Work Text:
There’s still reserved seats for an event coming up. If you’re interested, wanna come see it?
Why don't you and An and the others come to America?
Kohane squints her eyes one last time, accepting the light’s burn at this point. It’s a lot to take in everything that’s happened today. She shuts her phone off, and puts it face down on the counter. Even with her glasses on, her vision feels so bleary.
She sighs. Everything has been so confusing today… it makes her head spin as she slumps down onto the counter, bidding farewell to whatever was left of her posture. Her arms cushion her head in feigned sleep.
Despite how her eyelids droop, Kohane can’t seem to close them fully. It’s why she came to Crase Cafe so late at night. If she’s here, nothing more can come to attack her. After all, the only thing she’s able to retort back is a whole lot of questions. Though, she can’t tell if the Street SEKAI at night is as comforting as she thought it’d be—the cafe is lit up dimly, and only MEIKO is there, cleaning up after the others. Kohane wonders if the vocaloids need sleep—if they have human needs like Vivid BAD SQUAD, but she knows better than to ask. Where were the others? She’s got enough on her mind anyways.
(The atmosphere is probably leaning towards disturbing thanks to all the halloween decorations everyone worked together putting up last weekend. The pumpkin lanterns are adorable, but now Kohane thinks An might have been onto something when she told Touya they looked like flying orange demons)
MEIKO taps on her shoulder. “Kohane? Are you asleep?”
Kohane flinches, and her head launches up. “I’m awake! Sorry, sorry!”
The woman shakes her head with a smile as she slides Kohane a glass of warm milk, something she hadn’t even ordered. Kohane smiles. “Awh, thank you, MEIKO-san.”
“I figured it’d be nice for you right now.”
Of course MEIKO sees right through her. Kohane doesn’t know why that facet catches her so off guard as if she hadn’t been a regular at this cafe for almost two years now. She breathes a laugh at the familiarity.
“Take a pick.” MEIKO holds up three different straws. They’re the silly, swirly, stripey kind.
“We have a straw selection now?” Kohane asks.
“At Luka’s request, yes we do.”
Of course Luka would want these. She almost wants to laugh, but she can’t find the energy to do so, leading her to settle for a polite nod. “Ah, okay. Uhm, I think I'll take the pink one?”
MEIKO slips the pink straw into the milk. It contorts itself into a star, and it’s really cute.
Kohane takes a sip, surprised she’d never actually tried warm milk before. The only way she can describe it is like a warm hug… except the hug is inside of you. Actually, that analogy makes it sound a little grotesque. Maybe not.
She takes a deep breath after a drawn out sip. She can feel MEIKO’s gaze spreading more warmth onto her skin.
“So,” MEIKO cuts to the chase, “What’s on your mind?”
Kohane squeaks like a dog toy. “M-me!? Uhmm….”
The question startles her like a punch to the heart. She should have expected this kind of conversation to come to SEKAI. It’s unlike her to stay up so late.
Glancing at the time on her phone made her stomach churn. Past midnight. A long time ago, Kohane had made an oath to herself never to worry after 24:00. Breaking her own promise is what keeps her eyes opening.
“Just… everything going on.”
It’s a strange feeling that’s settled over her body. She had thought she’d overcome her anxiety so long ago, and that she wouldn’t resort back to her old ways of panicking at every sound. It’s strange, being jolted awake just by the sound of the dim, fluorescent lights above humming. A part of her brain tells her that the ceiling is going to fall down, and that she shouldn’t have come there.
“The others haven't told you yet? So, theres these two—“
The front door bell rings, and a cold air pervades the room. Kohane nearly screams.
“Hey, MEI—oh, Kohane!? You’re here too?”
Kohane puts a hand to her heart, twisting towards the door. “An-chan, you scared me!”
An shuts the cafe’s door behind her. She’s dressed to the nines in her pajamas, which consist of one of Ken’s old red shirts and her own basketball shorts. She has her hair in a braid slung over her shoulder, how she often wore her hair when she went to sleep in an attempt to tame any nasty knots that could form by morning. She scratches her nape. “Sorry!”
Near heart attack aside, Kohane’s heart beats lessen in their intensity at the sight of her partner.
Like it’s clockwork, An slips into the seat next to Kohane and MEIKO asks her if she wants to order the ‘usual.’
