The conversation happened often, the theme always running along the same tracks, no matter who was talking: high-school girls, college boys, ravers or a thousand anonymous voices, in real life and all across the Wired. "Are you going to Cyberia tonight?" "I'll never get inside. I didn't last time." "I hear some of the Knights are going to be there." Usually a disbelieving laugh, a skeptical emoticon. "The Knights don't exist. They're a myth." "No, I know a guy. He's seen one of them for real. Talked to him too." "Yeah, whatever. So, what, is someone really important spinning?" "Lain." "Lain? Really?" It was common knowledge that she was the best, that Cyberia was the only club really worth all the commentary it got, and Lain was the best DJ to listen to - if you could get in. Cyberia was exclusive, but even with that it seemed to attract a strange, widely varying clientele. Lain herself looked to be no more than 14, though no one was ever quite sure of that. Actually knowing the girl was an urban legend all in itself, everyone knew someone who knew someone's cousin who'd talked to someone who'd spoken to her, or dated her, but no one in Cyberia itself could say they actually knew her. Except for the dancing girl, as much an enigma as Lain herself. No one knew who she was, or when exactly she would appear, but when the energy in the club was high, Lain's hands flying across the turntables as if she were conjuring ghosts and gods, the girl would appear in the crowd, tiny flashes of light, like a firefly, between the small gaps of bodies pressed tight - a hand here, the sweep of a leg, a brilliant smile, the lights overhead coming down, glancing off of her as if to set her on fire. The rumors flew, at every table, every night, who she was, where she had come from. So young, but there were rumors she was really an actress, or a model, some could-be or has-been who danced so well because she was strung out. It was an ugly rumor, and hard to believe once she was on the floor, actually among the crowd. She didn't dance like she was on anything, she danced like she was the drug. A stronger rumor, this one the likeliest to be true, was that she and Lain were lovers. It was easy enough to see, the way she danced, as if just for the DJ, the way Lain offered her new melodies and thick, fast beats in return, words of love in a language only the two of them needed to understand. It was magic, there, every night, and though no one ever understood they kept coming back, wanting more. -------------------------------- He waited until she moved toward the bar to move. He'd been tracking her for the last week or so, watching her, the dancer, Arisu. She wasn't all that magical, he thought smugly, she just tended to blend in a bit better in a crowd, she moved quietly, giving the illusion that she was able to disappear and reappear. Arisu. It hadn't even taken him that long to learn her name. The Wired was full of all sorts of helpful information, especially if you had a little money, or even better, a little 'influence,' if the right people didn't want to talk. So now he was here, easily able to reach her side, settling down on the stool next to her. He'd heard the rumors, that people who'd gotten too fresh, or who were rude to her never ended up in Cyberia again. If they were ever even heard from again. He didn't believe it, of course, just another rumor to make this girl into everyone's yakuza fantasy, some assassin or head boss' girl. Enough to make the Cyberia more than just another club on the strip. The truth, though, was interesting enough in its own right, and now that he knew it, nothing was going to stop him. Arisu was stirring her drink when he came up to her, something small and relatively opaque, the colors shifting as she moved the ice, deeper brown, then a paler shade. "You dance very well." He was surprised, when she turned, looking right at him, studying him. After a moment, she turned back to her drink, smiling just a little. "You don't like compliments?" "You haven't been here before, have you? You should go try those girls near the door." The girl gave him another long look, head to toe, smiling like a woman twice her age. "I'm not interested in that, actually." He took a step forward, unsurprised by her lack of reaction. It didn't matter, he knew when he had won, whether she wanted to admit it or not. He noticed the music had shifted, more ambient-trance than the pounding jungle rhythms it had been, softer and quieter. He no longer had to yell so loud to be heard. "I never thought I'd say something like that, especially to such an attractive woman." Arisu raised an eyebrow, smiling that same, strange, older woman's smile. He knew he had piqued her interest, at least. He was surprised, tried not to show it, as she reached out, pushing his shoulder with a fingertip. "All right, you seem real enough, although that wouldn't stop her, I guess." Arisu turned away from him, back toward the stage. Lain was still spinning, barely visible through the sea of raised arms, moving bodies, strobes and glow sticks. He waited for her to turn her attention back to him, but what he had interpreted as a pause in the conversation she apparently saw an ending. He frowned, reaching forward to grab her wrist tightly, her coolness suddenly more annoying than intriguing, how easily she brushed him off. "I know you're a Knight, Arisu. I know all about you." It was a bit of a lie, the second statement, but he was angry enough to be a little careless. "I think you and I should find someplace a little quieter, and talk about what you and I are going to do with that information." Arisu blinked, staring