EE Chapter 14

# Chapter Fourteen - "What Now?"

    "I did?" Confused, Rinko smoothed out her sweater and glanced down, scrutinizing her appearance for a moment. "I don't think so. They look the same as always."

    "N-Not… I meant… your necklace…"

    Rinko's current jewelry of choice was the same silvery chain she had worn to dinner last night. Since then though, she had expanded it beyond the single coin, the original having been joined by alternating pairs of five and fifty yen pieces for a new total of seven coins. Or, more precisely, one-hundred and seventy yen. Right around the cost of a soda or can of tea. It was an… interesting fashion choice, even more now than when it was just us girls. Still, she had worn it all the way from the ryokan, through our spur of the moment shopping trip through town, and through the train ride so far, and I had the feeling that it was unlikely to get replaced until she stumbled upon the next thing begging for her to pour her attention into it.

    "Oh! Yeah, I had really good luck with the magic cat!"

    "How many times did you check it?"

    "Uh… counting the first time…" Rinko stuck her tongue out slightly at her mouth's corner, holding up fingers on one hand as she ran herself back over the events of the last day. "Four! Well sorta five. Once before bed last night when I found another large coin. Dam-Bi didn't want me to check because it was raining but I had a really good feeling. Then this morning before breakfast when Dam-Bi took me jogging I found two little coins, and when we came back to the inn there were two more! The last time was when we were leaving. I checked one last time and he gave me the last one! Megumi was there and said she had just found it but she's super nice and let me have it!" Her necklace jingled as she pointed out which of the coins were which. "I wanted to take him home so we could get rich but Megumi said he only works there."

    "Megumi's pretty smart. It's probably best that you listened to her in this instance." My roommate grinned, widely and happily enough that I felt the need to follow-up on it. "You did leave the statue, right?"

    "Of course! I got what I needed. Seven lucky coins. One for each of us. That *can't* be a coincidence."

    "It must just be more of that good luck you were looking for."

    Or, I'm fairly certain that some of us had taken the opportunity to play a trick on Rinko. Though is it a trick if you never intend to reveal it to the person you played it on? It's really no different than the presents Rinko gets each December from Santa, and I don't know that I would necessarily call that a trick. If anything it makes the gifts even more special to her because of the mystery and sense of wonder surrounding them, and this is the same. Maybe a fantasy is a better way to describe it. We were creating a fantasy for Rinko. A small handful of change was just plain, stamped metal until the trick took place, and now they're a beloved souvenir of our shared holiday and a magical object for her to treasure.

    As for who was responsible for which donations, all I can say for sure is that Kanon and I had each contributed a meager five yen coin when we found the statue bare this morning. I have my suspicions - along with a few hunches and gut feelings - but this is a rare instance where I think Rinko's explanation of events trumps the truth in every way imaginable.

    "I guess it's back to work tomorrow?"

    "Yup! Lina's gotten all the patience she's gonna get out of me. We have so much to do and I don't wanna wait on any of it!"

    "It was a nice break though. Who knows when we'll get a weekend like this again."

    "Probably never again! There's gonna be way more of us in the group by the time Megumi's parents let us come back!"

    "Rinko, about that…"

    "We need to find 'em first! Me and Kanon haven't had any luck tracking down any of the girls who go to school with us." Chiyo helpfully interjected from across the aisle. "They're all older girls so we've never heard of most of 'em."

    "I found one…" The girl who, of late, could rarely ever be found without either Chiyo or myself nearby got Rinko even more excited than normal. "But… Lina said to take a break, so I didn't think I should ask her… Plus she was kinda scary…" Rinko's jaw dropped open. I thought there was a small chance she may outright faint, and I braced myself to catch her should she try to fall into the aisle. "I remember what room her class was in though…"

    "Then tomorrow you've gotta ask her!"

    "Hanarin, are we talking about this already? I thought we were supposed to wait until tomorrow?" Dam-Bi popped up from the seats in front of us, bringing this closer to being a full group conversation. "If that's the case, I have some good news! I found one of the girls you told us to look out for! She's a first year at Kikyo and we have a couple idol courses together."

    "You did?!" My seatmate lunged forward slightly. If we were in a more normal setting and not on a train, Dam-Bi probably would have found herself the recipient of a bear hug. Instead, Rinko was only able to grasp the back of both seats and knock my knees together. "Did you talk to her?!"

    "I did! She's great! She's super stylish and has a great voice! I think she's going to be very successful!"

    "She said yes?!"

    "Well… No. I didn't think we were supposed to bring it up yet… but she's a big fan!. She even has some fans of her own already. It's really impressive! I'm sure she'll be interested!"

    "Eimi! Megumi! How about you?! Have you found anyone on our list?"