Kohane tilts her head. “An-chan, you don’t usually come to the cafe this late, right?”
An shrugs with a nonchalance Kohane can only dream of. “Only on bad insomnia nights.”
Kohane feels a bit dumb for forgetting about An’s struggles with insomnia. She often covered her eyebags with concealer and the like. Whether it was to save face or quell anyone’s worries about her horrible sleep schedule was up for debate.
An gasps. “We have silly straws now!? Oh my god, we should totally get one of those heart ones! You know the ones people can share, like—“
“An-chan…..” Kohane contemplates burying her head into her arms again, but An’s seen her embarrassed face enough for Kohane not to feel as deep of a desire to hide it.
“What? It’d be cute!” An exclaims, ”MEIKO-san, what if instead of setting up the mistletoe in the cafe during Christmas, we hang up a heart shaped silly straw from the ceiling and—“
MEIKO rubs her nose bridge like a tired mother. “An-chan, are you sure you need coffee?”
“I have ADHD,” An says eloquently.
After MEIKO gives An her ‘nighttime special’, An spends about five minutes trying to choose between straws but ultimately settles with a swirly yellow one.
An changes the topic so fast, Kohane thinks she would have gotten used to the whiplash by now. “Anyways, Kohane. You’re not the type to stay up so late. Is there something going on?”
“Am I that obvious?” Kohane asks, genuinely confused.
“Well—” An leans to rest an elbow on the counter but misses and almost loses her balance completely. How elegant. “—Ahem, it’s not too hard to notice that kinda thing with someone like you, since you gave yourself a bedtime and stuff.”
“Oh…” Kohane deflates. It really is nice knowing that she had people who care about her enough to notice things like that, but at the same time…
Sluuuuuurp
“Sorry,” An whispers and glares at her straw. “Carry on.”
Kohane drums her fingers on the sides of her glass of milk. She takes a deep breath and looks at An, square in the face. “An-chan…I’ve been thinking a lot about the twins."
“Rin and Len? What about them?”
“No. You know, about Slade and…uh, what’s his name? Carter?”
“I think it was Caleb?” An tries. “I dunno, American names are all like the same thing anyways.”
Kohane sighs, and if it’s possible for her to slouch even lower in the stool, she’s sure she does that. “I can’t believe they’re already gone. They were here for five minutes—then gone.”
An’s face falls. “Slade and Caleb… they’re so…” Then, she hugs herself with her own arms and shakes her head. “Oh, those guys give me the heebie-jeebies.”
“I’m glad I’m not the only one who felt that!” Kohane sighs out of relief. “Nothing about them makes any sense.”
“Ugh, and Akito went full America-mode; he didn’t even question how none of this adds up! Touya, too. But that’s just ‘cause he got excited about solving a mystery.” An says with a fond smile. “What a dork.”
“I’ve been thinking about the logistics of it all, and—and—and—“ Suddenly, Kohane looks behind her just to make sure no one is there.
An puts a hand on Kohane’s shoulder. “Woah, calm down.”
“I know I'm being sort of ridiculous, but…”
“Nah, you’re not at all! Don’t undermine your emotions like that!” An flashes Kohane a disarming smile. “Look, I think it’s completely normal to be freaked out. Hell, I’m freaked out—that’s why I came to SEKAI.”
“Ah…” Kohane tried to smile back, but to no avail.
“I was hoping MEIKO’d give me some coffee that let me sleep all these weird emotions off.” Suddenly remembering her drink, An takes a quick sip of her coffee. “So, what I’m trying to say is that you’re not alone. And also that Touya went a little too hard on the halloween decorations because, holy shit, they are not helping right now.”
A beat of silence. An takes her silly straw and starts stirring her coffee with it. “I was trying to ignore it… but I can’t help but feel really on edge now. I don’t really care if these guys wanna take over the world like we do—by all means, the more the merrier—but it’s like…”
Kohane takes An’s hand that’s on her shoulder and places it on her palm. She squeezes it three times in reassurance, truly not wanting all the time An’s spent reassuring her to go to waste or feel unreciprocated.
“Slade knows about Nagi-san. He knows about her dream of wanting to take the world, which means he also knows…”
“…About the truth behind RAD WEEKEND?” Kohane asks.