at him, and stepped back slightly. He realized he was no longer touching her, but couldn't remember letting go of her hand. He didn't know how to react when she started to laugh, unable to hide her wide smile behind one hand as she giggled. An arm snaked low around her waist, he took a few steps backward as Lain stepped up to the bar, raising a hand toward the bartender, getting a can of... Red Bull, it looked like, taking a leisurely sip before handing it to Arisu. "Did you do this?" The taller girl asked, after taking a drink from the can. Lain looked puzzled, until she gestured in his direction. "Him." "No. Who is he?" Arisu dipped her head, hair falling down around her shoulders as she pulled an arm around Lain's shoulder, whispering into her ear. She was smiling as she spoke, and suddenly both girls laughed. The man felt a line of nervous sweat breaking out on the back of his neck. He hadn't even considered bringing a gun, figured most of the Knights would either be too cocky or not prepared enough to pose much of a threat - even two of them together. He was starting to think it had been a terribly bad idea. The room felt dangerously closed off, all at once, like a fishbowl, or one of those glass domes with the crumbles of fake snow. A place where anyone could see him, where he couldn't hide, passed from hand to hand to hand. "You let him be like this?" Arisu said. He was surprised he could hear her, the music seemed to be fading yet again, though no one had stopped dancing. "If I don't try to adjust them, they tend to fall into their own patterns. It was programmed that way, so I didn't have to keep up with all of them, constantly." He realized he was being talked about, like a lamp, or a piece of furniture that didn't quite fit with the rest of the room. "He doesn't seem very happy." Arisu gave him a studying eye, and he backed up again, heart suddenly hammering in his chest. "He isn't. Do you think I should do something about that?" Arisu shrugged, and in that movement he swore he had a glimpse of... he wasn't sure, and he wasn't given a second chance to see. It was a force that was, perhaps, a little bit more apathetic than benevolent, but certainly not malicious. The forces behind his creation had a private life, and passions, and interests beyond merely playing keeper to the world, it seemed - but it still wasn't a bad deal, all things considered. He could barely swallow, somewhere between terror and rapture on this perfectly mundane day, in this tightly packed nightclub, where no one else seemed to have any idea they were standing next to the divine. //... and you thought you were so smart, because you didn't listen to rumors.// "What... what are you going to do to me?" Arisu smiled, and even though he wasn't comforted by it, he was relieved by the thought that she had meant it to be comforting. "You shouldn't be so worried. You'll enjoy it. Everyone needs a change, now and then." ---------------------------- The world was a movie, this was his final frame. The man opened his mouth to answer her, or scream, or maybe beg - and disappeared. It was doubtful anyone in the room even noticed. Arisu sipped the drink, putting it back on the bar, bending down just a little to wrap her arms around Lain's shoulders. "Where did you send him?" "Does it matter?" The question was in earnest, and made Arisu laugh. It wasn't the first time this had happened, though usually it was just drunken idiots trying to pick her up, and Lain didn't even give them the benefit of a few moments conversation. "He thought I was a Knight." Arisu chuckled. She really did like this, being young again, getting to prowl around all the corners she once thought were so dark, dangerous. Getting to be the mysterious one everyone talked about, or around. Once or twice she'd even gone back to classes, just to enjoy the stares and murmurs of girls who used to know her. Maybe it should have seemed lonely, too insular, too planned out and controlled, but Arisu had always liked knowing secrets. Always liked knowing what was going on. Now she just happened to know them all, or at least, the source of all the secrets. The quiet, beautiful girl who kissed her back when Arisu tipped her head down, lips tasting cherry sweet with the drink they had shared. "Are you bored here?" Lain's tone was just slightly worried, but her eyes were calm, a peaceful, endless still that reminded Arisu there would always be secrets, things she doubted she would ever understand. "Maybe soon, I think, but not now." A caress turned into a playful swat, Arisu pushing Lain back to the crowd, to the mixing booth. "Go on. Play something just for me." Arisu slid her way onto a bar stool, smooth and elegant as a cat, leaning with her shoulders on the bar, eyes half closed as she let the crowd blend into a single, anonymous blur. The world swarming around her, and on a pedestal high overhead, looking down on them all, a goddess who may or may not have been watching, may or may not be interested in every single little detail, but the music she made to please herself was enough to keep the world dancing. //So where does that leave you?// Arisu looked down, lifting an arm, and laughed. She'd been expecting little, sitting here in the shadows, but with the lights above her shining down she realized she was glowing, just like Lain. The two of them matching goddesses, radiant stars in the anonymous dark. The two of them, and the rest was rather inconsequential. Arisu kicked off the stool, back to her feet, weaving her way back out into the crowd. Closer to Lain. Where she belonged.
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