redhead pointed outward at the center of the crowd with both of her hands, throwing her head back and belting the final line of the second verse as loudly as her lungs would permit.
"Your heart is just WAITING to BURN!"
Ranko hopped on her toes excitedly, waving upward with her hands. "C'mon, Korea! You know what to do!I wanna hear you rise! Are you ready?!" She pointed outward to the side of the crowd on her left as Shinji's bass guitar prompted the legion of raucous Firebirds.
"RISE!" they shouted as one.
"Like a dragon, and…" Ranko sang, grinning as she speedwalked to center stage and pointed to the middle of the crowd.
"RISE!" the crowd shouted again, echoed by the flaming English word reforming on the video screen behind the performers.
Ranko nodded as she moved right on the stage. "From the agony…" Her arm shot up again, pointing toward the right side of the stage.
"RISE!" they screamed as commanded. Each time the word was repeated, another quick blast of flame shot forth from the full array of jets at the front of the stage. At the back of the stage, Hitomi, Sanyo, Emi and Utaru all thrust their right fists in the air.
"And rekindle the fla-a-ay-ame! When LIFE!" Ranko pointed outward to the crowd, and they joined her in the emphasized word. Behind her, the video screen glowed orange as the blazing firebird animation seemed to follow her movements on stage.
"... turns to ashes, you GO! get the matches, and SEAR! away all of the sha-a-a-ame!"
The flame jets belched skyward again, and Shinji's booming bass voice led the crowd in the next word. "BURN!"
"Center jets are clear, Masa." Norio reported from his position under the stage, his hand still on the final pyrotechnic emitter. He turned and began walking away from the bank of flamethrowers, making it only a step or two before tripping over one of the empty crates stored beneath the stage. "SHIT! Owwww!"
"Like a demon, and…" Ranko threw her hand out to the crowd again as she moved toward the front of the stage to avoid the chasms that had been opened in it by her crew below the stage.
"Are you…" Ariel rocketed out of the worn leather office chair in the control booth in concern. "Nori?! You okay?!" To his right, Masa's hand shot out, hovering in readiness over the red emergency stop button on his control board for the pyrotechnic displays.
"EARN!" the crowd roared alongside Ranko.
Norio chuckled, shaking his head in dismay at his own clumsiness. "I'm fine. Just stubbed my friggin' toes. Sorry, guys. False alarm," he replied.
"... what you're dreamin'! The Phoenix inside never dies!" Ranko shouted over the loud screeeeeeee of the firebird spreading its wings behind her on the video screen. "What next, Firebirds?!"
"YOU IGNITE! AND YOU RISE!" her fans replied in one voice.
Ariel retook his seat, exhaling heavily. He ran his fingers through his mousey brown hair, massaging his scalp to try and calm his nerves. "Fuck, you can't scare us like that, bro! Alright, bringing down the catwalk." He reached out, commanding his electronic board to return Sanyo and Emi to the stage level.
"No shadow can tame you. No challenge can tame you! You're stronger than you realize!" Carefully avoiding the holes that had been opened in the stage floor, Ranko circumnavigated to the rear center of the stage.
"They're loose," Kazuki reported to the control team, releasing the carabiner connecting the safety cable in his hand to Emi's safety harness. As soon as his hands were free, Emi and Sanyo scurried backstage to join Hitomi and Utaru.
"There isn't a thing which could ever extinguish the inferno that BURNS IN YOUR EYES!" Ranko waved upward with both of her arms, planting her feet at the center of the stage, just in front of the video display. "Sing it, Seoul!" she commanded.
"RISE like a dragon and RISE from the agony! RISE! and rekindle the flame!" the crowd sang. The video animation on the screen behind Ranko repeated for the third chorus, flashing the word RISE in smoldering brimstone with each repetition. "When LIFE! turns to ashes, you GO! get the matches, and SEAR! away all of the sha-hey-hey-ame!"
"That's right, Firebirds! Lemme hear you!" Ranko jumped up and down, frantically waving her arms, urging the crowd to its feet with her hands.
"BURN! like a demon and EARN what you're dreamin'!" the audience roared.
"The Phoenix inside never dies!"Ranko sang, with many of the fans joining her. As she did, the firebird on the video board spread its wings directly behind her in a torrent of orange-red flame, as if the burning flaps had sprouted out of Ranko's back through her red leather jacket. "What do we do, Seoul?"
"YOU IGNITE! AND YOU RISE!" came thousands of answers in one unified voice, their defiant declaration echoing on the chill December breeze over the still surface of the Han River just north of the stadium grounds.
Ranko grinned, glancing down at her feet to make sure she was on her proper mark. It's getting cold out here, but that doesn't mean I'm in a hurry to be barbecued live on stage, she thought. "Okay, guys! One more time! Follow the board!" Ready?! Here we go!"
"RISE!" the audience shouted when the board, and Ranko pointing toward the crowd, prompted them to do so.
"Like a dragon, and…" Ranko sang, punching her fist forward to prompt the crowd again.
"RISE!" they shouted again.
"From the agony…"
"RISE!"
"And rekindle the fla-a-ame! When…" Ranko pointed forward as the word LIFE formed in flame on the video board behind her.
"LIFE!" came the response from the audience.
"Turns to ashes, you…" Ranko glanced behind her as Sanyo and Utaru slipped backstage, the former of the two taking the four steps down to access the underside of the stage.
"GO!" sang the nearly full complement of revelers packing Jamsil Baseball Stadium when the fiery animation told them to do so.
"Get the matches, and…"
"SEAR!"
"Away all of the sha-a-a-ame!"
"Everybody clear?" Masa stood from his chair, surveying the darkened stage as best he could from his vantage point.
"BURN!" the capacity crowd shouted.
"I'm in position," Sanyo called back, his headset having been switched to the channel for team communications so as to avoid broadcasting his voice to the audience.
"The girls are done changing," Utaru replied from backstage, peering around the black curtain to confirm they had both exited the small cordoned-off area that had been set up for their privacy.
"Like a demon, and…" Ranko took a deep breath as the crowd prepared to answer. Always hate this part. It's gonna be okay. Couple seconds and it's over, she thought.
"EARN!"
"What you're dreamin'! The Phoenix inside never dies!" Ranko checked down at her feet one final time as the blazing bird on the screen behind her screeched and pulsated with flame, seeming to gather its strength for one final blast.
"Never dies!" Shinji sang in his low bass voice.
"Never dies!" Crash sang into his headset, his fingers letting the strings of his guitar fall silent for the first time in three minutes.
"Never dies!" Jacob added in a yet-higher pitch, leaning over his keyboard to sing into the microphone mounted above the stand. He'd eschewed the headsets the rest of the band wore, owing to his discomfort at wearing it over his tall, rigid green fauxhawk.
"Never dies!" Zoe finished, flailing their glowing pink drumsticks as fast as they could moving from left to right.
"YOU IGNITE! AND YOU…" Ranko bent her knees low, launching herself upward. She leapt in place on the stage, thrusting her fist in the air. "RISE!"
As her feet again made contact with the stage floor, seemingly the whole of it erupted in flame.