An nods miserably. “That’s why I couldn’t sleep. Dad said no outsiders to Vivid Street know about it, and if they came to Japan just to see RAD BLAST… just how much do these guys know?”
The question sends a snake slithering and looping around Kohane’s limbs, which would have been comforting if it was Count Pearl’s doing, but she quite literally feels a chill and a rattling as she shivers.
“…And they went to every single live house we trained in,” Kohane adds, knowing it wasn’t going to make anything better. “An-chan…are we being stalked!?
The door creaks open. A figure stands at the door.
Lighting strikes, and thunder rumbles.
(Not actually, Kohane’s anxiety just adds a bunch of special effects)
An and Kohane nearly jump out of their skin.
“Speak of the devil,” An comments, catching her breath.
Upon further observations, the mysterious figure is actually Aoyagi Touya standing idly at the doorway. “What?”
Yes, his silk pajama set truly adds to the spookiness.
An blinks at him. ”Sorry, thought you were Akito.” She clears her throat and acts like she hadn’t been screaming out of terror two seconds ago. “What’s up?”
“I think I could ask you two the same question.”
Soon, Touya is seated next to An. He’s given warm milk and cookies (in which he splits with Kohane). He also gets excited about the new silly straws, and MEIKO looks like she’s dreading telling Luka that her latest random suggestion was an actual hit. That led her to tell them all that she was going to talk about ‘pressing issues’ with Luka and promptly left the cafe.
“So—” An catches him up “—Slade and Caleb.”
“Caleb?” Touya questions, brows furrowing. “Who’s that?”
“You know! One of the twins! He was the quiet one.”
“…You mean Cedric?”
“So that’s his name!?”
Touya nods. “Well, then. It appears we’re all here for similar clauses.”
Kohane asks him what he means by that, and Touya explains, “After I went home, I decided to research the twins based off of anything Akito told me.”
“Did you find anything?” Kohane asks, feeling weirded out when she finds herself dreading the answer.
“Just a whole lot of pictures of middle aged American men. Maybe European. It’s impossible to find anything worthwhile without knowing their last names.” Touya sighs glumly. Then, his expression shifts to something more determined as he places a hand to his heart and looks up at the ceiling. “There is a far larger mystery afoot.”
An deadpans. “You’ve been waiting your entire life to say that, haven’t you?”
“Absolutely.” He smiles, “I’ve been playing detective all night. It’s a shame I have zero clues to work off of.”
Kohane can’t help but ask, “Aoyagi-kun, don’t you feel…weird…about all of this?”
Touya pauses. “I…actually hadn’t taken time to consider any of that. I simply saw a mystery and wanted to solve it…”
Kohane’s exhausted. Vivid BAD SQUAD could have been being stalked for who knows how long! They weren’t even a big name outside of Vivid Street… maybe these American boys weren’t even expressing their true reason for being on Vivid Street. Maybe they had been there, all along watching from the shadows, waiting to strike just when they had felt the ecstasy of fulfilling their shared dream.
All along, they could have been watching. Maybe the real stalker was an ordinary member of Vivid Street, slowly sending intel back to America. Maybe—
Maybe someone is watching her right now.
Maybe they’ve seen everything. Maybe they see right through her and can tell she’s an anxious wreck who never actually gained any confidence—they see her as a girl who got too much praise and has an inflated ego by proxy.
She thinks about Cedric and Slade on their trip back to America. Where they are waiting for Vivid BAD SQUAD.
Kohane’s eyes widen.
She scrambles for her phone on the counter and turns it back on, the messages from Taiga on full display.
There’s still reserved seats for an event coming up. If you’re interested, wanna come see it?
Why don't you and An and the others come to America?
That can’t be coincidental. The twins leave and immediately Taiga asks if Vivid BAD SQUAD wants to come to America? What if they’re working in Kahoots? What if Taiga—
The hairs on the back of her neck shoot up.
Kohane’s phone trembles in her hands, soon developing a consciousness, falling out of her hands and landing on the floor.
“Kohane…?” An asks. But Kohane can’t bring herself to face her. She can’t bring herself to do anything except sit in this stool as the chocolate chips on Touya’s cookies become pupils, and the camera on her phone appears as if it’s been recording her this entire time. Maybe since the moment her dad gave it to her on Christmas.
