Set Ablaze the Metallic Hearts!

*SHING

In an instant, the cubes manifest and gather on a round platform in which Chiyou appeared.

Inside the spacious self driving van, there lies the young man crossing his arms and furrowed brows.

"Eh uhmm...." Chiyou smiles awkwardly, twists her hair and casts glances, afraid to meet his gaze.

"Are you crazy! Why did you jump! You could've asked me to activate it safely in your room!"

There was a hoarse concern and anger in his voice, he sighed deeply and placed his palm to his head.

Chiyou felt a little ashamed but she took a bit of her pride to reason with him.

"Come on Reika, I was just excited just as you were! This is my final competition so we can reach that school! And I was also excited because of this!"

Feeling up her body and showing off her clothes to him.

"See? I was also proud that you're finally able to get your hands on advanced Aether modules to breakthrough your Aetherium teleportation for normal folks like us! You're really going to get a nice job in the borders I'll tell you!" She tried to steer off his attention but Reika was undeterred and even her nonchalance made him more furious.

"Even so, what if it failed you!? We both tested it repeatedly but never tested teleporting someone moving fast, what if the Aether didn't secure your spatial coordinate correctly?"

"Reika, you made my clothes that connect my spatial coordinate into myself."

"Urgh..." Reika was a bit speechless from Chiyou's reasonable response.

"But why do you need to jump then?"

"I just want to test the Aether construction of your globes and if Aether construct truly activates through imagination and my emotion. I felt a massive rush of adrenaline, thrill and also fear but look, what you made was the real deal! My splash art manifested in my clothes."

"Oh my god..." Speechless, Reika had no choice but to sit down on his round plate chair.

"You don't need to endanger yourself with such... You can experience other thrills without doing something so extreme." He resigns the argument with his silence.

"....."

"....."

A dead air struck them both.

'Urgh... I really messed up, didn't I?' Chiyou felt remorse for what she just did. She made her best friend fright himself for her impulsive action.

They are just normal humans with no cybernetic attachments that can mitigate the impact and even then except for the military, there are no implants in the market that can be legally bought for individual use to survive a straight fall from a 400+ story building.

But she also felt that her selfishness proves that his best friend's hard work truly comes to fruition with what she did.

"I'm... sorry Rei..." Chiyou's voice faltered.

'Dammit, I really messed up, I didn't think through it!' Berating her own mind, she just stand frozen looking down.

In the end, her reasoning can only go as far as her guilt before her fear catches up, she truly did made a dumb mistake and her best friend has every right to get angry at her.

Reika saw the bursting guilt about to fall over her eyes, he was surprised by this and immediately became guilty as well. He stood up immediately, this wouldn't be good to her clothes.

"I- it's fine, come on now, you made dumb mistake, I'm just worried about what you did, what you did is shocking, no sane normal people like us would jump a building like that!" He awkwardly tries to comfort her but he also doesn't know how to diffuse their situation.

This won't be good for her tonight is what he worries about, if she feels down like this immediately, then it will affect her stage performance.

"I know that Rei but it really was my fault."

Silence once again, Rei is getting nervous in their atmosphere.

He closed his eyes furrowing his brows. This will not be good for her competition.

"Again... you..." He sighed.

If he she can't pull herself together in that self wallowing, then he needs to be more unapologetic to his actions.

"Come here." He grabbed her by the wrist and sat her down on another chair facing a mirror.

A veil manifests with the digital transition to cover her body.

"W-what?"

Rei grabbed a pair of scissors and comb to groom her hair.

"Just... stay put and be quiet. Prepare for your competition alright? I don't need your sad face right now."

[Remaining time: 34 min. before arrival]

...

Reika skillfully cuts Chiyou's short white hair, he first shaves and made a small undercut yet still hidden by the hair to emphasize her cap, then curve the edges, accentuate the bangs highlighting stray hairs by piling some of it and hold it together by a spray gel and at last, tweak with micro comb trackers.

Her highlighted strand of hair was dyed red and with the help of Aether construction, a faint glow of yellow illuminates the shadow of every corner and hair vents he created.

She's like a refreshing lemon raspberry soda with that yellow and red colors yet at the same time, her gothic boyish fashion can be seen on her shaven dark hair beneath that glowing snow and the red flavor.

"Let me see you." Reika rotates the chair and removes the veil, he can see that Chiyou is still embarrassed hiding her hands on her thighs together and still avoiding his gaze.

"Come on stand up, did you rehearse now?"

"Ahemm, yes, I already rehearsed several times." Chiyou can recognize that Reika had no longer decided to pursue the earlier.

"Alright stay, see your gift."

[Remaining time: 21 min. before arrival]

......

"Here it is, my proudful work. Zero's electro pop rock, Lemon girl." Reika faintly smiles when announcing it.

