The Phoenix Saga

"No shadow can claim you!"

Ranko threw her right arm skyward, her hand held open with her fingers stiffened. The three fire emitters mounted to the front edge of stage right blasted columns of orange flame two meters into the warm, humid air hanging over Hàng Đẫy Stadium.

"No challenge can claim you!"

She made the opposite motion with her left arm, as if summoning the flames from the three leftmost emitters by magic.

"You're stronger than you realize!"

With both her hands extended skyward, both the left and right banks blasted into the sky at once. The crowd roared in excitement, though she couldn't really hear them. It was such a strange experience, wearing her stage earpieces - it all but muted the crowd sound, and she heard her own singing voice in her head louder than the instruments surrounding her. It was very different from her headset at the Phoenix, which was a microphone only, and allowed her to remain in the moment. With her concert headset, it was as if she were some otherworldly projection, only half-present on the stage in Hanoi.

In fairness, her emotions only felt about half there as well, because the following morning, she would board a five-and-a-half hour flight home to Tokyo and it was all she could think about. Having received the financial advance she'd bought from Yokai Records with a price paid in dignity, there was at least hope for her family now, but there was nothing she wanted more than to be there - both to support her family, and to be supported by them. After the events in both Singapore and Thailand, Ranko was in dire and desperate need of a hug from both her mother and her wife.

"There isn't a thing which could ever extinguish the INFERNO that BURNS IN YOUR EYES!"

Ranko launched her left fist to the sky, timed perfectly with the centermost of the nine flame emitters mounted to the front of the stage ignited. As it went out, the two on either side lit, and as their flames went out, the next set to the left and right lit up, and so on until the wave of fire made it to the edges of the stage.

"RISE like a dragon, and RISE from the agony! RISE AND REKINDLE THE FLAME!"

The redhead leapt nearly a full meter in the air, thrusting her fist forward in defiance. She could almost hear the creak of her red leather jacket as she moved. She was still in the full red leather outfit that she'd begun the show in, starting with Demon in Your Radio. Unlike usual, though, she wore a white tee shirt under her jacket rather than the usual sequined black one. I think Izzi will forgive me, just this once.

"When LIFE turns to ashes, you GO get the matches and SEAR away all of the shame!"

Twin jets of fire erupted on either side of Ranko at the center of the stage, about a meter away from her on her left and right. Hitomi and Emi rocked their hips together on the left side of the stage, well clear of the fire emitters, and Utaru and Sanyo entertained those on stage right similarly.

"BURN like a demon, and EARN what you're dreamin'! The Phoenix inside never dies!"

Ranko frowned briefly at the phrase. Can't get distracted right now.

"You ignite, and you RISE!"

Again, Ranko raised her hands skyward, the left and right trios of flame emitters roaring to life. As with every other occurrence of the word in the song, the video screen flashed behind her with block letters two meters tall, spelling out the word RISE in orange fire.

The four musicians on the stage stopped playing, and Ranko gave a quick nod to Hitomi on her left and then Sanyo on her right. Her backup dancers all exited the stage, leaving Ranko standing on the stage alone in front of the band. She could see the crowd's thunderous applause, even though she couldn't really hear it. Ranko waited until it looked as if most of them had calmed before speaking.

"You know, guys… This is my last show of the tour until December, and while I'm so glad to be out here rocking Hanoi with you all, I can't wait to get home. This trip's been… hard. I likely wouldn't even have made it here tonight, if not for the help of a dear friend of mine. He's here with us tonight, part of our team. Everybody, give some love to my guardian Dragon, Lance Riker! Thank you, Lance!"

"Ranko, I told you, you didn't need to do that," Lance said in her wireless headset from beneath the stage as the crowd roared in their shared gratitude, though they knew not the details of what for.

She paced the stage a bit as she spoke, trying to speak with her Firebirds heart-to-heart despite the obvious one-way nature of the conversation. "When I wrote Rise, I was in such an amazing place in my life. I'd been completely screwed over by… well, life, and just when I thought there was no hope, I found that incredible little bar in Tokyo, and met the incredible women in it who became my family. I'm thinking about them a lot tonight. I'm gonna hug them all so hard tomorrow. You guys have no idea."

