“Me? Choreograph? For…you?”
“Yeah, you’re pretty good at dancing, aren’t you?”
“Uh, general dancing, yes. I am not trained in idol dances. You know that they are two completely different things, right, KanKan?”
“KanKan…” Jina laughed.
“Shut up!” Kana snapped, “Also, yes, I am perfectly aware that they are two different things. That is exactly why I need you to be choreographing this. We aren’t showing the audience something generic and old. We need to show them something they’ve never seen before. Something they’ve never even dreamed of.”
“You mean…”
Kana reached out to hold Emi’s hands, but stopped when she remembered the no-touching rule. Sighing as she looked at the girl on the inflatable swan, she just got down on one knee, “You’re perfect because you don’t know the rules, Emi. The choreographers who do know them are bound by them. They can’t see beyond them. But you? You’ll listen to the song and then give us something that makes sense to you.”
“And if the audience doesn’t like it? What happens when that man – what’s his name – Sakai or whatever. What happens when he thinks that a dance like that won’t sell, and now your failure is my fault?”
“I’ll kill you for ruining my career.” Kana smiled and held out a hand for the blonde.
“Hmm.”
“KanKan…” Jina whispered and chuckled.
“Ignore her…”
Emi rolled her eyes and took Kana’s hand to jump off the swan and back to the floor. Once she did, she slipped due to the water on her feet, falling backwards in a slick motion. Kana reached out again, wrapping her arms around her waist and stopping her. Their eyes locked for a moment as she felt the girl’s slender stomach, slowly moving her hand to pull her up.
“Kana…” Emi’s eyes lit up, her lips quivered.
“Kan.Kan.” Jina leaned in to whisper in Kana’s ears.
“You!”
She turned to land a jab on her chin, but that caused Emi to slip out of her hands and fall to the floor. As she did, some more water splashed up on all of them. Jina, laughing, hopped back before it could touch her and took a seat on the couch with her legs crossed.
“KanKan…”
“Stop it!” Kana screamed.
“No, that one was me...KanKan…”
“Ah, Emi!”
Kana helped her stand up once more, and Emi immediately touched her back in pain. It wasn’t a serious injury, given that she was able to stand up and move. Once she was done wincing, she walked to the sofa and sat down beside Jina.
“So, dance?”
Emi groaned, “Fine, fine! I’ll do it. Where’s the song, though?”
Kana met Jina’s eyes, and both of them nodded at the same time, “Yeah, about that…”
_____________
After giving Emi a vague idea of what the song might sound like, taking some step inspirations from her, and saying goodbye to her on Sunday night, it was time to return to the Battle Royale. Except that this time, the goal was neither mapping out the terrain nor getting points. This time, the goal was to merely talk to the people that they had become friends (and enemies) with, and cash in on all of their prior setup.
Monday, they worked on the most important target of all. Given that the music had now started to get underway with temporary vocals, they needed to get into the voice booth soon. But that alone would not be enough. They needed a little bit more than just their voice to get Pink Beats’ morale further down.
“Me?” Sanada asked as they took cover behind a rock, and the bullets flying all over the battlefield rang in their ears.
Kana nodded, “It’s, like…an introduction! Jina and I will sing most of the song, but we want you to feature in it. It will be like a passing of the baton of sorts, don’t you think? You give us some promotion via your voice, and then we’ll take it from there with our second song.”
“You…basically want me to give you a shoutout?”
“Yes!” Kana turned and shot a grenade towards the horde. Jina barely dodged it once more and shot a dirty look at her, “Ah, sorry, sorry, Jina-chan! So, what do you say, Sanada-san?”
“Uh, I’ll definitely need to ask the other members. I can’t just make a decision like that without asking our manager, either. I’m sure Yamada-san won’t mind, but we still need to be careful with all of this, you know?”
“Yes, I know, but…”
Monster Kills +350
Explosion Kill +20
Kana held Sanada’s hands and let her eyes get moist, “This one is just for Sakai-san. Think of it as a small, unrelated summer project! If the other members and Yamada-san don’t like it, then we’ll just do that part ourselves. To be honest, when I was writing those lyrics with Jina-chan…we wrote that part specifically for you.”
“Wait, really!?”
“Yes!” Her eyes sparkled with a smile, “Please feature with us. Please, please, please!?”
“Uhh…”
Sanada looked at the rest of the members fighting the horde and swung her sword at a little one who came too close. As the blood flew on Kana’s face, she felt slightly guilty. The guy had just been walking away like a penguin, and she had sliced his head off. How heartless and vile.
“Fine, Kana-chan.” She smiled, “I’ll do it if you want. But only for the internal performance, alright? If Yamada-san, Kelsey, or RiRi complain, then you can’t use those vocals for the actual song.”
“Oh, don’t worry. I promise!” Kana laughed, stood up, and jumped out of the hiding spot to join the battle again.
Grinning at the development, she took out her Railgun to test it and started loading it. A quick shout and the warning reached Jina, Kelsey, and RiRi. They ran out of the way as she pointed the weapon at the horde and shot. The resulting laser blast ran through the entire group at once and blew them all into a fountain of blood.