Kohane reaches for her collar and tugs on it, squeezing her eyes shut. If she couldn’t see the world, maybe the rest of the world wouldn’t be able to see her. Her chest heaves up and down, up and down, up and down.
“Oh god…” She mumbles, feeling a lump in her throat. Oh, she’s going to throw up, isn’t she? Oh no, she’s going to throw up!
“Kohane!?” An leaps out of her stool and tries to take Kohane’s hands.
“Stop looking at me!” Kohane cries, voice hoarse and sounding like it came out of someone else’s mouth rather than her own. Like acid, it drips off her tongue and stings regardless if it’s intent, and An looks at her so concerned that she wants to cry. “I-i’m sorry, An-chan—I can’t—“
An opens her mouth to say something, but then stops herself, looking over to Touya for support. They both look like they’re at such a loss, and they’re looking, looking, looking, for a way to help as they’re watching, watching, watching her.
Kohane stumbles out of the stool, leaning her entire body weight onto An. She reaches for her throat and clutches onto it like she’s choking. “An-chan—-“ She tries to say more, but only a sob comes out of her mouth like a tireless roar.
“Uh—” An looks around the cafe frantically like there’d be some secret answer within the brick walls that feel like they're closing in. “Kohane, is it okay if I touch you?”
Kohane barely nods, and rests her chin onto her partner’s shoulder and all she feels is disgust as she does nothing to stop the tears that rack her body up and down. The vomit that crawls up her throat is reminiscent of someone climbing up a ladder to escape certain death.
“I’m going to get MEIKO-san.” Touya says, and he sprints out of the cafe, swallowed by the darkness. Kohane thinks it'll be the last time she hears that cafe bell ring for Touya.
Kohane doesn’t want MEIKO-san to see her. She doesn’t want MEIKO to think all her pep talks went to waste, that Kohane wasted her time as the motivation amounted to nothing.
Kohane hasn’t changed.
And everyone sees right through her.
“A-an-chan! I’m—” Kohane’s tears flow thick and hot down her cheeks. And now she’s ruining her pajama shirt. “I’m so—I’m so sorry!”
“Kohane, it’s okay—-“
“It’s not!”
An eases the two of them to the floor, the planks creaking under them. What if the floor breaks? And they—
An doesn’t say anything more, she instead rubs circles up and down Kohane’s back. Her own hands are trembling, lost in an unfamiliar context.
Kohane coughs like a sick baby. She pants like a dog. Cedric and Slade…Cedric and Slade—they know about Kohane and she knows nothing about them. They’ve been watching her and—what if it was Taiga who had given them all the information about Vivid BAD SQUAD!?
She can’t even reassure herself that she could be wrong.
“I can’t—An-chan, I can’t breathe!”
An shakes her head, “No, Kohane, y-you’re doing a great job right now.”
The bell chimes again, and Kohane can only will herself to cry harder, burying her head into An’s chest and not daring to look into her eyes.
“Akito!?” An whisper-yells, because of course he choses now to make an appearance. The two proceed to have a small argument in hushed tones, but Kohane can’t hear anything over the palpitations of her own heart with An’s own beats in the mix.
It’s overbearing. She needs the lights off; the shine sends needles into her skin. She needs the eyes on her curled body to be blinded.
“Do you have any idea what you’re doing?” An bites at Akito, and she pulls Kohane in closer like a protective bear.
“Stop talking. I’ve helped Ena with this stuff before.” Akito replies oddly calmly. His voice that is usually so filled with gruff and passion is almost like a silk blanket. “If you’re scared, she’ll get even more scared.”
“Well, of course I’m sc—“
“Oi.”
An shuts up.
Akito joins them on the floor. “Kohane, you wanna talk or nah?”
Kohane doesn’t know what to say. He’s being so kind, it’d be rude not to—
Her head droops, “I’m sooorryyyyyyy!”
An pats her on the head. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Akito stands on business. “Okay, Kohane. We’re all gonna do some breathing exercises together, you good with that?”
“I'm gonna—I'm gonna—I'm gonna throw up!”
An tries to reassure her, “This is just a random sleep shirt, don't worry Kohane!”
