Sunday, April 16th, Noon

The roars of the crowd bled into the backstage area, as Rigel sang his heart out.

I sat in the back of the room, with my head leaned against the wall, resting. It felt like I hadn’t rested at all in a long time.

Anna had headphones plugged into her keyboard. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of her neck as she fingered the keys, fumbling inaudibly at runs, chords, arpeggios, and the like. Even if I couldn’t hear those patterns, I knew what they sounded like.

I stepped towards her and placed one hand on her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

She jumped back. The headphone cords fell from her ears. She snapped out her phone; her fingers hovered over the touch screen.

“Are you nervous, Anna?”

Another beat. Her head tilted forward, then back again.

I patted her shoulder again. “Don’t be. I’m here for you.”

She didn’t say anything.

“You don’t need to worry about that Velora girl.” I swallowed. “I’ll protect you.” Believe in me.

Leaning back on her seat, Anna looked away. “L-Lyra…”

[Anna] thank you but…

Without looking up, she whispered, “Y-You’ve done that three times… already…”

Not exactly. I failed twice, and didn’t stick around for the third. But I wasn’t about to tell her that. I nodded. “Yeah. So you can count on me.”

Anna didn’t look up.

Behind us, Rigel’s second song came to an end. The crowd cheered.

“We’re on, soon,” I said.

A nod.

“Lyra-unni…”

“Yeah?”

“I…” She stood, and tried to look me in the eye, but couldn’t. Her fingertips fumbled with her phone.

[Anna] i want

I think Anna was trying to say something, but Rigel’s next song began.

“What?”

[Anna] sorry!!!

She threw her headphones back in, and went back to playing scales.

I stood there for a good few seconds. I couldn’t find it within me to ask further.

“You can do it,” I whispered.

But I was convinced she didn’t hear me.

Sunday, April 16th, Afternoon

The performance was a disaster. No one could focus. The tuning and beat were all over the place. Though Antares was usually the one to call me out for this, even I noticed. And I noticed that Sirius had messed up the lyrics to Lightspeed Blue, too.

And the keyboard line was all over the place, too.

Everyone’s thoughts were on the plan. Which… I suppose, is a sort of victory, in a way.

So there we were, by the gym, executing that plan.

I hung up, and turned to Mintaka. “They’ve spotted her. She’s in aisle B, next to the booth with the chin-up bar,” I said. “Let’s move.”

“Gotcha,” Mint said. “Sirius isn’t doing chin-ups, is he?”

“Not many, that’s for sure.” Sirius’s figure could be best modeled using one of those long paper bags they sell baguettes in, and filling it with twigs.

The two of us made our way towards the entrance of the gym. The gym and its patio were filled to the brim with booths of outside organizations or businesses, ranging from Games of Galileo to military recruitment groups. We weren’t far from Aisle B. After all, Mint and I were tailing Sirius, too.

The plan was this: we split off into two teams. Antares and Rigel were to stay close to Sirius and Anna, while Mintaka and I were to stay further behind.

And all of us were on the lookout for Velora Navis.

As for why I wasn’t paired up with Rigel… I didn’t want to be alone with him right now. He hadn’t really done anything. Especially not this loop. But… I just wanted some space. And maybe… I was uncertain as to what he might do, as a result of his rejection.

As the two of us walked, we passed by the booth of the Field Sports Club set up against the wall.

It was a shooting gallery.

“Mint, I need a distraction.”

After a second of not getting a response, I turned to her. Her gaze turned from my eyes, to where my eyes had been. Tracking my eye-line.

I turned away. But at that point, the damage had been done.

“What for? Something to do with the Field Sports Club?”

A beat.

“You’re going to steal a gun?” she demanded.

“They’re airsoft guns. They’re not real.” Unlike BB guns, airsoft guns are often designed to be as realistic as possible.

“But still—

I said, “If something goes wrong with Velora, I’d want to have one just in case.”

She crossed her arms. “I don’t like it the idea.”