He pushed a black case on the other table.

"What!? Lemon girl? Why lemon girl?" The nickname was rather peculiar to her.

"You look pretty lemony in color, you're too lemon colored for your red parts to be edgy and that's what makes you unique in pop rock."

"But I look more of an orange and red person! And even if that's my nickname, Lemon girl is ridiculous!"

"Psssch... Don't blame me, blame the game. Look at the forums, you're pretty zesty that's why they call you Miss Lemon."

...

______________________

•CBTSpecialist

[Wow, she did an amazing twist with that melody goddamn, what is that? It felt bouncy haha, that's bop!] 1.4k agreed

[Read more replies...]

•Misty78

[Damn girl, she really performed well with her moves. Skills girl! Skills! This young girl is literally like a freaking soda, that's a refreshing take] 1.7k agreed

[Read more replies...]

•Rockfellerfellerfeller

[Why would someone enter a rock contest with that kind of theme and chord progression? Should've stayed with pop music than here. Her musi....] 204 agreed

[Read more replies...]

•Pissysipy

[Miss Lemon is so cute here, these people definitely enjoyed not only her performance but her cuteness as well! www] 1.2k agreed

[Read more replies]

•SiryesSir6677

[She can kill me and say to me everything's gonna be fine my dear.] 4.6k agreed

[Read more replies]

•user-wkym-100-00

[She kinda looks rockish edgy but at the same time lemony haha, her producer or whoever they are is a man of culture, I can't believe I can actually describe a person like a lemon just like what others said haha good job...] 3.4k agreed

[Read more replies]

•Mastercheeks1407

[Either she's a tomboy that can step on me and spit me in a gutter like a piece of gum that I am or she needs to be in a lemon soda girl ads! Pick!] 8.9k agreed

[Read more replies]

•TheBDC6

[There are two types of people. Those mfs that belongs to twilight zone down bad or those who actually listened to her music, cause w in tf did that one guy even said?] 6.5k agreed

[Read more replies]

[More....]

______________________

"What the...?" Flabbergasted and smiling in the absurdity of the internet, Chiyou can't help but to feel a confidence boost a bit from those witty comments.

"Yup lemon girl, that's how you are, and now you need to perform your music in front of those guys as a lemon girl. Anyway, here's an introduction to what you're gonna use today."

Reika opens up the case, revealing a pulsating red and yellow glow of an electric guitar body and its headstock directly attached without the fretboard.

"Looks weird but that's exactly the edge we need for a spectacle, we need that novelty of this guitar. With the Aether energy I'll install, the constructed frets and the glowing strings that produce graphical effects for every strums and picks you do."

He demonstrated by showing a video of him strumming the string and the alternating red and yellow frequency vibration comically appeared in the air.

"Absolutely sweet!" Chiyou's delight.

"I know. Go try ahead." He passed the guitar to her hands.

Chiyou closed her eyes. In her mind,deep in her thought visualizing the cheering of the crowds, imagining the reaction of her impromptu reveal of the guitar's twist and the surprised faces of her fans ignited her emotions.

'Glowing strings... Graphic effects, feedback...'

As she opens her eyes, glowing yellow and red strings shine and her opaque fret fills the negative space where it was supposed to be positioned in a guitar along with the proper position of the headstock without a peg.

"Waha!" She played a few melodies to test the effects, every making of riffs, strums and picking produced different shapes and words that fit for the guitar and her theme.

Reika didn't even encode it. This is purely the imagination fuel of Chiyou.

"You really really outdone yourself this time Rei! Thank you, thank you!"

"I think you also did, I never encoded the font graphic effects, you just did. Anyways, it is also improved on its modulated sound and fully customizable with environment detection mode so you better tweak it now in my laptop before the competition."

[Remaining time: 7 mins. before destination]

.....

"It's all done, ready for today's fight! Again, thank you Rei for the effort!"

"Stand up, let me see your fit one last time."

Chiyou enthusiastically stood up and struck a pose with her new guitar. Her slender and pale body, her bright face and rosy lips along with her unique glowing hair makes her look like a straight up 3d video game character and looks very animated in the eyes which in this time and age is possible thanks to Aether manipulation and a little bit of real world technology.

Her clothes that he designed complimented her body well, it has extra space that makes it airy and lightweight but also acknowledge her elegance of the contrasting aesthetic of her cute face and her instrument's notoriety fashion to rock.

"There is something missing Lemon miss."

Reika approaches Chiyou and manifests a glowing pink red fabric.

"Turn around, raise your arms just a bit."

"What's missing Rei?" Asked Chiyou

"You're either an elegant refreshing girl, or an influenced rock girl, there's nothing that balances you out." As he speaks, he's tying it down behind her back and laying the foundation to her shoulders to create a large ribbon that covers her chest.