Kohane can hear Akito wack An. “An, are you an idiot?!”
“Just trying to help!”
At least Kohane knew An was okay with getting thrown up on. Unless she's just saying that to be nice!?
“You're not gonna throw up.” Akito says firmly. “‘Cause we're all gonna count to ten. Ready?”
“I g-guess…?”
“Alright. One…deep breath in.” Akito wins the award for loudest inhaler. An counts along too, Kohane feels her partner's chest rising up and down at each number they count. “Two…you're doing great, ‘Hane.”
Ring ring, the cafe’s door opens.
Kohane catches her breath. Turns out focusing on a single thing is actually helpful.
“Hey, Touya,” Akito whispers, “wanna count with us?”
It sounds like Touya joins the rest of them on the floor. “I thought you’d never ask.”
They reach ten at last.
“I feel really sleepy…” Is Kohane’s last ineligible piece input on the whole situation.
“Yeah, that happens,” Akito says.
An cups Kohane’s cheeks and lifts the girl’s head up. Kohane feels like a newborn baby being cradled. Even with her glasses (that are severely fogged up), her vision is akin to that of a baby’s. It’s like she’s only able to see a few blurry shapes and make out only the more saturated colors. Like An’s summertime eyes as she stares at her intently and wipes away Kohane’s tears.
“Is Azusawa okay?” Touya asks nobody in particular.
Akito nods. ”She’ll be fine.”
“Thank goodness. Finding the others was a lost cause. I think MEIKO-san got roped into one of Rin’s manhunt games.”
It's sort of like slow motion in that moment. The world stops spinning, but not in a life threatening way—in a soothing way that makes Kohane feel like nothing else can be thrown at her.
‘Cause she's safe. She knows the eyes gazing at her and she also knows they harbor nothing but…gentle love.
“Do you feel any better?” An asks.
Kohane blinks. She swallows. “Um, can we stay like this a little longer? If that’s okay...”
They spoil her too much, really. It goes without saying as An wraps her arms around. Kohane again and Akito joins them as well. He rests his chin atop her head, and she senses Touya’s weight on her back. The four of them are like a knot of chains not even the strongest of hammers could break. With their breaths scurrying across each other's skin, Kohane doesn’t think she wants any one else’s attention but theirs.
“I’m really sorry if I freaked all of you out.” Kohane croaks. It’s followed by a chorus of ‘no!’s.
“Man, if anything I'm sorry.” An says. “Guess I’m not as good at comforting as I thought, huh? Whatever, as long as my partner is okay!”
“No, no, An-chan, you were trying your best! Showing that much makes me glad.”
An’s eyes light up. “Akito, you were a total pro back there!”
“Oh, huh, what?” He shakes his head like he’s been knocked out of a daze, “Oh. It was nothin’. Glad I could help.”
“Sorry for ever doubting you!”
“Don’t apologize. I’m just glad that you’re able to count to ten.”
“Hey?!”
Kohane can’t help but laugh. “…Thanks, you guys. I don’t know what I would have done…”
There’s a lingering unease in her heart although most of her tension has been melted away by her teammates. She’s not ready to move yet. She’s nervous she’ll keep them here all night, but…
“I was just…really scared. Everyone else seemed so calm so I felt even weirder for being so scared…”
Akito pulls away. “Huh?”
“Chris and Slade,” An explains.
“Cedric,” Touya corrects for the umpteenth time that night.
“Cedric and Slade…?” Akito questions, “They left, right? Did they—“
Kohane shakes her head frantically, predicting that this would have elicited that kind of reaction from him. “They didn’t do anything to me!”
“Oh, good.”
“Yeah.” An adds, “If that was the case, I don’t think they would have made it back home.”
“Huh?” Touya asks, concerned.
“Huh?” An echoes, tilting her head.
Kohane continues nevertheless. “An-chan and I started talking about them—and then I thought thatwewerebeingstalkedand—“ She exhales and counts to ten under her breath. “It’s just…really terrifying to think of that possibility—and I’m probably overreacting about all of this…Shinonome-kun, what do you think?”
“I think we’re gonna surpass them as well,” He states. “They’re waiting for us in America and we’re gonna see ‘em, and beat ‘em.”
An cheers.
