Chapter 12
When the morning arrived, Gwen exchanged her farewells with Ted. It was sad to see him go after only being there for practically less than a day, but he had other things to attend rather than rotting away at HQ (unlike his neet sister LOL).
Luka also had important business to attend to as her and Meiko would be the opening act to Miku's concert.
By the time Luka was ready, the limo was there to escort her.
She was greeted by her manager, who had been lounging in the back writing notes on her clipboard.
"Excited for the concert?" she asked.
"Not really, its just an opening act" Luka replied uninterested.
"Just try to be on your best behavior, okay? You hardly get shows anymore...especially after that slip up"
"Don't worry, Cerise, this show will be so good they'll forget all about that incident!"
"I know you've been about Miku's recent popularity and its starting to show in your performances"
"What do you mean by that?!"
"I'm just saying if you want to stay in the public's good eye, you need to get your act together"
"I know exactly what I'm doing thank you very much, I don't need your advice"
Cerise mumbled. "This is exactly what I'm talking about"
"Speak up, I couldn't hear you" snapped Luka.
"Just keep it together during the performance"
Luka placed her head onto her palm as she gazed through the window, they had arrived at the venue.
Luka had been less active as a vocaloid as of lately.
Although she was happy to have a clear schedule, she wasn't happy with the sudden rise of these new young stars.
Luka was only twenty, yet mere high schoolers were doing much better than her nowadays.
Miku was always popular
Rui, hell even Hajime, were successful idols.
Rui sidelined his music career to focus on school, but that doesn't mean he neglects it entirely. Even Luka was impressed with his performances.
She had also seen Hajime, who was also very talented and promising among his peers. Hajime is a hard worker who puts his all into his music, it's no secret he could become the next big. Not to mention the skill and musical abilities his fellow group mates have.
The UTAUloids were also ruling the music scene, though she didn't have have much against them due to being on good terms with Teto.
Luka felt overshadowed, was there even a point of keeping ever around with all the new flourishing musical talent?
Miku on the other hand never lost relevancy, which infuriated Luka more.
She was the producers' favorite, she was the most popular after all.
Luka had a hard time getting shows, and when she did have them sometimes she would just snap, completely breaking character.
One time she'd completely cracked on stage, which she was currently still recovering from.
This concert would be the best exposure she's had in a while and all Cerise wanted was for her not to mess it up.
After the stylists finished working their magic, Luka and Cerise made their way to the stage.
That's when they noticed a strange man with red skin and striped horns.
"Excuse me sir, fans aren't allowed backstage at this moment" said Cerise.
"I'm here for Miku..." he said suspiciously.
Of course you are, thought Luka.
"I'll have to ask you to leave" said Cerise, more sternly.
"For what? You really think I'm here to see that sellout next to you?! I'm here for Hatsune fucking Miku!"
Luka gritted her teeth. "You shit"
"That's no way to talk about her!"
His glasses coruscated, as if it were an anime. "Oh really? She's flopping more than Fizzarolli, we all know she's here to save her career"
"That's enough, I'm calling security" she said, pulling out a walkie talkie.
The imp pulled out a strange device and shot at it. Frying it to a crisp.
Luka analyzed the device, it looked like a more professional version of one of Rui's gadgets.
Except this time it wasn't just one of his little knickknacks, this thing could do some real damage.
"I can thank the doctor for this one, now I can finish you off like I should have done with Fizzarolli!"
Luka lunged forward, preparing an attack. But the dernged fan had something else in mind as he fired right at Luka.
She fell right onto the backstage wall."Bastard!"
"Bad singer and bad fighter, touché"
Cerise had seen enough.
"You've got another thing coming!"
Her ruby ring illuminated, within seconds she had transformed.
"I didn't want things to come to this but you've given me no choice"
"Wow you're boring me just like Luka does with an audience"
"Fuck him up!" shouted Luka as she clenched her stomach in pain.
Was the audience hearing any of this racket? If they weren't they definitely were now, the sounds of Cerise's blast were extremely loud, it didn't help that no one was on stage to cancel out the noise.
The imp retaliated as he continued to fire back, energy blasts versus the fiery infrared light.
"If he doesn't stop soon he's going to ruin the concert, and I do NOT need to lose this gig!"
"I might be able to finish him off for good"
"Love to see you try!" he taunted.
Cerise began her oath.
"On darkest day and darkest night, my flames of passion will ignite, let the blaze bright, as I protect you with my infrared light!"
She created a large fire projectile, aiming it towards the hell spawn.
The fucker knew he didn't stand a chance so he ducked in front of the curtain, causing Cerise to strike the curtain instead of her designated target.