Ranko paused a few moments for the cheering to subside. "I didn't think anything could hurt worse than having nothing, and being nothing. Over the last few weeks, I've found something that does: somehow finding everything you ever needed and wanted against all odds, and then all of a sudden, feeling like you're losing it again just as soon as you started to really feel safe. It feels like everything you went through didn't matter, like fate suddenly remembered that you were supposed to get the short end of the stick after all. It's the most disheartening thing, and it just rips through you with this horrible despair, because you know how much work it takes to climb out of the hole you're in, and it feels so impossible. Like, you barely survived it the last time, and you don't think you have another run left in you."

All nine of the fire emitters at the front of the stage lit again, but only just, emitting flames no more than a few centimeters high. It gave the effect of candlelight illuminating the stage, and the stage lights dropped to cast Ranko in primarily the light of the nine little fires. With no musical accompaniment, Ranko resumed singing to the tune of Rise.

"You're in flight, finally thinking you're alright, when a shadow in the night strikes from the dark. The shot hits its mark, and it knocks you sprawling."

She was used to the audience going berserk at new lyrics, but they must have understood how deeply personal they were because they sat in rapt silence listening to her refrain. Ranko had just written the new third verse on the plane from Bangkok to Hanoi, and their minimalist performance was partially in deference to their seriousness and partially due to her team's lack of time to prepare for the change to the music, choreography, lighting and stage effects.

"You cry, curse the gods and ask them why, as you plummet from the sky. And as you drop, you pray for the stop: crash to earth, end the falling."

Ranko reached up to her face, wiping her eyes carefully with her fingers. She barely swayed on the stage as she poured her heart out, channeling the constant, crushing hurt and fear with which she'd lived the last three weeks.

"By chance, you take one last, wistful glance down at the place you used to dance. You close your eyes, get ready to die. Accept that you're finished."

She panned her left hand across the front of the stage, gesturing to the crowd with an open palm.

"But the crowd's shouting up at you unbowed, and they're screaming that they're… proud?"

Muted though they were in her ears, Ranko could see the audience begin to stir and applaud. A blazing yellow light came from the five rightmost can lights mounted to the trusses on the stage, as if dawn had just broken on the east side of the stage.

"'Cause even the sun, in the dark night, looks done - but comes back, undiminished!"

Ranko looked down at her hands, which she folded at her waist in sad contemplation. As she did, Crash's guitar began gently resuming the bridge of Rise, with none of its companion instruments joining it.

"Your fear and your doubt almost let it go out, but the last spark still flickers within."

As she sang over Crash's guitar, Utaru reached toward her from offstage, clicking the sole button on the black remote control in his hand. It triggered a small, battery-operated camp light that flickered a dim orange. Hidden under Ranko's shirt, clipped to the front of her bra between her breasts, it made it look like her heart was glowing with an otherworldly light through her white shirt.

Ranko looked down at her chest, letting her facial expression brighten as much as the light did, looking up to the crowd with the beginnings of a smile on her face. As she completed the new third bridge, Jacob, Zoe and Shinji rejoined Crash with their instruments.

"You open your eyes, and recall how to rise, and decide you can do it AGAIN!"

Even through the performer mix in her headset that all but silenced them, Ranko was certain she could hear the crowd scream. All nine flame emitters at stage front roared to full life, and the video board behind her again displayed the song's title, pulsating with its every repetition in the lyrics.

"RISE! like a dragon, and RISE! from the agony! RISE! and rekindle the flame! When LIFE turns to ashes, you GO get the matches and SEAR away all of the SHAME!"

The leather-clad woman did not dance. She planted her feet as if preparing for a charge as she roared the chorus that had become her rallying cry at the top of her lungs. Both of her hands were clenched in fists at her sides.

"BURN like a demon and EARN what you're dreaming! THE PHOENIX INSIDE NEVER DIES!"

She screamed the last sentence as if she was challenging the gods themselves to prove her wrong.

"Never dies," Shinji sang in his low bass voice.

"Never dies," Crash added in a higher tenor register.

"Never dies," Jacob added, leaning over the keys of his synthesizer and singing in a higher octave yet. As he did, Ranko made her way from the edge of the stage to its dead center, glancing down at her feet to make sure she was on her mark. An orange asterisk formed on the stage with reflective tape confirmed it.