“This is gonna sound callous,” I said, “but I don’t care. I’ve been stabbed by her before, Mint. I need something to at least scare her off.”

She looked directly at me, lips pursed. Her brow furrowed. I noticed her tapping her foot. Mint looked like she was counting to ten in her head. And then, a sigh. “What do you want me to do? A silly dance or something?”

Scanning the shooting gallery, I noticed a couple of things. It had several stations, each with its own airsoft gun. The table was a folding table, covered in a long tablecloth. In the back, styrofoam pasted to a cardboard held up several air-filled water balloons as targets.

I pulled Mintaka close and whispered in her ear. “Go over there and start a game, and while being theatrical, knock over one of the airsoft pistols in the booth next to you. I’ll walk behind you, with a shoe untied, and bend over to tie it. I’ll grab the pistol in the process.”

Mintaka clearly did not look happy about it, but she nodded anyways. “You owe me big time for this one.”

I owe you for a lot more than this. But I can’t exactly tell you right now.

Mint approached the girl running the stand. She blew a bubble and popped it as Mint selected a station and picked up a pistol.

“Hold up,” the girl at the booth said. “Use that one.” She pointed to a station at the very end of the table, next to a boy starting to take aim at the balloons. See, the original plan had sort of relied on Mint being next to an empty station. But the pistol in question wasn’t next to any empty stations.

Mintaka froze. “Huh?

“Use that one,” the girl said. “It’s easier for me to refill stuff in one go if they’re all next to each other. Do me a solid, yeah?”

“Um… well, I kind of want to use this one.”

While the two of them spoke, I slipped into the crowd. The booth girl said, “They’re all the same. I guarantee it. What’s the big deal?”

Mintaka turned and looked back for me, but I was already gone, and approaching from the side. She said, “Okay… yeah, okay.”

As she shuffled over, the girl at the booth raised an eyebrow. Mint took her place at the last station and began shooting, slowly. Presumably, waiting for the boy to finish before completing the plan with his pistol. But he was taking his sweet, sweet, time.

Besides, she’d drawn too much attention to herself already. I needed a new plan.

What can I do…?

I dropped down to Mint’s leg, and pretended to tie my shoe. Think, Lyra!

The table. I pushed aside the tablecloth, and undid one of the clasps on the folding table’s legs, then took out my phone, and texted Mintaka.

When you’re done shooting, slam the table, or something. [Lyra]

Apply some pressure.

Mint’s phone played two text tones, but didn’t check her phone. Dang it, Mint! I stayed down, and waited for her to finish shooting.

When she was done, Mintaka set the pistol down gingerly.

I yanked at the undone table leg. It gave.

One side of the table went down. Everything on the table slid off the table, and went everywhere. Tablecloth, someone’s phone, an opened box of airsoft pellets, and most importantly, several airsoft pistols. I pocketed one, and backed away into the crowd.

“Oh, jeez!” Mint yelled. “I’m so sorry!”

The booth girl popped her gum again. “Aw, hell.” She waved her away. “Skedaddle. I’ll take care of it.” As Mintaka backed away, I heard the booth girl mutter something about accident prone girls.

I snuck away before she could take inventory.

The two of us regrouped a short distance away. Mintaka’s face was red.

“I’m never doing that again.”

“What? That wasn’t so bad. By the way, check your texts next time.”

Mint pulled out her phone and scrolled through it. “Oh. Well, looks like you got what you wanted.”

“Indeed, I did.”

We kept walking towards aisle B. “I’m surprised no one saw you, though.”

I shrugged. “I was pretty quick. Besides, being a bassist means you have an advantage on stealth rolls.”

She looked like she was about to respond, but my phone started ringing. It was Rigel.

“Hello?”

“She spotted us,” he said. He sounded out of breath. “She got away!”

“Huh?”

“Velora!” he hissed. “There was a big commotion outside, behind us, and she noticed we were there!”

Shoot. “Did she notice you following her?”

“I think so,” he said.

“Where is she right now?”

“We don’t know,” he said. “We don’t know where she is.”