Miyuki Takahashi's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

The day after the bad news, the band crowded into a booth at McDaniel's Hamburgers. Fries went cold. Nobody had a plan. Miyuki pushed a pen across a napkin covered in crossed-out ideas. Three months. No money. The club would close, and the keyboard she ran to at night would be gone with it. "Bake sale," Rikka said. "Car wash. Flyers." "We'd need a hundred car washes," Caterina said. She stole a fry from her brother's name, since Alessandro wasn't there to steal from. "The numbers don't work." Junko balanced a straw on her bandaged nose. "Okay. New plan. We rob a bank." The straw fell. "Fine. We politely ask a bank." Nobody laughed. Junko's smirk slipped, then came back. "Tough crowd. My teacher's gonna love that." Miyuki capped the pen. The napkin held nothing they could use. "We'll think," she said, short, the way she hated. "We'll keep thinking." But the booth went quiet, and she knew they had come up empty. That evening she met Alessandro in the park. They sat in the oak gazebo, the one with the wide open frame and smooth timber posts. She loved him, and she told him everything. The funding. The deadline. The empty napkin. Alessandro listened. He didn't talk over her. When she finished, he was quiet a moment, then quieter still, the way he got when something mattered. "The park is losing guests," he said. "Rides closed. People stopped coming back." He turned the second access key over in his hand, the one Caterina had finally accepted. "We need something new. A reason to come." "What does that have to do with us?" "Play there," he said. "Your band. A live show at Dreamscape Wonderland. Guests come for the music. The park pays you for it." He looked at her. "You save your club. We fill our seats." Miyuki stared at him. It was simple. It was real. Not a car wash. Not a bake sale. A stage, a crowd, and money that could actually cover three months. "Can you even do that? Your father—" "Caterina and I will convince him and our mother," he said. "We fixed the train together. We can convince them." A small shrug. "I'll talk to her about it tonight before we go in for the parental attack." He flashed Miyuki a playful smirk. Miyuki pulled out her phone and called Caterina on the spot. She said it fast, before doubt could catch up. A gig. Paid. At the park. Enough to save the room. The line went quiet. Then Caterina said, "Say that again." Miyuki did. Caterina laughed, short and sharp, her Italian accent dashed with Japanese speech ringing through. "My brother had one good idea. Don't tell him I said it." It was set— well, hopefully. Radiant Crystal Rhythms would play Dreamscape Wonderland. Miyuki hung up and gripped Alessandro's hand and she kissed his lips in a silent thank-you. They had a way to raise the money. They had a stage. They also had a park full of closed rides, a crowd that had stopped trusting it, and one show to prove the band was worth coming back for.