"Never di-i-i-ies," Zoe finished. Though they no longer identified as female, their alto singing voice retained a distinct femininity as they sang the only two words of lyrics they would sing throughout the entire show.

Ranko exhaled heavily, stiffening her muscles and bracing for pain. This part of the show was always uncomfortable for her, thanks to the ever-present Full-Body Cat's Tongue sensitivity of her skin. She cocked her fist, bending her knees, and launched herself upward, punching at the air as she leapt skyward.

"YOU IGNITE, AND YOU RISE!"

As her feet landed on the stage, the floor erupted in fire. A total of eleven fire emitters, five of which had been uncovered with a remote button press from Masa's control booth high atop the stadium, blasted skyward, surrounding Ranko in a heart-shaped curtain of flame and rendering her entirely obscured from the crowd. Only the nine flamethrowers mounted to the front of the stage were unlit.

She collapsed to her knees, lifting the little door to the underside of the stage. A bundle was thrust up from underneath into her hands by her backup dancer, Sanyo Arima. Ranko sat on the stage, quickly tearing herself out of her black boots and her red leather pants and tossing them down the hole to Sanyo. Her black nylon knee brace soon followed.

"Left bank's good," came Lance's booming bass in Ranko's ear.

Ranko was grateful for the white compression shorts she wore under the pants, as they gave her a little extra confidence that no one could see anything important as she changed costumes on the stage with nothing but a wall of orange flame to protect her modesty. Ranko's white shirt and red leather jacket quickly went down the hole to Sanyo after her pants, along with the still-glowing orange camp light. She quickly unfurled the sparkly white A-line dress he had handed up to her, throwing it over her head.

Ranko's earpiece continued to fill with the voices of her team sounding off as they completed their reconfiguration of the stage, this time Norio's. "Right bank, done!"

Sanyo next passed a pair of high white sparkly platform heels up to her, which she slipped onto her bare feet. They were heavy, and they almost sloshed with their uneven weight as she scrambled back to a standing position. The shoes were new for the second leg of the tour - as was the song she intended to perform in them, having retired Freak as promised both for her sake and Yokai's.

"Center bank, check," came Lance's voice in the redhead's ear again.

"The girls are out, Ranko. We ready?"

Ranko looked up at the wreath of flame surrounding her, nodding in determination in response to the voice in her ear. "Yeah, Masa. I'm good. Drop it."

Standing a few meters to the right of the blazing heart at center stage in a shimmering orange dress, Hitomi Uyeno opened her mouth to sing into her headset. No sound came from the four instruments behind her yet as she issued her high-pitched three-word declaration on her friend's behalf.

"I. Am. Fire!"

The columns of flame all went out, revealing Ranko standing on stage in her sparkling white dress. She had been obscured from view for less than forty seconds. She strode heel-over-toe in her tall heels, a sultry confidence in her presence that had been entirely absent in her heart-rending extension to Rise. She held her hands up to the crowd, basking in their roar. A peppy dance beat began, courtesy of Crash Matsuyama and his friends. While Sanyo was still returning to his position after assisting with the costume change from beneath the stage, Emi joined her girlfriend onstage in an identical orange sequined dress, its skirt composed of several layers of darker sequins to evoke a flame brightening as it rose from its base. The video board behind the girls displayed a continuous sea of orange fire, as if someone had ignited a swimming pool full of gasoline.

"You're tantalized by my blue eyes beneath these perfect lashes. But then you realize this smokey eye's a shadow made of ashes. If you wanna get with me, boy, you'd better be quicker. The last boy who got close burned up before he saw the flicker!"

Ranko shook her head, realizing it was entirely possible that the statement was actually true. It felt good to sing this song, after the events of the week before. Her dance was choreographed to emphasize her body, and her hands were always on her skin somewhere. Her own touch, amplified by the Cat's Tongue, was enough to put her in the mindset to come off as flirty and sensual, and the recent threats she'd faced were enough to fuel the dangerous undertone she sought to simultaneously convey.

"I leave 'em smoldering inside a flaming, molten crater. The inferno inside me is a heart incinerator! My body is the match and gas, your soul a box of tinder. I recommend that you haul ass before you're turned to cinder!"