Monster Kills +2650
Railgun Kill +200
200? Not bad at all…
_____________
Tuesday was the day of shifting alliances and planting seeds of doubt. It was too boring to let Kelsey be a simplistic villain. If she did not have any actual issues with Kana other than the girl just being boring, the eventual fallout would not work. RiRi would stop her and find some way to keep them all in line. They needed something more concrete for Kelsey to make Kana her punching bag.
Sitting near the remains of another one of those massive spider kaiju they had managed to kill, the girls were leaning against a rock and celebrating their high point count. With the unfair advantage of both Kana and Jina now being with them, their chances of getting into the top five were furthering every day of the week. And it would have worked, too, if the two of them had been actually concerned about getting points.
There was, after all, always next week. This week was reserved for making that test performance perfect.
“Kelsey~!”
“Do you want me to smash your jaw in? Why are you here?”
Kana pouted and sat down beside her, pulling her knees to her chest and shaking her, “Ah, I’m sorry, Kelsey. I’ve been really rude to you and said things I should not have said. I just wanted to apologize for that.”
“Of course. Who put you up to this? Sanada?”
“Uh…no?” She tried her best to make it feel like she was lying. Kelsey needed to believe that this had been Sanada’s idea, “I just…felt really bad. I thought that I was being a total bitch, so I should apologize. I cannot sleep at night, you know? I always think about I’m gonna go to Hell because of all my antics.”
“You’re already here, you goblin. Just ask for what you want, and stop wasting my time.”
“Yay!” Kana smiled and pulled Kelsey into a hug. Touching their bloodstained cheeks together, she asked, “To be honest, I always liked how you decided on your stage name. I was thinking that I should also have a stage name, but I wasn’t sure if I was going about it the correct way. Can you help me out with that?”
“Are you trying to make fun of me?”
“What?! No! I am not making fun of you. I am being honest. I really like the thought process behind how you decided on your name. Sanada-san told me about it, and it was so cool. That is why I wanted to know how to do it myself.”
Kelsey raised her eyebrows and pulled away, “Fine. I’ll let it slide. What do you want your name to be? Do you have any ideas?”
“Yay! Kelsey is the best~!” She laughed, “So, I was thinking something along the lines of a cool animal. Or a fruit, maybe. Even jewelry would be good, to be honest. I don’t really know, hehe.”
“Ugh. How am I supposed to help you out when you do not even have a base set up?” She asked, looking at the sky, “What have you decided upon as your group name?”
“Oh…”
Kana leaned in and whispered the name into her ear, “Twin Barrel.”
“Huh? What kind of name is that?” Kelsey looked like she was revolted by the name. All the better, too, since that wasn’t the name at all. Kana would never approve something so pathetic and horrible. “Did you even put any effort into thinking that through, or did you just roll a dice to pick two words?”
“Uhh, Jina and I wrote words down on chits, and then picked them one by one. This was the very first pair we got, so that’s our name now!”
Kelsey frowned, “Well, your loss, I guess. If you think that is enough, then good for you. So, if your name is Twin Barrel, then shouldn’t your names be something related to that? Or at least something that fits the vibe. You should not be going for fruit-based names, if you think about it.”
“But you picked a random one too, didn’t you?” Kana tilted her head, “Your group is called Pink Beats, but you picked something that is based on the word ‘kerosene’. That’s, like, the complete opposite of something cute like Pink Beats.”
“It’s not actually kerosene, is it? I went with Kelsey instead. It’s exactly what fits the mood. I get my meaning, the group gets its perfect fit, and the audience thinks it's cute. That is how you sell a name. Add different vibes to it so that different people will like it. You want some deep meaning behind it? Then add it while packaging it as something simplistic.”
She wasn’t that dumb, clearly. But that was what made her such a worthy and fun opponent. Kelsey was just as smart as the others in the group. Maybe even the smartest of Pink Beats. But it was usually hidden behind her egoistic attitude and narcissistic personality. Now that that had been removed, Kelsey was saying things that actually made sense.
“Thank you, Kelsey! I’ll keep it in mind!”
“Whatever.” She stood up, “So, you're going around and talking to the whole group about this text performance of yours?”
Kana shook her head, “Not really. It’s a complete secret, and nobody else is involved! You’re the only one who knows even this much.”
“Hmm. I guess I’m honored…”
“You are!?”
“No, I am not. It was sarcasm. Just shut up and keep walking. We need more points.”
_____________
On Wednesday, the music was finalized. Kana, Jina, and Sanada recorded their individual parts and submitted them for mixing. Alongside this, the former two started practicing some of the dance moves that Emi had left them based on the vibe of the song. It was a bit simple and did not have the nuance of what the finished product could have been, but it was still unique. Their plan had worked.
On Thursday, with the song snippet ready, the two of them started finalizing their timings and moves. It was slowly becoming easier and easier to do, especially with the tips about stage presence Jina had gathered from Fluorescent Angels. It was almost time for it all to pay off now.
On Friday, it was time for the performance.