Visual Kei

“Emiko.” A young girl, younger than me, thrust out her thin hand mechanically.

“What?”

“That’s my name,” she said impatiently, her fingers wiggling in the air. I stared at her hand, not sure what she was expecting. I hated handshakes, anyway.

“Why am I meeting this chick again?” I whispered to Rei.

“She is Miko’s younger sister,” he said, chuckling at my obvious discomfort with the situation. “She said she’d tell us what’s going on.”

I looked again at the girl who was known as Miko’s little sister. She had the same shape of face and the same slim, rounded nose, but her lips were very thin and almost looked naturally puckered. She was wearing silver circle contact lenses. Like her sister, she appeared to enjoy the Visual Kei style. Her hair was puffy and black with a few thick streaks of blonde. The multicolored bangs fell over her forehead in a sharp point, a skinny lock of black touching another, skinnier lock of blonde as it cascaded down the gentle slope of her nose. Over all, she looked young, but the Visual Kei style gave her a generally ageless appearance.

Emiko withdrew her hand. “He’s right. Kiiro!” she screeched the moment he entered the room. Her voice was the stereotypical annoying girl voice, where it is purposefully forced up an octave. She darted toward him, hugging him tightly. “Kiiro! I’m sooooooo glad to see you! It’s been so long!” His eyes narrowed, but he couldn’t move. “Miko was really mad at you. She called you all sorts of names… but I’m not mad at you. I still think you’re cool.”

“Thanks,” he said, trying to pry her arms off his waist. She squeezed tighter. One might think at a glance that she was simply oblivious to his efforts, but I knew better.

“What exactly happened to your sister, Emiko? Why isn’t she attending the party?” Shinji asked in his sweet voice. Emiko glanced over at him from her perch on Kiiro’s arm. “I thought Miko was close with Kamijo and Teru. But… come to think of it, none of the members of Fallacy were here. Were they touring?”

“I dunno,” she said shaking her head softly. “She just left one day and never came back. She didn’t tell me where she was going, either. It was really lonely.” She looked at Kiiro’s face. “But you won’t leave me, will you Kiiro? You wouldn’t be mean like my big sister.” He looked down at her with disapproving eyes, the kind of gaze one gives a child who doesn’t know any better, but is still annoying as hell.

“She just… left?” Chino repeated, as if he hadn’t heard it correctly. Emiko nodded. “That doesn’t sound like something Miko would do. I know why you haven’t reported it to the police, but… there must be someone who could help you.”

“Great," I said, sighing, "more crap to do. Is there anyone who would know where she is? Or do we have to wander around aimlessly until we find her?”

All was quiet for a moment. Emiko stared at me, her arms still secure around Kiiro’s waist. My main instinct was to rip her away from him, but I reminded myself that it was unnecessary and inappropriate.

“Why don’t you look for her, Emiko?” Chino asked. “How could you not know where she is?” She rolled her eyes at him, laying her cheek on the front of Kiiro’s shirt as if to taunt me more.

“What is that supposed to mean! My power doesn’t work that way.”

I stared at her, trying to figure her out. “What power?”

“Oh, I guess no one told you huh,” she said. “I’m a psychic.”

“Then how in the hell do you not know where your sister is?”

“I said it doesn’t work that way! I can’t just… make myself find out what I want to learn! It just happens on its own.”

“So, basically what you’re saying is that you’re a psychic, but not really.”

She detached herself from Kiiro only to take a step toward me and glare. I think it was meant to be scary, but coming from a girl three years younger than me, it wasn’t all that intimidating. “Whatever! At least I have a power!”

“Oh sure, a power that is perfectly inane. What do you see, raffle winners? Way to go, Nostradamus. Keep it up.”

She hissed and returned to Kiiro’s side, looking up at him innocently. “I don’t like this lady, Kiiro. Why do you hang out with her?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Lady? I’m a few decades too young to be called lady.”

“Okay, calm down, Alice…” Shinji said soothingly, running his small, thin hand along my shoulder. “It’s okay, she’s just messing with you, don’t worry about it.”

“We need to know more about your sister, Emiko. Where do you think she could be? Who might she be with? Would she be with the other band members, maybe?” Chino asked, tapping his chin with a finger.

“I don’t know! She never said where she was going. Her friends never came over after she left, so I don’t know what happened. Maybe she got in a fight with them or something. I don’t know how to contact them, either.”

“Did you see Umi around here last night?” Chino asked Rei.

“I don’t really know. I might have, but I don’t really remember.” Rei shook his head. “Sorry, but there were so many hot chicks, I couldn’t really focus. I don’t think she was here, though, or else we would have noticed, don’t you think?”

“Maybe,” Chino replied thoughtfully.

“Didn’t Taku say that Umi knew everyone? We should go try to talk to her,” I said. “He gave us her address, right? And why didn’t we just do that in the first place?”

“Yeah, he did, but we don’t know her schedule. She’s usually pretty busy, so we don’t know if she’ll even be home this time of year,” Shinji answered. “But I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try.”

“I don’t like Umi,” Emiko said with a pout.

“You want to find your sister, don’t you?” I asked. Emiko shot me a glare, but nodded. “Then quit whining.”

We filed through the door, but not before I noticed Emiko’s intelligent, but calculating eyes fixed on me critically. As I passed through, I felt shivers play along my spine. I knew without a doubt that Emiko’s eyes were on me, but why she caused me those sensations, I did not know.