Ranko strode to the front of the stage, making sure she was well in front of the center area where she had changed her costume in the center of a blazing heart of flame. The front chevron of three flamethrowers fired again, casting Ranko's silhouette in front of them toward the crowd.

I really gotta learn to take it easy with the lyrics with the fire imagery, Ranko thought. Masa's gonna spit roast me up here at this rate.

At that distance, it was as uncomfortable as standing in front of her open oven with the Cat's Tongue, but she only had to tolerate it for a few seconds at a time. The challenge was doing so while also singing.

"I am fire! I can't help but burn! I know you wanna play with me, but try, you're gonna learn! Throwin' off an orange glow and makin' people nervous. Spreading out of all control, engulfing every surface."

As she sang, she crossed her ankles, kicking at the back of her left heel with her right foot. She then inverted the gesture, nudging the back of her right foot with her toe to trigger the special effect built into her heels.

The stage lights went out, and the video board switched to a flat gray background. An orange light lit at stage level in front of Ranko to her left, casting her silhouette in orange against the video screen as if it were a wall.

"Hypnotizing…"

The light on Ranko's left went out, and a new one on her right lit in its place, casting another shadow backward in orange light in the opposite direction.

"Mesmerizing…"

A third orange light came on, this one directly in front of her, as the right canister light went out.

"Unbound and untamed."

All three lights powered up at once, projecting three silhouettes of the lithe redhead against the back wall of the stage as she danced.

"Every single obstacle consumed by wicked flame."

She ran both of her hands over her body, closing her eyes as she writhed in the warmth of the three canister lights.

"Dancing so seductively, a flicker in the smoke. Dazzling from a distance, but up close?"

Ranko lifted her left hand from her backside, clenching it in a fist at shoulder level.

"You're gonna choke. Turn around and run before this stage becomes your pyre. This human torch is gonna scorch you…"

Hitomi and Emi joined her in the repetition of the song's title. With each word, only one of the three canister lights in front of her lit, ticking her silhouette from the left side of the stage to the center, and then the right.

"I! AM! FIRE!"

The canister lights went out as well, leaving the stage in near darkness other than the blue glow from the video screen, which had transitioned to a sea of blue flames. Ranko stalked to the back of the stage in the dark. With every step, when she lifted her foot, a small, wispy footprint of flickering blue flame lingered on the stage for a few seconds.

Yeah, I thought you guys would like that, Ranko thought as she turned to see the crowd's reaction to the new practical effect.

"It seems you've got more guts than brains. You don't know what you're doin'. When I get done, nothing remains but blackened husks and ruin!"

Ranko pretended to check her fingernails as the center bank of three stage-front fire emitters blasted to life, as if she didn't care that the inferno was spreading. Emi and Hitomi rushed up behind her from the sides as Ranko put her hands behind her back, swaying without moving her feet. The girls flanking her made up for her relative lack of movement, sliding up and down Ranko's body with their hands as they bent their knees. Behind Ranko's back, Emi slipped a small object into her hand.

"Ignorin' all the warning signs, and getting even closer, but pretty soon, you'll realize that I'm about to roast ya!"

The backup dancers cleared space for her, rushing to the front corners of the stage to dance. Ranko unfurled the orange paper fan Emi had slipped into her hand, flapping it softly at her face as she writhed on the stage.

"You can't resist the moves I've got. A dance that's so seductive…"

Ranko flicked at the little bit of wood sticking out of the base of the fan. It moved the match Masa had rigged inside it just enough to strike, and the flash paper in her hand ignited in orange flame.

"You keep thinking I'll make you hot, forgetting I'm destructive! There's not enough protective gear to keep you safe from harm…"

She waved the burning fan twice more, further away from her face, before throwing it over her shoulder. It had nearly finished burning out before it landed at the center of the stage, and as it did, the entire heart shape of fire emitters that she'd changed her costume in just moments before roared to life again.

Ranko turned her back to the crowd, slowly rolling her hips with her left hand on her backside. She was careful to minimize the movement of her feet, knowing each footstep would leave another small puddle of flaming ethanol dripped from the hollows in her platform heels if she raised the toe of her foot enough to click the sparker hidden in the soles of her shoes.

"... 'cause when I move my ass up here, it triggers five alarms!"