"There you go, this is something I added, your femininity balances it all out, accentuating your beauty and hiding your flat chest."

"Uhmm...!!! thank you Rei... This is very beautiful.." Chiyou smiled funnily from Rei's low blow on her figure.

"Of course, do well tonight." Rei rides his sarcastic remarks again to further get her reaction and he certainly did.

She didn't continue further and lost in her thought looking through the windows.

[Destination successfully arrived, automatically driving to the parking lot.]

........

As they approach their underground venue, the reverbs and dissonance of several music going off vibrates the ground.

"Okay, put back your guitar to the case, I'm removing the construct fret and strings, also give me your hand, I'll download the trigger in your gloves so you can summon this later in the stage."

Chiyou obliged and raised her hands as Reika gently received it.

"You're not mad at me anymore?" Chiyou asks about their earlier conflict.

"Urgh...." Reika furrowed his brows again with a soft sigh, he still didn't know if handling her like that was correct.

Chiyou recognized the softness and felt relief, enough for a bit of tease.

"I'm sorry now Rei please?"

"Urgh.... Stop it Chiyou..." Reika reacted strongly but Chiyou continued.

"Pwease... Rei...?" Chiyou held Rei's hand with both of hers.

Rei was speechless and stared at her hand for a while and then glanced at her pretend cute begging face.

"My god Chiyou..."

A little bit of stern from his side nodding, he continued his work on her gloves with focus.

"Just don't do something reckless again Chiyou, promise me."

Chiyou reflected to those words a bit, then she smiled brightly at him.

"I promise. You're the best Rei... Thank you, I'll win this for you as well!"

He smiled gently at her enthusiasm.

"Alright. I believe you."

Rei pressed his black gloves and the van door opened. As they exited, the warm air of the underground permeates their senses, yet it does not matter, the center of this pulsation beneath their feet is where everything is all at, that's where the true raging heat is.

"Let's get going."

....

Deep beneath the underground building, a gaping hole that has four broken floors shines a beam of light to the sky paying tribute for the night today.

Scaffold railings with still a sophisticated pattern placed at the edges where the lively crowds awaits for their show.

With their own cosmetics and aesthetics, some are flexing with each other's Aether designs, a short bets of best break dances, rapping, gun rhythm and the latest aether violin game. Explosive colors varied from people's appearance and joy reinforces each of their creations and movements.

At the bottom is a grand stage floor, each step leaves a hypnotizing ripple of colors due to Aether editing. This is the stage where the battle tonight will take place.

.....

________________

The lights and music took a step back, the announcement began and the crowd anticipation halted their own entertainment as the main course was about to start.

[We have been given information that the underdog CHALLENGERRRRR HAS ARRIVED!]

Ensemble of cheers and screams welcomes the coming battle beneath the night of the city.

"WOOOO LET'S GO PARTY! LET'S GO PARTY!"

Beatdrop of the music remix by the DJ host wearing violet visor headphones hyped the people astronomically.

[LET'S NOT WASTE OUR TIME SHALL WE? IN OUR STAGE RIGHT NOW IS THE CURRENT UNDERGROUND CHAMPION.... ERIKO TALIAAAAAA!!!!!!]

A louder cheering almost drowned the DJ's music with the introduction of the main player tonight who set his foot on the stage, leaving trails of red electric shocks on the floor. A long black haired guy wearing a streamline yet classic denim style clothing with spiky accessory features on his left arm and leg.

"ERICO! ERICO! ERICO!" The crowd cheers.

"I HEAR YAH I HEAR YAH! TONIGHT.... THE LEMON GIRL, WHO EASILY DEMOLISHED MY PREVIOUS CHALLENGERS WITHIN A WEEK WILL CHALLENGE ME..."

The shouts lay down and a few whistles and whistling screams of the crowd was his feedback.

"THAT'S IMPRESSIVE AND ALL BUT...."

Suddenly, a bunch of moving cubes grow in the walkway. Limbs started to appear and bit by bit, the petite figure they knew was phasing in reality.

The shock of the crowd and their surprise caught them off guard, ultimately blowing up the crowd hype that Talia was trying to build alone.

"OHO? WHAT AN APPROACH TOWARDS ME!" Talia is clearly doing magic mic work as well to entertain the audience.

[WHAT AN ENTRANCE LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! SHE DIDN'T LET THE CHAMPION BUILD HIS DRIVE!]

[THE CHALLENGER OF THE NIGHT WALKS WITH THE MOST SPECTACULAR AND SHOCKING ENTRANCE!]

"MISS LEMON!!!!!"

The crowd and their cheers were shocked and now she paid the results of such an extravagant appearance.