“You really didn’t think about any of the logistics? Like how old are they? If we’ve gotten stalked by some grown adults—not like it’s any better if they’re also minors, but they live in America and are very… American… how did they get visas just like that? They conveniently are fluent in Japanese, too?”
”You’re gonna work yourself up again,” An says softly. “I’m super weirded out as well, but the best thing we can do is move forward and try to figure things out with time.”
“You and Shinonome-kun need to stop giving each other advice,” Kohane decides. She wasn’t one to think like that. She often needed definitive solutions to fully be ‘normal’ again.
It’s narrowly impossible to move on from all of this anxiety. But Vivid BAD SQUAD are blazing matches to the candle inside of Kohane’s heart, and she thinks that maybe, as long as they stay by her side, something like that could come to fruition. She trusts them to take care of her like they’re doing so dotingly right now… and she trusts herself to love them all back even harder.
Even if she loses sleep. Anxiety sucks. And if she hadn’t ‘fully’ overcome it then… maybe there is no choice but to accept An’s words. Which isn’t that difficult to admit since it’s coming from An.
After all, it's really nice to see Akito’s spark back, especially with how dim he had become during their month-long hiatus after RAD BLAST. From fireworks to a warm campfire on a cold night. Two different sides of him that she loved. But now the fireworks were back, exploding more furious than ever… and It made Kohane really happy… but selfishly apprehensive. It’s something that’s always pushed her to produce sparks with her voice. For some reason it is almost daunting.
Potential stalking aside, there’s still something on her mind. “Shinonome-kun?”
“Yeah?”
“…Have you already booked a flight to America?”
“Uh, I mean, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking for an airline,” He says sheepishly. “My dad’s not sure about the whole thing, but he’ll turn around eventually.” There’s no stopping Akito once he’s put his mind towards something.
His biggest strength, and yet also, his biggest flaw.
Kohane doesn't think of this as a bad thing. She finds it interesting, actually. That same thing applies to An, who’s always keen on moving forward… even when it was clear to everyone how it becomes a detriment, and the girl often shoved aside her own emotions for the sake of treading her desired path.
Kohane knows about Touya’s relationship with Classical music; how he viewed it as a hindrance and allowed it to be one before he learnt to use his past almost as a buffer.
And that leaves Kohane. She’s not one to psychoanalyze, and it feels weird to take one of her own traits and say it’s her best, most strongest one. She doesn’t want to come off as a vainglorious, boastful person who’s a pain to be around. She’s managed to find a home, a dream, and… herself. If she did have to pick her most admirable trait… she’d probably say it was her transition from meek to ‘confident’.
It becomes obvious to her now.
Blooming into a better version of herself, she had gotten so caught up in the idea of a life where she was perceived as cool and knowledgeable that she had tricked herself into thinking she was an unbreakable wall.
But alas, she was not. She was fragile, actually, just as she’s always been. A pebble holding up the sky, but it was with her teammates and found community on Vivid Street that she was able to support the weight of Vivid BAD SQUAD’s dream. The weight of the world.
“Why d'ya ask?
“Uhm… well, I was thinking… a lot… about everything.” She says, “This is gonna sound really weird, but I kind of feel like… I’m experiencing an aftershock.”
Because comparing RAD BLAST to an earthquake was quite fitting. It was kind of strange now that they’d surpassed RAD WEEKEND and were aiming to take over the world. It was a dream she was blessed to have, one that she was scared she’d wake up from and open her eyes and see her hair long again. The first taste of aftershock was that initial… numbness she felt in her heart, that night at An’s place for a celebratory sleepover. She’d stared at the ceiling and wouldn’t believe the past year had been true. That she had found a purpose. That she found all these people who cared about her. That they surpassed RAD WEEKEND. That they… did it.
She’s been swept off her feet throughout all of this time. Only now, does it catch up to her.
Then, she had gotten the text from Taiga. And God, she did not expect an opportunity to go overseas to come so out of the blue. More fuel to the fire.
“That’s one way to put it.” Touya nods.
“It feels like we’re moving so fast,” As Kohane says this, her lungs finally release all the air captured in lungs, and she can finally breathe again. Like the sun has shined down on her despite it being nighttime. It’s not a crazy analogy or anything because An and Akito and Touya’s names are synonymous with good weather anyways.