The already flammable curtains were no match against the infrared flames. Everything quickly went ablaze.
The audience screamed in terror as the flames started to claim more territory.
"Why is everything on fire?!" shrieked Meiko.
"That pest started it! He attacked me"
"I knew you didn't like Miku but sabotaging her concert is a new low" Meiko said in disbelief.
"Please, I'm the one to blame, Luka didn't do anything wrong"
"It's sweet of you to cover up for her but this is unacceptable, the producers won't let this fly at all!"
"We'll just explain a literal demon was in here terrorizing us"
"What demon? I don't see any"
"Damn it, he got away!"
"Even if there was, why would they believe you... especially with your check record"
"Whatever, you're already unpopular at least I serve them some value"
Cerise interrupted their banter. "Ladies, we need to handle this in a civilized manner, more importantly we need to get out of here"
The building began to fall apart, a part of the ceiling collapsing right infront of them.
Fortunately majority of the fans were able to leave before the fire made it impossible to escape.
"You were the one who started this, figure out how to stop the fire!" scowled Luka.
"I'm rather inexperienced, okay? Being your manager is easier than this"
Luka couldn't tell if this was an insult or she was being genuine.
"What about Miku?! She was still in her dressing room!" panicked Meiko.
"She'll be fine, it's not like they'll let anything happen to her" shrugged Luka.
Cerise and Meiko glared at the pink haired vocaloid.
"How are we supposed to improve your public image when you're saying things like that?!"
"Who cares about her image, Miku could be burning right now!"
"You two are overreacting, Miku will be fine-"
Before she even finished her sentence, she noticed they had completely vanished.
"So leaving me to burn is better?! Unbelievable..."
Another part of the building collapsed.
Luka frantically looked for an escape, the flames growing as they engulfed whatever remained of the building.
"Hello, Luka" said Rui, entirely cheerful.
"Rui?! What are you doing here?!"
"Attending the concert of course, Miku is a good friend of mine and she even gave me free tickets"
"Go figure..."
"Where's Cerise, did she just leave you here?"
"Why else do you think I'm still here?!"
"I dunno..."
"I can't believe this, she abandoned me for MIDku"
"I wouldn't say that..." chimed in another voice.
A flash of red flew down and swooped them up from the flames.
"Finally! Where the hell where you?!"
"Miku was trapped in her dressing room, luckily me and Meiko we're able to let her out"
"Well thank you for being so considerate, NOT!"
"I wasn't gonna just leave her in there to burn, desperate times call for desperate measures!"
Rui smirked as he watched the dramafest that was about to go down.
"You should have saved me first, I'm the real star here"
"This isn't very professional of me, but you're a grown ass woman who can fend for her self"
Luka scoffed. "Not against magic fire that you created"
Her manager was getting agitated. "This isn't even magic"
"Then how did you make it or how did you transform?! You haven't explained a thing to me..."
"Luka does have a point, I've never seen such a gismo"
"It's a power ring, an infrared one to be exact, it wields the power of light"
"Where'd you get it? I could totally use some new bling" Luka said as she flipped her hair.
Rui was amused.
"It sort of came out of no where, my dedication and passion from working for you must have sparked it's existence"
Luka was touched, she hadn't been the nicest towards her manager recently but she still always happy to help, even in non work related situations.
"That's what I was told anyways... these infrared rings are apparently extremely rare"
"Sounds fun" said Rui, intrigued.
"Not when you have no idea how to manage your powers...to the point you burn up everything" she said coyly.
"I'm still a bit upset the things I made for the concert ended up burning, but that doesn't mean I can't make anew. I love a challenge"
Cerise sighed."I ruined everything"
"No you didn't, it was that rat messing with everything!"
"But he's not here is he, someone will have to take accountability and the results won't be pretty"
"Ugh this whole ordeal is giving me a migraine" groaned Luka.
"Someone should be able to cover the property damage, but we'll have to reschedule"
"If I'm being honest I don't want to do any shows or... anything...for a while. I need a break!"
"I could use a few days off too..."
"This fight for relevancy is exhausting, besides we have other matters to worry about"
"Really?" asked Rui.
"That imp thing...he's plotting something, I mean why else would he attack me"
"You deal with rabbid fans all the time though" said Cerise.
"Something's off, the logo on his laser thing had the initials P.P"
"Haha, pee pee!"
"Grow up Rui, anyways we need to get to the bottom of this"
"Indeed, but after this I'm going to the spa, call me if you need anything"
"I still don't get what's so suspicious about the initials "P.P"..."
"We might not, but I know someone who will..."