[WHAT KIND OF AETHER CONSTRUCTION IS THAT? BUT NO MATTER WHAT, LOOK AT HER FACE! LOOK AT HER.... SMUG...? NO...]

As the camera zoomed at her confident face, it took a sudden turn on her clothes.

[OH MY GOD GUYS GUYS GUYS!!!! SHE'S WEARING A RIBBON! HOW CUTE!!!!]

Another explosion of admiration, some laughter and some voice shredding girly screams from the guys themselves, the people tonight really gave their all.

"MISS LEMON! MISS LEMON! MISS LEMON!"

[MISSY, EVEN IF YOU DON'T WIN, I'LL DO MY BEST TO MAKE YOU A GREAT IDOL COMPETING WITH LI XIYUN, YOU'RE THE BABY GIRL OF THIS UNDERGROUND!] DJ wiped his emoji tears from his visor.

Chiyou found those remarks embarrassing and her smug face turned to blushing with the amount of people teasing her. But after a few steps, she regained her composure and finally, near the stage she halts and locks eyes with him.

The crowd saw the eye battle unfold and respected the tension.

The battle will start and they need to hear what they're going to say as an appetizer before the main dish.

"You did well Missy missy Lemon I'll give you that. There's no way you win by luck against my good rivals back in this underground. Your showmanship is good, you know how to work with your crowds and capture their attention."

A clap from the crowd was received from such a humble statement from the champion.

"I LOVE YOU ERICO!" And then small whistles. He received it then raised his hand to sign a lay down.

"That is all impressive Miss Lemon I'll give you that."

"However..."

The light coming from the stage floor dimmed, from the line crevices of the floor, the DJ started his magic.

The stage turned to crimson and electric colors flaring up, a one threatening note raised indefinitely like a siren. Erico is strumming the air, a streak of thunder appears and gathers in his hand until an explosion bursts and produces a sound gale that intimidates everyone.

The terrific voice of the guitar roared.

"I AM NOT MY OPPONENTS."

Shrills of thunderous fire rose at the edges of the stage, the audience whistles their scream in excitement.

"I DO NOT SHOW TO THE CROWDS."

The percussion from the background appeared on the screen supporting Erico's leading melody.

"I TELL THEM!"

With another strum, the lights returned bright but the red electric flairs dominated the stage.

The crowds reached an unbelievable height of excitement that the ground quakes yielding and following his dominance.

"-THAT THE BEAST INSIDE US CAN ONLY BE AWAKEN.... BY MY MUSIC!!!"

A chord progression was played and Talia's performance had begun. Sweeping all of the viewers from a world shaking head bangs.

[THAT WAS A HARD STATEMENT FROM THE CHAMPION LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, MISS LEMON MIGHT HAVE PUT AN EARLY SPECTACLE BUT THE CHAMPION SHOWS THAT HE'S NOT GOING TO BACK DOWN WITH SUCH INTRODUCTION EITHER!]

"NOW TELL ME GIRL, CAN YOU AWAKEN THE BEASTS THAT BEATS OUR METALLIC HEARTS WITH YOUR MUSIC?"

No one on this night had the gall to cause disrespect to the two characters of their night. Both excites and entertains people with their own respective music but even with such a difference in appearance, type of melody and colors. They are still complimenting each other in a contrasting way.

The rock music is rebellious, wild and free, Erico is one of the best pictures that represents it yet unexpectedly, the young girl Chiyou despite aesthetically still looking rock clearly shows a feature of autonomy, self and creativity.

In a music style which fans find purity on rock as the gritty and dark rebel, most people find Chiyou out of place with her colorful yet familiar appearance but in Erico's eyes, he can see that she also embodies the spirit of rock. She rebels to the norm of needing to use heavy and electrifying notes with her bouncy, soft yet still driven by the electric guitar. She rebels towards the stereotyped aesthetics and expresses herself like how wild her music is compared to the "true" rock people refer to.

Nerds call it pop rock but a traditional like Talia just believes that a rock is a rock.

And that alone is freedom by itself, something that this world needs and something that youths like her should use as a canvas for their creative minds.

Chiyou braced against his pressure, stepping on the stairs towards the stage.

Erico broke into laughter, excited and thrilled, an edgy dragon chest plate armor manifested, a claw of a dragon all made with red arcs of electricity appeared as his wings.

A heavy atmosphere suffocated her with anxiety because of his aura. She can feel the thrill as he is, yet she is overpowered by his music.

Even so, the thirst of challenge... Both smiling at each other.

A short stop in the melody gave Erico his final words before the beat drops and starts the song.

"TAKE A STEP DEAR GIRL! IF YOU DARE!"

[User: ERICO TALIA ID detected...]

[Improvised Melody Set]

[Now playing: Night Set, Fires Breaks, Take a Step!]