    Against her character, Eimi had turned to face the aisle and was already following the conversation closely. "Wait, you were serious about me going out and begging brand new idols to work with me? I thought that was a joke." She peaked her head around her seat to reassure our juniors. "I don't mean you two. You've both been doing just great. But adding a *whole bunch* of newbies is seriously going to throw off our vibe, isn't it?"

    As much as I hated to agree with her, Eimi articulated what I had so far been unable to. The seven of us gelling like we have felt as much like luck as skill, and we had already gotten so accustomed to each other that a delicate equilibrium had formed. We'd each learned the strengths, weaknesses, and little quirks of all the other girls, and only by getting to know all those things about them were we able to come together as a real idol group. It felt like a circus act. As long as we were all doing our best, we all knew that we would be ok, even if we were working without a net. Shift that just a little bit, or throw new performers into the mix, and who knows how it may shake out.

    "I think perhaps we should invite the girls to proper auditions." Megumi joined the chat from beside Eimi. "I think it will be delightful to expand our membership, but Ms. Inagawa does make a point that we need to be careful to not… 'throw off our vibe'. An audition offers a chance for all of us to meet our prospective members and will let us filter out anyone who's too unusual."

    Eimi and I were the only two to laugh at what we thought was a self-deprecating joke, and we both transitioned quickly into coughing fits to cut ourselves off.

    "Do you really think so? But they're all so great! I can't imagine turning any of them down!"

    "I don't think the intention is to turn them down, Hanarin. I think it's just to make sure they're serious about joining us and seem like a good fit. Plus it's been a week and we've only talked to two girls, so-"

    "Four, actually, Ms. Han."

    "Yeah, Megumi stalked two of 'em she found while we were taking a walk. Scared the daylight out of 'em too. Their friend almost fainted."

    "Ms. Inagawa, that was hardly my fault. They were the ones not paying attention. When young ladies are walking around the city at that hour they absolutely must pay attention to their surroundings. They were lucky that it was only a fellow idol trying to get their attention. How was I supposed to know that-"

    "Megumi!!! What'd they say?!" The entire populace of the train car was eyeing us now. Rinko had successfully crossed the threshold from being "a little bit loud" to "disruptive." Several of us shushed her immediately and she turned a cute shade in embarrassment. "Sorry…"

    "Ah. I'm sorry, Ms. Hanazawa. Two of the girls ran from me before I could properly introduce myself. The other didn't believe me when I introduced myself as a fellow I MY ME idol. That's when it occurred to me that perhaps a different tactic would be necessary."

    "I could have told you that before you even tried." Eimi and I seem to be of a very similar mindset this afternoon. How frustrating. "Actually I did tell you that and you insisted on trying it anyway."

    "We can send them all an invite at their company mailboxes! I bet they'll see that right away! I know I'm always checking mine! Every day!" Dam-Bi threw her hand in the air triumphantly, for some reason.

    "And me and Kanon can make invitations! Momo can help!“

    "How about we tell 'em that we're inviting them to a special concert just for new idols? But when they show up we flip it up on them and make them perform for us instead with no warning or warm up. Weed out the real losers and see who's got the right stuff."

    "Those are all great ideas." Actually, no. "At least Chiyo's and Dam-Bi's are very good ideas. Eimi, yours is…"

    "Perhaps a bit more… 'hardcore' of an image than we're hoping to present to the young ladies we'd like to join us, Ms. Inagawa. We want to make a good first impression, afterall."

    Eimi sulked at this, turning back to face front with a loud "Hmph!"

    "Would that be ok with you?" Everyone's attention was on Rinko as we awaited the answer to my softly spoken question. She thought hard about it - tongue poking out and everything - before finally choosing her answer.

    "Okay, but we've gotta do it fast! This week. It can't possibly wait any longer, so we've gotta get the invitations out right away! We need to audition them before the weekend!"

    "We'll make the invitations tonight! We've already got markers!"

    "I'll look up their mailbox numbers as soon as we're back to the dorm!"

    "I'll reserve the rehearsal space for Friday afternoon, Ms. Hanazawa. And Ms. Inagawa will help me prepare it." Even from just the back of her head I could tell that Eimi's face was unpleasant after being volunteered to help with the physical work.

    "And I'll…" With the other girls having covered pretty much everything, I had to scramble for a way to feel useful as well. "I guess I'll talk to Lina tomorrow so she isn't blindsided."

    "That means I have the most important job!"

    We were all slightly confused, trying to figure out what it was that we possibly could have overlooked. Rinko giggled and reached her hand into the aisle.

    "Come on, everyone! We! Are!"

    ***"INTERLUNIUM!"***

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