“Ah…” An swallows audibly. They’ve all detangled from each other at this point, but they chose to stay sitting on the floor together. “I hadn’t ever really thought about that. I’ve never really felt the urge to ever slow down, you know?”
RADder were in their late thirties when they put on RAD WEEKEND. Vivid BAD SQUAD hadn’t even graduated highschool when they surpassed it. They have so much time to grow and to live and to feel on their own time. Sure, they’ve breaked for a month… but their hobby has grown into their livelihood. Her mother had expressed her concerns to Kohane one time actually, when she begged for her daughter to just be a kid. It wasn’t to demotivate her. It was to ground her.
Was it some kind of fear that life would roundhouse kick them down? That they’d have to disband due to unforeseen, uncontrollable circumstances? Is it fear of the future or determination to reach the future that keeps them going?
Kohane, oddly enough, finds herself afraid of time again. Before she found Vivid BAD SQUAD, she was the human equivalent to a drifting husk of tumbleweed, and she allowed her own lack of initiative to gnaw away at her until she’d built herself a prison of her own making. One where the bars were wide enough to squeeze out of if she truly wanted to, but she chose not to because a life devoid of constantly asking herself what she wanted to do with her life or questioning her purpose sounded so foreign.
Then, she found a home on Vivid Street. The people took her in, Taiga took her under his wing, and they all loved her as if she’d grown up there. That’s when the future looked so bright…nearly tangible and Kohane was so excited to finally reach it with her friends by her side.
Now, she’s reached that future. The clocks stopped ticking during that performance. Even with their new goal… Kohane feels nervous again. Is she really ready to take on something like that?
She wants to pause time. She wants to truly bask in all they’ve accomplished and how much she’s grown.
“That’s why I like this feeling,” Kohane decides, placing her hands in her lap. She smiles and looks fondly at her teammates. “Wait. N-not the panic attack! I like the feeling of being with all of you and truly cherishing all of this. I… don’t want to move on so quickly when I still feel…so much. Good and bad. Eeeeh…that doesn’t make any sense, does it?”
Touya pats her knee. ”I think your feelings are completely reasonable.”
“Phew.” She exhales. “Wow, that felt good to get out.”
(She wouldn’t say it outloud, but it was also nice to get a good cry in.)
“…Soooo.” Akito drums on the floor, visibly taken aback by the more deep subject shift. “You guys don’t wanna go to America?”
”No!” The others shout in unison.
“Of course we do!” An snaps in Akito’s face, and he tries to shove her hands away. “Mr. Overworker over here can’t wrap his head around taking things slowly.”
Akito’s jaw drops. ”Like you’re any better???”
Yeah, Kohane will never get tired of this. Speaking of which…
The cafe doors burst open. “Restock!” Luka’s here now, carrying an obnoxiously large cardboard box with MEIKO. Completely unphased by the entire squad with bloodshot eyes sitting on the floor, she practically steps over them and drops the box on a nearby table. She giggles evilly as she opens the box revealing a load of silly straws. Like, too many silly straws. “MEIKO said you guys liked my silly straw idea, sooooo I got us more! This time, with an even broader selection. Get this—” She pulls out a red heart silly straw for two people to use at once. “—I got us the good shit.”
“Hell yeah!” An hoots and hollers, standing up to rush towards the box. She takes the red straw from Luka and leans down to dangle it above Akito’s head. “Hey, Akito. We should totally—“
“Absolutely not,” Akito grumbles.
“Boo.” An sticks out her tongue. “You’re no fun. Oh, Kohane, wanna—“
Sooner or later there’s a silent oath between the four of them that they’ll probably end up staying in SEKAI until their phones die. Because if there’s one place that’s free from the torrents of time, it would be the Street SEKAI. She’s still got a whole lot on her mind. Like Slade and Castor. Or was it Charlie? Either way… if there’s one thing the ticking of the clock will do is even her anxiousness out… because as long as those twins have gone, leaving a trail of questions behind them rather than clues…Kohane can only watch this mystery unfold in front of her.
Kohane’s milk has gone cold by now, but with regained dexterity and strength, she manages to type out a response back to Taiga at last.
‘We’ll be there :)’ She replies. Then, she makes sure to add, 'Just give us a little time.'