Ranko model-stomped across the stage from left to right around its front edge, moving carefully in her heavy, unwieldy heels. Man, these things are pain in the ass, but they sure look cool, she thought. They were harder to dance in as more of the fuel supply was spent, as there was more room for the liquid in her soles to slosh about. It felt not unlike dancing on a moving boat.

"I am fire! I can't help but burn! I know you wanna play with me, but try, you're gonna learn! Throwin' off an orange glow and makin' people nervous. Spreading out of all control, engulfing every surface!"

Ranko stopped at the front center of the stage, and as with the previous chorus, the video screen behind her switched from the flickering flame to the blank gray screen, and her shadow was cast behind her from multiple directions as the three canister lights at the front of the stage projected her form in orange light.

"Hypnotizing, mesmerizing, unbound and untamed! Every single obstacle consumed by wicked flame! Dancing so seductively, a flicker in the smoke. Dazzling from a distance, but up close?"

Hitomi and Emi both grasped at their throats at her sides.

"You're gonna choke!"

As her backup dancers fled from her, Ranko stalked across the stage after them, leaving a ghostly trail of flaming footprints on the stage floor.

"Turn around and run before this stage becomes your pyre! This human torch is gonna scorch you!

Crash and Shinji leaned into their microphones, adding depth and richness to her declaration of inflammatory power.

"I! AM! FIRE!"

The redhead kicked at the back of her heels again, closing the compartment in the back of each heel that had been dripping ethanol onto the stage. The sparks themselves would still be triggered when she stepped, but they would be trapped inside the hollow of the shoes with nothing to ignite, and go out immediately. She stepped up onto the raised platform at the back right of the stage, and Hitomi and Emi joined her. As it had during the performance of Demon in Your Radio to begin the concert, the platform raised several meters into the air supported from below as the three girls danced on the round platform.

"I don't think you've got a shot, but boy, I'm worth the pain, though. You'll only find a girl this hot deep down in a volcano."

Ranko waved her hand in the air, and Hitomi and Emi both fell to their knees at her sides.

"The backdraft blows you off your feet and puts you on your knees, 'cause now we're turning up the heat to three thousand degrees!"

The heart-shaped arrangement of fire emitters at the center of the stage ignited again, roaring to life in orange flame.

"I'm a conflagration when you thought I was a candle. In my estimation, I'm too hot for YOU to handle! You're wanting me to keep you warm and cozy by the fire, but can you stand the firestorm when violence meets desire?!"

To Ranko's right, a set of green canister lights flickered on, pointing upward from the ground between the stage and the crowd. A set of three red ones fired up on her left, and the orange set that had cast her shadow across the stage during the last two choruses relit as well.

As she sang, the nine fire emitters at the front of the stage ignited - but not as they had during Rise. The bank of three at stage right burned a bright green, thanks to the boric acid Masa had added to their fuel supply. The ones on the far right burned a deep red, thanks to the strontium added to their fuel, and the ones in the three in the center burned the normal orange. With each beat, the height of the flames being emitted adjusted up and down, creating an enormous graphic equalizer across the front of the stage that danced in visualization of the beat.

"I am fire! I can't help but burn! Left a trail of ashes, and I guess now, it's your turn! So enticing and entrancing; something from a dream. Making your eyes water, and then turning it to steam!"

Every time the flames at the front of the stage reduced, the canister lights caught the puff of smoke lingering above them, giving the effect of a lingering mark designating the previous maximum height the fire had reached.

"Casting sultry shadows all around me when I dance. You can sense the danger, but it doesn't break the trance! People can't distinguish love from fear, so don't expect it. I'll never be extinguished, so you'd best run for the exit! Every moment that you stare, the flames are getting higher! Try approaching if you dare…"

With each of the final three words of the lyrics, Ranko and her backup dancers thrust their fists forward in the air, and all nine of the front fire emitters blasted blazing columns of colored flame at their maximum three-meter height.

"I! AM! FIRE!"

In addition to the front jets, the heart at the center of the stage erupted one final time. Ranko waved her hand in front of her face, extending her palm just below her chin. She blew across her hand with a loud puff, as if blowing out candles on a birthday cake. As she did, all of the flames on the stage floor below snuffed out as one, leaving her and her friends in the dark.